Chapter 528: Waking up Slowly
——How did Li Qianggui die?
The elder in the room was silent for a moment, slowly opening his mouth, “Ah… You are asking about Li, the wretch from next door, right?”
Shen Mo nodded, “It’s Li, the wretch.”
The old man replied, “Last Autumn… I recall it wasn’t long after the Mid-Autumn Festival, the Li family came to borrow white cloth from us, saying that their old man had died. We rushed to their home, and saw the wretch Li laid on the bed, his head severed, the bed was soaked with blood.
We asked the Li family what had happened, but they seemed foolish and mumbling, not making any sense.
As there was no one else in the Li family, a few of us in the village helped them arrange the funeral. Suddenly, Mrs. Li began laughing uncontrollably on the mourning hall, she refused to eat or drink, didn’t even touch a drop of water, and not long after, she was gone too.”
The old woman sitting by the door sighed long, “Mrs. Li, a pitiful woman…”
This answer was quite honest, practically everything that needed to be said was said. There was no intentional avoidance of crucial clues, nor playing with words.
Next, it was Du Lai and Fu Miaoxue’s turn to ask the second question.
The two of them quietly discussed for a while, then Fu Miaoxue eagerly asked:
“Is it because you’re all afraid of the woman transporting the corpse that the village closes their doors at night? Why is that?”
The old woman began to tap her smoking pipe discontentedly at Fu Miaoxue, the pipe making a loud clanging sound, “My old man only knows about matters related to the Li family next door.”
Fu Miaoxue pouted, “Hmph~”
Du Lai whispered a few words into her ear.
Fu Miaoxue’s eyes rolled and she asked again, “Why do you all close your doors tightly after the family of Li perished, and not open them at night?”
Isn’t this related to the Li family now?
But Fu Miaoxue didn’t stop after finishing her question. She said aggressively, “I suspect that Mrs. Li was killed by you all! You make no sense! Stop talking nonsense! I’m aware of many such cases, when the man at home dies, the remaining orphans and widows are easy to bully, right? The person who killed Mrs. Li, not only you all are involved, your whole village is involved too! You intended to take the Li family’s properties and houses! Hence, Mrs. Li died with her eyes wide open, pushing her man’s corpse, unable to find peace even in death!”
The old woman, suddenly pinned with this blame, was so angry that smoke seemed to be coming out from her nose. She abruptly stood up and shouted, “Wake up Insane! Nonsense!!!”
Fu Miaoxue was furious, pointing at the old woman and asking others, “Is she cursing at me in the Fuzhou dialect?”
Bai Youwei was gleefully watching from the side, “Aren’t you the one who understands Min language?”
Fu Miaoxue retorted indignantly, “Understanding Min opera and being able to speak Min language are two different things!”
Just like how some people can sing Cantonese songs but may not be able to speak Cantonese.
The old man in the room also grew anxious, he raised his voice, “Why would we plot to kill for wealth when the Li family was so poor that they had to scrape and toil? At night, the village closes their doors because Mrs. Li’s resentful ghost won’t rest in peace! Everyone is afraid of inviting this evil spirit into their homes so regardless of what noises we hear at night, we never open our doors!
Li, the wretch, had a head full of sores and was impoverished, if it wasn’t for the villagers’ help, he wouldn’t even have been able to afford a wife! How could we possibly covet his properties? That’s utter nonsense!”
Miaoxue blinked, turned around, and murmured to Du Lai: “Well, I guessed wrong.”
Du Lai asked Shen Mo and Bai Youwei, “We still have a third question, do you have any questions you’d like to ask?”
Shen Mo slightly frowned, “We originally wanted to ask if the Li family had any enemies, but it doesn’t seem likely that there is a motive for revenge here.”
Du Lai also nodded, “In rural villages, even if there are murders, they are mostly due to verbal disputes, done in a moment of impulse. A murder committed in the middle of the night seems like a long-plotted scheme, but if it was truly a premeditated plan, they shouldn’t have only killed Li, the wretch, and spared Mrs. Li, who was in the same bed.”
Bai Youwei looked at them and said, “If you don’t have any questions, I would like to ask, why Li Qianggui and Mrs. Li didn’t have any children.”