Turning back time a bit, just before Dai Niu visited the Shu family house-
Inside the house, Shu He's room was quiet save for the occasionally sound of dripping water and a cloth being wiped against skin, Shu He sat on the stool with little on but underwear as he repeatedly dipped the cloth in a bucket, wringed it till it was only damp and washed himself with it to remove the excess sweat, he was slightly struggling due to the pain from his training.
'Ugh, I think I may have gone a bit too hard but at least I made progress, it should get easier as I keep it up' Images of the training before flashed in his head as he consolidated his actions, this was probably the first time in this life he had done any sort of strenuous activity, at most he'd helped his dad move around or deliver containers, attempt to butcher a rabbit under his dads supervision and help with household chores.
After spending a good 10 minutes or so wiping away he felt it was enough, he got up, picked up the bucket and left the door in his room entering his small garden of herbs, again, because water was obtained from the wells in the village, a trip was need to obtain some, granted the house had a small stone reservoir that is used to store a good amount but it was better to not waste water.
He steadily used the bucket to water the various plants in the garden, from what he understood, since the water only contained some natural dirt and sweat which was basically sterile it shouldn't have much negative effects on the plants, unlike if he had been using synthetic soaps or chemicals to wash himself, but he wouldn't mention this when advertising products made with these ones in the future, image was important after all.
Standing in the garden near completely naked and slightly damp he looked around to think for a second before shivering from the cold.
'Ah, that's bad gotta take care of myself…' He thought, goosebumps rising on his arms, he headed back inside. 'I'm getting low on fertiliser, I should ask my father if he can get some from the fields'
It was then that he heard a knock at the front door, followed by his mother's voice as she headed to answer it.
'We don't usually get guests at this time' he thought, he quickly hopped inside of his room and flung on some fresh clothes as if his muscle pain didn't exist, and then headed back outside in to his garden.
The fence was just enough to hide up to his head, so he stood near the edge and perked his ears up out of curiosity over the guest.
"Ah, Dai Niu? What's wrong, you don't usually come around like this?" His mother said.
'Dai Niu? That massive lug of man? What's he doing here?' A picture of a man that resembled a cross breed of man and bull in his head, he hasn't interacted with him too much since he spends most of his time on the fields, but his impression of him is someone who could pick him up with a single finger easily.
"Shu An? Is Shu Li here? I need to talk to him"
'So he's here for my father? An emergency order or something?'
Soon after, his father left the shed he was at work in, following that there were the standard greetings and such between the two, he heard the front door close again and the other two started to lower their voices, so Shu He had to move along the fence to get closer, he even peeked though a hole in the wooden grain to see if he could read their lips.
"…- was murdered" The words he picked up made him doubt his ears, but looking at his fathers reaction and the bull's sweat ridden face he felt it was true.
'Someone died? A murder at that?!' His heart skipped a beat before tightening slightly.
Having spent a lot of time in the hospital in his previous life, he wasn't new to the idea of someone he knew passing, there were plenty of times where he'd be in a ward with other people only for them to be gone the next day, it was sad but at some point he grew numb to it, it was the same in this life, sometimes a neighbour he maybe spoke to once or twice would drop dead over night and never be seen again so he felt some overlap, the only difference was that he wasn't just waiting for the end as well.
A murder made his mind freeze though, the act of taking someone else's life was a thought he would never have, life was too important in his mind, those that had it were lucky, after a couple seconds his thoughts defrosted.
'Maybe I shouldn't be listening…' he thought, he was a child in the end, what did this have to do with him?
But as he tried to place his feet to move back to his room they wouldn't move.
Deep down he knew, he wanted to know who it was that died, and who it was that killed him, he wanted to ask him, "Why?"'
Those thoughts were like a chain preventing him from leaving, and soon enough he was back to the fence listening.
"I'll be out for it bit"
Unfortunately, he missed the rest, and his father and Dai Niu were already leaving, his father yelling out to let everyone know.
A moment of hesitation once more passed through his mind, a tug of war that lasted but a second.
'I want to follow!' was the last thought he had before he quickly left the house, trailing behind the two just enough to not be noticed.
---
A few minutes later, Shu He was left breathless as he was crouched by the side of the road taking deep breaths.
'Too fast!' His father and Dai Niu didn't waste much time, and walked as fast as Shu He could run, combined with all the exercise he had this morning he couldn't keep up and had to stop to rest.
"Damnit, I lost them…" The village was a bunch of twists and turns between all the houses and fields, it was around 4 square kilometres of houses and fields, so it wasn't the smallest village out there.
'Though, I think with the direction they were heading, was it the second residential area?' As he followed, he noticed the general direction they were heading, so he should be able to make his way there, a murder should have created quite a commotion after all.
The village layout had two main residential areas joined in the middle by the larger, more expensive houses which was also where Cao Yang and his family lived, between the two and dotted around the outside were many fields with the occasional house here and there, there were two wells located in the village, one in both residential areas.
Since he didn't need to rush anymore to follow them, She He began to walk that direction at a brisk pace, after a few minutes as he finally began to approach the location he noticed a small gathering of small figures in a small rest area with some stones and trees.
"Ah, it's green thumb!" One of them shouted.
