Rebirth 78, the beginning of the marriage was broken off by the female educated youth

Is Wan Shuisheng smart enough?

of course!

Are the people behind him clever enough?

of course!

If they weren't smart, they would never have thought of using the trick of walking into a trap to get Wan Shuisheng and his snake into the Yanjing Public Security Bureau!

The line of thought then diverged, and Wan Shuisheng confessed to stealing the two files from the Municipal Bureau.

But what if Wan Shuisheng lied at the time, or what if his voluntary confession was still part of the plan?

For example, Wan Shuisheng's Old Snake only went to this underground archive to steal files, with the purpose of letting Li Xiangnan and Guo Qian know about this matter, which aroused their curiosity and made them want to know which two files Old Snake wanted to steal!

With this objective in mind, and given their outstanding abilities, Li Xiangnan and Guo Qian would inevitably spend some time successfully finding the files from that year after thwarting their conspiracy.

They will go find it themselves; Wan Shuisheng and his old snake don't need to do anything, because the latter two have already achieved their goal!

Perhaps there is no such thing as pheromones, no such thing as scouting in advance, and no such thing as having a mole in the bureau who knows the location of the two files and cannot take them out.

From beginning to end, the movements of Li Xiangnan and Guo Qian were all under the observation of the person behind Wan Shuisheng!

Now, even Song Ziming has found that old file, which was part of that person's plan!

His goal was to get Li Xiangnan to find the files from back then!

In the vast underground space, amidst the deathly silence, by the time the three of them understood this truth, their backs were completely soaked with cold sweat.

Song Ziming's mind worked quickly. After taking a big gulp of tea, he pondered, "Brother Nan, if what you say is true, the logic makes sense! Moreover, judging from our previous encounter with Wan Shuisheng, these people are indeed incredibly intelligent, almost demonic, and terrifying. They might really be capable of scheming to the extreme!"

Wang Defa turned to look into the darkness, his tone unusually somber, "After all, in such a large place, finding two files is no easy task. They'll have to find them themselves—"

"Why don't I look for it!" Li Xiangnan chimed in, looking into the darkness beyond the reach of the flashlight, a hint of apprehension creeping into his heart for the first time at the absent watch.

"Damn it, we've been used as pawns!" Wang Defa cursed under his breath.

Song Ziming placed the box he had found on the ground, sat down, and held up a flashlight, saying, "But what I'm still curious about is, if their goal really is those two files, then why?"

Yeah, why?

What good are finding two files?

What good does knowing what happened back then do?

Recalling the past? Appreciating the bitterness of the past? Inspiring the present? Providing guidance for today?

What is the significance of this in reality?

Li Xiangnan lit his last cigarette, sat cross-legged on the floor, and took the ashtray from the table. "I think there must be some information in those two files that they're interested in! And it must be valuable, even more valuable than life itself in their eyes!"

Therefore, they were willing to let Wan Shuisheng commit a shocking crime, and even take his life!

"Then I'm really curious, what can that file from the Mu family reveal! And what exactly is the other file?!" Wang Defa rubbed his hands together and called out to Song Ziming, "Hurry up, Song, let me see!"

Song Ziming turned to look at Li Xiangnan, who nodded silently. He then took a deep breath and slowly pushed the wooden box to the ground between the three of them.

This is the case file from the Mu family's fire case back then!

This contains clues about my grandmother's disappearance years ago.

This also involves a major secret hidden by the Mu family.

When Li Xiangnan was finally able to see through the traces of history and touch the artifacts from his grandmother's era, he felt both excited and overwhelmed.

This wooden box was already covered with signs of insect damage; it was the closest he had ever been to his grandmother, Mu Huanying.

Wang Defa's eyes were practically popping with anticipation.

"Calm down, calm down!" Li Xiangnan reached out and pressed the wooden box, feeling the warmth of this decades-old object, then slowly opened it and saw an extremely heavy kraft paper scroll.

The file was dark in color, almost blending into the surrounding shadows, and the hemp rope binding the seal had become fragile due to its age.

"Turn on the lights!" Li Xiangnan handed the flashlight to Defa, looked down at the old-fashioned label with calligraphy on it, and read out the label: "Mu Family Fire Case - Case No. 9 (Class A) - Top Secret!"

Li Xiangnan's pupils suddenly contracted.

Wang Defa, who was stretching his head, couldn't help but exclaim "Holy crap!" to himself.

"Top secret?" He glanced at Song Ziming from outside. "Do you have a lot of stuff here?"

Song Ziming shook his head. "I just picked it up casually. Box number 9 was the last one. There were similar boxes before it, but once I saw this one, I didn't have the energy to look at the others! But judging from the label, there should be other boxes with numbers like 'B' or 'C', and in terms of quantity, there might be boxes like 'One, Two, Three'!"

Li Xiangnan hurriedly asked, "How did you find out?"

Song Ziming's voice was solemn, and there was a response in the empty underground space. "I only looked for arson and missing persons cases. I searched through all the cases from the last ten or twenty years, but I didn't find them. So I flipped back and found all the files from the last forty to fifty years. They were on the shelf over there in the Xun Li position! They were hidden very deep. I guess no one has been there for many years. It's all covered in dust!"

Li Xiangnan nodded, touching the heavy file and feeling the coldness and roughness of his fingertips, as if his soul was standing on that night of disaster.

He took the wooden box behind him, and Wang Defa tacitly used the corner of his clothes to wipe away the dust on the ground.

Then, Li Xiangnan slowly unfolded the file.

A strong musty smell, mixed with the stench of rotting paper and leather, immediately filled the air.

Inside was a thick stack of yellowed and brittle documents.

The above are several black and white photos.

The three of them took a deep breath and looked down.

The image in the photo is blurry, and only the charred outline of broken walls and ruins can be vaguely seen, like the entrance to hell.

"Holy crap, it's the ruins of the Mu family!" Wang Defa had been there before and recognized it at a glance.

Li Xiangnan glanced at the photos briefly, moved them aside one by one, took a deep breath, and looked at the on-site investigation record that concerned the Mu family's secrets from decades ago.

The text is written in traditional Chinese characters in vertical format, with a brush pen. The notes are neat and unrestrained, seemingly concealing the writer's anger.

[In the autumn of the 29th year of the Republic of China, at 11:45 PM, a sudden fire broke out at the Mu family residence. Fueled by the wind, the fire quickly spread.]

According to neighbors and guests who were invited but did not attend, there seemed to be a gathering at the Mu family's house the night before, with many people invited and the house bustling with noise and brightly lit.

After the fire was extinguished, an investigation of the scene revealed nineteen sets of remains, all severely charred and unrecognizable. Inquiries were made with neighbors and acquaintances, but none could identify the bodies.

After six days of coroner's work, the remains were barely discernible, consisting of six female corpses and thirteen male corpses.

[The entire Mu family, including servants and gatekeepers, numbered a total of 121 people. Apart from three corpses suspected to be those of guests, whose identities are unknown, the rest… direct and collateral relatives of the Mu family, including tenants, all disappeared after the fire; none were found alive, and none of their remains were recovered.]

Six months after the incident, a follow-up investigation yielded no results, and all the unidentified remains were temporarily placed in a mass grave on the outskirts of the city.

boom!

After reading the entire on-site investigation report, Li Xiangnan's brain seemed to have been struck by a thunderbolt, instantly shutting down...