The Case from Years Ago

Chapter 14

The old lady said that the matter of her granddaughter being abducted and sold had been weighing heavily on Sister An’s heart. Sister An had been muddled at first, but now that she had calmed down, she began to quietly ask around the neighborhood for information.

The people in the residential complex had a fairly strong memory of the old lady’s grandson. They said he was very filial and often took the old lady out for walks.

Beyond that, no more information could be gathered.

As for the situation inside the home, Sister An felt that perhaps because she lacked much education, she couldn’t find any clues.

There were three rooms in total: her nanny room, the master bedroom where the old lady lived, and a side bedroom.

The side bedroom was locked. She was a caregiver, not a locksmith, so she could only stare at the door and sigh.

“There’s no need to clean in there. That’s the room belonging to those two scammers…”

The old lady rolled over in her wheelchair.

Sister An said, “Old lady, don’t go around calling people scammers all the time.”

It hadn’t been fully confirmed yet. If they weren’t scammers and it was just the elderly woman being confused, it would deeply hurt the feelings of her descendants.

The old woman looked a bit displeased and said, “They are scammers. They even wanted to kill me. If I hadn’t run fast, I wouldn’t have lived to see my granddaughter return.”

Sister An felt more and more that this whole thing didn’t add up. She didn’t continue the argument with the old woman, but instead asked, “Old lady, do you have any other evidence here that can prove they are scammers? We can’t just keep avoiding them; we have to resolve the issue.”

The old lady wasn’t in a hurry, but Sister An was.

The old lady pushed her wheelchair, appearing somewhat disappointed as she muttered to herself, “None of you believe me, none of you believe me…”

It wasn’t that Sister An didn’t believe her; wasn’t she looking for evidence right now?

“It’s not that I don’t believe you. Old lady, listen to me, we have to find proof.”

At that moment, the impossible conversation was interrupted by the ringing of a cell phone.

It was the old lady’s phone. The caller ID showed Hua Yong.

Hua Yong was the name of Sister An’s employer.

Sister An was about to step forward to help her answer the call when she saw the elderly woman answer it herself.

“I’m at home, everything is fine…”

“The caregiver is very diligent. Is your health any better?”

“Grandma misses you too.”

“Go ahead and finish your work. Come back to see Grandma when you’re done.”

She had completely transformed back into that refined, elderly intellectual.

Sister An watched the old woman, whose face had been full of hatred just moments ago but whose tone was now kind and gentle. She gained a new understanding of this old lady.

The old lady hung up the phone and said, “Those two scammers call twice a day. They are testing me at every turn. How could I let them find out?”

Sister An: “…” Old lady, your acting skills are truly superb. I’m impressed.

The old woman looked at Sister An again, seemingly forgetting their previous conversation, and asked, “What are you doing here?”

“I’m helping you find evidence that they are scammers. Or do you have any relatives or friends who can prove it?”

The old woman seemed to suddenly remember this and said, “I have several colleagues. Let’s have them all come over to help.”

She took her phone and began to make calls.

Sister An thought to herself, shouldn’t this have been done a long time ago?

Soon, a voice came from the other end: “We’re sorry, the number you have dialed is not in service.”

The old woman checked the number; it was correct.

It was definitely this number, so how could it be out of service?

She dialed another number. This time, it went through. A young man’s voice answered: “Hello?”

“Hello, is Professor Zhang there?”

“I don’t know any Professor Zhang. Do you have the wrong number?”

She made several calls in a row. They were either out of service or she was told she had the wrong number.

Sister An also realized something was wrong. “Old lady, did you remember the numbers wrong? Do you have their addresses? I’ll go look for them.”

The old lady couldn’t remember. Sister An sighed, thinking back to the previous DNA test.

“Teacher Yang,” she knelt down. She believed she truly had the old woman’s best interests at heart, and the old lady was smart enough that she should be able to feel it. So, she spoke to her very seriously. “I can’t tell right now if what you’re saying is true or not. You have the DNA test. Let’s go to the police and tell them about how you’re being controlled by scammers.”

Without waiting for the old woman to respond, Sister An continued, “But you must promise me one thing: do not mention that your granddaughter is a reincarnated deity.”

If she said that just once, anyone would think she had mental health issues.

Hearing this, the old woman grew anxious and said, “She really is a reincarnated deity.”

As she spoke, she headed toward her own room.

Fearing something might happen to her, Sister An followed.

The old woman entered the room and sat on the edge of the bed. She said, “As long as I sit here, I can hear my granddaughter’s voice.”

Sister An quieted her mind. There was only the sound of two people breathing in the room. Occasionally, the sounds of children in a physical education class could be heard coming from the primary school across the street.

There was nothing else.

“It’s normal that you can’t hear it. I have a telepathic connection with her.”

Sister An sighed inwardly. She didn’t understand what use deities and such were. Her own mother was the same, extremely devout toward gods and getting swindled by scammers eight hundred times a year. The scammers’ favorite trick was claiming to communicate with deities, which led Sister An to disbelieve in such things entirely.

But at this moment, she could only comfort the old woman.

“I was wrong. She must be a reincarnated deity. You can feel her and you know she’s okay now. Don’t be afraid.”

Only then did the old lady slowly begin to relax.

After Sister An coaxed the old lady to sleep, she found herself with nothing to do. She thought for a moment and decided to pick up a book to read. She felt that it was her own lack of education that made it hard to understand what went on in the minds of intellectuals.

