Chapter 12 Chapter 12 Commission 2: The wrongly accused paraquat buyer...
Chapter 12
"All the livestock in our village were poisoned to death?!"
Qin Ye repeated the bad news brought by Qin Ze, and a chill rose in his heart.
There were a total of fourteen cattle, horses, mules and other livestock in the Juexing Village Production Team, all raised in a barn at the east end of the village and taken care of by Zhang Zhongjian alone.
Livestock can both pull grain and cultivate land, and are the lifeblood of the entire village.
Now, all the livestock in the village were poisoned to death at once. The whole village was alarmed and gathered in the livestock shed.
Li Quan drove his chariot and took Qin Ye back to Juexing Village quickly.
Qin Ze borrowed a bicycle from a friend in the county and followed the two of them. He pedaled so hard that sparks almost flew off his feet before he and Qin Ye finally arrived at the barn at the east end of the village.
"Ye Ye and Li Gongan are here!"
Someone shouted, and the villagers all made way.
Qin Ye and Li Quan had a smooth journey and entered the yard smoothly.
As soon as she saw her, Qin's mother rushed over to hold her hand without caring about the crowd, and said in a choked voice: "Ye Ye, you must find a way to catch the murderer and give an explanation to the villagers in our village."
The village has just recently started preparing to plant the second crop, and it is time to use livestock to plow the land and pull the seeds. Unfortunately, at this critical moment, all the livestock were poisoned to death and the crops could not be planted. What would happen to the village’s harvest for the second half of the year?
Qin Ye patted Mother Qin's hand and comforted her, "I know, mother, I'll go check on the livestock first."
She let go of Qin's mother and walked into the barn filled with animal carcasses.
The village party secretary was squatting in the corner, his face covered in dust and dirt, holding up his pipe and smoking one puff after another.
Hearing Qin Ye coming in, he forced himself to stand up, his body hunched over as if he had aged ten years in an instant: "Ye Ye, the animals are all dead, all dead."
Zhang Zhongjian was even more devastated than the village party secretary. He seemed unable to smell the stench coming from the shed. He half-knelt on the ground, hugged the smallest calf and cried loudly, completely ignoring the fact that his clothes were stained with feces.
Qin Ye took a quick look and saw white foam at the mouths of every animal, and there was a hint of blood in the feces on the ground, which were indeed symptoms of poisoning.
"Teacher Zhang, please get up first."
She and Li Quan looked at each other, then stepped forward at the same time, helped Zhang Zhongjian up from the ground, and comforted him, "I know you took great pains to take care of these animals, and you are heartbroken that they are gone. The most important thing you should do now is to help us recall the past and catch the murderer who poisoned us as soon as possible."
After hearing what she said, Zhang Zhongjian lowered his head to take off his glasses with a missing leg, pulled up the corner of his clothes, wiped the lenses clean and put them back on.
As he spoke, his voice was choked with sobs: "It's my fault. It's all my fault for not taking good care of them."
He went to the county today and his son sent him a letter saying that the policy has been relaxed now. In a few days, I will bring my five-year-old grandson to Juexing Village to see him, and I have good news to tell him.
When he was sent down to Juexing Village, Zhang Zhongjian declared that he had severed ties with the two in order not to implicate his wife and children.
Over the years, his wife and son only dared to write him a letter during the holidays, and would also send him some money and food coupons. He hasn't seen his son for many years, let alone his grandson.
After Zhang Zhongjian read the letter, he heard from the post office staff that now that the storm had passed, he might as well write a letter back to his family.
He was immersed in the joy of his son and grandson coming to visit him, so he followed the advice of the post office staff and wrote a reply letter home.
Since he was sent down to Juexing Village, he has not dared to write a letter to his family. As soon as I picked up the pen, I found that I had a lot to say, and I wrote several long pages of paper.