'God, save me' Shu He's expression became that of a wet towel's as he realised it was a gathering of the villages children.
"It's true, ey' green thumb why are you out here? Did you finally get lonely talking to plants?" Another heckled.
Shu He almost felt the urge to hide his face in his palms, not because he hated the name, contrary, 'Green Thumb' could almost be a compliment, it was from second hand embarrassment that these kids thought it was an insult and kept calling him it.
They only started calling him it because at one point he stopped playing with them, who could blame him though, he was a child in body but his mind wasn't as undeveloped, there was only so much Tag, Duck Duck Goose or Stuck in the Mud he could take before being bored to death.
I mean he MAY have enjoyed it at first because he couldn't play like that when he was young in his previous life, but his mind quickly caught up to him.
Reluctantly he headed over, since they were all gathered, they might know a thing or two, even if they were children.
"I told you guys before… that's not an insult" He tried to explain once more.
"But you get annoyed when we say it!"
"My dad says it was, he said 'Those green thumbs, wasting their lives when I'll be rich!'"
Two of the younger boys argued.
"Didn't your dad waste all his money on fake gems?" Shu He shot back.
"Uh… So?" The reply lacked any brightness, so Shu He just gave up.
"Never mind that! Shu He, do you know?" A bright orange headed, blue eyed boy sat on a larger rock asked him.
'Huo Da', One of the few children in the village Shu He felt he could talk to without losing his sanity.
"Know what?" 'Is he talking about the murder? Was the conclusion Shu He made, but he played it dumb'.
"Hmph, so you don't, why are you here then?" Huo Da said rather aggressively, clearly annoyed by something.
"Why are you so upset?" Shu He was a bit curious.
"The adults won't let us get closer! Even though they're all chatting like it's a party over there…" Another younger child explained, sounding incredibly aggrieved like he was missing out on something as he pointed down the street, about a hundred meters away you could make out a massive crowd.
'Is that where the well is?' Shu He was pretty sure he was right.
"No one knows anything?" he asked around, just in case.
Many shook their heads.
"I-I think I may have heard something" A smaller child put her hand up like she was in class to get everyone's attention, she was one of the only girls here Lu Lihua, a lot of children just called her 'Lulu' though, she was fairly plain with short brown hair and black eyes.
"Why didn't you say earlier! Come on, tell us!" Huo Da barked with a bit of excitement.
"Everyone was talking I- I couldn't find a chance…" She meekly replied.
"It's fine, stop yelling!" Another one of the girls stood in front of her as if guarding her against Huo Da, she had slightly long black hair almost touching her shoulders and amber coloured pupils with a sharp gaze "The girls won't like you if you're mean to them!" She said in a sarcastic manner.
"Sh-shut it I don't need girls to like me!" Huo Da cried out with a slightly red face.
'Even Cao Meili is here, Elder Yang didn't even let her through?' Shu He had some doubts, Cao Meili was the grand-daughter of Cao Yang who was basically in charge of the village, if she didn't know anything it wasn't a surprise no-one else here did considering how much he doted on her.
He walked over to Lulu and patter her on the shoulder.
"Ignore those two, can you tell us what you heard?" He said with a tone as gentle as he could let out, he was really interested in what she had to say after all, she looked up at him and nodded before beginning to speak, the others also quieted down to listen.
"My mother went out earlier in the morning, she said that we had little water left so she wanted to go get some more, but she was walking a bit weird when she said it, I think her head hurt?" She spoke with innocence.
'Was she drunk, or a hangover maybe? Shu He hadn't experienced it himself, but he would like to when he was old enough'
"She was gone for a while, I was getting hungry so I looked around to see if I can find anything to eat.." She said rubbing her stomach.
She went on to explain rooting through the cupboards and baskets until she found some dried meat she struggled to eat.
"Stop wasting time, get to the important part!" Huo Da's patience began to wear thin with all the useless information.
"S-sorry… um.. uh.. my mom came back I'm not sure how long after but she looked even worse, I thought she was feeling bad but when I asked her everything was fine… I thought she looked very white though."
"""…."""
"Is that all?" Shu He asked while everyone else was speechless from the anti-climactic ending.
"Oh, uh, no when she was boiling some food for us she kept talking to herself, I thought she may want me to do something so I kept listening but I didn't hear much… I think she said things like "I can't believe it", "I hope they don't think it was me" and sometimes she'd hold her stomach as well.." She continued before asking "Do you think she was hungry as well?" Innocently.
"M-maybe?" Huo Da replied, while Cao Meili had a thoughtful look on her face.
Meanwhile Shu He was trying to put things together.
'Was she the one who found the body then? I still don't know who it was… I doubt it was her either based on her reaction.'
He was done here, so he started to make his way after thanking Lulu.
"Where are you going?" Huo Da asked from behind, he got up off the rock he was sitting on and walked up to Shu He with a slight smirk.
"Back home" He lied.
"You're going to see if you can get closer right?" Cao Meili said as she also got closer.
'Was I that obvious?' Shu He thought as he scratched his head.
He shrugged his shoulders, since he was already found out.
"Then I'm coming"
"Me too, I have an idea to get closer anyway"
The two invited themselves along, much to Shu He's reluctance.