Serious Case Tracking

Chapter 10 Case in Case

"Dad, this is the police officer you are looking for." Wang Deshui came to his father, leaned over and whispered in his ear.

Hearing this, Wang Youcai slowly opened his eyes, raised his head slightly to look at Meng Shaohui, then slowly stretched out his hand and moved the oxygen mask aside with great effort.

"Get the water, you go out first! I want to have a few words with the police officer alone." Wang Youcai said with great effort, panting heavily.

"Okay, I'm right outside the door, if you need anything, just call me." Wang Deshui left the ward after finishing speaking.

At this moment, only Meng Shaohui and Wang Youcai were left in the ward. He looked at Wang Youcai carefully, and was very curious. What would be the reason why such an old man must see him?

"You are the police officer in charge of investigating the murder of Village Chief Wei, aren't you?" Although Wang Youcai knew Meng Shaohui's identity from his son, he seemed uneasy, so he asked cautiously himself.

"Yes, this is my ID."

Meng Shaohui handed the certificate to Wang Youcai, and he looked at it carefully for a long time before finally letting go.

"You said you must meet the police officer in charge of Wei Qiuyuan's murder case. This case has not been reported by the media yet. How did you know about it?" Meng Shaohui asked curiously.

"Because I am also from Sparrow Village." Wang Youcai said every word seemed extremely laborious, but he did not intend to stop. He put on the itching mask, took a few breaths, and continued: "But leave Sparrow Village It’s been almost 20 years. Ever since my son made a name for himself in the city, he took me to live in the city. If some villagers hadn’t heard that I was seriously ill, they came to see me in the hospital and told me. I still don’t know. Such a big thing happened in the village."

"So that's the case, then you came to me?"

"In my heart, there is a secret that has been hidden for 30 years. I know that my old bones are dying. I don't want to carry this secret into the coffin, so I want to say it, but I don't want too many people to know. I'm afraid it will affect Sparrow Village!" Wang Youcai said with emotion.

"This secret of yours has something to do with Wei Qiuyuan?"

"Yes." Wang Youcai nodded slightly, and then recalled: "I remember that it was 40 years ago, when Wei Qiuyuan came to the village, he took a fancy to the stone materials on the mountain in the village, and the villagers were good Mahjong, so he followed his fancy and started a mahjong making business in the village. He paid for it, we paid for stones and people, and the profit was [-]-[-]%. It's like the God of Wealth descending to earth."

What Wang Youcai said was basically the same as what Zhao Tietou, the director of village security, said in content. However, Meng Shaohui did not interrupt Wang Youcai's words, but listened quietly with interest. From the perspective of age, Wang Youcai is naturally older than Zhao Tietou.

"The arrival of Wei Qiuyuan really changed the village a lot. Everyone used to play mahjong every day when they opened their eyes, but now they think about making money first, and only gather at night to gamble for small money. Gradually, the atmosphere of gambling has also diminished. many."

"From what you said, Wei Qiuyuan is not only like the God of Wealth, but also like the reborn parents of the villagers."

"It can be said that even now, most of the villagers think so, because there is one thing that only me and the village chief Hu Liang knew."

"What's the matter?" Meng Shaohui was curious about what Wang Youcai was about to say.

"The thing is like this. When Wei Qiuyuan first arrived in the village, everything was very normal. Some of the villagers were in charge of quarrying stones from the mountains, and the other were in charge of processing. Wei Qiuyuan contacted some buyers specially. Because of the luminous stones in the village The quality of the mahjong is outstanding, the color of the mahjong is transparent, and the hand feel is first-class. The sales volume was very good at that time. After the villagers got the first pot of gold, their gratitude to Wei Qiuyuan is self-evident. But after After about eight years, some of the villagers began to have an uncomfortable reaction, and their bodies gradually lost weight until they died. However, because the medical level was still relatively backward at that time, no one knew what was going on, and they always thought it might be some kind of infection. Because of the disease, the corpses of the dead villagers were simply incinerated, and some disinfection at home was done. However, there were still villagers who died continuously. Village head Hu found that most of these dead villagers went to the mountains to mine stones. There are young and strong villagers, but the villagers who are in charge of processing mahjong are safe and sound, so he thinks that this part of the villagers may have gone into the mountain to quarry and disturbed the "mountain god", so the disaster fell on them as a punishment. Later, he discussed with the villagers and Wei Qiuyuan, hoping to stop quarrying, but the villagers did not agree. After all, it was related to their interests. Seeing that the villagers could not be stopped, Village Chief Hu had no choice but to invite some priests and priests to the village. I tried to exorcise evil spirits in the village, hoping to keep the village safe, but the effect was not obvious, and villagers still died one after another.”

