The villagers had all done farm work before, so they knew more about this kind of thing than I did. After hearing what I said, some brave villagers came forward to verify it, and then said to the villagers behind them who were still skeptical: "It is true, this grave was dug up from outside!"
Now everyone believed it completely and came forward to watch. At the same time, everyone showed an angry look on their face. They all spoke up for Zhao Tiezhu's father and cursed the grave diggers for not even letting the dead go. They clamored to catch the grave diggers and beat them to death on the spot.
The village chief then became bolder and stood up to maintain order. He organized the villagers to mobilize their own forces to catch this person.
I looked around and found that only Zhao Tiezhu's father's grave had been opened in the entire cemetery. The other graves were intact. The ground was also covered with countless footprints left by the surrounding villagers. It was impossible to tell which were the footprints of the gravediggers when they left.
Now that the matter had been clarified, the villagers spontaneously organized themselves and returned to Zhao Tiezhu's home, moved the body of Zhao Tiezhu's father back again, put it back in the coffin and buried it, and the corpse-fraud incident was thus settled.
When I was about to leave, I turned to Officer Yang and asked, "Do you have any surveillance equipment on you?"
Officer Yang rolled his eyes at me and said, "Why would I have something like this? Do you want to monitor this place?"
I nodded and said, "Yes, I always feel that this matter is not over yet. Although I still don't know what the motive of the gravedigger is, I have a vague feeling that something bad may happen tonight."
Officer Yang disagreed and said, "I think you are overthinking this. That person probably just wanted to scare people. Besides, we have dispatched so many people today. Even if that person is very brave, he would not dare to do it again. Don't worry, go back and rest."
After hearing what Officer Yang said, I felt that I was overthinking it, so I followed the group back to Heishan Village. However, this time I did not go to Zhao Tiezhu's house. Instead, I shamelessly stayed at the village chief's house. After all, what happened at Zhao Tiezhu's house last night left me with a huge psychological trauma, and I would never go to his house again, even if you kill me.
Soon, another boring day passed. After lunch in the afternoon, the village chief prepared a bed on the floor in Officer Yang's room for me to rest tonight. I called the village chief outside and smoked and chatted with him in the yard.
"Village Chief, do you know anything about Zhao Tiezhu's family?"
The village chief nodded and said, "Of course I understand. I have lived in this Black Mountain Village for most of my life, and I know every household well. What do you want to ask?"
I continued to ask, "Who in your opinion would do such a thing in the whole village? I heard Zhao Tiezhu say before that his father is a good man and has never offended anyone, right?"
"Yes, Lao Zhao is indeed a good man. He has basically never made any mistakes in his life. He is honest and hardworking. It's a pity that his wife died too early. I have advised him many times to find another one, but he just won't."
After getting a positive answer from the village chief, I completely cleared Zhao Tiezhu's suspicion and continued to ask, "Does Zhao Tiezhu's father have any friends that he has a good relationship with?"
"You've asked the right person. Logically speaking, I'm probably the only friend that Lao Zhao has in Heishan Village."
"Um?"
This answer was a little unexpected to me. I immediately asked what was going on. The village chief sighed and said, "You don't know. Although Lao Zhao is an honest man, he rarely communicates with others, perhaps because his wife died too early. When he sees the villagers, he just greets them and never says another word. If I were not the village chief, I would probably know very little about this person. But don't worry, although he has such a personality, he has never offended anyone. He is not only introverted, but also a little cowardly. It is definitely impossible for him to offend anyone."
Listening to the village chief's words, I imagined in my mind an image of a villager who is cowardly, honest and taciturn. Indeed, if such a person were to offend others, the chances of him offending others would be pitifully small.
Since I couldn't get any clues from Zhao Tiezhu and his father, Lao Zhao, I had to focus on Zhao Tiezhu's dead mother and asked, "Village Chief, can you tell me how Zhao Tiezhu's mother died?"
When Zhao Tiezhu's mother was mentioned, the village chief's expression immediately changed. He said, "I'm not very clear about this matter. I remember that it was less than half a year after Tiezhu was born. One morning, a villager found a person hanging from the old locust tree at the entrance of the village. When I went over, I found that the person hanging was Tiezhu's mother."
"Later, Lao Zhao also came over, crying his heart out. I asked Lao Zhao carefully, and he said that he had a quarrel with his wife that night, and he didn't see her the next day. He thought she was so angry that she went back to her parents' home, but who knew she had hanged herself at the entrance of the village."
This was a new discovery. I continued to ask, "What happened next? Is this really the case?"
