He wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to investigate this case to figure out why one of the places he found where those girls had disappeared turned out to be Chen Village.
When investigating outsiders who came to Chen Village for the New Rice Festival near the crime scene, Gao Zhijie discovered that several hunters from the neighboring village were acting strange.
Following this direction, he discovered something suspicious in the home of these hunters.
The household consisted of three brothers with no elders above them, and the only female in the house was their wife.
The three men shared one wife.
Furthermore, this wife was mentally impaired.
Her face had extensive burn scars, and her exposed hands and feet also bore severe traces of burns.
No children were seen in their home; the woman was silent all day long, constantly busy—finishing household chores before rushing to process the game they brought back.
At night, she had to serve one of the three men.
On the surface, the three men seemed to treat the woman quite well.
Whatever they ate, they gave the woman to eat.
When they sold game and obtained silver, they would also bring back some food for the woman from the town or the county seat.
However, after discovering that woman’s existence, Gao Zhijie arranged for people to go down the mountain and investigate.
Upon checking, he learned that she had no household registration and was an unregistered person.
Ten years ago, she had been brought back from outside by the three brothers.
This immediately made him wonder whether his sister’s disappeared friends had also been abducted and trafficked to such places.
But how did the trafficking ring manage to avoid alerting the local government? There were no signs of escape on the road, and no matter how they searched, nothing could be found.
This remained a huge mystery.
Therefore, he had his subordinates control the three brothers under the pretext of suspecting them of killing Song Jiangshui and her son.
After detaining them separately, he personally interrogated the woman alone.
“I couldn’t ask anything out of her; the woman’s throat had been ruined by fire, so she couldn’t make a sound.”
“I wanted to test if she was literate, thinking that if she was, she could write it out with her hands. Only when she held out her hands did I discover that all ten of her fingers had been chopped off.”
When mentioning this, Gao Zhijie’s emotion bore an understated rage.
Wang Zhaoming’s face turned cold as well.
“Although I didn’t get any information out of her, it was precisely because of this that it further proved the woman was shrouded in suspicion.”
It felt as though someone had intentionally destroyed her channels of conveying information to the outside world.
Making her unable to speak with her mouth, and unable to write with her hands.
Just what kind of cruel person could use such inhumane methods against a living, breathing person?
“My thought back then was very simple: even if this matter didn’t involve my sister’s disappeared friends, I was going to seek justice for this woman.”
“During the interrogation of the three hunters, they refused to say anything at first. Only after using a bit of torture and the youngest brother couldn’t endure the pain did he reveal the details of how they bought this wife back then.”
“The transaction location was at the back mountain of Song Village, and the person who delivered her to them was a woman in her fifties or sixties.”
“The incident occurred ten years ago. After the deal, that woman left the village, and the three brothers claimed they didn’t know where she went.”
“I escorted them to lead me to the place where the transaction occurred back then to see if I could find relevant clues from there.”
“It’s just… I overreached and trusted the capabilities of my subordinates too much, allowing them to successfully break free and escape.”
At that time, he couldn’t care about anything else and gave chase.
As a result, he was outsmarted by the three brothers, who intentionally led him through a location where they had set traps, causing him to fall into one.
“If my subordinates hadn’t reacted in time to go down the mountain for help and send people up to search for me, I might have bled to death in that trap.”
Gao Zhijie’s hands resting on his knees slowly clenched into fists.
“The first thing I did upon waking up was to have my subordinates arrest them, but the three brothers were nowhere to be found, while that woman hanged herself during my period of unconsciousness.”
“While unconscious, I saw an immense number of faces.”
“There were swaddled infants who had just hit the ground, children with their hair tied in double knots, young girls in the flower of their youth, and young women who had just reached fifteen.”
“There were also young boys of refined, handsome looks with feminine countenances.”
“They looked at me without saying a word, repeating over and over again the torment they had suffered before dying.”
“However, from my perspective, all I could see was their sudden, painful deaths, and the immense torture they endured during the process of dying.”
“I couldn’t see what the person who killed them looked like, nor did I know why they killed them.”
“The most painful thing is that among those faces, I saw the countenances of my sister’s close childhood friends.”
“There was only one I didn’t see; I don’t know whether she succeeded in escaping, or died in some other place unknown to me.”
Gao Zhijie was enveloped in layer upon layer of mist brought by this case.
He thought he had seen hope, only to fall into the vicious cycle of a new case in the blink of an eye.
“Miss Zhao Zhao, I have already witnessed your capability. Since you can make those wrongfully deceased people leave my body, do you also have a way to help them find the person who killed them while they were alive and seek justice for them?”
Wang Zhaoming lifted her eyes to look at the space above Gao Zhijie’s head.
Under the blanket, her hand quietly formed a hand seal.
Gao Zhijie had sacrificed much for this case.
Even until death, he was still pursuing the truth, hoping to return justice to his sister and find her lost friends.
And after meeting those people in his dream yesterday, he seemed even more determined in his resolve to seek justice for them.
Wang Zhaoming didn’t answer his question directly, only saying, “Actually, I forgot to tell Master Magistrate one thing: they didn’t cling to you intentionally.”
“In the domain of the living world, whoever governs this territory, they will go to that person.”
In life, they had no way to voice their grievances, nor anywhere to voice them.
In death, they could only pin their hopes on the local magistrate to avenge them.
“If they had intended to harm you, you never would have held out until I stepped in. It’s just that certain things represent unavoidable bad luck for ordinary people, which is why you fell unconscious and your body felt extremely weak upon waking up.”
“These are all minor issues; just get more sunshine later on, and you’ll be fine.”
“Now, let’s talk about your sister’s matter. Master Magistrate, write a character on the table.”
“Write a character?”
“Don’t worry about it; just know that this is a method for solving cases. Don’t ask so much, write quickly—no need to think, just write freely.”
Only then did Gao Zhijie notice the paper and brush placed to the side, clearly prepared in advance.
He raised his eyes, glanced at Wang Zhaoming who was staring at him, and then lifted the brush.
The moment he lifted the brush, many people flashed through Gao Zhijie’s mind.
In the end, the only person who appeared was his sister.
His sister’s laughter, anger, and every smile and frown—things he thought had been forgotten as time passed—grew clearer and clearer in his mind at this moment.
The character he originally intended to write was the character for “sister” (姐), but the moment his brush landed, a tear fell without reservation, blurring the character on the paper.
“I lost my composure. Let me write it again.”
“No need.”
Wang Zhaoming picked up that piece of paper. “This method relies precisely on following your heart and catching you off guard. If you write it deliberately, it will actually be useless.”
“Look at this character now—doesn’t it resemble the character for ‘maternal uncle’ (舅)?”
“The character for ‘maternal uncle’?”
Wang Zhaoming displayed the paper in front of Gao Zhijie.
Whether by coincidence or predetermined fate, that tear had indeed blurred the character he originally wanted to write so that it closely resembled the character for “maternal uncle” (舅).
“Write the character for ‘maternal uncle’ (舅) again beside it.”
Gao Zhijie didn’t understand, but he obeyed.
When he finished writing, Wang Zhaoming pointed her finger at the upper half of this character. “Look, this character is divided into upper and lower parts. The character on top is ‘臼’ (jiù), which is an implement for pounding rice.”
“It also refers to an old object that has been used repeatedly.”
“This corresponds to a fact: your sister and the other victims were not the first batch, nor will they be the last. If no one stops or discovers this, even more victims will appear.”
“Looking further, the upper part of this character hides the character ‘旧’ (jiù – old/former), which indirectly proves that the culprit is not a stranger, but an old acquaintance of your sister—an old servant or acquaintance of the family.”