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墨書 Inktalez
The sound at that moment was loud and carried far, and I silently cursed my luck. Just then, Gu Chen hurriedly pulled me down. The three of us hid behind a few trees and slowly began to retreat. Although we had no idea what Wu Xiufen was up to, we knew we could not let her discover us.
After retreating for more than ten meters, we finally stopped.
Guan Zengbin cautiously looked around and then said slowly, "What is that old lady doing here? Moreover, her act of crawling on her knees is quite terrifying."
I nodded, still feeling my heart racing. After taking a moment to calm down, I spoke, "There must be a reason for such behavior. She crawled all the way to the gravestone, so her actions must be related to the person on that gravestone. That gravestone should belong to her late husband, Zhang Qiang."
"Zhang Qiang?" Gu Chen glanced outside and then said, "But this kind of behavior seems like she is trying to atone for something done to Zhang Qiang. Otherwise, why would a loving wife kneel and burn paper for her deceased husband? And she’s burning black paper."
I furrowed my brow and replied slowly, "I wonder what kind of custom this is. I’ll have Mary look it up later. There must be some significance to it. I've only heard of burning yellow paper for offerings, but I've never heard of burning black paper."
"How about this," I nudged Gu Chen with my hand and said, "You go back and check if Wu Xiufen is still by the gravestone."
Gu Chen nodded and stood up to take a look. Earlier, the burning black paper had provided some light that allowed us to see our surroundings dimly. But now, it was pitch dark. Only a few faint stars illuminated anything; otherwise, we would truly be blind in the darkness.
At that moment, the distant flickering of the burning black paper had already extinguished.
Gu Chen turned to us and said, "I'll go take a look. You two stay put; it's too dark here. If you wander off, it will be hard to find you."
We nodded as we watched Gu Chen slowly move forward. He leaned slightly forward as he walked silently but quickly.
Meanwhile, Guan Zengbin sat down beside me, quietly waiting for Gu Chen to return.
I turned to Guan Zengbin and pondered for a moment before asking, "The purpose of our Special Operations Group is to track down Zhao Mingkun and her accomplices. But have you ever thought about what it would be like if we could never find her?"
Guan Zengbin looked back at me, remaining silent for a moment before responding, "I don't know. All I know is that we must keep fighting to stay alive. You might know a bit about Zhao Mingkun, but perhaps not enough. She has committed too many crimes, each one more brutal than the last."
The image of Zhao Mingkun that Guan Zengbin described overlapped with my own memories of her, yet I felt it wasn't entirely the same person I had in mind. Perhaps when she was with me, Zhao Mingkun had never shown her cruel side, even though she often referred to herself as ruthless.
I rubbed my eyes and said, "Wasn't it her adoptive father, Shi Huacheng, who made her do these things? Besides, Shi Huacheng is the mastermind behind so many cases. He used to be a police officer; it's much harder to catch a criminal who was once part of the law enforcement."
"Exactly," Guan Zengbin replied. "That's why Captain Shao looks down on his mentor, Shi Huacheng. He forgot his identity; he should have used his skills to protect others, but instead, he used what he learned to harm people."
"Wasn't it to save his daughter?" I looked at Guan Zengbin.
"That's true," Guan Zengbin said. "But that's no excuse. Wu Meng and Yang Juan are very important people in my life; they taught me many things. I wanted to become a forensic expert because of their influence. When I saw Zhao Mingkun in Linfen, you know what? I wanted nothing more than to snatch the gun from her hand and kill her."
"But I couldn't do that because we were still entangled in another case." Guan Zengbin's voice was soft, yet his tone was resolute. "So I held back, resisting the urge to kill her many times. We've already let her go once; I don't know if we'll find her again, but you'll help me catch her, right?"
With that, Guan Zengbin looked at me.
I returned his gaze but felt a tumult of emotions rising within me. At that moment, I could easily promise Guan Zengbin anything to ease his mind. Yet I couldn't bring myself to do so because his words came from the heart, and I didn't want to brush him off. But refusing him would surely reveal something off about my emotions.
For some reason, I wasn't very eager to capture Zhao Mingkun. At least after meeting her, I had never seen Zhao Mingkun kill anyone.
