Chapter 146: Discovering Clues

Hearing that they were free to leave, Zhang Mingyang turned back to ask the officer, "Officer, what is going on here? Who is the deceased?"

The officer maintained a stern expression. "Don't ask about things that are none of your business. We have already verified that you two have nothing to do with this person. Hurry up and leave."

"Alright, alright...!"

Unable to get any answers, Zhang Mingyang had no choice but to take Bai Muqing and leave.

Once outside the transit station, Zhang Mingyang led her toward a paved cement road that led directly back to his hometown.

"Hey, you've been hugging me for quite a while now. Don't you think it's time to let go?" Zhang Mingyang was nearly suffocating from her tight grip.

"Oh."

Reluctantly loosening her arms, Bai Muqing walked alongside him. "Where are we going?" she asked, looking at the surrounding trees and mistaking them for a deep forest.

"To my hometown, of course." Zhang Mingyang pointed at the surrounding woods. "These are all memories from my childhood. People from big cities like you wouldn't understand."

"Hmph!" Bai Muqing rolled her eyes at him. "It's not like I've never been to the countryside. Don't make it sound so exotic."

"I almost forgot." Zhang Mingyang stopped in his tracks, turned to Bai Muqing, and asked, "How many people are in your family?"

"Why the sudden question?"

Zhang Mingyang tapped her gently on the forehead. "You've met everyone in my family, yet I know absolutely nothing about yours."

"Fine! I'll tell you then." Bai Muqing pulled out her phone and showed him a photograph. "This is a family portrait. My grandparents, my parents, an older sister, and a younger sister—there are seven of us in total."

"So many?" Looking at the photo, Zhang Mingyang felt a deep sense of envy, seeing as only his grandparents were left in his own family.

After glancing at the photo, Zhang Mingyang resumed walking, and in less than ten minutes, the stone arch at the village entrance came into view.

"Is this your hometown?" Bai Muqing pointed at the stone cave entrance with great excitement. It was her first time here, and also her first time coming here together with Zhang Mingyang.

With that, she sprinted ahead, stood inside the stone archway, and waved at him. "Hurry up and come over!"

"So childish!" Zhang Mingyang chuckled at her antics. "You're already twenty-four years old, can't you be a little more mature?"

"Shut up!" Bai Muqing dashed back and covered his mouth with her small hand. "From now on, you are not allowed to mention my age in front of other people."

"Why?" He pulled her hand away and asked, "Could it be simply because you're older than me?"

"Isn't that reason enough? I'm twenty-four this year, and you're twenty. Being together always makes me feel like I'm keeping a young toy boy."

"Alright, alright, alright! I won't say another word."

Zhang Mingyang continued walking into the village; he needed to reach Jin Yaowen's house as quickly as possible.

Entering the village, Zhang Mingyang looked around and noticed an utter lack of people.

"Is anyone even living in your village? Why does it feel like a ghost town?" Bai Muqing realized there wasn't a trace of life around—no sounds, no people.

"That's not right!" Zhang Mingyang also found it strange. As he walked, he glanced at the surrounding houses; all of them had padlocks on their doors. He remembered there should have been at least a dozen households left in the village. Why were every single door locked this time, with not a soul in sight?

*Bip! Bip!*

His communicator buzzed, signaling an incoming text message from Tian Wenyuan. It read: *"Mingyang, I almost forgot to tell you. Your entire village has been cleared out. For safety reasons, the local police have evacuated everyone. The village is completely empty now, though your family home has been left untouched."*

"So that's how it is." Reading the message, Zhang Mingyang finally understood why the village was deserted.

As they entered the narrow lane, silence enveloped the surroundings. Bai Muqing clutched Zhang Mingyang's arm, casting cautious glances all around. Fortunately, it was daytime; if this were night, she would surely have made him carry her on his back.

"We're here!"

Gazing at the familiar iron gate, Zhang Mingyang had finally arrived at Liu Mingqian's house—no, wait! It should be Jin Yaowen's house.

The familiar lock still hung on the main gate, indicating that the people from the base had not deliberately altered this place.

"Is this the place?" Bai Muqing looked at the locked gate and asked, "How are we supposed to get in?"

"Step back a little." Zhang Mingyang instructed Bai Muqing to retreat, picked up a large rock, and slammed it hard against the lock.

*Bang!*

The lock didn't budge on the first strike. He hit it again. *"Bang!"* This time, the old lock failed to withstand the force and shattered.

"Alright, let's go in!" With a creak, Zhang Mingyang pushed the door open and stepped inside first.

The moment he walked through the gate, Zhang Mingyang immediately spotted the stone table from that day. It was still there, meaning the people from the base hadn't carried it away.

Seeing Zhang Mingyang walk in, Bai Muqing followed on tiptoe. "Now can you tell me why we came all the way here?"

Zhang Mingyang pointed at a building right in front of them and replied, "The answer should be inside, but we'll have to find it ourselves." With that, he pushed the door open.

"How are we supposed to look for it?" Bai Muqing surveyed the empty house. There wasn't a single piece of furniture inside, and the dirt floor looked as though it had been thoroughly dug up. Exactly what were they searching for?

Through his senior brother's information, Zhang Mingyang had already been aware of the situation here, but seeing it with his own eyes, he realized the place had been ransacked even more thoroughly than described.

Looking at the barren, stripped walls of the house, for a moment he had no idea where to even begin searching. The dirt floor had been overturned, and even the ceiling boards overhead had been stripped away.

He walked into the room and looked around, yet deep down he firmly believed something must have been left behind. Jin Yaowen surely anticipated this outcome, but in order for him to find it, Jin Yaowen would have had to conceal it with extreme secrecy.

"Go search that corner," Zhang Mingyang directed Bai Muqing toward the northern corner, while he took charge of the southern side.

"How is anyone supposed to search this?" Fortunately, she wasn't wearing high heels today; otherwise, walking on this kind of uneven ground would have twisted her ankle in no time.

After searching the ground for a while without any results, Zhang Mingyang paused. "Zhang Mingyang, there is nothing on this floor at all!" Bai Muqing reported, having found nothing either.

"That's strange! Could it be that I really was just overthinking things?"

Finding nothing inside the house, he returned to the courtyard. Surveying the equally barren yard, Zhang Mingyang had no clue where to start looking next.

"Forget it, let's take a break for a moment!" Zhang Mingyang sat down on a stone stool and motioned for Bai Muqing to come over and rest as well.

"Mingyang, what is it that we're actually looking for?" Bai Muqing had never understood what object he was trying to track down.

Zhang Mingyang scratched his head and replied, "To be honest, I don't really know either."

"What? You don't know either?" Bai Muqing thought he was pulling her leg. "Think harder about what item you're supposed to find."

Zhang Mingyang closed his eyes, trying hard to recall the conversation he had with Jin Yaowen that day, wondering if he had missed some crucial detail.

Try as he might, he still couldn't recall overlooking any specific detail.

"Why is this stone stool so heavy?" Bai Muqing fussed with the stone stool beneath her, inadvertently interrupting Zhang Mingyang's train of thought.

"Will you just be quiet...!"

Suddenly, a realization struck him. He stared at the stone stool in astonishment. "I get it! It's the stone stool!"

"The stone stool?" Bai Muqing looked at the stone stool in front of her, utterly bewildered as to why they had traveled all this way just for a couple of stone benches.