Chapter 221: Wu Xiufen’s Family

I looked at Gu Chen and spoke up, “Out in the mountains, there’s no cell signal—definitely no internet. So the killer can’t be hiding deep in the mountains. They wouldn’t risk lingering on the roads, either, with so many people heading toward Xingdong Village. If a car was driving out there this late, it would stand out right away.”

Gu Chen nodded.

I kept my eyes on him. “And given the time constraints, the killer couldn’t have made it to another village or into the city. That means they’re still somewhere in this area. Honestly, they might be hiding here in this village.”

We both fell silent after that. A chill wind swept past, making us shiver in the darkness. If my guess was right, it was more than a little unsettling. Somewhere out there, while everyone was hunting for the killer in the dead of night, maybe the real culprit was still in the village, watching us from a shadowy spot, quietly mocking us while we couldn’t see them at all.

I pulled out my phone again and looked at the photo of Guan Zengbin. The background was gloomy, but the space behind him seemed huge. There aren’t many spacious, empty spots like that in Xingdong Village. The wall in the background was unfinished concrete—no paint, just a gray, rough texture.

That stood out in Xingdong Village. Even ordinary families would at least paint a wall white. It wouldn’t be left like some half-finished room. As I realized that, I quickly found the Village Chief, who’d been lingering nearby for a long while.

The chief had been basically invisible for the past few hours, but as soon as I called for him, he rushed over.

I showed him my phone. “Chief, take a look at this background. Do you recognize this spot? Is it somewhere in or near Xingdong Village?”

He took my phone. The instant he saw Guan Zengbin, his eyes widened in shock, and a blush crept across his wrinkled face. Still, now wasn’t the time for propriety—he focused hard on the wall behind Guan Zengbin in the picture.

He stared for a long moment and finally said, “Honestly, I can’t say for sure, but it looks a bit like the community center. Years ago, Wu Xiufen wanted to build a place like that here in the village—she even brought in a lot of cement. But for some reason, the whole thing was abandoned half-finished.”

I frowned. “Where is the community center? Is it a big place?”

He shook his head and waved his hand. “They talked about it like it was a done deal, but halfway through, something happened. Wu Xiufen suddenly announced she wasn’t building anymore. To be honest, we weren’t all that concerned about the center. Would’ve been nice, but it was no huge loss if it didn’t get done. Only one wall was built—no other walls.”

He glanced at my phone again, saying, “This room looks quite big. That bed in the photo looks like something from a hospital. Not sure how they got it in here. Based on the background, though, this can’t be the community center. The center only has one wall left standing; this is a closed-off space. And look how dim the lighting is. With my aging eyes, I can hardly make out what’s in the picture.”

Listening to him, I realized he was right. Compared to modern energy-saving lights, the one inside this place barely worked, and there were some dark corners the light couldn’t reach at all. That told me this place was both poorly lit and massive.

That bed might only be the tip of the iceberg—there could be a huge space beyond what we saw. So what was this place, really? In Xingdong Village, what kind of spot could be this big and still go unnoticed by the villagers?

Shaking my head, I asked the Village Chief about the old community center again. “Back when Wu Xiufen started building it, did she already have all the supplies—the stuff she needed to finish it?”

The chief nodded. “It wasn’t that long ago, maybe five or six years at most. I remember Wu Xiufen came to me and insisted she wanted to build this community center for the village. She hoped I’d approve a plot for her. It sounded like a great idea, so I agreed. I mean, who wouldn’t want more activities or cultural events for the villagers, right?”

“Absolutely,” I nodded.

He continued, “Right, so I approved a nice piece of land. But Wu Xiufen wouldn’t take it—she demanded a different plot, a more out-of-the-way place. I never really figured out why, since the other spot was pretty secluded and not somewhere villagers visited often.”

I frowned again, staying quiet to listen.

He went on, “We went back and forth a few times, but in the end, it was her money. Not like I could force her to use the land I picked. Eventually, I agreed to let her have the site she wanted. She managed the whole construction process herself. But somewhere along the line, she got into a fight with the workers. They all walked off, and Wu Xiufen was so angry she stopped the whole project.”

