Chapter 102

When I heard this, my heart thumped. After Xiao Hua hung up, I sat across from Uncle Two, who asked me, “Are you still leaving?”

I shook my head, “No.”

I started one-handedly typing out a text message asking about Black Glasses, but decided against it when I was halfway through. I sighed, suddenly feeling very restless. I knew what Black Glasses’ problem was, but Xiao Hua coming to talk to me about it meant that there was probably something he couldn’t handle.

I was already very skilled, but basically no one in this world could hide anything from Uncle Two. He immediately gave me a look, but didn’t ask any more questions.

While we continued to eat, Fatty started asking Uncle Two what they had found out during this period. Uncle Two didn’t say much, just told Fatty to wait and that news was on the way.

Xiao Hua arrived less than five minutes later. He was wearing a gray T-shirt instead of his signature pink shirt and had a pink ring snugly wrapped around his finger. He had lost a lot of weight and looked younger than me. I sighed, it’s good to have money.

Xiao Hua nodded to Uncle Two, “Uncle Two.”

Uncle Two looked at the ring on Xiao Hua’s finger and said quietly, “Wu Xie has something to do tonight, so keep it short.”

Xiao Hua gave me a meaningful look and then glanced at Fatty and Poker-Face before saying to Uncle Two, “The investigation finally has some results. This thing was so deeply hidden that we wouldn’t have found it if someone hadn’t sold it. Uncle Two, you guessed right. Someone wants us to investigate this matter.”

I didn’t understand at all. Uncle Two seemed to be thinking things over and then saw my confused look. “You tend to get obsessed with certain things,” he said to me. “Many people are also aware of it. That’s why, when I heard what you were up to, my first reaction was to think that someone was using you to check something for them.”

“Hmm.” After thinking about it, it really did seem possible.

Uncle Two continued, “At that time, I was very puzzled. For a while there, you could see through these kinds of little tricks in an instant. But this time, you didn’t react and even seemed to believe it. I initially felt that you hadn’t been tricked for so long that you were no longer wary of such scams. But later, I discovered that you wanted to be tricked.”

I was stunned. People like me didn’t like to be tricked, so I didn’t know why Uncle Two would say such a thing. Uncle Two continued, “Think about it. It’s true, isn’t it?”

“What you said is right.” I didn’t have the strength to argue and there wasn’t any point in doing so, either.

I looked at Xiao Hua and he continued, “I found someone to trace the text message that was sent to you. This kind of little trick generally isn’t perfect and they usually don’t expect us to look into it seriously, so there’s very detailed information when we do bother to check.”

Xiao Hua took a piece of scrap paper from the side and wrote a location on it. “The text was sent from this area.” I looked at the name but didn’t recognize it at all. It was called “Yabalao” (1). Xiao Hua continued, “This is a mountain village close to Fujian’s coast. The villagers there have a high probability of being mute. I think someone sent the information from there. It’s the only village in that area, after all.”

“And then what?” I didn’t know Xiao Hua could trace a text back without a source, but I felt that I really had wanted to be tricked at that time. In the past, my first reaction would’ve definitely been the same as Xiao Hua’s, but I didn’t know why I had ignored this possibility at the time.

“Then I hired Black Glasses and told him to go and take a look,” Xiao Hua said.

Isn’t Black Glasses busy with his own affairs? I asked myself. But after Xiao Hua’s previous phone call, I didn’t dare mention this information.

Xiao Hua continued, “He sent back some photos and videos, saying that someone was staying in the village to find out why all the villagers were mute. You can look at the videos yourself. I’ll send them to you.”

I took out my phone and Xiao Hua sent me a video on WeChat. When I clicked on it, I saw an old man using sign language, a girl with a ponytail on the side taking notes, and a strongly accented voice in the background translating the sign language, “The children here are normal at birth. They become mute after their first thunderstorm.”

<Chapter 101><Table of Contents><Chapter 103>

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TN Notes:

(1) Yaba (哑巴)=mute. Lao(涝)=flooded