Chapter 34
By the time Lin Jiafan and Luo Jingyao rushed to the ancestral hall, the sun had already set and everything around them began to become blurred in the dim light.
They walked along the path, one step deep and one step shallow. Through the dry grass that was as tall as a person on the side of the road, they vaguely saw a pointed-roof building not far ahead, from which a faint light came.
When they finally got closer, the ancient-looking building with a gabled roof appeared before their eyes. The entire exterior wall of the building was made of gray-black bricks and tiles, exuding a solemn and dignified air under the thick night sky.
It's a pity that the tranquility that should have existed here was completely destroyed by the noisy voices of the crowd.
At that time, Guo Zhen was standing there with his hands on his hips, looking helpless, along with two colleagues from the laboratory. Opposite him was a group of villagers from Bo'an Village with unfriendly expressions. The two sides were in a state of standoff, shouting and yelling as if they were competing to see who could open his eyes wider.
"My fellow villagers, I really beg you for help. A life has been lost! It's unreasonable for you to stop us from going in to collect evidence." A hint of anger flashed across Guo Zhen's square face, which rarely showed obvious emotions, but he still controlled it well.
"No! We in Bo'an Village have an ancestral precept that we cannot let people from outside the village enter the ancestral hall. It will damage the fortune of the village!" After saying this, a villager standing in the front raised the hoe in his hand threateningly and took two tentative steps forward.
After seeing the villager's actions, the others naturally followed closely and rushed forward, forcing Guo Zhen and others to retreat again and again, almost falling into a pit on the side of the road.
Zhou Bin, who had come over with Guo Zhen, hurried forward to stop them. He glanced back at them with embarrassment, "That's indeed the theory. How about we go back and try to find a way to communicate?"
Guo Zhen's eyebrows shot up upon hearing this, and his voice became much sharper than before. "Are you kidding me? This is a murder case! With so many people coming in and out of the ancestral hall, it's very likely that some evidence has been destroyed. And you're still trying to communicate?"
After all, his age was there, and even in such a fierce conflict, the man still retained a bit of rationality.
But the girl next to them, carrying a trace detection toolbox, was not so patient. She shouted angrily, "You're not allowed in here, you're not allowed in there. Why did you call the police? Why don't you just solve the case yourself?"
As soon as these words were spoken, the villagers became unhappy. While refuting one after another, they also started pushing Guo Zhen and others.
Even though Zhou Bin tried his best to mediate, it still had no significant effect. The seven or eight villagers who were dissatisfied and angry even started to stir up trouble behind the scenes: "The police are so great? They can control everything, and they even fucking care about our shit and farts?! We won't let you in today, what's the matter?!"
In the chaos, Guo Zhen felt someone tearing at his clothes and shouted uncontrollably, "Assaulting police officers?! You are assaulting police officers! You will be held legally responsible!"
"Then you disturbed the Stove God, so who can be held responsible?!" Obviously, the villagers of Bo'an Village did not buy it and acted completely ignorant and fearless.
As they were fighting, some villagers had already swung up their tools, and a sickle that reflected a cold light in the moonlight was about to fall on Guo Zhen's shoulder!
At this moment, a stone flew out from nowhere and hit the chest of the villager holding the sickle accurately.
With a muffled sound, the villager dropped the things in his hands because of the pain, and instead covered his chest and wailed.
But even without him, there were still others. Looking at the villagers rushing up one after another with their already distorted and terrifying faces, Guo Zhen could only try his best to protect his two colleagues from the laboratory and stumbled backwards.
But the next second, a figure suddenly appeared in front of them.
Luo Jingyao was holding a thick wooden stick that she had picked up from the roadside. She barely used the stick to block a hoe that was swung by someone, then gritted her teeth and pushed the person back.
Then, she repelled several people who rushed towards her at an extremely fast speed.
All the villagers were so shocked by Luo Jingyao that their palms felt numb. For a moment, they actually stopped what they were doing and stood there hesitantly, looking at the situation in front of them.
"You're outnumbered, huh? You're taking advantage of your own territory to bully others, huh?!" She held a stick in one hand, one arm on her waist, and shouted with full force, "Even a child knows that cooperating with the police is a citizen's duty. Are you living a miserable life?"
"Don't you like bullying people? Come over here and try to bully me again!"
Guo Zhen looked at the figure in front of him, who was apparently petite but now seemed overly tall, and his eyes almost turned red.
Unable to conceal his worry, he nudged Lin Jiafan, who was checking on their injuries, with his elbow and whispered, "Captain Lin, can Coach Luo handle so many people alone?"
