Bai Ci completely agreed with this judgment.
After all, no matter how great Wang Huizong's personal charisma was, he couldn't possibly shake a deep-rooted belief that someone had built up over most of their life in just the brief breaks during his work.
“In that case, the witness he mentioned in his letter is still highly likely to be you,” Bai Ci deduced.
“Either he wanted to use this identity to protect you...”
“...or something you casually chatted with him about provided him with a very important clue, even though you yourself were unaware of it.”
“I lean more toward the latter,” Bai Ci voiced her opinion.
To this, Shen Jiayi also nodded, acknowledging the plausibility of the latter hypothesis.
Though she really liked the first hypothesis.
Bai Ci looked at Shen Jiayi. Since that was the case, they could only pin their hopes on her memory.
“Try to think back. When you were chatting with Wang Huizong, what things about the village did you talk about?”
“It's been a year, so asking you to look back and reconstruct the past is indeed a lot to ask.”
“But I can only trouble you to think carefully and narrow down a few directions. After that, I'll find a way to verify them.”
Hearing this, a gentle, soft light flickered in the depths of Shen Jiayi's eyes. She shook her head with a soft chuckle, her brow finally shedding its gloom and taking on a touch of the warmth belonging to a young girl.
“It's no trouble. Every single thing, every single conversation related to him, I remember clearly. I've never forgotten.”
She closed her eyes to calm herself for a moment. Fragmented scenes of their past together surfaced one by one. After a brief selection, she picked out the things about the village she had casually mentioned to Wang Huizong.
...
“I really like the fields of sunflowers on the mountain behind the village.”
“When I was a child, my liking for them was purely because they turned with the sunlight. It was magical.”
“When I got a bit older, it was because I could secretly pluck the ripe sunflower seeds to eat. If I plucked and ate other flowers, it was easy to get caught and beaten.”
“My liking for them after growing up was because I envied them—always chasing light and warmth. That was the way I wanted to live my life most.”
...
“Once, when I was a child and absolutely starving, I sneaked into the apiary on the back mountain and stole some raw honey that was sealed in jars.”
“Unlike the fragrant honey sold on the market, raw honey is thick and sticky, its aroma so heavy it makes your head spin, and its taste is cloyingly sweet.”
“This theft wouldn't have been discovered, since no one knew I had entered the apiary, but eating raw honey makes you dizzy, as if you're drunk.”
“I was stumbling along the road when a villager spotted me, and I got a severe beating from my father.”
...
“Deep in the woods on the west side of the sunflower field, there is a hidden cave. It has been my secret base since I was a child.”
“When I couldn't bear my father's beatings and verbal abuse, or when I was ostracized by the other children in the village, I would hide in that cave.”
“The cave is very deep, and deep inside, swarms of fireflies live there all year round. In the dim light, the air is filled with twinkling specs of light. It's exceptionally beautiful.”
“As I grew up, I gradually came to terms with things and didn't want to trap myself in a tiny cave wallowing in self-pity, so I rarely went in anymore.”
...
Aside from these, Shen Jiayi also detailed other trivial matters: the rule that villagers were not allowed into the mountains after dark, the custom of turning off all the lights in the village on the eve of the Honey Rite, and so on.
The two reviewed them together, ruling out irrelevant clues one by one.
Of the final three remaining clues—the sunflowers, the honey, and the cave—
the cave was deemed the most suspicious.
This was mainly because the other two, the flower field and the apiary, were places where the villagers frequently came and went. Especially the former, which was in the open, making it highly difficult to hide anything there.
As for the latter, although it offered more privacy than the former, the difficulty of breaking into it was also significantly greater—by no small margin.
Having decided on her target, Bai Ci looked at Shen Jiayi and went straight to the point.
“I plan to investigate that cave tomorrow. Could you describe the specific route for me? By the way, do you want to come along?”
Without a moment's hesitation, Shen Jiayi immediately replied, “I'll go.”
“But I have a question. Why are you so proactive about this?”
“You're just an outsider who is staying here temporarily. Once you finish your work for the Honey Rite, you can leave the village safely.”
“Why do you seem to be putting all your effort into digging up the village's secrets? Why are you so persistent?”
Having anticipated this question, Bai Ci had already prepared her answer before coming.
No, how could that be called a prepared plan?
It was a genuine expression of her feelings.
A layer of sorrow covered Bai Ci's expression, mixed with suppressed anxiety and unease: “I've realized that my boyfriend has been replaced. I need to find the real him as soon as possible.”
Hearing this, Shen Jiayi was momentarily taken aback, and her expression grew solemn.
She stared intently at Bai Ci, promising earnestly word by word: “I will do everything I can to help you. You two will definitely be happy.”
Compared to Wang Huizong, who had already been replaced for a year, there was still a possibility that Bai Ci's boyfriend was alive.
Shen Jiayi saw a reflection of herself in Bai Ci.
If she had been sharp enough to discover the truth back then, would she have been able to save him? Would they have had a different, happy ending?
Shen Jiayi knew very well exactly who she should hate.
Facing someone in a similar situation but with a much greater hope for a happy ending, she couldn't help but feel a shallow sense of envy and jealousy.
But that was all. Hatred overrode all of her emotions.
Under the influence of hatred, those subtle feelings of envy and jealousy were entirely transformed into an obsession.
She would make sure this person found happiness, and she would tear this village to shreds.
After making her promise, Shen Jiayi took a half-step forward, showing decisive initiative: “Aside from the cave, is there anything else you need to verify?”
“Compared to you conspicuous outsiders, I'm a local. My movements won't attract attention, which makes things much more convenient.”
The timing was perfect, so Bai Ci took the opportunity to ask about the next possible lead: “Are you familiar with this year's Honey Bride, Shen Tan?”
At the mention of this name, Shen Jiayi's expression grew complex.
She nodded slightly: “Familiar, but not extremely so.”
“There weren't many school-aged girls in the village to begin with. Shen Tan and I were classmates at the town's high school. Our grades were always neck-and-neck, and we were friends who walked to school and back home together.”
“Shen Tan's father was willing to pay for her education and fully supported her higher studies.”
“My father was an old traditionalist who believed that education was useless for girls. After the old village chief died, there was no one left to advise him. On the eve of the college entrance examination, he locked me inside the house for three days, completely ruining all my prospects.”
“Later, she went out of the province for university, experiencing the vast world outside, while I was trapped in this village for life. Our horizons and topics of conversation became completely disconnected, and gradually, our relationship drifted apart.”
“Then in your memory, what was the original Shen Tan's personality like?” Bai Ci pressed.
Rate on N.U.
