Three people and one ghost solved 43 mysterious cases.

In the human world, K city

Two trivial cases aroused Xu Wenshan's suspicion.

Li Mei's second husband, Tan Kun, and her third husband, Ye Bingliang, both spent time in detention centers.

That was 24 years ago.

In 1998, the police captured a group of train pickpocketing gangs. They were a group of people who specialized in picking up garbage on railway tracks with trains, stealing passengers' bags on the platform, or risking their lives to jump on coal mine trains to steal coal.

Most of these people are homeless people, but they are divided into different gangs. Several gangs often fight over territorial issues and the distribution of property obtained from robberies.

Tan Kun and Ye Bingliang were members of the same gang. They were both homeless at the time and were captured by the police for fighting with other gangs.

However, because Tan Kun and Ye Bingliang were both young at the time, and the police were first-time offenders in Nian Zai, they were released from custody after being held in the detention center for more than ten days.

This is a small case, but when it is connected with Li Mei, it becomes very subtle.

Li Mei's second and third husbands turned out to be acquaintances and friends.

They were all so poor once, why did they suddenly become rich eight years later?

Tan Kun invested money in the stock market in 2006 and made 1000 million. Where did his capital come from?

He must have at least a few million dollars, right?

It was at that time that Ye Bingliang started to make his fortune, joining the antiques and antiques industry. From a few million to tens of millions to [-] million, where did his capital come from?

How did they become rich together in these eight years from 1998 to 2006?

Xu Wenshan stared at the two case records on the computer. They were information from the police station in the neighboring county hundreds of kilometers away.

That county...Xu Wenshan found a map and saw that that county was not far from Yuluo Village.

Yuluo Village is the hometown of Li Mei and her first husband Alai, and it is also the place where Alai disappeared in 2000.

?

After driving for five hours, Xu Wenshan arrived at Yuluo Village.

The village is remote and quiet, or it can be described as a feeling of loneliness. All the young people who could work have gone out to work, and there are only a few dozen families left in the village, all of which are old people and young children.

Children draw pictures with chalk on the concrete floor, and old people feed pigs and chickens, do farm work, and sew clothes.

The person who has stayed in Yuluo Village the longest is an old man named He Bo, who is in his eighties.

He sat on a bamboo chair in the ancestral hall, listening to opera on the radio, smoking a hookah and fanning himself with a cattail leaf fan.

Xu Wenshan moved a chair, sat down next to Uncle He, made some tea, helped Uncle He light his cigarette, and chatted slowly with him.

Chatting about Li Mei.

Uncle He said that the girl Li Mei had a hard life. Her father suddenly abandoned her more than [-] years ago and ran away. Later, she married Alai. Within a year, Alai also disappeared. After that, Li Mei lived alone in Yuluo Village for five years, then remarried and left.

Li Mei’s father’s name is Li Damin. Why did he suddenly leave?

This is very strange, because according to Li Mei's case information, there has never been any record of Li Damin's disappearance. Where did Li Damin go?

It has been more than 20 years, and he seems to have disappeared from the world. Is he dead or alive?

It was very difficult to chat with Uncle He. He was old and spoke with a strong accent. Xu Wenshan needed to listen for a while to understand.

But don't rush, you still have to take your time.

Xu Wenshan asked Uncle He, "Is Li Damin not good to his daughter Li Mei?"

"Okay, very good."

Uncle He said intermittently that Li Damin loved Li Mei very much. Li Damin was not an aboriginal in the village. He came to the village in 1985 with 5-year-old Li Mei.

I heard that his wife died young, and Li Damin raised Li Mei alone. Originally, all the children in the village had to do some work, herding sheep, washing clothes and so on.

But Li Damin never let Li Mei do farm work, but took good care of her.

As the saying goes, a poor man can raise a son but a rich man can raise a daughter. This is exactly what Li Damin did.

He sent Li Mei to board at a good primary school in a nearby county, and then went to middle school. Li Mei's academic performance was not bad.

Li Damin allowed Li Mei to study with peace of mind. Tuition fees, accommodation fees, and monthly pocket money were paid on time.

He makes money by hunting by himself, and Li Damin has rich hunting experience.

"By the way, that Alai is Li Damin's young apprentice." Uncle He said.

Alai's family was also poor. His parents divorced and left him alone. Alai learned hunting from Li Damin when he was a teenager and became a hunter.

Hearing this, Xu Wenshan understood that the reason why Alai was able to marry the innocent and kind-hearted Li Mei "at that time" was probably because Li Damin knew Alai thoroughly and thought that this person was okay, so that the two young people could get along with each other and develop a love for a long time. .

However, Xu Wenshan had a vague doubt in his heart. As a father who loves his daughter so much, he must hope that his daughter will marry better.

Although according to Uncle He's words, Alai is honest and has always respected Li Damin, but in the final analysis -

Alai is still a poor hunter. Li Damin really wants his precious daughter to marry Alai?

