Along the way, Lu Qingqing couldn't help but steal glances at Ouyang Wen and Hu Jia, who were walking one in front of the other.
Ouyang Wen was furious, while Hu Jia looked defiant.
Heh, just like a bickering couple.
"Them?" Lu Qingqing pondered for a moment, deciding to change the subject. "Why do you call Ouyang 'Dog Brother'? And why does Ouyang call you 'Second Dog'?"
"What else would I call him?" Luo Wenwu asked, looking puzzled.
Uh...
This blockhead, with one sentence, completely stumped Lu Qingqing.
"Um..." Lu Qingqing tried to get her brain to work. "I mean..."
After a long while, Lu Qingqing couldn't figure out how to phrase it.
Seeing Luo Wenwu's look of confusion, as if he were looking at someone with an intellectual disability, she finally gave up. "Alright, I'll be blunt. What's their relationship, really?"
"Brothers. Ouyang is the older brother, Hu Jia is the younger. They grew up together since they were kids!"
"Brothers?" Lu Qingqing hadn't expected that. "Why don't they have the same surname?"
"Because their fathers are different."
Oh! Lu Qingqing understood. "Same mother, different fathers!"
"Their mothers aren't the same either."
If Lu Qingqing wasn't worried about making a bad impression by resorting to violence, she would have really wanted to pry open Luo Wenwu's head and see what else he could say besides using witty sayings.
"They don't have the same father, nor the same mother, so how are they brothers?" Lu Qingqing tried to keep her tone calm.
"You're really making a fuss over nothing, like a mosquito drawing a sword. They were adopted!" Luo Wenwu pouted.
Lu Qingqing: "..."
"Then why do they seem so unfriendly?" For the sake of gossip, Lu Qingqing chose to endure!
"Heh heh, it's a long story. Ask Li Yang when we get back." Luo Wenwu flashed his signature honest smile again.
This time, Lu Qingqing genuinely rolled her eyes in frustration.
...
Soon, everyone found Xiao Tao. She had just returned from the reservoir with a load of water. And beside her was another person, Mi Ju.
She was the short-haired woman who had collapsed by the roadside last night and was revived by Lu Qingqing. Afterwards, she had explained that she had gone out to the toilet that night and fainted from fright upon encountering a zombie.
Xiao Tao was very happy to see everyone. "Where are you all going?"
"To see Steward Zhong's corpse," Hu Jia casually offered an excuse.
"What's there to see about a corpse? It's quite scary," Mi Ju said with a look of distaste.
"Yes, judging by the reaction of your villagers, you're not afraid of dead bodies. As soon as the person was retrieved, everyone didn't hesitate to go fetch water."
Hu Jia's words caused the two women's faces to stiffen.
"So I have a question," Hu Jia clearly hadn't missed their subtle expressions. "Are the injuries on your body really from zombies?"
Xiao Tao froze for a long moment. "Brother Hu, I don't understand what you mean."
Hu Jia smiled. "The night we brought you back, you were wearing Wenwu's shirt and your face was covered in injuries, yet the villagers acted as if they saw nothing. Are they naturally that indifferent, or did they know you would bring people back to the village?"
Facing Hu Jia's questioning, Xiao Tao's face turned pale.
"And you, you weren't really unconscious last night, were you?" Seeing Xiao Tao hesitate, Hu Jia turned to Mi Ju. "You were probably waiting for us at the crossroads specifically to guide us and tell us the zombie's whereabouts."
Mi Ju clearly hadn't expected Hu Jia to directly expose her intention, and looked very embarrassed.
"Hey, this is really like a sow wearing underwear, one trick after another." Luo Wenwu was displeased. He had taken care of Xiao Tao all afternoon, only to find out it was a trap set by her.
"Now that we've entered the village and seen the zombie, can you tell us the truth?" Hu Jia asked, looking at the two women with a half-smile.
After a long pause...
