Chapter 127: [Harboring a Ghostly Secret] The Art of Eliciting Information
The players walked out of the courtyard and found that there were also some people coming and going in the village.
It seemed that compared to the desolation of last night, there was a bit more liveliness.
However, the villagers were all wearing coats, which seemed out of season compared to the players’ short sleeves.
Although the players also felt a bit cold.
But the coats these people were wearing were quite thick.
When the villagers saw them, their expressions were just gloomy.
And everyone would stop and stare at them.
At first glance, there weren’t many people, maybe thirty to fifty. About half were elderly, and a small portion were young people.
The remaining half were middle-aged, mostly men.
They didn’t see the child Xia Mei had mentioned.
Every one of them had the same gaze, the same expression. Although their features were all different, they gave off a strange feeling of being copied and pasted.
And their clothes all had some red in them, whether it was jujube red, bright red, dark red, or black with a hint of red.
Everyone felt a bit uneasy.
The gate to Ji Xiaolan’s courtyard was half-closed.
After knocking, Ji Xiaolan’s voice came from inside.
“Come in.”
The group pushed open the courtyard gate, and Ji Xiaolan was standing by the well next to the courtyard.
She looked the same as yesterday, the only difference being that her hair was visibly damp today.
Her face also seemed a bit paler.
“You’ve come so early, have you eaten?” Ji Xiaolan asked.
“Yes, we have.”
The group was quite in sync on this point.
Hearing this, Ji Xiaolan nodded.
Her gaze swept over everyone, lingering on Wang Yan for a long time.
Wang Yan stood there with a gloomy expression.
The players exchanged glances secretly.
“Come in.”
Ji Xiaolan withdrew her gaze and led them into the living room.
“My place is poor, we only have these long benches. Please make do. Shall I pour you some water?”
“No need, no need, we just came to talk to you. Don’t go to so much trouble, please sit down!”
The players quickly waved their hands.
Ji Xiaolan sighed and sat down as well.
She sat next to Bai Cha.
Xu Shengsheng was on Bai Cha’s left.
“What do you want to talk about?”
Ji Xiaolan’s question stumped everyone.
“Where’s your grandmother? Haven’t seen her,” Bai Cha naturally took over, preventing an awkward silence.
Otherwise, it would have been even more embarrassing.
“My grandmother…” Ji Xiaolan glanced outside the courtyard.
“She should have gone into town.”
Bai Cha nodded, as if she hadn’t noticed the slightest oddity in her words.
“Grandmother is old, is she going into town alone?”
“Yeah, no need to worry.”
Ji Xiaolan didn’t want to answer this topic.
So Bai Cha changed the question.
“Yesterday evening when we came over to see your grandmother, she said your fiancé was that person from our class back then. You two really got together?”
When she said “that person,” Bai Cha’s face carried a hint of teasing and joking, and she deliberately nudged Ji Xiaolan with her elbow.
This way, it seemed like she hadn’t said the name not because she didn’t know it, but just to tease.
Ji Xiaolan lowered her head slightly with some shyness, then looked up with a somewhat dazed and pained expression, subconsciously looking at the well in the courtyard.
Then she lowered her head again, one hand unconsciously touching her abdomen, her face once again showing pain.
“What’s wrong?” Bai Cha immediately asked with concern.
Only then did Ji Xiaolan force a smile and shake her head.
“We are going to get married. Shao Lei has always been very accommodating to me. When I said I wanted to go back to our hometown to teach and help more girls get an education, he accompanied me to this place.”
A hint of reminiscence appeared in her eyes.
Observing her expression, the players couldn’t help but guess that Shao Lei was probably already dead.
Finally getting the boy’s name was indeed not easy.
Bai Cha reached out and gently patted her shoulder.
[Two parasitizable hosts detected. Which host do you want to parasitize?]
This time, Bai Cha chose Ji Xiaolan.
She didn’t wait for the so-called Shao Lei because they hadn’t seen him even at this stage, and she probably wouldn’t see him until the wedding day.
The grandmother’s identity was highly suspicious, but the real core was Ji Xiaolan.
At the same time, she said with envy, “You two have known each other for ten years now, right? I thought you would have gotten together a long time ago, but it’s not too late. That’s great.”
Then she mocked herself, “Unlike me, my boyfriend of several years broke up with me. That guy was a real jerk, lied to me for years, made me so angry! School days were the best, at least everyone was pure.”
A look of reminiscence appeared on Bai Cha’s face, and then, as if she suddenly thought of something, she looked at Ji Xiaolan with some unease and guilt.
“You… have you really been alright all these years? Back then…”
Because she had been constantly initiating conversation, preventing others from interjecting, some players felt a bit dissatisfied. But now, seeing her ask this question, their hearts immediately rose again.
Like Jin Qiao.
She actually wanted to ask questions too, but she didn’t know how. Seeing Bai Cha trying to elicit information made her uncomfortable.
But no one paid her any attention.
Hearing Bai Cha’s words, Ji Xiaolan paused slightly.
Then she smiled and shook her head.
“It’s all in the past, and besides, it has nothing to do with you.”
She hesitated for a moment and then took Bai Cha’s hand.
“Back then, it was best to protect oneself. We couldn’t all fail to graduate, right? Besides, although the school didn’t give me a diploma, you guys still took graduation photos with me. I was already very satisfied.”
“And…”
Ji Xiaolan paused and looked at her.
“Among the people who have been donating money to the town’s elementary school to subsidize teachers’ salaries, I know you’re one of them.”
Bai Cha was taken aback.
She had looked at the spending records on her phone and hadn’t actually seen any donations.
But it wasn’t certain. There was indeed a sum of money that was regularly transferred to someone, 2000 a month.
At the time, Bai Cha had wondered who that person was. Because there was no note, and the other person’s profile picture looked quite elderly, she had initially thought it was Chen Shuya’s parents.
“Then how much can you earn a month after the subsidy?” Bai Cha asked.
“About three thousand plus, the monthly subsidy is 1500, which is really good for our area.”
Hearing this, Bai Cha nodded.
“That’s good.”
Jin Qiao frowned beside her, wondering why she was asking these useless things.
Shouldn’t she take the opportunity to ask what happened back then?
That was the key to advancing the plot.
Ji Xiaolan had already mentioned protecting oneself, indicating that something very serious must have happened back then.
This concerned the well-being of every player!
She simply opened her mouth, “Xiaolan… back then, I mean, do you remember the specific situation?”
Several players secretly frowned.
This question wasn’t necessarily a big problem, it depended on whether Ji Xiaolan would take issue with it.
Only if they now clearly knew what had happened back then, and that the identities the players played had chosen to stand by, would this question not sound problematic.
If the players were the ones who took action, this question would directly expose them.
Ji Xiaolan glanced at Jin Qiao and said, “Of course I remember, why are you suddenly asking about this?”
Jin Qiao was at a loss for words.
She thought that Bai Cha had just asked too, why didn’t she question her?
However, her inner resentment was useless. She was in a hurry to make up a sentence, and cold sweat gradually broke out on her forehead.
