Hospital 444
Chapter 291 - 27 Interrogation

Chapter 291: Chapter 27 Interrogation

Night.

The snowstorm grew fiercer.

Looking out the window, visibility in the snowstorm had become extremely low.

Without a doubt, patrolling late at night in such weather would be very dangerous, which anyone could realize.

Dai Wei once again gathered with the other eight people in the guesthouse meeting room.

At this time, two people were already waiting for them there, namely the village head and Ge Jiayan.

"Today, I’ve summoned you to identify who is the extra ’person’ among you," the village head said and, after thinking for a moment, added, "I hope you all understand something. If we can’t identify that ’person,’ then I will have no choice but to sacrifice one of you."

At this point, Li Yanping was the first to speak up, "Village head, are you joking? Are you serious?"

Li Ruping immediately tugged at her sister, signaling her not to talk nonsense.

At this moment, someone else spoke up, "If it really comes to that, I am willing to be sacrificed."

The speaker was none other than Li Dongshan!

"Uncle Li!" Dai Wei was stunned and hastily said, "No, you can’t die!"

Village Chief Ge gave a wry smile, what a joke, there were too many people indebted to Li Dongshan in the village. If he were to sacrifice him with no evidence, his credibility would undoubtedly plummet in the village.

"Yeah, Uncle Li!" Jiang Shan also quickly said, "Please don’t talk like that, we will definitely find that ’person’!"

"Village head!" This time, the speaker was Chang Min, "I want to know, do you have a way to find this... ’person’?"

Chang Min was a person with delicate emotions and thoughts. Hearing what he said, everyone else turned their gaze to the village head.

Yes, had the village head come here for a meeting because he had a strategy to solve the problem?

Thinking of this, everyone looked delighted.

"Is there really a way?" The one speaking now was Xia Meng, "I once heard villagers say that if you use porcelain dolls for contact, you can test it out?"

"That’s a rumor," Ge Jiayan shook his head and said, "We’ve done experiments like that before and they didn’t lead to any conclusions."

"Ah? What?"

"It’s really just a rumor? I always thought it was true,"

Chang Min asked with a bit of urgency, "Then... is there a way to identify that ’person’? I’m very worried about my dad and want to see him as soon as possible."

"Until we’re sure who has infiltrated among you, I can’t let any of you have contact with any villager from Nanmian Village. To put it unpleasantly, me sitting here facing you is also taking a great risk; any one of you could kill me right now," the village head said solemnly.

Indeed.

Dai Wei was very aware that the village head was indeed taking a tremendous risk.

"Frankly, I have no way at all," the village head continued. "If I had a way, I wouldn’t have..."

He wouldn’t have sacrificed Lei San back then.

"Village head," Li Yanping was anxious again, "You, you’re not really going to sacrifice one of us, right? There has to be a way, right?"

The village head took a deep breath and then said, "No."

"Ah?"

"Really no way at all?"

Then, the village head continued, "It’s because there is no way, that’s why we need to find one. If I had a way, I wouldn’t have waited until now to convene this meeting. From past experience, we can deduce that our memory and cognition can be thoroughly corrupted by the unknown entity that comes out of the fog. The unknown entity can also perfectly disguise itself as one of us, and its memory can perfectly match ours. On this point... this afternoon, I had each of you write an account about the major events in your life from birth until now, right?"

Ge Jiayan took out a stack of papers and placed them on the table.

"Just as I expected, they are completely consistent with our memories."

Village Chief Ge then said, "Therefore, it seems that it is very difficult to find out through conventional means. In this case, we can only have a detailed discussion with all of you to find clues."

At that moment, Dai Wei looked at the time.

The patrol for tonight was about to begin.

Who would patrol tonight? And what kind of incidents would they encounter?

Afterward, the village head gave Ge Jiayan a look, and Ge Jiayan opened his notebook.

"Next I’ll be asking you all some questions. If anyone notices anything off about their memories, or if anyone feels someone’s behavior is different from the person you remember, please speak up. I’m hopeful we can identify the person in question."

"Um... Village Chief..."

The person speaking at this moment was Li Jun.

"What is it?"

Li Jun rubbed his hands together and said, "I have a question... If, if we really do find that person, what then?"

Chang Min immediately answered, "Isn’t that obvious? Once we find them, of course we kill them!"

Li Jun immediately responded, "Isn’t that the crux of the issue? A shape-shifting monster that can take human form and easily alter our memories... can we really kill it?"

This was not a concern that had escaped others.

Especially Xia Meng. After her sister suffered a brutal death, she had investigated those ten suspects, but couldn’t come to any conclusion.

"Once we figure it out, we’ll find a way. If we don’t, we’ll just have to keep worrying and wondering which one of you will be sacrificed next, and you wouldn’t want that, right?"

"Yes... Village Chief, you’re right."

"Good, then let’s get started."

Ge Pingyan began to think, observing the nine people present.

Whom should he question first?

Of all the people here, besides Li Dongshan, he was most familiar with his daughter-in-law, Li Ruping.

To question Li Ruping first would show that he did not favor his own daughter-in-law.

"Ruping, you’re first."

"Okay, okay... Dad, I mean... Village Chief."

Although Li Ruping was the Village Chief’s daughter-in-law, she seemed somewhat timid and hesitant.

Ge Pingyan naturally understood why she acted this way.

If it hadn’t been for Nian Cheng getting trapped in the village by a thick fog, there’s no way he, a college graduate, would have considered marrying Ruping, who only had a high school education; after all, he already had a girlfriend in the city at that time.

In fact, Ge Pingyan’s wife, Lin Shufen, also disliked her daughter-in-law, Li Ruping. In her eyes, her son was supposed to have left the poor village for the big city, with a chance to make something of himself, and marry a real city girl. Instead, he was trapped in the village, marrying a girl from a different social status. Therefore, her attitude towards the daughter-in-law was far from warm.

This marriage was actually facilitated by Village Chief Ge himself. He felt that if there was any mismatch, it was Nian Cheng and the city girl who were ill-suited for each other. Believing "Marry for virtue, not for status," he saw Li Ruping’s compliant nature as a good match for his son.

Seeing Li Ruping in front of him, too timid to even make eye contact while speaking, it was hard for Ge Pingyan to imagine that she could be the impostor.

"Ruping... today, did Nian Cheng come to see you?"

"Yes, he did come... But I didn’t go to see him, following your orders, Dad... I mean, Village Chief."

"Don’t be nervous. I’m going to ask you some simple questions now, and you don’t need to overthink them," he said.

Then, Village Chief Ge asked, "Do you remember when you and Nian Cheng got married, your uncle made you a set of furniture, right?"

"Yes, that’s right."

Li Ruping’s uncle was the village carpenter, and he had immediately set to work making a set of furniture as a dowry for his niece, who was to marry into the village chief’s family. In this impoverished village, craftsmen were highly respected.

"Among the furniture he made for you then, what color was the bedside table?"

Just as the Village Chief awaited her response, suddenly, the room plunged into darkness!

"Why did the candles go out?"

"What’s happening?"

It took more than ten seconds before someone relit the candles.

Once there was light again, they all saw the following scene.

In Li Ruping’s hands, she held something.

It was unmistakably...

The Village Chief’s...

Head!