Chapter 63.2: Those Hands Are Way Too Fast, Aren’t They?
“In the past few months, a powerful vegetable boss showed up in the city and beat all the surrounding gangs into submission. His cut is damn steep, too. He ordered us to raise our prices when selling vegetables, and we had no choice but to comply. But those stubborn mules from Gao Family Village still wouldn’t listen. They secretly lowered their prices by two or three cents, and on top of that, they paid a lot less in protection money. In the end, Gao Qihu from Gao Family Village got his legs broken by the vegetable boss’s men and was sent back to the village.”
As he spoke, a smug, almost gleeful expression appeared on Feng Qiangdong’s face.
“The people of Gao Family Village really are a bunch of idiots. They’ve gotten used to throwing their weight around in their own village because they’ve got so many uncles, nephews, and brothers. They think everyone everywhere should bow to them. Do they even stop to think? The vegetable boss has way more men than they do, and they’re all desperate people with nothing to lose. Did those idiots really think they could win by going head-to-head with him?”
After saying all that, Feng Qiangdong realized that gloating over other people’s misfortune wasn’t exactly appropriate. He tried to wipe the smile off his face before adding, “I reckon they’ve blamed me for this again. They’re using the grave-robbing incident as an excuse to come after me and try to kill me!”
Jiang Xia gave a slight nod.
As expected, it was all because of the vegetable trade.
After the turn of the millennium, the implementation of the government’s Vegetable Basket Project meant that urban residents no longer had to worry about getting vegetables. But in the current era, getting a decent serving of vegetables wasn’t easy.
After all, transportation was still terrible. Vegetables were mainly supplied by farmers in the areas surrounding each city, and production was woefully inadequate. Even though the cities received special subsidies and operated centralized purchasing and guaranteed sales programs, vegetable shops still struggled to meet demand. The capital itself had experienced several vegetable shortages.
Now that government policies had been relaxed, however, demand naturally gave rise to supply. Many farmers began planting extra vegetables to sell in the cities.
In their eyes, their own labor and the time spent growing the crops didn’t count as costs. The only real expense was the grain they needed to feed themselves. A trip to the city to sell a hundred or so jin of vegetables could earn them roughly ten to thirty yuan.
Making money was incredibly difficult for farmers in those days, yet they had plenty of things they needed to spend it on. Such extraordinarily high earnings were enough to make them fight tooth and nail for a share of the market, inevitably leading to all kinds of disputes.
The so-called vegetable bosses in the city operated on the same principle.
To put it nicely, they were local bosses. In reality, they were thugs who extorted protection money from vegetable vendors, and there were plenty of them.
After all, there were far too many unemployed young people at the time. Their families couldn’t support them indefinitely, so they had to find some way to make a living. Some still had enough decency to find odd jobs and earn money honestly, while others went straight down the crooked path.
Why work for a living when you could just take someone else’s money?
But the vegetable farmers weren’t pushovers, either. When gangsters came looking for trouble, the farmers would band together and fight back. Gao Family Village was clearly a case in point.
They just hadn’t won.
On the surface, city dwellers might have seemed a cut above villagers. But unemployed young people in the city had no jobs and only a place to live. In reality, their circumstances could be worse than those of farmers who at least owned fields. They might not even know where their next meal was coming from. Once they started collecting protection money, they were genuinely willing to risk their lives for it.
Jiang Xia glanced at Feng Qiangdong.
He’d made himself and Matun Village sound like a bunch of pure-hearted innocents just now, and she didn’t believe a word of it.
The vegetable trade clearly had serious problems with the vegetable bosses. But Matun Village and Gao Family Village had probably resorted to underhanded tactics of their own, too. Most likely, everyone involved was guilty of something. None of them had clean hands.
However, Jiang Xia didn’t think she could mediate a dispute involving economic interests. That was the commune’s job. But the thug who had broken Gao Qihu’s legs absolutely had to be dealt with.
She immediately pressed on with her questions. “Then who is this vegetable boss? What’s his name?”
Feng Qiangdong suddenly clamped his mouth shut and refused to say another word.
Whether he was afraid of the man or had some other reason, his refusal to answer was perfectly understandable. Jiang Xia didn’t press him at a time like this. Instead, she quickly switched to a question that was more important right now.
“Then do you have anything to do with the digging up of Gao Hongwu’s parents’ graves?”
Feng Qiangdong’s eyes darted to the side. He instinctively avoided her gaze, his mind racing as he hurriedly replied, “No! Absolutely not!”
