It doesn't matter if your souls are scattered, as long as you die.

Da Zhu scratched his head, looking at everyone with a bitter face, "It wasn't that I wanted the police officers to leave, it was because Uncle San almost revealed the real purpose of their search."

"Fortunately, I stopped it in time, but I said the wrong thing and was then accused by that police officer of making a false report and having to take responsibility."

"It wasn't that I was scared, it's just..."

Upon hearing this, the group's gazes fell upon the old man.

"Third Uncle, how could you tell anyone? If you do, we'll definitely be arrested."

"Yes, we can't let anyone know."

"Sigh, what should we do now?"

"What should we do? Find a time when it's not busy with farming and organize people to go into the mountains to continue the search."

"This is the only way."

The group sighed and left. Dazhu stood up and advised the old man, "Third Uncle, next time we'll organize people to search deeper inside. We're sure to find everyone."

The old man remained silent, puffing on his pipe one puff after another.

Big Pillar sighed and walked away.

The old man sat there motionless for a long time, staring blankly at the doorway.

Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of a figure out of the corner of his eye, and he was startled.

When he saw that it was someone he knew, he patted his chest, still shaken.

"Captain Zhao, you haven't left?"

Zhao Tao nodded, closed the door to the main room, and sat down on the small stool opposite the old man.

"Grandpa, I heard what you just said." Zhao Tao's tone was no longer as gentle as before, and his eyes were a little sharper.

The old man panicked and became flustered, trying his best to avoid his gaze.

Zhao Tao: "Grandpa, who are all the people you're talking about?"

The old man remained silent.

"Is Victory your grandson?"

The old man looked up, and the sadness on his face was immediately apparent.

"He went missing in the mountains?" Zhao Tao continued, coaxingly. "If you want us to help you find your grandson, tell us what happened. Otherwise, we have no reason to send officers out."

The old man opened his mouth, but then, remembering what the villagers had just said, he closed it again.

Zhao Tao continued to tempt him, "Grandpa, you live here, so you should know the dangers in these mountains. If your grandson really gets into trouble in the mountains, it's better to find him as soon as possible."

It's too late now; you never know what the situation might be.

The last sentence broke the old man's defenses, and he finally spoke.

"Captain Zhao, I'll talk, I'll talk..."

"This story begins a year ago. One night, six people came to the village and secretly took a shortcut up the mountain."

At that time, the people guarding the cowshed in our village overheard them talking about treasure as they walked, and they got the idea.

They woke up everyone in the village that very night and told them what had happened.

Afterwards, the allure of the treasure stirred up the entire village, and they gathered people to go into the mountains as well. Our initial thought was to follow along and get a share of the spoils.

Zhao Tao frowned deeply, a bad feeling rising in his heart.

"Everyone in the village is excitedly waiting for their return, imagining a prosperous life in the future."

"But no one expected that those who went out, and those who went out later, would never come back."

"Didn't you call the police at the time?"

Zhao Tao jumped up, his voice unconsciously rising. It had been a year, and he was still hiding it.

The old man was startled by the question, lowered his head to wipe away his tears, and trembled.

"It's not that we didn't call the police. Although they hadn't returned for several months, a young man from the village named Zhang Quan came back and said that the people digging for treasure had agreed to let them join in the treasure hunt."

The treasure entrance is too difficult to open, so everyone in the village should be patient and wait.

"So we waited for several months, but he still didn't come back, so we decided to send people into the mountains to search for him."

"But just then, Zhang Quan came back and said that it would take a little more time and that everyone should not be in a hurry."

As Zhao Tao listened to these words, he noticed something clearly suspicious: "Both times he came back alone?"

"Yes, I guess they sent him back because he's the youngest and runs fast, so they put everyone at ease."

Zhao Tao narrowed his eyes. "When was that kid last seen?"

"The second time I came back will be the last time."

"How long ago was that?"

"It's been almost two months."

Zhao Tao: "You went into the mountains to search?"

"They went. About ten days ago, a total of five able-bodied men went."

The old man, fearing that people might think there were too few people going into the mountains to look for someone, added another sentence.

"There's still a lot of work to be done in the fields. We're already short a dozen or so workers, and if we have even fewer, we'll never be able to finish the work."

Zhao Tao looked thoughtful, his fingers unconsciously tapping on his knees. "They didn't come back after that, right?"

"That's right. They've been gone for so many days and haven't come back, so everyone felt something was wrong, but they didn't dare to call the police directly and say that the people went missing while searching for treasure."

Zhao Tao was furious and paced back and forth in the room. "So, you only thought of calling the police now?"

"Moreover, when they called the police, they didn't want to tell the truth and tried to use the false information about an explosion in the mountains to trick us into going up the mountain."

The old man shrank back, not daring to tell the truth, after all, he was going to dig for treasure.

Zhao Tao was furious. Greed is truly harmful. What kind of simple person would go out to dig for treasure? How could they possibly let others get a share?

Silencing witnesses is the normal course of action.

Something was off from the start. Treasure hunting is a highly secretive matter. Not only would you enter the mountains from a deserted place, but you also couldn't talk about it while walking and let someone hear you.

It's clear that this was a trap from the very beginning.

Of course, it's also possible that the person guarding the cowshed was in calves with the six men.

And that messenger boy, he's definitely suspicious.

With so many flaws, how could no one in the entire village have thought of them?

"Is the man who used to guard the cowshed still in the village?"

Even if he's not there, he'll still go into the mountains with us.

"Do you know the approximate location?"

"Huh..." The old man looked up in confusion.

"Knowing the approximate location of the treasure will save us time when we search it."

Upon hearing this, the old man was overjoyed. "I know, I know, it's in the southwest direction. Those treasure hunters let it slip, which is why the villagers were confident they could catch up with the treasure hunters even though they were a little late in gathering."

Zhao Tao turned around, opened the door, and left. He needed to go back and gather more people so they could go into the mountains at dawn.

He actually had doubts about this location, feeling that it might not be real.

Furthermore, he guessed that the villagers who went into the mountains had most likely already...

He was murdered.

Yun Li, who was squatting at the foot of the mountain, seemed to be deep in thought. Could the treasure they were talking about be the one belonging to the Yun family?

Thinking about it, he shook his head again, noting that there were no signs of the entrance to the Yun family's treasure trove being smashed.

Ok?

It's also possible that there was never any breach at all, and the person who delivered the message was lying to the villagers.

Let's assume that the man guarding the cowshed wasn't lying, and that the others did indeed let something slip.

They eventually discovered they were being followed by villagers, and seeing that the villagers outnumbered them, they agreed to share the spoils.

The logic is sound, but...

She thought the same as Zhao Tao: anyone who could dig for treasure was definitely not a simple person.

Agreeing to share the spoils is probably temporary; they'll definitely find an opportunity to get rid of these people later.

When Zhang Quanneng returned later, we learned that they weren't killed off at the beginning because they needed the villagers' help.

As for what kind of help, the only thing Yun Li could think of was helping to transport the treasure down the mountain.

After all, this mountain is not a hilly area, and the terrain is quite steep, so moving the treasure down the mountain bit by bit is not an easy task.

Whether it's just speculation or not, I'll go into the mountains again tomorrow to investigate.

It's a good opportunity to see if this treasure is the Yun family's treasure. If it is, we might be able to find out who took it by following some clues.

Yun Li and Zhao Tao's analyses were almost identical, except that some things cannot be analyzed logically.