Chapter Thirty-Five: Past Events (Part One)

  A warm, moist sensation caressed Yan Feng's face, making him feel itchy and momentarily think he was at home. But the pain that followed brought him back to his senses.

  As soon as I opened my eyes, the first thing that caught my attention was a black dog. Its fur was smooth like silk, without a single stray hair. There was a knife wound on its back, which was the same one from last night. However, today its eyes were pure and loyal, with a hint of gratitude, clearly having regained its true nature as a dog.

  In the daytime, this was still a puppy that had only been born for a few months. Yan Feng couldn't help but stroke its head and say softly: "Don't worry, I'll avenge you for that damned human who used you to cast demonic magic."

  At this point, his dazed brain suddenly regained its composure and he sat up with a thud.

  He remembered the whole thing from last night, he almost caught the cheese, but the person he had been trying to protect all along hit him hard with a stone and rescued the key suspect. Why did she do that? It seemed like they were on opposite sides, the cheese had even harmed her before, so why would she betray him at the most critical moment and rescue an enemy?

  And he also has someone to protect, where did she go?

  "Linglong!" He jumped up and ran to the small cottage in a daze, only to see a pair of muddy footprints on the ground, while Linglong was nowhere to be seen.

  He cried out in his heart that something was wrong, and hurriedly ran to the village. The rural households got up early, now although the sky was just bright, there were already people moving around in the village, seeing Yanfeng's appearance scared them.

  "Village chief! Village chief!" He gestured, wanting to find the village chief.

  "I can understand Mandarin." A young girl said, seeing Yan Feng's anxious look, she took him to the village chief's house.

  "Linglong - my wife, is lost, I must find her!" He stopped a villager who was about to clean the wound on his head and said to the village chief.

  The village chief seemed like an old man who had never left the mountain in his life and didn't understand Mandarin, so the young girl translated for her.

  "The village head asked what was going on?"

  This remark left Yan Feng stunned. He didn't know how to explain it, but Ling'er's disappearance had set his heart ablaze, and he was determined to rescue her no matter what!

  "This matter is related to the disappearance case in your village twenty years ago, and also related to the disappearance case ten years ago. Tell me the truth. I can rescue... my wife."

  The young girl was shocked by the words, and stuttered to translate them to the village chief. The village chief's face changed instantly, and he stood up abruptly, pointing at the gate and saying something to Yanfeng. No translation was needed; Yanfeng also knew that he was being ordered to leave. But he couldn't walk away.

  "Let me be straightforward, I am a police officer and I came here to investigate the case. I can tell you very clearly that the disappearance of all men in the village twenty years ago and the disappearance of students ten years ago were not caused by mountain gods or evil spirits, but were man-made, done by bad people. As long as you tell me the truth, I guarantee that I will be able to find the real culprit."

  Yan Feng explained sincerely, but the village chief didn't listen at all and continued to shout at him to leave quickly. He was driven into the courtyard. Yan Feng refused to leave and stood in the courtyard trying his best to persuade the old man. For a while, the dispute between the two attracted all the women in the village who gathered outside the courtyard of the village chief's house.

  "Don't you understand? If this is done by humans, and you guard here like this, the souls of the men won't be able to rest in peace because they were wronged. Don't you want the evil ones to pay for their crimes?" Yanzhong knew these women were extremely superstitious, so he used a superstitious tone to persuade them: "This isn't done by the mountain god, but you're framing it on him. Do you think he'll be angry? You say it's the mountain god who did it, what evidence do you have? Being afraid is useless, what's important is finding out the truth. That bad person took away your men, sons, brothers, and fathers, are you going to let him get away with it?"

  These words made the women silent, because Yan Feng was right, or some of them had doubted it before, but no one dared to think about it, nor did they dare to investigate.

  "Are you a policeman?" a woman asked.

  "Yes."

  "Is Linglong your wife?" another woman asked.

  "Yan Feng lied again, but in his heart he really hoped it was true."

  "The village headman asked, 'Why are you taking this matter so seriously?'" said the young girl.

  "Because one of the four students who went missing ten years ago was my ex-girlfriend, and now they've taken away my wife too, so I must find them. " Yanfeng walked up to the village chief's side, grasped the old man's hand, "I promise you, I will bring justice back to the men in this village, and all you have to do is tell me one thing that happened in the past."

