"Xiangyang Gully? The village to the south?" Fang Huixin raised an eyebrow, looking at me with a strange expression.
"That's right, she should be there."
As soon as I finished speaking, Fang Huixin stood up. "You're lying. She's a corpse, not a living person. How could she have run to a village over ten miles away?"
"Boss Fang, please don't get agitated. Listen to me finish before you decide, alright?"
Fang Huixin's reaction was entirely within my expectations. Although she didn't speak, she sat back down, waiting for my explanation.
"Do you remember that night when we arranged the ghost marriage?"
Mentioning the ghost marriage, Fang Huixin's expression changed slightly. She nodded without speaking, seemingly deeply affected by her daughter's reanimation that day.
"Your daughter had been dead for a long time, yet she could suddenly stand up. You saw it with your own eyes. I'm not lying about that, am I?"
Fang Huixin nodded, acknowledging my words.
"Dead people don't walk on their own. Even to become a zombie, specific conditions and time are required. Your daughter possessed neither of these, so there must be a third point: someone tampered with your daughter and deliberately took her away."
Here, I was careful. I only said that her daughter was taken away by someone else, not mentioning that it was Li Jian, who was by her side. After all, this was just my guess, with no concrete evidence.
"Why would they take her away?"
Seeing that Fang Huixin was about eighty percent convinced, I breathed a sigh of relief and quickly explained, "To seize your family fortune."
"Seize family fortune?" Fang Huixin stood up in surprise. Judging by her reaction, her concern for her daughter's disappearance was less than her concern for money. No wonder she agreed to have Li Zuoquan change her daughter's fate to one that brought prosperity and husband-killing. Su Dan Novel Network.
"Someone has placed your daughter in Xiangyang Gully, preparing to change her fate to obtain your family fortune."
On this point, I told a small lie. If I had said that Li Zuoquan intended to betroth his daughter to me to harm me, I estimated Fang Huixin would not have agreed to let me leave.
After listening, Fang Huixin did not immediately agree to anything. Instead, she began pacing inside the room, as if calculating something.
At this moment, my heart was somewhat uneasy. Fang Huixin was no ordinary woman. For a woman to build a business around Yin objects and antiques into a complete service, even if she relied on deep connections, her own capabilities would not be lacking. Otherwise, she wouldn't have such a large business.
After more than ten minutes, Fang Huixin stopped pacing and resumed her elegant demeanor. She sat down and said, "I agree..."
Before the word "agree" could be fully uttered, it was interrupted by a voice.
"Absolutely not. You cannot agree to let him leave."
Following the sound, I saw Li Jian, accompanied by the man in the red suit, walking in quickly.
"Boss Fang, you absolutely cannot agree to let him leave. This kid is cunning and deceitful. His companion, Sun Chuang, has already slipped away stealthily. If you agree to let him go now, the loss will be immense. Furthermore, Wang Jun was the one who brought the corpse to him. If the old corpse has problems, he must bear the responsibility. How can you let him leave so easily?"
Seeing Li Jian suddenly appear, I wanted to bite him. This old scoundrel, appearing neither too early nor too late, but precisely when Fang Huixin was being persuaded by me. Wasn't this blatant sabotage?
While Sui Wan'er's matter was partly my fault, I was also a victim. I couldn't have all the blame dumped on me, could I?
But clearly, this was not the time to explain. Even if I wanted to, Li Jian wouldn't give me the chance.
"This..." Fang Huixin turned her gaze to me.
"Old Li, if you say Sun Chuang can leave, do you think I have no way to leave?"
Li Jian's expression changed slightly, then quickly returned to normal. He sneered, "Who knows what other unspeakable secrets you might have?"
"You say I have unspeakable secrets? I think you're the one with secrets?"
Just as Li Jian was about to retort, I continued, "Otherwise, why are you stopping me from going to Xiangyang Gully?"
"I'm stopping you because I'm afraid you'll run away. If you run, who will bear Boss Fang's losses?"
I sneered, "Since you're afraid I'll run, then let's all go together. That way, we can see who is behind all this mischief." As I spoke, I looked at Fang Huixin. "Boss Fang, it's not far from here to Xiangyang Gully. It only takes two or three minutes by car. What do you think..."
