Madness of the Heart

Chapter 32 Demon Hunting (32)

After Wenli woke up, he learned from Xu Chun that the teacher Luo she was looking for had been killed.

For a short period of time, her eyes were dull and she almost lost the ability to think. After a long time, tears came to her eyes, and she repeated mechanically: “How is it possible? Who would harm Teacher Luo? He is so kind…”

After finishing the video conference with Xu Chun, Ming Shu hurried to Xiao Yuan’s office.

“I guessed part of the reason why Luo Xiangfu sent the photos to Shetu Town.” Ming Shu propped her hands on the edge of the table. “But I thought Shetu Town and Li Hongmei’s Xiaben Village were similar. I didn’t expect the status of women there to be as low as this. Kind of degree.”

“Before Luo Xiangfu traveled to Snake Town, Wenli had worked there for a year and a half. According to her, there was no improvement at all.” Xiao Yuan said: “And since Luo Xiangfu’s first printing of photos to the present, For almost a year and a half, no matter whether it was an adult woman or a minor girl in Maoyi Village, everything changed. Luo Xiangfu touched the interests of some people and shook their status.”

Ming Shu likes to walk around logically. The office is full of his footsteps, “These people are local men. When they found out that women who were born inferior to themselves began to give birth to other thoughts, they began to stop listening to themselves. If they do, they must panic and look for the reason. The reason is not difficult to find. They can easily find that people continue to send photos of modern women from Dongye City. Border towns like Shetu Town have strong and weird folk customs. In many cases, the government cannot manage or intervene. It can only protect people who ask for help—such as the girl who escaped. Villagers and townspeople have their own rules, and Luo Xiangfu broke their rules.”

“So they have to retaliate against Luo Xiangfu…” Xiao Yuan curled his eyebrows slightly, his voice seemed unbroken.

Ming Shu said: “They have ample motives for committing crimes.”

The office was quiet for half a minute, Xiao Yuan shook his head, “But why Wenli was not retaliated?”

Mingshu stopped for a while, “Huh?”

“Wen Li was neither harmed nor restricted to freedom. She could even leave Shetu Town alone. If it were not for the sudden heavy rain, she would be able to reach Dongye City in a few days.” Xiao Yuan said: “It is changing the locality. In terms of women, Wenli is more like a pioneer than Luo Xiangfu. She has lived in Maoyi Village for three years and keeps in touch with local women. Don’t their husbands and fathers know what she’s doing? She has not been retaliated against. It doesn’t make sense that Luo Xiangfu was retaliated. Moreover, the photos sent by Luo Xiangfu were passed to the women and children through Wenli. If Luo Xiangfu is not available, Wenli can also seek help from other street photographers, but if there is no article Li, the situation is completely different.”

Ming Shu said: “It is not Luo Xiangfu that the locals should’solve’ the most, but Wenli…”

“Yes.” Xiao Yuan clasped his hands. “Not to mention whether the locals hate Luo Xiangfu or Wenli more. It is actually very easy for them to’solve’ Wenli. They have no reason to seek distance and travel all the way to Dongye City to commit crimes. .”

Ming Shu thought for a while, “Hire someone?”

Xiao Yuan asked back: “How to hire?”

Ming Shu walked to the wall and stuck his forehead against the wall.

He was anxious just now and fell into a misunderstanding, and this misunderstanding he also reminded Yi Fei-when the cost and risk of crime are too high, potential criminals may give up the crime.

For any person in Shetu Town, whether it is to come to Dongye City to commit the crime in person or hire someone to commit the crime in Dongye City, the degree of difficulty is similar to that of abducting a girl from Dongye City to Shetu Town.

They do not need to do this.

Wenli was not harmed in any way, indicating that the hatred of the locals was not as deep as he thought.

But in this way, does the line of Snake Tu Town have no meaning to track it?

A few minutes later, Ming Shu turned around and said, “What’s the situation in Snake Town? Even Xu Chun doesn’t know it. I want to see it myself.”

Xiao Yu’an’s computer page shows that the town of Shetu has suffered a flash flood.

“Xiao Ju, don’t stop me.” Ming Shu said, “We are discussing so much now, in fact, we just take it for granted. If you don’t go to the scene, it is possible to miss the most important clues.”

