Hearing the commotion, everyone turned around and saw that it was none other than Li Cuihong standing at the back of the crowd.
Li Cuihong was filled with regret. Originally, she should have been down by the river washing clothes at this hour, but upon seeing the police enter the village and head straight toward Liu Yu’s house, an unprovoked sense of schadenfreude had welled up inside her.
It must be that little beast doing something illegal in town, which was why the police had tracked him down to his doorstep.
With this thought in mind, she had followed along with the main group to join in the excitement, hoping above all to see him get dragged away on the spot, for that would truly be satisfying.
The outcome, however, was predictable: her expectations fell through, and the scene she had envisioned never materialized.
Not only that, but her precious son had just bitten him right in front of everyone.
She knew her Liu Gui inside and out. Though he was a bit mischievous on ordinary days, he had zero concept of money; at most, he would steal some food when his cravings acted up.
Right! Her son definitely had nothing to do with this case!
Beads of cold sweat had already formed on her forehead, yet she forced herself to remain unmoving and feign calmness.
“Anyway, our Liu Gui never hangs out with shady people!” she forced the connection, saying, “Comrade police officers, you must not listen to a child’s nonsense. Kids’ words cannot be trusted!”
Liu Wensheng had been taught since childhood never to lie, so even if telling the truth meant getting punished, he would never resort to falsehoods. To have his words questioned as nonsense right now made him furious!
He immediately retorted: “I am not lying! Liu Gui plays really well with those guys at school! Every student at our school can vouch for it. Shunzi?”
Standing to the side, Shunzi could not bear to see his good buddy doubted, so he chimed in, “That is right! Our whole school can vouch for it!”
“You are kids who should be in school instead of loitering here and disrupting police work!” Li Cuihong said, near the point of a breakdown. “Comrade officer, you must not listen to their one-sided story!”
For reasons unknown, Li Cuihong, who had initially been certain her son was uninvolved in this theft case, suddenly felt uncertain once again at this moment.
Seeing her lingering nearby and making a senseless fuss, a police officer calmly advised her: “Rest assured, Comrade, our investigation relies strictly on evidence, but please refrain from obstructing us in gathering that evidence.”
Receiving the warning, Li Cuihong fell silent.
She could no longer stay here; she just wanted to rush back immediately to check if there were any incriminating traces at home and cover them up before the police arrived.
Led actively by the villagers, the police headed to the Sun family village, but ultimately found nothing. They merely verified through the villagers once more that Liu Gui had a very close relationship with the four suspects.
With no other options, they had no choice but to head to the school to find the individuals in question.
“Answer whatever the comrade police ask you. If you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to fear from ghosts knocking at your door, and there is nothing to be scared of,” the principal, who had received the notification, admonished.
In the end, they questioned the children one by one, even searching their schoolbags and desks individually, but found nothing. By the end, one of the children was even crying his eyes out in sheer terror.
After all, they were just elementary school kids, and without direct evidence, it was inappropriate to haul them straight into the station for interrogation.
The group had no choice but to return to Liu Family Village once again.
With the case stalled, the police did not give up; instead, they went to Liu Gui’s house a second time.
It was broad daylight, and whenever people were home, households would usually leave their doors wide open. Yet the Liu residence had its front gate tightly shut today, as if harboring something disgraceful inside.
Knock, knock, knock!
There was no sound from within. The officers exchanged glances and gestured for the village head to step forward and call out to the occupants.
“Uncle! Aunt!” the village head pounded on the wooden door, calling out, “Are you home? We have come looking for you regarding a small matter.”
After a long while, the wooden door slowly slid open just an inch, and an elderly woman with a hunched back peered out from behind the door, which was Liu Gui’s grandmother.
Seeing police officers in uniform trailing behind, she panicked and desperately tried to slam the door shut again.
An officer swiftly jammed a foot in to block the door: “Elderly resident, we are police officers, not bad people. We are just conducting a routine investigation into a case, so please do not be afraid.”
