Kill the beasts in the courtyard, I fled to Hong Kong, surrounded by beauties on both sides.

Before dawn, a piercing scream shattered the tranquility of the courtyard.

"Someone's dead—!"

It was the voice of the Ma family's daughter-in-law from the front yard, so shrill it could pierce eardrums, carrying a kind of ghostly terror.

The entire courtyard was instantly awakened.

Chen Fei was practicing his breathing techniques inside the house when he heard the scream. He knew then that Jia Zhangshi's body had been discovered.

He quickly adjusted his expression, making himself look bewildered and uneasy, as if he had just been startled awake. When he pushed open the door, the yard was already in complete chaos.

A crowd had gathered at the front gate. Ma's wife sat slumped on the ground, her face deathly pale, her finger trembling as she pointed towards the alley outside: "Dead...dead person...Aunt Jia..."

Yi Zhonghai rushed over first, followed closely by Liu Haizhong and Yan Bugui. Sha Zhu also ran out of the house shirtless, while Xu Damao peeked out from the door frame.

Chen Fei followed the crowd out, looking "weak".

At the entrance of the alley, Jia Zhangshi's body lay there.

She lay on her back, her eyes wide open, staring intently at the gray sky, her pupils dilated. Her face was bluish-purple, her lips black, and there was a clear, purplish-red ligature mark on her neck, like an ugly worm. Her hair was disheveled, covered with bits of grass and dirt, and her collar was torn, revealing her thin, bony neck and collarbone. The cuffs were also ripped, revealing the old cotton wadding inside.

The most horrifying thing was her expression—her mouth was half-open, as if she was about to shout something but couldn't, and her face was frozen with a mixture of fear, pain, and disbelief.

"mom--!"

Qin Huairu rushed out of the courtyard, saw this scene, let out a heart-wrenching scream, her legs went weak, and she fainted.

Sha Zhu quickly helped her up, calling out, "Sister Qin! Sister Qin!"

The scene was completely chaotic.

"Don't move!" Yi Zhonghai shouted, trying to remain calm. "Protect the scene! Old Yan, go to the police station and report this! Old Liu, you watch this area, don't let anyone near!"

Yan Bugui's legs went weak, but he still ran tremblingly to the police station. Liu Haizhong and several other men formed a circle, separating the body from the onlookers.

Chen Fei stood at the edge of the crowd, head bowed, shoulders trembling slightly—a lingering instinctive reaction from the original owner, the fear and unease of facing death. But his heart was ice-cold.

Jia Zhangshi died.

The second enemy.

He raised his eyes and quickly scanned the scene.

The body was found at the entrance of the alley, less than twenty meters from the gate of the courtyard house. This was closer than he had expected—he had dragged the body deeper into the wasteland last night.

It seems that wild dogs or some other animal dragged the carcass here.

Well, that makes it seem even more "unexpected"—Mrs. Jia went out at night, was robbed at the alley entrance, and was killed.

Chen Fei's gaze fell on Jia Zhangshi's pocket. The pocket had been turned inside out and was empty—he had deliberately arranged it last night to stage a robbery.

But is the ten yuan he put back in his pocket last night still there?

He concentrated his mind, extending his thoughts to "look" at the pocket from a distance of more than ten meters.

The money is still there. It's covered with rags; you can't find it unless you search carefully.

That's right. When the police come to investigate, they'll find the "robbery" is a hoax, but they'll eventually find the money and then suspect it wasn't a simple robbery.

At that point, the investigation will likely shift towards a revenge killing or a cover-up.

The prime suspects in a revenge killing or silencing a witness are people from the black market—Jia Zhangshi went there to buy contraband, and perhaps learned something she shouldn't have known, and was silenced.

Or... someone from the compound.

A barely perceptible sneer appeared on Chen Fei's lips.

Morning: Police intervention

At eight o'clock in the morning, the police arrived.

Three police officers arrived. The one in the lead was a middle-aged man in his forties surnamed Zhao, with sharp eyes, clearly a veteran detective. He was accompanied by two younger officers, one to take photos and the other to investigate the scene.

Officer Zhao first asked the onlookers to step back, then squatted down to examine the body.

He examined it very carefully: the strangulation marks on the neck, the bruises on the back of the head, the tears in the clothes, the dirt under the fingernails... he didn't miss a single detail.

"The time of death was probably between 9 and 11 p.m. last night," Officer Zhao said to Yi Zhonghai as he stood up. "The victim was strangled and suffered a severe blow to the back of the head. The preliminary assessment is that it was a robbery-murder—the victim's clothes were turned inside out and his pockets were emptied."

Yi Zhonghai nodded hurriedly: "Yes, yes, Aunt Jia said last night that she was going out to perform a ritual to pray for her grandson's soul, but I didn't expect..."

"Perform a ritual?" Officer Zhao frowned. "Perform a ritual so late at night?"

"This..." Yi Zhonghai was speechless. He also felt that this reason was far-fetched.

