False evidence

Chapter 250 Let her kill
Gao He clapped his hands: "We really ran into the right person!"

With an innocent look on his face, Xiao Shen San said to the old man, "You still haven't told me what's so strange about that temple!"

The old man took a puff of cigarette and a sip of liquor, smacked his lips, and said:
"Let me tell you something first. Do you know why that temple is still there? It's because three people died in the temple back then!"
Back then, they smashed all sorts of old things; several temples nearby were demolished. Those people originally went to demolish the Jiang family temple, but they'd only smashed the head of the Lü Dongbin statue in two when suddenly, out of nowhere, a whole bunch of strange insects crawled out!
Those insects are incredibly poisonous. Quite a few people were bitten, and two of the most severely bitten died before they even made it down the mountain!

We're a small place, and the troublemakers are just a tiny group of people. If someone dies, who would dare demolish anything? That would be like Lu Zu (the legendary god of war) throwing a tantrum!

Xiao Shen asked three times, "Didn't you say three people died? How come it's two now?"

The old man took another sip of wine and said, "There are three. Two of them were poisoned by insects. The third one, the person who collected the body said, died of fright. I guess he was a coward; seeing so many insects scared him to death."

Gao He, Xiao Shen, and I looked at each other, all of us imagining what that 'strange hand' would look like sticking out from behind the clay sculpture.

If someone were to suddenly witness such a scene, they might be scared to death.

The old man continued, "Let me tell you another story. Our family used to look after the Jiang family's graves. But one day, the Jiang family patriarch came to my father and said that a relative from our own clan had come to stay with them, and that it was more appropriate for family members to look after their own graves, so my father was no longer needed to look after them, and he was given other work."

Before that, the Jiang family was quite prosperous. But ever since that new Jiang took over the responsibility of tending the graves, for some reason, members of the Jiang family began to die one after another from illness. Before long, they were all gone. Oh, by the way, it seems that Master Jiang had a daughter who didn't die, but she can't be found. Everyone says she was kidnapped and sold into slavery.

Gao He asked, "How old was Mr. Jiang's daughter at that time?"

The old man thought for a moment and said, "He seems to be in his early twenties."

Gao He and I exchanged a glance, naturally because he had already figured out the true whereabouts of Master Jiang's daughter.

The old man continued, "To be honest, Lord Lü was quite humane. He was used to living with our family, so when someone else lived in the temple, he got angry and stopped protecting the Jiang family. Otherwise, how could the Jiang family have been destroyed? Alas, what a tragedy, what a tragedy."

I asked the old man, "What happened to that later grave-keeper surnamed Jiang?"

The old man said, "It seems he was scared and left. Anyway, my father never saw that person again when the Jiang family was going to have a series of deaths."

The old man recounted several more strange stories about the Jiang family's memorial archway and ancestral temple, but most of them sounded fabricated.

Back at the hotel, Gao asked me, "Is there anything else you can tell me?"

I said, "That guy surnamed Jiang who looks after the graves should be called Jiang Baohan. Uncle Cheng's house used to belong to him. Jiang Baohan is actually a grave builder. He's probably the one who built the small door in the temple and the corpses in the wall."

Gao He nodded slightly: "The Jiang family has been dying one after another, which may be related to him. But aren't they relatives? They all have the surname Jiang, so how could they have such a deep grudge?"

Xiao Shen snorted coldly: "There are some inhuman people in this world who can't stand seeing others doing better than themselves. That's why my second brother always says: 'The human heart is terrifying, more deserving of death than a ghost.'"

I said to Gao He, "I suspect Jiang Baohan has a serious mental disorder, which can be seen from the corpse. Also, Jiang Baohan was considered moderately wealthy, but twenty and a half kai was a huge sum back then, enough to make a penniless man a landlord. Where did the half kai come from?"

Gao He nodded: "I guess only Mr. Jiang has that kind of wealth."

Xiao Shen said, "To murder for money, to wipe out an entire family. This Jiang Baohan is truly ruthless."

I said, "There's another reason why he's said to be mentally disturbed. At that time, he already guessed that he was going to be reported, and if he had stayed here, he might not have been arrested. But he went back anyway..."

Thinking about the terrible things he did to Tong Jiawen after he went back, I gritted my teeth.

However, a vague question lingered in my mind.

This question seems to have always lingered around the headless statue of Lü Dongbin...

The next morning, I suggested that we go to Centipede Mountain one last time before leaving.

The ancestral temple halfway up the mountain had been sealed off by the relevant authorities. I used Gao He's identity to get inside and look at the clay sculptures up close.

The clay sculpture has been severely eroded by wind and human hands, with varying degrees of damage to different parts.

I watched for a while, gesturing and trying to recreate the original pose of the clay sculpture.

Little Shen San somehow slipped in, looked at me for a while, and suddenly laughed:
"You haven't seen many Lüzu temples, have you? It's fine if you didn't know who the deity was before. But now that you know it's Lü Dongbin, watch me..."

As he spoke, he put one hand behind his back and raised the other hand in front of him, making a hand seal, and stood up straight.

With his example, I finally understood.

I finally realized where my previous doubts came from.

And—the answer to the question…

After I got back, I asked Gao He to take me and Xiao Shen to Shuangshan Road.

After Gao He left, I had a brief conversation with someone in Xiao Shen San's shop.

This 'person' is Liang Kaiyuan.

Lying to Li Meizhi was Liang Kaiyuan's idea.

After fully recalling the past, he no longer felt hatred towards Li Meizhi, only love.

Yin and Yang are different paths, so it is wise to separate them as soon as possible.

Liang Kaiyuan thanked me for everything I did for him, including deliberately letting Li Meizhi take the stab from the drunkard for 'himself'.

That would indeed alleviate Li Meizhi's guilt to some extent.

Liang Kaiyuan apologized to me, saying that he had originally agreed to make a deal with me, but in the end he couldn't give me the 'reward'.

All I can say is that I don't care.

Liang Kaiyuan, however, said that would not do. He was a businessman and should value his reputation. He had to keep his promises.

I told him to stop overthinking it and to go wherever he needed to go.

Before Liang Kaiyuan left, he asked me a question—Will Meizhi kill me again in the next life?
I laughed and asked him in return—in your next life, if you knew she was destined to kill you, would you let her kill you, or stay far away from her, prioritizing safety?

Liang Kaiyuan thought about it seriously for a moment and said, "Let her kill him!"

……

After Liang Kaiyuan left, Xiao Shensan and I told Lu Zelin about what happened at Centipede Mountain.

Lu Zelin slapped his thigh halfway through the conversation: "Oh my god! That's a grave!"

Xiao Shen San said with dissatisfaction, "Why are you making such a fuss? Can't you just talk things out?"

Lu Zelin, however, couldn't calm down. "Let me tell you, the female corpse you dug out of the wall was actually a ghost tombstone! It's a tombstone made from a person! The family members of the person who was made into a ghost tombstone will all be cursed to death!"

(End of this chapter)