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A cold breeze swept in as Li Danan opened the door. However, he stood at the threshold, seemingly lost in thought.
The village chief said, "Li Danan, if you're coming in, come in; if you're going out, go out. Why stand at the door? It's quite cold; close the door."
Only then did Li Danan snap back to reality and replied, "Right, Chief, I just remembered something."
With that, Li Danan stepped back inside.
He looked at us and said, "I recalled that on my way back, I encountered someone."
"Encountered someone?" I was intrigued by Li Danan's words and sat up straight to ask.
Li Danan sat down again and said earnestly, "While you were talking just now, I remembered that there was indeed someone walking towards me. It was around four o'clock when I was heading into the village. At that time, Old Lady Wang was heading out of the village. We passed each other about a thousand meters east of the body."
"At four o'clock?" I asked.
Li Danan nodded. "There’s a national highway to the west of the village. Next to it is a convenience store where things are relatively cheap and varied. So every time I prefer to walk a bit further to buy things there. When I was coming back, Old Lady Wang happened to be going there to shop as well."
A light bulb went off in my head. If what Li Danan said was true, then based on the timing, Old Lady Wang might have seen the murderer. While she might not have witnessed the act of disposing of the body, she could have at least seen the murderer or their footprints left behind.
This lead was groundbreaking; if we could gather some information from Old Lady Wang, it would greatly aid our investigation. With this thought in mind, I quickly turned to the Old Village Chief and said, "Where does Old Lady Wang live? If possible, I think we should meet her."
As soon as I spoke, I noticed both Li Danan and the village chief frowning slightly, as if I had suggested something impractical.
I looked at them both and shrugged, confused about what was happening.
"Why her?" The Old Village Chief began to tidy up the tea set. "Anyone else would be fine; why does it have to be Old Lady Wang? This really feels like fate playing tricks on us; Old Lady Wang is not easy to deal with."
The Old Village Chief muttered under his breath, his tone indicating that this matter would be difficult.
I couldn't help but ask, "What's wrong? Is there an issue?"
The Old Village Chief sighed and replied, "Of all people who could have gone shopping at that time, why did it have to be Old Lady Wang? To be honest with you, in our Tou Gou Zi Village, almost everyone is disabled. The Old Lady Wang that Li Danan mentioned refers specifically to a deaf-mute elderly woman named Wang Meizhi."
"And then?" Guan Zengbin asked at that moment.
The Old Village Chief looked at Guan Zengbin and said, "Everyone knows the saying about the deaf and mute. When Old Lady Wang was three years old, her parents divorced, and the court awarded custody to her father, who had the financial means to support her. But her father was truly a terrible person; he took out his anger towards his wife on this child, subjecting her to domestic violence year after year."
Upon hearing this, I sighed inwardly. Every time I reached this part of the story, I knew it would often lead to a tragic ending.
The Old Village Chief slowly recounted Old Lady Wang's story: "Her father began abusing Wang Meizhi when she was just three years old. As a three-year-old child, all she could do was cry; she had no other way to cope. This continued until Wang Meizhi turned six, by which time her hearing had already begun to deteriorate."
"To be so cruel to one's own daughter is truly inhumane," Gu Chen gritted his teeth.
"Who isn't?" The Old Village Chief continued, "Wang Meizhi was subjected to long-term abuse, which made her withdrawn and timid. She never spoke up or communicated with others at school and didn't dare tell her teachers about what was happening. Others thought she was just shy, but in reality, by the end, she could hardly hear anything at all."
Guan Zengbin listened with a face full of sympathy and pain. "Wasn't there anyone who noticed something was wrong? Didn't anyone realize this child was different?"
The Old Village Chief shook his head. "It wasn't like our time back then; kindergartens didn't care for children in every aspect. The kindergarten at that time was merely a place to store kids; as long as nothing major happened, the children could do whatever they wanted, and the teachers were indifferent."
Hearing this, Guan Zengbin shook his head and sighed softly, "How tragic."
The Old Village Chief moved his neck and gave a bitter smile. "Well, this child endured three years of abuse, and it must have shown on her face that she had been mistreated. But I guess the teachers adopted an attitude of 'better not to get involved,' so for three years, no one bothered to investigate the matter thoroughly."
"For three years, Wang Meizhi not only couldn't hear anything but also didn't communicate with others," the Old Village Chief looked out at the white snow and continued, "Then when she turned seven and was supposed to start school, they conducted free health checks for students in their city. It was then that the doctors discovered Wang Meizhi's injuries."