"Who knows? Lao Zhao just said so. Only Lao Zhao himself knows the real reason. Besides, when the police came to investigate, they also said that his wife committed suicide by hanging herself, ruling out any possibility of homicide. So I didn't ask any more questions. Now that you suddenly bring this up, I think there may be a way to explain Lao Zhao's incident this time."
The village chief's words suddenly brightened my eyes. Seeing his unwavering expression, I immediately asked curiously, "Oh? Did you remember any clues?"
The village chief looked around with lingering fear, and then whispered to me: "I guess, it must be that Lao Zhao's wife hanged herself because of a quarrel with Lao Zhao. Her death was too unjust and her ghost is still lingering, so she teased Lao Zhao's corpse like this."
Looking at the old face of the village chief approaching me, I wanted to slap him twice. I thought he would tell me some important clues, but who knew he would say such a thing to me.
"Don't talk nonsense. We have already found out that someone dug up the grave. Why are you still doing these unrealistic things? Be careful that Officer Yang will find out and punish you."
I ignored the village chief and went back to Officer Yang's room. It was getting late, so I lay down on the floor and prepared to rest. I was awakened two days in a row. I should be very sleepy, but I kept thinking about Zhao Tiezhu's mother. I felt that getting to the bottom of this matter would be of great help to the case. No matter what, I had to find Zhao Tiezhu tomorrow morning to find out what was going on.
As I was thinking, I fell asleep in a daze. That night I had a very strange dream. I dreamed that I was standing beside the grave of Zhao Tiezhu's father in the middle of the night. Suddenly, a bloody hand stretched out from the grave. I was so scared that I immediately turned around and ran away. However, the moment I turned around, I found a woman in red clothes hanged on a big tree behind me. She had disheveled hair and was staring at me with bloodshot eyes and sneering!
This nightmare really scared me. When I woke up and sat up, I was sweating profusely. I turned around and saw that Officer Yang was still sleeping, and it was already dawn outside the window. I knew without taking out my cell phone that it should be around six or seven o'clock. Damn, these past two days have made me accustomed to getting up at this time.
Just as I was about to go back to sleep, there was a hurried knock on the door.
Officer Yang was also awakened by the knock on the door and immediately asked vigilantly, "Who is it?"
"It's me, Officer Yang, please come out quickly, something big has happened!" The village chief's voice came from outside the door, and judging from his anxious tone, something really might have happened.
Officer Yang and I hurriedly got dressed and went out, only to see the village chief standing outside the door pacing back and forth with a look of fear on his face. Lin Yingxue in another room had already packed up and was waiting outside the door.
"What's wrong?" Officer Yang asked immediately.
Lin Yingxue shook her head, and the village chief stammered, "Zombies are resurrecting! Zombies are killing people!"
"where!"
Officer Yang and I were both shocked! The village chief was already incoherent and couldn't speak clearly. He wanted to say something but couldn't. In a hurry, he led us to run forward.
After running for about ten minutes, I saw that the door of a house in front of me was full of people. Everyone had a look of extreme fear on their face and seemed to be discussing something. I also faintly heard the sound of a woman crying coming from inside the house.
We hurriedly pushed through the crowd and entered the house. As soon as we entered, we saw a middle-aged woman with disheveled hair sitting on the ground crying. The door next to her was wide open. It seemed that the incident happened in this room.
At this moment, I was actually a little hesitant to go in. I turned around to look at Officer Yang and the village chief. They both had hesitant expressions. Lin Yingxue rushed into the room with an expressionless face. Then I heard Lin Yingxue take a breath.
Seeing Lin Yingxue go in, Officer Yang and I rushed in immediately. As soon as we entered, I could see clearly that this room should be the bedroom of this family. However, on the earthen kang at the innermost part of the room, I saw a familiar figure.
The body of Zhao Tiezhu's father!
Although I didn't see his face, I could tell the man's identity from his figure and the familiar shroud. And, underneath the body of Zhao Tiezhu's father, there was another person lying there motionless.
The man was of burly build. Officer Yang and I walked up to him carefully and found that he was a burly middle-aged man in his forties. His eyes were wide open and bloodshot, staring at the ceiling motionlessly, his lips were purple and his face was blue, and he looked like he was dead.
When I looked carefully, I saw that the corpse of Zhao Tiezhu's father had his hands around the middle-aged man's neck, leaving a circle of red and purple marks on his neck. Although I am not a forensic doctor, I can clearly see from this scene that the middle-aged man seemed to have been strangled to death by the corpse of Zhao Tiezhu's father!