It was not until the staff reminded him that Zhang Zhongjian realized that he had been standing in front of the counter writing for nearly two hours. He quickly picked up his pen to finish, and added a sentence at the end, saying that he hoped his son would bring some textbooks and college entrance examination materials when he came so that he could teach Qin Ye to read.
When he returned to the village, he found that the animals in the shed were poisoned and lying on the ground, with only the suckling calf left, dying.
He hurried into the house, rummaged through the drawers to find veterinary medicine, and prepared an antidote for the calf. By the time he prepared the antidote, the calf had also died along with the bull.
"I'm fine, why am I writing a letter at the post office?!"
Zhang Zhongjian burst into tears again as he spoke, "If I had come back earlier, I might have run into the person who poisoned the animals. Or maybe the animals weren't seriously poisoned at the time, and I would have had time to rescue them..."
Qin Ye looked around the yard and found no signs of outsiders forcibly breaking in: "Teacher Zhang, did you lock the door when you left?"
Zhang Zhongjian nodded heavily: "I have locked the door. Every time I go out, even if it's just for a few minutes, I will lock the door. The secretary trusts me and lets me take care of the animals, so I have to take good care of them and not let anyone steal them..."
He choked up again, his eyes blurred with tears, and he knelt down in front of the village party secretary: "I'm sorry, I'm sorry to you, I'm sorry to the villagers, party secretary, cough cough cough——"
He was choking on the dry tobacco smoked by the village party secretary and kept coughing.
The village party secretary quickly knocked off the tobacco in the pipe and reached out to help Zhang Zhongjian up: "Zhongjian, look at what you said, how can you be blamed? If you have to blame someone, you should blame the bad guys who poisoned our livestock. How you have taken care of the livestock over the years, everyone in the village has seen it!"
Not to mention Wuning County, even in the whole province, the livestock raised in Juexing Village are among the best.
Zhang Zhongjian raised livestock as if they were his own children, and he took good care of them. Even the cubs born by the livestock were stronger and healthier than those of other brigades' livestock.
Unfortunately, Zhang Zhongjian was a bad person and was a reform element.
Otherwise, he would have already asked the county for credit and sought commendation for Zhang Zhongjian.
The villagers heard the conversation between the village party secretary and Zhang Zhongjian, and many of them shouted at Zhang Zhongjian at the top of their voices:
"Old Zhang, what our Party Secretary said makes sense! You are a good person, and everyone can see it!"
"This time the chicken plague was cured thanks to you. You saved countless chicken lives in our county. If it weren't for you, we would be crying like the people in the neighboring county!"
When Qin Ze heard someone mention the chicken plague, he couldn't help but interrupt and take credit for Qin Ye: "And my sister! She also contributed to this chicken plague!"
Qin Ye: “…”
She quickly glared at Qin Ze to stop him from taking credit for the work.
Now is not the time to grab credit, what is important is to find out the real culprit of the poisoning.
Qin Ye took out a handkerchief and handed it to Zhang Zhongjian to wipe his glasses. He also comforted him, "Teacher Zhang, did you hear that? The villagers all remember your kindness. How can they blame you for all the dead animals? You care about them more than anyone else. Everyone knows that."
The vast majority of villagers could tell right from wrong, and they only cursed and swore at the real culprit of the poisoning who had not yet been found.
But there were also people who felt more or less resentful towards Zhang Zhongjian and thought that everything was his fault. But most villagers remember the good things about Zhang Zhongjian and say they don't blame him. They couldn't go against the majority of people and jump out to accuse Zhang Zhongjian. They were afraid of being criticized by the villagers!
…
Qin Ye asked Li Quan to tear off a piece of paper for taking notes, intending to take some feed from the trough and take it to the county public security bureau for testing of its ingredients.
Once the results are out, we can start investigating directly from the source of the poison.
"Well, it's just a small matter. Just tell me and I'll do it."
After Li Quan knew what Qin Ye wanted the paper for, he patted her arm and motioned her to move aside. "We are colleagues now. Don't be polite to me when you do the dirty work. Lao He also asked me to learn more from you!"