Before I could finish, Li Jian interrupted me, his voice sounding somewhat anxious. "Boss Fang, don't listen to this kid. He just wants to use this opportunity to leave the village and run away. You can't give him this chance!"
Fang Huixin didn't listen to Li Jian. Instead, she looked at me and asked, "What evidence do you have to prove she's in Xiangyang Gully?"
Upon hearing this, I was secretly delighted, but on the surface, I appeared somewhat conflicted, feigning a lack of evidence.
As expected, Li Jian noticed my expression and snorted coldly, "What evidence could he possibly have? He's just trying to use this opportunity to escape. If he had evidence, I'd eat excrement..."
Li Jian drew out the last syllable, making it sound exceptionally funny. Zhang Dabiao, sitting beside him, who had remained silent, burst out laughing.
"Old Li, your eating of excrement even produced a vibrato. This is truly beyond my expectations, Zhang."
Li Jian ignored Zhang Dabiao's teasing and instead fixed his gaze on me. He took out two pearls from his pocket and held them in his palm.
Seeing this, Fang Huixin walked over quickly, snatched them, and turned the two pearls to the side with the inscription.
"Fang Yuan. This is my daughter's. This was my eighteenth birthday gift to her." Fang Huixin, who had appeared strong, her voice choked with emotion. Regardless of whether Fang Huixin loved money or was greedy for it, she was ultimately a mother. Seeing her daughter's belongings, she shed her outward strength.
With the evidence presented, Li Jian's face turned ashen, as if he had actually eaten excrement. His eyes were almost spitting fire as he looked at me. If eyes could kill, I would have died countless times by now.
"Old Li, you're old. It's better to eat some easily digestible congee. As for your personal preferences, don't bring them up. It sounds awful, ugh..." Saying this, I made a gagging motion.
Zhang Dabiao feigned a couple of dry heaves, making the already dark-faced Li Jian tremble all over. The goatee on his chin twitched, and his mouth opened and closed a couple of times without making a sound.
I chuckled inwardly, "Old scoundrel, why don't you just die of anger!"
My wish was good, but reality was cruel. Li Jian, who had been swaying, was supported by the man in the red suit behind him.
"Second Uncle, why bother with someone who is about to die? Since he says Fang Yuan is in Xiangyang Gully, let's go and see." Then he looked at me. "Kid, since you're so sure Fang Yuan is in Xiangyang Gully, why don't we make a bet?"
Seeing his confident demeanor, I couldn't help but frown. This was the fourth time I had met him. The first time, at the old house west of the village, he gave me a somewhat eerie feeling. The red suit he wore always seemed strange.
The second time, he brought me Wang Jun's head, still in the same red suit, making me suspect he was a lunatic. Including last night, this was the fourth meeting.
Today, he was still in a red suit, but without the large sunglasses. Without the sunglasses, he lost some of his mystery and gained more of a sinister aura. His fair face had a pair of narrow, phoenix-like eyes, which looked unsettling. If I hadn't witnessed his brutality, I would have thought he was a gigolo.
"Who are you? Can you represent Li Jian?"
He smiled.
"Look at my memory, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Li Rui." Then he smiled slightly, revealing a set of pearly white teeth. "How about it? Want to make a bet?"
I glanced at Li Jian. He closed his eyes and remained silent, as if everything was up to Li Rui.
"Alright, a bet it is. What are we betting on?"
"You just said Fang Yuan is in Xiangyang Gully. I bet she's not there, and you're lying to escape. How about it, are you in?"
"This..."
Seeing his confident demeanor, my heart began to race. Fang Yuan being in Xiangyang Gully was what Fifth Sister had said, and Bai Ling'er had also confirmed it. Could something unexpected happen here?
If it were just Fifth Sister's word, I might have had doubts. But after Bai Ling'er's confirmation, I wouldn't believe they could spirit the person away right under my nose.
"I accept this bet. But from now on, you two cannot leave my sight, and you cannot make phone calls."
Li Rui shrugged. "That's no problem. Since we're accepting this bet, shouldn't there be a stake for the winner and loser?"
"What do you want?"
"I saw you laughing at my Second Uncle's predicament earlier, and you seemed very happy. Our stake will be that whoever loses has to eat excrement. How about it?"