ALL NOVEL Chapter 2: Who are you
While moving the body, Ning Zhe stole the cell phone from the pocket of the man in the vest. There was a hundred-dollar bill in the black phone case, but no identity documents such as an ID card or driver's license.
Ning Zhe didn't know the lock screen password of the man in the vest, so he used the fingerprint of his corpse to unlock the screen. After unlocking, the first thing Ning Zhe did was to enter the system settings and set the automatic lock to "never", and then he began to look through the various messages in the man's phone.
——About three hours after a person dies, the weak bioelectricity in his cells will completely disappear. At this time, mobile phones and other electronic devices will not be able to recognize his fingerprints.
The WeChat nickname of the man in the vest is 'AAA Qiaogaoli Fitness Club - Coach Zhiyuan', and his real-name authentication is 'Lin*yuan'.
Lin Zhiyuan has many WeChat friends, most of whom are female users with the notes "client" or "student". In a recent chat with a female client named Cai, Lin Zhiyuan mentioned that he would go back home to visit his elderly parents and would ask a colleague to cover for a few days.
The other person replied with an emoticon saying "I miss you".
Looking through the Moments, Lin Zhiyuan's last post was yesterday morning. The content was "The food at the service station is too expensive. It's expensive and greasy. I need to lose weight for a month after eating one meal." The picture was an N1 coupe parked next to a charging station.
"Lin Zhiyuan was complaining about the greasy food at the highway service station yesterday morning, which means he entered the village at least after that." Ning Zhe recalled how he entered Hejia Village. He was dragged here at 7 a.m., a few hours earlier than Lin Zhiyuan.
After confirming that the traffic was open, Ning Zhe sent a message to the female customer named Cai: "Are you there?"
A red exclamation mark is displayed on the left side of the message, indicating that sending failed.
"It failed again." Ning Zhe was not surprised.
Looking at the call records and chat interface, we can see that Lin Zhiyuan called each of the contacts marked as parents, girlfriend, etc. several times, and also used the operator's emergency call function, but all these attempts to contact the outside world failed.
Ning Zhe was not surprised by this, because he was the same. Since entering Hejia Village, he had completely lost all contact with the outside world. The 4G signal was full, but he could not send or receive even a single message.
A normal person might feel frustrated about this situation, but Ning Zhe is not a normal person. For some reason, Ning Zhe quit WeChat and called his own phone number using Lin Zhiyuan's phone.
Buzz—buzz—
There was a buzzing vibration on his thigh, and the phone in his pocket was dialed.
At this time, footsteps were heard outside the ancestral hall.
Ning Zhe hung up the phone, put Lin Zhiyuan's phone into his coat pocket with the screen on, and concentrated on listening for footsteps outside the door.
When Lin Zhiyuan came in before, the sound of the air-cushioned sneakers on his feet stepping on the yellow soil and stone roads was very dull, but this time his footsteps were crisp and loud, and the sound of the hard heels hitting the ground was not just one sound, but two.
Ning Zhe's eyes were fixed on the door. A middle-aged man in a suit and a long-haired woman in an OL uniform walked in. There were a few spots of yellow mud on their exquisite leather shoes and high heels.
"How could it be him?" Ning Zhe was a little surprised.
He knew the middle-aged man, although the other party might not know him.
Ning Zhe knew this man from the news. His name was Zhang Yangxu, and he was the head of the New World Group, the largest real estate development company in Qinzhou. Ning Zhe left school and returned to his rural hometown because Zhang Yangxu's company was interested in acquiring land nearby to develop a new park in his hometown town, Gubei Town. Ning Zhe's house was on the list of Zhang Yangxu's company that was expected to be demolished.
But his grandparents at home are illiterate, so he, a high school student, needs to take a few days off and go back home.
"Zhang Yangxu has also been dragged into this place. ...Yes, I saw it in the local news before. The senior executives of the 'New World Group' will come to Gubei Town for a field investigation in the next few days to finalize the land acquisition contract with the local government. I didn't expect that the president would come in person. The woman next to him should be Zhang Yangxu's secretary or assistant."
With the fragmented information, Ning Zhe roughly deduced what happened: "Lin Zhiyuan was dragged into this place when he returned to his hometown to visit his relatives. I was dragged into this place on my way home to help my grandparents look at the demolition contract. And Zhang Yangxu and that woman were dragged into this place when they came to Gubei Town for a field investigation?"
Is there any connection between this strange village called Hejia Village and my hometown, Gubei Town?
In confusion, Ning Zhe watched Zhang Yangxu and the woman in an OL uniform walk to the lotus platform where the statue of the snake god was enshrined.
Zhang Yangxu took out his cell phone with one hand and turned on the flashlight, and with the other hand he held down the almanac paper that was fluttering in the wind, and carefully examined the contents on it. Soon, he had the same doubts as Lin Zhiyuan before, the contents of the almanac did not match the taboo he had violated yesterday.
He glanced at the screen of his mobile phone and frowned. "It's the twenty-third day of the fourth lunar month. What's displayed is today's content. The almanac has been turned over."
Zhang Yangxu's voice was low and a little smokey, and his tone was calm and serious: "Someone has been here."
The woman next to him whispered, "Are they villagers?"
Please...collect 6...9...books...!
Zhang Yangxu shook his head. "We noticed this when we came here. All the doors on this street were locked from the inside. No villager has left their house tonight."
"Not villagers? Then...?" The woman's voice was puzzled and uncertain: "Could there be other people involved here besides us?"
"It's possible." Zhang Yangxu did not deny it.
"...He just said that the two of them walked along the street and checked whether the doors were locked. If that's the case?" Ning Zhe simply calculated the time in his mind, and a stone fell to the ground: "It seems that if we just leave the house and walk on the streets in the village, we won't violate the taboo of 'travel'."
There are other taboos on traveling.
After determining whether today would be good or bad, Ning Zhe had no intention of further contacting Zhang Yangxu and the others. In this environment, no one was trustworthy. A few steps behind the pillar where he was hiding was the side door of the ancestral hall. It was time to leave from there.
Ning Zhe looked vigilantly at Zhang Yangxu and the other man who were discussing in front of the snake god statue. He turned his back to the side door and slowly backed away with light steps. The cold evening breeze blew in from outside the door, chilling his back.
Before he could retreat to the door, suddenly, a scream accompanied by crying sound came from behind Ning Zhe.
"Who are you..."