False evidence

Chapter 367 Betrothal Gift
On the screen, as the woman walked down the corridor with an eerie gait to the position closest to the camera, Lin Dan tapped the keyboard.

The image freezes, focusing on a magnified view of the woman's face.

I gasped; this couldn't possibly be a living person.

If it can be captured by a camera, it certainly can't be a ghost.

This is a dead body!
How can a corpse walk?

Gao He said, "She is Jiang Yazhen."

No sooner had he finished speaking than a cry of "Oh my god!" came from behind him.

Turning around, I saw Erpang's eyes roll back, and he fell straight backward.

I quickly helped him up and, together with the monkey, helped him into the chair.

"He's afraid of dead people!"

I just remembered that Erpang has never been afraid of anything since he was a child, except for dead people.

Because of this, he has never attended any funerals in the village, even if he rarely gets to eat at a large feast.

Monkey and I pinched his philtrum and applied some Tiger Balm. Erpang finally regained consciousness and, supported by Monkey and me, stumbled back to the car as if he were walking on cotton wool.

Gao He looked at me with a half-smile and said, "Afraid of the dead coming to the funeral? And at this hour? That's a bit unreasonable, isn't it?"

I changed the subject, saying that a dead person can't walk on their own, and wondered if Jiang Yazhen was just faking her death and had come back to life in the early hours of the morning.

According to the date on the black post, Jiang Yazhen died the day before yesterday. If she wasn't put in a freezer, that's a possibility.

"impossible!"

Zhai Yutian said with certainty, "The person died by jumping off a building. If someone jumps from the twelfth floor, their skull will be fractured. How could it be a fake death!"

Seeing Gao He looking at me with a meaningful expression, I realized I had made another mistake. To rush to the funeral only to not even know how the original owner died was truly unacceptable.

Fortunately, Gao He received a phone call at that moment. After saying a few words, he hung up and hurriedly told Lin Dan and the others to get in the car and leave.

I asked Zhai Yutian if he knew why Jiang Yazhen jumped off the building.
Even now, my mind is still a complete mess.

A so-called medical record, an address, the name of a dead person, and their birth and death dates.

They said they were dealing in the dead, but now the corpses have disappeared. Who knows what to do next?
I asked casually, thinking that Zhai Yutian was just a makeup artist and might not know much, but her reply surprised me.

Zhai Yutian put his hands in his pockets and said, "I dare not say the specific reason, but if you ask me, it's most likely because of the broken engagement."

"break off an engagement?"

Zhai Yutian nodded, then glanced around and said exaggeratedly:

"Oh no, the shuttle bus has already left!"

Seeing the sly look in her eyes, I smiled and said, "Where are you going? I'll take you."

"Go back to my grandma's. Wait a minute, I'll go get my bag!"

On the bus, we learned from Zhai Yutian that she didn't know Jiang Yazhen, but Jiang Yazhen's fiancé was from the same village as her grandmother.

Calling him her fiancé is a bit inappropriate; in fact, the two had already been preparing for their wedding before the Lunar New Year.

However, on the day of the wedding, the bride's family suddenly raised their demands, not only asking for an additional 60,000 yuan in betrothal gifts, but also insisting on a red envelope of 9,999 yuan for the wedding.

The two were separated by only a door, and they hesitated for more than two hours. In the end, the man got angry and said that he would not go through with the marriage!

"I heard all of this from my grandma. The groom was really stubborn and was really pushed to the limit. He didn't pick up the bride at the time, but drove straight to the pre-booked hotel, didn't accept any gifts, and treated all the guests to a big meal. I guess the groom was trying to back down at first, but the bride's family was quite domineering. They didn't even show up after the meal. That's how the deal fell through."

Zhai Yutian brushed his hair aside and turned to me, saying, "It's true that Jiang Yazhen's family is from the city, but their financial situation seems to be just average. They asked for a lot in dowry, I think they took around 200,000 yuan beforehand. Hey, have you talked to your girlfriend about the dowry? If you break up because of this, I'll just have to accept you. Don't worry, I don't want your dowry, and I'll even give you an apartment on Meiling Road, although that place is considered haunted now."

