1324 I Only Want You 22 (1/2)
”There are not many residents in this village. I looked around and found that lots of houses have already been abandoned. Seems like humans are scarce here.”
”Didn't you hear what Madam Wang said? All the young people have already left the village. The only ones left here are children and middle-aged or old women. Lots of families have moved away too. It's definitely going to be dilapidated. The entire village feels so dead.”
”This village is really strange. Outsiders are mostly too afraid to stay here. The rumors alone are terrifying enough.”
....
By nighttime, the village grew dead silent. The empty streets were pitch black, and the only light source came from the lights in some houses. There were also the occasional sounds of dogs barking.
The rain grew heavier and louder.
The air was chilly and breezy. Due to the fact that the lights in the room were too dim, An Xiaoning shone her torch on the case files and began reading the information while seated on the bed.
She had yet to have the time to peruse the information because she had only received the files today.
The case was considered to be a terrifying mass murder.
The culprit must have been a cruel and relentless person.
Most people would not be able to bring themselves to mince the corpses up and hang the heads of the deceased on the doors of their respective houses.
Although it seemed that the victims very likely had a feud with the murderer, An Xiaoning had yet to find any clues or evidence of it and thus decided to be open to all possibilities.
All she wanted to do now was to try her best and find some clues.
If the rumors were true, the only possibility would be that the spirits of the victims were too vengeful and hence were still lingering around the village.
If that were the case, it would be easy for her to proceed. All she had to do was to find the spirits of the deceased victims.
Her only fear was that the strange deaths of the men had nothing to do with the mass murder. Things would be way trickier then.
She had to verify the presence of the spirits first.
She hoped to solve the case as soon as possible, so that she could put her mind at ease sooner.
”Boss, that fellow is calling you again!”
An Xiaoning took a look at the caller display to see that it was a call from Ma Jianguo. She immediately answered and asked, ”Hello, how did it go?”
”We've observed the landscape and discovered the large reservoir nearby. The rest are just agricultural lands. Xiaoning, I suggest that we ask around the villages secretly.”
”We'll carry that out in another few days. We've just moved here. If you question the villagers so soon, they're going to get suspicious. If our identities get exposed, we'll never hear the truth from the villagers.”
”Alright, what do we do next, then?”
”Go check on the reservoir and send me the detailed information about it. I want the details about the number of the casualties and the timings.”
”Alright.”
”On top of that, tell Zu Dong and Gong Le to head to the victim's house. Don't alarm the victim's husband yet. Start off with her maiden home. Although we've already investigated it, I still want to find out more about this case. Perhaps we'll have a breakthrough. Tell her family not to leak any details about the matter yet and that the police will announce it when the time is right.”
”Alright.”
As soon as she ended the call, she heard the sounds of a heated argument coming from outside.
An Xiaoning and Fan Shixin looked at each other, after which she got out of bed and walked toward the door while Fan Shixin stayed inside in order to avoid being seen by Madam Wang.
She opened the door to see that Madam Wang was standing by the door with an umbrella in hand.