"I am Erniu!"
Upon hearing the familiar voice again, Mr. Qian was so moved that tears streamed down his face. The glistening tears flowed back into his eyes, choking him and causing him to cough.
After examining the swollen face closely for a long time, Madam Qian finally recognized a vague sense of familiarity: "Erniu!"
"Shuqin, is it really you!"
Seeing that the two were about to start arguing again, Ji Qian hurriedly stepped forward to interrupt: "Let's put Master Qian down first."
"Oh, right, right, right." Upon hearing this, Madam Qian quickly stepped aside.
Ji Qian turned to get another paper effigy, only to see Xu Qi and Mi Yesi still hiding outside the door, trembling with fear.
Ji Qian reached out to pull the two of them in, but Xu Qi, in a moment of panic, handed the paper figure directly to Ji Qian.
Having obtained the paper figure, she stopped insisting and instead asked Xu Qi for a few more sheets of paper money, adhering to the principle of self-reliance.
Five minutes later, the two paper figures stood in the center of the living room, embracing and weeping. Ji Qian looked at this bizarre scene and felt goosebumps all over her body.
She subconsciously turned to look at Xu Qi and Mi Yesi, only to see that the two of them had retreated to the end of the corridor at some point.
When Xu Qi saw her looking over, he waved to her as if nothing had happened, and Ji Qian quickly looked away.
Once the two paper figures in front of her had finally calmed down, Ji Qian quickly cut to the chase: "Can you tell me what exactly happened?"
Finally! It's time for my favorite part: the reveal!
I love this fast-paced, no-nonsense style.
This is one of the advantages of watching the live stream; an ad will definitely be inserted here in the official version.
[The truth behind the previous points has been revealed; be careful not to get targeted.]
Director Liu: I'm watching you!
Having already learned about the current situation from his wife, Mr. Qian hesitated for a moment upon hearing this question before slowly opening his mouth, his tone tinged with shame and a barely perceptible bewilderment:
"To my shame, I don't know how all of this happened either."
Seeing her husband's bewilderment, Madam Qian gently patted his hand, then turned to Ji Qian and said, "Erniu left early, so let me do it."
Madam Qian sighed deeply. This was the first time in hundreds of years that she had the opportunity to tell others about her experiences that day.
"Erniu and I are both native to this village, and we were betrothed as children."
Erniu's parents passed away early. In order to support his family, he entrusted his younger brother to my family for care and went to the city to work alone.
I don't know how much he suffered in the city all those years; I only know that when he returned to the village to marry me a few years later, he was already the owner of a small grocery store.
When Mrs. Qian spoke of the hardships her husband suffered in his youth, her tone became noticeably more strained.
Realizing this, Mr. Qian held his wife's hand tightly, just as he had in life, and the two leaned even closer together.
"After we got married, our lives got better and better. Erniu opened several grocery stores, and our family became a well-known wealthy business in the area."
This house was later expanded on the site of the Qian family's ancestral home, and it is usually left unused.
We had moved back here just three days before the accident to prepare for our youngest daughter's wedding.
Ji Qian and the others already knew about these things. Seeing that Madam Qian was not getting to the point, Ji Qian decided to take the initiative: "Could you tell me in detail what happened on the day of the incident?"
Perhaps the topic was too heavy for Mrs. Qian, because she tried to speak several times, but ultimately could not say anything.
Seeing his wife's predicament, Mr. Qian offered, "Let me start by telling you what I know." Seeing that Ji Qian had no objection, Mr. Qian continued:
"Just like Shuqin said, I should be the first person in the family to pass away."
Shortly after dinner that day, I suddenly felt a sharp pain in my stomach, and my throat felt like it was being choked, making it hard to breathe.
I then vomited blood and soon lost consciousness.
When I opened my eyes again, I had become like this. Looking back now, I must have been poisoned.
"Poisoned to death? Then how did you end up hanging from the beam?"
"I don't know, I was already hanging here when I regained consciousness."
"If Shuqin hadn't taken Duo Niang into this room, I would never have known that a group of thugs had broken into our house."
"You saw it?!" Mrs. Qian never imagined that her husband had actually witnessed the scene of her murder.
"It's alright, it's all in the past." Mr. Qian didn't respond to his wife's words, but simply stroked the paper figure's face reassuringly.
If it weren't for saving their daughter, they would never have thought about what happened that night.
"Let me continue," Mrs. Qian said, her emotions gradually calming down.
"When Erniu had the accident, I was talking to Duoniang in her bedroom."
When I heard the servants report that something bad had happened to the master, I went out to rush over, only to see the front door being kicked open and a group of men in black walking in.
I quickly hid back inside and peered out through the crack in the window. The group of men in black were searching each room one by one, and they would stab anyone they saw who was alive!
Duo Niang's room was downstairs, and it looked like it was about to be searched. While they were going inside, I quickly pulled her outside. We had barely stepped out of the room when we ran into Jing Xuan hiding at the bottom of the stairs.
Seeing Ji Qian's blank expression, Madam Qian kindly explained, "Jingxuan is my grandson, who was not even five years old at the time."
I'm not afraid to tell you this, but when this house was being built, Erniu hid a small secret compartment in each bedroom to store emergency funds.
We all went through hardship, and although we became wealthy later, we still feel more at ease having money on hand.
Of all the rooms in the house, this one has the largest hidden compartment.
So I held Duoniang's hand, and Duoniang carried Jingxuan. The three of us ran upstairs like that.
When I got upstairs, I saw Erniu's...corpse lying on the ground.
I didn't even have time to explain to my daughter why her father had passed away so suddenly; all I could do was push Duoniang and Jingxuan into the dark compartment.
After hiding them, I was about to go outside to help Erniu up when I heard the door being kicked open.
They were all masked, so I couldn't see their faces. I only knew they were hired to kill us and silence us.
But I have no idea why they were silenced, or which mouth they were targeting.
When the cause of death was mentioned, Madam Qian let out a long sigh of relief before continuing:
"They dragged me outside the gate and punched me in the face repeatedly."
They stabbed me to death after almost all the bones in my face were broken.
When I regained consciousness, I was already hanging on the plaque above the main entrance.
"You were also hung up there after you died?!"
Ji Qian had already realized that Master Qian was not a hanged ghost, but because Madam Qian's face was too ferocious, she couldn't tell the cause of death for a moment.
However, this raises another issue...
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