When the book-traveling little detective meets the two-faced prince

Qiao Ying, who had acted like a lunatic for eleven years, now spoke fluently and calmly like a normal person. Everyone stood there in shock as if struck by lightning, with astonishment and fear written all over their faces.

The voice he spoke was very similar to Guan Ziheng's, but unlike Guan Ziheng's cheerful and sunny voice, there was a hint of melancholy in his voice.

Even though he appeared calm and composed, his slightly evasive gaze when he looked at Lin Lezhi betrayed his inner hesitation.

"I know you won't hurt Ziheng."

Qiao Ying stood there in a daze.

As if he thought he had heard it wrong, he looked at Lin Lezhi with stiff and dull eyes.

"why?"

he blurted out.

When he was ready to tell everything, he was prepared to be scolded, but he received words that were almost comforting.

He said.

He knew he would not hurt Guan Ziheng.

He stared at Lin Lezhi with his eyes fixed, as if he had grabbed a life-saving straw in the swamp.

"If you really don't care about the lives of the people who come to the island, you can just attract more white snakes. There's no need to take the risk of pretending to be Guan Ziheng and coming back. Anyway, everyone who comes to the island is dead, and the people of Pinghai Town who don't know the whole story will only think that it's a water ghost who's taking their lives. You can just change your identity and start a new life somewhere where no one knows you, but you didn't. Feng Yuan had a conflict with you before, and you didn't give up his life lightly, so how could you abandon the lives of everyone here?"

"..."

"When you said you failed at the last hurdle, you were referring to Wu Sanshan and County Magistrate Chang, because they were not part of your plan. You never thought of involving them, nor did you think of hurting other people. You wanted to end it all by yourself and avenge the people of Huaifeng Village who were unjustly killed that year. But the intervention of the two of them forced you to change your plan."

Listen and.

Qiao Ying couldn't help but widen her eyes, her eyes full of astonishment.

What Lin Lezhi said was almost the whole truth, as if it had penetrated into his heart.

There was gratitude and admiration in Qiao Ying's eyes, and she said from the bottom of her heart: "I thought I did it perfectly, but I didn't expect that nothing could be hidden from Jiang Guitan."

Feng Yuan was also stunned along with Qiao Ying, with a complex mix of emotions in his eyes.

Almost all the conflicts and struggles in Feng Yuan's heart were shown on his face.

When Feng Yuan found out that Qiao Ying was the mastermind behind this case, he was angry and resentful, and he wanted to kill Qiao Ying to vent his anger.

If it weren't for the incident caused by Qiao Ying, which forced County Magistrate Chang to order the ships to be closed, the fishermen in Pinghai Town would not have lost their only way to make money.

Fishing is hard-earned money. Under the wind and sun, you can't make much money in a year. It's the hard work every day that makes it possible to barely make a living. Closing the boats for a month will undoubtedly push all the fishermen into a desperate situation.

It was also because of him that those people who shouldn't have landed on the island were in danger, and he was bitten by a snake and lost half of his leg.

He had reason to be angry.

Can……

If Qiao Ying held a grudge against me for insulting him, I wouldn't be alive today.

If I were in Qiao Ying's shoes, could I really let go of the hatred in my heart and not seek revenge for my dead fellow villagers?

He couldn't answer, and therefore couldn't say a word. He just sat there dejectedly.

"That's not right." Hong Mingxu, who was standing by, suddenly spoke up and questioned, "After Chang Feizhang set up the scene in the tomb that night, the exit to the mountains behind the lake was sealed. Qiao Ying rescued Feng Yuan after that. How could he return to Pinghai Town?"

Lin Lezhi easily took over the conversation and said, "Who said there is only one road leading to the mountains behind the island?"

After hearing what Lin Lezhi said, Hong Mingxu and Cheng Su's eyes obviously darkened.

Hong Mingxu and Cheng Su looked at each other and asked with deep eyes, "Are there any other ways?"

Lin Lezhi nodded and said, "The lake island and the mountains behind it are not far apart. People who are not familiar with water may not be able to swim. However, Qiao Ying is from Huaifeng Village and has lived by the lake since he was a child. He must be familiar with water. It should not be difficult for him to swim across the lake."

As he spoke, Lin Lezhi cast a questioning look at Qiao Ying.

Qiao Ying was obviously stunned for a moment, then nodded and said affirmatively: "Yes, I swam over there."

After getting Qiao Ying's answer, Lin Lezhi looked at Hong Mingxu again, and said with certainty, "When Guo Yong and his group stole the treasures from the tomb, the door of the tomb must have closed. If it weren't for the terrain, there wouldn't have been so many snakes in the villages near Haibei and Hainan."

Lin Lezhi’s meaning is very simple.

Almost all snakes can swim. If snakes can swim, why can't humans?

There is nothing wrong with Lin Lezhi's inference.

After getting this answer, Hong Mingxu didn't find fault with it, but his face showed obvious dissatisfaction, as if this was not the answer he wanted. He looked very disappointed and heavy, and Cheng Su's expression was not relaxed either.

