chapter 44

Don’t be fooled by Li Liang being a fool-when he gets vicious, he really scares me.

Because he’s not just trying to intimidate us; he genuinely wants to hack us!

“Holy crap!”

Song Xiaotian jumped in fright and yanked me aside.

The knife came down fast, landing right where I’d just been standing.

I was so shaken by a fool that my legs were trembling.

“Old Woman! Is this really necessary?”

“We’re just asking you something, why did you tell your son to hack people!”

This Old Woman wasn’t just unreasonable-she didn’t listen to a word we said. She gave another order to Li Liang: “Liangzi, hack them to death for me! Your father and your sister were forced to death by them!”

When Li Liang heard this, his dull expression turned ferocious: “Father! Sister! Bad people! Hack you to death!”

He swung the kitchen knife, slashing at us again and again.

I dodged several times, nearly getting hit. Song Xiaotian saw how things were going and immediately dragged me away: “Run! What’s the point in asking anything? This whole family is crazy!”

I didn’t bother asking anymore and bolted.

Li Liang was, after all, a fool. He chased for a while, but when he couldn’t catch us, he suddenly gave up.

After shaking him off, Song Xiaotian and I leaned against a tree by the roadside, panting and complaining about the Old Woman.

“That Old Woman is something else. If she doesn’t want to talk, fine, but why hack people?”

“She even dared to incite her son to hack us.”

I said the reason the Old Woman hated the police so much was probably related to her husband’s death.

Earlier, that Old Man had said that after Li Xiumei committed murder, her family’s life in the village became very difficult.

In places like this, everyone’s social circle is within the village. Li Xiumei’s family must have been ostracized and bullied by the villagers.

And Li Xiumei’s father, unable to bear the isolation and exclusion, hanged himself.

After the old man died, life for the Old Woman and Li Liang must have gotten even harder.

“But she can’t blame the police for that.”

Song Xiaotian complained, “It’s not the police who drove her old man to death. If she wants to blame someone, it should be the villagers. And it all started because her daughter did something outrageous. I really can’t understand her logic.”

I sighed. Some people are just unreasonable-there’s nothing you can do.

If I’d known, I wouldn’t have pretended to be a cop.

But from what the Old Woman said just now, I noticed a detail…

“Brother Tian, just now the Old Woman told Li Liang that his father and sister were forced to death by the police.”

“She seems to know that Li Xiumei is already dead…”

But that shouldn’t be possible.

Song Xiaotian was stunned too: “Li Xiumei’s body… wasn’t it only dug up recently? How could the Old Woman know from so far away?”

I said there might be something fishy here. Looks like we’ll have to come back again tomorrow.

Song Xiaotian’s eyes widened: “Go back? Aren’t you afraid her son will hack you again? Besides, she hates the police so much-do you think she’ll talk to you?”

I sighed and said we’ll see tomorrow.

It’s so late now, we’d better find a family to stay with for the night.

Let’s just spend the night in this village, no need to go to another one.

We were about to leave when we happened to pass by the house where someone had died.

I saw a mourning tent set up in their yard. There weren’t many people; even those keeping vigil were asleep at the table, with only a few yin-yang priests beating gongs and chanting scriptures.

But I also saw a familiar face-the Old Man whom Song Xiaotian and I had helped at the village entrance.

The Old Man was covering a child with a blanket. The child was asleep, and the Old Man was probably worried the child would catch cold.
At this moment, the Old Man also saw us. From a distance, he smiled at us twice, which counted as a greeting.

We waved back at him but didn’t go over. After exchanging greetings, we left.

After all, it was a funeral, and it was nighttime-better to avoid unnecessary contact.

We wandered around for a while longer, then picked a random house in the village with its lights on, planning to ask if we could stay the night.

Mainly, we chose this house because it looked better built and would be more comfortable to sleep in.

After knocking, the door opened, and a man in his fifties stood at the entrance, eyeing Song Xiaotian and me with suspicion.

“You are…”

I hadn’t planned to pretend to be a police officer anymore and was ready to just offer money directly.

But Song Xiaotian squeezed forward and said, “Comrade, we’re police officers from the city, here to investigate a case. It’s too late now, and we’d like to find a place to rest. This is the Village Chief’s house, right? Could you please call the Village Chief?”

Upon hearing this, the man quickly said, “I’m the Village Chief. You… are really police officers?”

Song Xiaotian immediately took out an ID. I glanced at it-it was actually his police badge.

The Village Chief took a look, and his tone instantly became polite: “Oh, you really are officers from the city! Please, come in.”

We were invited inside, and the Village Chief served us tea and poured us water.

“What brings you two to our village? Did something happen?”

“No.”

Song Xiaotian smiled. “We’re here to talk to Li Yujiao’s family about a case from fifteen years ago.”

After explaining our purpose, we also told the Village Chief about the Old Woman calling her son to attack us earlier.

The Village Chief was furious when he heard this. “That whole family is crazy, very eccentric. Don’t take it to heart. Their son is an idiot, has mental problems. If you’re upset, I’ll go criticize them tomorrow.”

I quickly said there was no need; we were just here to learn a bit about the situation.

“Just talk to the Old Woman tomorrow and ask her not to get so agitated. We’ll leave after we finish our questions, so there’s no need to criticize her.”

The Village Chief nodded. “No problem. I’m the Village Chief, after all-she’ll have to give me some face.”

After chatting for a while, the Village Chief arranged a room for us. The room was quite clean.

Once inside, I grew curious and asked Song Xiaotian how he knew this was the Village Chief’s house.

Song Xiaotian laughed. “In such a poor village, only this house is built so well, with tiled walls. If it’s not the Village Chief’s house, whose could it be?”

Suddenly it made sense. Then I asked him, since he’d been expelled from the Police Force, how did he still have a police badge?

Song Xiaotian replied, “I kept it secretly. Makes things easier. Go to sleep-we still have to visit Lv Zhengxian’s house tomorrow.”

I thought to myself, this guy is something else, daring to play tricks like this.

It was getting late, so Song Xiaotian and I lay down and went to sleep.

But maybe I drank too much water during the day, because in the middle of the night I really couldn’t hold it anymore and got up to use the bathroom.

As I got up, I instinctively picked up my phone to check the time.

It was only three in the morning.

Groggy, I stumbled out of the room, taking a while to figure out which way the bathroom was.

I reached the bathroom, pulled down my pants, and started to relieve myself.

Halfway through, I suddenly saw someone standing outside the bathroom.

We were separated only by a pane of window glass. I was so startled my soul nearly left my body, and I forced myself to stop peeing.

Looking closely, I realized it was Li Xiumei’s Brother. He was standing outside holding a knife, staring straight at me.