Zhu Fenglian twitched the corners of her mouth in an extremely forced smile: “Come in.”
How could she not be afraid? She had not dealt with the police once in her entire life, yet today she heard someone say her most cherished youngest grandson was implicated in a theft case.
She only hoped Guier’s mother had managed to find something and clear it out from the house.
As it happened, Li Cuihong emerged from the back room right at that moment, looking relaxed as she gave a subtle shake of her head.
Only then did Zhu Fenglian’s tightly suspended heart drop back into her stomach.
She shot a fierce glare at Liu Yu, as though accusing him of why, for no good reason, he was splashing dirty water onto her precious youngest grandson.
Turning back to face the police, she put on that ingratiating smile once more, the wrinkles on her face bunching up into a tight little cluster.
“Comrade officers, feel free to search wherever you like. We stand upright and have nothing to fear.”
The doors to the rooms were opened one by one. When they reached the rooms belonging to the second uncle’s family, a young girl stepped out. It was none other than Liu Ju, the biological younger sister of Liu Limin and Liu Mei.
The young girl was the same age as Liu Wensheng, yet she had not been sent to school for an education.
Whenever her older brothers and sister went out to work, she could only stay home and help with household chores; when there were no chores, she would hide away in her room so as not to be an eyesore to her grandparents.
Seeing the girl secretly watching him with timidity in her gaze, Liu Yu offered her a kindly, reassuring smile in an attempt to soothe her emotions.
However, the young girl seemed to have made up her mind about something, her gaze suddenly turning resolute.
Out of the sight of her family members, she slowly edged toward Liu Yu’s side.
Unaware of her intent, Liu Yu cooperated seamlessly, shifting a few paces to the side without arousing suspicion.
A moment later, his sleeve was lightly tugged. He instinctively glanced down, and before he could even ask, he saw the young girl secretly pointing with her finger toward the direction of the outhouse.
Liu Yu understood in a flash, though disbelief washed over him.
Liu Gui hid his snacks in the outhouse? Liu Gui actually hid the stolen loot in the outhouse! He really had no sense of hygiene.
With a look of gratitude, he nodded at the young girl. Seeing that he had grasped her meaning, she slowly drifted back to her original spot.
Walking straight into the room, Liu Yu leaned close to an officer’s ear and whispered a few words.
Hanging around the doorframe, Li Cuihong strained her ears, wishing she could stretch them out to hear precisely what Liu Yu had said.
Her wish went unfulfilled; the voice was too low, deliberately guarded against her, and she could not catch a single syllable.
“There is nothing in the house. Sorry to have disturbed you,” an officer announced.
“Since that is the case, let me see you out!” Zhu Fenglian offered with enthusiastic cooperation.
She dared not utter any polite pleasantries, terrified that these men might take her words as an invitation to stay longer. She did not want to lay eyes on the police for even a single second longer, as it was simply too terrifying.
The group was about to reach the front entrance.
“Hold on, could I borrow your family’s restroom for a moment?” asked the officer who had just whispered with Liu Yu, suddenly clutching his stomach.
What could Zhu Fenglian say? She could only nod in disgruntled agreement.
Time ticked away second by second, yet that officer had still not emerged from the outhouse. Li Cuihong felt a prickle of doubt, but did not dare rashly rush him.
A few more minutes passed, and the man from the restroom finally stepped out, carrying a large sack in his hand.
Before Li Cuihong and Zhu Fenglian could recover their equilibrium, their heart rates instantly rocketed upward into a frantic surge.
“This, this, this, comrade officer, what is this thing? Where did you find it?” Li Cuihong’s tongue stumbled, failing to form a coherent sentence.
The officer did not address her right away; instead, he gave an instruction to a fellow officer, who immediately bolted out on his own accord.
With a deadpan expression, the officer stated: “Alright, since you claim ignorance, we will discuss this once your son gets back!”
