Chapter 22: Change in Weather, X Launches a Sneak Attack

  What's Du Jie's father's secret after all? I remembered a sentence that Du Jie said alone to me:

  "Back then, every time I mentioned the face in my stomach, my father would get furious. I even suspected if he had joined some organization. After graduating from university, I didn't want to go back to my hometown. Liulong Village only gave me endless fear and oppression. Later on, when my business got bigger, I invited him to live in the city, but unexpectedly, he ran away after staying for a week. The fuse was lit that night at dinner when I mentioned my anorexia again, because of the old lady's face in my stomach. At that time, I wasn't afraid of him anymore; he didn't have any place where I would be scared of him. He got furious and wanted to pounce on me, but was pulled away by my bodyguard. Later on, he started getting Alzheimer's disease, but I didn't believe him; I always suspected that he was faking it. After that, he went back to Liulong Village. I thought about it seriously afterwards, and the secret my father hid was this old lady's face. There must be some deep-seated secrets."

  Tomorrow, after dawn, I must get close to Du Jie's father. This night was uneventful, but in the midst of a long dream, I somehow dreamed again that I was flying across the vast sky, a dark cloud drifted over, and in the clouds, a giant pink baby lay on its side, revealing half of its face.

  The next day, after eating the breakfast prepared by Chen Qiuyang, I said to Chen Qiuyang and Kui Rulan: "The villagers already know that our purpose in coming to Liu Long Village is to investigate Du Jie's father. So we don't need to hide it anymore. Sometimes being straightforward is the most effective way."

  The three of us arrived at Du Jie's home, and when Du Jie's father saw that we had come again, he stood in the doorway and said to me: "Oh dear, you've come again. Is it because Little Jie asked you to find me?"

  "Now that you know, old man, I'll just say it directly. Yes, your son commissioned us to investigate you."

  "That unfilial son, haha, what secrets could the old master possibly have?" Du Jie's father suddenly changed his tone and gazed at me with a gloomy expression: "You're all too young, you won't be able to investigate anything. Ah yes, let me tell you a secret, those people that Little Jie sent to investigate me earlier, they all ended up dead, taken away by this cursed Liu Long Village. When one gets old, there's nothing left to worry about, I have no secrets. You'd better leave quickly, the weather is about to change."

  Change in the weather? I looked up at the clear blue sky with not a cloud in sight, the sun had just risen from the east and was shining obliquely through the dry tree branches onto Liu Long Village.

  "In short, if you don't leave today, you might not be able to leave at all. Don't bother me, I'm an old man who's almost on my deathbed, what secrets could I possibly have?"

  Du Jie's father was about to enter the inner room, I said: "Since you said there are no secrets, then tell me clearly, what is the old lady in Du Jie's stomach?"

  Although I had heard from Du Jie's description many times that when Du Jie's father heard that there was an old lady's face in Du Jie's stomach, he would be furious and jump up and down, but at this moment, Du Jie's father's violent reaction still exceeded my imagination. His movements were swift and fierce, not like those of an elderly person at all. He suddenly grabbed a brick from the wall and smashed it forcefully onto my head without any warning.

  Even if I were more agile, Chen Qiuyang's grappling skills learned from the police academy were too refined. In such a sudden moment, we couldn't dodge in time. The brick hit my right forehead, and I was in so much pain that everything went black before my eyes. Stars filled the sky instantly. I knew I was bleeding because I smelled the taste of my own blood.

  "It's bleeding!" Kui Ruo Lan rushed to my side, immediately pulling me aside and taking out antiseptic water and medicine, gauze to treat me.

  Chen Qiuyang's stout body blocked Du Jie's father, saying: "You old shameless thing, if it weren't for your age, I would have beaten you to the ground long ago."

  Du Jie's father also seemed to be frightened by his own extreme behavior, holding a brick in his hand and hanging it at his waist, staring at me with a stupid expression.

