After I finished speaking, a profound silence settled over the room, everyone’s expression grim. It wasn’t until a burst of children’s shouting finally shattered the tense atmosphere.

Following the sound, a small, dark, wiry child, dressed in faded floral clothes and wearing a jade pendant around his neck, darted out from behind Hua Gu and zipped to the center of the main hall. Like a little monkey, he scrambled up onto the grandmother in three swift movements. Though advanced in years, the grandmother was by no means clumsy; she wrapped her arms around the child, puckered her lips, and gave his cheek a resounding kiss.

“Ghost Infant?” The moment I saw the pendant hanging on the child’s chest, the words slipped out involuntarily.

“Hehe,” the grandmother smiled, stroking him as she spoke to me. “Stop calling him Ghost Infant. He is a good child. I named him Xing’er.”

Little Shu was overjoyed to see Xing’er, seemingly forgetting all about Wang Jue’s affair. She hurried forward, scooped him up from the grandmother’s lap, and began showering him with kisses and playful teasing.

The grandmother was startled by this action and looked up at me, her gaze holding a hint of reproach.

Knowing the right thing to do, I stepped forward and said, “This is my friend, Li Xiaoshu.”

“Oh.” The grandmother frowned slightly, seemingly displeased that Xiaoshu had entered without kneeling to pay her respects. But Xiaoshu was too engrossed in cuddling Xing’er, so I couldn't ask her to kneel now. I could only offer the grandmother a conciliatory smile and ask for her understanding.

“You said earlier that Hua Jinlan possessed Wang Jue and killed two security guards?” The grandmother turned her attention away from Xing’er and Wang Jue, looking back at me.

“Actually, it was four security guards. Two are already dead, and the other two are in intensive care, not yet out of danger,” I clarified.

“Before this, did Hua Gu have any dealings with these people at Wang Jue’s house?” the grandmother asked, her tone tinged with severity.

“Yes,” Hua Gu walked to the center of the hall, settling beside Old He, and spoke without haste. “While we were at Wang Jue’s place, the guards checked on us a few times. Knowing we were strangers from out of town and didn’t have much money, one lent me five hundred yuan and kindly pointed out where I could buy vegetables.”

“The five hundred yuan—how did you settle that when you left?” the grandmother pressed.

Hua Gu lowered her head, looking as if she had done something wrong, and after a long pause, finally said, “I returned the two thousand yuan that belonged to Wang Jue, but I couldn’t pay back the security guard’s five hundred. I still owe two hundred. I intended to ask Old He to take it back to them once we returned to the village.”

“Sigh!” The grandmother sighed, leaning back against the chair. She picked up a long-stemmed pipe from the table, shook the little blue-and-white patterned cloth bag attached to it, and pinched a pinch of tobacco to load into the bowl. Old He took out a lighter and respectfully stepped forward to light it for her. The grandmother took a sip, exhaled a perfect smoke ring, and said slowly, “You have truly stirred up a massive trouble.”

Hearing this, everyone froze. Xiaoshu set Xing’er down and stared blankly at the grandmother before finally managing, “What do you mean by that?”

The grandmother didn’t even look at Xiaoshu, acting as if she weren't there. She turned her face toward Hua Gu and said, “I told you long ago, the family of Hua Jinlan has been enemies with ours for generations. You must be exceedingly careful with anything related to her. If you leave two hundred yuan unpaid, the security guards would naturally go looking for Wang Jue. Once Hua Jinlan possessed Wang Jue, knowing the guards had helped Hua Gu, it was inevitable that some kind of trouble would arise.”

“That reason is too far-fetched! Two hundred yuan brings death upon four guards?” I spoke up indignantly for Hua Gu. But Hua Gu merely stood to the side, clutching the edge of her clothes, tears dripping down her face, truly seeing herself as the chief culprit in the guards’ deaths.

The grandmother smiled mysteriously and replied, “She was determined to kill someone regardless; killing anyone would have served the same purpose. Why choose the security guards specifically? Precisely because they had helped Hua Gu. Not only the guards, but I suspect every single person sitting here is also likely her current target.”

This statement stunned the room into absolute silence; no one dared to utter a word of rebuttal.