Jiang Xia furrowed her brows.
Why did she have a feeling that he was lying?
“Hey, you’re the criminal investigation officers from the municipal bureau, right?”
As they spoke, the three local patrol officers finally arrived. The one leading them was panting heavily. Before he’d even caught his breath, he thanked them, “Thank goodness you were here! Otherwise, this could have turned into a major disaster!”
“We were just lucky.”
Only now, as Zeng Jun looked at the villagers from both sides who still refused to leave and the hunting rifle that remained firmly in someone’s grip, did he feel a chill creeping up his back.
They’d come so close to—
Putting those thoughts aside, Zeng Jun continued briefing the local officers.
“I doubt we’ll be able to get much out of them through questioning for now. It’s all one side claiming to be in the right and the other side insisting the same. We’ll have to wait until we’ve examined the scene and found solid evidence. We may need you to stay here and keep an eye on things then.”
“Understood, understood.”
The local officer nodded repeatedly in agreement.
Meanwhile, the village chiefs and village Party secretaries from both villages had arrived, along with the victim’s family, eyewitnesses, and representatives from each side who carried enough weight to speak on the villagers’ behalf.
Jiang Xia and Huang Xueling kept Feng Qiangdong restrained in the middle. Gao Family Village stood on the left, while Matun Village stood on the right, with roughly three meters of empty space separating the two sides. The divide between them was unmistakable.
Several eyewitnesses from Gao Family Village spoke up first.
“I saw him with my own eyes! He went into the fields belonging to Second Uncle’s family several times over the course of several days, always around dusk.”
“That’s right! He even squatted there every day, grinning at the graves!”
“Ever since the two villages started fighting two years ago, we’ve wanted to stay as far away from each other as possible. He never used to come into our village’s fields, either. But this spring and summer, he kept showing up, always wandering around the fields belonging to Hongwu’s family. He must have been up to something!”
Jiang Xia listened carefully, vaguely sensing that something wasn’t quite right.
Feng Qiangdong’s behavior really had been rather suspicious. She couldn’t shake the feeling that either he knew something or he’d been involved in the whole affair.
“You’re slandering him!”
The village chief of Matun Village immediately retorted, pointing at Feng Qiangdong. “Look at Dongzi! He can’t lift anything heavy or even do a day’s work. How could he possibly dig up your family’s graves?!”
His argument made perfect sense. Digging up a grave was no easy task. Whenever a burial took place, families usually hired seven or eight strong men to do the work. Even digging a simple pit was more than one person could reasonably manage, let alone robbing a grave. And Feng Qiangdong certainly looked like someone who wasn’t accustomed to manual labor.
Even Feng Qiangdong himself turned a little green at those words.
You can defend me all you want, but do you really have to insult me like that?
I can still make money and bring it home, you know!
“He might not be able to do it, but someone from your village could have!”
Gao Hongwu immediately retorted, “If nobody from your village did it, then why was Feng Qiangdong going into my fields every day for no reason?!”
“Exactly! What were you doing there?!”
“Fine! I was checking how many vegetables your village could sell this year, all right?”
As though he couldn’t stand the accusations any longer, Feng Qiangdong volunteered an explanation. “I needed to know how much produce your village could sell this year so I could work out a price.”
The moment he said that, the people of Gao Family Village erupted in fury.
“F*ck your ancestors! I knew those bastards were demanding such a huge cut because of you!”
“Clearly, you were the ones who stole our market stalls first!”
The people of Matun Village began shouting back as well. “And you came over and secretly cut our vegetables!”
“So you took the opportunity to get revenge!”
“Who gets revenge in such a despicable way?! The men in our village are all honorable, upright men! We’d never dig up someone else’s ancestral graves. If we wanted revenge, we’d just go over there and fight you head-on!”
Seeing tensions flare up again, Zeng Jun felt his temples throbbing. He hurriedly barked, “That’s enough! All of you, shut up!”
Once again, he managed to get both sides to stop. Zeng Jun took a deep breath.
As expected, there were other grudges between the two villages.
An economic dispute like this would turn into a hopeless mess if they started digging into it. They couldn’t afford to pursue it any further, or another fight would break out.
He did his best to keep everyone’s attention focused on the grave robbery.
Straightening his back, Zeng Jun adopted the commanding air of a criminal investigation team leader. He turned to the people from Gao Family Village first and asked, “So none of you actually saw anyone digging up the grave, correct?”