“From the standpoint of the criminal police, I will not stop you, nor can I stop it. It is your mission and mine to solve the murder case.” Xiao Yuan smiled calmly, “But from the perspective of my family, I will worry about you. And ask you to keep in touch with me at all times and report safety at any time.”

Ming Shu’s ears were hot, and he took a deep breath, “I understand!”

Going to Qiantan Town is not as easy as going to Los Angeles. It took Mingshu and Yifei 14 hours to get to the police station in Qiantan Town.

Wen Li was not seriously injured, but was a little uncomfortable before departure. He encountered a small-scale flash flood on the road, which was dangerous to save his life. Later, he was really exhausted and fainted in a pothole. After being sent to the hospital, he received emergency treatment. Now he has followed Xu Chun to the police station.

She still could not accept the news that Luo Xiangfu had passed away, her eyes were very red, and her reaction was a little slower than normal.

Ming Shu looked at the stack of envelopes she took out of her backpack, and a few printed photos. The envelopes were all wet with rain, cement and water, and some of them could no longer read clearly, but the middle ones could still identify the receiving and mailing addresses.

Luo Xiangfu writes a good handwriting with great strength. Ming Shu has seen it in the Municipal Painting and Calligraphy Association and Luo’s family. He is very impressed. At first glance, he knows that it was written by Luo Xiangfu.

Wenli looked at Ming Shu and asked softly, “Is Teacher Luo really gone?”

Ming Shu replied with a serious look, “Yes, we found that Luo Xiangfu had sent letters to Shetu Town several times in the past year and a half. He came this time to find out the truth about his murder.”

Wen Li cried, “Teacher Luo is a good person!”

Ming Shu observed for a while and said, “I have some questions that I want to ask you, which are related to clues to the case. I hope you can answer them honestly.”

Wen Li quickly wiped away tears, took a few breaths, and nodded: “As long as I can help you, I will say anything!”

“In Shetu Town, how many people know that you are doing activities to change women’s minds?” Ming Shu asked.

Wenli opened her mouth for a while, “Many people know it. Since I’m going to do it, I can’t hide it from everyone.”

Ming Shu asked again: “Are you blocked or hurt by this?”

“There are a lot of blockades. Sometimes they don’t let me enter my home, and sometimes they call me disrespect of the local culture.” Wenli said: “The police also mentioned it to me and asked me to pay attention to safety.”

Ming Shu said, “Who are’they’? Men from Maoer Village and Maoer Village?”

“Yeah.” Wenli nodded, “but it’s more than that. At first, they dismissed me, thinking that women who are far away from home like me and who are in their twenties and have no husbands are’unclean’. In fact, men. They didn’t stop me too much. They looked down on women at all, and the ones who hated me most were older women. This group of people… how do you say…”

Wen Li lowered his head, seemingly hard to tell.

Ming Shu said: “They are the’accomplices’ of the local men.”

“Yes!” Wenli’s eyes were full of regret, “They have been’tamed’. It is their elders who torment the younger generation of women. They can’t wait to drive me out and call me a’fairy’, but I I’m a poverty alleviation volunteer. The police will protect me. If I want to stay, they can’t drive me away.”

Ming Shu asked: “Have you been substantially hurt in the past three years?”

“I have been teased.” Wenli smiled bitterly. “There are many poisonous insects in the country. Several times, poisonous insects appeared in my bag, pot, and bed. I won’t die if I was bitten, but I felt uncomfortable with fever and itching all over my body. And facing those insects up close is really not an easy task for me, a girl who grew up in the city.”

“But you still insist on staying there.” Ming Shu showed respect in his eyes, and his voice was gentle.

Wen Li sighed, “In this life, people have to do something that is meaningful to them, right? Isn’t there a saying called ‘all come here’? I’ve already arrived in Shetu Town, why don’t I hold on to it anymore.”

Ming Shu’s eyes are very calm, but there are some hidden ups and downs in the calm, “Which people are malicious to you and take action, do you know in your heart?”

Wen Li said: “Yes.”

“Okay.” Ming Shu took a pen and paper, “write down their names.”

Wen Li was surprised, “Now?”

Ming Shu said: “Now.”

In the past three years, Wenli has dealt with the police from the police station quite a few times, but he has never seen a policeman like Ming Shu.

Ming Shu felt a little lofty, not as good as the police from the police station, but this loftiness did not make her feel uncomfortable, but gave her a sense of peace of mind.

