Li Xiaohe's case was too serious, and the Badi Police Station had no way to handle it, so they could only call their superiors.
Lin Shuyue and the others couldn't leave either. They had to wait for people from the county to come and question them again.
It was already two or three in the afternoon. The weather in the north was cold in winter, and every household only had two meals a day.
The second meal is always around three o'clock.
After everyone discussed it, they decided to eat at the restaurant at the bottom of the dam. The restaurant was right outside the police station, not very big, with only two private rooms.
Lin Shuyue and Hang Jiabai sat next to Yin Xin, and Hang Jiaqing sat between Yin Xin and Hang Yuhua.
Next to Hang Yuhua were Aunt Wang and Cao Manjin.
Cao Manjin had never been to a restaurant since she was a child. From the moment she entered the restaurant, she felt uncomfortable all over. She sat quietly, listening to the Hang family ordering dishes and chatting in a language she didn't understand. Cao Manjin suddenly breathed a sigh of relief.
Hang Jiabai strongly recommended the pickled cabbage and white pork stew to Lin Shuyue. Hang Jiaqing ordered a braised pork elbow, and Hang Yuhua and Yin Xin each ordered a dish.
Stir-fried leeks with shredded potatoes and cold-mixed cabbage.
Aunt Wang and Cao Manjin said nothing.
They were the only table of guests in the restaurant, so the food came out very quickly. The cold shredded cabbage was sweet and sour, with peanuts and a little bit of chopped green onions in it. It was sour, sweet and crispy, and everyone started eating it as soon as it was served.
After just two bites, the shredded potatoes arrived. Hang Jiabai first picked up a piece for Lin Shuyue and said, "This shredded potato is a perfect match with the chives. Try it."
The shredded potatoes were made with flour, and the saltiness was just right. The unique aroma of the chives complemented the shredded potatoes perfectly: "Delicious."
A sour smell came, and the sauerkraut and pork came up.
Sauerkraut in the north is made from Chinese cabbage. It is cut into shreds and fried with lard, then water is added and pork is stewed. The acid in the sauerkraut dissolves the fat in the pork belly, leaving the pork belly soft and glutinous, not greasy at all. If dipped in the garlic sauce provided by the restaurant, the taste is even better.
Hang Jiabai hadn't eaten this food for many years. He ordered a bowl of rice and soaked it in sour soup. It was so delicious that he closed his eyes. Lin Shuyue followed his example and soaked the rice in sour soup, which was very appetizing.
The braised pork elbow also arrived, served on a large enamel plate. It was very big, and the red braised soup made the skin of the elbow look red and smooth.
As soon as it was placed on the table, everyone's chopsticks reached out for the braised pork elbow.
Hang Jiaqing said, "In the whole of Mulan County, I think their braised pork elbow is the best. Every month, our patrol team pools their money to have a meal here."
Hang Jiaqing is a forest police officer, but they do not belong to the Public Security Bureau, so generally speaking, they call themselves a patrol team.
The requirements for joining the patrol team were very strict. One had to be either a retired soldier or a retired cadre. In addition to these two categories, there was also a group of outstanding militiamen selected from various forest farms or from the dam bottom.
"Delicious, delicious." The elbow was soft and tasty, dipped in garlic sauce, and everyone was eating so much that they couldn't lift their heads.
The amount of food in the north is as big as the land they live in. There were seven adults and some of the food was left over, so Yin Xin packed it all up.
When they came out of the restaurant, it was already dark. In another hour, it would be completely dark.
Yin Xin put the packed food in the car that Hang Jiabai drove, and Hang Yuhua went to the guesthouse next door to book a few rooms for rest at night.
It is more than 20 kilometers from the bottom of the dam to the forest farm. The road is slippery when it is dark. There are forests on both sides and many wild animals. Therefore, for safety reasons, people in the forest farm never travel at night.
After Hang Yuhua came back, the criminal police from the county also arrived. They only had a meal in the cafeteria of the Badi Police Station before starting to interrogate Li Xiaohe and Wei Guoyong.
Compared with Zhao Fu and others, the criminal police's interrogation was obviously more detailed.
This time, they dug out something different from Li Xiaohe's mouth.
For example, the more detailed details of her crime back then, such as where she sent Arya.