"So strange? Could it be that Wei Qiuyuan has something to do with the strange death of the villagers?"

"This is the guess of Village Chief Hu. At least before Wei Qiuyuan came to the village to quarry stones and produce mahjong, the village was safe, and Village Chief Hu and I are cousins, so he told me this. It proves that this matter is related to Wei Qiuyuan, so if the villagers can't be stopped, we can only give up temporarily. On the one hand, Village Chief Hu asked me to pay more attention to the physical changes of the villagers, and he himself launched an investigation into the matter, hoping to find out The reason for the mysterious death of the villagers." Wang Youcai paused, took a few deep breaths of oxygen, and then continued: "It's just an investigation, but at that time, there was no way to start, and I didn't know where to start. , until one day, I remember very clearly that it was a few days before the new year, when Wei Qiuyuan brought the money back to the village, he also brought back a batch of radios from the city, which was simply a luxury at the time, because That time the mahjong was sold at a good price. Wei Qiuyuan said that the radio was a benefit for the villagers. With the radio, the villagers can understand the outside world without leaving home. This made the villagers extremely grateful to Wei Qiuyuan again. And on the second day after getting the radio, Village Chief Hu discovered the problem. Whenever the radio was put together with some luminous stones picked from the mountain, there would be a buzzing noise from the radio, but He took it away, and it was fine again. He suddenly felt that there might be something wrong with the luminous stones, so he took some luminous stones and rushed to the city overnight, hoping to find some experts to test the stones. At that time, he went to the city from here. It’s not as convenient as having a car now. It took more than half a month to go back and forth and the inspection time, but fortunately, it was not in vain. As soon as Village Chief Hu came back, he ran to me and said that the stone was found after the inspection. There is a problem. It is said that a small amount of radioactive substances were detected from one of the luminous stones. Although the radioactive substances contained are relatively weak, if they are concentrated together and exposed to them for a long time, they will cause cancer cells in the human body. It coincides with the characteristics of the villagers who died of cancer, and most of those villagers went into the mountains to quarry.”

"The villagers who are in charge of making mahjong, because they only come into contact with scattered luminous stones, the radioactivity is weak, but the impact is not great. On the contrary, those villagers who go into the mountains to quarry are exposed to piles of radioactive luminous stones, so it causes In order to generate cancer cells in the body and die, the real culprit of all this is because Wei Qiuyuan came to the village to quarry stones to make mahjong."

"That's right, Village Chief Hu said that he would rather the villagers be like before. Although they are good at gambling, at least they won't die. But now, they have money and life is better, but their lives are gone. But he doesn't want to put This matter was made public, because Wei Qiuyuan's prestige in the village at that time, coupled with the villagers' gradually affluent living environment, I believe that none of them would easily listen to their own one-sided words and stop the mahjong business, let alone the village chief Hu at that time. In fact, Wei Qiuyuan’s identity has already existed in name only, and Wei Qiuyuan is more like the head of a village, and the villagers will obey his words, so if he speaks out about the incident rashly, if it is not handled properly, it may cause riots in the villagers.”

"Then this matter has never been exposed? It is impossible for Village Chief Hu to watch the villagers die one by one!"

"Of course not. He personally went to Wei Qiuyuan and explained the situation. He hoped that he would voluntarily give up and continue quarrying and making mahjong. However, since I didn't go there at the time, I didn't know what they talked about. However, when he went to see On the night of Wei Qiuyuan's death, his house accidentally caught fire, and both he and his wife were killed in the fire." Wang Youcai said desolately.

Meng Shaohui was very surprised by Wang Youcai's words. According to previous investigations in the village, Wei Qiuyuan has always been a good old man in the eyes of the villagers. The villagers almost regarded him as a reborn parent. One side hides such an evil side, and the saying that people have two sides is perfect for Wei Qiuyuan at this time.

"So the fire was probably set by Wei Qiuyuan in order to cover up the truth?" Meng Shaohui asked.

