Chapter 37: Ashes

"So how are you going to investigate? I'm afraid I won't be able to ask them for anything, and it's not a good idea to follow them secretly. Teacher Jin said.

"Neither of these is a good idea, we can only ask the truth from other people's mouths." Xu Tian said.

When the sky was bright, all the corpses found in the night were carried into the ancestral hall, Xu Tian and Teacher Jin did not tell the villagers the cause of death of Yingfeng's father and daughter and Chen Fan, because now Xu Tian and Teacher Jin could not give the villagers an explanation, about why the three dead people died after meeting Xu Tian and Teacher Jin, and why the three of them did not leave footprints on the road when they appeared in the three dead mounds, Xu Tian and Teacher Jin have not yet answered.

However, Xu Tian felt that the hanging corpse found inside the ancestral hall might have some connection with Yingfeng's father and daughter, if according to Xu Tian's reasoning, the ancestral hall should be the fourth dead man's grave, then the corpse found inside the ancestral hall seemed to correspond to the other three corpses.

Regarding the body found in the ancestral hall, it has been confirmed that it is a member of the troupe, and these members were temporarily recruited by the head of the class to fill the scene, but most of these members are small actors in the county art troupe or small theater, and most of them can sing two small tunes.

Xu Tian and Teacher Jin called Lao Gao to the corner of the ancestral hall, although they knew that they couldn't ask why, but there were some things that they still had to ask Lao Gao.

"Lao Gao, so many people died this night, if you don't tell the truth, I'm afraid the tragedy will continue to be staged, you should understand how serious the situation is now, so we want you to tell us everything you know." Teacher Jin said.

"Ask whatever you want!" Lao Gao said with a sigh.

"How many dead man's graves are there? Last night we both went into the woods, and we saw everything. Xu Tian said.

"There is only one grave of the dead, and the others are all graves of doubt." Lao Gao said.

"Why didn't you tell us about it yesterday?" Xu Tian asked.

"Because everyone doesn't want to mention this matter, the Yingfeng father and daughter you see are the ones who guard the grave of the dead, I didn't expect that even their father and daughter would die." Lao Gao said tremblingly.

"What else we don't know? Can you say it all? Xu Tian asked.

"There is nothing else, that is, the two suspicious graves are actually also cemeteries, but they are all nameless graves, and the villagers took away those nameless graves and built a cemetery in the mountains. There can be no scattered cemeteries on the whole island, and Mr. Xu gave us the idea of moving the graves at that time, if it wasn't for Mr. Xu's proposal to apply for a piece of land in the mountains as a cemetery, we really didn't expect so much. Lao Gao said.

"Mr. Xu also intervened in this matter?" Xu Tian was a little skeptical.

"Not only this matter, but the two doubtful mounds were also planned by Mr. Xu." Lao Gao said.

"Why is that? Why do you plan two mounds? Teacher Jin asked.

"You've been to Caogang Village before, so you should have heard something, right? The reason why some islanders have not moved away is because the price of relocation has not been negotiated, and our dead man's grave has some influence on the feng shui of the building, and some architects have come to the village to inspect it before, saying that the dead man's grave must be moved, otherwise it will affect the feng shui of the house very much. Lao Gao said.

"That must have been a long time ago, right?" Xu Tian asked.

"yes, about four years ago!" Lao Gao said.

"Four years ago? Four years ago again! Xu Tian muttered.

"Mr. Xu hadn't come yet!" Lao Gao said.

"I remember you told us that Mr. Xu came to the village three years ago, right?" Xu Tian asked.

"Mr. Xu did come here three years ago, that is, in the days when Mr. Xu first came, because we had been delayed for more than a year, and the developer began to be anxious, so he always sent people to our village to kill the idea of the grave, so Mr. Xu gave us an idea to build two graves in other places in the forest. Coincidentally, the location of the two doubtful graves that Mr. Xu helped us plan happened to be two nameless cemeteries, so the old village chief went to the town to apply for the relocation of graves to build a cemetery, and was planning to demolish them at that time! The town heard that we were going to take the initiative to move the graves, and of course such a thing was quickly approved, but then we built two graves in the original nameless cemetery, and this incident made the people angry enough. Lao Gao said.

"Not many people have been to the grave of the dead in the woods, have they? Otherwise, it would be useless to build two doubtful graves, and if outsiders knew which one was really the dead man's grave, then the existence of the two doubtful graves would be meaningless. Xu Tian said.

"The guards of the dead man's grave are indeed very strict, three years ago, the developers often came to make trouble, but they were all kicked out, but we big guys are also afraid of long nights and dreams, and in the end we have to listen to Mr. Xu's advice." Lao Gao said.

"So which grave of the dead is real?" Xu Tian asked.

"I can't say it, I really can't say it, you can't say it, don't force me." Lao Gao said timidly.

"Actually, I don't need you to tell us, I can guess which dead man's grave is real." Xu Tian said confidently. "You still lied to us just now, there are not two doubtful mounds in the forest at all, but three doubtful mounds, and those three are fake, and the real dead man's grave is this ancestral hall, am I right?" Xu Tian said.

"You...... You're not right, the ancestral hall is not a grave of the dead. Lao Gao argued.

"Lao Gao, I'm sure you're an honest man, an honest man who won't lie, we've checked the urn in this ancestral hall, how do you want to explain it to us?" Xu Tian said.

"What's that? Did you move the urn? That's a great disrespect to the dead, how can you do such a thing? Lao Gao shouted at the top of his voice.

"You don't have to be so emotional, because those urns are not ashes, don't you know that?" Xu Tian asked.

"What are not ashes? Yes? How could it not be ashes? In recent years, the dead have not been buried, because we don't know when the land will be taken away, so the ashes of the people who have died in recent years are placed in the ancestral hall, and the ancestors who died before, because there is no place to put the ashes, we dug up all the ashes of the ancestors and put them in the ancestral hall, and this ancestral hall was built because of this. Lao Gao said.