As he said that, he took the paper from Qin Ye's hand and reached towards the trough with his bare hands to grab the feed.
Qin Ye was startled and quickly pulled Li Quan back: "You can't grab it with your bare hands. We don't know what the toxic ingredients in the feed are. If there is poison left on your hands that has not been washed off, the consequences will be disastrous."
Li Quan had never thought of this. She reminded him and he scratched the back of his head in embarrassment: "You're right. Look at me. I just wanted to save trouble. I didn't even think about it."
Fortunately, he learned it when he was in technical secondary school.
What Lao He said was indeed right, he was far from Qin Ye!
Qin Ye was used to coaching new police officers in his previous life, so he was quite patient with newbies in handling cases. He smiled at Li Quan and said, "It's okay. Just remember it next time you encounter the same situation."
Out of caution, she chose to do it herself, took out the feed, wrapped it tightly, and then handed it to Li Quan: "Please send the feed back to the county public security bureau for testing first. I will ask other people in the village to see if there are any witnesses to the poisoning incident."
Li Quan took the feed and nodded in agreement: "Okay, I'll ride my horse back now. The test results will take at least a day to come out. It would be best if there were witnesses. And..."
He looked at the villagers of Juexing Village who were all worried, and said to Qin Ye: "If it really doesn't work, go to the production teams in other villages to borrow some livestock. No matter what, we can't delay planting crops."
"Secretary! Secretary! Someone from Waping Village is coming!"
At this moment, the villagers outside the barn saw several figures not far away and hurriedly shouted, "It's their party secretary, production team leader and Gu Yun. Oh my! They are driving two cows!"
Before Qin Ye and the others could go out, Gu Yun and the others had already arrived at the door.
Gu Yun looked very regretful. "I went to the county market and heard from Public Security He that all the livestock in the village had been killed. I know that the farming season is busy recently and livestock are needed urgently, so I quickly discussed with the village secretary and team leader to see if we can spare a few oxen for you to use first."
Gu Yun’s late husband was the previous production team leader of Waping Village. At that time, he braved the rain and rushed to harvest the flooded wheat seeds for the team despite his illness, and died of overwork in the operation.
The people of Waping Village have always been grateful for this and have taken good care of Gu Yun and his son. The villagers have always told Gu Yun that if she has any requests or difficulties, she can raise them at any time and the village will definitely help.
This was the first time that Gu Yun asked the village for help, except for the last time when Gu Hu disappeared. He wanted the team to lend him oxen to help Juexing Village tide over the difficulties temporarily.
"Comrade Gu Yun, thank you, thank you."
The secretary of Juexing Village ran out of the barn quickly, looked at Gu Yun, then looked at the secretary and team leader of Waping Village, and felt bitter for a moment, not knowing what to say, "And Lao Ma, Lao Shi, you... Oh! The villagers and I don't know how to thank you."
Among the nearby villages, Waping Village is not the closest to Juexing Village, but it was the first to come and help.
Ma, the Party Secretary of Waping Village, waved his hand and said, "Well, that's too polite. If you want to thank someone, you should thank Qin Gongan from your village!"
If it weren't for Qin Ye's help, their entire village would have been fooled by the Li Daniu brothers and would have really thought that Gu Hu had been washed away by the flood. Then the people in their village would be too ashamed to see Gu Yun when they are alive, and too ashamed to see Gu Hu’s father when they die!
Gu Yun nodded in agreement and stepped forward to hold Qin Ye's hand: "Sister Qin Ye, I gave you food coupons and cloth coupons but you refused to accept them. I really can't think of how to thank you. It's our duty to help your village this time."
Qin Ye looked at Gu Yun's sincere and simple expression, and felt a great sense of satisfaction from solving the case.
She exchanged a few pleasantries with Gu Yun, not daring to waste any more time. She cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted to the villagers of Juexing Village, "Whoever passed by our barn today, please come to me and give me a statement. Let's work together to catch the murderer who poisoned us as soon as possible!"