  The village head hesitated, and Yanzhuang tensely stared at her. After a moment of difficulty, she said something and then turned back into the house.

  Yan Feng glanced at the young girl. "The village chief said that she would ask the ancestors, you first bandage your wound, and then she will make a decision."

  The swallow wind was urgent, but could only agree to return to where he stayed yesterday to treat his wound. After simply bandaging it, the big sister came in and said, "The village head asked me to tell you that thing."

  "Thank you, please speak." Yanzhong's heart was delighted, and he asked his sister-in-law to sit down.

  "This thing started twenty years ago, the man in my family also disappeared that night." The elder sister said straightforwardly, her eyes reddening, "That year the weather was not good, a Taoist nun said that a mountain temple should be built on the mountain. So, after the autumn harvest, all the laborers in the village went up the mountain to work, and then something terrible happened..."

  "Our village is divided into two sections by a mountain, which is steep on top and only accessible for hunting or gathering herbs. The bottom of the mountain is relatively flat, where we cultivate crops and build our village at the foot of the mountain. On the middle slope, there's a large open space with good sunlight, perfect for building a temple. Moreover, the surrounding area has plenty of wood that can be easily cut down, making it very convenient. However, due to the difficulty in traveling up and down the mountain, the men who built the temple were divided into shifts and took turns living on the middle slope to avoid trouble on the road and delays in their work.

  Now, if you go back to look, the Mountain God Temple has been demolished because of that terrifying incident that happened back then. The villagers all thought that the temple was particularly unlucky. Later, a Taoist nun said that we not only failed to show respect to the mountain god but also provoked the passing immortal by disturbing the earth's energy, which led to our misfortune.

  At the time, we were completely unaware of this. That night, there were eleven strong laborers on duty, and none of them returned... Because I and the sister from next door were arranged to deliver food the next morning, we witnessed the tragic scene with our own eyes... My family's... my family's member, and the sister's husband from next door were both on the mountain that night."

  "Is everyone divided into classes in rotation, with eleven people in each class?" asked Yanfeng.

  The elder sister thought for a moment, "It's not absolute, it depends on the situation at that time. Those few days were very cold in the mountains, and the people on duty were relatively few, all of whom were the strongest men in the village. If it weren't for this, even more people would have died, usually there are about twenty or so people on the mountain. However, the village head - that is, the current village head's husband - sent ten people to go. But later, Old Chui's son Chui Meng insisted on going up with them, so the village head agreed."

  Lao Cui's home?

  "Yes." The elder sister nodded, "To say that Old Cui wasn't originally from our village, he was from elsewhere. That year, there was a disaster in the south and many people came out to flee. However, our place is a poor mountainous area, and we didn't see many people. But on that day, it just so happened to be market day, and our villagers, big and small, all got together and drove their horse-drawn carriages into town. As a result, at the mountain pass, we saw a man who had fainted from hunger by the side of the road. At the time, we thought he was dead and couldn't bear to let him lie exposed in the wilderness, so we went back to call the village elder, planning to bury him. Who would have thought that when we got out of the carriage to take a look, he still had breath, and in his arms, he was holding a child who had just been born a few days ago? The adults were one thing, but the child was so hungry its face was blue, and it looked like its life was in danger. In this situation, how could we not rescue them? We didn't have the heart to go to market anymore, so we lifted up the man and child and brought them back to the village, feeding them hot soup and water, barely saving their lives. The man was Old Cui, and after he woke up, the village elder asked him where he came from. He said he was a person from the south, that his land hadn't yielded any crops, and he had been so hungry he couldn't bear it. His wife had just given birth to a son and then died, and he had wanted to bring the child north to see if there were any opportunities for work. He hadn't expected to almost die on the road. After finishing speaking, he knelt down on the ground and begged the village elder, saying that our whole village was good people, and that it was fate that they had met, asking the village elder to take them in. He also said that he didn't need any land to farm, that he had a skill and could support himself and his son. It's just that he didn't want to go back to his hometown, he just wanted to find a place to live. The big man spoke while crying, the child cried too, it was heart-wrenching to see. Everyone discussed it together and felt that even if he couldn't support himself, having two more people in the village wouldn't make us poor, why should we cut off their path in life? So they agreed."