"After those words, even Zhou Rong, who had always presented himself as positive and reliable, was taken aback. After a long while, he said awkwardly, 'Mr. Yin... is as humorous as ever.'"

Jiang Cheng put his hands on his hips and said casually, "I just don't understand how Village Chief Qian dared to entrust such a secret matter to an outsider. Isn't he afraid of problems?"

His words opened up new avenues of thought for everyone.

Previously, everyone's discussion had focused on Zhao Xiangmei's identity, but this Yin Zhiping took a different approach, suspecting the relationship between Village Chief Qian and Zhao Xiangmei.

The room suddenly fell silent.

Indeed, trafficking women was a serious crime punishable by death. How could they trust an outsider?

Li Lu endured the sharp pain in her leg and said, "Could it be... that Zhao Xiangmei's husband is from Xiaoshijian Village? So she's considered half a villager."

"That's possible," Zhou Rong said after thinking.

The people standing here were not newcomers. They had already sensed that the difficulty of this mission was different from what they had experienced in the past. A day and a night had passed, and besides paying the price of a human life, the plot had not made any substantial progress.

This couldn't go on...

Jiang Cheng narrowed his eyes, glanced out the window, turned his head and said, "It's not dark yet. I think we should split into two groups. One group stays here and waits for the food, and the other group goes to the village to take a look around."

"Isn't that too dangerous?" Jiang Zhongyi swallowed and asked in a low voice.

His concerns were not unreasonable. The weather in the mountains was different from the outside. It could get dark very quickly, and if they didn't make it back before dark, who knew what might happen.

Pei Qian nodded, as if after careful consideration, "Then I'll have to trouble Mr. Yin." He raised his head and looked at Jiang Cheng with great concern. "You don't have to worry about things here. I'll stay and deal with them."

"Tsk," Jiang Cheng sized up Pei Qian with interest. This hypocritical old fellow was comparable to Zhen Jianren from the last instance, and even surpassed him in shamelessness.

"Then Mr. Pei must be careful," Jiang Cheng responded with the same concerned look.

With the course of action decided, the next step was to divide into groups.

Li Lu had a leg injury and could only stay behind. Yu Man didn't seem to approve of the idea of ​​wandering around the village, and also bluntly stated that she wanted to stay.

Including Pei Qian, there were already three people staying behind.

"I'll go out and take a look," Zhou Rong first nodded to Jiang Cheng, and then announced.

To everyone's surprise, Chen Xiaomeng also chose to go to the village.

In this way, there were three people each who were determined to stay and go out.

Among those who could breathe, only Jiang Zhongyi had not yet expressed his opinion.

Logically speaking, there should be more people going out to find clues than those staying to guard the house. Although Jiang Zhongyi also wanted to stay, he had no say, so he wisely kept his mouth shut.

"I...I'll go with you too..."

Jiang Zhongyi had a bitter look on his face, and it was obvious from his expression that he was very reluctant.

But to his surprise...

"We don't need you."

After Jiang Cheng finished speaking, he didn't even look at him, and left with Chen Xiaomeng and Zhou Rong.

Jiang Zhongyi was very excited, but he didn't want to show it too obviously, and his face was flushed.

The only thing that made him uncomfortable was the look in Chen Xiaomeng's eyes as she brushed past him. Her eyes were cold and strange, as if... she was looking at a corpse.

Jiang Zhongyi was frightened by his own thoughts and quickly shook his head. When he looked up again, the others had already gone far away.

The setting sun hung obliquely over the mountain, and they walked slowly along the village path. From a distance, wisps of smoke rose from the chimneys from time to time.

It seemed that even after such a thing happened, some people still chose to stay.

This was probably what was meant by being reluctant to leave one's hometown.

The blue flagstones under their feet seemed to separate two worlds, one side with closed doors, or broken window frames, already abandoned.

On the other side, although dilapidated, a few vegetable patches showed that people still lived there.

Poverty was the main theme here, and a severe lack of labor was undoubtedly a catastrophe for a village that relied on hunting and fishing to survive.

The mountains were rugged and not suitable for large-scale planting of food.

Chen Xiaomeng seemed to see what Jiang Cheng was thinking. While looking at the few vegetable patches, she sneered, "Even if the villagers can rely on cultivating the land to support themselves, will Zhao Xiangmei let them off?"

The reason was that Zhao Xiangmei was an inescapable disaster for the villagers.

The footsteps of the group sounded like they were wandering around aimlessly. Jiang Cheng looked left and right. Zhou Rong originally wanted to find a chance to be alone with Jiang Cheng, but he didn't expect Chen Xiaomeng to come along too.

"Who's there?" Zhou Rong asked alertly.

Following Zhou Rong's line of sight, a small head peeked out from behind the fence of a courtyard not far away.

It was a girl, about six or seven years old, wearing light blue coarse cloth clothes, with innocent eyes, curiously looking at them.

She probably thought she was hiding very well and wouldn't be discovered, so she looked very frightened after Zhou Rong found her.

She jumped down from the half-stepped fence, turned around, and was about to run home.

But suddenly, she stopped and stared at Jiang Cheng.

Jiang Cheng looked at her with a smile, stretched out his palm, and there was a wrinkled steamed bun in his hand.

The girl's throat couldn't help but roll up and down.

The next thing was much simpler. Jiang Cheng successfully lured the little girl out with a steamed bun, and the group chose a shady place to sit down.

"What's your name?" Chen Xiaomeng tilted her head and asked.

"Hong Hong."

The girl ate the steamed bun in big bites. The steamed bun was not small, but she ate most of it in a few bites, and in the end, she even choked a little.

Closer inspection revealed that the girl was even thinner than she looked, and her complexion was an unhealthy sallow color.

"Do you live in that courtyard?"

"Yeah," the girl nodded, while sticking out her little tongue and licking the crumbs on her hands very carefully.

The courtyard she was talking about was the one with the vegetable garden in front.

"Who else is in your family?" Zhou Rong interjected.

The girl licked her lips, still feeling a little unsatisfied. After a period of contact, she had also become bolder.

She glanced at Jiang Cheng, who was also holding a steamed bun and taking a bite, swallowed, stretched out her hand and said, "Give me the steamed bun in your hand, and I'll tell you."

After receiving the half of the steamed bun that Jiang Cheng handed over, the girl's eyes lit up with joy. She kept swallowing, but as if she had thought of something, she stopped herself.

Finally, she carefully put the half of the steamed bun into her pocket.

"There's no one else in my family," the girl lowered her head, "I'm the only one left."

She stared at her toes while talking, looking very pitiful, but her big eyes were constantly rolling around in her sockets. Just when she felt that her acting skills were enough to fool them, her neck tightened and her feet left the ground.

Jiang Cheng lifted the girl into the air as if he was holding a little chick.

Then he reached into the girl's pocket, took out the half of the steamed bun, and stuffed it back into her clothes.

"Then I won't indulge you," Jiang Cheng said, "I'm not your dad."