He then walked over to Liu Yu carrying the sack, and the three of them squatted on the ground to inspect and verify the contents.
Liu Yu said in a low voice: “That is right, Uncle Officer, these are all mine. Aside from the quantities being somewhat depleted, the only thing missing now is the cash.”
At this point, it could be confirmed beyond doubt that Liu Gui was thoroughly implicated in the theft.
Since the other four suspects were tight-lipped and yielded no breakthroughs, recovering the money would require leaning directly on Liu Gui.
“How can this be! Our Guier is so well-behaved normally; he could never do such a thieving, dog-stealing thing!”
Zhu Fenglian clapped a hand tightly over her mouth, wearing the picture of someone on the verge of being frightened to tears.
Inwardly, Liu Yu rolled his eyes. Given Liu Gui’s wretched conduct, just how massive were the rose-tinted glasses she wore to genuinely believe he never engaged in petty thievery?
If nothing else, purely because of stealing things and bullying younger children, several families from the village had already come knocking at their door in protest.
Up on the field ridge, a neighbor’s auntie shouted in a rush: “Old Liu, hurry back home! Something happened at your place, and several comrade police officers are there!”
Liu Weibao turned pale with shock. Without even pausing to ask for details, he rounded up his two sons and grandson and hurried back toward the house.
On the road, they happened to run into Liu Gui, who was wailing at the top of his lungs from the back seat of a police bicycle.
Plunged into pitch-black despair, Liu Weibao could not fathom what kind of trouble a young child could possibly be tangled up in, hoping against hope that the police had made a mistake!
Chasing anxiously behind the bicycle, Liu Weibao called out: “Comrade officer, I am his biological grandfather. Can you tell me what on earth is going on?”
The officer turned his head slightly and replied: “You will find out when you get back.”
The group returned home in a daze of lost wits. Before they even stepped through the front gate, a cacophony of chaotic noises spilled out, including Zhu Fenglian’s weeping and wailing, Liu Gui throwing a screeching, throwing-himself-on-the-ground temper tantrum, and Li Cuihong’s shrill scolding. The courtyard had turned into an absolute madhouse in an instant.
Every single moment standing at the threshold grated on Liu Weibao’s nerves.
He paused muffledly for a fraction of a moment, then ultimately stepped resolutely into the courtyard.
Zhu Fenglian, who had been weeping behind her hands, looked up at the sound and, seeing her husband return, felt as though she had suddenly found her backbone.
“Old man! Old man! Say something! They keep insisting our Guier stole Liu Heqing’s things and want to drag Guier away for harsh interrogation!”
The officer attempting to conduct the interrogation choked instantly and clarified: “Please refrain from spreading falsehoods. We never stated we would subject a suspect to harsh interrogation.”
“Aaaaaah! If you dare take my son away, I will fight you people to the death!”
Li Cuihong lost her mind. Red-eyed, she lunged forward, trying to rake her nails across the officer’s arm.
Even in rural areas where folks were notoriously tough and spirited, these officers rarely encountered someone throwing such an irrational, unreasonable tantrum, making communication completely impossible.
With no other choice, the officer shoved a lunging Li Cuihong back with force and barked sternly: “If you refuse to cooperate with the police investigation, every single one of you will be hauled into the station today!”
The threat hit home. It successfully cowed the family members present, and the courtyard finally quieted down.
Even Liu Gui, who had been kicking his feet wildly on the ground, halted his resistance at the sight.
Taking advantage of the momentary chaos, Liu Yu had long since grabbed Liu Ju and slipped away into a room, far removed from the center of the drama.
Peeking out and watching Li Cuihong thrust forward those sharp talons in an attempt to assault an officer, he had nearly cried out in alarm, but thankfully the officer had anticipated it.
He had no doubt that had he remained out there in the open, Li Cuihong would have tried to scratch him right along with them. If she dared to rough up the police, dealing with a scrawny kid like him would practically be an afterthought.