The Truth
Translator: Cinder Translations
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"Mm," the man nodded, "The county police station sent someone over, and they specifically asked to see this file."
"When was that?"
"About an hour ago," the man looked at the file in Jiang Cheng's hand with a strange expression, "It was just getting light, and I was still sleeping. The knock on the door woke me up."
"Then they came in and asked to see the file for this case. I had no idea about a case from so long ago, so I had to search through old archive materials to find it."
"Then, just after I put it back, you all arrived," the man awkwardly scratched his nose, and then whispered, "If I'd known, I wouldn't have put it back."
"What did the person look like?" Chen Xiaomeng asked.
The man blinked, seemingly not understanding the question, and vaguely said, "They were from the county police station, wearing their uniforms and carrying a cloth bag."
"I mean, what did that person look like?" Chen Xiaomeng seemed to realize something, her emotions uncontrollable, her voice raised, "Was it a man or a woman?"
"A woman," the man quickly replied.
A strange look flashed in Jiang Cheng and Chen Xiaomeng's eyes at the same time.
"One woman or two women?"
The man seemed confused about why the county leaders would be interested in the people from the county police station, but he vaguely felt that it was related to something very important, so he stopped thinking further and recalled, "Only one woman came in to check the materials. As for whether anyone else was outside, I'm not sure."
"Do you remember what the woman looked like?"
The man hesitated, "She was wearing a wide-brimmed hat. I... I was too busy finding materials for her, and it was dark at the time, so I didn't pay attention."
At this time, Jiang Cheng's expression grew more meaningful as he recalled the woman who came alone to Anping Town's local archive to inquire about the 20-year-old child trafficking case in Xia Shijian Village.
He immediately thought of the missing Yu Man and Li Lu.
Although the person wore a police uniform, Jiang Cheng felt that for him, getting such an outfit wouldn't be difficult.
Chen Xiaomeng clearly realized this as well, and quickly asked, "Do you remember which direction she went after leaving?"
"I know that," the man swallowed, pointing to the door, "She turned right after she went out."
Chen Xiaomeng immediately stood up and walked towards the door.
"Wait," Jiang Cheng called out to her and then gave the man a careful look. The man immediately got goosebumps.
"Did she do anything else while she was here?" Jiang Cheng asked seriously.
"She also borrowed the village record for Xia Shijian Village," the man replied cautiously, afraid of accidentally offending the county leaders.
Upon hearing this, Chen Xiaomeng suddenly stopped.
"And the village record?" Jiang Cheng lightly tapped the table with his finger, his eyes narrowing slightly.
The man quickly went to fetch it. Less than a minute later, the record book of Xia Shijian Village appeared in Jiang Cheng's hands.
He began to flip through it.
But after half a minute, Jiang Cheng's pupils suddenly contracted. He found a familiar name: Liu Cunyi.
In the position for job title, it said "Village Head."
He was the current village head of Xia Shijian Village and the one who had invited Jiang Cheng and the others to the village.
But what truly caught Jiang Cheng's attention was the note in parentheses next to Liu Cunyi's name: "Qian Jianguo."
Seeing this, Chen Xiaomeng's expression immediately darkened. She recalled the three tablets found in the ruins of the Qian family ancestral hall: Qian Jianguo, Qian Jianhe, Qian Jianxiu.
It turned out that the current village head of Xia Shijian Village was the son of the late village head Qian, Qian Jianguo, who had changed his name to Liu Cunyi in order to escape the pursuit of ghosts.
No wonder.
Now his actions made sense.
As for Su Ying, who burned down the Qian family ancestral hall but left the tablets for Qian Jianguo, Qian Jianhe, and Qian Jianxiu, it seemed like she wanted to hint that these three had faked their deaths and were still alive.
The village record showed that the Qian family had five children. The eldest and second had both died under unclear circumstances, while Qian Jianguo was the third, who, after changing his name, became the village head of Xia Shijian Village.
Qian Jianhe was the fourth. Jiang Cheng flipped another page, but suddenly found that the page with Qian Jianhe's information was missing. The bottom of the page had jagged tear marks.
It was clear that someone had secretly torn it out.
"Damn it," Chen Xiaomeng cursed quietly.
Jiang Cheng wasn't shy about the man's presence and took out a photo found in the ruins of the Qian family's building. After comparing some physical features, Jiang Cheng confirmed that the man with a hunting rifle was the eldest son of the hunters, Qian Jianye, the man holding an abacus was the second son, Qian Jianshe, and the man holding a book was the third son, Qian Jianguo, who had now changed his name to Liu Cunyi and was serving as the village head of Xiao Shijian.
The remaining person, wearing a light blue apron, was likely the fourth son, Qian Jianhe.
"That's the owner of the Anping Inn," Chen Xiaomeng whispered.
She remembered that the innkeeper also had the surname Liu and spent most of his time in the kitchen wearing an apron, with quite impressive cooking skills.
He was responsible for managing the inn in town and taking care of his disfigured sister, Qian Jianxiu.
At the same time, he also had to guide the "experts" attracted by generous rewards. His earlier dispute with the village head was just a show performed by the two brothers to gain the trust of Jiang Cheng and his group.
Jiang Cheng took a deep breath and slowly exhaled.
This should be the whole case.
After that, they stopped talking to the man and immediately left.
The man, having been visited by two groups of "important people," sighed in relief and silently prayed not to lose his job because of it.
"But it's strange," the man muttered as he cleaned up the chairs and tables, "Their accents sounded odd. Could they be from out of town?"
He shook his head and continued wiping the tables until they shone with a reflective gloss.
After leaving the town archive, Jiang Cheng and Chen Xiaomeng quickened their pace and headed towards the Anping Inn.
They had originally thought that Li Lu and Yu Man were trapped in Xiao Shijian Village, perhaps even in danger.
But the reality showed them they had overestimated things.
One, or maybe both of them, had already left Xiao Shijian Village before them, and the feeling of being suppressed from all sides was something Chen Xiaomeng hadn't felt in a long time, making her feel very frustrated.
There were plenty of people who played the "pig to eat the tiger" game, and this time they had misjudged.
"Who do you think it is?" Chen Xiaomeng asked coldly, "Or do you think they worked together?"
Jiang Cheng also stopped joking and became serious. "It should be one person. Two people would make the target too obvious," he said as he walked, "Do you think that if no one stayed behind in the village, we could have left so easily?"
(End of the Chapter)
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