Chapter 289 - 287: The True Cause of Death (Part 1)

Chapter 289: Chapter 287: The True Cause of Death (Part 1)

The Wangzi River is a river near White Poplar Village, located at the end of the village near the forest. It takes about the time to drink a cup of tea to walk there from the village.

The Wangzi River is the only river near White Poplar Village. Villagers draw water and do laundry by the river, so during the day, it’s always bustling there. However, it is quite a distance from the village and surrounded by a deserted area, so almost no one comes here at night.

A few people hurriedly headed towards the Wangzi River. Just as they were nearing the riverbank, they suddenly heard the "splash" of a heavy object falling into the water in the distance. The sound made their hearts skip a beat, and they immediately had a very bad premonition. Hastily, they quickened their pace and ran towards where the sound had come from.

The sound had come from near a wooden bridge.

This was also the nearest bridge to White Poplar Village in the vicinity.

On both sides of the bridge, patches of person-high, chaotic water weeds grew on the river surface. With the faint moonlight, they could barely make out the dark ripples still remaining on the river surface near the water weeds on the far side.

One of the men couldn’t help but exclaim in horror, "Could it be Little Dongzi who fell in? In this cold, falling into the water is lethal!"

Another man suddenly pointed to a tall figure across the river, "Wait! Isn’t that Jiang Da across the river?! Could it be Jiang Da who threw Little Dongzi in?!"

The man who had earlier suggested coming to find Little Dongzi by the river frowned deeply, took a deep breath, and jumped into the river with a splash.

Yan Si appeared anxious, clenched his teeth, and followed suit by jumping in.

The other men hesitated. It would be one thing if it was warm weather; as the man had said earlier, going into the water in such weather could be fatal. After all, it wasn’t their child, so who would risk their own life to save him?

One of the men, trying to break the awkward atmosphere, suddenly shouted, "Don’t just stand there waiting for Chen Laosan! Look at Jiang Da, conveniently here at this time, he’s surely involved! Let’s get a few people over to capture him! Blame must be laid on the right person, and if he gets away, it’ll be too late!"

Immediately, several men responded in agreement and aggressively rushed along the wooden bridge towards the opposite bank.

Xu Jing and Wei Muqing watched the river nervously. They saw the two men in the water dive and resurface several times before the man called Chen Laosan finally found the person!

He quickly swam to the shore, holding the limp child in his arms, and carefully laid him on the ground, shivering as he said, "Doctor Wei, luckily you’re here. Please... please check on Little Dongzi..."

Wei Muqing rushed over and quickly began examining Little Dongzi.

Xu Jing, noticing Chen Laosan’s pale complexion, frowned and said, "You should go change your clothes, or you’ll suffer from hypothermia... you’ll get into trouble too."

"No rush, someone... someone already went back to inform the other villagers. People will soon bring clothes."

As soon as they heard something fall into the water, one of the people with them quickly turned back to the village to notify others.

At this moment, Wei Muqing’s slightly trembling voice spoke up, "Little Dongzi... is no longer breathing..."

Chen Laosan and Yan Si, who had just come ashore, suddenly changed their expressions.

Xu Jing quickly walked over to examine Little Dongzi. Heart stopped, no pulse, dilated pupils...

She pressed her lips together and suddenly, deftly undid the child’s clothes. To the astonishment of the crowd, she began performing chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on the child.

Wei Muqing was also visibly shocked, his eyes widening when Xu Jing directly gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation to the child.

However, everyone had a certain level of discernment, and they had heard that Miss Xu was also a doctor, so they could tell she was attempting to save Little Dongzi.

Though her methods of resuscitation were unheard of and somewhat shocking.

Xu Jing desperately performed CPR for quite a while, and seeing the child remain motionless, her heart grew completely cold.

Finally, she withdrew her hands, gently tidied the child’s clothes, and sighed quietly, "This child... can’t be saved..."

"Dong... Dongzi! My Dongzi!"

Yan Si, now wrapped in a blanket, suddenly rushed over, sobbing, "How... how could you leave like this? Someone must have harmed you! Jiang Da! It must have been you who harmed my son!"

With these words, he suddenly raised his head and glared at Jiang Da, who was surrounded by a group of men nearby.

Jiang Da’s black eyes were eerily calm, and he spoke in a low, hoarse voice, "It wasn’t me."

He seemed to speak very little, and just these three words came out haltingly.

But Yan Si clearly wasn’t buying it and excitedly retorted, "Then... why were you conveniently standing by the river? Besides, the place Dongzi fell is closer to the opposite riverbank! At that time, you were the only one on that side! My Dongzi is not the kind of child to take his own life! It must be you!"

The others chimed in, "When we heard the splash and ran over, we saw you standing by the river, so Yan Si’s suspicion of you makes sense!"

"Who knows what you did before we got here!"

"I don’t think Dongzi was a kid who’d take his own life over something minor! Now that the child is gone, if he was truly murdered, we must seek justice for him!"

The more they insisted, the sharper Jiang Da’s gaze became. He said word by word, "I didn’t. I also heard the splash and came to look."

Even Xu Jing was surprised; it was the first time even the people of White Poplar Village had heard him say so much.

But the villagers didn’t buy it; the more unusual his behavior was, the more they were convinced he was the culprit.

Some villagers even shouted loudly, "Quick! Take him to the government office!"

Upon hearing this, Jiang Da’s eyes suddenly flashed with a fierce glow, and his facial muscles tensed up momentarily. Xu Jing, who had been quietly observing him, secretly thought things were about to go wrong, and quickly spoke, "The city gates are closed now; to go to the government office and appeal, you’d have to wait until morning.

Moreover, I believe Mr. Jiang is not the culprit."

The villagers paused, frowning deeply in dissatisfaction, "Miss Xu, how do you know Mr. Jiang isn’t the culprit? Do you fancy yourself an investigator?"

"Exactly, and besides, you’re not from our village. As an outsider, you have no right to meddle in our village affairs!"

The more united such a village is, the more xenophobic it becomes.

This was also why they adamantly believed Jiang Da was the murderer of Little Dongzi, because in their hearts, Jiang Da was also an outsider, and a threatening one at that.

Xu Jing opened her mouth, just about to say something, when a calm, slightly deep female voice suddenly spoke up from a distance, "Miss Xu may not have the qualifications to meddle in village affairs, but surely I do."

Everyone whipped around, looking in surprise at Yan Ci, who was slowly approaching. They all respectfully called out, "Immortal Doctor Yan!"

Yan Ci seemed to give Jiang Da a fleeting glance before walking over to Little Dongzi’s body. Crouching down slightly, she said softly, "If we want to seek justice for this poor child, mere anger won’t suffice. If he was murdered, we must find the real killer for him to truly rest in peace.

Miss Xu, you mentioned earlier that you believe Jiang Da isn’t the culprit. I’d like to hear your reasons for saying so."

Although she didn’t directly speak for Jiang Da, Xu Jing could see that she was speaking in his defense.

Evidently, she too believed Jiang Da was not the real culprit.

What exactly was the relationship between Yan Ci and this Jiang Da?

Xu Jingjing was silent for a moment and said, "Because the true cause of Little Dongzi’s death was not drowning."