Chapter 165

As Xu Ran did not catch up with Gao Quan, he could only go back to accompany his son. He had no intention of moving the ewe. After all, it was also a crime scene. In addition, he would come here for a stroll at any time to see Big Black and the lamb.

Before this matter was resolved, he did not dare to go to the town for fear that something might happen at home.

Little Baozi was still sleeping and Liu Tong was chatting with Shao Yu. Xu Ran went over to pick up Baozi and sat aside in a trance.

He was thinking about who he had offended.

Xu Ran felt that the only person who hated him the most should be Xu Cheng. If there was another one to add to the list, he was probably from Liu Tong’s eldest uncle’s family. But they were in Xu Village, so they shouldn’t have come here to hurt him!

However, once this idea came to his mind, Xu Ran could not stop himself from thinking about it. Anyway, Gao Quan said that there were two people who had come against him. Xu Ran wondered if it would be possible for these two people to work together, one of  whom was Xu Cheng while the other was from the Liu Family?

Xu Ran had never imagined how the two families would get together, but he couldn’t help holding the idea that it was just these two people who had come against him.

Xu Ran stood up suddenly, “Tongtong, Shao Yu, are there any strangers in the village recently? Tongtong, have you seen someone from your eldest uncle’s family?

Liu Tong shook his head, “I don’t go out often so I didn’t see any strangers here. And I’ve never seen anyone from my eldest uncle’s family. They even don’t know where we live, so they won’t come!”

Xu Ran shook his head, “But Tongtong, as long as they ask around in the village, they’ll know about it. After all, our house is so eye-catching.”

Liu Tong was stunned. He obviously did not expect this.

He then asked Xu Ran, “Ran, did you notice something?”

Xu Ran replied, “There are two wounds on the ewe, both on the stomach. Gao Quan deduced that they were done by two people. Didn’t we guess before that it might be done by Xu Cheng? But following Gao Quan’s deduction, I have to doubt that there is someone else in the case.”

“Do you mean the people from my eldest uncle’s family? But why would my eldest uncle and others come to the Xu Village to do such a thing?” Liu Tong was confused.

“That’s why I asked if you saw any stranger appearing before. I’m afraid that the person most likely coming here is Liu Tiezhu. Tongtong, you should know what kind of person your cousin is.”

Liu Tong indeed knew about Liu Tiezhu’s character and his nature to gamble. He agreed it was possible for him to make trouble here, but it was still not easy for him to accept the fact.

Shao Yu suddenly said, “I’ve seen one. I saw a stranger here the day before yesterday. I’ve basically known everyone in this village. It’s still the Spring Festival, so I supposed he might be a relative to someone’s family. Thus I didn’t mind it. The stranger had been circling outside our house a few times. I supposed he’d never seen such a house before, so he would be curious.”

Xu Ran quickly asked Shao Yu, “Do you still remember what he looks like?”

franklyShao Yu thought for a moment and said , “I can’t tell what exactly he looks like, but he appeared very tall and somewhat sloppy.”

Xu Ran and Liu Tong exchanged glances. They both thought that the person must be Liu Tiezhu. Anyway, Liu Tiezhu was this image in Xu Ran’s eyes.

According to Shao Yu, he saw the stranger the day before. As the incident happened today, it was obvious that he was well prepared!

But their sheep’s pen and the stable were enclosed with the courtyard wall, which was not low at all. No matter how Liu Tiezhu observed around their house, it was impossible for him to know what was going on inside.

Xu Cheng was not familiar with their house, either. If both of them were really the perpetrators, then how on earth did they sneak into the courtyard quietly??

Anyway, things happened. Xu Ran felt that his initial idea about the case was too simple.

Imperceptibly, the incident had become a cold case.

Before he could figure out everything inside, there was a knock on the door outside.

Shao Yu opened the door and they were Doctor Liu and the village head.

As soon as the village head entered, he started yelling at Xu Ran. Xu Ran quickly ran out, “Hello, Village head. Here you are!”

The village head asked with a serious face, “What’s going on? I heard from Doctor Liu that your ewe had been killed and your child felt stomachache after drinking the milk?”

Xu Ran replied, “Village head, it is indeed so. Doctor Liu saw it with me. I still left the ewe there and I didn’t touch it.”

The village head sighed. “Let’s go to have a look! I wonder what bad luck you’ve got, or what kind of person you’ve provoked so someone should come to hurt you during the Spring Festival.

Xu Ran rubbed his nose and said to himself, ‘It’s not that I have offended anyone, but that there are always people who find me an eyesore and want to make trouble for me. I am really annoyed with it.’

The village head looked at the dead ewe on the ground and his reaction was exactly the same as Doctor Liu’s.

The village head then said, “Don’t worry. I’ll give you an account of this. It’s OK to just kill the ewe, but it’s not good to hurt a child. There are such vicious people in our village that I’m afraid every family will be restless from now on. Don’t move the ewe yet. I’m going to ask the elders from the clan to testify about this. Doctor Liu, go and help me gather all the people in the village here. ”

“Okay, then I’ll make a trip again. Xu Ran, don’t go out now. Who knows what this person wants to do next?” Doctor Liu reminded Xu Ran and then he left with the village head.

Seeing both of them leaving in a hurry, Xu Ran didn’t know what to say. Originally, everything was fine, and the Spring Festival was almost over. No one expected that such a thing would happen.