"I—"
Before I could respond, Gu Chen's voice interrupted: "Come here; there's no sign of Wu Xiufen. The inscription on the tombstone reads Zhang Qiang."
Listening to the sound, we turned our heads and saw Gu Chen waving at us from a short distance away. I pulled Guan Zengbin up and headed towards Gu Chen. Once we joined him, we walked together toward the gravestone. Along the way, I could still smell the scent of burning paper, but with the heavy humidity of the night in the mountains, there was no need to worry about sparks igniting a wildfire.
We finally reached the edge of the gravestone, allowing us to examine it closely. The gravestone was built on a protruding hillside, and from this spot, we could see far into the distance. Not far away was Xingdong Village, but now, all the households in Xingdong Village had turned off their lights and were asleep.
With a few stars providing light, I leaned closer to the gravestone to read the inscription. This was indeed Zhang Qiang's gravestone. However, we did not see a burial mound; perhaps it had been eroded and worn down by wind and rain over the decades. I ran my hand over the gravestone and felt its rough texture; it had clearly been there for a long time.
Gu Chen spoke up, "Could it be that Zhang Qiang didn't actually die of lung disease, but rather because of this..."
Although Gu Chen did not finish his sentence, we all understood what he meant. Gu Chen suspected that Zhang Qiang might have been harmed by Wu Xiufen to some extent, which is why she knelt before the gravestone while burning paper. However, this incident had occurred over thirty years ago, making it difficult to investigate now.
"Thirty years without interruption," I said slowly. "This is just a guess. You have been burning paper for thirty years; is it out of Wu Xiufen's fear or genuine longing for Zhang Qiang? After all, they seemed to have barely met back then; otherwise, how come no one in the village knows where Wu Xiufen came from?"
Gu Chen patted the gravestone and said, "If that's the case, think about it: did Wu Xiufen marry her husband because she knew he wouldn't live long? But later on, Zhang Qiang lived for several more years. So did Wu Xiufen want to kill him? But what sense does that make? Why would she do such a thing?"
Guan Zengbin shook his head and was about to speak when we suddenly heard a loud "crack."
The sound was particularly pronounced in the stillness of the night, as if it had exploded right next to us. Startled by this noise, Guan Zengbin screamed. Her scream echoed in my ears like an explosion, causing my heart to leap into my throat.
Guan Zengbin immediately jumped into my arms; I could feel her trembling body. Indeed, in such an unguarded moment, that sound was quite terrifying. The fear stemmed from how close it felt as if something had erupted right beside us—this was truly perplexing.
What could possibly produce such a loud noise nearby?
I gently patted Guan Zengbin's back to help her calm down.
Just as I was about to speak, I felt something tap me on the head from behind. I could tell it was a person's hand. With Gu Chen in front of me and Guan Zengbin in my arms, who could be behind me?
A hand quickly patted my head, followed by another. I could feel that this person's hand was reversed. If we were to pat someone's head, the fingers would be on top and the palm underneath. But this person had their palm on top and fingers below.
It felt as if they were reaching to touch the back of a child's head.
This clearly indicated that this person must be much taller than me. If they could reach my head in such a manner, then my head would only be at their waist level. That meant the person behind me must be three meters tall.
In an instant, my mind raced with thoughts of ghosts and monsters, and I recalled the village chief's imposing figure. A chill ran down my spine, and I froze in place, too afraid to turn around. I feared that if I looked back, I would see a towering figure over three meters tall gazing down at me with a strange smile.
The hand continued to pat me, showing no signs of stopping.
I instinctively clung tightly to Guan Zengbin, trembling alongside her. As I held her tightly, I could feel her chest rising and falling and caught a whiff of her scent. At that moment, Guan Zengbin had also regained her composure from the fear.
As I tightened my grip, I sensed Guan Zengbin trying to break free from my embrace.
She gently said, "Wu Meng, why are you holding on so tightly?"
"Don't look behind me; it feels like something is there," I replied.
But at that moment, Guan Zengbin still turned to look behind me.
"Wu... Wu Meng..."
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