She thought, this is a powerful, trustworthy and dependent policeman.

“After Luo Xiangfu started sending you the photos, has anyone asked you about the source of the photos?” Ming Shu asked Xu Chun for two bottles of orange juice, unscrewed one bottle and gave it to Wenli, while drinking the other bottle by himself.

Wenli put down the pen, thinking more clearly than when he first saw Ming Shu, “Do you think that Teacher Luo and I have changed this place and touched the interests of the men, so they want to retaliate against us?”

Ming Shu said: “You are very smart. But they didn’t do anything to you. Instead, they went to Dongye City to kill Luo Xiangfu. This is actually not a big possibility. But there is a one in ten thousand possibility, and I can’t let it go.”

Wen Li frowned and tightened.

Ming Shu and Yi Fei both stared at her and found that her expression at this time was more guilt than fear.

“I think of someone.” Wen Li said suddenly.

Ming Shu’s sight is like electricity, “Who?”

Wenli trembled: “The person who almost accepted Zhan Xixi as a concubine.”

Zhan Xixi, a well-known person in Maoyi Village and even Shetu Town, a girl, a beautiful girl.

At the beginning of the year, she was supposed to be married to another Zhan family as the fifth concubine of the villager Zhan Huanxiong. She was only 13 years old at the time and was a minor girl protected by law.

But in Maoyi Village, folk customs and village rules are above all else. If Zhan Huanxiong wants to marry, Zhan Xixi must marry.

However, Zhan Xixi is not only beautiful, but also extremely flexible. She has already developed self-awareness under Wenli’s guidance. She understands that this is not right, and the rules in the village that have lasted for hundreds of years are wrong.

Every time she saw the young woman in the photo, her eyes were full of envy, and her mother was also more enlightened than most women in Maoyi Village.

Before the wedding, Zhan Xixi and his mother escaped from Maoyi Village and went to the police station in Shetu Town to “report the case.”

Everyone in the village was shocked, and they reported the crime because they were forced to marry. This was the first incident in the local area in decades.

The Zhan family surrounded the police station and asked the police to hand over Zhan Xixi. There was even a respectable village chief in Maoyi Village.

But the police can’t manage the affairs of the village at ordinary times. If someone really reports the crime, it is impossible to ignore it.

Zhan Xixi was finally sent to Liu Qicheng, had a new household registration, and started a new life with his mother.

This incident was extremely stimulating to Mao Yicun, and more and more women began to resist.

“Zhan Huanxiong found me.” Wenli said: “He forced me to tell him who sent the photo. Of course I won’t tell him, but one day, he found me again and said that he knew the photo came from Dong. Ye City.”

Ming Shu asked, “This Zhan Huanxiong is still in Shetu Town.”

Wen Li suddenly covered his face with his hands, shaking his head and choking: “He was not in the village in May this year. I heard people say that he had gone to the other side of the mountain. Now that I think about it, he might have… went to Dongye City.”

Ming Shu stood up, walked to the window holding the orange juice bottle, and walked back.

Or the logic analyzed with Xiao Yuan, Zhan Huanxiong had the motive to kill Luo Xiangfu, but what about his ability?

The murderer was a calm and meticulous person, leaving few clues. Zhan Huanxiong, a villager in a backward village, had such an ability?

And judging from the murder weapon and Luo Xiangfu’s neck wounds, it is more likely that the murderer was a woman.

Mingshu asked, “You said you thought Zhan Huanxiong went to the other side of the mountain, which is the neighboring country? What did he do there?”

“He came from a neighboring country. He is not a native of our country.” Wenli said, “You may not understand this. Half of the resident population in Maoyi Village is from neighboring countries. Intermarriage is free, as long as you go to Shetu Township. Just remember. I heard that Zhan Huanxiong was born here, but his parents are from neighboring countries. He fought on the mountain a few years ago. Is he a mercenary or a scout? I don’t know, anyway… …”

Ming Shu’s eyes must be, “Fight? Scout?”

