Chapter 47 Rope Murder Case (9) The alley at the school gate...
This question can only be asked to Hu Die herself. When Sang Luo came, Ma Shi Tu was about to drive to find Hu Die. Just as she came, the three of them went together.
Hu Die goes to the Third Middle School. She is eighteen years old this year and is in her third year of high school. Sang Luo's eyes turned. What a coincidence, she and Lan Yue are in the same high school. Is there any connection between these two people?
In the car, Sang Luo recounted his experience in the afternoon. Ma Shi Tu was not surprised to hear that Sang Luo and his friends did not find the treasure. He smiled heartily:
"Actually, after you left, I thought about it again and soon figured it out. Maybe the so-called treasure doesn't refer to things, but to people."
Xie Ling'er took a while to react, and soon understood: "Master, are you saying that Lan Jianguo's baby is Lan Yue?"
Ma Shi Tu nodded: "You don't understand because you haven't been parents. Every parent sees their children as treasures. Lan Yue will take the college entrance examination in a year. Once she is admitted to university, her future will be limitless. If she finds a good job, she will naturally provide for Lan Jianguo in his old age. Don't you think this is the greatest treasure in Lan Jianguo's hands?"
Sang Luo also nodded. If this was the understanding, then what Lan Jianguo said at the dinner table was not bragging.
Xie Ling'er didn't understand: "Since she was his daughter, why didn't he just tell her? When Hu Maoshan asked him what the treasure was, he just refused to tell him, and he was beaten for nothing."
Ma Shi Tu waved his hand: "He refused to say anything because he didn't want to put his daughter in danger. After all, Hu Maoshan is a complete bastard who can do anything. When facing such a person, the less you say, the better."
Xie Linger sighed: "Anyway, it was all caused by the drinking table. If Lan Jianguo hadn't sat at that drinking table that day, he wouldn't have met Hu Maoshan, and nothing would have happened."
Sang Luo patted the back of her hand and reminded her softly: "Don't say that. The case has not been solved yet. We can't be sure that the murderer is Hu Maoshan."
The police car arrived at the gate of No. 3 Middle School. It was already six o'clock in the afternoon. Two groups of unruly students gathered at the school gate. They seemed to be planning a fight. Ma Shi Tu honked the horn and the students scattered in panic. One of the leaders was a girl with dyed yellow hair. Her hair was particularly eye-catching in the crowd. Ma Shi Tu recognized her at a glance. She was Hu Die, whom they were looking for.
He took out the photo from his bag and compared it again. After confirming that it was her, he led everyone out of the car.
Even though the police were already in front of her, Hu Die still kept shouting at the other side. She held an empty beer bottle in her hand and shouted:
"Those from No. 7 Middle School, if we can't win today, we'll fight tomorrow. Whoever doesn't come is a grandson! Remember this, there are no cowards in No. 3 Middle School. We are all tough guys! If your people dare to come to No. 3 Middle School to collect protection money again, I will kill you!"
Ma Shi Tu reached out and confiscated Hu Die's beer bottle, and scolded her harshly:
"Who are you going to kill? Is this something you should say at your age?"
Hu Die withdrew her hand in embarrassment and took the scolding obediently. After scolding her, Ma Shi Tu took her to the police car and asked about the money:
"You have a pile of loose change in your bedroom. What's that about? Who gave it to you?"
Hu Die looked around and said with a playful smile, "I picked it up."
"You picked it up?" Ma Shi Tu was a little angry. He was not afraid of the difficulty of handling the case, but he was afraid of people who did not cooperate with the questioning. He frowned and said, "How could you pick up so much money? You picked up all the money dropped by people in the whole county. Do you not go to school every day and wander around the streets picking up money?"
"Yes, officer, how did you know?" Hu Die smiled.
Ma Shi Tu took out the handcuffs from his waist and said, "Tell me, did you steal it or pick it up? You suddenly have a large sum of money. If you don't explain where it came from, then I will assume that you stole it."
Facing Ma Shi Tu's intimidation, Hu Die was not afraid at all. She took the initiative to stretch out her hands and put them into the handcuffs: "I just picked it up. If you have the guts, you can catch me. It's just right that I don't have to go to school."
Ma Shi Tu sighed secretly in his heart. It seemed that this guy had dealt with the police before and knew their way around. Without evidence, the police could not charge her with theft out of thin air.
Although he is so young, he is already a veteran and really difficult to deal with.