Fortunately, Erya is still alive. She lives in a ditch at the bottom of the dam. The family that raised her has a fool, and Erya's status in his family is a child bride.
The reason why Li Xiaohe said Erya was dead before was that she felt that she was arrested entirely because of Cao Manjin.
If the child died, it died. They could just have another one. Why make such a fuss? This incident ruined the rest of her life. Li Xiaohe felt that since she was going to down anyway, she couldn't let Cao Manjin have it easy.
Let her live her life with that despair!
Her vicious heart astonished Lin Shuyue and the others. When Cao Manjin heard that her Erya was still alive, she cried breathlessly. There was an unspeakable hope in her despair, which made people feel heartbroken.
As for Wei Guoyong, he was also imprisoned for the crime of harboring a criminal. He knew everything Li Xiaohe had done, whether it was poisoning his grandparents, damaging his father's health, or later killing Da Ya and San Ya and selling Er Ya.
Wei Guoyong knew when his grandparents and father were murdered, and he was happy to see it happen. After all, they had been very strict with him, determined to make him successful. Wei Guoyong was unwilling to work hard, he just wanted to do nothing and play around. He didn't want to care about studying, writing, or working to earn money.
At that time, Wei Guoyong thought it would be good if they died, as no one would care about them anymore. But after they actually died, Wei Guoyong realized what hardship was.
When they were still around, the family had plenty to eat and drink, and everything was given to him. With their death, everything fell on the shoulders of the mother and son. Li Xiaohe wasn't someone who could endure hardship, so if Wei Guoyong wanted to live a better life, he had to fight for it himself.
But he was not a diligent man. The mother and son had a miserable life in the beginning. Later, Li Xiaohe couldn't stand it anymore and started looking for men outside.
Everyone was poor back then, and there were many single men in the hills outside the forest farm. Li Xiaohe was really pretty, and if she just chatted with someone, there would be many men willing to give her food and drink. She wasn't stupid either, and when she was with others, she was always discreet, not letting anyone at the forest farm notice.
Over the years, several of her lovers had died without anyone knowing. Wei Guoyong watched the men she had been with die one after another, and when he thought of his grandparents, he didn't dare say a word.
Anyway, he is Li Xiaohe's only son, and Li Xiaohe is still waiting for him to take care of her in her old age, so she treats him very well. Wei Guoyong enjoys Li Xiaohe's kindness and is also under her control. After he married Cao Manjin, he was not good to Cao Manjin either.
In Wei Guoyong's mind, all women were like his mother; there was no point in being nice to them. His three daughters were even more so. He had to raise them for decades, investing countless resources and money, and then marry them off when they grew up. Unless he grew old and died, they would rarely come back to live with them.
Wei Guoyong doesn't care whether this useless investment ends up as death or was given away.
Yin Xin was stunned. "This Li Xiaohe is so scary! It's really God's blessing that our forest farm hasn't had any accidents in all these years."
Hang Yuhua also looked relieved. Fortunately, Hang Jiaqing said on the side: "That's because most of the people in our forest farm are veterans with a high sense of morality. Li Xiaohe didn't have the opportunity to do it."
Hang Yuhua and his colleagues were all officers and soldiers in the vicinity back then. After their collective demobilization, they were assigned to different forestry farms.
Yin Xin listened to Hang Jiaqing's words, thought about it carefully, and nodded. "Now that you put it that way, it's true. Not long after Old Wei left, Li Xiaohe always sought help from the neighbors, and they always turned to the men."
Hang Yuhua had been approached many times before, and he quickly clarified, "We only helped out for Old Wei's sake. It had nothing to do with Li Xiaohe."
Cao Manjin was called in for questioning by the criminal police. Aunt Wang had already come out after the questioning. She heard all the words carefully and rolled her eyes: "You are the only one who is naive and doesn't know anything. We have long seen that Li Xiaohe is not a good person."
"She was more restrained in front of you. You're the director of women's affairs, but she wasn't like that in front of us. She kept coming to Deng Dong's door all day, asking him to do everything. Deng Dong had to avoid her during that time."
Yin Xin pondered for a moment and said, "Xiao Chun hadn't come yet at that time."
The conditions at the forest farm are poor. Some soldiers have elderly parents, while others have young children, so the time when their families come here is different.