She decided she would read a bit too.

There were so many books at the old lady’s place. She wanted to be a reader as well.

Sister An picked up a thick book. Two minutes later, the book was put back in its original place.

She felt she wasn’t cut out to be an intellectual. When she grew old, her madness would probably involve rambling about money, money, money. She wouldn’t have an imagination as vivid as the old lady’s.

There were magazines and newspapers on the back bookshelf. Sister An was more accustomed to reading those.

The newspapers were all copies of the Police Daily.

They mostly covered various homicides, robberies, and similar crimes that had occurred in Ping City. Sister An didn’t dwell on why this household had so many copies of the Police Daily; she figured it was just the old man’s personal interest.

There were also some technical police magazines, most of which were dedicated to popularizing new criminal investigation techniques.

These weren’t very interesting, and Sister An couldn’t bring herself to read more than two.

Soon, she flipped to some newspapers that were a bit more intriguing. Sister An’s eyesight wasn’t great, so she mostly scanned the large headlines without reading the detailed content.

“Massive Robbery and Homicide at Xiangjin Town Credit Union; Two Employees Brutally Murdered.”

“Two Credit Union Employees Bravely Fight Off Bandits.”

“Credit Union Head Steps Forward, Pledging Full Cooperation with Police to Bring Criminals to Justice.”

“Massive Credit Union Robbery and Homicide Case: Four Thugs Captured One After Another, Case Details Exposed.”

“Credit Union Employees Die in the Line of Duty; Sole Daughter of the Two Victims May Receive Over 100,000 Yuan in Compensation and Insurance Payouts.”

There was a photo below. Sister An squinted and could just barely make out a young girl of about seven or eight years old.

Sister An felt an inexplicable wave of sadness. This child was so young and had lost both parents. Even with a huge sum of compensation money, she was still just a child. How could she protect her own money? Her relatives would surely swallow it whole.

Sister An sighed and lost interest in reading the newspapers.

Because of this, she missed the very last newspaper, which bore the headline:

“A Battle for Custody or a Battle for Compensation?”

Finally, at the very end of the newspaper, in the tiny, sesame-sized text of the main body, it noted that the lawsuit had concluded. The ones who won custody of the child were her maternal grandparents.

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The rest of the village soon learned that the Village Chief wanted Ming Wen to work at the clinic, but the Zhang Family had refused.

The Village Chief had spread the word on purpose. Consequently, whenever the villagers ran into members of the Zhang Family, they would bring the matter up.

The Zhang Family was unhappy about this, so they forced Ming Wen to do even more heavy labor.

Ming Wen continued to swing her hoe, digging into the earth. Blood blisters had already formed on her hands.

Sha Niu and Sha Niu’s mother couldn’t just stand by and watch. Both mother and daughter came over to help.

“Those hands of yours aren’t meant for this kind of work,” Sha Niu’s mother said, unable to help herself when she saw the blisters covering Ming Wen’s hands.

Ming Wen simply smiled; she didn’t seem to feel the pain.

To be honest, it was the first time Sha Niu’s mother had ever seen someone’s hands look like that.

Sha Niu’s mother thought that Ming Wen’s family background must be very well-off.

With a family like that, they would surely search everywhere for their missing daughter. If they were lucky, they might even find their way here.

Compared to Ming Wen trying to escape through these endless layers of mountains, Sha Niu’s mother felt there was more hope in people from the outside finding them.

Perhaps, when that day came, Ming Wen would take them away too.

Perhaps her daughter was right; this college student was the Immortal Lady for their mother-daughter pair.

Once a person has hope, they no longer lose their temper for no reason. Instead, they begin to pay attention to the outside world.

Occasionally, when she encountered strangers on the road, Sha Niu’s mother would stop to see what they were doing, checking if they were looking at the villagers or if they were here to find someone.

In the past, she wouldn’t have given these people a single glance.

The peddlers selling goods, the craftsmen coming to fluff cotton, the performers coming to the village to put on a play…

Sha Niu’s mother scrutinized every single one of them, longing to see a sense of inquiry or salvation in their eyes.

But everyone was just passing through the village. Some of them would see Ming Wen and couldn’t help but ask a question.

“That girl is quite tall. She’s not a local, is she?”

The others would laugh it off with a vague answer, but Sha Niu’s mother would always intentionally or unintentionally drop a hint: “She’s from the city. She’s a college student and can speak Mandarin.”

However, those people would just shake their heads and ask no further.

They were merely passing through, passing by the suffering here. A shake of the head and a sigh was the only conclusion.

Sha Niu’s mother started worrying again that Ming Wen might impulsively ask them for help.

Ming Wen did not. Once, she even stood there with Sha Niu watching the cotton being fluffed, but she said nothing to the man. She just watched quietly.

She was so young, yet in the face of so much suffering, she possessed a calm that feared nothing.

Every time Sha Niu’s mother looked at her, she had a feeling.

She wondered if what was hidden beneath that young body truly was a deity.

Every time Sha Niu’s mother thought this, her nearly withered heart would beat exceptionally fast. Everything seemed to have hope again.

Regardless, Sha Niu’s mother continued to do her best to make Ming Wen’s life here a little better. She would have Sha Niu bring Ming Wen some of the food they had at home.

Time passed, but no one from the city came looking for Ming Wen.