chapter 43

Seeing such a scene late at night.

Forget Song Xiaotian being scared-even my legs felt a little weak.

That person was just standing next to the well, not sure what he was doing, staring at the well the whole time.

And right next to the well was a grave mound.

Song Xiaotian immediately pulled me down, crouching in the grass to hide.

With a terrified look, he asked me, “Do you think that person… could he have crawled out of the grave?”

I covered my mouth, unable to resist wanting to slap him.

He’s just as scared as I am, but insists on making things sound even worse.

But soon, I noticed something strange too.

That person really was covered in dirt, his clothes filthy, like he’d rolled around in the mud. Looking at him, he did seem like he’d crawled out of a grave.

But I’d just been through some bizarre things myself, so I knew a little.

If that person was a ghost, he couldn’t have crawled out of a grave-unless he was a zombie.

“It’s Li Liang!”

I lowered my voice, “Li Xiumei’s foolish brother.”

He was clearly an adult, and adults wouldn’t get themselves so dirty unless they were mentally challenged, with the mind of a child.

Once I guessed his identity, I immediately felt relieved.

Since it was Li Liang, he was a person-not a zombie or a ghost.

But Li Liang’s behavior was still odd. Why wasn’t he sleeping at home at night, but instead hanging around the well?

Song Xiaotian and I didn’t dare disturb him, just kept hiding, wanting to see what he was up to.

After a while, we saw Li Liang take out a packet of something from his pocket and dump it all into the well.

It looked like some kind of powder.

Song Xiaotian was shocked, “Damn, he’s poisoning the well!”

I was startled too-it really did look like Li Liang was poisoning the well.

That’s the village well! If he put something toxic in there and the villagers drank the water, wouldn’t they all be poisoned?

This fool is way too vicious!

Song Xiaotian and I kept watching. He’d already dumped the powder in, and it was too late to stop him.

After Li Liang finished, he suddenly started giggling foolishly, clapping his hands like he was applauding.

Watching his actions, he couldn’t be any more foolish.

After clapping, he hopped away from the well, heading toward his home.

Once he was far away, Song Xiaotian and I hurried over to the well.

We turned on our flashlight and shone it into the well.

Looking inside, we saw the water was very murky-not like drinking water at all.

We both breathed a sigh of relief.

This water wasn’t for drinking, probably just for irrigating the fields.

“What do you think that fool dumped in there?” Song Xiaotian asked me.

I said I had no idea, but it probably wasn’t poison. Foolish people act randomly, and where would he even get something toxic?

Maybe he was just playing around.

Of course, that was just my guess. Tomorrow, we’d still have to tell the villagers here, just in case they used the water for livestock and whatever Li Liang dumped in there turned out to be dangerous.

Song Xiaotian and I didn’t dare linger, and kept heading toward Li Xiumei’s house.

It wasn’t long before we arrived.

Li Xiumei’s house was truly dilapidated-not even made of bricks, but of old yellow mud. The roof tiles were covered with layers of tarps, probably patched up a dozen times.

I thought to myself, this is just too poor. How do this widow and orphan even survive?
At this moment, the sounds of gongs and drums could still be heard nearby, and from time to time, there were also chanting voices.

These sounds were not unfamiliar to me; back in my hometown, whenever someone died, we would hear the same noises.

They were performing a ritual-someone nearby must have passed away.

I glanced in the direction the sounds were coming from and saw that, sure enough, a small, flat-roofed building was brightly lit.

“Hurry up and knock on the door.”

Song Xiaotian urged, “Let’s ask and leave quickly. We’ll find another village to rest in. I have a bad feeling about this place.”

I nodded, walked up to the door, and knocked three times.

The door was still a wooden one, looking like it was about to fall apart.

After a moment, the door opened, and standing inside was Li Liang, whom we had just seen earlier.

He stared at us blankly, his clear eyes full of confusion.

“Hello, is your… mother home? We need to speak with her.”

“No, don’t look for her. Mom’s sleeping, don’t look for her…”

Although Li Liang was slow-witted, he could still communicate. After speaking, he tried to close the door.

I quickly braced the door to stop him. “Well, could you please call your mom? We have something important to discuss with her.”

Li Liang immediately looked a bit unhappy, like a child throwing a tantrum. He made a sleeping gesture. “Mom is sick, she needs to sleep. You should leave, or I’ll poison you.”

I hurriedly asked Song Xiaotian to take two pieces of bread from his backpack and handed them to Li Liang.

The smell of the bread instantly attracted him.

“It smells so good!”

“Right? It’s all yours. Just go call your mom.”

He snatched the bread and shouted inside.

“Mom, get up! Someone’s looking for you!”

Soon, a coughing sound came from inside the house.

The cough was weak-it really sounded like someone was ill.

“Liangzi, who is it?”

Li Liang glanced at me. “It’s a fool, hehe…”

Song Xiaotian couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

I felt a bit embarrassed.

That fool-he’s the real fool, and yet he called me a fool.

But since he was a fool, I couldn’t argue with him.

Soon, an Old Woman came out, leaning on a cane.

The Old Woman looked very sick, her face almost blackened from illness, her whole demeanor gloomy.

Her eyes were red, as if she had just cried.

She walked to the door and sized us up. “You’re… not from the village. What do you want with us?”

I got straight to the point. “Hello, are you Li Yujiao’s mother?”

At the mention of ‘Li Yujiao,’ the Old Woman’s cloudy eyes seemed to brighten for a moment, and she immediately became wary. “Who are you?”

I told her we were police officers, investigating the case Li Yujiao was involved in years ago, and that we had some questions.

Unexpectedly, the Old Woman became agitated. “Still asking, always asking! What’s there left to ask? So many years have passed, can’t you just let us go? My husband was killed by you police, get out, get out now!”

She cursed and raised her cane to hit us.

Song Xiaotian and I quickly backed away, completely unprepared for her sudden outburst.

“Old Woman, please calm down and take care of your health. We just want to ask a few questions…”

“Ask your mother’s cunt, get out!”

The Old Woman started cursing outright, then said to her son Li Liang, “Liangzi, drive them out!”

Although Li Liang was a fool, he listened to the Old Woman. He went inside, grabbed a kitchen knife, and came at us swinging.