Chapter 30 Chapter 30 The morning light illuminates a corner...
The early morning light illuminates a corner, and the fog in the distance is everywhere.
The heavy sound of drums resounded throughout the county government office. Hezhou woke up from his sleep and realized in a daze that this was the drum for seeking justice in front of the door.
"Did anyone report to the police?" Xie Xunzhi sat up, his hair hanging down and a red mark on his cheek.
Hezhou picked up his clothes and was about to get out of bed: "You go to sleep first, I'll go take a look."
"Hey!" Xie Xunzhi grabbed his wrist and pointed outside: "He went to listen to the noise. You should put on your clothes first."
Hezhou walked to the window in his cloth shoes and saw Hehua's hurried back.
"That's ok, I guess it's nothing serious. It's not uncommon for dogs to lose chickens."
Xie Xunzhi pursed his lips and disagreed. Although the cases reported to the yamen these days were all unimportant, it was rare to see people coming to beat the drums early in the morning.
He worked quickly, first getting himself ready, then waiting with a wooden comb to tie Hezhou's hair.
On the way out, I bumped into Lotus. Lotus lowered her head and whispered, "Someone went to dig a field and found bones in the ground."
"Could it be someone's dead body buried there?"
"I don't know." Lotus shook her head.
Standing outside was a thin man, with a faint hunchback from often bending over. His eyes were cloudy as he muttered, "Damn it! Why die in my fields? Damn you short-lived ghost! You're not allowed to live at all. God is blind..."
Xie Xunzhi coughed lightly a few times, indicating that Hezhou was already sitting on it. When he saw them, the man seemed to have changed his face and knelt on the ground.
Suddenly, tears and snot filled her eyes, and she spoke with an authentic shepherd's purse accent: "Uncle! I can't live anymore! It's hard to buy vegetables at the vegetable stalls these days, and there are dead people in the fields. Who dares to eat something like this! It's killing me! I have a baby at home..."
Hezhou got a headache after hearing this. He raised the gavel, paused it in the air for a moment, and then dropped it sharply. The huge noise echoed throughout the hall. The man really stopped, sniffed his nose, and looked at him with red and swollen eyes.
"Stand up and tell me what happened from the beginning.
"Okay, okay." The man stood up slowly, lifted the corner of his clothes and wiped his face twice: "My name is Li Dahu. I used to sell tofu on the street. Do you remember me, sir? But you asked for half a block, so I packed a whole block for you. The tofu is white and big..."
"Let's get down to business!"
The man was startled by the sudden rebuke, his neck hunched, his hands twirling in panic. "Beans are getting more and more expensive. A few days ago, my wife asked me to go farming. We're almost broke. This morning, I went to dig the soil and found a patch of weeds that was particularly overgrown. The deeper I dug, the deeper I found it. When I realized what was happening, I saw half a hand bone..."
"Could someone be buried there?" Xie Xunzhi looked at him and asked first.
"No, no! Our entire village knows who's relatives have died, and they're all buried in the Nantou cemetery." Li Dahu clasped his hands nervously.
"It could be someone passing by... but he took pity on me... the wheat grown in that field is hard to buy!"
The man was so anxious that he slapped his thigh, complained about the sky, and looked at him with a frown.
"Go and take a look." Hezhou turned his inquiring eyes to Xie Xunzhi. Seeing the other party nod, he stood up and walked out.
"lead the way?"
Li Dahu nodded repeatedly and walked in front, chattering on the way about his miserable life, and also interrupted with a few questions about the assessment.
Hezhou glanced at him and felt that he looked somewhat familiar. He was staring at the person in front of him with a hunched back, drooping eyelids, and a face full of wrinkles.
"What is your relationship with Li Erniu?"
The other party was stunned for a moment, then laughed awkwardly: "We are cousins, sir. You may not know that we are probably related to Master Li's family, but they just don't recognize us."
A lot more people in the county are going out, and most of the children are attending classes as usual. Xie Xunzhi asked for leave today to go to the mountains, and now it is much more convenient. He asked Hehua to invite Mr. Song over, and he followed him.
Li Dahu's fields are in the front half of the street, next to the main road. They are the ones closest to the front. The wheat around them is sparse, and there are not many full and hanging grains.
His field was at the very edge, and a large hole was clearly visible on the ground.
Hezhou walked forward. The newly dug soil gave off a fishy smell. The rake was thrown aside. At the bottom of the pit, a piece of white bone could be seen. It looked like a palm and had begun to turn yellow.
He looked around for a long time but didn't see any suitable tools. He couldn't use a rake to dig up the body, so he had to pick up a branch as thick as his wrist from the weeds on the other side.
Hezhou walked over and saw Xie Xunzhi digging with a shovel: "Where did you get the shovel?"
"Sir, I! I! I just got it." Li Dahu looked at him as if he was asking for credit. After a while, he continued, "Sir...were you looking for a shovel just now?"
"No, I just wanted to check the terrain to see who would pass by here." Hezhou touched his chin and stepped on the mound to watch Xie Xunzhi digging.
Xie Xunzhi dug very carefully, digging bit by bit. Suddenly, he paused, took out a handkerchief, and picked up a round object. He gently wiped off the dirt around it, and a severely yellowed jade pendant appeared.
Hezhou took it and smelled it as if he was smelling a chemical agent in chemistry class. It had a strong earthy smell mixed with a hint of decay.
The dirt around the jade pendant was shaken off, revealing a piece of jade with a faded butterfly pattern and many tiny cracks.
