Chapter 71 Lost His Mind "Wasn't it you who identified Wang Sanhu with the government?..."

Bai Yuan remained remarkably calm: "Are you angry because I hit the nail on the head?"

"I clearly saved his daughter, how dare he frame me! And you, no, who are you? What right do you have to come and frame me!"

"Me?" Bai Yuan stared at him inscrutablely for a moment. "The one who can decide your life or death."

"Wh-what?" Cao Dali thought he had misheard. After a few moments of thought, he exclaimed, "You're deciding my life or death? You? You're from the government?"

Bai Yuan raised an eyebrow: "You could say that."

Cao Dali turned to look at Zhou Yaren, half believing and half doubting, and asked, "So you are an official from Chang'an?"

Before Zhou Yaren could speak, Bai Yuan replied, "Yes."

Zhou Yaren was originally a blind courtier who assisted the Court of Judicial Review in handling cases. Although he was a convicted criminal, it was not wrong to say that he was an official from Chang'an.

"You're here to arrest me?" Cao Dali shrank back in fright. "I didn't kill her! I didn't kill Xiaohua! I'm being framed!"

Zhou Yaren said, "If you didn't kill him, then I won't wrong you. I have some questions to ask, and I hope you can answer them truthfully."

Cao Dali: "What do you want to ask?"

Zhou Yaren: "Have you been traveling around these past two years?"

Cao Dali: "Yes, I have to go out and earn money, otherwise what will we eat and drink?"

Zhou Yaren: "Xiaohua is coming too?"

Cao Dali: "She won't go."

Zhou Yaren: "You went out to catch a bus, leaving her alone at home. Given her special circumstances, she probably can't take care of herself. How will she live without you?"

Cao Dali: "I asked Sister Fang in the village to take care of her. Every time I go out, I send her to Sister Fang's house to stay temporarily, give her some food and money, and pay her a small fee for her trouble. Sister Fang is happy to help."

It wasn't even that much work for them to ask one question and answer one by one, so Bai Yuan gestured to Cao Dali: "Continue."

Cao Dali looked troubled, his heart conflicted, and he finally spoke, as if he couldn't bring himself to say it: "Once I leave, it will be at least ten days or half a month, and at most a year or two. Sister Fang will also be busy with her work. She, as a woman, has to manage the house and the fields. She can't keep an eye on Xiaohua all the time. So that damned Wang Sanhu, that scoundrel, tricked Xiaohua into coming to his house... and did something indecent to her!"

"That son of a bitch, taking advantage of her being stupid and ignorant. From then on, Wang Sanhu often lured people to his cave dwelling to do those filthy things. Many people in the village had seen it with their own eyes, and it had already spread far and wide. I was away for four or five months that time, and when I came back, I saw the stupid girl sitting on the millstone braiding her hair, her belly was huge! The villagers were laughing at her, asking her whose child was in her belly. She didn't respond, so they poked her protruding belly and asked, 'Who made you pregnant? Was it Wang Sanhu who conceived you? Or was it Old Man Fang who conceived you?'"

Old Man Fang is the elderly father of Sister Fang, and he is already seventy years old. The villagers say that one day they saw Old Man Fang put his hand inside the little girl's flowery clothes in the cave dwelling, and the silly girl was even laughing at Old Man Fang...

The villagers teased the idiot with vulgar and offensive language, which was utterly unbearable and had no moral compass whatsoever.

“I was out of my mind,” Cao Dali said, embarrassed and furious. “Because she made me the laughingstock of the whole village, making me unable to hold my head up in this village. I was furious, so in a fit of anger, I kicked her out! After such a disgraceful incident, I lost all face. I couldn’t keep her in my house anymore. I didn’t want to hear the villagers always bringing up Cao Dali’s idiot when they made fun of me. Those words were too awful, simply unbearable to hear. They said things like, ‘Cao Dali brought an idiot back as his wife, and the idiot wife has slept with half the men in the village, and anyone can come and go.’ I couldn’t stand these pointing fingers anymore. I also regretted bringing her back in the first place. I was kind-hearted at the time, but I have to suffer all this because of that kindness. I can’t bear it, and I don’t want to anymore. So I had to become a bad person.”

