Chapter 53 Li Chengming should also be a murderer
When Gu Yin arrived at Li Li's house, Li Li was sitting in the yard with his grandmother, pickling sausages. It was so cold that they had burned wood in the yard to keep warm.
"Is Grandma Li busy?" Gu Yin stood outside Li Li's fence and greeted her with a smile.
Li Li and Grandma Li looked up together and saw Gu Yin. They both smiled. Grandma Li got up and untied the fence latch, looking at Gu Yin: "Why did you come over on such a cold day? Come in quickly! We're making sausages at home. There's some marinated meat left over. You and Ali can grill it together!"
Li Li stood up. His injured hands and feet hadn't fully healed, and he still walked with a limp. He went inside, brought out a stool, placed it by the fire, and said with a smile, "Let's warm ourselves by the fire."
Gu Yin smiled and accepted it. The old lady used a wooden stick to dig out the cooked taro from the fire: "Try it, it's homegrown, very starchy and sweet!"
Gu Yin saw Li Li injured and then stopped the village chief and others from helping him. The two of them, grandmother and granddaughter, always remembered that when Li Li was discharged from the hospital, Grandma Gu came to visit him. She not only brought an old hen but also gave him 100 yuan. The Gu family has always been very kind and never looked down on anyone. They are always gentle and kind to everyone, and their children are also very sensible.
Gu Yin took the taro, peeled it, and took a bite. It was indeed very powdery and sweet. Looking up at the expectant eyes of the grandmother and granddaughter, she smiled and nodded: "Very sweet."
The old lady sat back down in her original spot with satisfaction, washed her hands, and continued stuffing sausages.
After Gu Yin finished eating a taro, she washed her hands and sat down next to them. Li Li's hands were too weak to exert force, so Gu Yin helped the old lady tie the rope.
"Brother Li, do you have some kind of grudge against Li Chenggong's family?" Gu Yin didn't look up, and her voice was only audible to the three of them.
Li Li shook his head upon hearing this: "No? What's wrong?"
Gu Yin didn't reply, but instead glanced at Grandma Li: "Grandma Li, really not?"
Seeing Gu Yin's expression, Grandma Li thought carefully for a moment, then shook her head. "No, they haven't. Recently, when they saw us, their family greeted us with smiles." After saying this, the old lady noticed Gu Yin's frown and her heart tightened for some reason. She looked around, and seeing no one, lowered her head and whispered, "What's wrong, girl?"
Gu Yin sighed and moved closer to the two of them, her hands still moving: "That night, wasn't I behind Brother Li at the fork in the road?"
Li Li was getting restless. He felt that what Gu Yin was about to say was very important, so he changed his seat and sat opposite them, facing the door.
"Before I reached the fork in the road, I encountered a man on the earthen slope. He was dressed in rainy clothes and had a face mask to protect his face from the rain. I was quite startled at the time, wondering if he couldn't hear me or if he was scared because my voice was so loud. I was in a hurry to get over and didn't investigate further. After walking for a while, I turned around and found that he had stopped there and was staring at me!"
The old lady reached out and grabbed Gu Yin's hand suddenly. Just thinking about the scene terrified her. She imagined how scared Gu Yin, a young girl, would be if she were in that situation and would run away for her life.
Gu Yin patted her hand and continued, "When he saw me looking over, he was stunned for a moment, then casually lowered his head and reached out to rummage through the fishing gear. I remember his eyes, and I also saw a cross tattoo on his wrist. I just ran into this person on the playground. He was with Li Chenggong's brother, Li Chengming. I heard he was his classmate, and they went to a technical school together in the city."
Whether from anger or fear, Li Li was trembling uncontrollably. He growled, "Why, why! I haven't offended them! I!"
Before he could finish speaking, the old lady slapped him: "Calm down!" Seeing that he was no longer ferocious, the old lady looked at Gu Yin: "Are you sure you didn't see wrong?"
Gu Yin nodded: "I'm sure I didn't see it wrong."
The old lady was quiet for a while after hearing this, and then looked at the empty foundation next door. Gu Yin also looked over. The foundation was full of green vegetables, which were ripe and lush.
“This land was originally our house. Later, the house collapsed, and only Ali and I lived there. When we rebuilt the house, we only built half of it. I used the other half as a vegetable garden. At the beginning of the year, Li Dashan came to my house and said he wanted to exchange land with me. The land he wanted to exchange for was on the other side of the mountain, which was far away and remote. No one in our village lived there, so I refused. At the time, Li Dashan didn’t say anything, and I thought that would be the end of it. Later, I don’t know why, his family members kept walking past the vegetable garden, through our yard, and out of my house when they went out.”
