Even if Mrs. Liu is old and confused and her memory is biased, how could she forget the appearance of the son she misses so much?
Moreover, what the dream represents is the person’s subconscious mind, so how could it be completely replaced by another face?
Zhou Shi quickly followed the two of them into the house, trying to identify "Wang Jin"'s face carefully. But as soon as he opened the door, he only saw Mrs. Liu sitting on the bed alone in a daze.
"Her dream was until her son came back to find her... Maybe she couldn't imagine what it would be like to have her son by her side all year round..."
The aroma of rice penetrated his nose, and Zhou Shi's body quickly fell back to the real world.
When I opened my eyes, I heard the sound of "gurgling" in my ears, and the faint aroma of rice floated in the room.
Old Mrs. Liu on the bed also woke up. She murmured "Son, my son" while holding on to the bed board to sit up.
Zhou Shi helped the old lady up and then went back to take care of the rice. After a while, he sat by the bed with rice and chopsticks and served the old lady to eat.
The old lady had no teeth, so she could only put the rice in her mouth and chew it slowly. Even if Zhou Shi wanted to ask questions, he could only wait until she finished eating.
"Old lady, I see you are coming!"
There was a shout outside the door, which startled Zhou Shi. A strong man strode into the house carrying a rice bag, and found a stranger grinning at him.
"Who are you!"
"Brother, listen to me..." Zhou Shi told the story he made up again, and finally gained the trust of this strong man.
"Who do I know? It turns out to be Jinzi's friend!"
He threw the rice bag on the ground, stirred up a burst of dust, then pointed at himself and said: "My secret name is Liu Chong, and everyone in the village calls me Chongniu."
Zhou Shi pointed to the rice bag on the ground and said: "Brother Niu...ah no, Brother Liu, you are..."
"This is rice for Mrs. Liu. The old lady can't eat stick noodles every day."
Just in time, here comes someone you can ask questions.
"Brother Liu, when was the last time you saw Wang Jin?"
"Well, I really remember this. Three years ago, he came to our house to help us repair water canals."
"Repair canals?"
"That's right." Liu Zhong lifted up his trousers and sat down by the bed. "The original canal in our village was broken, and we couldn't raise the money to repair it. Jinzi went to the house of a wealthy family in the next village and talked for several days.
That’s why we asked the old rich man to pay for us to build the canal. When he was going to the old rich man’s house that day, he happened to pass by my place and asked me to bring him some dry food.”
"Then, did he have any injuries on his face at that time?" Zhou Shi probed carefully.
"I didn't see clearly. It was night. Why do you ask?"
"Oh, I'm afraid he will suffer a loss at the old rich man's house."
"He dares! Jinzi is a treasure of our village. If he dares to touch a hair of Jinzi, our whole village will fight against him!"
Strange, if Wang Jin at that time was already a "scholar" pretending to be a "scholar", then how dare he... Wait.
"Were you familiar with Wang Jin before?"
"Well, I'm not very familiar with him. He and I live on opposite sides of the village, and my land is far away from the village, so we don't usually have much contact with him. But Jinzi is a talented scholar in our village, so of course I know him."
I only heard about it... No wonder the "scholar" dared to show up in front of him.
"Brother Liu, I heard that Jinzi often writes letters to the old lady, and she is illiterate. What do you think?"
"I don't know about that. I'm far away and I'm only responsible for delivering food to the old lady... But as long as the people from the village who come to help see the letter, they will definitely go to Mr. Ma from the next village to read the letter. He opened the
A private school, Jinzi was taught by him."
"Oh, as long as the old lady knows what is written in the letter."
Mr. Ma, Wang Jin’s teacher, that is also a clue. As long as you show him what the "scholar" wrote, you may be able to identify whether it was written by Wang Jin based on the handwriting... unless the "scholar" wrote it a long time ago
After "replacing" Wang Jin, you have to make further plans.
Zhou Shi pretended to be worried, chatted with Liu Zhong for a while, and then left Wang Jin's house.
Before leaving, the old lady was still mumbling, "The apricots are ripe, why hasn't Jinzi come back yet?"
After walking out of the courtyard, Zhou Shi's thoughts were mixed.
"I came here to complete Wang Jin's entrustment. I also investigated his previous life experience in the village, hoping to find out why he quickly turned into a ghost after his death. It turned out that he was not Wang Jin at all!"
Who is he?
Why did he come to Yinhun Inn as Wang Jin?
What did he do to the real Wang Jin?
"Calm down, there is actually another possibility. The scholar only deceived me. He just knew Wang Jin's residence and hometown, and pretended to be Wang Jin to deceive me. If only that was the case...
"This is very easy to confirm. Just ask the scholar's neighbors. The real Wang Jin I saw in my dream just now is quite distinctive, easy to describe, and easy to identify."
It was almost dark when he returned to Fengde Building, and the store was busy.
Without Agui and Xiaosi, there was obviously a lot of chaos in the front hall. There was no problem with the guys serving and singing the dishes, but they couldn't watch the words and talk to the guests. Zhao Qinfeng, who temporarily took over the counter, didn't have the ability to direct and dispatch, so he could only watch.
The waiting staff are running around like headless flies.
"Shopkeeper, you are back!"
As soon as Lao Zhao saw Zhou Shi, he quickly gave up his seat at the counter.
Zhou Shi called the waiters over and rearranged the division of labor, allowing the evening business to proceed smoothly.
"There must be someone in the front hall who can take care of things, otherwise it really won't work... Agui's role cannot be replaced."
When Zhao Qinfeng saw the guests at the last table getting up, he immediately reported and wanted to go home. Zhou Shi originally wanted to hold a short meeting to explain the division of labor in the absence of Agui and Xiaosi, but he had no choice but to give up due to the lack of people.
"Actually, it's okay to keep him for a while, but unlike me, he has a wife waiting at home... Well, where can I find a good boss like me..."
After cleaning up the front hall, Zhou Shi went to Agui and Xiaosi's room to sit for a while and let them recover. Then he went to Zhu Benshan's room to report on the business status of the past two days.
Zhu Benshan was not able to go to the ground yet. After learning about the situation of Fengde Building, his attitude towards Zhou Shi improved a lot. When he heard that the debts of Fengde Building were slowly being settled, he did not hesitate to praise Zhou Shi.
What a compliment.
"Huh, don't take this kid's words seriously. Now he can't move and he's in debt, so he's so polite to me. If he waits until he recovers..."
At midnight, Yinhun Inn opens as usual.
While entertaining the ghosts, Zhou Shi was thinking about what he could tell Mr. Mo about today's events and what he couldn't.
"Xiu Cai and Wang Jin are not the same person. I know this from Huang Liangzhen. I can't tell him. Others..."
In the end, Zhou Shi could only say that Wang Jin had nothing to do with the villagers, the old lady was confused again, and this line would not work.
"We couldn't expect this line to work." Mr. Mo shook his head and said, "We still have to rely on his connections in Jiangdu to investigate."
"I think so too, and it's best to ask Zhao Xuan to lead someone to investigate. I'll send them the code tomorrow."