Chapter 259: Chapter 259: Iron-Clad Evidence

In this era, the conditions at the town police station were primitive. The two police officers had walked to Lotus Village to handle the case.

As they escorted Wei Qing back to town, they drew crowds of onlookers from every village they passed, all of whom gossiped amongst themselves.

Wei Qing buried her face in her chest, not wanting to be recognized.

But some sharp-eyed villagers still recognized her. "Looks like Li Hongying’s girl."

Li Hongying was quite famous in the surrounding villages.

A village widow with a daughter from a previous marriage who actually managed to marry into the city and get urban grain rations—who wouldn’t be envious?

"Look, she’s in handcuffs. Are they taking her to be executed by firing squad? Wonder what she did."

Though communication in the countryside was backward, the speed at which gossip spread was astonishing.

Wei Qing was still on the road, but the news of her arrest had already spread throughout the surrounding villages.

"Mom! Mom!"

Liu Sufen was washing her daughter’s face when she heard Wei Guoliang run in, yelling and shouting. She immediately started scolding him:

"What are you yelling for? Trying to summon a ghost?"

Wei Guoliang leaned against the wall, panting like an ox.

After seeing Wei Qing arrested, Wei Shuan had sent him to the clinic to give Liu Sufen the news.

He had taken a shortcut and run all the way, not resting for a moment over several miles of mountain roads.

"Mom, Wei... Wei Qing... she was... was arrested... by the police!"

The moment she heard this, Liu Sufen slapped the washcloth onto her daughter’s face, strode over to Wei the Second in a few quick steps, her eyes practically glowing.

"Really? When did this happen?"

"J-jus... today!"

"When today?"

"Th-this... morning."

Liu Sufen slapped him irritably. "Can you stop panting for a second! Didn’t the police release her yesterday? Why did they arrest her again today? They’re not going to arrest her just to let her go again, are they?"

Wei Guoliang tried to quiet his breathing to avoid another scolding from his mother. "The police said Wei Qing is suspected of trying to murder Xiao Shan. They cuffed her and took her away. The whole village saw it."

Hearing this, Liu Sufen was so happy she slapped her thigh. "Heaven has eyes! Heaven has eyes! I knew she did it! That black-hearted, rotten-livered beast is worse than a pig or a dog! She’s finally getting what she deserves!"

Wei Shan’s face was a mask of disbelief.

’The person who dug a pit to bury me alive... was actually Wei Qing?’

The thought of having shared a bed for a month with someone so vicious and terrifying made her skin crawl.

’I’m never going into a cave again for the rest of my life!’

「Plum Valley.」

Jin Yulan was heading out to Aunt Fan’s house to discuss a bride price.

Aunt Fan had a niece on her mother’s side who seemed like a good match for her second son in every way, but the bride price the woman’s family was demanding was too high.

She hadn’t gone far when she saw Ge Yue’e gathered with a few other villagers, chewing the fat.

Ge Yue’e’s husband had blinded Jin Yulan’s husband in one eye, and the two families were now mortal enemies.

Jin Yulan rolled her eyes and was about to walk past when Ge Yue’e called out to her, gloating:

"Your daughter-in-law has been arrested by the police! I hear she’s going to be executed!"

"Ge Yue’e, what kind of bullshit are you spouting now?"

"You don’t believe me? People saw Jiang Qing being cuffed and taken away by the police with their own eyes!"

Jin Yulan froze.

She had assumed Ge Yue’e was just stirring up trouble and spouting nonsense. After all, both her sons were bachelors; where would she get a daughter-in-law?

Only then did she remember she had a *former* daughter-in-law.

’She was actually arrested by the police?’

’This is great news!’

Jin Yulan forgot all about going to Aunt Fan’s house and instead ran to the village chief’s home.

When she learned that Jiang Qing’s crime wouldn’t implicate her son, she finally relaxed and bent over laughing.

"HAHAHA, she totally deserved it!"

"Karma’s a bitch, HAHAHA!"

She walked and laughed all the way, laughing until tears streamed down her face, making the other villagers wonder if she had gone mad.

...

"You’ve got the wrong person! It wasn’t me! I’ve been framed! I’ve really been framed!"

In the interrogation room, Wei Qing cried streams of tears and proclaimed her innocence, trying to get by on her frail appearance.

The police officer wasted no words and laid the evidence they had collected directly on the table.

"This shovel—you bought it a month ago from Zhu the Fifth’s blacksmith shop. Zhu the Fifth has a habit. He carves a mark on every piece of ironware he forges himself."

Seeing the crooked character for ’Zhu’ on the inside of the shovel’s handle, Wei Qing tried to argue, but the officer gave her no chance to speak.

"This half-burnt candle and this matchbox—we found them near the spot where Wei Shan was buried alive. After examination, we confirmed that your fingerprints are on both the candle and the matchbox."

Wei Qing stared at the candle and matchbox, her face deathly pale.

She was a meticulous person and knew she had to cover her tracks after committing a crime.

That’s why she had taken the candle and matchbox with her when she left the cave.

However, she had tossed them aside carelessly after running out of the cave.

’If I had known the police would find them, I should have brought them back to the Wei Family’s house and burned them!’

The officer then placed a stack of photos in front of her. "These are traces we photographed at the scene. At the spot where Wei Shan was buried alive, besides Wei Shan’s footprints, the only other ones are yours. How you moved the stone slab to cover the hole, how you covered the slab with dirt—your footprints make it all crystal clear!"

"On the stone slab covering the hole’s entrance, we lifted no fewer than fifty pairs of footprints—all of them yours! You were so afraid Wei Shan would survive that you practically wanted to seal the opening shut permanently!"

"The theft at the grain and oil station was solved a few days ago. It was an inside job by one of the station’s guards. We didn’t announce it publicly because his accomplice hadn’t been caught yet."

"The group of people you mentioned is pure nonsense! Did you think that just because you tricked Wei Shan, you could fool us too? To tell you the truth, we never stopped suspecting you. We only let you go to see if you had any other accomplices."

"Wei Qing, the evidence is ironclad. You can’t escape. Confess your crimes honestly, and you might receive a more lenient sentence."

Wei Qing opened her mouth, but her throat felt as if it were being squeezed shut by a hand, and she couldn’t utter a single word.

She knew, with perfect clarity, that she was finished.

’This time, no one can save me.’

Fear, terror, regret, and vexation filled her heart, making her tremble from the cold, yet she was also overcome with unwillingness to accept her fate.

She didn’t understand why Heaven had let her be reborn, only to thwart her at every turn.

"What grudge do you have against Wei Shan? Why were you so determined to kill her?"

"Aren’t you all so good at investigating? Go find out for yourselves. I have nothing to say. Kill me or torture me, do as you please."

The police officer looked at Wei Qing’s pale, thin face. It was hard to imagine that such a young woman, who appeared so harmless, could be so malicious and cruel.

「The Lu Family.」

An Hui ladled a full bowl of chicken soup and brought it to Jiang Moli, saying lovingly, "Hongmei specially stewed this with medicinal herbs. Drink up. Look how thin you’ve gotten after being away for a month."

Jiang Moli happily sipped the delicious chicken soup and said, "That’s because I was wasting away from missing you."

An Hui was so amused by her words she couldn’t stop smiling.

Lu Deyao looked at the chicken soup in Jiang Moli’s hands, his heart full of sour jealousy. "I’ve gotten thin too! I need some chicken soup to recover as well."

An Hui shot him a look and said teasingly, "I don’t see where you’ve gotten any thinner."

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