Ma Shi Tu looked at Hu Die with complicated eyes. After a moment, he put away the handcuffs and asked Xie Ling'er to come to the police car to watch Hu Die. He wanted to take Hu Die back to the police station for interrogation in the name of cooperating with the investigation.
Then Ma Shi Tu got off the car and asked other classmates together with Sang Luo. At that time, the two groups had agreed to fight, and there were a few thin boys following Hu Die, who were probably her "left-hand and right-hand men". After the crowd dispersed, Sang Luo was quick to arrest these "left-hand and right-hand men".
After being caught by the police, these gangsters became much more honest. Ma Shi Tu entered the campus and temporarily found an empty room to use as an interrogation room. Then he said to the boys:
"You must cooperate with the investigation honestly. If you don't, I will charge you with provoking disturbances! We all saw you trying to start a group fight just now!"
These boys were obviously not as experienced as Hu Die. They panicked when they were threatened and rushed to express their willingness to cooperate with the police. Ma Shi Tu picked out the boy who looked the most honest and asked the others to wait outside the door first.
The boy's name was Dazhu. Ma Shi Tu opened his notebook, and Dazhu sat down in front of him and started talking:
"Officer, we didn't start this. It was those bastards from No. 7 Middle School who started it! We clearly agreed before that our Wild Wolf Gang would protect No. 3 Middle School and collect protection fees from it, and their Black Bear Gang would protect No. 7 Middle School and collect protection fees from it. We wouldn't bother each other, but now they've actually extended their hands to our territory. Tell me, can we not fight them?"
Ma Shi Tu frowned as he heard this: "What Wild Wolf Gang and Black Bear Gang? Do you think you are gangsters? You are students! Students! You dare to do this now? You will all go to jail in the future!"
Dazhu had a rebellious look on his face, obviously he hadn't heard anything. Ma Shi Tu rubbed his brows and returned to the case. He took out the big bag of change, put it on the table and asked Dazhu:
"We found a lot of change in Hu Die's home. Do you know where she got all this money?"
The bag was filled with a lot of change, all 10-cent and 20-cent notes or coins, with a small number of 50-cent notes.
Dazhu nodded: "I know, these are all the protection fees we collected. Hu Die is our boss, so of course the protection fees are given to her for safekeeping."
"What kind of protection fee are you collecting?" Ma Shi Tu emphasized.
Dazhu said calmly: "Of course you have to pay protection fees to go to school. Isn't that something everyone knows? If you don't pay the protection fees, who will protect you?"
"We are just here to go to school, why do we need protection?" Ma Shi Tu stared at him and asked.
"That's right. If the Black Bear Gang comes to attack us, we can protect the students who have paid the protection fee," Dazhu crossed his legs. "If they haven't paid the protection fee, it's hard to say!"
"I'm afraid it's more than that," Ma Shi Tu's eyes became more and more stern, "If you don't pay the protection fee, you will beat people, right?"
"Well, it's not about beating people, it's just about educating them..." Dazhu said subconsciously, then he realized that he had let the cat out of the bag, so he immediately shut his mouth.
"Who are you? Do you need to educate others?!" Ma Shi Tu slammed the table angrily. This was naked school bullying.
Dazhu swallowed his saliva and dared not speak. Ma Shi Tu rubbed his temples. Things finally made sense now. Hu Die was the leader of a campus gang. The money was the protection fee they received, and it was all kept in the hands of her. Because the targets of the harvest were all students and they didn't have much money on them, so Hu Die had only small change.
However, there was one thing that was very strange. Ma Shi Tu slowed down his tone and asked, "Why did you guys choose a girl like her as the leader?"
Most campus gangs like this use force to determine status. Hu Die was skinny and didn't look like she was a strong fighter, but she unexpectedly became the leader of these boys.
"You don't understand, she is very powerful." Dazhu muttered in dialect, with an ambiguous smile flashing across his face.
In just a moment, Sang Luo, who was standing aside, understood that Hu Die had had a relationship with this boy, and she might have also had relationships with several boys outside. These boys tasted the sweetness and were willing to be her right-hand man.
Why? Why did she pay such a high price to get the identity of a big sister? Sang Luo looked at the evidence bag on the table with complicated eyes. Was it for these change?
After questioning these hooligans, Ma Shi Tu asked Hu Die's class teacher. This class teacher was a short man. He had a headache when he mentioned Hu Die. It turned out that his class was the legendary class where "half of the class was skipping classes". He spread his hands in distress and said:
"What can I do? The school assigned the worst class to me. These students are more powerful than each other. Do I dare to discipline them? If I discipline them, they might stab me to death one day. I'd better save my life first!"
