It's late at night.

After some haggling and persistent persuasion, they settled on a tip fee of 880 yuan.

After receiving the money, before formally questioning him, the old man emphasized something.

"It's settled then, no photos, no videos, and you're not allowed to leak this information."

"Don't worry, sir, we absolutely won't reveal your information. We won't even ask your name. Just treat it as a chat with us," Xia Yao reassured him.

The old man's expression softened slightly. "What do you want to know? Ask away."

Xia Yao got straight to the point, taking out an old newspaper and spreading it out on the table.

"Sir, do you know this person?"

The newspaper carried a report on the rockfall accident in Yaoshan, and it also included a photo of the elderly man.

The old man lowered his head, squinted, and leaned closer to look.

"Yes, I know him, he's Brother Shan."

"What's his name? Tell us more about him," Xia Yao pressed her advantage.

"His name is Lin Shoushan, a fruit farmer from our village."

The old man rolled some loose tobacco for himself using white cigarette paper, inserted it into his small wooden pipe, and lit it.

"In the past, the Yao Mountains were all rocks and wild forests, and it was impossible to grow crops or live there."

"The village told us to go up the mountain to clear land, saying that whoever cleared the land could cultivate it. Brother Shan and his wife were resourceful; they cleared thirty acres of land with just hoes and carrying poles. Since the slope wasn't good for growing vegetables, they planted orange trees. Seeing the oranges ripen gave them hope for the future."

"And then?" Zhou Ze'an felt that the truth was right in front of him.

The old man pointed to the newspaper and said, "Then the accident happened, didn't the newspaper say so?"

Silence fell between Xia Yao and Zhou Ze'an, both feeling as if they had been played.

But Xia Yao still patiently asked, "Was this really an accident? Tell me something you know."

"That's all we know."

The old man sighed and explained.

"Because he needed to tend to those oranges, Brother Shan built his house next to the orange grove for convenience. We live down the mountain, a bit far away, so naturally we didn't notice when the accident happened."

"I heard that the chicken coop wasn't closed properly, and the chickens all escaped, so he went up the mountain to look for them. Who knew it would suddenly rain, and rocks would roll down the mountain, leaving him all alone."

Everything sounds reasonable, but something feels off.

"Were you talking about money back then?" Xia Yao seized on the key point.

"Yes, but the price they offered was too low, so no one was really willing. Take Brother Shan's orange grove, for example. It's thirty acres. If you take good care of it, you can earn a lot in a year. He lives off those oranges for his retirement."

"Later, the developer offered a lot more, but he still refused. The main reason is that he has lived in Yaoshan for so long and wants to spend his old age and die there. We country folk value returning to our roots the most, and it would be best if he could be buried there."

This old man is shrewd; he avoids the main point, seemingly answering the question while also not answering it at all.

"If he had an accident, what about his wife? Does he have any children?"

Xia Yao thought of the old man mentioning his wife earlier. Since he was unwilling to talk about it, surely there must be other relatives who were willing to talk about it?

"He died a long time ago. His wife had heart disease and couldn't have children. His grave used to be on the mountain, I think, but the scenic area probably moved it."

"What about the thirty acres of woodland under his name?"

"He doesn't have any children, so naturally he'll go back to the village."

Xia Yao and Zhou Ze'an exchanged a silent glance, feeling slightly helpless.

Finally, Xia Yao laid her cards on the table: "Didn't you suspect that his accident might have been a case of foul play?"

"Ah, young man, you shouldn't speak of things without evidence."

The old man quickly denied it, but judging from the attitude of these people, they wouldn't believe it unless there was some inside story.

Seeing that she couldn't get any more information from the old man, Xia Yao had no choice but to change the subject.

"Do you know of any reporters who have fallen into the water?"

This is something the ghost mentioned before; it should be an important clue.

The old man squinted, seemingly deep in thought.

"It seems like that's true."

"What was the reporter's name? Where did he fall into the water? What happened before he fell in?"

Since you've already paid for it, you should naturally ask all the right questions.

"We don't know his name, I think we mentioned it, but I can't remember. We all call him Xiao Zhang."

The old man reminisced as he exhaled smoke.

"Xiao Zhang came to us on his own. He's a young man who just graduated and is still interning, but he's young and enthusiastic."

He said those terms were unfair, that Jinsheng Group was shady, and that he wanted to report it to fight for our rights and seek justice.

"Xiao Zhang and Brother Shan are quite close. Since Brother Shan has always disagreed with moving, Xiao Zhang supports him and even said, 'If you don't want to move, no one can force you.'"

At this point, the old man paused for a moment and took a deep drag on his homemade cigarette.

"Later, Brother Shan had an accident; he was hit by falling rocks from the mountain. Little Zhang, just like you are now, said he didn't believe it."

"and then?"

The old man spoke too slowly, only saying he needed to smoke two cigarettes with each sentence, which made Zhou Ze'an a little anxious.

"Then he came back up the mountain and slipped and fell into the lake at the foot of the mountain, drowning. It was a rainy day, so the ground was slippery."

Xia Yao, however, grasped the key point: "Why would he brave the rain to go up the mountain?"

The cigarettes rolled in paper were not long enough to last long, and the old man quickly flicked the last bit of smoke into the tin can of eight-treasure porridge containing water.

"We don't know either. I think he went to Shan Ge's house to get something. He was in a hurry, so he just put on a raincoat and grabbed an umbrella."

Thus, the relationship between the source ghost and that reporter was revealed.

An elderly man didn't want to move away from the land he had lived on for so long, and a reporter "meddled" in his defense of his rights. As a result, both of them died in "accidents" one after the other.

The accidents all happened on rainy days; the accumulated dark clouds were like the last straw that broke the camel's back.

Both of them wanted to get more information out of the old man, but they didn't know if he knew that much or was intentionally hiding it, because what followed was all irrelevant.

The information that Lin Shoushan raises exceptionally good chickens and grows exceptionally sweet oranges is all useless.

Xia Yao felt that the money was a bit wasted, but at least she found out the old man's identity, so the trip wasn't a complete waste.

Carrying two large bags of snacks and drinks, the two left the convenience store.

Chen Qi, who hadn't participated in the questioning but was strolling outside, quickly came up and whispered in a low voice.

"I just met an old lady sunbathing, so I went up and started chatting with her."

Zhou Zean didn't pay attention to her words and simply responded casually, "Mhm."

"What did you find out?"

Xia Yao noticed that Chen Qi's eyes were a little bright, which meant that he had clearly gained something.

"The old lady said those people are really wicked. They keep coming to harass us in order to get us to move out. They play DJ music on a stereo in the middle of the night and knock on the door and windows while people are asleep. No matter what we do, we can't get rid of them."

"Where is that old woman?" Xia Yao felt this would be a breakthrough and just wanted to find her as soon as possible.

Chen Qi gave an awkward laugh, "Then the old lady was pushed away by her family, who said she had mental problems and loved to talk nonsense."