"Pfft..." Ye Zi’an started laughing upon hearing this, "You guessed right, Old Master is straight-forward, just has bad luck, getting fooled by a family of women. Now, hearing about the affairs of Ms.Lv from Hua Family, I guess he’s going to beat her to a pulp once he goes back. Old Master doesn’t consider sparing lives when his temper flares up."
"Hehe, my thoughts exactly, you should have seen him in the Yang Family’s house, Old Master was already losing his temper." Yang Chuxia laughed. "On another note, Brother An, I promised to treat everyone to dinner tonight. I reckon the vegetables we bought might not be enough, you might have to accompany me to buy some more."
After a while, Ms. Wang brought back the tub containing the meal, Yang Chuxia spoke to Ms. Wang, then went to the town with Ye Zi’an again, thinking that the younger ones who would be dining tonight could eat a lot and considering that they had ice at home, they bought a large amount of pork. Thinking it could last for a while, it saves them the hassle of frequent purchases.
They also bought a lot of chicken, duck, and fish to bring back. Since the last time she saw an unexplained red figure, she had never visited that evil river again. Now, any fish they ate at home were bought from the town.
When she came, she didn’t drive the ox cart from Land Officer Yang’s house. This time, since they had bought so much, they hired a horse carriage for the trip back.
On the way, they ran into Constable Hong, whom they hadn’t seen for quite some time.
"Constable Hong, Constable Hong!" Yang Chuxia waved her arm from the carriage.
Constable Hong, who was riding his horse past, heard this and turned his head, seeing that it was Yang Chuxia, he stopped.
Yang Chuxia and Ye Zi’an got off the carriage, "Constable Hong, where are you off to?"
Constable Hong got off his horse and didn’t hide it from her, saying, "Originally, I was chasing someone, but lost the trail. I’m planning to go home now, haven’t been home for a few days, I guess your Auntie Hong must be worried."
"Isn’t that worrisome? Just today I visited Auntie Hong and she did mention you."
"Oh, did you have something urgent to discuss when you came looking for me today? Last time you came I wasn’t at home. These past few days, I’ve been terribly busy due to the case of the missing girls in the town."
Seeing the worn-out expression on Constable Hong’s face, Yang Chuxia figured he must have been really busy.
Thinking about Auntie Caixia’s situation, she said, "Uncle, I heard that you were investigating a case of missing persons. Coincidently, in recent times, two girls from our village have also gone missing. I was wondering if there were any leads? Those two missing girls from the same family, it’s truly quite dreadful."
"I suppose you’re referring to the girls from Yang Jinshui’s family. Today is really an unlucky day." Constable Hong seemed quite vexed discussing the subject. After investigating for several days, he finally encountered a suspect involved in the kidnapping of girls, and was close to catching him until the man was suddenly killed by an arrow. He began chasing the direction the arrow had come from, almost catching up, but then a group appeared out of nowhere and the person got away.
"I could have gotten some new clues today if I had captured that person." Constable Hong sighed and said, "This case has attracted attention from higher-ups who are pressuring for a fast resolution. But as of now, there’s no clear direction and it’s giving me a headache."
It wasn’t that he had absolutely no leads at all, but every time he was close to a breakthrough, the clues became sparse.
"Uncle, with so many girls missing from our town, is there any place where there’s an unusual increase in girls?" Yang Chuxia pondered before speaking, "What exactly can these people do with the girls they are abducting? There are only two places that need girls. One is the brothel, the other is the diving women."