"At least I think so." Wang Youcai nodded slightly.

"You just said that Hu Liang and his wife were killed in the fire, so what about his children? Does he have no children?" Meng Shaohui asked suspiciously.

"That's why I asked you to come here." Wang Youcai coughed heavily, "Because when Village Chief Hu took the stone to the city for inspection, he took his son with him, but he returned to the village alone. I asked him at that time, and he said that after learning that the stone was radioactive, he temporarily sent his son to an orphanage in the city, and said that he would take him back after the matter was settled, so as to prevent the child from coming into contact with Considering these radioactive stones, after all, children are not as resistant as adults, and even a little radioactivity may have an impact on the body."

"That is to say, Hu Liang's son is still alive, and you suspect that he killed Wei Qiuyuan?"

"Yes, the only person I can think of who has a deep hatred for Wei Qiuyuan and wants to kill him is Hu Zhendong, the son of Village Chief Hu. But I really don't want it to be him!"

"What about Hu Zhendong's current whereabouts?"

"I don't know. After the fire broke out in Village Chief Hu's house, Wei Qiuyuan also found that Hu Zhendong's body was missing, so he asked the villagers to look around. On the surface, it was said that Village Chief Hu had already encountered misfortune. He must not let his son have trouble. He looks like a good person, but in fact, I know that he must want to kill the grass and roots, and as the only person who has a relationship with Village Chief Hu, Wei Qiuyuan also asked me to inquire about Hu Zhendong's whereabouts, so I never dared to leave The village went to the orphanage to look for Hu Zhendong, for fear of being followed by Wei Qiuyuan. It was not until two years later that I found a chance to run into the city, but unfortunately, the orphanage was empty, and I never heard from Hu Zhendong again. gone."

"The fact that the stone is radioactive, apart from you and Hu Liang, no other villagers know about it?"

Meng Shaohui did not continue to entangle Hu Zhendong's clue, but raised new questions, mainly to verify whether the rest of the villagers had the possibility of committing the crime.

"Yes, it's all my fault! If it weren't for my cowardice, I would have reported this incident back then, and Village Chief Hu wouldn't have died in vain, and those villagers wouldn't have died in vain, so I'm asking for it now." Tell the truth, I'm afraid I'll be ashamed to see them again when I get to the bottom!" Wang Youcai showed a remorseful expression, and a few tears rolled down his old and wrinkled face, "Because of Wei Qiuyuan's prestige in the village at that time, if The villagers must not agree to drive him away without conclusive evidence, so Village Chief Hu didn't let me talk about it with anyone. He wanted to talk to Wei Qiuyuan himself after finding the evidence, and hoped that he would leave the village on his own initiative, but who would want to? It would be such a result. In order to keep the secret, he actually killed Village Chief Hu's family heartlessly. To be honest, after that incident, I was really worried that he would find out that I knew about it, and kill me to silence him. I know that if a person died in a remote village like ours at that time, no one would pay attention to the cause of his death, so I kept this secret in my heart and never mentioned it to anyone. What's more, Wei Qiuyuan's mahjong business has made the villagers of the whole village live a good life. Out of selfishness, I am not willing to give up everything I got, and later introduced machines to mine stones, and the time for villagers to get in touch with luminous stones has been reduced. , the number of villagers suffering from cancer due to radiation is naturally much less, coupled with the temptation of money, I betrayed my conscience, but maybe this is retribution! Now I also suffer from cancer, it is really retribution!"

Faced with Wang Youcai's self-blame, Meng Shaohui was speechless. In handling the whole matter, he was indeed a big mistake. Perhaps it was because of his selfishness and timidity back then that another murder occurred now. But Meng Shaohui didn't want to blame such an old man who was dying, all he could do now was to wait quietly until he calmed down.

"By the way, do you know what the secret of 'Bird Homing' is?" Before leaving, Meng Shaohui suddenly thought of this question.

"I don't really know what it is. No one knows what it is. I also searched for the secret about it in the village out of curiosity, but I never found it. According to the hint in that poem, it seems that the secret and It's related to Buddhist scriptures, but for us rough people, we don't know a few words, let alone Buddhist scriptures, and we feel tired after a few glances, so in the end, the villagers gradually forgot about this matter, and only occasionally brought it up when chatting. , but no one is looking for it.”

(End of this chapter)