"People have died in the village because of zombies, and you still want to hide something?" Lu Qingqing gently took Xiao Tao's hand.
Seeing that their scheme was exposed, Xiao Tao's eyes began to redden. "I'm sorry! We used you."
Xiao Tao began to sob softly. "The zombies appear every year, and the villagers are already used to it. But every year when they appear, someone in the village inevitably dies. We were desperate, so we thought of having you come to catch the zombies. Even if you don't catch them, it's good for someone to take the place of the one who dies."
"Us, take their place?"
After hearing Xiao Tao's words, Ouyang was so angry he wanted to curse.
"Why didn't you just call the police?" Lu Qingqing's expression was grim. She truly hadn't expected these seemingly simple villagers to have such intentions.
"We did, but no one believed us." Mi Ju also looked ashamed. "That's why we thought of faking an injury to lure you here."
"This is simply outrageous! Whose life is not a life? Besides, not all police officers are cowards."
Ignorance!
Hu Jia didn't know what to say. If these villagers had explained the situation to them from the beginning, would Steward Zhong still have died?
"Do you have any enemies? Where do those zombies usually appear?" Hu Jia felt that zombies were nonsense and it was likely a prank.
"We are ordinary villagers, how could we have enemies?" Mi Ju said softly. "As for the zombie, it won't appear again this year, as someone has already died."
"Yes, it's like this every year!" Xiao Tao added.
"Hmph, a prank that resulted in a death, perhaps they won't appear again in the future." Hu Jia was truly angered. The local police were indeed incompetent, and the fact that these villagers had repeatedly reported it without help had emboldened the prankster.
Hmph, after causing trouble and a death, they think they can just disappear? How could Hu Jia tolerate them getting away with it?
...
For the next two days, Hu Jia and the others wandered around the village, searching for traces and clues related to the zombies, and trying to glean information about them from every villager.
However, strangely, some villagers claimed the zombies had fangs, while others said they didn't; some said they could be seen at night, while others said they appeared during the day; some said there was a group of zombies, while others claimed there was only one.
In short, no one could provide accurate information about the zombies.
However, an amusing incident occurred during this time.
Steward Zhong's family came to the village to identify the body. At first, he didn't believe that Steward Zhong had drowned accidentally and demanded compensation from the village.
Finally, Luo Wenwu revealed his identity and provided testimony, after which the other party relented.
But what was surprising was that as soon as the Zhong family realized there was no profit to be made, they turned and left without a word. Before leaving, they even instructed the villagers to bury the person anywhere they saw fit.
This really angered Luo Wenwu. He had seen many eccentric families, but he had never encountered one like this.
Grumbling, he walked into the small courtyard and saw Lu Qingqing and Ouyang. One was slumped in a rattan chair, while the other was sitting on the ground, cooling off.
"Where's the boss? Still investigating?" Luo Wenwu had been searching for two days, and not only had he not found a trace of a zombie, but not even a footprint, as if they had never existed.
"The villagers all said that the zombie won't appear again until next year," Ouyang Wen chimed in. "When that guy gets worked up, it's really hard to keep up."
"I accompanied him to climb the entire southern hillside today. His energy was astounding, I truly admire him," Lu Qingqing said, rubbing her legs. "Have you ever walked a dog? Like a husky?"
Hahaha...
Everyone burst into laughter.
Hu Jia was now on his fourth day of investigation, and he had entered his characteristic state of sleepless excitement again.
"What if it really was a zombie that injured people, and Hu Jia can't find the culprit? Will he lose his memory?" Lu Qingqing couldn't help but feel curious. After all, Hu Jia had never taken more than seven days to solve a case, but this one was too bizarre.
Even the most unbelievable cold cases in the past always had a tangible target.
But this time, they didn't even know if there was a murderer.
Just as everyone was lost in their own thoughts, a man walked in. "Oh my, my darlings, your little hunk has arrived."