Before nightfall, we reached the village that was written on the paper.

Under the twilight, the tea gardens looked full of vitality. Inside the gardens, many people were seizing the time to pick more leaves before it became too dark. After all, the best time to pick tea leaves was short-lived. If they let things be for one night, the leaves could become too old.

Li Mazi watched through the window. “Little Brother Zhang, it looks like an endless tea garden. We should get out of the car to ask around.”

“Don’t rush.” I drove the car into the village then stopped. “You stay in the car and take care of Old Gang. I’m going out to see.”

Li Mazi made a face. “Why do I have to stay behind again? He’s sleeping like a dead pig. What’s the point of taking care of him? Little Brother Zhang, can I go with you? It’s so irritating to stay in the car.”

I sighed and nodded as I didn’t have any other solution.

Li Mazi and I walked around the village and spotted a dirty storage building. A bare-chested, burly man sat by a big tree. He was playing with his phone.

Li Mazi and I walked over and greeted him. “Good evening, brother!”

Before I could ask, the big man impatiently pointed at the storage. “Get the stuff yourself and bring it out here to check.”

“No, you’ve misunderstood us. We’re not here to buy the goods,” I said politely.

The man lifted his head and shot us a glance. “You’re not here to buy our products? Then, why did you come here? Are you here to seek trouble?”

Li Mazi was enraged. “How could you talk to people like this?”

I pulled him back by the shoulder. “Big brother, I want to ask you something.”

The man stared back at his phone screen. “I’m mute. I can’t talk.”

Li Mazi shouted, “Didn’t you just talk?!”

“Only when I’m happy.” The sturdy man gave Li Mazi a discontented glance. “Damn pockmark-faced, do you wanna fight? Do you believe that I can just shout once and the entire village will come to beat the crap out of you? I’m sure even your mother won’t be able to recognize you after we’re done with you.”

I knew he wasn’t lying. In remote villages like this, people were always very close. They didn’t even treat the police nicely.

Li Mazi stopped talking.

I thought about it and took one hundred renminbi from Li Mazi’s pocket. I held in front of the man. “Big brother…”

“Shoot, you still haven’t…” When the man saw the money, he stopped cursing. “What do you want?”

“I just want to ask you something. If you can help me, you can have this money,” I said.

The burly man snatched the note from me and checked it under the weak beams of the twilight. After he confirmed that it wasn’t a fake bill note, he held a warm smile on his face. “Brother, just ask! I don’t mean to brag, but there’s not a single person or thing I don’t know in this village. You’re asking the right man here.”

Li Mazi pouted and threw the man a disdainful look.

“Brother, I heard that there’s a tea farm in your village,” I said.

The man nodded. “Yeah, we’ve got several tea farms here. Whose farm you’re asking about?”

“The boss’s name is Song.”

“Oh, him!” The sturdy man nodded. “Didn’t he commit suicide by jumping off a balcony?”

The man then lowered his voice. “Because of this incident, our village was troubled. That bastard owed a lot of money here. He’s dead, but Old Liu isn’t doing good.”

“Who’s Old Liu?” I caught onto the clue. Could he be the farmer Mrs. Chen had gotten the lock from?

“Old Liu was Mr. Song’s business partner. He’s in charge of the tea farm. Things were very good at first. Old Liu watched the tea garden and picked the leaves during the season. Tea leaves picking is a two-or-three-day job. The longer it takes, the older the leaves are. If the leaves are old, they can’t be sold at a good price. Old Liu doesn’t have many family members, so he had to hire people. It cost a lot to hire people, you know. Old Liu was waiting for Mr. Song to pay him so he could pay the workers. Now that Mr. Song is gone, all the workers have come to Old Liu’s house to trouble him. He’s miserable, and he might just hang himself.” The more the burly man talked, the more excited he became. He was a talkative man.

“How’s the relationship between Mr. Song and Old Liu?” I asked.

The man contemplated. “Not bad. I heard that Old Liu’s third son found a treasure from a well and sold it to Mr. Song. Everybody said that Old Liu was ripped off. That thing could be sold for a better price in the city. Old Liu explained that Mr. Song had treated him well, so it wasn’t a big matter that he took a little loss. But this time, he’s suffered a big loss.”

Li Mazi and I exchanged looks. That treasure had to be the clock!

Li Mazi was a little flustered and asked, “Is that treasure a clock?”

“How did you know that?” The man looked at Li Mazi and became more cautious. He scanned us. “What do you do, after all?”

I fabricated something. “We’re reporters from a newspaper. When we heard about the incident, we thought we could dig up a story. That’s why we’ve come here to see if we could find some information.”

“Ah.” The man eased his worry.

We asked him for the exact location of Old Liu’s house. Before it was completely dark, we followed the directions to find Old Liu’s place.

When we found it, we saw an ill-lit, shabby, mud-walled, tile-proofed courtyard house. A hungry buffalo was mooing from inside the yard.

Li Mazi looked and said, “I guess it’s here.”

We went to the messy courtyard and called, “Hello, is this Uncle Liu’s house?”

An old man’s voice answered us. “Who are you looking for?”

Li Mazi and I took the risk and entered the house. There was only one table in the middle of the messy room, which held some green onions and raw sauce.

An old man was seated at the table, drinking. However, he still looked healthy and strong. He shot us a drunken glance. “Who are you looking for?”

“Uncle Liu, we’re reporters from a newspaper. We heard that your third son found a treasure lately. We’ve come to interview you.” Li Mazi copied the story I had fabricated.

Old Liu frowned and scolded, “Go away! Go away! No interview! Get lost!”

Li Mazi didn’t expect to be treated this way and threw me a quizzical look. I deliberately sat opposite Old Liu and calmly placed the bag from my hand onto the table.

“Do you recognize this?”

Old Liu anxiously looked at the bag.

I gently unwrapped the plastic cover and then the fabric, which revealed the clock.

It was ticking.

Li Mazi gawked. “Little Brother Zhang, i-it’s moving again!”

Old Liu was surprised. “H-How could this be in your hands? Who are you?”

“Who we are is not important.” I sneered, “Your third son found this clock, right? Where’s he?”

When Old Liu heard me mention his third son, the brim of his eyes reddened. “Not here. He’s gone.”

I was shocked. “When did it happen?”

“A few months ago. He drowned in a muddy puddle.” Old Liu took a shot of strong liquor. “He found this clock and hoped to use it to get a huge fortune. We had a fight when he found out I had sold it for a cheap price to Mr. Song…”

He drowned in a muddy puddle...

Mr. Song and Mrs. Chen died due to some black mud. Did the three of them have any relationship?

“Do you know where your son got this clock?” I didn’t dare to linger and asked the most important question.