"I missed the only chance to save her."
The old man hung his head, his words heavy with self-reproach and guilt. After a long pause, he continued: "A month later, I went to their house again, hoping the girl might have been found."
"I knocked for a long time. No one answered."
"I went around to the side and saw the window glass had been smashed. When I peered through, I found the girl's mother lying by the window, one hand still resting on the edge of the frame."
"It looked like she had been trying to get out, but the room had been built like a prison — the window was far too narrow to squeeze through."
"I grabbed a farming tool and smashed the lock on the wooden door. The girl's father had built it solidly — it took several minutes of pounding before the door finally gave way."
"A faint stench hung in the air inside. Chairs and tables had been overturned, food scattered across the floor. The girl's father lay face-down just inside the doorway, the other side of the door covered in deep scratch marks."
"He must have been in terrible pain…"
"I called the police, called an ambulance, and was about to rush back to the village for help when the door of the other wooden cabin next door suddenly opened."
"The Zhu family's second daughter — that well-behaved, sensible little girl — walked out."
"It was only when I saw the keys in her pocket that it suddenly hit me — the door had been locked from the outside!"
"There were almost no outsiders who came into this mountain valley, and the villagers kept their distance from the couple. No one would have had any reason to poison them and then lock them inside. Given the situation, there was only one person I could think of as the culprit — the Zhu family's youngest daughter."
"I looked at that little girl and she suddenly seemed like a stranger to me. I even felt a chill of fear. To this day, I still can't understand why she did it."
"Perhaps it was for her sister. Perhaps she saw her own future in what happened to her sister — after all, the youngest girl had a mild deformity too, though it was barely noticeable."
"Maybe… she was protecting herself?"
"What happened next was even more terrifying."
"When the girl saw me, she showed no fear, no panic. She simply walked over as she always did."
"She lifted her delicate face with that well-behaved expression, but the words that came from her mouth turned my blood to ice."
"Her tone was perfectly calm, devoid of any emotional fluctuation. She told me her sister had been buried in the peach grove a few weeks ago, and she hoped I could help her find her sister."
"I wanted to tell her that once a person is buried in the ground, it means they're dead. I tried to explain what death meant, but she just laughed happily and told me that people become something else after they die — and that her sister had never really left!"
The old man gripped his own hand, squeezing hard. Even now, just recalling the scene, cold sweat still broke out on his forehead: "I didn't know how to talk to that child. I ran back to the village alone, brought a few young men to keep watch around the peach grove, and waited for the police to arrive."
"After that came a long investigation. I told the police there might be more bodies buried in the peach grove, but they never found Zhu Xinrou."
"They tried to use the little girl as a lead, but she refused to communicate with anyone — as though she had suddenly become mute."
"Out of guilt toward Zhu Xinrou, I didn't accuse her sister. In my eyes, those two parents didn't deserve to be called parents either." The old man's voice carried a bitter edge. "That couple used to beat their children regularly. When the people who had fled from the coffin village wanted to execute Zhu Xinrou, not only did they not try to stop it — they practically gave their tacit approval. If the people of our Bai family village hadn't intervened, that inhumane tragedy might really have come to pass."
Chen Ge listened in silence, his brow furrowed. A three-star trial mission — the old man's tale had pushed the difficulty up another level. He had been dreading this moment.
His phone buzzed. A new message had appeared on the app.
"Three-star trial mission: The Coffin Village's Last Seed. Mission location: Lincun Village peach grove. Mission requirement: Uncover the truth behind the death of the Zhu family's eldest daughter. Failure penalty: Unknown."
"Reward for completion: Unlock a new ability."
Chen Ge stared at the screen. The mission had appeared the moment the old man finished his story — as though the app had been listening, waiting for this very moment.
"Boss Bai," Chen Ge said slowly, "I have one more question. That girl — the Zhu family's youngest daughter — where is she now?"
The old man's expression darkened. He was quiet for a long time before he spoke, his voice barely above a whisper: "She disappeared the very next day after I found the bodies. No one in the village ever saw her again."
"But sometimes… sometimes the villagers say they catch a glimpse of a little girl wandering through the peach grove at night. They say she's still looking for her sister."
The wind picked up, rustling through the branches overhead. Chen Ge pulled his coat tighter around himself and glanced toward the distant peach grove, where the trees stood like silent sentinels against the darkening sky.
"Then I'll find her," Chen Ge said, pocketing his phone. "Both of them."