After listening to Yingzi’s story, Li Zhiyuan asked,
"What about the two workers who opened the coffin with the boss?"
"Well... I don’t know. I haven’t heard them mentioned."
"Sis, your Grandpa Nan and Grandma Nan were somewhat clear-headed at first, right?"
"They were normal except when they got sick. Just a quarter of an hour before they started spitting blood, they were still chatting with me about me finding a partner after I got into college."
At this moment, Third Aunt poked her head out of the doctor’s office and waved over,
"Yinghou, come help Mom fill out a form."
After Yingzi left, Li Zhiyuan noticed that at some point, Xue Liangliang had moved so close, intentionally eavesdropping.
Faced with Li Zhiyuan’s gaze, Xue Liangliang didn’t blush; instead, he said excitedly, "I figured it out, you were deliberately trying to get information."
"I was comforting my sister."
"Phew... You scared me. You have no idea, just now when I heard those two old people shout ’Bai Family’s Lady’ at the hospital door, my heart leaped to my throat. I thought it was either because I had smashed the statue and harmed them, or I just happened to bring Zhao Hequan, who was still suffering, to this hospital and triggered something that harmed them. Sigh."
Li Zhiyuan realized that Xue Liangliang had also noticed the engraving on the base of the statue.
"Brother Liangliang, don’t worry. The timing doesn’t match, and the ages don’t either."
The incident of the coffin being unearthed at the fish farm happened half a month ago, and Xue Liangliang and Zhao Hequan smashed the statue yesterday. The two events were not connected.
"The age, that’s not certain, right?" Xue Liangliang said, puzzled, "With difficult transportation and communication in the past, maybe the sculpture wasn’t that accurate. Who’s to say the statue we dug up from the river wasn’t originally a young girl?"
Li Zhiyuan shook his head, "They’re not the same."
Because he had seen that woman. Although her physique and state were very similar to the statue, perhaps amplified, she certainly couldn’t have been an eight-year-old girl.
"But they’re both called Bai Family’s Lady," Xue Liangliang pondered, "Could Bai Family’s Lady be a collective term, like a professional group? For instance, something like a title from a Daoist sect?"
Li Zhiyuan nodded and added, "It could also be a surname."
For some reason, Li Zhiyuan’s mind flashed back to the east room where Liu Yumei lived, with the spirit hall filled with the ancestral tablets of the Qin and Liu families.
"Are they all surnamed Bai?" Xue Liangliang interlaced his fingers, "It’s quite possible. Bai Family’s Lady could, in the local dialect, be understood as referring to a woman from the Bai family—a respectful title for someone of notable skill."
Li Zhiyuan responded with a sound, his gaze shifting toward the terrace, where Grandmaster and Yingzi’s uncle and aunt hadn’t finished their discussion yet.
Xue Liangliang reached out and lightly pushed Li Zhiyuan’s arm, cautiously asking, "So, did you have any other thoughts on what your sister said?"
"There’s a lot of concealment and fabrication."
"Right, exactly." Xue Liangliang perked up again, "You figured it out. The boss disappeared, her grandparents had nightmares and physical anomalies, but in the story, she doesn’t know what happened to the two workers who helped the boss open the coffin, unless..."
"Unless those two who helped the boss open the coffin were these two old people."
"That sister of yours was just following instructions. What she heard and told you were things the adults at home said. Those two old people who just left had beautified and covered up too much in their story."
"After all, if what they said were true, why would they be begging for mercy before their death? It clearly shows an awareness of having done wrong. Otherwise, they would have been protesting their innocence.
"So, reframing the narrative might suggest that those two old people stumbled upon the coffin and called the boss over to open it.
"It might have been the boss who discovered the coffin, but when he refused to pry it open, these two old folks urged him to do so.
"At the very least, they were definitely deeply involved in it and weren’t innocent and ignorant as they seemed."
Li Zhiyuan looked at Xue Liangliang and blinked.
Xue Liangliang waved his hand sheepishly, "I didn’t say I was innocent, but still, even if I smashed the statue, it was for the sake of the project, not for personal gain. Mr. Luo had already explained everything to that Bai Family’s Lady."
"Brother Liangliang, there’s actually one more important point."
"Xiao Yuan, tell me, what’s that point?"
"For Sister Yingzi to be able to recite what was engraved on that plaque, she must have seen a copy of it.
"But how could those two old folks, right after opening the coffin, not only understand the engravings but also memorize and recite them for someone to transcribe onto paper?"
"Yes, those two elders must have received something, at least, that wood carving was in their house."
Hearing this, Xue Liangliang nodded heavily, then scrutinized Li Zhiyuan and asked, "Xiao Yuan, are you truly an elementary school student?"
"Actually, I’m a college student by Weiming Lake."
"Hahaha... cough cough!" Xue Liangliang laughed so hard that he started coughing. He reached out to pat Li Zhiyuan’s back encouragingly, "Good, it’s remarkable to have that kind of ambition!"
Li Zhiyuan just smiled.
"But, Xiao Yuan, have you ever heard of Bai Family’s Lady?"
"Brother Liangliang, I’ve spent much less time in Nantong than you have."
"Oh, that’s true. Then I’ll go to the city’s cultural history museum to check if there’s any record in the local chronicles."