Two months after Xia Dongyi left, he wrote a letter to Zhou Hong, sent from Qianzhou, saying that he had settled down and that if she changed her mind, she could go to him at any time.

The address is at the back of the letter.

But Zhou Hong said that she had never been to Qianzhou to find him, and she had never even had such a thought. She felt that the man was too unkind, so she just treated him dead. A few years ago, she had a distant cousin who was doing a small business in Qianzhou and came back to the village to say that Xia Dongyi was in prison, and entrusted her daughter to a friend to take care of before she was imprisoned. Later, when he became famous, released from prison, developed or something, she heard a little about it, and never asked, but Xia Dongyi still had a little conscience, sent money back a few times, and wrote a letter, asking her to marry a good person while she was young or something, and also mentioned her daughter, saying that everything was fine.

Zhou Hong basically said so much.

I asked a lot of questions, some of her answered, some shook her head, some were silent and avoided, and some simply said that she didn't know, and there were flaws in her eyes and expressions, which showed that she was hiding some things and refused to say them, and she couldn't get out any tricks.

But she didn't hide about Xia Dongyi's personality and temper and friends with friends, and said a lot very frankly and even verbosely, among which two points caught my attention, one is that Xia Dongyi has a big scar on his forehead and collarbone, and the other is that he is reluctant to have more contact with people, especially people from other places, he avoids walking.

I asked Zhou Hong, Xia Dongyi, if she usually painted during the years she lived with her.

She wondered why I asked this, raised her eyes to look at me, nodded and said, "Yes, sometimes I draw some people, houses, trees, rivers and so on in the notebook, and I also teach children to draw." ”

I asked her again if there were any paintings he had left in the house.

She shook her head very firmly and said, "No, after he left, I threw away all his things in the house and burned them." ”

I was a little annoyed, more regretful, but helpless. lowered her head and pondered for a while, then raised her head and asked her if Xia Dongyi's memory was bad, such as often forgetting things.

Zhou Hong said in surprise: "No, my memory is very good." ”

I heard my heart sink heavily.

In the logic that originally seemed to be interlocking, there was a sudden disconnect, and it seemed to be inexplicable and out of tune.

Analyzed, the scars on Xia Dongyi's forehead and collarbone were left by the injuries sustained during the evacuation of the Immortal Palace in 1937, just like Su Mosen and Lin Ya, this is not wrong. But according to the clues we have investigated before, his memory should be very poor, it may be a kind of "Pandora dysfunctional syndrome", which is a side effect of the immortal drug that broke out in his body, causing his memories of the event to become fragments, including the experience in the Hall of Eternal Life before the thirties, the massacre and the Chenjiawu underground laboratory, etc., all stored in his brain in fragmented mode, sometimes clear, sometimes confused. He knew that these things were important, so he drew them while his memory was clear, and his paintings were not meant to express any thoughts, nor did they care about art, he was simply afraid that he would forget, and he had to paint them. He painted for himself, reminding himself to remember where he came from and what he had experienced, but he never expected that he would go to prison and the painting would be sold, and the price would get higher and higher, and it would get out of control.

Originally, we all thought that he was afraid that he would forget, so he hid secret clues about the Palace of Immortality or the elixir of immortality in the painting, so some people would bid madly to buy his paintings, so the logic is very correct.

But now this crucial piece of information is not right. If his memory is not problematic, the meaning of the painting may not be what we think.

I didn't give up, and asked Zhou Hong if there was anything else left by Xia Dongyi in the house, not necessarily paintings, anything.

She hung her head and was silent at first, and then stood up and walked to the back room to take out a shoebox, opened it and put it on the table next to us, saying that Xia Dongyi left behind clothes and shoes when she left her angry, and threw them away, the box is the letter written back by Xia Dongyi in recent years, a total of five, and the bottom of three remittance slips, all of which are relatively large. She said that she had withdrawn all the money and deposited it into her bank account, thinking that if she was old and had no support, she would have to have some money to have.

When she said this, she was cowardly, lest she be looked down upon, and accused her of being greedy for money or something. People in the countryside value reputation more than people in the city, because there are few villains in the place, and it is easy to be poked in the backbone for the rest of the life if you do something.

We opened each letter and read it carefully, it was very short, and we stopped talking in a few words, telling ourselves and our daughter that we were all right, persuading her to remarry, asking her if there were any difficulties in life and other trivial words. It's a pity that they are all ordinary family letters, with no special symbols and no iconic signatures.

The postmark is from Qianzhou, and the address left at the end of the last letter is the same townhouse we searched last time, and there is no mobile phone number or landline number.