After a moment of silence, Lin Lezhi looked at Qiao Ying again, with a look of scrutiny in his eyes. He said, "Did you make up the name Qiao Ying?"

Seeing Qiao Ying was stunned for a moment, with some hesitation in her eyes, Lin Lezhi continued: "After all, if you want revenge, you must hide your original name and not let others know that you are from Huaifeng Village."

Qiao Ying looked a little uncomfortable and said with a wry smile, "Sure enough... I can't hide it from Detective Jiang..."

"Qiao Ying. Although you don't want to implicate innocent people, there are people who are willing to die to protect you. Even if they didn't mean to, they still implicated innocent people. If you don't tell them the truth, you'll be putting them in an unjust situation."

The words fell.

Qiao Ying's eyes suddenly narrowed, and at the same time, she tightened her hand holding the lantern, her eyes filled with earth-shaking fear.

However, the shock in his eyes was far less than the raging waves in his heart.

Everyone present knew that the 'they' Lin Lezhi was talking about were Wu Sanshan and Chang Feizhang. How could he pretend not to know and absolve himself of his guilt?

Knowing this, Qiao Ying did not struggle for too long.

Worried that he would damage the lantern, he gently put the lantern aside.

"My real name is Qi Xi. My father is Qi Fengnian and my mother is Tao Yingxue. There are only about 120 people in the whole village including my family. My father has read some books and can read, so he has to go out to handle all the affairs in the village. He is often not in the village. If there is something that needs to be conveyed, the villagers ask my mother to tell my father. As time goes by, my mother can also learn a lot of words, and she is very happy about it."

"At that time, I was just thirteen years old. I was very naughty and didn't listen to my parents' daily teachings. My parents didn't expect me to be very talented. They just hoped that I could learn some words so that I could help the village in the future. But I found it boring and had no interest in reading. Every day, I went to the woods to read, but in fact I sneaked out through the tomb passage to play. Because I sneaked out to play, I came back late that day and didn't die with my fellow villagers..."

He slowly recounted everything that had happened in the past, and it was unclear whether he was filled with sadness, anger, or both. His voice couldn't help but tremble a little.

The fists at my sides clenched tighter and tighter, the joints turned white, and my nails dug deep into my flesh without me feeling any pain.

Qi Fengnian was often not in the village, but that night happened to be Ghost Festival, so all those who were away would come back and the whole village would gather together for a meal.

Like the people in Pinghai Town, they would pray and pay tribute to their ancestors.

Everyone thought that it was an ordinary family reunion night, where everyone got together to chat happily, was very happy, got drunk, and had no guard against anything.

No one expected that at the happiest moment, a group of thieves broke in and massacred the entire village.

The young and strong men in the village rose up to resist, but the wine they drank had been drugged long ago, and they could only watch their loved ones being hacked to pieces until they were no longer able to breathe.

But Qi Xi knew that his fellow villagers had been drugged, so he waited for quite some time. Then he returned to the island and found a lot of white powder in the fire room used for the banquet that day.

He no longer had any desire to survive and only wanted to die, so he swallowed the powder.

But the result...

He just took a nap. In his dream, he heard his parents reading books carefully. They didn't sneak out to play every day. Everything was just as usual, which he thought was boring.

He continued to be bored like this until he grew up and his parents grew old. He took over their work and did what he could for his fellow villagers.

Can……

Wait until he wakes up.

He realized that it was all a dream. He didn't want to wake up, but he would wake up eventually. He looked at the empty and lifeless Huaifeng Village, where no one was talking anymore and it was cold and deserted.

Telling myself everything.

Huaifeng Village is gone.

everything……

It's all gone.

He hated himself, wondering why he ran away secretly that day and why he didn't die with his father, mother and fellow villagers.

Just as he walked to the edge of the cliff, intending to jump off the cliff to end his life, looking at the mountains behind the island, he suddenly remembered the group of thieves who broke into Huaifeng Village that night.

Looking at the mountains, his heart, which was already as if it was being cut by a knife, suddenly felt a sudden pain. It felt as if his heart was splitting along the line where the knife had cut it, and broke into several pieces.

He questioned himself in his heart.

If he had not brought one of the thieves here to see the scenery that day and be proud of the Feng Shui treasure land he discovered, his parents and fellow villagers would not have died.

When my parents and fellow villagers saw the thieves who were supposed to have left come back and kill people indiscriminately.

When you see the thieves' faces, will they be filled with surprise? In the next second, they will wonder how the thieves came to the island, and then they will realize that it is their fault.

Are they also blaming themselves?

He called himself a useless waste, saying that it would be bad enough if he could not help the whole village, but he also brought a group of wolves here and let them die in such pain.

It was he who killed his parents and his fellow villagers.

and so.

From that day on, he vowed to kill the gang of thieves, and after paying for his crimes, he would go down and make amends to the villagers.

At that time, they can scold me however they want.

He admits them all.

He will make amends.