Madmen don't keep diaries

Chapter 361 The Story of Zheng Ajuan
After wandering through the streets and alleys for a while, and taking several detours, Feng Xiuhu no longer knew exactly where they were in the county town.

They finally stopped in front of a simple house.

The woman said, "This is it, come in quickly."

Feng Xiuhu, being cautious, asked warily, "Is there anyone else in the house?"

"There's no one here anymore."

The woman urged, "Let's go inside first and talk about it later."

Shunzi walked to the door to check and found it was locked. Just as he was about to kick the door, the woman stopped him: "Don't make a noise! ​​Be careful not to wake up the neighbors—there's a dog hole at the base of the wall, blocked by a haystack. Go in through there."

Feng Xiuhu flashed forward, grasped the copper lock, and activated his magic power. In less than two seconds, the copper lock shattered into pieces.

Feng Xiuhu pushed open the door and entered, greeting Shunzi: "Come in."

After Shunzi carried the woman into the courtyard, Feng Xiuhu turned around, closed the door, and then bolted it shut.

"Don't go inside, go to the thatched hut over there."

The woman instructed Shunzi: "Kick away the dry grass on the ground of the shed, and you will see a wooden door. Below it is a cellar—we need to hide inside."

Feng Xiuhu went over to help, and in a few quick movements, he parted the dry grass and found the entrance.

He lifted the wooden plank, gesturing for Shunzi to take the woman down first, while he brought up the rear. He casually gathered some dry grass, then climbed in and closed the plank again.

……

click.

In the darkness, Feng Xiuhu lit a lighter.

He noticed that Shunzi had already put the woman on the ground, so he turned to observe his surroundings.

The space was larger than I had imagined. A faint smell, a mixture of musty odor and some kind of woody aroma, filled the air. There was a table and a stool on the wall, with a kerosene lamp with a glass shade on the table. In the corner, there was a pile of bamboo utensils whose original forms were no longer recognizable.

Feng Xiuhu walked over and lit the kerosene lamp, already having some deductions in his mind: "This isn't your house, but you seem very familiar with it... so it's most likely the house of one of your relatives?"

Looking back, the woman was already kneeling, her forehead and palms pressed firmly to the ground: "Replying to Second Master, my name is Zheng Ajuan."

She must have heard the title "Second Master" from the police station before.

Zheng Ajuan continued to explain: "This place is actually my aunt's old house. Her family used to be in the raw silk business. The pile of bamboo utensils that Second Master saw were bamboo rafts used to store raw silk in the cellar."

Feng Xiuhu asked curiously, "Then why is it no longer in use? Is your aunt getting old and retired?"

"Old?"

Zheng Ajuan raised her head in confusion: "Second Master, have you misheard? My aunt and I are sisters-in-law, and she is my husband's first wife. How could she be older?"

Feng Xiuhu suddenly realized that he had misunderstood—this aunt was not that aunt; the aunt Zheng Ajuan was referring to was the wife of her husband's younger brother.

Feng Xiuhu gestured with his chin at her: "It's nothing, go on, what happened to your aunt?"

"She's dead."

Zheng Ajuan replied, "My aunt was short-lived and died in the great epidemic several years ago. My uncle missed his wife so much that he did not sell this old house and kept it until now, only coming over every month to clean it."

Feng Xiuhu nodded slightly. He had noticed it when he entered; there was only a thin layer of dust on the door, which certainly didn't look like it had been abandoned for a long time. This proved that Zheng Ajuan wasn't lying.

Feng Xiuhu looked into her eyes: "So it's safe here—at least for now."

Zheng Ajuan kowtowed again: "I have no way to repay your life-saving grace. I have nothing to offer but to kowtow to you a few more times. I beg you to send me out of the city tomorrow so that I can reunite with my husband at home."

Feng Xiuhu sat down in the chair, leaned over to the kerosene lamp, and lit a cigarette.

He crossed his legs, exhaled a plume of smoke, and said leisurely, "We'll talk about tomorrow's problems tomorrow. Now that we have time, tell me what the police want to pry out of you."

After rescuing Zheng Ajuan, Feng Xiuhu had this question in his mind.

The police were only after money. If Zheng Ajuan really had money, it would have been taken long ago. She wasn't particularly attractive, and her disheveled appearance even made her look somewhat ugly. Therefore, the police's humiliation of her seemed rather unreasonable.

So there is only one truth.

This is part of the torture.

The question is, what can you get out of this seemingly ordinary woman?

This topic seemed to touch on Zheng Ajuan's painful memories, and she immediately burst into tears, saying in a sobbing voice, "Since you want to know, Second Master, I will tell you everything I know."

"I was originally a local from Jiangluoxi. Later, I married into Qingfang Town and became engaged to my husband. Since then, I have been in charge of the dyeing business."

“My uncle also worked in the workshop, transporting dyes between Qingfang Town and Jiangluoxi all year round. He got to know my aunt and later married her.”

"After my aunt passed away, my uncle never remarried. He became much more taciturn and disliked interacting with others, but he never gave up his work in the workshop."

"Half a month ago, my uncle and several other workers transported dye to Jiangluoxi, but when they returned four days later, they only saw the workers and not my uncle."

“After my husband inquired, he learned that on the evening they left, just as they were about to set up camp for the night, my uncle suddenly realized that he had forgotten to bring the key to my aunt’s old house. So he told the servants that he would go back to Qingfang Town that night to get it and catch up with them the next day.”

"But little did I expect that they would never return."

Zheng Ajuan's clothes were soaked with tears. She wiped her tears with her tattered sleeve: "My uncle has disappeared. My husband and I led the workers in the workshop to search along the way, but we still couldn't find him. At first, we suspected that he was carried off by jackals or tigers—but if it were a wild animal, wouldn't it leave bloodstains and footprints?"

"With my uncle's fate unknown, we dared not delay any longer and rushed to Jiangluo Creek to report the case, but unexpectedly—"

At this point, Zheng Ajuan gritted her teeth: "When my husband was assisting the police, Ma Sihai happened to walk by. I clearly saw him playing with a jade pendant in his hand—that jade pendant was my aunt's keepsake. My husband always wore it with a red string on it and never took it off. I could never mistake it!"

"I knew this was no small matter, so I kept quiet until my husband and I left the police station before I told them what I had discovered."

"How could we not know the police's character? If we hadn't been desperate and had nowhere else to turn, we wouldn't have asked them to investigate the case—and that shameless policeman actually said that my uncle had been attacked by bandits and that there was no way to investigate!"

"But since we discovered that this matter was related to Ma Sihai, my husband and I stopped showing up at the police station and instead secretly followed Ma Sihai to see if we could find any clues from him."

"As it turned out, we actually witnessed the police station's despicable behavior."

Zheng Ajuan looked up at Feng Xiuhu, her face pale: "They ambush people on the roads of the surrounding towns and villages, targeting lone travelers at night to rob and kill them. They first steal their money, then put the bodies into dye vats, and finally..."

"...was transported into the Caiyi Temple."

PS: In Chapter 359, Ma Sihai personally stated that there were no bandits around Jiangluo Creek. Still, three updates.

(End of this chapter)