Gu Yin frowned: "Won't the vegetable patch be hard and compacted from constantly stepping on it? Isn't the other side of their house closer to the main road?"
The old lady nodded: "Not only that, even after I planted vegetable seedlings in those places, they still ignored it and passed by there. Moreover, on rainy days, the mud in the vegetable garden was very muddy. When they walked through there, their shoes were covered in mud. When they stepped onto the cement ground in the yard, it was very dirty. Because of the rain, there were shallow puddles on the ground, and they would wash their shoes in them, leaving behind mud and traces that I couldn't wash off."
At this point, the old lady glanced at Li Li and sighed, "This winter, it rained a lot, and they became even more outrageous. I didn't pay much attention at first. They are the village secretary, and I'm just an old widow with my grandson. I can only survive by being law-abiding. But Ali felt that I was working so hard, so on the weekend he cut down bamboo and wood to fence off the vegetable garden and built a fence and a gate by the roadside. He usually locks it when there's nothing to do. After that, they never came by here again. When we met later, we still greeted each other with smiles. There were no quarrels or misunderstandings."
Li Li took a deep breath: "So that's why they severed my tendons and even blinded one of my eyes?!"
The old woman choked up: "Everyone says Li Genzi is vicious, but I never imagined his descendants would be even more vicious! The old saying is true! Sometimes a treacherous neighbor is more terrifying than a vicious enemy."
Gu Yin didn't know how to comfort them for a moment, so she could only quickly help them stew the meat.
Li Li reached out and touched his permanently blind right eye, and said fiercely, "Don't worry about A-Yin's matter. I'll go find Officer Wang later and tell him that I discovered this!"
The old lady nodded quickly, "Yes, yes, don't get involved, we'll handle it ourselves!" That family is too vicious; anyone who gets involved with them is doomed!
Gu Yin didn't hesitate upon hearing this: "I suspect that Li Chengming is one of those three people, and since the one with the tattoo is also there, the third person should be there too! Brother Ali, you'd better not do anything unusual for now. You can take advantage of your current poor health to visit his house often and see if there's anything unusual between them. Try to get some evidence. Be sure to go during the day and let people know you're going to their house so they'll be wary. Don't give the enemy even a chance to breathe, otherwise, you'll be the ones in danger next time, understand?"
Li Li knew perfectly well what was going on. Ever since he heard what Gu Yin said, he had been gritting his teeth and enduring it. He nodded heavily and said, "I know, don't worry."
Gu Yin was about to say something when 001 spoke in her mind: "Those people are back, but they didn't go this way. They went the other way on the main road. Are you coming or not?!"
Gu Yin quickly stood up and looked at the grandfather and grandson: "They're back. I'm leaving now. If you need anything, come to my house. Remember, don't show anything unusual!" After saying that, she quickly left through the fence gate.
No sooner had Gu Yin left than Li Li saw Li Chengming and several of his classmates walk into the Party Secretary's house from the main road. Seeing Li Li and Grandma Li in the yard, the group walked to the edge of the yard, looked down at them, and said with a smile, "Ali, are you making sausages? Why didn't you go watch the village chief slaughter the pig?"
"Yeah, that pig was held down and couldn't move, it could only wait to have its throat slit, it was so exciting to watch!"
"Those screams, damn, they must have been absolutely horrible!"
"A beast is a beast, what's there to pity! It's even soiled itself!"
The group burst into laughter.
The old lady patted Li Li's hand, and Li Li took a deep breath and then smiled and said, "My legs are not very convenient, so I won't go and join in the fun."
Li Chengming curled the corners of his lips, exchanged glances with the others, and then laughed, "Are you coming to the village chief's house for the pork slaughtering later? Let's go together."
The village chief treated him very well, knowing that he was inconvenienced and that he would bring some meat over to his house later, so Li Li shook his head: "My hands are not nimble, so I won't go over and embarrass myself. You guys go ahead."
One of the men laughed loudly: "That's right, if your hands are shaking so much you can't hold it, the bowl will fall over! Tsk tsk tsk, what a pity!"
Seeing that his face was pale, as if he had been hit where it hurt, Li Chengming sneered, "Alright, stop talking. Let's go back to playing games."
After the group entered the house, Grandma Li looked at Li Li and asked, "Are you alright?"
Li Li concealed his cryptic gaze, looked at the old lady with a smile, and said, "It's alright, let's get back to work."
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