Chapter 26: Uncovering the Fraud

Seeing Song Xiuyue's confidence, Wang Dazhu recalled her promise that after Xia Juanjuan was arrested and she married Li Zhan, she would give him five yuan of Li Zhan's monthly allowance. He gritted his teeth and said:

"What? I am the village party secretary, how can I wrongly accuse you? If I can't find anything, I...I would rather not be the village party secretary!"

Xia Juanjuan curled her lips and sneered, nodded, and said: "Everyone has heard it. Please bear witness for me! Don't let Secretary Wang deny it later!"

As she spoke, she put down the backpack and said, "Search!"

Li Pengxing came forward and pretended to search for a while, but sure enough, he found nothing except dead branches and firewood.

He took his hand out of his pocket...

Suddenly, Li Pengxing held up something that looked like a ginseng root and shouted, "Found it! It's a ginseng! Xia Juanjuan stole a ginseng from the mountain!"

Seeing this, Song Xiu Yue and Wang Dazhu rushed over immediately. Song Xiu Yue took the ginseng from Li Pengxing and looked at Xia Juanjuan proudly.

"Xia Juanjuan, you have both the victim and the captive! What else do you have to say? This wild ginseng is a rare commodity! One ginseng costs at least ten yuan! Ten yuan is enough to sentence you to ten years in prison!"

More and more villagers gathered around, and when they heard this, the discussion became louder!

"Ginseng? Oh! If it was mushrooms or fungus, I guess he would have been incarcerated for a few days. Now it's too bad! He's going to spend the rest of his life in jail at such a young age!"

"Oh! What a pity! If it hadn't been found, this ginseng could have been sold on the black market for at least twenty yuan! It would have been enough to last for half a year!"

Wang Dazhu was also excited, and said to Li Pengxing: "Send her to the militia brigade immediately and lock her up first! Wait for the city police station to come and arrest her!"

Xia Juanjuan was not panicked at all, and said calmly: "Song Xiuyue, you said that I picked this ginseng in the mountains?"

She did pick some ginseng, but it was all in the space, so there was no way she could find it!

Song Xiuyue said, "Nonsense! The ginseng is in my hand! What are you still trying to argue with?"

Xia Juanjuan looked at her as if she were a fool, and said coldly: "Does your mother know that you are so stupid? The ginseng your family just dug out is dry? You colluded to frame me, you should at least have some brains, right?"

Song Xiu Yue's smug face froze for a moment, and then she mechanically looked down at the ginseng in her hand.

"Ouch! I wouldn't have realized what was happening if you hadn't told me! What Song Xiuyue is holding is not fresh ginseng that has just been dug out, it is clearly dried ginseng that has been processed after being dried in the sun!"

"Oh my god! This is too funny! To take a dried ginseng and say it was stolen by a young daughter-in-law in the mountains, this is too obvious a lie!"

"It's a frame-up, he deserves to go to jail, right? I think he should be sentenced to at least ten or eight years!"

The villagers burst into laughter and talked a lot.

Song Xiu Yue, Wang Da Zhu and Li Peng Xing's faces turned pale and blue, it was really interesting!

Wang Dazhu glared at his niece fiercely. If only he had known not to trust this fool! Now, not only did he not find anything, but he was also accused of frame-up!

He just went crazy and became so arrogant that he gambled his position as the village party secretary!

However, fortunately, the other party is a young daughter-in-law, and he can just scare her a few times and let the matter go! He won't have to worry about not having the opportunity to deal with Xia Juanjuan in the future!

"Enough! What are you all arguing about! Shut up! This ginseng... was probably dug out by someone accidentally, lost, and fell into a pile of dead branches, and then dried up in the wind! How can this be called a frame-up? Xia Juanjuan, considering that you probably don't know about it, I won't pursue it this time! Go home!"

Song Xiuyue still didn't give up, and said anxiously: "Uncle!"

Wang Dazhu scolded in a low voice: "Shut up! It's all your bad idea!"

Xia Juanjuan sneered.

You are really an old fox. After talking nonsense, you are planning to run away?

If this frame-up succeeds, I will have to go to jail for ten years! Now that it fails, you want to just walk away without paying any price?

There is no such thing as something so cheap in the world!

"Secretary Wang, if you say it's not a frame-up, then it's not a frame-up, right? What if I have evidence?"

Wang Dazhu's heart sank, and he stammered, "Xia Juanjuan! You...you should not push your luck! What evidence? You clearly found the ginseng from the dead tree branches!"

Xia Juanjuan twitched her chin at the pale-faced Li Pengxing and sneered, "The ginseng was probably taken out of his pocket. Just turn his pockets over, and if there are traces of ginseng whiskers left, that's evidence!"

The surrounding villagers had been bullied by Wang Dazhu and Song Xiuyue for years. Seeing them being bullied now, they naturally didn't want to let them go. They all started to make a noise, "That's right! You say it's not a set-up? Let this educated youth Li turn his pockets over and see!"

Li Pengxing didn't expect that he was just trying to please Song Xiuyue and Wang Dazhui in order to get a place to return to the city, but now he is accused of "frame-up". He was so scared that his legs went weak!

He looked around in horror, and suddenly rushed towards a place where the crowd was sparse, trying to escape!

His escape further confirmed Xia Juanjuan's guess!

Several young and strong villagers immediately chased after him, and in no time they pinned Li Pengxing to the ground and turned his pockets inside out!

"Sure enough, there are traces of ginseng beard! It's exactly as Li's wife guessed!"

"This is an educated youth from the city! He doesn't learn from others' mistakes, and he even colluded with others to frame him! Let's send him to the militia!"

Li Pengxing was so scared that he started crying: "It wasn't me! It was... Song Xiuyue and Wang Dazhu who forced me to do this! Please let me go!"

He just couldn't stand the hard life in the countryside and wanted to go back to the city! How could it turn out like this! Song Xiuyue, this stinky bitch, killed people!

Wang Dazhu and Song Xiuyue turned pale with fear when they saw Li Pengxing had identified them.

There are witnesses and physical evidence in this matter, it is nailed on the board! The crime of frame-up, to put it mildly, his position as village party secretary will be in jeopardy! To put it seriously, he may really be arrested and imprisoned!

"Li... Li Pengxing! Bullshit! You did it all by yourself, what does it have to do with me! You are just framing me!" Wang Dazhu cursed in a trembling voice!

"Li Pengxing, you...what are you talking about? How could I let you do this to me? You...how did you hurt me, wuwuwu..." Song Xiu Yue also said while pretending to cry.

Li Pengxing was so angry that he almost vomited blood when he saw how thoroughly the two men pushed each other.

Wang Dazhu spoke in an official tone to the villagers who were watching: "You did a good job! I was just about to ask you to arrest someone! I will report it to the commune tomorrow and give each of you an extra work point!"

The villagers looked at him coldly and said nothing.

Xia Juanjuan smiled faintly and said, "Secretary Wang, you and Song Qiuyue have really cleared yourselves of all blame..."