The villagers already hated the bad guy who poisoned the village. In addition, when they saw that Waping Village specially sent oxen to help Qin Ye in an emergency out of gratitude, they all felt grateful to Qin Ye.
They all came over and actively cooperated with Qin Ye's inquiries.
Qin Ye asked around until dark, but he didn't get any useful clues.
None of the villagers found any trace of the suspect, and the only person seen entering and leaving the cattle shed was Zhang Zhongjian.
Before leaving, Zhang Zhongjian went to the field and picked up the fodder left by the team for the livestock. He cut it and mixed it with the feed. He quickly locked the door and left the barn, going to the county town alone to get the letter.
All of a sudden, Zhang Zhongjian became the most suspicious person.
Qin Ye put away his notes for the time being and planned to start checking the hay by the field. Perhaps someone knew that the hay would go into the mouths of livestock, so they poisoned the hay.
"Qin Public Security."
Zhang Zhongjian did not miss any confession from the villagers. He knew that he was the biggest suspect now, so he stretched out his hands to Qin Ye and said, "I know, I am the biggest suspect now. Please take me to the Public Security Bureau. I will cooperate with the investigation. I believe that the organization will definitely clear my name."
Qin Ye shook his head and gently pressed down Zhang Zhongjian's hands: "Teacher Zhang, I believe you. And, as you know, the police cannot forcibly detain suspects before they have solid evidence. This is against discipline."
Zhang Zhongjian looked at her deeply and said solemnly, "Please find out the truth, Qin Gongan!"
Otherwise, he would have to die to atone for his sins.
…
After a busy day, it was already dark, but Qin Ye did not dare to rest. He had to get fodder from the fields and take it back to the county public security bureau for testing.
She put away the notes, patted her slightly stiff waist, said goodbye to the villagers, and walked towards the field where the fodder was stored.
"Hey! Hey! Hey!"
The voice behind her sounded three times in a row before Qin Ye realized it sounded familiar. She turned around and found that it was Qin Ze who called her.
Qin Ze held a bowl in each hand, both of which were filled to the brim, so he couldn't walk fast at all.
Qin Ye stopped and turned back to Qin Ze, only to find that one bowl was filled with rice glutinous rice porridge, and the other bowl contained sorghum steamed bread and stewed cabbage, with even a small piece of pork ribs on top of the dishes.
She touched her deflated stomach and vaguely felt hungry: "Did my parents ask you to bring me food?"
"Yeah, could it be that I'm afraid you'll starve to death?"
Qin Ze handed her the rice porridge with a sullen face, "Have some to fill your stomach first, your lips are all chapped. You're so busy that you don't even respond when I call you, just like your parents."
Qin Ye thought of the three times Qin Ze called her "Hello" and was speechless: "First, I'm not calling you Hello, I'm calling you Qin Ye; second, I'm your sister, you should call me sister, instead of being so rude."
Qin Ze sneered disdainfully: "You are only a few minutes older than me, why are you pretending to be a sister?"
And... in his heart, the previous Qin Ye was not a qualified sister.
Qin Ye thought he had forgotten, but he remembered that when he was a child, Qin Ye often secretly pricked him with a needle when his parents were not paying attention. He has always held a grudge and was thinking about taking revenge on Qin Ye when he grows up.
But now...
He lowered his eyes and looked at Qin Ye who was wolfing down the porridge. He couldn't help but secretly raised the corner of his mouth.
In his eyes, Qin Ye now can barely be considered a sister. She no longer despised her parents, and no longer looked at him as if he were a stink bug. Although she was often mean to him, he was able to accept it.
Qin Ye was very hungry, and the rice porridge that was usually difficult to swallow became a delicacy at this moment.
She drank the entire bowl in one breath, and when she looked up from the bowl, she realized that Roy Qin was staring at her intently, with a silly smile on his face: “Roy Qin, are you secretly cursing me in your heart?”