Xu Wenshan asked Uncle He, "Before 1999, before Li Damin suddenly disappeared, did he mention to his neighbors that he was very satisfied with Alai and wanted his daughter to marry Alai?"

"Well...hey...how do I know?" said Uncle He.

It is true that he is a traditional old man in his 80s, and he is not very good at guessing love and people's thoughts.

"Did Li Damin really disappear suddenly?" Xu Wenshan asked again.

"Yeah, suddenly he disappeared one day. People in the village asked Li Mei, where is your father? Li Mei said that her father went out of town. When asked again, she cried and didn't say anything anymore. During that time Li Mei was very depressed, so people in the village were talking that Li Damin might have had another woman, and since his daughter was older anyway, he ran away and didn’t want his daughter.”

Xu Wenshan quickly thought about time clues in his mind:

In 1998, Tan Kun and Ye Bingliang were homeless and close friends;

In early 1999, his father Li Damin abandoned Li Mei and left;

At the end of 1999, Li Mei married Alai, a hunter from the same village who was her childhood sweetheart;

In 2000, Alai disappeared after less than a year of marriage; in 2005, Li Mei left Yuluo Village and married Tan Kun.

These clues are like threads, entangled in Xu Wenshan's mind...

The clues are too dense and seemingly unrelated, but why do they all happen in Yuluo Village? Something must have happened in this village.

Xu Wenshan took out the photos of Tan Kun and Ye Bingliang from the archives and showed them to Uncle He, "Master He, do you know these two people?"

In the photo, Tan Kun was 27 years old (died in 2006) and Ye Bingliang was 43 years old.

Uncle He looked at the photo for a while and frowned, "I have no impression. Hey, I'm going to eat. I'm going home to eat." He murmured.

Unconsciously, we chatted for more than an hour, which was almost over.

Xu Wenshan helped Uncle He up, "Master He, please slow down, I will take you back."

"No, I can leave."

He left the ancestral hall shakily along the stone path with a cane.

Xu Wenshan was about to leave. After taking a few steps, he suddenly stopped.

He took a step back, turned his head, and stared at a wall of the ancestral hall.

There are photos all over the wall, all taken together.

This is the ancestral hall of Yuluo Village. According to the custom in the village, a good day is chosen every year to hold a ceremony to worship ancestors.

After the worship ceremony, everyone had a meal and took a group photo.

These photos caught Xu Wenshan's attention.

He first called his colleagues at the police station and asked them to send Li Damin's ID photo. He knew what Li Damin looked like.

Then he stared at the photo wall seriously.

In 1985, in the group photo after the sacrifice, Li Damin and 5-year-old Li Mei appeared for the first time.

At that time, Li Damin was holding Li Mei and looking at Li Mei. He doted on this daughter very much.

Continuing to look at the photos, the father and daughter are included in the photos from 1985 to 1995, which proves that the father and daughter had a harmonious relationship at that time.

Next, another person appeared, Alai, who grew up slowly.

Alai is standing in a strange position in these photos.

In 1995, Li Damin stood in the middle, with Li Mei on his left and Alai on his right.

It shows that Alai and Li Mei are very important people to Li Damin.

But by 1996, Alai no longer stood by Li Mei's side.

The group photo in 1996 looked like this. More than 60 people participated in the group photo.

There are three rows of people in the front, middle and back.

Li Damin and Li Mei stood in the middle, and Alai was on the far right side of the back row, separated by six or seven people from Li Mei.

Alai looked at Li Mei dreamingly.

The word "chimo" was used. This was Xu Wenshan's guess. Alai might have had a crush on Li Mei since 1995.

In the 1996 photo, Li Mei was a little unhappy. Did she enter a period of youth rebelliousness?

When Xu Wenshan was investigating cases, he was accustomed to guessing and mind-reading. This was once the strength of "that person". Xu Wenshan thought that if that person was still alive, "she" should be able to guess more subtle things.

Continuing to look at the photos, in 1997, Li Mei was wearing her high school uniform. She was about to take the college entrance examination and was very nervous about her studies.

In 1998, it was Li Damin's turn to be unhappy because although Li Mei was still on his left, Li Mei was looking at Alai who was more than a dozen people away, and Alai was also looking at Li Mei.

Are the two of them flirting with each other?

It’s so interesting, a smile appeared on Xu Wenshan’s face. Although these are all my own guesses, looking at photos and guessing gossip like this is a good exercise for your brain.

But when Xu Wenshan saw the photo in 1999, his smile froze.

Xu Wenshan moved closer to the photo and looked at it for a long time.

His heart was pounding and his mouth twitched slightly, "How could it be like this, how could it be like this." He murmured.

It's incredible.

Because in this photo taken in early 1999, the last photo taken by Li Damin before his sudden disappearance, two strangers appeared——

Young Tan Kun and young Ye Bingliang.

Li Mei, Li Damin, Alai, Tan Kun, Ye Bingliang.

It turns out that everyone knew each other in 1999.