In Love With My Fierce Farming Wife!
Chapter 401 - 399 Inference_1

Chapter 401: Chapter 399 Inference_1

"Is there anything else?" Su Pan’er asked.

"The elder woman appeared to be wearing plain clothes, but under her outer clothing, she has a Ruyi Cloud Patterned Outerwear. Also, even though she only opened the door for a moment, I saw half-finished embroidery on the table inside the room. The embroidery was of several pomegranate flowers."

"Hmmm, what do you mean by all this?" Su Pan’er asked, slightly confused.

Qin Yi turned his head and gave her a slight smile.

"What I mean is, why would the old woman, who just lost her daughter, be wearing a Ruyi Cloud Patterned Outerwear? Can the dead be considered ’as one wishes’? And those pomegranate flowers, they typically symbolise fertility and numerous offspring. The old couple only had one daughter and no other descendents, and began embroidering this so soon after their daughter’s death. Don’t you find it strange?"

"It is indeed strange!"

Su Pan’er’s eyes lit up. Making eye contact with Qin Yi, the two of them exchanged resolute looks.

"The strange behaviour of the deceased’s parents..."

Qin Yi paused to ponder deeply, his eyes suddenly beaming: "Perhaps the deceased woman wasn’t their daughter."

"You mean ..."

Su Pan’er’s eyes shone brightly: "Perhaps that Shi Xiaolu is not dead after all?"

"Exactly!"

Qin Yi nodded, "Only this can explain the strange behaviour of the old couple. Since she isn’t dead, if we can find evidence to prove she isn’t, then Lui Muyi can naturally be acquitted!"

"Let’s go! Let’s interview the villagers, maybe we can discover something."

"Alright."

Made up their mind, they went to the villagers’ homes.

Unexpectedly, their attempts were repeatedly cut short.

These villagers either did not open their doors to them at all, or those who did, promptly responded with "I don’t know" before closing their doors, not letting them finish their questions.

After several attempts were refused, they had to abandon their initial plan and left the village.

At the entrance of the village, they saw two children playing. Su Pan’er’s eyes lit up.

She reined in her horse, dismounted, and walked over to the two children. She rummaged in her pocket and brought out a few copper coins.

"Little brothers, I have something to ask you. Would you be willing to answer me?"

The two children’s eyes gleamed at the sight of the copper coins in her hand!

"What does big sister want to ask us?"

"I want to ask if you know where the son-in-law of Shi Xiaolu from your village lives, specifically Blacksmith Chang." She quickly stuffed two copper coins into each child’s hand.

One child shrank back, too fearful to hold out a hand. The other child, clearly more courageous, answered in a low voice.

"I know."

Su Pan’er was delighted, "Can you tell big sister specifically where?"

"Just over that hill! You’ll be there."

The boy pointed towards the county government office and gave her detailed directions.

"Good boy! Here, take these copper coins and buy some candy."

Getting the news, Su Pan’er was pleased and handed the remaining copper coins to the boy.

"That’s not all."

Seeing that all the copper coins ended up with his companion, the child who had initially shrunk back ran out, standing hesitantly: "I, I saw Blacksmith Chang talking to the village leader yesterday. He said he was going to his aunt’s house to live for a few months to shake off the bad luck. Then Blacksmith Chang got on the cow cart and left. His wife even chased the cart and ran along for quite a while, cursing all the while."

There was such a thing?

Su Pan’er looked at Qin Yi, reached into her pocket and without counting, inserted a handful of copper coins into the child’s hand.

"Did you see anything else?"

Receiving the copper coins, the child was quite pleased and immediately became more energetic: "I also heard his wife continually cursing him. She wished he would die, saying he was utterly ruthless. It would be better if he died sooner rather than later... calling him a good-for-nothing coward, saying he was the reason she couldn’t remarry... and then, she left..."

The child’s voice grew smaller and smaller.

"Okay! Little brother, thank you. You can continue playing now."

Seeing that she couldn’t get anything more out of the child, Su Pan’er gave his shoulder a gentle pat, walked over to her horse, and leapt up. "Let’s go, we should check out Blacksmith Chang’s house!"

"Alright."

Qin Yi followed closely, and they galloped in the direction the child had indicated.

After crossing a hill, they indeed found the brick house with a green roof that the child had mentioned.

They had now reached the suburbs near Changze County. Unfortunately, the main entrance was securely locked, indicating that nobody was home.

They returned, disappointed.

"Pan’er, do you think we are barking up the wrong tree?"

As they moved along, Qin Yi suddenly reined in his horse and said.

"You mean..."

Su Pan’er pulled up her horse, thought for a moment, then laughed in sudden enlightenment: "We should be investigating Registrar Bai?"

"Exactly, she who understands me, Pan’er too."

Qin Yi smiled: "Remember that Lui Muyi mentioned that Registrar Bai had an ambiguous relationship with that woman. I think the key to finding that woman should be starting from Registrar Bai!"

The two decided to look for a breakthrough from Registrar Bai, but things did not go as planned.

The epidemic situation in Changze County was getting more and more severe, not only was Su Pan’er extremely busy, but even Qin Yi could only help out with the epidemic prevention. They had no time to investigate Registrar Bai.

Su Pan’er’s smallpox vaccination method can only be used on uninfected people, and those who were already infected could only be given conservative treatment.

As more and more of the infected fell ill, fewer and fewer people were able to continue working on the river embankment.

Soon, the medicinal ingredients that Su Pan’er has brought were exhausted.

Su Pan’er was so busy that she had absolutely no time to personally go and collect medicinal ingredients. In desperation, she had to send Qin Yi along with Zhou Ning and Uncle Xiao to collect them.

In an unexpected turn of events, three men went out, but only Zhou Ning and Uncle Xiao returned, causing Su Pan’er to worry.

Uncle Xiao told Su Pan’er that Qin Yi had gone to investigate the case, which eased her concern.

It wasn’t until the next morning that Qin Yi returned.

Seeing Qin Yi’s bloodshot eyes, due to his overnight investigation, Su Pan’er quickly handed him a cup of water, and found some food for him.

Qin Yi was so hungry that he chugged the water quickly, then started gorging on the food immediately.

Su Pan’er watched him silently.

In the middle of eating, Qin Yi spoke with some frustration.

"Pan’er, I secretly followed Registrar Bai yesterday. It turns out that he has a private mansion behind the county government office. However, the security there is very tight and they even have three large guard dogs. I was not confident about getting in unnoticed, so I stayed outside. In the end, I didn’t find anything after staying there all night. Considering the urgency back here, I had to come back."

Su Pan’er was slightly worried: "It seems Registrar Bai is quite meticulous. Presumably, he was prepared. It seems things might be a little tricky?"