Qin Ze came back to his senses in a second, snatched the empty bowl from her hand, stuffed the vegetable bowl back into her hand, and retorted with his neck stiff, "I didn't scold you!"
Qin Ye only broke off half of the sorghum steamed bread and ate it with the pork ribs.
Except for the day she first came here, today was her first time to eat meat. The moment she swallowed the ribs, she felt like she came alive again.
She sighed softly with satisfaction, and then she could tease Qin Ze again: "I was just joking, why are you so anxious?"
"Qin Ye! This is not funny at all!!!"
Qin Ze was so angry that he jumped up and down.
Seeing Qin Ze getting angry, Qin Ye quickly raised his hand to touch his head and coaxed him, "Okay, okay, I know my brother won't secretly scold me in his heart, okay?"
Qin Ze turned his face away and snorted proudly.
The two men stood on the road, one holding an empty bowl and the other eating, and they made jokes from time to time.
After a while, Qin Ye finished all the food he brought and returned the empty bowl to Qin Ze: "You can take the bowl home and be careful on the way back."
Qin Ze was stunned: "You won't go back with me?"
“I can’t go back now.”
Qin Ye shook the notebook in his hand and said, "I have to go to the field to collect samples of fodder and bring them back to the county for testing later."
Qin Ze didn't say anything else. He stacked the two empty bowls together and ran away quickly.
Qin Ye was really envious when she saw Qin Ze running at the speed of a 100-meter sprint, thinking that she had run faster than Qin Ze in her previous life. I don’t know when in this life I can get back to my original speed.
…
Qin Ye quickly arrived at the edge of the field alone.
With the help of the moonlight, she took a small handful of hay from the piles on the edge of the field and packed them up, not forgetting to clearly note where in the haystack they were taken from.
"Why do you need so much? Isn't just a handful enough for testing?"
Qin Ze's voice rang out from the field above his head.
When she looked up, she saw Qin Ze coming over at some point, squatting on the edge of the field and looking at her: "What are you doing here again?"
"I was going to the county to return my bicycle, and I remembered you said you were going to the county too. So I was merciful and decided to come and give you a ride."
Qin Ze picked up a piece of grass and wanted to put it in his mouth to look cool.
Before he could even get it to his mouth, Qin Ye slapped him hard on the face. The fodder in his hand was taken away by Qin Ye and thrown aside: "Speak human language! Also, this fodder might be poisonous. You put it directly into your mouth. Are you going to die?!!"
Qin Ze retracted his hand aggrievedly and muttered, "I was worried that you would be scared to go to the county alone, so I came here to send you off, and you hit me!"
Qin Ye crossed his arms and stared at Qin Ze in silence for two seconds, then he pushed himself up with one hand and jumped onto the ridge of the field: "Let's go to the county and send the fodder for testing."
…
The person on duty at the County Public Security Bureau tonight is still the best policeman.
He was yawning in a recliner when he heard a noise at the door. He opened his eyes and saw Qin Ye walk in with a big bag in his hand.
"Hey, Xiao Qin, what are you doing here so late?"
He lay down in a more comfortable position.
Qin Ye picked up the bag of fodder samples in his hand and shook it: "I brought new fodder for testing. Police Niu, is there any comrade on duty in the inspection department?"
Public Security Niu hummed comfortably: "Yes, the provincial government will send people to inspect soon, and people will have to be on duty at all posts. But I'm telling you——"
He opened his eyes, glanced at Qin Ye again, and preached: "Young man, it's better not to be too eager for quick success. I know that you have become a temporary worker in the police station, and you are ambitious and want to become a regular employee, but how can it be so easy to become a regular employee?"
He has been working in the police station for nearly twenty years. In terms of ability, he is not as good as Lao He, and in terms of culture, he is not as good as Li Quan. He has always been a temporary worker.
This time, a leader finally came from the province, and he must seize this opportunity to become a regular employee in one fell swoop!
