Chapter 48 Heinous Crimes

“Qin Ruo, did you hear? The Wang family is finished! The Wang family is finished!”

“I knew something was wrong back then. Wu Changsheng wouldn’t have the guts to commit murder and arson. I told you I was right! It was really Wang Lizheng who did it. It’s just a pity for the Wu family of four.”

Old Lady Qin sat in her courtyard, proudly and incessantly sharing her “insights” with Qin Ruo.

Finally, she sighed.

“If you ask me, that merchant and his servants were also quite pitiful. They died on their first trip out. Wang Lizheng was such a vicious person, he should die a hundred times…”

“That Wang Lizheng clearly wanted to target our Qin family. Thankfully, our ancestors protected us, and we escaped disaster.”

Old Lady Qin shuddered at the thought of the truth behind Wu Changsheng’s family’s death.

When Wang Lizheng sent someone to the Qin family to call Qin Ruo over, wasn’t his method exactly the same as when he dealt with Wu Changsheng?

Qin Ruo wasn’t interested in Old Lady Qin’s hindsight.

The Wang family was simply bringing their own destruction upon themselves.

If she hadn’t happened to come here and killed Bao Gen, triggering a chain reaction, who knows when this old case would have been solved.

As for the ancestors’ protection, it seemed like she was the one who protected the Qin family.

Qin Ruo had guessed about Wang Lizheng’s intentions that day, realizing that he was going to use the same tactics he used on Wu Changsheng against her.

Unfortunately, he encountered Qin Ruo, not Qin Qiuxi.

“Our county magistrate in Taihe County made a good judgment. He’s a good man. Changhe Village will finally have peace without Wang Lizheng and troublemakers like Zhu Shi.”

Old Lady Qin was in a good mood and didn’t care if Qin Ruo responded to her, she continued to chatter on.

Suddenly, she seemed to think of something, her eyes widened, and she whispered, covering her mouth, “Ruo, do you think now that Wang Lizheng is gone, we can continue clearing the land?”

“From what Constable Yu said, although the wolves on the mountain might have gone elsewhere, what if they’re still hiding in the mountains? No, it’s too dangerous.”

“You’re not allowed to go to the mountain anymore. That’s final. Tomorrow, you and Zimu will clear the land with me. By next spring, we’ll be able to sow seeds, and maybe our grain harvest will double…”

Old Lady Qin was delighted, imagining life without Wang Lizheng stirring up trouble.

Thinking about her family’s granary full of grain, and being able to eat to their heart’s content, she couldn’t stop smiling.

Qin Ruo looked at Old Lady Qin, who was sitting on a stool, gesticulating wildly, with a complicated expression.

If Wang Lizheng and his ilk were troublemakers, then what were they and the rest of the villagers in Changhe Village?

Qin Ruo stood in the courtyard, her emotions churning.

Everything that had happened to her since she came here was related to the Wang family.

Towards the hypocritical Wang Lizheng, she had mostly maintained a hands-off attitude.

Now that the old case had been reopened, she learned that Wang Lizheng was quite a vicious person.

Qin Ruo looked through the original owner’s memories and found some impressions of Wu Changsheng’s family.

Wu Changsheng’s family was from out of town. The young couple had fled their hometown due to a flood and ended up in Changhe Village.

At that time, Wang Lizheng wasn’t the headman of Changhe Village.

The previous headman was a just and kind man. Seeing Wu Changsheng and his wife, ragged and thin, begging for food in Changhe Village, and hearing that they had lost all their loved ones or were separated during their escape, leaving only the two of them, he felt compassion and took them in.

He allowed them to settle in Changhe Village and clear land to farm, becoming self-sufficient.

Wu Changsheng and his wife settled down in Changhe Village.

They lived there for nearly ten years and had a son and a daughter.

The couple, the husband working outside and the wife inside, were both hardworking and resilient. Their early days were manageable.

At that time, not only Wu Changsheng and his wife, but the entire village of Changhe lived a relatively peaceful life.

The second year after Wang Lizheng became headman, he forcibly reclaimed the land that the villagers had cleared, making life difficult for the Wu family.

Although the old headman had allocated some good land to them, it was still not enough to feed a family of four.

The land they had cleared was suddenly taken back, which was a devastating blow to Wu Changsheng and his wife.

The only hope for ordinary people was to have enough food and clothing.

Wu Changsheng and his wife didn’t die on the road from famine, but they died because of Wang Lizheng’s selfish desires.

After their land was taken back, the Wu family couldn’t make ends meet.

They had to beg the Wang family, hoping that Wang Lizheng would return some of their previous land.

However, they accidentally stumbled upon the Wang family’s secret, which cost them their lives.

Three months after Wang Lizheng built his new house, Wu Changsheng went to see him, and during the process, he was provoked by Wang Laoer.

In a fit of anger, he fought with Wang Laoer and accidentally fell into the Wang family’s abandoned cellar.

Inside, the bodies of Lu, the merchant, and his servants were stored as items that hadn’t been disposed of yet.

Fearing exposure, Wang Lizheng decided to eliminate Wu Changsheng, silencing him and dumping his body in the river that ran through the village.

Even more sinister, he was afraid that “the fire may be extinguished, but the spring wind will bring it back to life,” so he decided to eliminate the problem completely.

After killing Wu Changsheng, Wang Lizheng had Wang Laoer and his son secretly go to the Wu family.

They claimed that Wu Changsheng had suddenly become ill at the Wang family’s house and tricked Wu Changsheng’s wife into coming out, where they strangled her to death and made it look like suicide by hanging.

They then poisoned Wu Changsheng’s children.

After everything was done, Wang Lizheng timed it perfectly and personally set fire to the thatched hut of a widower who had a conflict with Wu Changsheng.

He gathered the villagers and made them witness the fire at the widower’s house, planting evidence that pointed to Wu Changsheng.

The whole process was meticulously planned.

The next morning, Wang Lizheng guided the villagers to “accidentally” discover Wu Changsheng’s body in the river.

Afterwards, Wang Lizheng made a final decision.

He said that Wu Changsheng had set fire to the house and then jumped into the river to commit suicide. As for Wu Changsheng’s wife and daughters, they had also committed suicide out of fear of being implicated.

Afterwards, Wang Lizheng insisted on not reporting the case to the authorities, claiming that Wu Changsheng’s crime would damage Changhe Village’s reputation and affect the villagers’ marriages.

Wang Lizheng told the villagers that the widower had no children, no relatives, and no one to avenge him.

The Wu family had received their due punishment, and the matter was closed.

The villagers naturally dared not object. Changhe Village was already poor, and for their own benefit, they all tacitly agreed to Wang Lizheng’s decision.

The next day, under Wang Lizheng’s direction, Wu Changsheng’s family and the widower were buried in the back of the mountain, wrapped in straw mats.

Wang Lizheng’s family and Zhao Dala had been living carefree for seven years.

Thinking about all this, Qin Ruo felt uneasy.