Liang Shuyan didn't say anything. At this moment, villagers had already arrived in the courtyard, and Old Man Li stood at the door, constantly greeting them.
People from Daling Village, Lijia Village, and several nearby villages were present. Naturally, the truth couldn't be kept forever. In the crowd, someone murmured, "Where's Li Laosan? I heard that the money Li Laosan used to gamble was all from Jiang Shi."
Hearing the discussion, Fatty walked into the crowd, his eyes fixed on a thin, dark-skinned young man. He grabbed the young man's collar and said, "You said Li Laosan's money was given to me by my mother. My mother is dead. Don't you dare mess with me here, or don't blame me for being impolite!"
The young man's eyes widened in surprise: "It seems you still don't know. Let me tell you, this is no secret in our Li Family Village. All your family's money belongs to Li Laosan. Li Laosan even boasted that people are worthless, but silver and family property are more valuable!"
Fatty clenched his fists tightly. How could he not know that his mother had been with Li Laosan for so many years? Everyone in Li Family Village knew, so why was he the only one who didn't know? He ran towards the backyard.
Grandma Li was standing in the yard when Fatty grabbed her clothes and cried, "Grandma, do you also know that my mother is with that Li Laosan?"
Grandma Li looked at Fatty and hesitated for a moment: "Who told you that? You must never believe such things!"
Fatty threw his head back and burst into laughter: "Grandma, what time is it? You still want to hide it from me? Now everyone except me knows?"
Fatty knew that asking his grandmother would be pointless. He suddenly thought of Yinxia and hurriedly ran to the room to find her.
Yinxia lay on the kang (a heated brick bed), sobbing with her head down: "No, how could things have turned out like this? Li Laosan, you beast!"
Fatty suddenly yanked open the curtain, and Yinxia sat up from the kang (a heated brick bed), her eyes fixed on Yinxia.
"Aren't you lying to me too? You all knew about this, but you've kept it from me the only one until now, haven't you?"
Seeing Pangdan's expression, Yinxia lowered her head and said, "I'm sorry, Pangdan, it's not that I didn't want to talk about this, but Mother wouldn't let me. Otherwise, she would divorce me!"
Fatty didn't need to verify anymore. He slowly walked out of the yard. When he saw the people in the yard, he wished he could find a hole to crawl into and never come out again!
Li Zheng suddenly noticed a pair of shoes. He picked them up, walked out, and threw them in the yard.
The young man from Li Family Village who had been shouting in the yard just moments before suddenly threw his head back and burst into laughter: "Look at these, aren't they Li Laosan's shoes? Li Pangdan, do you still believe it now?"
Li Pangdan came out of the house and stood in front of Liang Shuyan. He suddenly knelt down on the ground and sobbed, "Auntie, please, please help me. If Li Laosan has swindled all our money, then I want to hire a coroner to examine my mother's body. As my mother's son, I have the right to know how my mother died!"
Liang Shuyan hadn't expected that Li Pangdan would actually want to perform an autopsy. She looked at Pangdan in surprise: "Pangdan, are you really going to do this?"
Fatty nodded heavily. Li Zheng also came over and looked at Fatty with some sympathy, saying, "Don't worry, I'll go and get the coroner for this Li Laosan right now, and also report him to the authorities to expose his behavior. We can't let this lazy good-for-nothing get away with it so easily!"
Several elderly elders in Lijia Village nodded in agreement: "Yes, that's right. People like Li Laosan deserve their just deserts. Now, perhaps he's the one who killed Jiang Shi!"
The funeral could not be held. Many people stood in the courtyard, waiting for the coroner to come and examine the body before burial. Otherwise, even if they died, they would die in a mysterious way!
Several young people in Daling Village were discussing this matter: "If this happens, everyone in the village will be afraid to walk from now on, won't they? This Jiang Shizengnian, I think she's only in her fifties."
Li Zheng said with a stern face, "Don't talk nonsense. If we don't find out how Jiang died, and a wronged ghost remains in the village, that would be truly frightening."
Soon, the coroner arrived, and the constables also came to the mourning hall. They examined Jiang's body and found that she had suffered a severe head injury. There was only one pair of shoes, but they could not directly prove that these were Li Laosan's shoes.
The constables went directly to Li Family Village and captured Li Laosan.
Li Laosan pretended to be very aggrieved, looking at the constable with his eyes and said, "I'm innocent! How would I know how she died? What does it have to do with me? You, you are clearly framing her!"
"Framed?"
Li Zhengcai wouldn't let a scoundrel like Li Laosan stay and continue to harm people. He walked over carrying a pair of red shoes, put them on the ground, and said calmly, "Officer, this is simple. Let him try on these shoes and we'll know whether he's the culprit or not."
The constable glanced at the shoes on the ground and finally said, "Alright, try them on!"
But Li Laosan started looking for an opportunity: "No, no, why should I try them on? These are some random man's shoes, I won't try them on!"
The constable could tell that Li Laosan was clearly cowardly. He winked at the yamen runner beside him, and then ordered his men to press Li Laosan to the ground and force his feet back in.
Sure enough, the shoes fit Li Laosan perfectly, neither too big nor too small. Importantly, Jiang's needlework was famous throughout the village. Anyone who had ever worn Jiang's shoes knew that there were two red dots on the inside of these shoes. Unlike other shoes, one of the red dots had Li Laosan's name embroidered on it. Wasn't this blatant evidence?
The constable picked up the shoe, pointed to the name on the inside, and said, "Whose name is this? Don't think I don't know your name. Stop pretending to be stupid. Take him away!"
Fatty lay on the table, as if he had suddenly thought of something. He rummaged through some notebooks in the drawer, opened the ledger, and was surprised to find rows written in clear handwriting. The code was two circles followed by strings of numbers: 50 coins of silver, 200 coins of silver, and the highest was 50 taels of silver. There were also livestock, chickens, ducks, and so on.
When he was little, Fatty didn’t know what those two circles represented, but now he understands: they represent Li Laosan, who dares not be exposed to the light of day!
"Even though you're dead, I still hate you. How could you do such a thing behind my father's back? How long did you make my father wear a green hat? You deserve to die!"
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