Chapter 149: Meticulous Mind

I realized I had spoken out of turn the moment the words left my mouth, but what is said cannot be unsaid. I just wondered if this young woman knew anything about the Ghost Tao. The Fatty quickly stepped in to smooth things over, saying, "The car is no place to talk. Let's go to the village committee office; it's quiet there."

The girl nodded and once more demonstrated her driving skills, pulling the car right into the courtyard of the village committee office. When we passed the entrance of the village earlier, I had glanced back and forth, realizing that this girl had actually come riding alone into the fray this time. I looked at her expression while she was driving; today, she was completely different from the eccentric and clever person she had been last time.

After getting out of the car, I brewed some tea, and the three of us sat down at the conference table in the village committee office. The Fatty said, "Miss, tell Fatty here the whole story from beginning to end in an orderly fashion, so I can sort things out."

"The matter is simple. Sun Zhongmou knew my grandmother would definitely come for that shoe, so he left a clue inside it. That clue is probably very obscure; we wouldn't notice it unless we closely studied the shoe, and it's even possible it's something only my grandmother could understand. In their Ghost Tao, there is a kind of ghost script, and another kind of yin script, which seem capable of communicating with ghosts. I suspect Sun Zhongmou knows it too. Through those shoes, he transmitted a message to my grandmother, and afterwards, the two of them agreed to leave together. In other words, my grandmother's disappearance is directly related to Sun Zhongmou," the young girl said.

"How can you be certain the person in the surveillance footage is Sun Zhongmou? As far as Fatty knows, the Sun family Sun Zhongmou went to visit this time is the family that raised him; it is definitely not Tianjin, nor is it Beijing," the Fatty said.

The girl pushed her hair back—a very fluid gesture—and then stared straight at the Fatty, saying, "Do you take the things investigated by the Li family lightly, or do you think we would wrong a rural corpse-dragger?"

The Fatty shrugged and said, "Alright, Fatty admits I just uttered a useless remark. You lot aren't quite that incompetent after all. Just now, Yezi also let slip that this Sun Zhongmou went looking for someone with the nickname 'Ghost Tailor.' Does your grandmother know how to tailor?"

"Do you think someone like my grandmother would sew and embroider like a normal woman?" the young girl directly retorted once more.

I almost burst out laughing because the Fatty awkwardly scratched his head and said, "If you had really told me your grandmother knew how to embroider, it would have scared Fatty here instead."

With that, the Fatty waved his hand, stood up, pressed a finger against the center of his brow, and paced around the long conference table. Finally, stopping right beside the young girl, he asked, "What does your grandfather say about this matter?"

"If you hadn't told me that Sun Zhongmou went looking for the Ghost Tailor, I would have thought you all conspired to tell lies," the young girl said at that moment.

"How so?" the Fatty asked, frowning.

"After that shoe was brought back, my grandmother stared at it unceasingly. She seemed determined to find some clue hidden within it. For the entire first day, Grandmother didn't even touch a drop of water; she just stared at that shoe like that. None of us could persuade her otherwise. Later, Grandfather happened to return home, and only then did Grandmother drink the water Grandfather brought her. Afterwards, when someone asked Grandfather if there was anything unusual about the shoe, Grandfather said that while it looked like an ordinary embroidered shoe—the kind worn by the dead—its craftsmanship was actually extremely exquisite and sophisticated. The fabric used was top-grade Western Region golden silkworm silk. This type of silk is exceptionally fine yet very sturdy; in ancient times, people even used it as a hidden weapon because its extreme fineness means it cuts skin upon contact. To weave fabric and make a shoe out of such Western Region golden silkworm silk is definitely not something an ordinary family could pull off. As for the embroidery on the shoe, it was sewn with gold thread and dyed on the surface to produce flowers of various shapes and colors. Fortunately, it was a shoe meant for the dead and was destined to be buried; if a living person wore it, it would be a one-time-use item that couldn't even be washed. You could say nobody had ever seen craftsmanship so fine, not even in the former Forbidden City. It is simply priceless," the young girl said.

"Good grief, doesn't that mean your grandmother walked away from us with a priceless treasure?" I asked in astonishment.

"Is vulgarity the only thing you know?" The young girl glared at me and said.

"Did your grandfather say that himself?" the Fatty asked then.