Erpang turned his head and said, "Miss, he and his wife are doing great. I'm still single." Zhai Yutian raised an eyebrow. "You are a bit chubby, but you're still pretty. But relationships take time to develop. How about this, our company is hiring right now, hearse drivers, crematorium workers. Oh, by the way, if you think it's suitable, come to our department. We can chat while we do the makeup for the deceased."

After saying that, Erpang had almost shrunk under the chair.

I said, "Beautiful lady, are all people in your line of work this talkative?"

"Nonsense, I can't just ramble on to a dead person. The people I usually interact with are just a few from work. It's not easy to catch a few living people. If I don't practice, I'll become a stutterer!"

Zhai Yutian suddenly raised his hand and pointed diagonally forward: "Turn right, stop in two hundred meters."

The monkey did as instructed, but after turning the corner, it got stuck in traffic not far away.

It was already around seven o'clock at night. There was no traffic jam in the village; what was blocking the road were large crowds of people.

"Hehe, I knew it would be like this."

Zhai Yutian sneered and said to me, "That restaurant along the street up ahead is owned by Jiang Yazhen's fiancé's family. Ever since Jiang Yazhen died the day before yesterday, her family has been causing trouble. Now that Jiang Yazhen's body has disappeared, won't they be making a huge scene?"

Looking at the bustling crowd ahead, Erpang rubbed his forehead vigorously. "Sanzi, why don't you call your wife and ask Master Yao for help? At least make it clear what he wants us to do."

"Didn't Grandpa tell me before we left that I should take you out for a stroll?"

The heavens were truly on our side; the rain started as soon as the words were spoken.

The crowd of onlookers dispersed in a short while, and in front of the restaurant that Zhai Yutian pointed to, there was a row of cars parked.

I let the monkey drive over, and a few of us got out of the car and walked over. We squeezed through the crowd to the eaves of the restaurant, where we saw Gao He glaring at a young couple and talking loudly.

Zhai Yujia, with one hand in her pocket and the other holding a transparent folding umbrella, stood next to me and said:
“One of them is Jiang Yazhen’s younger brother, and the other is her future sister-in-law.”

"Didn't you say you didn't know Jiang Yazhen?"

"Oh my god, ever since Jiang Yazhen was brought to our place, her family has been wailing and crying at our workplace. Just this morning, we heard that Jiang Yazhen's body was missing, and these two 'silly couple' and their group almost tore our place apart!"

Although Gao He was the captain and his words were all reasonable, the other side had the advantage of having more people and were making a lot of noise, so the situation became difficult to control for a while.

The restaurant signs and light boxes had already been smashed, and some even started smashing the door frames and entrances.

Seeing that Gao He was having some trouble handling it, I suddenly strode into the store, pulled out a plastic box of beer bottles from behind the glass door, and smashed it hard on the ground at the entrance.

Just then, thunder rumbled, and everyone present fell silent.

"Who the hell are you...?"

A young man in his early twenties with blond hair was the first to come to his senses. He had just taken a step forward when Erpang roughly grabbed his hair and threw him into the crowd of onlookers.

I walked over to Gao He and squinted at the man and woman in front of me.

The man wasn't very tall, maybe 1.7 meters at most, and looked to be in his early twenties, but he had a very arrogant appearance. He pointed at me and cursed:
"What the hell..."

"Fuck you!"

Just then, Erpang stepped forward and slapped him hard across the face. "Who do you think you are?! You think I won't kill you?!"

Erpang was already tall and strong, and the dozen or so people who had gathered around him fell silent instantly, intimidated by his imposing presence.

Seeing that the opportunity was not to be missed, I stepped forward before Gao He could speak and shouted at the young man who had just been slapped, "You are Jiang Yazhen's brother?"

The other person covered their face, stunned for a moment, then roared, "Hitting someone! The police are hitting someone..."

"Snapped!"

Another slap landed on his face, but it was Zhai Yutian who did it.

She slapped him across the face, then shouted, "I'll just ask you one question! The wedding is off, have you returned the dowry your family received?!"

(End of this chapter)