Chapter 155 Witness
Hearing the noise, the man slowly opened his eyes, his eyelashes trembling. That single movement seemed to have used up all his strength; he looked incredibly tired.
Even breathing feels tiring.
His name was written at the foot of the hospital bed.
Wu Huan.
My colleague set up a video recorder.
Junyuan dragged a stool to the side of the bed, sat down, and took out a notebook with a drawing of the scene.
He said, "I am..."
"police."
Wu Huan paused for a moment, then said, "I've seen you before."
Junyuan pondered for a moment, then tentatively asked, "At the scene of that car accident?"
Yes. They're all there.
Wu Huan remained calm. His calm and composed attitude made him appear neither like a victim nor a perpetrator, and he easily seized the power to exert pressure during the police interrogation.
Jun Yuan, not wanting to be led astray any longer, changed the subject: "Do you know Guan Zhiwei?"
"You mean Zhizhi? She was bought and married to me."
Who bought it?
"My father."
"How did your father die?" Jun Yuan cut straight to the point, giving the man no time to think.
"He was poisoned by paraquat."
Wu Huan remained calm. He glanced at the beeping monitoring device next to him and said listlessly, "Most people are poisoned by this thing. The poison is mixed into alcoholic beverages."
It was a wedding banquet that day, the wedding ceremony of Guan Zhiwei and Wu Huan. Her father and grandmother were busy with the happy occasion, setting up several large tables and inviting people from the whole village to eat.
There are very few people left in this village. If anything happens, the whole village has to come out.
Most of them are elderly, with a small number of middle-aged people in their forties. There are more men than women, and none of them have children. Those who can walk have all passed away.
The rest are either too old to move around, forced to stay because they have no means of making a living, or deeply rooted in the area and feel that they are doing quite well.
Wu Yang was such a person. Compared to other poor families, his family had a brick-built tile house and a large courtyard, making them one of the best in the village.
Of course, once he leaves the village, he's nothing, so he prefers to stay in the village.
He also used his hard-earned money to buy a wife for his son and held a joyous celebration, with everyone applauding enthusiastically.
Wu Huan, dressed in old clothes, looked at his foolish wife and bowed to her with a look of utter despair.
Grandma used her hands, which were covered in black grime under her fingernails, to bring two plastic cups and have them drink from the same cup.
—May the couple drink together and have a son soon.
The drinks tasted a bit strange, but nobody paid much attention to it; it was probably because the fruit had been fermenting for too long.
Paraquat can cause irreversible pulmonary fibrosis, which can harden the lungs like a loofah sponge, causing people to suffocate slowly and painfully from the inability to breathe oxygen.
Even a small amount, just one bottle capful, is a lethal dose.
And they won't die on the spot.
Initially, there is a burning sensation in the mouth, throat, and esophagus.
After they finished eating and went home, they experienced nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and even vomiting blood.
They began to suspect food poisoning. Some took two pills, while others didn't take any and just wanted to tough it out.
A few days later, he seemed to be getting better and felt less uncomfortable.
Then someone died.
The older ones started dying first; many died in one night.
Those who were still strong and able to move immediately went to the Wu family to demand an explanation.
Junyuan's notebook contained a rough sketch of the distribution of corpses; some people died in their own homes, while the rest were concentrated in the Wu family's courtyard.
Several other bodies were found lying outside the courtyard, in the act of fleeing before being hacked to death. One of the bodies, surnamed Han, had run some distance before being caught and hacked to death, his death particularly gruesome.
It is understood that this man surnamed Han makes a living by trafficking people, and almost all the women who are trafficked in the village are brought back by him.
His face was serious as he stared intently at Wu Huan's face, trying to discern something from it. He even leaned forward slightly without realizing it: "What about the small number who were killed by the axe?"
“Most of the people who attended the wedding banquet were poisoned, and many died. They suspected Guan Zhiwei of poisoning them and wanted to kill her. She was sleeping in the kitchen when my second uncle grabbed an axe from the ground, intending to kill her—just to scare her. But he was too weak, and the axe slipped from his hand. She thought it was a game, so she picked it up and started hacking at people like my second uncle did. She chased after people and started hacking.” Wu Huan said a series of words, his body starting to give way. He coughed violently several times, blood dripping from his lips.
Junyuan took out a pack of tissues from his pocket, stood up and wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth, then stared intently at him and suddenly asked, "Was it her who poisoned him?"
"she?"
Wu Huan chuckled, calmly met his gaze, and said numbly, "She can poison people? She's gone mad. My dad bought her, beat her up, and locked her in the cellar for ten days. She had a high fever and went mad. She can't even speak properly anymore. If you ask her what her name is, she just squeaks like a mouse."
Jun Yuan pressed on, "Who poisoned it?"
"I don't know. Someone must have taken the wrong one. I put the paraquat into the gourd bottle. The wine in the village is all rice wine, and the drinks are all brewed by ourselves from fruit we pick, and they are stored in a big barrel. Maybe someone thought the gourd bottle was filled with water and poured it in."
"Where did you get paraquat? The country has already banned this herbicide."
Wu Huan said listlessly, "It was something my mom used to hide, and I dug it up."
Jun Yuan's gaze was like a sharp arrow piercing him. "Who do you want to kill?"
"suicide."
Wu Huan closed his eyes: "Officer, if you were forced to marry a madwoman, would you be willing?"
"You're an adult, why don't you leave?"
“I ran away a long time ago. It took me three days and three nights to get out of this mountain. Then he went through all the trouble to find me, beat me up, and ruined my work. He told me that unless I could have a child to continue the Wu family bloodline, he would never let me have a good life!”
"So you massacred the village?"
"If you want to admit I'm the murderer, that's fine too. I didn't kill the person, but I did dig up the grave. You can arrest me now." Wu Huan said nonchalantly.
Paraquat has extremely strong selective toxicity to the lungs; even small amounts can cause irreversible death.
He accepted death almost calmly.
This conversation was completely beyond Junyuan's comprehension.
He has always suspected that Guan Zhiwei committed the murder and was then feigning madness, or perhaps she was traumatized and her mind is not quite clear.
This sole survivor is more like a witness.
As a result, Wu Huan woke up and provided a great deal of information.
This almost overturned all previous judgments.
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