Wen Li nodded cautiously: “There are many messy armed forces in neighboring countries, and skirmishes break out every few months. Zhan Huanxiong is still a little boss, and he often brags about how many people he killed before in the village. Zhen Shangwu, although Zhan Huanxiong is very small and only 1.6 meters tall, he can fight. He has a box of merit medals from neighboring countries at home, so he has a high status in Maoyi Village. By the way, I actually come to Shetu After the town, Zhan Huanxiong never fought any more wars, because Liu Qicheng introduced a policy not allowing scouts from neighboring countries to enter and settle. After Zhan Huanxiong went to the neighboring country’s casino to work, this income Let him become the “rich family” of Maoyi Village. He has married a wife and four concubines. Many people are eager to marry their daughters to him, because he is rich and can fight wars, and has the face of climbing up to his relatives.”

Xu Chun was stunned, “This is too ridiculous, right?”

Ming Shu immediately said: “Let’s go to Snake Town now!”

As the rain became weaker, the troops rushed to repair the dirt road from Qiantan Town to Shetu Town. Mingshu drove an off-road vehicle and finally arrived at Shetu Town in the depths of the mountain after heavy obstacles.

“I’m still the first to come back in such a remote place.” Xu Chun poured a bottle of mineral water over his head when he got out of the car. He was in the car just now, he was really sweating because of the roads that could no longer be called roads. Mingshu has the best driving skills among the people. After all, he has received militarized training in the special operations team. If you change one person, several “death corners” will probably be planted directly into the ravine.

“It seems that the sentence is really right-if you want to get rich, you must first build a road.” Xu Chun sighed again, “If this kind of place were not for investigation, I would never come!”

Wen Li looked helpless and whispered: “The less outsiders are willing to come, the more closed here and the more unable to change.”

Ming Shu walked quickly to the police station in Shetu Town.

Before Wenli told Zhan Huanxiong’s identity and experience, he originally thought that Zhan Huanxiong was unlikely to be the murderer of Luo Xiangfu. But Zhan Huanxiong is a scout, has fought in battles, and even has a lot of merit medals, which at least shows that Zhan Huanxiong is skilled.

While Zhan Huanxiong grew up in a war environment, killing is already commonplace.

In the borders of neighboring countries, people will draw their guns because of trivialities.

For Zhan Huanxiong, the woman he liked ran away because of the “instigation” of others, which is tantamount to a great shame.

Who does Zhan Huanxiong hate?

Zhan Xixi? Wen Li? Luo Xiangfu?

In normal logic, Wenli should be the one who Zhan Huanxiong should retaliate most, not Luo Xiangfu, who is in a distant city.

But why Wenli did not suffer particularly serious harm in the three years in Shetu Town?

After arriving in Shetu Town, Mingshu finally figured out something that he didn’t understand in Dongye City——

Because the men here do not regard women as human beings at all, in their eyes, it is a “disqualification” to care about women.

Will people avenge their own pigs, sheep, cattle and dogs?

of course not!

They looked down upon Wen Li in their hearts, and it was all female elders in the village who threatened Wen Li. After Zhan Xixi fled, Zhan Huanxiong must resent Wenli, but he hates the person who sent the photos to Snata Town even more than Wenli.

Because that person is a man!

For Zhan Huanxiong, only men are worthy of their revenge.

Ming Shu was fortunate that he did not abandon the line of Shetu Town because of the logical analysis of normal people.

This kind of deformed thinking and distorted logic, if he hadn’t personally stood on the land of Shetu Town, he would have been unable to sort out it at all.

The Shetu town police station was quite puzzled about the arrival of Mingshu and his party. Although they were all policemen, their functions were very different. It was Wenli who dealt with it, and the other party found out Zhan Huanxiong’s registration record.

The man in the photo has a thin face with yellowish muscles, a fierce look, and a hideous scar on his cheek.

“Can you find out where Zhan Huanxiong is going after May?” Ming Shu asked.

“This…” The policemen were embarrassed.

Wenli explained that there is no monitoring equipment in the town. If the villagers want to leave, they can take any means of transportation. Neighbors with registration certificates like Zhan Huanxiong can move freely within the jurisdiction of Liuqi City. This is only possible when they leave Liuqi City. Will be deported because of a temporary inspection.

“However, the implementation of this is relatively lax.” A policeman said: “If Zhan Huanxiong slips wherever he intends, he can easily escape the inspection.”

Mingshu asked Yi Fei to rush to Liuqicheng immediately, and it was found that night-on May 29, Zhan Huanxiong went in a hurry and left from the northeast exit of Liuqicheng.