It's late at night.

Chapter 27: Reporter Zhang Zhi

Perhaps it was because they broke the life-saving and evil-repelling formation, but there were no oranges in their room today.

After another round of feigned politeness, they finally got to the point.

After finding the city's daily newspaper office, paying some money, and making some inquiries, the group finally located the reporter who had drowned and his home address.

The reporter's name was Zhang Zhi. True to his name, he was passionate and upright, and ultimately lost his life for it.

I heard that he was his parents' only child, and they doted on him. The hardest thing he ever suffered was probably the muddy water that got into his nose.

Following the address, they quickly found Zhang Zhi's home.

"Knock knock knock—"

Knock on the door, and soon a woman with a full head of white hair opened it.

The woman looked surprised as she saw the unfamiliar faces outside the door.

Who are you looking for?

"Hello Auntie, we are Zhang Zhi's college classmates, and we're here to see him."

Xia Yao smiled politely, "I don't know what happened to him. He stopped replying to messages after graduation, so we came here to check on the address he gave us before."

The woman was momentarily lost in thought, probably because she hadn't heard anyone mention that name in a long time.

She quickly composed herself and welcomed the person inside.

"Oh, it's Xiaozhi's classmate. Come in, come in."

"No need to change your shoes. It's been a while since anyone has come over, so it's a bit messy. Please make yourselves at home."

The group presented the fruit and gifts they had bought and then went inside.

I came here because I suspect there might be clues or evidence in my home.

The furniture in the house was old, but it was clean and tidy.

A black and white photograph was hanging on the wall. The young man in the photograph had sharp eyebrows and bright eyes, and his eyes seemed to sparkle with starlight.

That was Zhang Zhi.

Xia Yao saw the photo and pretended to be stunned for a moment, "Zhang Zhi, he..."

He hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.

The woman, however, remained calm and composed.

"Xiao Zhi, he has passed away. I'm sorry I didn't inform you at the time, which made you mistakenly think he was ignoring you."

"Auntie, we are the ones who should apologize. We didn't ask properly before coming to your door and brought up your sad story. Please accept our condolences."

Xia Yao's attitude was sincere, as if she were genuinely apologetic.

"I remember Zhang Zhi said he wanted to be a journalist after graduation. He's so young, how come he..."

Chen Qi delivered a phenomenal performance, her eyes welling up with tears before she even finished a single sentence.

At this moment, Zhou Ze'an scolded her, "Don't ask anymore, or Auntie will be sad."

The woman rubbed her eyes and smiled bravely.

"I'm fine, kids."

How many days and nights must a mother go through before she can calmly accept that her child is gone?

"After graduating, Xiao Zhi worked as a reporter for a while, which can be considered as realizing her dream."

"He was just unlucky; he encountered a rainstorm while conducting an interview, got lost, and accidentally fell into the lake."

The woman's voice was calm, but her full head of white hair spoke volumes about her hardships.

After exchanging pleasantries, and with the woman feeling less wary of them, Xia Yao suggested that she wanted to see Zhang Zhi's belongings to see if any of his last wishes had been fulfilled, and that they were willing to help.

The woman shouldn't have agreed to such an offensive request, but seeing their sincere eyes, she was still somewhat moved.

"If there are any unfulfilled wishes, they're probably from the reports he wrote."

"Before his accident, he said he wanted to do a report to help farmers, but unfortunately it didn't come to fruition."

Without a doubt, the content should expose the unscrupulous developers.

As she spoke, the woman led them to a bedroom.

This is roughly Zhang Zhi's room: a simple bed, bookshelves, a desk, and a wardrobe; there doesn't seem to be anything that provides any clues.

Although no one has lived there for a long time, the room has always been kept clean and tidy.

"In the days following Xiaozhi's accident, while we were busy arranging his funeral, our house was burgled. All the cash in the house was gone, and Xiaozhi's camera and other belongings were also stolen. Although he was arrested, his things were never recovered."

The woman's words made them feel a little disheartened.

This is clearly the developer sending people to destroy evidence; there's probably nothing left to find here.

After a quick look, I found no information about Yaoshan.

As she was about to leave, the aunt seemed to remember something.

"Oh right, the day he had the accident, he sent me a photo and some strange words."

The woman's words once again drew their attention.

Zhou Ze'an asked, "What photos? What did he say?"

"Xiao Zhi sent me a picture of a grave on the mountain. I asked him why he sent such an unlucky thing. He said it was the grave of his friend's wife, and he would go and pay his respects when he had time."

"Can we see the photos?" Xia Yao asked tentatively.

The woman shook her head. "I'm sorry, my phone got a virus before, and I lost all my chat history and everything. I can't find that photo."

Silence. Why did he say such strange things before the incident?

They sat and chatted for a while longer, offering some words of comfort, before finally leaving.

Before leaving, he secretly left two thousand yuan under the coffee table.

Once outside, Zhou Ze'an said directly, "Let's go find that grave."

"Huh? Where are you going to find any graves?" Chen Qi still pretended not to know anything.

Xia Yao sighed, "That grave should be Lin Shoushan's wife's. The villagers in Yaoshan said that Lin Shoushan's wife was originally buried on the mountain, so he didn't want to move and wanted to stay here with his wife."

"So, when he sent this photo to his mother, was he implying to her that he hid the evidence in the grave?" Chen Qi suddenly realized.

"The way they put it was so euphemistic and inexplicable, they probably just didn't want those bad guys to be so ruthless that they wouldn't even spare his mother."

Xia Yao explained, "He had never told his mother about this, so she didn't understand the hints and was only robbed, but thankfully no one was hurt."

"I'm more worried now about whether we can find this evidence. After all, a lot of things have been leveled during the construction of the scenic area. Graves without family members to claim them will probably be moved, and in that process, the evidence may be destroyed."

After expressing their concerns, none of them looked too happy.

Without saying another word, they returned directly to the scenic area and climbed the mountain along the mountain path.

After climbing around, I didn't see any graves except for the barren mountains and wild trees.

I happened to meet a stone steps repairman on the mountain and asked him. Sure enough, the graves on the mountain had been moved before the work even started.

Chen Qi, leaning on her trekking poles, was already panting heavily and drenched in sweat.

"Oh no, oh no, what do we do? The grave is gone, and the mountain is so big, where are we going to look for anything?"

The group exchanged glances, their eyes filled with deep helplessness.

Xia Yao suddenly asked, "Are there still things we haven't used?"

Zhou Ze'an instantly understood and turned to Chen Qi, "Take out that card of yours that you don't know what it's for."