Chapter 25: Grandma's Braised Pork Belly

  I put the old lady's black and white portrait back in its frame and hung it back in its original place. Chen Qiuyang turned around the room again, but didn't find anything else suspicious. Chen Qiuyang said: "Actually, did Du Jie cut off his relationship with his father? Because if Du Jie still cared about his father, at least he would have asked someone to take care of the old man, right? But look, he's living alone in this house that's on the verge of collapse."

  "You didn't hear what Old Man Niu said? It must be that Du Jie's father refused, it seems like there are a lot of contradictions between the father and son."

  "The contradiction is not that much, it's just this one thing - the old lady's face in his stomach, this knot between them, causing their father-son relationship to be so bad. I think Du Jie must love his dad, that's why he keeps investigating him. Their situation is like this - the son wants to desperately solve this mystery and repair their relationship, while the father is desperate to keep this secret from being solved by his son. From our perspective, it's just that Du Jie's dad doesn't want to accept it." I said calmly, gazing at the mottled wall.

  "As long as this secret is solved, Du Jie can get close to his father. So let's work hard."

  The rain wasn't heavy, so we took an umbrella and left Du Jie's house. On a stormy day like this, taking an umbrella is actually not very useful, as our clothes would get soaked quickly while walking in the rain. The most difficult part was that the muddy road became even muddier, and it took a lot of effort to pull our feet out after stepping into it. In short, the three of us looked very miserable on the way back. When we returned to Du Huang Niu's house, we found that he wasn't at home either.

  "It's strange, Old Man Niu has also gone out? Du Jie's father going out isn't that strange, at least he can still walk. But on a stormy day like today, for someone with severe hunchback, traveling is extremely difficult." Kui Ruo Lan turned around the house once, confirming that Du Huang Niu was indeed not home.

  I came to Du Huangniu's room, through the dark wooden window, I saw that inside was a dull gray, very simple, except for a wooden bed and a wooden cabinet, there was nothing suspicious. This room was also filled with a rotten smell, dry, suffocating, pungent, the ground was soft mud, grain by grain, as if some animal was digging into the soil.

  Then my gaze fell on a tattered picture frame on the wall. The reason why this frame caught my attention was that I thought of the one in Du Jie's house. I gently pushed open the wooden door, which creaked as it swung open. I walked in, took down the frame from the wall and found that there was indeed a piece of drawing paper stuck inside. I flipped it over and saw a black-and-white portrait of an old lady.

  The old lady in this portrait is the same person as the one in Du Jie's family.

  I put the portrait back in its frame and hung it back in its original place, then walked out of the room. Chen Qiuyang said, "Is it the same person?"

  "Yes, this old lady's portrait and the one at Du Jie's house are of the same person."

  "It's a bit strange, why do they all have this old lady's portrait hanging in their homes. If we go to his house, it's likely that we'll find the same old lady's portrait in other people's homes too."

  "Chen Qiuyang, what you said is not strange. In rural villages, there is usually a highly respected old lady, such as the ancestor of their village, and they are the branches under that old lady. In my maternal grandmother's home, it was like this - one village had a centenarian, and many other households were branched out from her. So, every household would hang a photo of the old lady in their home to show respect and nostalgia for her."

  "I said, 'This situation is indeed very common in rural areas. But if it's the case as you said, why did Du Jie's family and Niu Ye's family hang the portrait with the back side facing outwards instead of displaying the portrait itself inside the frame?'"

  "Actually, there's a very reasonable explanation for this behavior, which is that they want to miss her but don't want others to see it."

  A sudden strong gust of wind blew in, causing the wooden door at the entrance to creak loudly, startling us. A thick smoke drifted in, irritating our noses. It seemed that a nearby neighbor had started cooking dinner, so white smoke rose from the chimney, but due to the heavy rain, the smoke struggled to rise and spread, instead being beaten down by the rainwater and spreading low along the ground.

  A thick meaty aroma wafted over, the extremely tempting flavor of braised pork, making my stomach growl with hunger. I said to Chen Qiuyang: "Yang Baozi, it's time to prepare dinner! We've all worked hard for a whole day, and we'll have the energy to continue working after eating our fill."

  Chen Qiuyang went to the kitchen to prepare dinner, but Du Huangniu was still nowhere to be seen. The police who were busy investigating the murder of Huang Duduo had not received any news yet. It wasn't until dusk that I suddenly saw two people covered in mud walking in. Both of them were soaked from head to toe, carrying a simple luggage on their backs and wearing blue raincoats which were all stained with mud.

  "Doctor Ruan, you've come too?" I was somewhat surprised.

  "This is my classmate Huang Yongfei. We rushed over here because of Huang Dudu's matter."

  Huang Yongfei's face was icy cold, no wonder his loved one had encountered such a tragic event. He remained silent and didn't say anything to us. I pulled Ruan Defeng aside and asked him if the police had any leads.

  It turned out that after Ruan Defeng received my phone call, he immediately came over with Huang Yongfei. Before they came to find me, they first went to the police station. After conducting an autopsy at the scene, it was found that the several deceased boys who had come to Xianren Cave for adventure all had a hole dug in their belly button area, and their internal organs were removed. Due to being washed by rainwater, no fingerprints were found.

  Ruan Fengdao said: "I examined that hole, it wasn't gnawed out by a wild beast, but was man-made."

  "I said: 'Could it be related to human organ trafficking? There are some dark organizations near Liulong Village, and they encountered Huang Duoduo and others who came for adventure tourism and poisoned them.'"

  "Wei Dong said, "I also thought so at first, so when I was observing their corpses, I deliberately observed some details. The broken surface of the internal organs inside is very rough, indicating that the murderer grabbed the internal organs and pulled them out with great force. If it were human organ trafficking, the murderer would not be so careless in order to keep the organs intact for a good price."

  After settling down with Ruan De Feng and Huang Yong Fei, we had dinner together. It was already nighttime, but Du Huang Niu still hadn't returned. I was a bit worried and said: "Since this afternoon, Grandpa Niu hasn't been seen again, he went out in such strong wind and rain, could something have happened to him? I think it's necessary for us to go find Village Chief Du Yi Zhi." I briefly told Ruan De Feng about the situation here, then also told him about the taboo of Liu Long Village: "They say that after nightfall, Liu Long Village becomes unsafe. Although I don't believe it either, but when in Rome do as the Romans do, so let's not go out, especially tell your classmates."

  Ruan De Feng said: "What's unsafe? I never believed in ghosts and gods."

  I said, "But this Liu Long Village is indeed a strange place, the village is filled with a sense of decay. In short, I don't know how to describe my feeling, this village makes people feel uncomfortable." I told Ruan Defeng about the row of red sharp teeth I saw that night and asked if he knew what animal's teeth they were.

  Ruan De Feng listened and simply shook his head, saying: "From your description, it seems to be some kind of animal, but actually, it's also possible that it's a person, someone wearing dentures."

  Fang suit? I heard that the wind said so, and suddenly remembered that in my junior high school days, there was a sudden trend of zombie teeth in our class. It's a row of artificial plastic teeth that can be worn inside the teeth to increase the scary effect. If you think about it this way, then that row of blood-red teeth can also be explained.

  The question is, who exactly was it that wore a row of blood-red masks and appeared outside my room, peeking at me?

  I was daydreaming when suddenly my phone rang, someone was looking for me.