Chapter 34 Blackmail
Chapter 34 Blackmail
Wang Xiaocui’s youngest son is Li Le, 27 years old this year. After graduating from university, he followed his uncle to work on projects outside.
After running for a few years, he felt that there was no point in staying on the construction site.
No peers, no women, no fun.
At this time, a large multinational pharmaceutical company planned to open a factory in Jiangcheng, and the large tract of land near Baxia Village became the first choice.
Instead of working on a construction site in another place all year round, it is better to go back to the village and see if there are any development opportunities.
After all, Wang Xiaocui's family has some influence in the local area, and no matter how much Li Cheng hates his marriage, he still has feelings for his son. This relationship alone makes him stronger than many of his peers.
As long as the multinational company's factory is opened, there will be endless opportunities in the future.
Factories, office areas, investment in Jiangcheng, etc. will bring a series of jobs and connections. Li Cheng, who was born into an intellectual family, had a long-term vision and called his son back to his hometown to develop.
But a very thorny problem lies ahead -
The land belongs to the village, and not everyone thinks transferring the land is a good thing.
So the village chief Li Cheng, together with his village bullies and drinking buddies, began a long-term bullying of the villagers, with the aim of making them sign the consent form.
Li Cheng was relatively restrained towards the villagers whom he saw every day, and he used both soft and hard methods.
But Liu Zhuhua was away from home all year round, and Li Cheng had a grudge against her, so she didn't care. Her son in the village became Li Cheng's main target of persecution.
It was also Li Cheng's idea to move the garbage dump from the other side of the village to near Liu Zhuhua's old house. In his own words, "Doesn't that idiot always like to rummage through garbage? Now he can save himself the trouble of walking, and he should thank me."
The house was not as shabby as Xu Yiqing and the others saw at the beginning. The village bullies asked their children to bully the fool together, and gradually the whole village disliked him. Under the attack of stones and rumors, the house lost its glass, and people's hearts and walls were also riddled with holes.
Du Yu stood outside the ICU ward and looked inside. A group of people were talking to the nurse in the room through the glass using a pager.
"Comrade police officer, you can't come in. This is a sterile ward." The nurse said, "Tell me if you have any questions and I'll pass them on."
Du Yu asked: "Li Le, what happened between you that night?"
The nurse was lying in front of the bed, talking to Li Le, who had already woken up. He was wrapped in bandages, with almost no exposed skin...
Xu Yiqing could fully imagine the scene under the bandages. If Li Le had not still been breathing, he would have been no different from the bodies in the morgues in the Forensic Department, horrifying and ugly.
Li Le spoke with difficulty, his burned face moving with every word he spoke.
The flames took away his skin and lips, and also limited his ability to speak.
The nurse said to Du Yu regretfully: "Comrade police officer, he doesn't want to talk. He keeps asking about his father and uncles."
Du Yu was about to answer truthfully, but Zhou Shi stopped him first: "Put it another way."
She whispered something to Du Yu, who frowned, thinking that she was asking some kind of rhetoric, but there was no other solution at the moment.
Du Yu said, "Li Le, I know you can hear me. Your house caught fire. Unfortunately, you are the only one alive among all the people present. Everyone else died."
Through the glass, the three saw Li Le lying on the bed, emotionally agitated, struggling with his hands and feet, causing the surrounding medical equipment and infusion tubes to make noises.
The nurse quickly tried to calm him down.
Du Yu continued, "I know you are very sad. I am sorry, Li Le, but I am a police officer and I have the obligation to tell you the truth. So I would like to ask you to tell me the truth and tell us everything that happened that night."
Seeing that Li Le still had no intention of explaining, everyone realized that Liu Zhuhua had gone to Li Cheng's house to blackmail him that night. As a relative, Li Le would definitely not reveal any information that would be harmful to his father.
After all, the point of blackmail is that you don't want others to know these secrets.
So Du Yu could only sigh and do as Zhou Shi said: "We haven't found out the cause of the fire yet, but it is very likely arson. Your brother, father, and uncles are already dead, so you can tell the truth boldly, which can help us solve the case. You don't want your family members to die in vain, right?"
After a long time, Li Le finally spoke.
He motioned to the nurse to bring the pager so that he could talk to the police in person.
Even if he moved a millimeter, it would cause pain.
"My house caught fire... Is it related to that woman?"
Du Yu understood that the woman Li Le was referring to was Liu Zhuhua. He nodded: "That's a possibility."
Hearing the positive answer, Li Le slowly closed his eyes. After a long psychological struggle, he decided to tell the truth about what happened after Liu Zhuhua's visit that night.
"My mom had just left that night." Li Le panted and said, "My dad's friends came one after another. My brother got along well with them. I was a little shy. My dad said that these uncles helped him a lot on weekdays and asked me to learn from my brother."
"Then the door outside rang... I went out to open the door, and then I saw that woman!"
Li Le was excited. "I don't know her. She said she had something to talk to my dad about... I saw her carrying something and thought she was here to give me a gift, so I let her in without thinking much."
Du Yu interrupted when he heard this: "What did Liu Zhuhua bring?"
Li Le said: "Some milk, oranges... and some honeycomb coal. She said the coal she bought was good. My family doesn't have a stove, so I asked her to put it in the yard. I will give it to my relatives in the village when I have time."
At this point, he was annoyed and looked painful. He didn't know whether it was physical pain or regret: "I should have chased her away if I had known!"
Du Yu continued to ask: "What happened next?"
Li Le said: "After she came in, I walked in front and told my dad that someone came to give me a gift. But my dad's face changed the moment he saw her and asked what she was doing there."
"Liu Zhuhua said she came to give my dad a gift, but my dad didn't believe it. The uncles in the room didn't believe it either. They all told her to get out."
"I was a little confused at this time, and my brother pulled me aside. My dad asked her what she was doing, and she said she wanted to borrow money from my dad."
"Then the uncles and aunts laughed when they heard it, saying that they would not lend her money even if they had money to feed dogs. They thought she was a fool because she did not sell the land in the first place and now came to borrow money."
Du Yu and Xu Yiqing looked at each other and realized that Liu Zhuhua was indeed after money.
Borrowing is nothing more than a euphemism for blackmail.
And from what Li Le said, it is possible that she did this with the determination to die.
The family’s land was forcibly taken away by the village tyrant, and his son was bullied in the village. Now that he came to borrow money, I’m afraid he might not be coming to borrow his life.
Du Yu asked: "What did Liu Zhuhua say next?"
Li Le's eyes were filled with horror: "She said if I didn't lend her the money, she would tell my mom about my dad's bad deeds... I've never seen my dad show such a terrifying expression!"
(End of this chapter)