Zhou Yaren felt extremely uncomfortable: "You clearly know it wasn't her fault."

Kicking her out is tantamount to leaving her to fend for herself.

“Yes, what does a fool know? It's those people in the village who are scoundrels, how can you blame a fool? Of course I know, but I just can't help blaming her. How could she just casually get together with Wang Sanhu... She's stupid, she doesn't even know what she did, she doesn't know she's wronged me. When I saw her dazed and ignorant look, I really hated her so much I gritted my teeth. I hated her for being a fool, for having no shame.”

Cao Dali was filled with bitterness: "Back then, I took her in out of kindness, but I ended up being the villain who abandoned her. I saved her, and then I hurt her. They say you should help someone to the end, but who can help them to the end? And what happens after you help them to the end? I've become a laughingstock known to everyone, and I can't bear it. I don't have that ability. I shouldn't have—I shouldn't have meddled in other people's business in the first place. I didn't have to do a good deed and then do something bad. Then I feel guilty, ashamed, in pain, and hate them. I never knew that bringing her back would lead to so many terrible things happening later."

Bai Yuan remained silent, knowing that this was all human nature, which is extremely complex, and that good and evil are never absolute.

There are too many pitiful people in this world; Xiaohua is just a drop in the ocean.

"And then?" Zhou Yaren asked.

"Later," Cao Dali rubbed his reddened eyes, paused for a moment before continuing, "Actually, she sat at my door all day that day, and disappeared after dark. Not long after, I saw her at Wang Sanhu's house, where she stayed for a month or so. Of course, I was furious. So when Wang Sanhu kicked her out, I thought she deserved it. Who told her to go with Wang Sanhu? I swore I would never care about her again. She started sleeping at the edge of the village, sometimes filthy in the sheepfold, fighting with mangy dogs for bones. But every now and then, she would suddenly disappear for a day or two, I don't know where she went, and a day or two later she would be sleeping at the edge of the village again. I actually had a feeling that she was taken to the wilderness by some man with ulterior motives, but I didn't dare to think too much about it, I felt guilty."

"The men of Fengkou Village bullied her, the women beat and scolded her, yet she never left. She probably couldn't find a way out; she only knew this small corner of Fengkou Village. Besides, someone like her would likely face the same fate no matter where she went. Unless she met a kind person, but what kind person in this world would care for a fool for a lifetime? I couldn't do it, and I think it's very difficult for anyone to do so. Most people can help temporarily, but not forever. The day I drove her away, I told her the same thing, but she didn't understand; she didn't understand a word."

“Xiaohua’s belly grew bigger every day, but she became as thin as a rake. I stopped caring about her and continued to go out every few days to make a living. Until one day when I returned to the village, I heard from a neighbor that Xiaohua came to my door one night. She was naked from the waist down and only wearing a bellyband on her upper body. Her exposed skin was covered in bruises, as if she had been pinched. She was bleeding a lot from her vagina and was banging on the door while clutching her stomach and crying.”

At this point, Cao Dali took a deep breath and wiped away her tears: "When I came back, I did see a large pool of dried blood in front of my house. She seemed to have miscarried, and her stomach must have been in a lot of pain. She probably came to me for help. But I had gone out to catch a bus and wasn't home at the time. Later I heard that it was that inhuman Wang Sanhu who did that to her while venting his lust, and then he just left her like that. That could have killed her."

But life is cheap, especially for a fool who has no relatives and is bullied by everyone; who cares whether she lives or dies?

Cao Dali buried his face in his hands and didn't look up for a long time: "Is it my fault? I brought her here and then abandoned her. So, am I the one who ruined her?"

