Chapter 243: The Little Girl

"You still remember my brother?" Feng Yongfu was moved and bent down to say softly.

"Of course. Back then, the two of them often came to play at my place, how could I not remember?" The old lady looked elderly, but her memory was still quite good.

"Them?" Qi Fei keenly heard the subtlety of this phrasing. "Are you talking about Feng Yongshou and Yu Hongxia?"

Unexpectedly, the old lady shook her head: "No, no. I mean him and that little girl. They often came to play at my place together. I even joked that this child Yongshou probably wanted to make this little girl his wife in the future!"

"Where did a little girl come from?" Feng Yongfu was the first to be puzzled. "The time I came with Yongshou, we didn't play with any little girl."

The old lady was very certain: "That little girl was pretty, wearing two braided pigtails. I wouldn't forget that."

"Perhaps..." Qi Fei probed, "do you still remember her name?"

The old lady waved her hand: "I only heard Yongshou call her Xiao Yun; I didn't know whose child she was. Come to think of it, it's strange. Besides playing with Yongshou, I never saw this little girl at other times. She wasn't from our community. I was puzzled back then, wondering where this child popped out from. I asked her, but the child was still young and couldn't explain it clearly.

A few times when I saw it was getting late, I offered to send her home, but she said no, she could go back herself. She seemed quite capable for such a young age.

Later I heard from Hongxia that Yongshou had returned to Sanwu Town, and that little girl never came again."

"Xiao Yun?" Hearing this name, Qi Fei had already furrowed his brows, trying hard to detach himself from personal emotions, and turned to the other elderly people who were also basking in the sun: "Have any of you seen Feng Yongshou playing with this girl named Xiao Yun?"

The elderly people began to chat. One old man wearing a blue work cap said to the old lady: "If you're talking about that boy at Yu Hongxia's house, I do remember. There was a girl who often played with him. I saw them walking by the river several times. Two such small children, with no adults around, I even went to advise them a few times. However, I remember these two children were very stubborn and wouldn't listen to advice. I even went to talk to Yu Hongxia about it. But, Yu Hongxia, as you all know..."

"Hmm? What does that mean?" Zhong Kui asked, not without curiosity.

"Yu Hongxia was an old maid, everyone knows that," the old man blurted out. "There's a reason she couldn't get married."

"Ahem." The old lady suddenly coughed twice on the side. "This person has been gone for so many years, you shouldn't talk about it."

"It doesn't matter," Zhong Kui induced. "We haven't met Yu Hongxia, and we really want to know what kind of person she was."

"Hehe, this Yu Hongxia, it's just two words—aloof!" The old man said immediately upon hearing this.

This evaluation was unexpected; Qi Fei and Zhong Kui looked at each other.

Qi Fei glanced at Feng Yongfu and said to the old man: "I heard she was quite caring toward the children of her relatives."

"Whether she was good to children, I don't know, but she ignored us neighbors completely." The old man seemed to have a strong opinion about Yu Hongxia. "In that era, she was educated and was a primary school teacher—amazing!" When he said this, the meaning was already very clear; it seemed he believed Yu Hongxia looked down on them.

"She was an educated person, we are rough people, what could we talk about? Of course, she made friends with people who were educated," the old lady insisted on smoothing things over.

"Yu Hongxia was a primary school teacher? In that case, could that girl named Xiao Yun be Yu Hongxia's student?" Wu Shanqiu immediately associated this on the side, but he couldn't help but stutter when saying the words "Xiao Yun." Everyone knew the possibility of this Xiao Yun being Xi Ziyun.

"That's possible. We neighbors also had children studying at Yu Hongxia's school. This young man is right; although this Yu Hongxia was aloof to us neighbors, she was quite good to the children," the old lady immediately chimed in.

"Good? She even quarreled with the students' parents!" The old man immediately disagreed again.

"Quarreled? You remember that so clearly?" A trace of suspicion flashed in Zhong Kui's eyes. "It seems you were very concerned about your neighbor Yu Hongxia?"

"This matter was a huge uproar back then; anyone still alive shouldn't have forgotten it," the old man said, not feeling guilty. "You all remember, right? Yu Hongxia was dragged to the ancient bridge by that man and beaten to death."

Hearing the old man say this, the elderly people basking in the sun nodded one after another, chattering as if they had returned to the scene of the onlookers that day.

Another old lady also chimed in: "Exactly. That man was so strong, he dragged Yu Hongxia all the way from her house to the ancient bridge. Yu Hongxia's clothes were all torn.

At first, everyone was spreading rumors that this man was dating Yu Hongxia.

Later, hearing that man cursing and saying Yu Hongxia was meddling in other people's business, we realized that this man was a parent, saying Yu Hongxia was meddling in his family affairs and wanted to teach her a lesson."

"Does anyone know who this man was?" Qi Fei asked.

"That's not clear. Yu Hongxia was very tight-lipped. Later, the police came and took the man away. Yu Hongxia didn't say anything and limped home."

"This Yu Hongxia has been dead for many years, why are you asking about her?" The old lady came to her senses, raised her drooping eyelids, and looked at the few people in front of her, asking.

"Nothing, this is my phone number. If you remember anything else about Feng Yongshou and that girl named Xiao Yun, give me a call." Qi Fei handed over his business card.

The old lady, who didn't know many characters, held the card in front of her eyes, barely able to recognize the Arabic numerals of the phone number on it, and muttered: "Did you come to ask about this last year? You look familiar."

Upon hearing this, Qi Fei immediately squatted in front of the old lady, bringing his face closer so she could see more clearly: "Are you saying that someone who looks a lot like me also came to ask about Yu Hongxia?"

The old lady examined Qi Fei's face carefully: "It's you, and it's not you. I'm old, I can't remember so many things."

Qi Fei slowly straightened up amidst the old lady's aged muttering—he certainly knew he hadn't been to the Baishui Residential District, and it was even more impossible for him to have asked about Yu Hongxia. This person who looked so much like him, without asking, had to be Xi He—this at least showed that the current investigation direction was correct.

"Brother Fei, I've checked. Yu Hongxia was a teacher at Guqiao Primary School. Although it's not certain whether the incident of the student's parent beating her that the old people mentioned is related to the case we are investigating, we can see if that girl named Xiao Yun was Yu Hongxia's student..." On the way back, Wu Shanqiu said. ===== CHAPTER 244 =====