As soon as the news that Sun Daniu had returned spread, the yamen officials visited the Hejia village again to resume their investigation.

There was a lot of speculation going around. Some people exaggerated their stories, twisting it as they added their own opinion as if it was a fact.

"Sun Daniu eloped with a new woman, and in her grief, Qiu Mu went to the river and..."

The person didn’t continue their words, but the listener’s imagination could already guess the next words. Does that mean Qiu Mu’s death is actually not human-inflicted?

"It doesn’t make sense." Another person interjected. "If it’s Qiu Mu’s own doing, why would the yamen officials take so much effort going back and forth from their office to our Hejia village?"

"They are investigating! Do you know what that is? Maybe they haven’t determined the cause of Qiu Mu’s death and are still searching for a clue!"

"Hush, don’t recklessly speculate about the yamen official’s thoughts. In case they heard us and got offended..." the person trailed off, and everyone became quiet in an instant.

However, it was true that the yamen officials were suspecting Sun Daniu to be the person who had caused her death.

"Officers, please uphold justice!" Sun Daniu explained with a deathly pale face. As the yamen officials were interrogating him, they had bound his hands to stop him from escaping.

He desperately tried to extricate himself from the crime. "They all said that my wife died a month ago... it was a few days after I left home to work in the county. It’s not me, Officers! I am also deeply saddened by my wife’s death, please seek justice for our family!"

Sun Daniu began to howl like a pained man who was losing his wife, and the yamen officials’ mouth twitched. Seeing such a large man had tears streaming down his face was unbearable to look at.

They wanted to tell him to shut up, but upon remembering he had just found out about his wife’s death, their tone softened slightly. "Quiet!"

The yamen official glanced at his companion who was recording Sun Daniu’s confession. The other party had no more questions to ask, so they decided to leave.

This case had dragged on for so many days, and if not for the magistrate overseeing things, they might have marked Qiu Mu’s death as drowning in the river.

Fortunately, the magistrate also promised them some bonus if they could solve some cases for the common people. It could lessen the burden of this job.

Not long after, the two yamen officials left.

Sun Daniu called his son. "Tiezhu, hurry up and release your father!"

Looking at his bound father, Sun Tiezhu slowly approached him.

The yamen officials didn’t come to Hejia village just for the matter of Qiu Mu’s death investigation today. They all glanced at the house not far from where they were standing, and then they headed there.

***

[Mission Triggered.]

[Mission Objective: Your eldest brother suffered from a malicious entity and fell into a coma. Wake him up and solve his trouble.]

[Rewards: 1000 System points.]

Xiao Qingya sprang to her feet the moment she heard the notification in her mind.

Here it comes!

The moment she saw the reward, her eyes widened in shock. It was the highest reward point she had ever seen!

But... doesn’t this mean that the mission objective isn’t easy to achieve? Her shock soon turned into worry.

The family members around her had the same thought. What does this malicious entity mean, and what kind of trouble?

Fortunately, soon, the little one and the System gave an explanation.

[System, we will review this plot regarding Eldest Brother again. This part is quite tricky.] She scrunched her little nose.

[Eldest Brother suffered a coma, and then a wandering taoist... no, a scammer came and convinced the medicine boys around Eldest Brother’s Master that a ghost had taken fancy on him.]

[In order to solve this trouble, the wandering taoist promised that he would help them perform a ritual to chase away the ghost.]

[He also forbade them to inform Eldest Brother’s family, trying to frighten them that the ghost will become stronger around someone with a similar bloodline. However, one medicine boy secretly bribed yamen officials to inform us about this.]

The little one stopped pacing around the room. She frowned deeply, biting her nails.

[The wandering taoist will poison Eldest Brother. The so-called cure he is going to stuff into his mouth is actually poison that will instead leave permanent damage which weakens his constitution.]

It was normal for some scammers to have such tricks. In order to appear convincing, they would resort to harming people, trying to give off an impression that the person they were trying to cure was weak because the ghost had sucked away their energy.

Since yesterday, Xiao Qingya had been worrying about this. Alas, they didn’t know which yamen officials would pass by and inform them, so they had no choice but to be in the passive position and wait.

Zhou Anran immediately deduced that her eldest son had actually arrived in the county. As soon as she had this thought, she couldn’t wait to rush and headed toward the county.

It must have been Xiao Jingran’s Master who wanted to bring him home.

Not long after, they heard a few knocks on the door. The anxious Xiao family members couldn’t wait to open the door. Alas, Xiao Yuxi beat them into it.

Once the door opened, they saw two familiar yamen officials who had frequented the Sun family’s place. "Is this Xiao family’s house?"

"Yes, yes, Officers. I... my..." Xiao Yuxi stumbled upon her own words. She took a deep breath. "May I know what brings you here? We... our family isn’t in trouble, right?"

Luckily, she still remembered to watch her words carefully in front of their youngest sister. 𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Their mother had suspected that if Xiao Qingya or the System knew that they could hear their thoughts, the leaked inner thoughts would be forcibly closed.

Once that happened, they couldn’t help Xiao Qingya finish her tasks anymore.

"So, it’s like this..." The yamen official began.