The room was completely silent.

Xiao Hua's tragedy began the moment she was trapped in the green gauze tent of Watang.

Cao Dali received no response or condemnation, and finally raised his head from his palm: "I kept telling myself that I had no obligation to take care of her. Even biological parents would abandon their mentally challenged children, treating them as a burden. Maybe Xiaohua was abandoned by her own parents. I don't have to take responsibility; that way, my conscience will feel better. Later, I never saw Xiaohua again. Everyone said that she must have miscarried and bled out that night and died outside. I thought so too, but I don't know where she was buried. She suffered so much bullying; perhaps death was a relief for her."

Cao Dali murmured, "It's better to be dead than alive."

Zhou Yaren: "We need to see the person alive or the body dead before we can determine whether the person is alive or dead."

"Yes, they found the body later."

Bai Yuan: "Where is the body? How was it discovered?"

“The body was in a mass grave and was dug out by someone. It was about half a month ago. I had just returned to Fengkou Village less than two days ago,” Cao Dali said. “The county magistrate has a relative whose child died of illness. The child was unable to get married before death, so he found a ghost matchmaker to arrange a marriage for the child.”

It was another ghost marriage; Bai Yuan suddenly looked up.

Cao Dali said, "The matchmaker found a girl who died young for them in Fengkou Village, so they went to the mass grave to exhume her remains. But they went to the wrong grave and dug up a pregnant corpse. The girl who died young was clearly a virgin, and her belly was flat when she was buried. This is definitely not right; they must have dug the wrong grave. Moreover, this pregnant corpse was already shriveled and decomposed, and its face was unrecognizable. They originally planned to rebury it, but then someone recognized the bellyband hanging on the pregnant corpse as the one that Xiaohua wore before she disappeared."

Bai Yuan: "That pregnant corpse was Xiao Hua?"

“That’s right, that’s how Xiaohua’s body was discovered.” Cao Dali licked his dry, cracked lips. “Because it was a ghost marriage held by a relative of the county magistrate, people from the county government were sent to help exhume the remains. And wouldn’t you know it, it was such a coincidence that Xiaohua’s father, Liang Youyi, was among them. The pregnant corpse was wearing a peach blossom pendant around her neck. It wasn’t valuable, but it was exquisite. It was something Xiaohua always wore around her neck and never took it off. It was something Liang Youyi had personally made for his daughter, because her real name was Liang Taohua (Liang Peach Blossom).

“The villagers of Fengkou Village all know Xiaohua. If you ask around, they'll know that I brought her to Fengkou Village. It's impossible to hide it from them. So soon, Liang Youyi came to my door and tried to kill me with a knife without saying a word. He wouldn't listen to any explanation. I knew that after seeing his daughter's body, he only wanted revenge and didn't care about right or wrong. Fortunately, the officials from the yamen arrived in time and stopped the irrational Liang Youyi. Otherwise, I would have been killed on the spot.”

Bai Yuan: "You've been arrested by the authorities?"

“I was interrogated in court, and I truthfully explained the whole story at the county government. I was far away from Fengkou Village when Xiaohua went missing. Everyone can testify that Xiaohua’s death really had nothing to do with me. Once the government has investigated and clarified the matter, they will release me.”

Zhou Yaren: "Was it Wang Sanhu, whom you identified by the government?"

Cao Dali's pupils trembled. He hadn't killed anyone, yet he was suddenly embroiled in a murder case. He was determined to implicate Wang Sanhu: "I'm definitely going to have the officers arrest the real murderer."

Bai Yuan: "You believe that Wang Sanhu killed Xiaohua?"

"Isn't that right? Everyone in the village knows that beast caused Xiaohua to miscarry and die. He deserved to die like that."

Bai Yuan didn't respond.

Zhou Yaren asked, "Was it Liang Youyi who tortured you at the county government office?"