Pushing through the crowd, I saw a scene that I may never forget in my lifetime.

The missing Xiaoqiang was already a lifeless corpse.

His shoes were nowhere to be found, dressed in a suit all wrinkled from soaking in water, his face pale, body swollen, utterly miserable to see.

It seems he had been soaking in the water for several days at least.

Today is the eighth day of the lunar month, based on the timeline, it should be the fourth or fifth day.

The day he went bird hunting was the third day; Xiaoqiang returned to the city on the fourth day.

How could he have died here?

Did he not go back, or did he come back after going back?

After careful observation, there were no other visible wounds on his body. His facial expression was gruesome, indicating death by drowning.

At that moment, a voice interrupted our thoughts, "Quiet down, who will call Xiaoqiang's family, I'll call 110 to report the case."

Everyone whispered amongst themselves, my cousin and I found a place to sit, silent in contemplation.

Not a single person left.

No one could have predicted that things would turn out this way.

The police and Xiaoqiang's parents arrived in the afternoon.

Standing at the edge of the crowd, looking at Xiaoqiang's parents gasping for air from crying, my heart was in turmoil.

I always felt that Xiaoqiang's death was related to the gunshot fired that night.

If it was related, it means that Xiaoqiang actually returned very late, and he may have even seen me firing the gun.

But even if he saw something, why did he come back?

How did he end up dead?

I pondered over it endlessly.

The car couldn't come in, and the police had already taken Xiaoqiang's body away on a stretcher.

The police began with a simple inquiry.

"When was the last time you saw the deceased?"

Xiaoqiang's mother murmured, "Xiaoqiang said he had to go back to work on the fifth day, who knew he came back."

"Based on the body’s condition, it is preliminarily determined that he died from drowning, probably on the fifth day."

"Someone must have killed my Xiaoqiang, someone must have called him back, why did he come back?"

"This is indeed a point of doubt, further deductions will have to wait for the follow-up investigation, at least we need to recover the deceased��s phone first."

"My child."

The police also asked the villagers some questions, and I was also questioned. Regarding the events of the third day, besides the gunshot, I did not hide anything.

My cousin answered in accordance with what I said.

"Where were you on the fifth day?"

"I stayed at home all day, didn't go out. My family can testify, and a few neighbors also visited my house."

My cousin replied, "Same here, I spent the night playing mahjong with some friends on the fourth day, slept all day, my family is aware."