The young girl nodded and said, "You know my grandfather's background; he usually likes to collect and study things of this sort, so he definitely wouldn't misjudge it. That's why when you mentioned the Ghost Tailor just now, if I'm not mistaken, this shoe must also be the handiwork of that Ghost Tailor. Because my grandfather said no ordinary artisan could ever make such a shoe. Sun Zhongmou knew my grandmother would have a great interest in that shoe, so he set a trap. That's why my grandmother called him clever, knowing he did it on purpose, yet she still had no choice but to go and accomplish something alongside him."

After the young girl finished speaking, both the Fatty and I fell silent. The Fatty beckoned to me and said, "Yezi, come outside and let's have a word."

The young girl glared, slammed her hand on the table, and said, "What do you mean by this? You finish talking to me, and now you're off whispering in secret?"

"Rest assured, what we have to discuss has nothing to do with your grandmother. Fatty here swears on his own reputation," the Fatty said.

"You don't have much reputation in my eyes," the young girl sneered.

"Lass, you're killing the conversation like this. Is Fatty really that despicable in your heart?" the Fatty said.

The young girl waved her hand and said, "Go on. Let me warn you in advance: my grandmother's disappearance is linked to Sun Zhongmou, and my family members are all itching to bring people over to crush you. If I hadn't ultimately persuaded my grandfather to let me come and test you out first, Fudigou would probably be surrounded by now. So you'd better not play any tricks."

"Look at you, trying to scare Fatty again," the Fatty laughed. However, he didn't continue bickering with the girl, instead pulling me outside. We walked over to a secluded corner, and the Fatty handed me a cigarette, asking, "What do you make of this? How much of what the girl said is true, and how much is false?"

I shook my head and said, "You're more experienced than I am in handling matters like this, but I feel like seven or eight parts of it must be true."

The Fatty nodded and said, "Fatty thinks so too. Damn it, one wave hasn't settled before another rises. Fatty originally planned to take you to Zifu Mountain in the next couple of days to have my old master properly unravel your fate, but who would have foreseen this new trouble? We've both fallen into a trap this time. That embroidered shoe is far more complicated than just your grandmother's footwear, and the old lady didn't come to take that shoe just out of jealousy; there must be some secret tied to it. That older brother of yours, Sun Zhongmou, is far too untrustworthy. Let Fatty organize the language for you properly."

The Fatty took a few hurried puffs of his cigarette, then grabbed a twig and began sketching on the ground. He said, "Your eldest brother knows the secret on that shoe, but to unlock it, he absolutely needs the help of this Old Lady Li. Moreover, he knew that after your grandfather's death, this Old Lady Li would come for the shoe. So he pretended to be clueless, letting Old Lady Li easily take the shoe away. As a result, while searching for the secret of the shoe, Old Lady Li discovered the coded message your eldest brother left behind for her. This message is very likely a proposal for cooperation. Given your eldest brother's temperament, he definitely holds leverage capable of coercing Old Lady Li, and he would do it even if this old woman is your maternal grandmother, because his mind is simply too meticulous."

"So, this secret is related to the Ghost Tailor? Brother saying he went to find the Ghost Tailor to make a wedding dress for Han Xue was a lie, and going to uncover the secret of the embroidered shoe crafted by the Ghost Tailor back then was the truth?" I understood the Fatty's meaning.

The Fatty nodded and said, "That's pretty much it."

"Then why did he lie to us?" I asked.

"Because he doesn't trust anyone among us. It could be Uncle Zhuzi, it could be Fatty, or even your mom, and of course, it includes Han Xue and even you. There are only a few of us who know, yet he doesn't trust a single one. This guy is just too suspicious," the Fatty said.

"Still, for someone like him, never trusting anyone rings true. You have a broad and simple mind; have you ever considered that the identity your mother hid for all these years is actually quite suspicious? An eldest miss of the Li family peacefully farming land here for so long, and what about that Uncle Zhuzi of yours? Don't you feel he knows far too much? As for how he knows all this—could it really just be from eavesdropping and peeping back then? Eavesdropping and conversing with practitioners of the Ghost Tao is no easy feat. Ah, thinking carefully, if Fatty were your eldest brother, I'd do the same. Truth be told, I feel he still trusts Fatty, otherwise how would he dare leave you in my care?" the Fatty said with a self-deprecating laugh.