Chapter 88
Chapter 88
The young man talked and gestured at the same time.
When he finished, he pointed at his heel.
“I saw fingernails in his rice mush. He noticed something was off with me, and then he came at my heel with a pair of scissors. I couldn’t move at all. I was lucky-blessed, really-to have survived.”
Wu Xiaojiu looked at him, but his mind had already drifted to Miss Zhao’s case.
“Miss Zhao’s case will probably finally be cleared up. We still need to go to the Dog Farm to collect DNA samples and wait for the lab results.”
Seeing that he was distracted, Bo Suihan spoke up to remind him.
At this point, there was no use rushing. Wu Xiaojiu only nodded.
By the time Wang Qiang drove over, all he saw in the pitch-black night were three blood-covered people sitting together in a daze.
The first one to run toward the headlights was the young man. He reeked of blood and dog feces, and the moment he saw Wang Qiang, he burst into tears, pointing at his ankle and crying that it hurt.
Behind him, Wu Xiaojiu and Bo Suihan came over at a leisurely pace, whispering to each other from time to time as if discussing something.
“There are bandages and iodine in the car. We’ll clean and disinfect the wounds briefly, then head straight to the Village Chief’s self-built house. The local officers refuse to go in and make the arrest, so it’s up to the four of us to shoulder this grave responsibility.”
Wang Qiang helped the young man into the car.
Then he helped Wu Xiaojiu clean and disinfect the wounds on the two of them.
The young man’s injury was the most serious. His entire heel had been cut open, bone, tendon, and flesh alike.
It was a bloody mess inside. Even after it was stitched up and healed, he probably would never walk normally again.
Bo Suihan’s wound was all right, only about the length of a finger. The real concern was tetanus. No one knew what that ax had chopped before, but judging from the conditions at the Dog Farm, there was no shortage of bacteria.
Wu Xiaojiu did not tell Wang Qiang that he had been bitten by a dog. When Wang Qiang asked if he had any wounds, he even hid his leg behind him.
He falsely reported that he was perfectly healthy and safe.
Time was tight. They had to gather evidence quickly, obtain an arrest warrant, and arrest the culprit. Wang Qiang had no time to fuss over him.
He stuffed everyone into the back seat, started the car, and drove straight to the Village Chief’s house.
By the time they arrived, dawn had begun to break.
The local officers were all forcing themselves to stay alert. They had received orders from above and did not dare slack off, but they were genuinely frightened. Not a single one was willing to go inside, so the job fell to Wang Qiang’s group.
As soon as the car stopped and they got out, the door of the self-built house opened.
The four of them went in. The Village Chief’s house had been built long ago; the windows were small and let in almost no light. Outside, the sky was faintly bright, but inside, it was pitch-black.
Wang Qiang handed flashlights to the other three. With the beams on, they cautiously felt their way upstairs.
Before they even reached the top, they heard a creak.
At the end of the hallway, a door stood half-open. A withered woman sat with her back to them, combing her hair.
She was dressed entirely in red, with flowers pinned in her hair as well. In the dim room, she looked especially glaring. The group exchanged glances, and Wang Qiang worked up his courage to shine his flashlight on her.
“The facts are already clear. You might as well confess. If you weren’t the mastermind, you’ll get a few decades at most. When you come out, you’ll still have a life ahead of you.”
The woman ignored him and kept combing her hair.
The comb scraped across her scalp with a harsh, sizzling rasp.
The atmosphere was terrifying.
The others looked at one another, all of them hesitant.
In the end, it was Bo Suihan who stepped forward. Holding the flashlight, he slowly approached.
Hearing the footsteps, the woman finally reacted. She turned her head slightly, revealing sallow, sunken cheeks.
“I thought I’d finally made it through.” She rose from the chair. The room most steeped in gloom was furnished with almost nothing. “Who knew it’s the same for women no matter where they go? Take me away.”
His stepmother held out her hand. A thick layer of calluses covered her palm, and her fingers were extraordinarily slender. A trace of resentment seemed to linger in her eyes.
“The evidence is all in the basement. Also… I won.”
Wu Xiaojiu frowned at the last part, not understanding what she meant.
The young man was even more convinced that the woman was deliberately stalling for time. He rushed up, pinned her down, and shoved her toward the door.
He could hardly wait.
The Village Chief’s inheritance was a huge sum. Without this woman, a direct heir, even if he and the girl split it evenly, it would still be an enormous amount of money.
The more the young man thought about it, the happier he became.
Even the yellow dye on his head seemed to brighten a shade.
“Don’t treat a pregnant woman like that! You have no right to pressure her.”
Just as his sweet dream was growing better and better, Wang Qiang suddenly spoke up, cutting him off, and stepped forward to shield the stepmother.
The young man froze at his shout.
Frowning, he looked at the woman’s stomach. Seeing that it was flat, he relaxed and laughed.
“Are you kidding me? How old is the Village Chief? He’s not some stud horse. How could that be possible?”
“Three months. A girl. A direct heir. If I remember correctly, you and your father never did a DNA paternity test, did you?”
The woman’s voice was hoarse and calm. When she lifted her eyes, there was even the faintest hint of a smile. Her hand gently stroked her stomach.
The young man was provoked into losing control with ridiculous ease.
“I ran all over the place, escaped death, and even ruined one of my feet. What gives you the right?”
“The thing in your belly has to be some bastard! Who knows whose it is!” the young man shouted. “Didn’t he say a married daughter is spilled water, that daughters will never be part of the family, and that he would never give the business he spent his whole life building to a daughter?”
Again and again, he tried to charge over and beat the woman, but Wang Qiang stopped him every time. Wang Qiang’s expression was unreadable, his eyes complicated.
“You gambled and lost. This matter originally had nothing to do with you, but if you lay a hand on a pregnant woman, you’ll be looking at ten years at least. Calm down.”
The young man’s eyes were bloodshot.
Seeing him like that, the woman added more fuel to the fire. “I lied to him. I told him it was a boy, so he killed Miaomiao.”
The young man was nearly driven insane with rage.
He had schemed too cleverly for his own good, only for the whole building to come crashing down overnight.
Wang Qiang and Wu Xiaojiu led the pregnant woman and the young man outside.
They left only Bo Suihan behind and had him go down to the basement to gather the evidence.
No sooner had they settled everyone in the car than Bo Suihan returned.
In his hands were several chemicals and a few scattered bits of flesh.
“That fast? Were you too scared and only went halfway down to the basement?”
Wang Qiang was on the phone, grinning at him.
Wu Xiaojiu stood off to the side with his arms crossed. Sweat beaded on his forehead, but he was no longer so tense.
“I called it in to the bureau. With the Village Chief’s Wife’s confession on top of that, they’ve already taken the Village Chief into custody. Sure enough, he was trying to run. He probably never expected us to solve the case so quickly. He didn’t even make it a few miles. Most importantly, the Village Chief has already confessed himself. This case is ironclad. Case closed. Happy ending for everyone!”
Bo Suihan let out a breath as if a great weight had been lifted.
He set the things in his hands at the front of the car.
The other party had also learned the full story. To make up for his own foolishness in believing rumors so easily, he hurried over to take the items from Bo Suihan.
At last, the atmosphere turned warm and harmonious.
Wu Xiaojiu felt at ease. Looking at Bo Suihan, who was looking back at him, he said,
“It’s over.”