As for Qin Ye, huh! This little rascal who has just been here for a few days, don’t even think about surpassing him to become an official public security officer!
Qin Ye naturally heard the hidden meaning of Niu Gongan, and restrained the smile on his face, and said seriously: "I came to the bureau so late because I wanted to catch the poison murderer and solve the case as soon as possible, not for the regularization quota you mentioned. I deliberately came here to earn performance."
Since they were not on the same page, she didn't want to talk to Public Security Niu anymore and went into the inspection department carrying the fodder.
The police officer on duty at the inspection department was called Hu Xuan. He was very polite and even stood up to make Qin Ye a cup of coffee: "Would you like to try it? This is something my classmate sent back to me from the capital. It's a foreign product called coffee, and it tastes very refreshing. Every time I work overtime, I rely on it to keep me going."
Qin Ye thought that she would probably have to stay up all night tonight, so he said thank you without any hesitation and drank the coffee in one gulp.
Hu Xuan looked at her in shock and swallowed subconsciously: "Don't you think it's bitter? No one else in the bureau is used to drinking this stuff."
He couldn't get used to drinking it when he was in school, and after graduation he was assigned to the county's laboratory department. There was no other way. I had to work like a donkey in the production team, working day and night. I could only force myself to drink coffee to stay awake, but I got used to it after drinking too much.
Qin Ye put down the empty cup and remembered that people of this era would not be too accustomed to the taste of coffee.
After a moment of silence, he said, "It is bitter, but not as bitter as Chinese medicine. When I was a child, I was in poor health and took a lot of Chinese medicine. Later, I didn't feel the bitterness when I drank Chinese medicine."
Hu Xuan felt more sympathetic when he saw her expression, but thinking of the mountain of work on hand, he stopped talking to Qin Ye: "Can you just put the fodder to be tested? By the way, the test results of the fodder sent by Li Quan this morning are out, and it is paraquat. This pesticide has just been introduced from abroad not long ago, and it is rarely used in farming in big cities, not to mention a small place like our Wuning County. There should be few people who buy it."
After hearing Hu Xuan's explanation, Qin Ye felt relieved: "Thank you, Public Security Hu. I will go to the supply and marketing cooperative tomorrow morning to check who has bought pesticides recently?"
As soon as she left the laboratory, Public Security Officer Niu emerged from the next room.
Niu Gongan did not miss a single word of the conversation between Qin Ye and Hu Xuan. He didn't care about continuing to be on duty at the bureau, and rushed to knock on the door of his friend's house at the supply and marketing cooperative: "Lao Bai, open the door quickly, I have a case and urgently need your cooperation!"
Lao Bai, who worked at the supply and marketing cooperative, rubbed his sleepy eyes, walked out and opened the door: "Lao Niu, are you crazy? What case are you investigating in the middle of the night?!"
Public Security Officer Niu had no time to explain to him.
He now has to race with Qin Ye to find out the suspect who bought paraquat before Qin Ye. It would be best if we could arrest the person tonight.
When Niu Gongan thought of this, he became more anxious. He grabbed Lao Bai and shook him vigorously to make him completely sober: "Lao Bai, quickly take out the supply and marketing cooperative's account book to help me check if anyone has bought paraquat!"
“Paraquat?”
Lao Bai remembered this thing, and their supply and marketing cooperative only got one bottle. I heard that it is a new pesticide imported from abroad, which is particularly effective in killing weeds. Of course, it is also very expensive.
He had been selling it to people a few days ago, but no one was willing to buy it, so he just sold it recently.
"Why do we need to check the account books? I remember that the person who bought the paraquat was Old Zhang from Juexing Village. That's the one! The professor from the Agricultural University who was sent down from above!"
Public Security Niu's eyes suddenly lit up, he said thank you and ran away in a hurry.
At the same time, the system prompt sounded again in Qin Ye's ears.
[Ding——User "Qingfeng Mingyue" sent you a commission request. 】
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