Chapter 132
Chapter 132
Among the group, Master Quede was the oldest and the most respected, so he naturally walked at the very front.
The village chief’s earlier words had also been directed at him, asking him to make the decision.
However, Master Quede did not agree immediately. Instead, he glanced at Xia Sheng. “Little Fellow Daoist, what do you think?”
Xia Sheng’s gaze swept across the old village chief’s face. She frowned slightly, but still nodded. “Let’s eat first.”
Seeing that something was off in her expression, Master Quede became a bit more wary of the village chief and the others, though he did not show it on his face. He merely smiled amiably at the village chief and said, “All right, let’s go eat first.”
When the others saw that Master Quede had specifically asked for Xia Sheng’s opinion, they could not help but look at her a few more times. None of them knew what kind of background this young girl had to make Master Quede treat her with such respect.
Li Ziheng was especially displeased. In his view, Master Quede’s behavior only further proved that Xia Sheng had gotten in through connections, and that her background was far from ordinary.
Xia Sheng had no idea Li Ziheng had so many thoughts running through his head. After entering the village, she quietly began sizing up the area around them, and her gaze gradually darkened.
The village chief’s house was a countryside villa that had been built not long ago, with very grand decor.
A closer look showed that most of the people in the village lived in large villas too, all of them expensive to build.
Only a small number of households were still living in relatively old single-story houses.
Shen Zhuoyang noticed this as well and asked the village chief, “I heard your village’s main source of income is agricultural planting. Has farming been very profitable these past two years?”
The village chief smiled, the flesh on his face bunching together and making him look like a laughing Buddha.
“I suppose it is profitable. That’s also thanks to government support. It’s only because of those policies that our village was able to develop into the prosperous place it is today.”
Shen Zhuoyang nodded. “The government’s agricultural support policies really have been quite good these past few years.”
Xia Sheng listened quietly to the conversation between the two of them, then suddenly spoke. “But from what I can see, there isn’t much grain planted in the fields around your village. That level of output doesn’t seem to match your income.”
The old village chief’s expression did not change. “Our village takes the high-end route. All this grain is exported, so the price is a bit higher than in other places. We focus on quality, not quantity.”
Xia Sheng’s face remained expressionless. “Is that so?”
At the side, Li Ziheng spoke up. “Why do you have so much to say? The chief already told you they’re taking the high-end route. What, do you think the money for building these houses was all stolen?”
Xia Sheng glanced at Li Ziheng. Just as he was about to glare back, his foot suddenly seemed to catch on something, and he fell face-first to the ground.
The others around him could not help laughing when they saw him trip on flat ground.
“Li Ziheng, maybe you shouldn’t come on the mission today. You should first do a reading for yourself and see whether you’ve had some bad luck lately. You can even trip just walking. Or else later, don’t go getting something stuck in your teeth from a sip of water.”
“And last time you said I hit you. This time, you fell on your own.”
Listening to his companions tease him, Li Ziheng was both embarrassed and furious. He climbed up from the ground and glared at Xia Sheng. “Was that you just now? Did you do something?”
No matter how slow he was, he had finally realized it.
Last time at the hospital, he had been hit on the back of the head for no apparent reason, and that had also happened because someone had offended Xia Sheng.
Now he had only said a few harsh words to Xia Sheng and immediately fell face-first to the ground. There was no way he would believe those two incidents had no connection at all.
Xia Sheng looked at him calmly. “What are you talking about?”
Xia Sheng already had an innocent, harmless appearance to begin with, and her cool, exceptional temperament made her seem completely unlike the sort of person who would scheme against others behind their backs.
For a split second, Li Ziheng almost thought he really was overthinking it, but he quickly firmed up his conviction again. “Who are you trying to fool by acting like some innocent little rabbit? You definitely did this! Otherwise, why is it that every time I say something bad about you, something happens to me? You have to apologize to me!”
Some of the others couldn’t stand to watch anymore and spoke up. “We all saw what happened just now. You were clearly the one who tripped, so how can you blame Little Friend Xia? Even if you think girls aren’t suited for this line of work, you can’t just keep bullying her like this, can you?”
“Exactly. It was the same thing outside the hospital room last time. You openly looked down on her just because she’s a girl and questioned her abilities right to her face. That was way over the line.”
Seeing that everyone around him was taking Xia Sheng’s side, Li Ziheng held his frustration in. “No, I wasn’t falsely accusing her. Just now, it really was her…”
“Enough,” Shen Zhuoyang said in a low voice. “The mission comes first. Stop making a scene over irrelevant matters.”
Since Shen Zhuoyang had spoken, Li Ziheng couldn’t very well say anything more. He could only swallow his anger and follow the others forward.
Before long, the group arrived at the village chief’s house. Just as they were about to enter, a haggard young woman came out from inside.
She was very beautiful, dressed simply in a shirt and jeans, with her hair hanging loosely over her shoulders. Her lips were pale, and her face was filled with despair and grief.
The moment she saw Shen Zhuoyang and the others in uniform, her ashen eyes seemed to light up. She quickly stepped forward a few paces. “Are you here to handle the Water Ghost case?”
Shen Zhuoyang nodded. “Is there something you want to tell us?”
The woman looked delighted and was just about to say something, but when she noticed the old village chief standing off to the side, her whole body gave a start. The light in her eyes dimmed at once, and she forced a smile. “No, nothing. I just wanted to say good luck.”
After saying that, the woman hurried away.
Shen Zhuoyang turned to look at her retreating figure, feeling that her attitude was a little strange, and asked, “Village Chief Li, who was that just now?”
Village Chief Li still wore the same calm smile, his voice kind and gentle. “She’s the daughter of a mute man from our village. Her surname is Zhao.
“She was originally attending college out of town, but something happened at home these past few days, so she came back specifically to deal with it.”
Village Chief Li seemed unwilling to say more on the matter and quickly ushered everyone inside to eat.
At the dinner table, Master Quede asked, “I heard your village only reported the case to the police after five people had already gone missing. Why didn’t anyone report it earlier, when the first four disappeared?”
Village Chief Li set down his chopsticks and sighed. “The first few women who went missing were all part of the village’s floating population, people who worked or studied outside.
“Because of school and work, they often didn’t come home anyway, so after they went missing, no one found it strange, much less thought of hauntings or deaths.
“It wasn’t until the fifth missing person disappeared that her friend was unable to reach her no matter what and finally chose to call the police.
“The young woman you ran into at the door just now is the friend of the most recent missing woman. She was also the one who made the report.
“Not long after she called the police, officers came to investigate. You already know what happened after that.
“During the investigation, a policewoman accidentally lost her footing and was dragged into the water by something below. After that, she simply disappeared without a trace.
“After that incident, the case was handed over to the Special Management Bureau.”