Chapter 247: Boat God

"Right, this person always walked the night road when he was drunk. Before the accident, we said this would happen sooner or later," Old Xu said as a matter of course.

"Were there any eyewitnesses back then?"

"I haven't heard of that. In the middle of the night, except for drunkards, who would come out? It was the next day his daughter said her father didn't come back, and kind neighbors helped look for him together. Suspecting he fell into the water, they thought of finding us boat drivers to help look. I didn't expect to really find him under my boat. It's really bad luck!" Old Xu said, still holding a grudge about this matter.

"And no one called the police?" Qi Fei's expression became more and more solemn.

"Call the police for what? Isn't this just an accident?" Old Xu blurted out.

Zhong Kui had already seen Qi Fei's suspicion and pointed it out: "If Xi Zhangjiang fell into the water by accident, then the place where you said he was injured is wrong."

Old Xu was confused: "What do you mean? His face had such a big tear, one eyeball fell out, hanging there like a grape, and here..." He gestured while speaking, pointing to his own ankle. It seemed the wounds on Xi Zhangjiang's corpse back then left a deep impression on Old Xu, and he rambled on, repeatedly describing them.

Qi Fei and Zhong Kui exchanged a look and said: "If the wound on the face can be said to be caused by hitting the boat, then the situation of the ankle injury is too hard to imagine, unless he didn't fall into the water by accident." However, when he said this, he, who originally had firm eyes, suddenly hesitated—not falling into the water by accident, he just felt as if something was blocked in his chest, and he muttered, "Not falling into the water by accident..."

At this moment, Zhong Kui's gaze crossed Old Xu and looked at a small shrine hanging on the wall of the cabin behind him, and suddenly asked: "Were those two statues originally placed like that?"

Everyone followed her question, and their gazes were cast toward the shrine. Because of the long time, this wooden shrine had already developed a patina, turning red and shiny. What was eye-catching were the statues placed inside. Generally, a shrine would only have one statue, such as Guanyin or Guan Gong, but this shrine had two statues, one on the left and one on the right. On the left was an old man, on the right was an old lady, both smiling and sitting face to face.

"Eh? What kind of gods are these? I've really never seen them." Wu Shanqiu said on the side.

"This is the Boat God who blesses our safety, Meng Gong and Meng Lao. It's not easy for you to see them if you don't drive a boat. Before driving the boat, bow three times and call three times, remove all taboos, travel ten thousand miles..." Old Xu said, making a puzzled sound. "Who moved this? Generally, they aren't placed like this." He reached out and turned the two statues, changing them from face-to-face to sitting facing outward, toward them. The smiles were lifelike, as if they really had spirituality.

However, as he fiddled with the statues, something fell down. The familiar "clanging" sound rang out, and a glass marble bounced a few times on the ground, rolling to Jiang Tianyi's feet with the swaying water waves.

Jiang Tianyi bent down to pick it up, but before he could look at it carefully, it had already been snatched away by Zhong Kui.

The marble refracted the ripples of the Luomeng River in her palm, reflecting into her clear eyes.

"This marble!" Wu Shanqiu's tone couldn't help but rise. "It's the same as the one found in the envelope at Teacher Qu's place. Is it left by Xi He again?"

Qi Fei had already walked to the shrine at some point and carefully took out a thin red thread from inside. "It seems we found the answer to the second riddle."

The color of this thread was the same as the color of the life jacket placed on the side; it seemed to have been torn off from it.

Wu Shanqiu was a bit puzzled, looking at Qi Fei and then at Zhong Kui: "What kind of riddle is this? What on earth do you two know?"

Zhong Kui revealed a trace of a sinister smile, walked toward the shrine, took the red thread from Qi Fei's hand, ignored Old Xu's protest, and reached out to restore the statues that had just been adjusted by Old Xu to their previous state, a man and a woman face to face. Then she placed the two ends of the red thread in the hands of the two statues respectively.

After doing this, she took half a step back, crossed her arms in front of her chest, looked at the Meng Gong and Meng Lao in the shrine, and said to Old Xu on the side: "Old man, if I'm not mistaken, the wound on Xi Zhangjiang's ankle was a long, thin abrasion, right?"

Old Xu opened his cloudy old eyes in surprise: "How do you know?"

Zhong Kui didn't answer immediately, looking at the shore of the Luomeng River. The bottom of the shore was piled with rubble to prevent the riverbank from collapsing during the flood season, the hard edges shining white toward the sky under the scorching sun.

Everything seemed clear.

"Rather than saying Xi Zhangjiang stepped into the air and fell, it's better to say he tripped. He tripped on something near the riverbank, fell headfirst into the river, and his face hit the rubble under the riverbank, which is why there was a severe tear wound on his face," Zhong Kui said, looking at the riverbank. "Heh, that person also discovered it, so when he came here last time, he arranged the statues like that, but..." She said, her gaze moving to the two statues of Meng Gong and Meng Po, from the statues to the red thread, "A man and a woman..." she muttered, then looked at Qi Fei again.

Qi Fei's face had already become gloomy to the point of no return.

Wu Shanqiu was reasoning seriously without distraction: "If Xi He wanted to use the statues to remind us, could it be that Xi Zhangjiang didn't trip by accident? Was someone deliberately pulling a rope waiting for him?"

"Old Xu just said that everyone knew Xi Zhangjiang would pass by the river when he was drunk at night back then." Qi Fei said this inexplicably.

As soon as he spoke, Zhong Kui's sharp gaze swept over: "What do you want to defend? Who do you want to defend?"

Qi Fei was asked by her two consecutive questions, his throat choked, his face flushed: "I... I'm just stating a fact."

"Then what is the motive for murder?" Zhong Kui was relentless.

"Ahem." Jiang Tianyi coughed twice beside them at the right time.

Nothing needed to be said; Jiang Tianyi's existence seemed to be Liu Tong's reminder—Qi Fei had to remain neutral during the investigation of the case.

Qi Fei took a deep breath, suppressing his surging emotions: "I know you suspect my mother... no, that Xi Zi Yun did it. But there are a few things in this that can't be explained. Just as Xi He hinted, pulling a rope requires two people, and at that time, Xi Zi Yun was just a child. How could she plan such a meticulous murder plan?"

"A man and a woman," Zhong Kui said only four words.

Qi Fei was stunned. Only one person's name appeared in his mind, and then he couldn't help but say it out: "Feng Yongshou?"

"A strong bond must be because the two have experienced unusual things. Just being playmates during the summer vacation on the ancient street is not enough to make Feng Yongshou unable to forget it after growing up," Zhong Kui said coldly. ===== CHAPTER 248 =====