"Who said she's the only one here?" Lin Jiafan said, raising his chin in the direction he had just come from.
Everyone saw the red Lan lights that were particularly eye-catching in the darkness. Within two seconds, several police cars drove to the front of the ancestral hall. After receiving the news, Pang Guang and Pan Chang brought most of the police force to provide support.
In just a moment, so many people in police uniforms appeared before their eyes. The villagers who were so aggressive just now suddenly became timid and moved back a short distance.
"Take them all away." Lin Jiafan's expression was cold, making it difficult to tell whether he was angry or not. "Those who just obstructed the performance of official duties will be dealt with accordingly."
Naturally, this statement aroused dissatisfaction among many people. Those hands holding various tools were ready to move again, still fantasizing that they could resist to the end and that the law would not hold them responsible.
It was not until the leading policemen showed the guns at their waists that those people began to feel a little afraid.
Zhou Bin, who had never given up on maneuvering from the beginning, suddenly appeared out of nowhere after the situation was initially under control. He nodded and bowed directly to Lin Jiafan and the others, "Officer Lin, they are just anxious and ignorant. Can you please be magnanimous and not bother with them?"
Hearing this, Lin Jiafan just glanced at him sideways and said nothing.
However, this one look shocked the man so much that he shut his mouth and didn't dare to say a word of pleading.
The villagers who were causing trouble were quickly taken away by the police cars, and the calm outside the ancestral hall was restored. Only a few villagers who had not stepped forward to intervene were left hiding in the corner of the open space, not daring to come forward.
Seeing that the danger was over, Luo Jingyao threw the stick in her hand back to the side of the road, patted the dust off her palm, then turned around and stared at the backs of Guo Zhen and others who immediately entered the ancestral hall and started collecting evidence.
"Coach Luo, what are you looking at?" Lin Jiafan had walked to her side at some point, tilted his head and looked in the direction she was looking.
"I suddenly understand Director Zhang's good intentions." Luo Jingyao curled her lips in affirmation, raised her head and looked at him for two seconds: "Your special case investigation team... is indeed not very good."
As she spoke, she quickly completed a rough follow-up training plan in her mind.
Looking at the light flashing in the depths of the beautiful eyes of the person next to him when he said this, Lin Jiafan had a feeling that the situation was not good.
After a moment's thought, he decided to change the subject: "I've just handed Cui Jiafu's wife's hair and fingerprints to the laboratory. The DNA comparison results will be out soon."
Speaking of this, Luo Jingyao still had some confusion: "Since they suspected Cui Da was the deceased, why didn't they just ask Cui Jiafu and his wife to voluntarily provide DNA?"
After going through so much trouble, she never thought that one day, the skills she was so proud of would be used for faking a fall.
"Police officers are investigating cases, and before the results are confirmed, nothing can be easily concluded." Lin Jiafan crossed his arms and patiently explained, "We must also pay attention to public unity and try to avoid unnecessary emotional fluctuations among the families."
"If you make a mistake, it's very embarrassing and you're likely to get complained about. This is a lesson learned from past experiences."
If you rashly run up to the family and tell them that you suspect their loved one has died, those with strong tolerance may suppress their grief and cooperate with the police investigation, while those with weak tolerance and poor health may just collapse.
If the police weren't wrong, it would be fine. But what if they really did get the wrong person? If the family members didn't file a death lawsuit, they would be like Bodhisattvas in the world, wholeheartedly devoted to Buddhism.
Luo Jingyao also agreed with this. After her curiosity was satisfied, she did not continue the topic, but turned her head to look in the direction of the ancestral hall.
At this time, Guo Zhen had already directed his colleagues to help lay down a large piece of plastic sheeting in the open space in front of the ancestral hall. Then, several people worked together to bring out pots of vegetables from the small kitchen on the west side of the ancestral hall.
The size of each basin was beyond imagination, and the greasy and red dishes were piled up like small mountains in the basin.
Guo Zhen was obviously a little overwhelmed. He bowed to Lin Jiafan, who was a few meters away, as if asking for help.
But no one else can do this kind of delicate work. Without some professional knowledge, it is impossible to accurately distinguish the difference between human bones and pig bones.
In desperation, after comforting Guo Zhen, Lin Jiafan took out his cell phone and called the bureau, requesting more forensic doctors to come to Bo'an Village for support.
He had just hung up the phone when he heard a call from his colleague in the laboratory from the small kitchen: "Captain Lin, we've found something!"
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