It’s unusual for a midnight ritual; with sneaky descriptions, you can tell sothing’s off right away.
Yang Xiao keenly realized the uniqueness of this matter, "Mr. Senyama, do you know who these worshippers are? And who they’re worshipping?"
"I don’t know these people, but one of them, among those who ran away at the ti, left behind a wallet. Inside there was a receipt, dated a day prior."
"Right, it also had the delivery address and the recipient’s na on it."
"I felt very guilty at the ti, thinking it was who scared them off, so I decided to return the wallet."
"After a few days when soone ca to take over my shift, I followed the delivery address, and sure enough, I found the household."
"A man answering the door looked familiar to , and I was almost certain he was the one who ran away that night. I apologized to him and returned the wallet, but...but he claid the wallet wasn’t his and that he had never been near the Youjian Mountain Tunnel, telling not to make things up."
At this point, Moriyama Yasuo couldn’t help but laugh and shook his head helplessly, "That’s impossible, I saw the list on the receipt, they were exactly the incense candle offerings left on the ground that night."
"What happened next?" Takagi Reina asked cautiously.
"Later, I explained to him, but he beca increasingly impatient and his face darker; he simply wouldn’t listen to , eventually shutting the door without a word."
"In a fit of anger, I threw the wallet at his door and left."
"But I remained cautious, didn’t go far, and hid behind a nearby tree to spy. Perhaps seven or eight minutes later, the door opened."
"The man stealthily poked his head out, checked around to confirm I was gone, then squatted down to pick up the wallet from the doorstep."
Moriyama Yasuo still feels indignation recalling the incident, lifting a tea mug he took a large gulp.
"Didn’t you go find him to reason again?" Yang Xiao asked curiously.
"No, I ca to terms afterward; maybe he was afraid I’d extort money from him, especially since around Youjian Mountain smoking is strictly prohibited, let alone worshipping. He didn’t want to pay fines." Moriyama Yasuo said with a smirk.
"Do you rember his address and na?" Yang Xiao asked tentatively.
"He lived on the north side of the mountain in Beitai Town; I don’t rember the exact address. The na...na..." Moriyama Yasuo frowned a bit trying hard to recall, "Sorry, I only rember his surna was He Jian, the rest I don’t rember."
Hearing this, Yang Xiao felt slightly at ease; it’s normal not to rember after so many years have passed. If he had imdiately recalled the precise address and na, then there’d be a problem.
Perhaps because he hadn’t seen visitors in a while, Moriyama Yasuo was very enthusiastic; he even wanted to bring out his treasured fine wine to treat everyone.
But clearly, Yang Xiao and the others weren’t interested or had ti for that.
After saying goodbye to Moriyama Yasuo, the four imdiately set off for Beitai Town.
According to Moriyama Yasuo, Beitai Town wasn’t too far away; if all went smoothly, they could return before nightfall.
But without an accurate address and na, finding soone might take so effort.
Moreover, it’d been decades since then; whether the person had moved or was still alive was up in the air.
"Don’t worry; He Jian isn’t a very common surna, and Beitai Town isn’t that big, it shouldn’t be too hard to find him." Takagi Reina noticed Yang Xiao’s worry and comforted.
To save ti, Yang Xiao and the others directly flagged down a taxi, and roughly forty minutes later, they arrived at Beitai Town successfully.
Upon seeing the size of the place, Yang Xiao relaxed a bit; it was quite remote, with at most a hundred or so households. Finding soone here shouldn’t be difficult.
As they entered Beitai Town, Yang Xiao noticed a hunched elderly woman by the roadside.
The old woman was sitting on stone steps, leaning against a column, weaving a bamboo basket, with a small radio placed beside her.
Perhaps because outsiders rarely appeared here in this remote area, especially young people, the elderly woman paused her work, said nothing, and just stared at them.
Yang Xiao knew that these kinds of elders sitting at the village entrance were like living radars; they’re the soul figures of the village’s information center.
Once you win them over, there’s no gossip big or small within the village or town you can’t inquire about.
With this in mind, Yang Xiao approached with a friendly smile, head spinning, subconsciously switching roles to speak awkwardly in broken Chinese, "Your good citizen, very very good, I have so things to ask you, if you can answer, big big reward, if not, I will be dissatisfied, you will die die..."
"Get lost!" Takagi Reina, upon seeing this scene, felt her blood pressure rise, imdiately rushed forward, grabbed Yang Xiao by the collar, and pulled him behind.
Then she squatted down herself, smiling at the elderly woman, noticing her cold and puzzled gaze quickly shifted to the bamboo basket beside her, where several woven small bamboo baskets were already placed.
Those bamboo baskets looked rather exquisite; Takagi Reina picked one up casually, pretending to admire it fondly, praised a few tis, then looked again at the elderly woman, kindly asked with a smile, "Grandma, I really like this bamboo basket. Are you selling it?"
"Yes! 3000." The old woman’s muddled and unfamiliar eyes instantly focused, and her attitude imdiately turned much friendlier.
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