chapter 49
After rD left Lijia Village, Song Xiaotian and I prepared to go to Lvjiagou again.
Lvjiagou is Lv Zhengxian’s hometown, and the two villages aren’t far apart.
On the way, I asked Song Xiaotian-he used to be a policeman-why didn’t he anonymously report the Old Woman for instructing Li Liang to poison the whole village?
Almost everyone in Lijia Village drank water from the well, so the whole village must have been poisoned.
The mother and son have probably killed quite a few people already.
If this got exposed, it would definitely be a huge social news story.
“You said it yourself, I used to be a policeman, but I’m not a policeman anymore.”
Song Xiaotian was very calm: “If I were still a cop, out of professional responsibility, I’d definitely report them. But now I’m just an ordinary citizen. Why should I bother?”
I teased, “Your sense of social responsibility is a bit lacking, huh?”
Song Xiaotian laughed too: “I’m 29 this year, almost hitting thirty, and I’ve been a cop for years. I’ve handled some cases. Many years ago, I came across a case that left a deep impression on me.”
“It was a young man who committed murder. He was sentenced and later executed. But his parents were rural folks, educated, former village teachers.”
“After their son committed murder, his parents were despised by everyone in the village, probably just like Li Liang and his mom.”
“Later, his parents couldn’t take it anymore. They took their grandson, who was only a few years old, and the whole family jumped into the river together.”
I was a bit shocked hearing this.
The two old folks had dignity as village teachers when they were young. I can understand why they’d choose to end it all.
But why take the child with them?
The kid was so innocent.
Song Xiaotian looked at me and said, “After the young man was executed, his wife ran off. No one was left to care for the child. Since the old couple had decided to die, think about what kind of life the kid would have had?”
“He’d probably be miserable from childhood to adulthood. So the old couple just took him along. The whole family…”
I felt uncomfortable inside.
This kind of thing is just a tragedy.
“These villagers are messed up. Even the worst thugs know not to drag family into it. Why torment someone’s family?” I couldn’t help but complain.
Song Xiaotian smiled helplessly: “As long as you live in this world, no matter how clean you are, someone will criticize you. But it’s not because we did something wrong-they criticize us so they can look clean themselves.”
“I’ve seen plenty of people do inhumane things, but from a legal perspective, they’re not guilty. You can’t judge them.”
“I used to be an atheist, but I believe in karma now. These people are just sick, bullying widows and orphans, driving the Old Man to his death. If they hadn’t done all that, would they have been poisoned? They deserved it!”
Song Xiaotian’s tone almost made me laugh.
But I had to admit, he made a lot of sense.
This guy is a man of character. He doesn’t seem like the rotten type of cop. I couldn’t help but ask curiously, “Brother Tian, I don’t mean anything by it, I’m just curious-how did you get fired from your job?”
Song Xiaotian smiled meaningfully, looking mysterious: “Take a guess.”
I said, “Did you get caught in a prostitution sting by your own colleagues?”
Song Xiaotian: “Screw you!”
…
We arrived at Lvjiagou.
Although the two villages are close, they’re worlds apart.
Lijia Village was like a ghost village-so poor that only the Village Chief’s family lived a bit better.
But in Lvjiagou, every household had decent houses, and there was even a road leading straight to the town.
I thought to myself, if I’d known Lvjiagou had a road, Song Xiaotian and I could’ve just taken a tricycle straight here, instead of trekking that long mountain path.
And Lvjiagou was truly lively, full of people, and you could tell the villagers here lived well.
“This is really strange.”
Song Xiaotian was a bit shocked: “The two villages are so close, so why does poverty alleviation only help this one?”
We already understood perfectly: “Unless the poverty alleviation is done by a private enterprise, and they have their own motives.”
The geographical environment of both villages is the same. No matter how much you help, it’s impossible for one to become as prosperous as Lvjiagou-unless someone is pouring money in without expecting anything in return.
Who that person is, there’s no doubt.
Just then, an Old Man carrying a hoe came toward us. He was smoking, humming a tune, and looked to be in a good mood.
We greeted him, offered him a good cigarette, and chatted warmly.
“Oh, you’re here for tourism, but honestly, there’s not much to see here.” The Old Man was quite talkative.
I smiled, “We just like this kind of natural environment. We went to Lijia Village earlier, but honestly, compared to this place, Lijia Village can’t compare at all.”
“Uncle, how did your village develop so well?”
Talking about this, the Old Man got excited: “Let me tell you, our village really had the ancestors’ graves smoke with luck. A big entrepreneur came here for charity and strongly supported our village.”
“He’s made so much money, but he’s got a good heart-not only built us new houses, but also paved the road. That boss is a real Living Bodhisattva.”
I really wanted to tell him that the boss he spoke of wasn’t a Living Bodhisattva, but a Living King of Hell.
The reason he treats the people here so well is because his own family is still in this village.
“Uncle, do you know Lv Jun?” I asked.
Lv Jun was Lv Zhengxian’s father, as the records showed.
“How could I not? He’s one of our villagers.”
The Old Man looked at us curiously: “Aren’t you here for tourism? Why are you asking about him?”
Song Xiaotian reacted quickly and said, “We’re journalists. We came for tourism, but also to interview Lv Jun, about his son’s incident fifteen years ago.”
The Old Man was stunned: “His son’s incident… You mean that Lv Zhengxian kid, right? He got into big trouble back then. I know about it. You can interview me. Is there money in it?”
Seeing the Old Man was quite greedy, I quickly handed him two hundred yuan.
He took the money and smiled even more brightly.
Song Xiaotian took out his phone and pretended to film, while I pretended to interview the Old Man.
The Old Man was extremely talkative. He spoke for ages, and I barely got a word in. Most of what he said was either nonsense or things we already knew.
But one detail caught my attention.
The Old Man was 51 this year, so fifteen years ago he was 36, six years older than Lv Zhengxian. Back then, he and Lv Zhengxian were close buddies, practically grew up together.
So, he knew Lv Zhengxian very well.
I asked him, “Since you know Lv Zhengxian so well, do you know any of his distinctive traits? Anything that makes it easy to recognize him, or any habits?”