After reading it again and again, I made sure that there was really nothing hidden, so I put the letter and the slip back in the box and returned it to Zhou Hong, and then asked her where she went half a month ago.

The question lingered in my throat for a few moments, waiting for her to let her guard down. Last time I proposed to come to Huaqiao Town to see Xia Dongyi's wife, Xiaohai asked me to wait a few days because I was not worried about the old man's condition, but I was afraid of delaying my affairs, so I called the wine master and asked him to help see if Zhou Hong was at home. Before leaving today, Xiaohai called the wine master again, and the wine master helped inquire, saying that Zhou Hong had returned, so she called me over.

Zhou Hong didn't understand what I was asking at first. reacted immediately, and then the whole person was wrong, the face that had finally eased up just now began to turn pale again, his nerves collapsed, his expression was panicked, and he instinctively closed his mouth tightly, lowered his head and did not speak.

I adjusted my tone a little more seriously, raised my voice, and asked again: "Where did you go half a month ago?!" ”

She pinched the corners of her clothes with both hands, and replied in a whisper that a relative in her mother's family was sick and called her to take care of her for a few days.

I asked her what kind of relatives she was in, where she was in, what her name was, and how many days she had been there. I asked a question to raise my voice one level, asked another level higher, asked the last question, raised my hand and slapped her the table of the eight immortals, almost shocking her to the ground, her whole body trembling, desperately trying to control but helplessness that she couldn't control.

She didn't answer.

Xiao Hai next to him interjected and said: "Your mother's home is in Liao Village, but the car you took half a month ago went in the opposite direction, and someone can see it clearly, and you can't deny it." ”

Zhou Hong quickly raised his head and glanced at Xiao Hai with an almost terrifying gaze, and immediately lowered his head again, continuing to be silent, his body trembling more and more, like a residual leaf hanging on a tree in the deep winter season.

Bai Yafeng also interjected, saying that he immediately called the town police station to find a policeman to immediately run to her mother's house and ask if there was any such thing as a relative being sick.

This next week, Zhou Hong was completely panicked, her body was crooked, and she was about to collapse to the ground, Xiaohai stretched out her hand and held her up, glaring at her fiercely.

Bai Yafeng waited impatiently, took off the handcuffs from his waist and slapped them on the table and yelled at her: "If you don't explain honestly, don't blame us for being rude!" ”

She finally became honest and told us that she had gone into the city half a month ago.

She said that she didn't lie just now, it was indeed her mother's relative who was sick, and there was no one around, so she called her to take care of her for a few days, and that relative lived in Qianzhou City, so she went to the city.

That relative is Zhou Changshou.

is the same Zhou Changshou who managed Xia Dongyi's works, fried the paintings at sky-high prices, and later spent money and effort to get Xia Dongyi out of prison on medical parole.

Before, I was too lazy to investigate and look for Zhou Changshou everywhere, but I couldn't find it, so I suspected that he was involved in some incident, I am afraid that there will be more and less luck, or he will flee to other places when he hears the wind, who would have thought that he has nothing to do at all, and he is still staying in Qianzhou!

I really didn't expect this stubble.

Zhou Hong said that Zhou Changshou was sick half a month ago, and she went to Qianzhou to take care of her, I believed it in my heart, but I made a look of disbelief on my face, and said with a sneer: "Zhou Changshou obviously has a wife and children, why do you want to come to beg you, a distant cousin, to take care of him when he is sick?" I can't think of a normal reason! ”

Her eyes flickered, and there was hatred in her expression, probably because she hated Zhou Changshou for causing her such a big trouble, and when she answered, her eyes looked at the ground, and her voice was very weak: "I don't know." He must have been in trouble, hiding in a place, with a fever of 40 degrees, and by the time I arrived, he was about to burn to death. I called 120 to get him into the hospital, and took care of him carefully, but as soon as he was sober, he was noisily discharged from the hospital, looking around as if he was afraid of being recognized by the enemy. I took him back to the shabby hotel, took care of him, took care of himself, left him some money, and came back. ”

Listening to the meaning of this, Zhou Changshou was indeed involved in some incident, someone was looking for him everywhere, he knew the danger, so he hid, he was sick and dying, and he didn't dare to contact his family, so he only let a cousin who didn't often move around take care of him.

I thought with my knees that it was Xia Dongyi's paintings that caused the trouble.

After repeated questioning, Zhou Hong finally told us the location of the hotel where Zhou Changshou was hiding. She said that before she came back, she promised to live a long life and not tell anyone about him, which is why she was so embarrassed.

Where can I take care of her embarrassment, I immediately took Xiaohai back to the car to find a way, and left Bai Yafeng in the hall to continue to ask her about the details of Zhou Changshou.