Jiang Qiao sat in the car without saying much, but she would occasionally look towards the destination with her binoculars.
Liu Zhanyu, too, although he had some doubts, decided that since he was already there, it was best to be cautious.
This time they really suffered a huge loss. They never expected that even when they teamed up, they would still be outmaneuvered. Can you imagine how angry Liu Zhanyu was? He was determined to catch them.
Through the binoculars, Jiang Qiao realized how large the cemetery was, far exceeding her expectations. It was easy to imagine how fierce the battle must have been back then.
Jiang Qiao's gaze swept across the entire cemetery. It was very large, surrounded by trees, with two rows of houses at the entrance.
"How come there are so many houses? A night watchman shouldn't need so many houses, right?"
Chen Fang actually knew a bit about this. "The extra rooms are for family members who come from afar to pay their respects. There's nowhere to stay around here. You know, if you make a trip and it gets dark, you can't go back."
Cars are only available on a limited schedule; they don't wait for anyone. That's why we took that into account and built more houses.
Although these martyrs are gone, we must also consider and take care of their families. In fact, many more martyrs can't even find a single family member—”
Jiang Qiao could understand this; in her previous life, her eldest brother and her second brother were in the same situation.
To this day, she doesn't know where she's buried, or if she has any money to spend, let alone her parents and nephew.
It's all tears. We can't even find them, and there's nowhere to offer sacrifices. The only thing we can do is secretly burn some paper money for these family members.
"This place is managed by that old soldier, with two assistants. After all, it's such a big place, and one old man can't keep it clean."
This old man participated in the blocking battle here back then, so after retiring, he requested to stay here. He never married in his life, and has been staying here ever since, keeping his former comrades company.
Jiang Qiao remarked with emotion, "Another kind and respectable person."
When the car arrived at the location, Jiang Qiao and the others discussed the situation and began to arrange the personnel. Then, the three of them went to find the old man who guarded the cemetery to learn about the situation.
Just as Chen Fang said before, no suspicious people were found walking around the old man's house. Those who came were all paying respects to their relatives.
As for whether any bad people had infiltrated the worship group, the old man and his companions were not sure.
"Let's check it out, at least it'll put our minds at ease. I'll go with you to take a look—"
Accompanied by three staff members, the group began searching throughout the cemetery.
Over the years, the old man hadn't discovered anything unusual about any of the tombs, so there was really nothing Jiang Qiao wanted to know more about.
Jiang Qiao took out a handful of incense from the basket he had brought, lit it, and offered three sticks of incense to the martyrs at each grave he passed.
"Please don't take offense. I didn't mean to disturb your rest; I just encountered some difficulties and had no choice but to come. If you all have spirits in the afterlife, please give this junior some guidance—"
Jiang Qiao muttered something to herself, and Ning Hao followed suit. Although he didn't understand what his wife was up to, it didn't diminish his respect for these martyrs.
As Jiang Qiao walked, she asked, "Section Chief, I'm not engaging in feudal superstition; I'm paying homage to martyrs."
Chen Fang and the others smiled and said, "No one will say anything to you. Do it with confidence. Here, no amount of worship is too much."
With so many incense sticks, Jiang Qiao and Ning Hao were definitely too busy to handle them all. In the end, everyone was given a handful of incense sticks. Jiang Qiao had something to say and gave a few instructions, especially about the direction of the smoke, before letting everyone go their separate ways.
Chen Fang didn't understand what Jiang Qiao meant.
"What do you mean? Is there anything different about the smoke from this incense?"
Jiang Qiao smiled and said, "There's no problem. The smoke is all going in the same direction, following the wind. But if there's a problem, then it's not certain. So you need to pay close attention to whether there are any ventilation openings or anything like that in here."
Since they suspect there's a tunnel here, they couldn't have dug too far or too large. So, the ventilation shaft is most likely still here; the only question is, where is it?
Chen Fang nodded silently, and then he also took a handful of incense and paid his respects at each grave.
For a moment, the only sound in the entire cemetery was the unique fragrance of incense and candles; there was almost no other sound.
Everyone was quietly doing what they were doing, partly because they didn't want to disturb the heroic spirits, and partly because they were worried that the noise outside might alert the enemy. Whether it was true or not, it was better to be careful.
Now that Chen Fang has taken over her affairs, Jiang Qiao can just wander around aimlessly.
Some tombstones had offerings placed in front of them, while others had none at all; presumably, those tombstones belonged to people who could not find their families.
Jiang Qiao hesitated for a moment, then turned to find the old man who was guarding the cemetery, since registering was definitely required to come and pay respects.
Sure enough, the old man did have such records. Jiang Qiao took the notebook and checked them one by one.
She also asked the elderly people, and they said that unless the weather gets too hot and they can't keep the offerings, they won't clean them up. In this kind of weather, they generally won't touch the offerings; at most, they'll just keep them clean.
Jiang Qiaoke thought it over. Since people were coming to pay their respects, they would bring something with them. Even if the family was poor, they couldn't possibly come empty-handed. At the very least, they would burn some incense.
Although the old man and his family cleaned the place very well, even the cleanest place has its traces, doesn't it?
Jiang Qiao checked the register one by one, and as she did, she discovered some problems.
In some places, there are traces of offerings that were once placed, but the offerings are gone. It's possible that some animals stole them, but these traces wouldn't be left by theft. It should be said that someone stole them.
She didn't doubt the people guarding the cemetery; they simply couldn't have done it.
The old man who accompanied Jiang Qiao also had his doubts.
"Ordinary people don't easily come into this place to take these things. If someone does, it can only mean that the person who came in had ulterior motives."
Comrade, I think we need to investigate this matter thoroughly. Perhaps the person you're looking for is actually hiding here.
Jiang Qiao nodded. "That's what I think too. Our own comrades wouldn't do such a thing. People who have reverence wouldn't fight with a deceased comrade for a bite to eat."
The old man deeply agreed with this, and not only did he not agree with the other two, but he also wouldn't agree with the other two.
Because of this discovery, Ning Hao and his team searched even more carefully and diligently.
At a drainage pipe, Ning Hao noticed something was wrong. The incense sticks he lit seemed to be burning in a different direction than before. It was definitely affected by something; the smoke was swaying and flickering, unlike the one-sided smoke that had been blowing all the way up before.
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