“Old Zhou, don’t be angry. You are highly respected—just sitting here makes everyone feel at ease, right? Zhang Shun is already gone. We need to come up with a plan,” Liu Dashan said calmly, not getting angry at all, but still not letting anyone leave.
Old Zhou was so furious he almost fainted. What kind of people were these!
“Yeah, Grandpa Zhou, don’t upset yourself. Once this is settled, I’ll carry you home,” Liu Xiangdong said with a silly grin, stepping forward to support him.
“Alright, alright, say it. What do you all want to do? Hurry up and decide. If we drag this out any longer, it’ll be dawn soon,” Zhou Deren said, rolling his eyes.
The brigade captain also felt anxious and waved his hand.
“Everyone stop arguing. All of us were involved in today’s incident. No one can escape responsibility.
Now someone is dead—by law, we should report this to the police.
But if we do, it becomes a case of intentional homicide.
The reputation of Huaihua Village will be ruined.
I will be charged with incitement, and all of you will be treated as murderers. We’ll all end up in prison.”
“What do we do then? My family depends on my man—I can’t go to jail!” a woman cried, slapping her thigh.
“Oh heavens, my son! Captain, please think of a solution!” another wailed. “I rely on my eldest son to support me in old age!”
…
Li Miaomiao watched the group of people chattering without reaching any conclusion and couldn’t help but curl her lips.
This old fox, Liu Dashan, was clearly trying to let these villagers panic themselves. Once they begged him, he would step in and “resolve” everything.
In the end, everything would still be controlled by him.
“Heh, Liu Dashan’s plan is going to fail,” she muttered with a mischievous smile.
Zhang’s old lady and the others had already arrived.
Sure enough, before two minutes passed, while Liu Dashan’s side still hadn’t reached a decision, Zhang’s family had already rushed over.
Li Miaomiao quietly left the bushes and followed at the back. After all, excitement was better up close.
“Ahhh! My son! Where are you? Mother is here! Don’t be afraid, I’m here to save you!”
Old Lady Zhang rushed to the front and finally saw Zhang Shun’s lifeless body by the riverbank.
“Shuner! My precious son! I was too late! Is your soul still here?” She cried as she collapsed over his body, sobbing uncontrollably.
“Liu Dashan, you heartless beast! You killed my son! I’ll kill you!”
Suddenly, she grabbed a knife and charged at the brigade captain.
Before anyone could react, Liu Dashan barely dodged—but his arm was cut off.
“Ahhh!” he screamed in agony, clutching his bleeding arm as cold sweat poured down his face.
Everyone finally reacted and rushed forward, but Old Lady Zhang was completely insane, swinging the knife wildly. No one could get close.
After a while, someone managed to sneak behind her and kicked her in the back. The knife flew out of her hand.
Although she was restrained, she still kept cursing nonstop:
“Liu Dashan, you bastard! I’ll make you pay with your life! Just you wait!”
Li Miaomiao watched as the fight finally ended and sighed regretfully.
“So fast? That’s it already?”
In the end, the matter concluded with Liu Dashan fainting from pain, and the women’s director calling the police. Only when the police and commune officials arrived was the situation temporarily brought under control.
After the involved people were taken away, Li Miaomiao slowly left the riverbank with the crowd.
“Wow, so it really was the brigade captain who killed Zhang Shun?”
“Tsk, I came too late. I still don’t know exactly what happened!” a chubby woman whispered to another.
“I think so. You didn’t see—Liu Xianhua’s clothes were a mess, definitely a man’s. I think she was assaulted, and the captain killed Zhang Shun in anger.”
The black chubby woman analyzed seriously like a detective.
“But Liu Mazi was also there. I saw him all wet. He usually hangs out with Zhang Shun—maybe he was involved too?”
Using her height advantage, Li Miaomiao slung an arm around their shoulders and joined the gossip group.
She needed to steer the discussion—and also establish her presence for an alibi.
“Hey, Miss Bian’an’s wife, when did you get here? You scared me!” Aunt Lin said, patting her chest.
The chubby woman—Aunt Sun’s neighbor—also calmed down.
“I followed you all here after hearing the noise. You two were talking too much to notice me,” Li Miaomiao said with a smile.
“Oh, city people like you also enjoy gossip? I thought you all just read books all day with your noses in the air,” Sun Yueyue teased.
“Yueyue, that’s not right. So what if we’re educated youth? We’re still people—we like everyday life too,” Li Miaomiao replied, casually handing them each a handful of melon seeds.
“Come on, keep talking. Do you think it was one woman taking on two men?”
“Aiya! Li Miaomiao, how can you say that? You’re not even embarrassed?” Sun Yueyue said, covering her face and running off.
…
“What did I even say?” she thought helplessly.
“Aiya, that girl. My daughter is still unmarried!” Aunt Lin laughed, then whispered into Li Miaomiao’s ear:
“I heard from Aunt Liu that she was the first one in the room. She saw one person hugging and kissing, and the other doing… that kind of thing. Alright, let’s go!”
She patted Li Miaomiao’s hand and left.
Oh… got it. So things were pretty intense.
Wait a second—why am I thinking like this? I’m also an unmarried girl!
Li Miaomiao pouted like Sun Yueyue, then suddenly realized—no, wait… she seemed to already be married and registered.
That’s right. She was a soul transmigrator. The moment she woke up in the thatched hut, this world was already completely different from her original one.
Using the original owner’s memory, Li Miaomiao returned to the Xiao family home.
She entered the room and looked around:
A bed made of a few rough wooden boards, a straw mat woven from wheat stalks, a patched bedsheet—no pillow at all.
By the bed was an old wooden box. Nothing else. Not even a stool.
She cautiously peeked out the door. The surroundings were quiet, except for some movement in Liu Huifang’s room; the rest of the houses only had steady breathing sounds.
She closed the door, bolted it, and slipped into her space.
The room was empty, hot, and full of mosquitoes. The space was much more comfortable.