Officer Zhao didn't press further and began questioning the people in the courtyard.

The first person they asked was Qin Huairu. She had already woken up, but she was disoriented and answered whatever they asked incoherently.

"My mother-in-law left at 7:30 last night... saying she was going to the west of the city to meet with an old friend for a religious ceremony... and asked me to look after the children... She said she would come back early... but she didn't come back all night... I thought she stayed overnight at her friend's house..."

"Which old lady in the west of the city? What's her name? Where does she live?" Officer Zhao asked.

Qin Huairu was stunned: "I...I don't know...my mother-in-law didn't explain in detail..."

Officer Zhao frowned even more deeply.

Then ask Yi Zhonghai.

Yi Zhonghai recounted the situation: Bang Geng drowned the day before yesterday, and Jia Zhangshi was overwhelmed with grief. She was not in a good mental state yesterday and said she wanted to go out to perform a religious ceremony last night...

"How much money did she have on her?" Officer Zhao asked.

"This..." Yi Zhonghai looked at Qin Huairu.

Qin Huairu shook her head: "I don't know... My mother-in-law has a secret stash of money, and she doesn't let me know..."

Officer Zhao asked a few more questions, and then began to inquire from house to house.

When Chen Fei was asked, it was already past 10 a.m.

Chen Fei was summoned to the Intermediate People's Court. Officer Zhao sat in a chair in Yi Zhonghai's house, while two young police officers stood to the side.

"Chen Fei, right?" Officer Zhao looked at him. "I heard you saved Jia Geng the day before yesterday?"

"Yes," Chen Fei nodded, his voice hoarse, "but he couldn't be saved..."

"Tell me where you were last night and what you were doing," Officer Zhao said, getting straight to the point.

Chen Fei was prepared: "I slept in the house last night. I'm not feeling well and have been recuperating at home recently."

"Can anyone prove this?"

"No," Chen Fei shook his head, "I live alone."

"What's your relationship with the Jia family like?"

"So-so," Chen Fei said. "Aunt Jia... has a bad temper and has scolded me before. But the day Banggeng had the accident, I went to save him. Aunt Jia was blaming me yesterday, saying I didn't save Banggeng..."

As he spoke, he lowered his head, his shoulders trembling slightly, as if he were suppressing his grievances.

Officer Zhao stared at him for a while, then asked, "Have you noticed anything unusual about the Jia family recently? Or is there anything strange about Jia Zhangshi?"

Chen Fei thought for a moment and said, "Aunt Jia seems to be mentally unstable lately. After Bang Geng died, she kept talking nonsense, saying she saw Bang Geng's ghost, and that someone wanted to harm her..."

That's true. Madam Jia Zhang did say those things yesterday.

Officer Zhao jotted down a few notes in his notebook, then waved his hand and said, "Alright, you can go back now. I'll contact you if I need anything."

Chen Fei nodded and turned to leave.

He knew the police wouldn't suspect him for the time being. He had no motive, no opportunity—at least not outwardly.

Noon: Panic in the courtyard

At noon, Jia Zhangshi's body was taken away.

The police said they would conduct an autopsy and told the family to wait for further notice.

Qin Huairu cried her heart out and was helped back into the house by several women. Xiao Dang and Huaihua didn't know what had happened; they just watched their mother cry and started crying too.

The entire courtyard was shrouded in panic.

In just three days, two members of the Jia family died.

Bang Geng fell into the water by accident, and Jia Zhangshi was robbed and killed—on the surface, they are both accidents or criminal cases, but it's too much of a coincidence.

It was so coincidental it was unsettling.

"Do you think... there really is a ghost?" the Ma family's daughter-in-law in the front yard whispered. "Bang Geng just died, and Jia Zhangshi followed him... and died such a tragic death..."

"Don't talk nonsense!" Yi Zhonghai snapped. "This is a new society, where would you find ghosts?"

But he himself was also uneasy.

That's too much of a coincidence. It's unnaturally coincidental.

He remembered those mysterious notes, and the deaths of Chen Jianguo, Li Xiulan, and Chen Xiaoyu…

Could it be... that someone is really seeking revenge?

Yi Zhonghai looked in the direction of Chen Fei's house.

Chen Fei was sitting by the door, head down, seemingly lost in thought. His face was pale, his eyes vacant, and he looked terrified.

It doesn't seem like him.

Who could it be?

Yi Zhonghai then looked at Xu Damao. Xu Damao was unusually quiet today, staying inside the house the whole time.

Could it be him?

Yi Zhonghai recalled the note: "Xu Damao knows the truth and wants to blackmail him."

If Xu Damao truly knew the truth about Chen Jianguo's death, and used it to blackmail Jia Zhangshi, and Jia Zhangshi refused, then he killed her to silence her...

This is highly likely.

Yi Zhonghai's eyes turned cold.

Afternoon: The gains of space and the preparation for framing someone

In the afternoon, Chen Fei closed the doors and windows and entered the planting space.

The space has a completely new look.