"List……"
Hezhou only said one word and then paused, looking at Xie Xunzhi with a flash of his eyes. This almost ended the theory that he was an outsider.
Xie Xunzhi dug out a pair of legs, and the rest was left to Old Song who came over. The skeleton he dug out was wide, so he put it on a flat rack, and then he dug out a men's jade hairpin.
"He's been dead for a while." Old Song lowered his head and measured his height. "The bones are starting to turn yellowish-brown, but there aren't any major cracks on the body. It's just that the canal water has caused serious damage..."
"Can the cause of death be determined?"
Old Song shook his head muffledly. "Only bones are left. It's hard to tell. Death from illness, milder heart-breaking drugs, bleeding, and suffocation are all possible. There are several types of suffocation alone. It's hard to tell without a body."
Xie Xunzhi sighed: "The most difficult thing now is that I can't tell whether it is from the county."
"No way." Hezhou looked around and approached Xie Xunzhi: "Isn't that jade pendant from the Chen family?"
"Even if we rule it out first, and there happens to be an identical jade pendant, how can you be sure it doesn't belong to the bandits in the mountains?" Xie Xunzhi also said in a low voice.
This statement was an inspiration to Hezhou. He lowered his eyes. The last jade pendant he had snatched from the guard was taken away by the Chen family. Now he had an unknown one. Wouldn't he need to worry about encountering bandits?
He only dared to think about what he was thinking. Xie Xunzhi leaned closer and said, "Whoever has this jade pendant is not a good thing. Be prepared. We may have to move up the assessment."
Hezhou nodded with a twinkle in his eyes: "I don't think there's anything to see in this place. Do you want to go back?"
Xie Xunzhi clapped his hands and said, "Okay, go back and write the missing person notice. It will probably take a long time."
Old Song and Hehua carried the excavated bones back, which attracted quite a few people to look at on the way. A few brave children even grabbed Xie Xunzhi's sleeves.
"Master, my mother said that if you dig up someone else's grave, you will be stabbed in the back." The child tilted his head back with a serious look on his face.
Xie Xunzhi patted his head, narrowed his eyes and smiled: "You're not a gravedigger. Do you know someone wearing a jade hairpin?"
The child shook his head and put his hands behind his back: "We rarely use jade here, let alone use it for hairpins, there is only..."
He stood up straight, his voice filled with fear: "Master! Are you going to dig up the Chen family's or the Li family's grave?"
An unconcealed laugh was heard from the side. He Zhou came over and raised the corner of his mouth arrogantly: "Someone was killed! It's all turned into bones. Do you want to see it? The blood..."
Before he could finish, Xie Xunzhi covered his mouth and said, "Huang'er, go home first. If you are interested, we will post notices on the street later."
The child nodded repeatedly and ran away.
Hezhou grinned, "This kid has already decided that we are tomb robbers."
"Are you ashamed of bullying children?"
"No."
I don't know how the news got around in the afternoon, but when the notice was posted at noon, there were crowds of people gathered, all with their heads down and strange lights in their eyes.
I could vaguely hear something like "Chen family...", "Dig...", "Grave...", "There's someone up there..."
Hezhou's mouth twitched. "A skeleton was dug out from the wasteland of Li Dahu's family. It was seven feet tall and had a man's jade hairpin with cloud patterns on it."
The people in the front row chewed on the words, repeating them back and forth, their eyes gradually dimming: "It's not... digging up the Chen family grave!"
"I already told you that the Chen family's ancestral tombs were moved long ago!"
"Hey! You hindsight! Wasn't it you who just started this?"
The people around them dispersed with noise and fights, and the people behind them also dispersed with their heads down after hearing the message. Wang Xiao supported his mother and stood in the back row.
Mrs. Wang's eyes were a little dull. The people around them dispersed, which made it easier for them to move forward. Mrs. Wang was rubbing her apron nervously in her hands. When she saw Hezhou standing in front of her, her eyes finally focused.
She held Wang Xiao, who was only half a person's height, in her arms and asked quietly, "Did the Chen family fall?"
Wang Xiao shook his head: "No, mother, you should go back first. The weather is cold recently."
"Why!"
Mrs. Wang held Wang Xiao in her arms and spoke gently, "Xiaoxiao, read the words above to me again in front of your teacher. Teacher, is my Xiaoxiao a good student in the private school?"
"Wang Xiao has always loved studying in private school, often applying what he has learned to other situations. He... he's one of the smart ones..."
Hezhou surprisingly didn't say anything. He stood by with a frown on his face. Wang Xiao was not a bad student in the private school, but he definitely had nothing to do with love of study.
He also didn't quite agree with Xie Xunzhi's statement that he was doting on her, but he wouldn't expose it now. He could ask her in private later.
Wang Xiao looked nonchalant and repeated what his mother said word for word, his voice fluent and smooth.
After hearing this, Mrs. Wang widened her eyes and said in a panic, "Xiaoxiao, you...read it again..."
"Wenliang didn't abandon his wife and children!"
Before Wang Xiao could say anything, a cry of surprise came from beside him.
Mrs. Wang suddenly turned around and grabbed Hezhou's hand tightly. "Sir! Is there another piece of butterfly jade? Does that jade hairpin have a round hole in the middle?"
"Yes, you know him!"
Mrs. Wang was stunned for a moment before bursting into laughter. "You didn't lie to me. Wenliang is dead. You didn't lie to me... Dead. Why... He's not an unfaithful man! Wenliang is dead..."
Her voice gradually choked and tears flowed like they were free.
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