“He—” Seeing Zeng Jun’s stern expression and the way he stared straight at him, the Gao Family Village representative immediately lost some of his nerve. “No, we didn’t see anyone doing it.”
Zeng Jun then turned to the people of Matun Village. “Feng Qiangdong has been frequently visiting the edges of Gao Family Village’s fields this year, behaving suspiciously. Is that correct?”
Hadn’t they already explained that he’d been checking the vegetable crops and estimating their quantities?
The people of Matun Village were unhappy about it, but they still answered, “Yes, he’s been going there often.”
Zeng Jun continued, “So, at this point, I’m saying that Feng Qiangdong is a suspect, but we don’t have conclusive evidence. Can you accept that?”
How could either side possibly accept that?!
Both groups were dissatisfied. Their anger, which had been directed at each other, was now about to turn toward Zeng Jun instead.
“Anyone could figure out how much produce there was after visiting the fields two or three times! Who would keep going back there? That bastard definitely dug up my family’s graves. Even if he didn’t do it himself, he must know something!”
Gao Hongwu immediately protested, “Comrade police officer, you can’t take their side!”
Hearing that, even the village chief of Matun Village, who understood perfectly well that checking the fields didn’t require endless visits, began to have some doubts. But at a time like this, he was going to stand by his own people rather than concern himself with who was right. He immediately shot back, “Who would go digging up your family’s graves for no reason?! You got pushed around by those hooligans in the city, but instead of going after them, you came here looking for an excuse to b*lly us!”
“Enough!”
Zeng Jun stepped in to stop them again. “You have to catch someone in the act to prove they’re guilty! What good is all this arguing? The key point is that neither side has any evidence right now! Our criminal investigation team and forensic experts are all here precisely to find evidence. We’re going to track down the scumbag who dug up the graves, then find out where the remains went and see if we can recover them!”
As he spoke, he turned to Gao Hongwu and asked, “Gao Hongwu, what’s more important to you—getting revenge or finding your parents?”
“Well, this…”
Gao Hongwu hesitated before answering, “Of course my parents are more important.”
“Exactly.”
Zeng Jun continued trying to persuade him. “We’ll keep Feng Qiangdong in custody. You should go home for now and wait for us to find some leads. Otherwise, what if you end up getting yourself killed or injured? What will you do when we eventually find the real grave robber?”
The hesitation on Gao Hongwu’s face grew more pronounced.
With so many police officers present, his side wouldn’t stand to gain anything from a fight. After thinking it over again and again, he could only agree reluctantly.
“Fine… I’ll go home and wait for the results.”
Since the aggrieved party himself had decided to leave, the other people from Gao Family Village had no reason to stay either. Looking rather displeased, they followed him away.
Watching them gradually disappear into the distance, all the police officers breathed a sigh of relief. Their tightly wound nerves finally relaxed.
They’d narrowly escaped disaster!
Good Lord, that had been absolutely terrifying!
Zeng Jun spent a little more time persuading the equally dissatisfied people from Matun Village to go home as well. Only then did he escort Feng Qiangdong, who kept repeating over and over that he hadn’t done anything, back to the vehicle.
The entire ordeal had lasted barely more than ten minutes, yet everyone felt as though they’d just fought a major battle. Both their minds and bodies were utterly exhausted.
Huang Xueling climbed back into the truck bed. Only now did she realize that her legs had turned to jelly. She couldn’t muster even the slightest bit of strength.
She had no idea how she’d found the courage to stand there just moments ago!
“You guys nearly scared me to death back there!”
A fine sheen of sweat covered Zhao Zhaoxiang’s forehead. It was hard to tell whether it was from the heat or sheer fright. Wiping his brow with a handkerchief, he said, “Thank goodness you acted so quickly, Jiang Xia, and got him restrained. Otherwise, those people really would have started fighting!”
“I didn’t have much of a choice.”
Thinking back to what had just happened, Jiang Xia still felt a lingering sense of fear.
There had simply been too many people. If a fight had broken out, she wouldn’t have been confident she could protect herself in the middle of the ensuing melee.
But at a time like that, she couldn’t afford to stand back, either.
That was what being a police officer meant, after all.
“Thank goodness we managed to stop them.”
As she spoke, Jiang Xia took out her canteen, intending to drink some water to calm her nerves.
“Exactly. Thank goodness we stopped them.”
By now, Chen Dong had recovered as well. He remarked casually, “But Jiang Xia, your hands are seriously fast! I didn’t even realize you’d taken the handcuffs off my belt!”
At those words, Jiang Xia froze mid-sip.
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