Soon, many people arrived at Xu Ran’s house. They were all from the same village. Tangtang and Guoguo came back from school, too. They didn’t know what had happened. Seeing so many people outside their house, they quickly went to find Xu Ran and Liu Tong to ask why.

Xu Ran asked Liu Tong to give Tangtang and Guoguo a detailed explanation while he went outside the door himself.

When the village head saw that Xu Ran had come, he shouted to the public, “Silence. Listen to me, you guys. Today, I called everyone here because there was a bloody case in the village. An ewe from Xu Ran’s family was killed. Not only that, there was even someone who didn’t even let go of a baby who has just been one month old. This person must be found out and dealt with severely, or else the village would not be peaceful in the future!”

As soon as the village head finished speaking, many discussions started in the crowd. Wu Mei’s and and the other families were also present. They heard that Xu Ran’s ewe had been killed and even some people wanted to do harm to little Baozi. They were very angry about it.

Wu Mei shouted loudly, “Village head, you must find the perpetrator out and hand him over to Yamen!”

“Yes, hand him over to Yamen!”

“Hand him over to Yamen!”

Following Wu Mei, the rest of the people immediately responded. Who in the village had no children? Giving birth to a child was not a simple and easy thing. How evil the person was to do harm to a little child!

People in the village basically thought that way, and the village head also knew it would be such a reaction. He said to everyone, “Let’s start counting the number of people present now. The head of each family comes to me to report the number of your family members. No matter whether your relatives have left or not, as long as they are still in the village, they all count. And explain where you all were last night and this morning, what you did, and who can prove it .”

As for their response to this kind of survey, those who were innocent would be very cooperative, but those who had done something wrong would be very reluctant.

“Village head, is the Xu Ran Family’s ewe really dead? Take it out and show us then. We didn’t see anything yet up till now, otherwise how can we know if it is real?”

The village head didn’t know the person who said this. Many people in the village didn’t know him, either, but Xu Ran knew him.

At the sight of him, Xu Ran knew he had guessed correctly. This case really had something to do with Liu Tiezhu.

Xu Ran then said, “Village head, this is the son of my Tongtong’s eldest uncle’s. Their family have forcefully taken over the land from Tongtong’s family. I am afraid he came here at the Xu Village ill-disposed.”

“Yeah, yeah! Maybe it was he who killed the sheep of the Liu Tong Family’s. You see this person has no relatives at the Xu Village, so why is he here?”

“Yes, village head, quickly get someone to capture him and properly interrogate him. If he doesn’t admit it, send him to Yamen.”

The villagers present echoed one another and were even about to capture Liu Tiezhu. At this time, Liu Tiezhu felt flustered and wanted to escape quietly. Unfortunately, the person standing beside him was Xu An.

Xu An grabbed Liu Tiezhu to stop his action, and then he said loudly, “Village head, he must have done something wrong so that he wanted to escape. Please give the order!”

The village head looked around. Xu Ran nodded at him, indicating to catch hold of that person. The village head understood his meaning. Thus he ordered, “Come on. Grab this person and properly interrogate him. It’s not impossible to see the dead ewe. Doctor Liu is also a witness, so he can tell you what the situation is.”

Doctor Liu’s prestige in the village was second only to the village head. After all, there were so many people in the village, and whoever had a headache or slight fever had to see him.

Doctor Liu told the villagers everything he had seen and let Xu Ran show the paper he had written to everyone present.

Though most people there couldn’t read, there were still a few who could. They found what was written on the paper was the same as what they they had just heard. Thus, no one suspected that Doctor Liu was helping Xu Ran.

The most important thing Doctor Liu said was that it was done by two people, not by one alone.

Now, everyone was convinced that one of them was Liu Tiezhu, so people all demanded that he be interrogated immediately.

Liu Tiezhu was caught by a few people, so he couldn’t run away even if he wanted to. He now regretted running over to watch the fun as well as talking too much. He knew if he was really sent to Yamen, everything would be over for him.

Actually, the village head also thought the same. No matter what, this person must know about this matter, so he must not let him go.

The interrogation in the village was very simple. They didn’t need a knife or a whip. They just let dogs out to bite.

Although the four dogs from the Xu Ran Family went out with Gao Quan, there were still other dogs in the village. At the news that dogs were needed to bite the baddy, many people were willing to contribute their dogs.

Liu Tiezhu was thus tied on a chair, and the big dogs around were all staring at him fiercely, as if they were going to devour him alive.

Liu Tiezhu was so scared that his legs went weak in a sudden, “I say…I’ll say everything…”

He was originally a man who was greedy but afraid of death, so he copped out without any trial.

Liu Tiezhu confessed, “I was the one who did this, but I didn’t do it alone. There was another person in the case.”

“Who is it?” Xu Ran asked coldly.

“It’s, it’s…” Liu Tiezhu seemed to have been frightened but he didn’t say who it was.

Even though he didn’t say it out, Xu Ran was also able to guess who it was. It seemed that intuition really worked, and what he had identified at the beginning would prove to be true.

Xu Ran then said to Liu Tiezhu, “I know who it is. Tell me, how did you two collude with each other? If you don’t confess, I’ll just let the dogs out to bite you.”

At the same time, the dogs beside Xu Ran seemed to understand what he meant and began to bark at Liu Tiezhu.

Liu Tiezhu trembled again, “I say… I’ll say… Don’t bite me.”

Xu Ran hugged himself and looked at him with a smile, “Then tell me!”

Liu Tiezhu had to resign himself to failure at last and closed his eyes while admitting, “It’s him, who came to the Liu Village to find me.”