Deng Dong's family was the last to arrive. When Wei Guoyong's father died, Deng Dong's wife, Xiao Chun hadn't arrived yet.
"No wonder Deng Dong always stayed at our house during that period. Once, it was already ten o'clock and he still didn't plan to go home. He didn't say anything when asked." Like Hang Jiaqing, Yin Xin was not very sensitive about matters between men and women. When she was in the army, if Hang Yuhua hadn't taken the initiative, she would have thought that Hang Yuhua was her good brother.
Although things have improved a little in recent years, it is still limited.
Aunt Wang glanced at Lin Shuyue, leaned close to her ear, and whispered, "One year, I got up to go to the bathroom and saw Li Xiaohe going to Deng Dong's room."
"I thought they were having an affair, but just as Li Xiaohe went in, Deng Dong came running out, his shoes on the wrong way around. He ran towards Wu Xianping's house like he was being chased by a ghost. As soon as he left, Li Xiaohe came out dejectedly." Aunt Wang got up to go to the bathroom and saw that scene. She was so excited, but before she could finish her excitement, Deng Dong came out. She felt as uncomfortable as if she had taken off her pants but just farted.
"Why didn't you say it then?" Everyone loves gossip, and Yin Xin is no exception. She thought that if this matter got out, the whole courtyard would be in turmoil for three to five months.
"What should I say? Xiao Chun took care of two paralyzed elderly people at home for Deng Dong, and raised three successful children. If they really had something, it would be fine, but they don't. And Li Xiaohe took less than two minutes from the time she entered Deng Dong's house to the time she left."
"If a grown man doesn't even have two minutes, he's really screwed." Aunt Wang said this and looked at Yin Xin. She didn't know what she was thinking about, and her face was full of disgust.
Lin Shuyue was watching from the side, very curious.
Cao Manjin came out at this time, with tears on her face and a smile on her face. As soon as she came out, she rushed over and hugged Yin Xin: "Auntie, Erya is still alive."
"For Arya, you should live well too."
Cao Manjin nodded with tears in her eyes.
The group walked outside. The wind tonight was colder than during the day, and snowflakes were floating in the air.
It falls on people's faces and feels icy cold.
"This snow isn't heavy. It melts as soon as it hits the ground."
The guesthouse has sufficient heating, but there is no toilet in the house. The toilet is outside. There is a water room on each floor where you can get water for washing.
There is a kettle in each room.
Lin Shuyue washed her face and feet and went to bed. She shared a room with Aunt Wang. Yin Xin was worried that Cao Manjin would do something stupid, so the two of them slept next to each other.
The room was very small, and there was a set of iron radiators against the wall. Lin Shuyue touched it with her hand and found it was a little hot.
There were two small windows about one meter in size in the room, covered with a thick mattress and a very thick cup. Lin Shuyue shook out the quilt and lay down in it. The cold quilt made Lin Shuyue shiver.
Aunt Wang looked on and laughed, "You'll feel warm after lying down for a while."
Lin Shuyue nodded at her, smiled, chatted with her for a while, and fell asleep unknowingly. In the middle of the night, Lin Shuyue was awakened by the cold, and Aunt Wang beside her was snoring deafeningly.
Lin Shuyue stayed awake for a long time before falling asleep. It felt like she hadn't slept for long when she heard some faint noises in the house. She opened her eyes and found that Aunt Wang had already gotten up. There were also noises coming from outside the house. When Lin Shuyue saw this, she also got up.
They wrapped themselves in quilts and headed towards the forest farm.
The higher they went, the brighter the sky became. When they reached the forest farm, the sun was hanging high in the sky, shining golden and illuminating everything.
Hang Jiaqing's tractor was in the front, and he was stopped by a young man in his twenties.
Hang Jiabai stopped the tractor and rolled down the window. The young man's voice came in.
"Team Hang, traces of poachers have been found around Chuzigou."
Following his words, the Good and Evil System issued a warning: [ Ding Ding Ding ~~~ A criminal with a sin value of 86% has been detected. Please proceed with caution. ]
[ Ding Ding Ding ~~~ A criminal with a sin value of 86% has been detected. Please proceed with caution. ]
[ Ding Ding Ding ~~~ A criminal with a sin value of 86% has been detected. Please proceed with caution. ]