  "Let the autumn sun go, don't make it difficult for him." I covered my face, the stinging sensation from the disinfectant made my mind extremely clear, and I said: "I'm fine, since childhood in an orphanage, getting used to being hit by bricks."

  My self-pity finally had an effect, Du Jie's father's face slightly changed, he said: "Young man, I'm not deceiving you, I really don't have any big secrets hidden. Even if, even if I say that I've collected some secrets, these secrets are only to protect the people I love. So, please stop investigating me. You're all good kids, listen well and leave this village quickly. It's about to rain."

  Du Jie's father hadn't finished speaking, when I suddenly felt that the sunlight which had been there all along was gone, I don't know since when. I lifted my head to look at the sky and found that it seemed like the sky had instantly become filled with dark clouds, turning a light gray color.

  "My goodness, this is too abnormal! The weather here is unscientific. The characteristic of changing weather shouldn't be unique to our southern cities, right? Why does the Northeast also have this kind of weather?"

  Looking at the weather, a torrential rain is about to arrive. Chen Qiuyang, Kui Rulan and I had to rush back to Du Huangniu's home to take shelter from the rain. We ran on the yellow mud road in the village, the strong wind was already raging, and the withered branches and leaves were flying in mid-air. This scene gave me a feeling of doomsday. And on both sides of us, those elderly people standing in their courtyards, all tiptoed and raised their old wrinkled heads, looking at us with an eerie gaze.

  For some reason, there was a moment when I had a feeling that we were prey, being stared at by fierce beasts with an oppressive gaze.

  We had just run past the iron gate of Du Huang Niu's courtyard when big raindrops started pouring down, and then with a loud "crash", the whole world suddenly turned into a vast expanse of white.

  "This is not rain, it's clearly a reservoir discharge." Kui Ruo Lan stood at the edge of the eaves, facing the vast white curtain of water, and said involuntarily.

  I could hear a faint sense of despair in her voice. Indeed, since we arrived at Liulong Village yesterday, the three of us have been feeling a kind of confusion and disorder that we can't put our finger on, not knowing how to proceed with the investigation or find the truth. This is fundamentally different from Yang Hong's murder case. We are now like three headless flies buzzing around randomly, without any direction.

  Disaster doesn't come alone, and now I've encountered such a strange rainstorm.

  Du Huang Niu walked out of the inner room, still with his head down and his back hunched like a snail carrying a swollen shell. He smiled and said: "Hey, you don't have to wait at the door for the rain to stop. This heavy rain will last for 2 days and 2 nights."

  Chen Qiuyang whispered to me: "This is also too exaggerated, right? It seems like everyone in Liu Long Village can summon the wind and rain."

  Unexpectedly, Du Huangniu's hearing was so sharp, even sharper than that of ordinary young people. He said, "We are not gods and cannot summon the wind and rain. We are just a bunch of old folks who observe the sky."

  "Stargazing?"

  "Yes, you young people don't understand anymore. Alas, these basic skills passed down by our ancestors will slowly disappear, it's a pity, truly a pity."

  "Niu Ye, so after Du Jie became rich and wanted to renovate Liu Long Village, you strongly opposed it. Is that the reason?"

  Du Huangniu looked at me, his voice came over in the sound of the rain, seemingly carrying a chill: "Many things, you young people don't understand, because you've never had reverence for nature. We old folks are from an era where we relied on heaven for food. We love this village, we don't want it to change. And, and...", Du Huangniu paused, taking a deep drag of his dry tobacco, continuing: "And the village has life, your artificial changes will hurt her, she'll get angry, she'll retaliate..."

  I listened to Du Huangniu's murmurs, and I felt that the old generation's outdated ideas were too serious. The times are changing, society is progressing, and development is inevitable in the tide of history. No one can stop the wheels of history from moving forward. Old things are good, but accepting new things doesn't mean harming old things. The disappearance of old things and the emergence of new things is the law of development. I wanted to tell Du Huangniu these truths, but in the end, I swallowed my words.