In the family historyy, the patriarch's daughter, who was married to a rich man, had a baby after two years.
The rich man said, "A man must cultivate three things in his life: character, virtue, and reputation; so give the baby the name Chen Sanli - Three Cultivations."
The rich man's surname was Huang, but he had married into the Chen family and lived in the Chens' household, plus he loved his wife. Thus, he gave his son the surname Chen.
"Is this Chen Sanli?"
I continued to leaf through the family history. After a long time, I still hadn't found any other useful information. As I touched the last page of the book, I felt that that sheet of paper was thicker than the rest. At the time, I did not feel it was of any consequence and closed the book.
I shrugged and felt helpless.
We came to the library looking for the family history. Other than finding that the ghost house at Wild Dragon Villa was called the Dragon Wall of the Chen Family and that Chen Sanli was the grandson of the patriarch, we had nothing.
I was a little puzzled. How could I find him?
In this world, there are many people surnamed Chen. There were lots of people called Chen Sanli in China.
More importantly, according to the records of the family history, even if he was alive now, he was probably seventy or eighty years old. At that age, where could I find him?
How could I find him in the entirety of China?
Feng Chunsheng and I sat face-to-face and didn't know what to do.
He said, "Actually, we're not in a hurry. It's just a matter of time. We will find an acquaintance in the Public Security Bureau and have him help us look for Chen Sanli. There are not so many seventy or eighty-year-old people called Chen Sanli. We can also find people with the right age according to the family history. He won't be that difficult to find."
I said, "OK. But, do you know anyone at the police station?"
"I am not a local; how would I know anyone there?" He pointed at me and said, "You are from around here; you should know."
Damn it, I could only say that I just was a tattooist. I didn't know any police officers.
He scratched his head and said there were two ways to handle this. The first was giving money.
Giving money?
Nowadays, if you don't know people, there's no way to give them money.
My uncle who opened a pig farm wanted to let his son work in the municipal government. He prepared one million Yuan and looked for people everywhere, but unfortunately, he couldn't find the right person to bribe.
To tell the truth, those officials were privileged and really didn't lack for money. You had to have a relationship with them.
This method was no good. Feng Chunsheng said the second method: "Who is the most well-connected among your friends?"
I said that would be Mimi's boss, Mr. Zhang. He was a big shot; very well-connected.
But he probably wouldn't talk to me.
Then I thought of Li Xiangbo. He knew some people.
Feng Chunsheng slapped his thigh and said, "Li Xiangbo is OK."
I immediately phoned Li Xiangbo and asked him if he knew anyone in the Public Security Bureau.
He said he did.
Although that officer wasn't highly ranked, he would suffice for my needs.
I told Li Xiangbo, "Bring your friend to have dinner with me. I need his help."
"To do what? You can't do anything that violates the law."
I said it was no big deal; it was to help me find someone.
"That's easy. I'll arrange a dinner for you in the evening." He hung up the phone.
After hanging up the phone, Feng Chunsheng and I were ready to leave the library. As we were walking out the door, I suddenly thought of something. The last page of the family history.
That page was thicker than the rest.
I ran back to the bookshelf, took out the family history, and turned to the last page.
That page was especially thick. I carefully checked it, and found that that page was actually two pages glued together.
I went straight to the bathroom, wet my hands, and then used my wet hands to slowly peel away the extra sheet of paper.
In the end, I separated the two sheets of paper completely.
On the piece of paper in my hand was a pattern: a weasel in a wedding suit.
"That's the pattern." I handed the sheet of paper to Feng Chunsheng.
He said, "This pattern was everywhere in the ghost house. What does this tattoo mean?"
I shook my head and said, "How should I know?"
Then, he said, "'Huang Erlang requited the favors of the Chen Family. He brought wealth from far away to show his appreciation, but the Chen family is very greedy, and framed Huang Erlang to death'. The pattern must be related to this anecdote."
"Who said it wasn't?" I shook my head and said, "But I can't infer anything specific. I just have an impression in my mind."
He said, "This page… Would you say it's useful?" He raised the page with the pattern of the weasel in his wedding suit.
I said, "Of course it's useful. This piece of paper is new. There is no straw pulp in this piece of paper, so it was probably produced more recently. This proves that someone had come to this library and stuck it in the book."
"Ouch, and then what?" He asked.
I coughed and said, "This piece of paper is likely to have been put there by Chen Sanli. There's nothing in the family history after Chen Sanli's birth. That means that at that time, the whole Chen family had an accident. There was only one person left - Chen Sanli."
Chen Sanli was likely to be still alive.
I clapped my hands and said, "Let's go to the librarian."
Feng Chunsheng didn't understand. He asked me what we needed with him.
On the way there, I said, "You know, you understand the five elements, but you seem to lack common sense."
I went to the librarian with the Chen family history in hand and said, "Hello, I have something to ask you."
The librarian had a bad attitude.
I took out the proof that my own family history was donated to the library, and then put the family history of the Chen family and the piece of paper with the weasel pattern on the table.
I said to the librarian with a very heavy tone, "Donating our family history meant we trusted your library. These family histories are treasures of historical record-keeping. These days, your library's management is not very strict. You see, someone glued a piece of paper into this family history. How do you explain this?
"Go and have the curator of your library come here, and I'll talk to him about it."
The librarian immediately smiled and said that was a triviality. He said I shouldn't mind it and that he would look into it later.
I said directly, "Look into it later? Look into what? You're messing with me, aren't you? Aren't you going to check it out and find out who put it in there? If it was my uncle who put it in there, I will forget this matter."
"Your uncle?" The librarian asked me.
I said, "My uncle is called Chen Sanli. Can you find out if he ever visited here?"
"Oh, oh." My trick worked, and the librarian immediately looked him up in the computer. After a while, he told me there was indeed a visitor named Chen Sanli."
I said again, "I do not believe you. Let me see my uncle's information. If it isn't correct, I'll call your curator."
"Don't be angry; I'll show you." The librarian immediately turned the screen to show me a page with Chen Sanli's picture.
I immediately took a photo and said, "It was my uncle, after all. It's OK."
"Sir, you can rest assured. These family histories are historical treasures of Minnan. We take care of them properly. If these family histories weren't kept safe, it would be entirely our fault." The librarian saw that I wasn't going to make a fuss and breathed a sigh of relief.
I just nodded, put the Chen family history on the table, and left the library with Feng Chunsheng.
When we were outside, Feng Chunsheng nearly choked with laughter, holding his stomach. He asked me, "Shui, have you ever been a con artist? This was my first time seeing such a well-executed lie."
I smiled and said, "No way. If I had directly asked him for Chen Sanli's information, he certainly wouldn't have told me, so I had to trick him into telling me."
"You're a cunning one! You're really crafty when it comes to dealing with obstacles in life. I'm sure your master would be proud!" he laughed.
I also smiled and said that if we ordinary people, with no privileges or prospects, wanted to live well, we could only rely on our brain.
Then I took out my cell phone and looked at Chen Sanli's information.
After reading it, I said to him, "This person is in Hong Kong. His ID card was issued in Hong Kong."
"Do you have a specific address?"
"Yes." I showed it to him. Chen Sanli lived in Hong Kong's Shuanglong Mountain and was a professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, according to the form he had filled out in the library.
"We can find him easily," he said.
Now that we had Chen Sanli's address and picture, finding him wouldn't be a problem.
However, why did the weasel want us to find Chen Sanli, and then take him to the ghost house to meet him?
I couldn't figure it out.
Just then, Su Yizi called me. She sounded anxious as she said to me, "Hey, can you hurry up to come here? I just had a bath, and the livor mortis is getting worse."