The Village Chief sighed. “At first, I thought she was just sulking. But soon it became clear she really was done. At least the land was pretty far away, so if she was never going to finish the center, we wouldn’t need to tear anything down.”

Leaning my left arm over my right shoulder, I rested my right arm on top. “A project like that needs tons of bricks and cement. Even if the crew walked off, couldn’t the villagers pitch in and finish it themselves?”

He shook his head again and explained, “Not exactly. All those bricks and bags of cement—turns out, Wu Xiufen sold them off, haul by haul.”

Something in what he said clicked for me. “Did anyone actually see her take away every single brick and bag of cement?”

The chief shook his head. “Nobody kept track, really. Who’d go out of their way to watch Wu Xiufen move construction supplies? It took about a week for her to finish moving everything. After that, the whole thing was done.”

I tugged at my hair. If this whole thing was a ruse—if Wu Xiufen never meant to build a community center at all but just wanted a cover to move in cement, bricks, even a hospital bed without arousing suspicion—it would’ve been a pretty smart plan.

The villagers only knew that, after a while, Wu Xiufen moved the supplies offsite. What they didn’t know was if she really moved every last bit. What if some was used to build the exact space in the background of the photo with Guan Zengbin? It wasn’t impossible.

That settled it—we needed to check out that old community center site. Who knew what we might turn up?

I checked my watch. Our discussion and all this back-and-forth had taken forty minutes. That left us with eighty more before the killer’s deadline. At 3 a.m., the killer would want to see that bowl completely intact. I didn’t know if Mary and the others had finished yet, or how much longer they’d need.

I said to Gu Chen, “Let’s go. We won’t get anything done standing around here. Chief, take us to the community center.”

The chief nodded. “Let’s drive. It’s about ten minutes away.”

With the Village Chief giving directions, Gu Chen started driving us toward the destination.

Right then, my phone rang—Xiao Liu was calling. Before I could say a word, he jumped straight in. “Wu Meng, I’ve found Wu Xiufen’s family—her husband and son. When I explained the situation to them, they both thought she’d been dead for years.”

I asked, “Did you find anything out? Why did Wu Xiufen abandon her husband and son and move to a village full of strangers? And why’d she marry someone else?”

“After she left, neither her husband nor her son ever saw her again. They had no idea she married again. But they remember the old days clearly. Ever since Wu Xiufang died, Wu Xiufen wasn’t the same.”

“She wasn’t the same?” I pressed.

Xiao Liu said, “That’s right. Years ago, Wu Xiufang hanged herself at the factory, right in front of Wu Xiufen and Wu Jianguo. It must have traumatized her. After that, she had nightmares every night. Not just once or twice—every single night. She couldn’t take living there anymore.”

“Nightmares? Did they know what she dreamed about?”

“Her family never found out. She was terrified all the time. It got so bad that she started acting paranoid even during the day. Normal life became impossible. The day they buried Wu Xiufang, after they got back from the cemetery, Wu Xiufen acted like she’d lost her soul. That very night, she vanished. She left behind thirty thousand yuan and took thirty thousand with her—and just disappeared for good.”

As Xiao Liu spoke, a scene formed in my mind. Maybe Wu Xiufang’s death wasn’t as straightforward as it seemed back then. If she really had taken her own life, would Wu Xiufen have been so deeply afraid? Maybe there’s something there—maybe that’s why Wu Xiufen burned black paper for over thirty years without stopping.

But what truth was she hiding?

“Can we find Wu Xiufang’s other relatives?” I asked.

“No leads yet,” Xiao Liu replied. “After Wu Xiufang died, her husband and child didn’t even attend her funeral or burial—the entire thing was handled by Wu Xiufen and Wu Jianguo. Tracking down her family won’t be easy.”

“I’ll keep digging,” Xiao Liu promised. “If I find anything, you’ll be the first to know.”