What the village chief said was no different from yesterday.
Sun Zhenbang pondered for a moment before saying, "Before I came, I heard the villagers here constantly talking about the mountain god. Could you tell me what that's all about?"
The village chief scratched his head awkwardly. "We didn't believe in this stuff at first either, but after what happened last night, everyone felt it was too strange. Quite a few people have started to half-believe it."
"Actually, it all started when two villagers from our village saw the small animals on the mountain worshiping the moon. Then that girl Xiao Cao said she had seen the mountain god."
The village chief took a puff of his dry tobacco. As he slowly exhaled his words amid the smoke rings, it felt like listening to some kind of story, and all the police officers were captivated.
"Later, we went to take a look too. It was terrifying. That whole group of small animals looked like they were possessed. Thinking about it now, perhaps they weren't worshiping the moon. Maybe they were worshiping the mountain god."
The village chief shook his tobacco pipe, sending tobacco rustling down. He spread his lips into a grin, but no matter how one looked at it, that smile seemed rather mysterious.
"Officer, I'm only saying this casually."
Sun Zhenbang saw it clearly. A strange glint flickered in the village chief's eyes. Clearly, he believed the story about the mountain god to a great extent; he simply felt too embarrassed to publicize such theories in front of the police.
"What about Hu Xiaocao?"
Sun Zhenbang did not suspect that Hu Xiaocao was capable of murder. He simply felt that, as the first person to see the "mountain god," there had to be some unknown secret behind it