"Such a beast," the Old Village Chief said angrily. "The injuries were so shocking that even the doctors were taken aback; they couldn't understand how this child had endured it all. They asked her questions from every angle, but she simply wouldn't speak. One doctor sensed something was wrong and checked her hearing."
Sighing again, the Old Village Chief continued, "After their examination, they found that Wang Meizhi's eardrums were ruptured and her ossicles broken; this girl couldn't hear anything at all. Wang Meizhi had actually learned to speak when she was three and had no issues communicating before."
The Old Village Chief sighed once more. "But after three years of minimal communication with others and deteriorating hearing, her language skills gradually regressed. By the time the doctors discovered her condition, she had completely forgotten how to speak."
"What happened next?" Guan Zengbin asked.
"Later on," the Old Village Chief replied, "due to the domestic violence, Wang Meizhi was awarded to her mother. But truthfully, her mother wasn't much better than her father. At that time, Wang Meizhi's mother had already remarried and had a two-year-old baby."
The Old Village Chief continued: "Her mother had a new family now; three years ago she cherished Wang Meizhi dearly, but three years later there was a replacement. Moreover, after enduring abuse from her father, Wang Meizhi had grown thin and covered in scars—she looked quite pitiful. Her new family couldn't integrate this deaf-mute girl into their lives."
"And then," the Old Village Chief said while shaking his head repeatedly with a mix of anger and sympathy on his face, "her mother knew that Wang Meizhi had become both deaf and mute and couldn't go out at all. So that afternoon, under the pretense of taking her out for fun, her mother abandoned her in Yumu City and left by bus."
Guan Zengbin's eyes brimmed with tears. "If one cannot fulfill their responsibilities as a parent, they shouldn't have children!"
The Old Village Chief rubbed his eyes and said, "Who isn't? When Wang Meizhi got off the carousel, her mother was already gone. She waited in the amusement park all night, but her mother would never return. At six years old, Wang Meizhi cried until she had no tears left. She had done nothing wrong; she was born to suffer."
Hearing the Old Village Chief's words stirred a pang of sorrow within me, like a bottle of aged vinegar spilled in my heart, making me want to cry. We would never know what it was like that night when Wang Meizhi stood alone beside the carousel, waiting in a daze for an entire night. We also wouldn't know what thoughts crossed her mind during that time.
This world is strange; some people are born into smooth sailing, living lives of luxury and enjoyment. Yet others seem to be born for atonement, enduring the torments of life and tasting all its pains.
The Old Village Chief continued slowly, "Back then, management wasn't as strict as it is now, and no one cared about Wang Meizhi's situation. However, there were still kind-hearted people in this world. One afternoon, an elderly man noticed Wang Meizhi standing quietly under the carousel."
"That old man was from Yumu City, Tou Gou Zi Village," the Old Village Chief recalled. "At that time, I was just a kid in Tou Gou Zi Village myself. The old man took Wang Meizhi back to the village and raised her as if she were his own granddaughter."
As he thought of this, the Old Village Chief smiled again. "Under the old man's care, Wang Meizhi's wounds healed quite well. She blossomed into a beautiful young lady. With the old man's attention, she gradually began to speak a little."
"But," the Old Village Chief's gaze dimmed, "the old man was already very old at that time. When Wang Meizhi was around fourteen or fifteen years old, he passed away. After his death, Wang Meizhi continued to live in the village. She earned money by making handicrafts and embroidering bed linens and covers for others."
The Old Village Chief said, "After the old man died, Wang Meizhi never spoke another word. Others tried to encourage her to talk, but it was all in vain. After turning eighteen, she had several relatives who wanted to help her, but Wang Meizhi refused them all. And so she lived her life alone; from the age of fourteen onward, she became known as Old Lady Wang and lived alone for over fifty years. Now, communicating with her has become even more difficult."
This is a story that brings tears to both men and women; Guan Zengbin had already secretly wiped away his tears.
The Old Village Chief continued, "Wang Meizhi is not her original name; since the elderly man who raised her had the surname Wang, she was named Wang Meizhi. I heard all this from the elders in the village; it's been a long time since then. Now those kids from back then have become old men themselves; not many people remember these stories."
"In others' eyes," the Old Village Chief lowered his head and spoke slowly, "Old Lady Wang might just seem like a deaf-mute and reclusive old woman. They have never seen fourteen-year-old Wang Meizhi; she was truly beautiful at that age..."
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