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Text Chapter 83 Lao Gan

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    ¡°Something must have frightened it,¡± Xia wanted to say, ¡°Has it been here before?¡±

    ¡°Not as far as I know,¡± the farmer said.

    "You didn't wave or anything just now?"

    "No. I was looking at my watch at the time? And then - damn, I can't remember the time at that time. It suddenly became so scary that I was scared to death by it."

    "Is it shy by nature?"

    "As far as I know, it has never done anything like this."

    "Weird," Xia wanted to say, "Let me try again. You follow us so we can confirm that it was not you who scared it."

    He gently rode his horse back to the rocks.  It took hard steps and shook its head to both sides.  Then, just like last time, it suddenly stopped and stood trembling.

    They tried six times, coaxing and encouraging it, but it just didn't work.  It didn't want to get close to Pingtie. Even if Xia wanted to get off the horse, he couldn't lead it step by step.  It just refused to take another step forward, standing there with trembling legs, as if it had sunk into the sand.  It rolled its pale and frightened eyes.  Out of sympathy for it, they had to give up the attempt.

    ¡°I really don¡¯t understand,¡± said the farmer.

    "Me too." Xia wanted to say,

    ¡°What on earth happened¡ª¡ª¡±

    "I know what happened," Xia wanted to say, "But, okay, it doesn't matter, we'd better go back."

    They rode back slowly toward the grass.  Xia Xiang didn't stop to check the cracks on the sea cliff. He didn't need to check.  He now knew exactly what happened between the levels and the Iron Reef.  As he went on his way, like Euclid, he put together line after line his finely constructed corollaries, and at the bottom of it he read:

    Which one is impossible?

    At the same time, the police officer also felt a little uneasy.  He suddenly remembered a person at the checkpoint. This person had probably met Mark.  That was Lao Gan. No matter it was sunny or rainy, he would sit on a seat under a small awning every day. The awning was under the oak tree in the center of the village green space.  But the day before, he did not see Lao Gan. This was because - very unusually - Lao Gan was not in his usual seat when the police officer began to collect evidence and inquire.  Lao Gan was in the village at the time, attending the wedding of his youngest grandson, who was married to a woman from the village.  But now he is back and available for questioning.  The old gentleman was very energetic.  He would soon be eighty-five, but he was strong and enthusiastic, and he boasted that although his ears might have a slight hearing problem, his eyes were as bright as ever, thank God.

    Yes, he remembered Thursday the 18th, the day the poor young man's body was found on the flat iron.  The weather was really nice that day, only a little windy at night.  He was always attentive to any stranger who passed by.  He remembered seeing a large convertible at ten o'clock, a red car.  He even remembered what the car's number was because his great-grandson, being the clever little kid he was, noticed the number on the car for fun.  010101.  When Lao Gan was eighteen years old, he got up at four o'clock every morning and worked in the fields until the sun went down, or even later, just to make money, and he felt that there was no harm in him at all.  He married when he was nineteen years old and had ten children, seven of whom are still living and vigorous.  What?  Oh yes, the car came back at one o'clock.  Lao Gan had just come out of the restaurant, where he drank a bottle of beer, and then he saw the car parked at the door, and the man camping on the side of the road got out of the car.  There was also a woman in the car, who was dressed very glamorously, but it seemed too artificial to Lao Gan.  In his day, women were not embarrassed about their age.  It's not that he doesn't like women trying their best to dress themselves up. He supports social progress, but he feels that they have gone too far now.  Mahon, that was the man's name, said good morning, entered the restaurant, and the car drove off.  What?  Yes, he saw Mahone leave.  Judging by the sound of the bell, it was half past one.  That clock is so convenient.  Someone installed it two years ago with their own money.  Yes, he did remember a strange young man passing through the village that afternoon.  Of course he can describe it, there is nothing wrong with his eyes, and there is nothing wrong with his memory, thank God!  It's just that his hearing is not that good, but, as the police officer may have noticed, as long as you speak a little louder and clearly, Lao Gan can hear clearly, but those young people nowadays are always mumbling  Gu couldn't speak clearly.  The guy was a bit hunchbacked, as if he grew up in the city. He wore big glasses and carried a backpack on his back.A small bag and a long stick to help walking. Everyone likes to use that kind of stick.  They called these people hikers, and they all had long sticks.  However, anyone with experience can tell them that nothing is more useful when walking than a cane.  Because, and there's a good reason for that, it's more comfortable for you to hold on to than on a long stick.  But young people never listen to these principles, especially girls. He feels that they have gone too far.  They were bare-legged and wearing shorts, like football players.  Although Lao Gan was not too old and did not like to look at girls' legs, in his time, girls never showed their legs.  But he knew that men would walk a kilometer just to see a bare ankle.

    The police officer used his last remaining energy to ask the last question: "When did that young man pass by?"

    "When? You don't have to shout loudly, young man. Maybe my hearing is bad, but I'm not deaf."

    "Indeed," the police officer said, "I just want to ask you, when did you see this guy wearing glasses and holding a long stick passing through the village?"

    "At two o'clock," replied Lao Gan triumphantly, "at two o'clock. Why? I said to myself: 'It's time for you to go have a drink, and the restaurant closes at two o'clock, so you better  Hurry up.' At this time, the man came straight from the direction of the village, walked directly across, and headed towards Lao Qiao's path. So I said: 'You look like you'll fall down when the wind blows, as if you grew up from Sprite soda.  Only bubbles, no body.¡¯ That¡¯s what I told myself. I also said: ¡®Lao Gan, this seems to be reminding you that it¡¯s time to drink another beer.¡¯ So I drank the second bottle of beer  "When I walked into the bar, it was already two o'clock. But the clock in the bar was always five minutes ahead."

    The police officer accepted the blow quietly.  Xia was wrong, completely wrong.  The alibi at two o'clock had been clearly proved.  Jiang Tiansheng is innocent, Li Feng is innocent, and so is Ye Fan.  Now it only needs to be proven that the mare is also innocent, and then the entire inference about Jiang Tiansheng will fall like a set of dominoes.

    He met Xia Xiang on the village green and chatted with the frustrated genius for a while.

    Xia wanted to look at him.

    "Do you have the train timetable with you?" he said at last.

    "A timetable? No, Xia thought. But I can get one. Or I can tell you¡ª"

    "No need to bother," Xia wanted to say, "I just want to know when the next train is."

    The police officer stared at him.

    ¡°There¡¯s something wrong with that mare,¡± Xia wanted to say. ¡°She was at the flat iron and saw the murder being completed.¡±

    "But I thought, Xia Xiang, you had proved that it was impossible."

    "Indeed. But it's true."

    Xia wanted to report his conclusion to the director, but found that the director was losing his temper in pain and having a nervous breakdown.

    "Those Imperial Capital guys lost Li Feng," he said bluntly. "They tracked him to the newspaper office, where he got a check for the bounty. He immediately cashed it and slipped in  A big sports mall, the kind of place where there are elevators and exits. To make a long story short, he deceived them all there, and now he has disappeared without a trace. I thought I could rely on these Imperial City police, but now it seems I was wrong  . I wish we had never encountered this difficult case." The director said sadly, "Now you say that the horse was there, and you say that it was not there, and you say that none of the people who might have ridden it  Actually rode him. Are you going to say next that he slit the guy's throat with his horseshoe and then turned himself into a seahorse?"

    Xia Xiang returned to the hotel helplessly and found a message waiting for him.  It came from an office in the Imperial Capital in the afternoon:

    Work is going well here and I hope to have results soon.

    No need to think about it, it must be Chen Xuanlin¡¯s message.

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