"Do students in your school have pocket money?" Ma Shi Tu asked this question.
The head teacher thought for a moment and said, "Most of them still have some. After all, they are at the age of taking the college entrance examination, and everyone is worried that their children will not have enough to eat. It is common for students to carry a dime or two. The richer ones will carry fifty or one dollar."
Ma Shi Tu nodded. Hu Die and the others were extorting this pocket money. He then asked, "What if some students don't bring money?"
"If you don't have money, you can only be sweet-talking and say a few nice words, and they will let you go. If you don't have money but are still stubborn," the head teacher looked embarrassed and lowered his head to the ground, "you might be dragged into the alley and taught a lesson. Of course, I'm just saying maybe..."
Obviously, he had seen it with his own eyes, but he couldn't say it out loud. If he did, it would seem that he was irresponsible as a teacher.
Ma Shi Tu did not expose his embarrassment, but followed his words and said, "Can you help me find a few students who may have been bullied? I want to ask them."
We can't just listen to the one-sided story of the gangsters, we also have to hear what the victims say.
The head teacher agreed immediately and quickly called over a few girls. They were all wearing shabby clothes and it was obvious that they came from poor families. They had a temperament similar to Lan Yue.
Ma Shi Tu randomly picked a girl to question. When he mentioned Hu Die's name, the girl was filled with grief and indignation. She began to count on her fingers the evil things they had done, especially those that had happened to her:
"That time they stopped me, and I said I had no money, so they asked me to sing. I refused, so they snatched my schoolbag and dumped everything out. Woohoo... the notes I worked so hard to write... I did nothing wrong, so why did they treat me like this!"
Ma Shi Tu patted the girl on the shoulder and comforted her: "You are right, don't worry, the police will deal with them and give you a safe campus!"
This matter was under the jurisdiction of the police. Ma Shi Tu planned to tell his police colleagues about the situation after returning and ask them to intervene and take care of these lawless brats.
"Actually...actually, my situation is relatively good. I wasn't dragged into the alley." The girl wiped her tears and talked about another thing. "I heard that last month there was a girl who was even worse off. She was dragged into the alley and beaten up by them!"
"Who?" Ma Shi Tu suddenly became alert.
"She seemed to be an excellent student in Class 1, the one who picked up rags at home. I can't remember her name." The girl said hesitantly.
Ma Shi Tu took out Lan Yue's photo and asked, "Is this the person?"
The girl nodded excitedly: "Yes, it was her! Although I didn't see her with my own eyes, my friend did. We girls all come from poor families and study very hard. We are always the last few to leave school, so we always bump into each other on the way home from school, and we all know which class each other is in."
"My friend came out of school at 11 o'clock that day and ran into this girl. They were both riding bicycles and were planning to walk together, but they ran into the Wild Wolf Gang right after leaving the school gate."
"It was Hu Die who led the group. She brought a few men with her and blocked their way, insisting that they pay protection fees. My friend even borrowed money from her family to pay for food, so how could she afford to pay protection fees? But my friend didn't want to waste time with them, so she said a few nice words and left. But -"
She pointed to Lan Yue's photo and said, "But this girl was stopped."
"Her name is Lan Yue." Ma Shi Tu reminded.
"Well, Lan Yue," the girl read Lan Yue's name again, "She was surrounded by that group of hooligans. They insisted that she perform a dance, but Lan Yue refused and scolded them. As a result, Hu Die grabbed her hair and dragged her into the alley next to her."
"That alley is a dead end, very dark and scary," the girl said with fear on her face. "My friend was also there. She said that after Lan Yue and Hu Die went in, there was a loud noise from the alley—"
She swallowed. "-the sound of a slap."
Ma Shi Tu stood up and asked, "What? You said Hu Die beat Lan Yue?"
The girl nodded. "I didn't see it with my own eyes, but it's definitely true. It's spread all over the school! My classmates were all very scared, and since then, no one dared to talk back to Hu Die!"
“It’s so outrageous…” Ma Shi Tu clenched his fists. At the same time, he realized that this was an important clue.
Lan Yue and Hu Die have a grudge!
Lan Yue and Hu Die have a grudge, and Lan Jianguo and Hu Maoshan have a grudge. The rift between the two families is deep, and Hu Die also has access to the rope that Lan Jianguo uses to slaughter pigs.
Ma Shi Tu and Sang Luo looked at each other, and they both thought of the same thing - Hu Die was also a suspect in the murder!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
