PD -Chapter 181 A Frequently Accident-Prone Path

Tang Shanshan looked at me silently holding the photograph and asked what was wrong.

I snapped back to reality and told her about the tattoo I had just discovered on the scarecrow’s arm.

Tang Shanshan was also stunned. After a long pause, she finally came to her senses, frowned, and asked, “Could it be… that the one holding the hook is the husband?”

“So this is a wife-murder case?” She stared at the photo in my hand, as if trying to see through the seemingly loving image and the happy smiles to determine whether there was really conflict and killing intent hidden beneath it.

But I didn’t think so.

I shook my head and said to her, “It’s not that simple.”

“Think about it. If the wife was killed by the husband, then why would the husband be turned into a scarecrow and placed beside that earthen house?”

After hearing this, Tang Shanshan still seemed unable to make sense of it. She frowned and fell silent.

I sighed. “I have a feeling this has something to do with Longxiang Village.”

“So, we still can’t leave here yet.” I looked at Tang Shanshan as I said this, then started the car and turned around.

Tang Shanshan nodded. “It’s true. That village looks peaceful and happy on the surface, and the people there are very friendly, but it always gives off a strangely fake feeling.”

“Exactly that feeling,” I agreed. “So this time when we go back, we must be very careful.”

With that, I drove the car out of the small road and headed back up the mountain the way we came.

Along the way, we discussed what to do next.

I thought of Zhenzhen, the girl at the gas station. Among everyone in the village, she seemed to be the only one acting normally and didn’t appear to be hiding any secrets.

So I felt she would be a good breakthrough point. And then there was the middle-aged man at the gas station—he definitely knew something… we needed to find a way to get something out of him.

Soon, we returned to the gas station we had visited earlier. By then, it was already evening.

Zhenzhen looked surprised to see us return and asked if we hadn’t found the road.

The owner of the gas station—Zhenzhen’s uncle—also came out from the house. His brows were tightly furrowed, and he looked slightly surprised when he saw us.

“Oh, we found the road, but the fog was too heavy,” I said with a smile as I got out of the car.

“And on the way, we ran into a strange man holding a gun. He wouldn’t let us go down the small road—I was scared to death!” Tang Shanshan added, deliberately clinging to my arm and pretending to be frightened.

“A strange man?” Zhenzhen frowned.

“That old bastard again!” the boss muttered with an expression of disgust.

“Boss, you know that man?” I turned and asked, pretending to be surprised.

The boss hesitated for a moment, then forced a smile and said calmly, “Oh, that’s Old Li from our village. He’s not really a bad person—he’s just a bit… mentally unstable.”

As he spoke, he pointed at his temple, implying that Old Li wasn’t quite right in the head.

“In the past, our village made a living from farming and hunting. That old gun of his was left over from those days.”

The boss continued, “But now society has developed, the economy is better, and everyone in the village has moved out of the mountains to do small businesses along the main road—comfortable and prosperous…”

“But only Old Li refused. He still clung to hunting. He wanders in the mountains all day. Later, he fell off a mountain once and hit his head badly, and since then he’s been like this.”

“Oh, as long as he’s not a bad person, that’s good. You really scared us earlier,” I said with a bitter smile. “We had just entered that small road when he suddenly jumped out and blocked us, saying he would shoot if we went any further.”

“We had no choice but to turn back.”

I spread my hands as I spoke. I still felt that the boss was suspicious—he seemed extremely disappointed that we hadn’t taken the path he directed us toward.

So I deliberately avoided mentioning the earthen house in the forest and the scarecrow.

“Boss, do you have lodging here? It’s getting late. We’ll probably need to stay the night and leave tomorrow,” I asked.

The boss nodded and pointed to a sign next to him that read “Accommodation.” “That hotel next door is also our property. If you want to stay, I can give you a discount.”

“Thank you so much.”

We chatted with him for a while longer and finally checked into the small hotel.

To reinforce the impression that Tang Shanshan and I were a married couple so as not to raise suspicion, we only booked one room.

When opening the room, I kept sneaking glances at Tang Shanshan. Her face was red the entire time, and her shy expression was somewhat adorable.

The hotel also functioned as a restaurant. We ordered a few dishes downstairs and prepared to eat when we saw Zhenzhen come over with a bowl of food she had reheated, sitting down nearby to eat.

She ate quickly, as if worried that no one would be left to watch the gas station.

I gave Tang Shanshan a look, signaling her to strike up a conversation with Zhenzhen, invite her over, and try to extract some information.

I had already observed Zhenzhen carefully. Although she worked at the gas station and was the boss’s niece…it seemed that her relationship with them was only superficial harmony, and there was likely something hidden beneath the surface.

Even from the way they ate, it was obvious—the boss’s family ate in the restaurant itself, while Zhenzhen had to go into the restaurant kitchen alone, borrow the stove, and heat her own food.

Tang Shanshan went over and chatted with her for a bit, then invited her over. Zhenzhen glanced toward the gas station. As night fell, there were almost no cars on the road, so the station naturally had no customers. Only then did she nod and sit down beside Tang Shanshan.

“Eat, don’t be shy,” I said with a smile, nodding at her and chatting casually about the local customs and some matters about their family.

Zhenzhen had previously lived in the city with her parents. But ten years ago, during a Qingming Festival visit to their ancestral graves, her parents died in a car accident in the mountains. Since then, Zhenzhen had been left alone and had no choice but to return to her ancestral home in Longxiang Village, where her uncle—the gas station owner—took care of her.

After graduating from high school, she stayed to help at the gas station… but in order not to burden her uncle too much, she moved back to the ancestral house and only returned after work to sleep. She also prepared her own meals and brought them over.

When I heard that her parents had died in a car accident, something inside me felt off. So I asked her, “Where exactly did your parents have the accident?”

“On the small road you were planning to take today,” Zhenzhen sighed.

Hearing this answer, my heart suddenly sank. It felt like I had caught onto something important in my mind.