I Have a Date with a Thousand-year-old Female Corpse
Chapter 723: Old Case_1

Chapter 723: Chapter 723: Old Case_1

In the midst of many gazes, you suddenly sensed something unusual.

Hmm, it was from the village chief.

Strangely, there was no shock or fear in the village chief’s eyes, only a questioning look and a trace of inscrutable sorrow.

What’s happening?

You scratched your head and waved to the village chief.

The village chief hesitated, then turned and muttered a few words to a middle-aged man behind him before heading towards you.

"Village chief, do you have something to say?"

"Yes," the other party nodded firmly.

"Go ahead, it’ll ease your heart to speak up," you said with a smile, "Life is just a damn brief few dozen years. If you keep things bottled up, let them ferment, in the end, it will only harm you and your family."

The village chief trembled and hung his head in silence.

"Captain, the comparison is out!"

Sun Mingyu and his colleague climbed up, covered in dust, but he seemed very excited: "These two bodies should be around eighty years old, it looks like a couple was buried together."

"Is there a problem with these two bodies?"

Xian Qianling asked you.

"It’s not the bodies that have a problem, it’s the people," you turned to the village chief and said with a smile, "Am I right, village chief?"

The hitherto silent village chief seemed to muster a great deal of courage, clasped his hands together, and gave you a deep bow.

"Hey, hey, that’s not necessary!" you quickly helped the village chief up.

He was old enough to be your grandfather, you couldn’t accept such a grand gesture from an elder.

The village chief looked back at the middle-aged man once more, then said to Xian Qianling beside you: "Captain Xian, I surrender myself."

Xian Qianling was also somewhat surprised: "Village chief, what do you mean by this?"

"The arson, it was all my doing."

As soon as these words were spoken, there was an uproar in the crowd!

"Why?"

Xian Qianling clearly couldn’t believe it either, as his previous inquiries had revealed that the chief of Shijing Village had a very good reputation far and wide. Having served as village chief for more than thirty years, he was considered dedicated and diligent, and the villagers held him in high esteem.

"I committed arson to take revenge; I’m coming forward now because I have an unfulfilled wish in my heart, which I hope the Heavenly Master from Mount Longhu can help me accomplish."

"Dad! There’s a limit even to joking!"

A middle-aged man pushed through the crowd, his expression filled with grief and indignation.

He had never imagined that his beloved father, the respected village elder, would turn out to be the arsonist.

Two detectives hurriedly grabbed hold of the middle-aged man, one of them shouted loudly at the people who were starting to show signs of agitation, "Everyone, please remain calm! Let’s first hear what the village elder has to say!"

The village elder remained composed as he said to the middle-aged man, "You go down into the pit first and close the lids of your grandparents’ coffins."

The middle-aged man looked puzzled upon hearing this, a profound sadness etched onto his simple face, "Dad... weren’t they washed away in the landslide and debris flow?"

"Get down there!"

The village elder shouted.

"Ah."

Upon hearing the command, the middle-aged man wiped away his tears, carefully climbed down into the pit, and used a crowbar to reseal the coffin lids.

After the middle-aged man had climbed out of the pit, you said to the village elder, "Village elder, speak now. After you’re finished, I will personally erect a new grave for these two old people."

The village elder bowed to you, then turned to scan the crowd behind him, his face revealing a smile resembling release, "I set a fire and killed people. Knowing that I couldn’t meet a peaceful end, I decided to stop worrying today and come clean with everything."

Saying so, the village elder walked to the edge of the pit and sat down on the grassy verge.

"The old people in the village should remember, that large tract of mountainous land at the eastern entrance of our village was once a dense forest. When I was a child, you could even see wild boars and roe deer in that forest."

"Right," confirmed an elderly man with gray temples and trembling legs, leaning on his cane.

"Over forty years ago, at that time, the whole country was basking in the winds of reform and everywhere massive construction projects were underway. As a result, a lot of people had their sights set on timber. Our Shijing Village’s forest became a target," said the village elder as everyone listened quietly.

The elderly reminisced, and the younger ones seemed to be listening to a story that had little to do with them.

"The village elder back then had great foresight; he believed that the forest to the east was the lifeblood of Shijing Village and that those trees were the wealth of our village, so he flatly refused the offers." The village elder’s eyes widened with intensity, and a fierce light shone from them, "But, inside the village, a few young men whose hearts were corrupted by profit secretly sold the wood. At first, they acted stealthily, but once the old village elder discovered them, they banded together to beat the old village elder to death and buried him on the spot."

"Who! Who killed my grandfather! Village elder, tell me, I’ll fight them to the death right now!" Two muscular men stepped forward, their expressions fierce as they scanned the villagers.

"The perpetrators are already dead, and the accomplices are lying in the hospital," replied the village elder.

Upon hearing this, the crowd suddenly realized the truth of the matter.

"But how does this relate to your parents?" Xian Qianling asked.

Looking up at the sky, the village elder sighed deeply, "Those bastards accepted money from merchants from outside, started to win over relationships in the village. One of them even took over as the village elder. As a result, the eastern forest fell victim. That night it rained heavily, and a man from the next village sought out my parents. After the three of them left, they never came back. That same night, landslides and debris flows occurred to the east of the village, and then, the forest—no one knows how—was quickly covered in hardened soil, transforming into what it is today in just a few years."

"If the three of them died in the debris flow, it’s a natural disaster. Although the instigators were those people, to take matters into your own hands and kill them—it’s too arbitrary," a colleague of Sun Mingyu said in a grave tone.

Xian Qianling glanced at the detective before saying, "If the three really fell victim to the debris flow, their bodies wouldn’t have been preserved intact in the coffins. It looks like the three were murdered by that gang."

The village elder smiled faintly at Captain Xian, "Captain Xian is correct. I went looking for my parents because I was worried, and when I found them, I discovered those seven bastards burying them with shovels!"

The more the village elder spoke, the more agitated he became. His emotions flared up, "Back then, I was too weak. I knew I couldn’t avenge my parents all by myself. So, I bided my time. Two of those seven scoundrels got mixed up with those merchants and grew their business bigger and eventually left. All these years, I’ve been preparing for revenge. This time, I lured them back under the guise of developing tourism in the village, and then I burned them one by one!"