Chapter 66
Chapter 66
And then they started fighting again.
Both sides insisted they were right.
In the end, though, it was still the villagers who had been incited.
And Maozi could never make a head and a body from two different people fit together.
“They beat you until you threw up? You don’t look like anything’s wrong with your face. It can’t have been that serious, right?”
Wu Xiaojiu’s mouth twitched. He was helpless.
Senior wiped the moisture from the corner of his mouth and sighed.
“If it were only that, it would’ve been fine. The key is that after the fight, something else happened. It was extremely strange. By then it was already dusk, around seven or eight in the evening, and the villagers were still blocking the area in front of the grave. There was no choice but to say we’d spend the night at the local police station first, but… have you ever heard of the Old Softshell Turtle Wedding?”
The moment those three words, Old Softshell Turtle Wedding, were mentioned, Senior’s expression became hard to read. But then he raised his hand to check his watch, and whatever he was about to say immediately stopped in his throat.
“I can’t say any more. You two go to the crime scene first. If you don’t hurry over now, we really won’t make it in time.”
The intern nodded. He was curious about what Old Softshell Turtle Wedding meant too, but dusk was falling, and the way Maozi and the villagers were at each other’s throats could easily lead to the whole village being sealed off. If they didn’t go now, they might really be too late.
They grabbed the patrol car keys and drove over.
Wu Xiaojiu felt restless the whole way. He kept glancing at his watch, thinking about those words, Old Softshell Turtle Wedding, and before he realized it, he had already pulled out his phone.
Bo Suihan had sent him a long string of messages again.
Wu Xiaojiu had really lived a good life. He had good luck, a handsome face, and a wealthy family. Wherever he went, people flattered him.
Even when he used to cling to Long Aotian, now it had become Long Aotian clinging to him.
What did being unbeatable under heaven matter? For love, even he was willing to bow his head.
[So you were just busy receiving red envelopes. It wasn’t that you didn’t want to reply to me. I thought I was sending messages too often and annoying you.]
Just the opening line alone was enough to make anyone stare.
Wu Xiaojiu scrolled through the chat window, patiently reading every message one by one. In the end, his finger stopped on the typing box, and he pressed his lips together, not knowing what to say.
Too humble.
Every line from Bo Suihan was lifting him up and putting himself down.
There was an inexplicable tone of grievance in those messages, like a wronged wife.
If Wu Xiaojiu didn’t know he wasn’t in a relationship, he would really have thought he was the scumbag here.
The intern was driving, and by now they had already entered the village.
The whole road was pitch-black. When the wind blew, the wild grass and plants on both sides rippled in waves.
He used the headlights and glanced at Wu Xiaojiu through the rearview mirror.
He saw that the other man’s brows were tightly furrowed, his fingers tapping at the phone screen. Every so often, he would stop and bite at a fingernail.
The intern sighed inwardly. At a glance, this was clearly a case of the sugar daddy making things difficult. The kid had it rough, having to solve cases while also taking care of the sugar daddy’s emotional well-being.
He couldn’t help it and raised his voice toward the back.
“Oi, how much does he pay you a month?”
Wu Xiaojiu had been busy editing a whole essay when he heard the question and looked up slightly. The blue light from his phone lit his chin, and under the moonlight his face looked expensive and beautiful.
“He only started paying this month. Before that, there wasn’t any financial transaction.”
Wu Xiaojiu thought the intern had found out about Bo Suihan, so he answered honestly.
When the intern heard that, he shut his eyes in pained indignation and let out a long, heavy sigh.
“A beast in human clothing!”
Wu Xiaojiu didn’t hear clearly, because he noticed that the grass and trees around them had gradually grown taller, and some of the corn and crops were even higher than the car, almost covering it entirely.
Heavy clouds hung overhead, blocking out every last star and moonbeam. It was the kind of weather made for hauntings.
When the intern saw that he wasn’t saying anything, he assumed he’d hit a sore spot.
He lifted his hand and slapped his own face twice, then floored the gas. With the siren wailing, the patrol car shot off into the distance.
They arrived at the scene of the incident not long after.
The grave pit had already taken shape. The three feet of earth in front of the grave had been dug away, but there was no sign of the coffin lid or the body.
It was probably because the villagers had been shouting and making a scene, and Maozi, worried about the crowd, had put the body back into the earth.
Yellow caution tape had already been strung up around the grave to protect the scene. Patrol lights flooded the area, dozens of Maozi stood around the grave holding stun batons, and scattered among them were villagers gripping shovels, wrenches, and other heavy tools, all staring this way with hostile looks.
“The situation is very tense. Be careful when you get out, and don’t make too much noise.”
The intern gave the man in the back seat a brief instruction, then fished out his little baton from his pocket and quietly slipped out of the car.
Wu Xiaojiu was still editing the last few lines of his little write-up. He didn’t really pay attention. After sending the message, and without caring whether the villagers had seen him or not, he got out of the car with complete ease.
“They sent more Maozi again? Aren’t they bullying us?”
“Exactly. Something happened in the village, and most of the people went over to the village head’s place to watch the excitement. Only a few of us were left watching the grave. We clearly agreed not to dig it up today, so how can they send more people again?”
The villagers looked at one another. Their eyes met, and each of them hissed in unison.
One villager put down his hoe and slowly ran back into the cornfield behind him.
The others exchanged one more look and nodded.
Wu Xiaojiu and the intern didn’t know what was going on. One moved cautiously, while the other held his phone and walked toward the caution line.
The lights here were fairly bright, and several Maozi were gathered together. The intern found someone he knew and asked about the situation.
“I’ve heard about guarding the grave. What’s this Old Softshell Turtle Wedding incident about? And why are all of them from our bureau? Where are the local police?”
“They’ve all been sent over to Old Softshell Turtle Wedding. Weird, isn’t it? Our city used to be quiet, but in the past few months every single case has been a murder. And the most important thing is, all of them involve severed heads.”
As soon as the intern heard that, he knew there was something behind it, and he probed carefully.
“Old Softshell Turtle Wedding has a murder case too? Also headless bodies?”
Maozi nodded, then glanced around at the villagers nearby and found that their numbers were less than half of what they had been before. With a bit of hope, he waved the intern over.
“If you’re curious, then as your senior, I’d say this is exactly the time for an intern to broaden his horizons and toughen up. There are fewer villagers here now, so go take a look at Old Softshell Turtle Wedding. From the looks of that girl, I’m guessing she’s still making a scene tonight.”
As he spoke, Maozi dipped a finger in his saliva and wrote down an address on the intern’s hand.
Then he set a time.
“Remember to come back here before one in the morning. We’ll probably have to start work tomorrow. No matter how much we’re trying to take the public into account, we can’t keep delaying the real job over and over.”
The intern nodded.
He led Wu Xiaojiu and ran off in that direction again.
By the time they reached the village head’s house, it was already deep into the night. There were police officers there too, but only a few. They were all gathered at the entrance, sitting on the ground. Most of them were already sleepy, hugging their batons as they dozed off.
The village head’s house was a two-story house. The first floor was completely dark, and only the room on the far left of the second floor had a faint light on.
Through the window, they could barely make out a figure sitting askew by the sill.