When An Moxue went up the mountain, she was only concerned with escaping and avoiding the enemy, and did not notice where she was. When she came down the mountain, she paid attention to the terrain and was afraid that she would not be able to find the way up the mountain when she came back.
It took her more than an hour to get back to her front door, but the person she had electrocuted was nowhere to be found.
An Moxue didn't dare to delay and hurriedly went to Old Ma's house. She pried open the fence and jumped in. Then she went to the bedroom window and knocked on the window, calling out, "Uncle Ma, Uncle Ma, open the door! It's urgent! Uncle Ma, Uncle Ma, open the door quickly! It's Moxue! It's Moxue!"
"Mo Xue, don't worry, I'm coming right away." Only a few scattered voices could be heard, and the room lit up.
Old Ma came out carrying a kerosene lamp: "What happened? Why are you here at this hour?"
"Uncle Ma, come with me to the village chief's house. I have something to tell you. Let's talk as we walk."
"Okay, I'll tell your aunt."
Then Old Ma turned and went into the house, then came out again. On the way, An Moxue told him about her ordeal. Old Ma was furious: "Moxue, are you alright?"
“It’s alright, Uncle Ma. It’s just a minor injury. The important thing is that we need to find people now and catch those guys quickly. One of them escaped, and we don’t know if he has any accomplices. I don’t know who’s after me either. Let’s go find the village chief right away.”
When they arrived at the village chief's house and entered the house, Old Ma and the village chief finally saw An Moxue's appearance. Her clothes were tattered, her hands were covered in cuts, her lips were bruised, her face was swollen, and her hair was disheveled. She looked very disheveled, and the two of them felt very sorry for her.
An Moxue explained the situation to the village chief, who then quickly went to find the militia captain, gathered the village militia, and divided them into two groups. One group went into the mountains to arrest people, while the other group searched the village for strangers, especially strange men.
Old Ma and the village chief arranged for people to search the village, focusing on a man named Jiang Shi and Da Shan who was carrying out a message. An Moxue led the militia into the mountains to catch the bad guys.
When An Moxue led the militia into the mountains and found the three, it was already getting light. The militiamen were in awe of An Moxue when they saw the three. Those who had wanted to marry An Moxue were also glad that they hadn't forced her, otherwise, who knows who might have been the one who suffered!
By the time they came down the mountain, it was already broad daylight, and they carried the person directly to the village office.
The village chief and Old Ma also thoroughly investigated all the strangers in the village, checking every household and leaving no one out. They even checked the woodpile and livestock shed where people could hide. They conducted a complete search of the village and gathered all the suspicious persons at the village office, where the militia guarded them and did not allow any of them to leave.
In the village headquarters, the village chief, the accountant, and Uncle Ma were analyzing who was involved. So far, the messenger had been used; they hadn't found a man named Jiang Shi—he'd run away.
When An Moxue and the others came in, they were talking about whether the person showing the movie was a suspect. An Moxue immediately thought of the man who had followed her into the movie studio that day.
After carrying the people into the house, the village chief and the others were speechless. It was a rather pitiful sight. Only Uncle Ma looked relieved and was the first to speak, "Mo Xue, what's the situation with these people?"
“Uncle Ma, I’m afraid they’ll run away. I’ve broken their legs and knocked them unconscious. I can wake them up with another prick.”
Old Ma said, "Mo Xue, come here. Let's gather the information and then interrogate them. All the strangers in the village are at the team headquarters, guarded by the militia."
An Moxue went over and found a stool to sit down. Several people gathered around the table and began to discuss. The village chief said, "Moxue, do you have any useful information on your end?"
An Moxue replied, "Uncle Guo, I only got the names of these people. They said it was from the county's armed forces department, and they were ordered by the provincial troops to secretly arrest me, saying I was involved in a treasonous incident. The whole thing was told to the three of them by that guy named Jiang Shi. There's no arrest warrant. Did you catch Jiang Shi? I beat him so badly he couldn't move. He was near my house. Another guy chased me into the mountains, and then two more came. That's the three of them."
The village chief said, "Dashan said that the message was relayed to him by Er Gou's child who lives near Mo Xue's house. When the child arrived, he explained what happened: On his way home after the first movie, he happened to see the person who asked him to deliver the message. He didn't recognize him, but when the person pointed to Mo Xue's door, he saw a person. The person who asked him to deliver the message said that the person standing at the door was Old Ma, and that Old Ma had something to discuss with Mo Xue and asked him to help find her. It was dark, and they were quite a distance apart, so he saw a person standing at the door but couldn't see his face clearly. It's normal for people to help deliver messages in the countryside. The child was young and didn't think much of it, so he agreed. Then, he saw Dashan on the way and called out to him."
An Moxue went to the house to look, but didn't see anyone named Jiang Shi. Only the village chief and a few others were there: "Uncle, do you know these three people?"
Uncle Ma said, "I know one of them, it's definitely the county armed forces department, but I don't remember the other two."
The village chief and the accountant shook their heads, saying, "We don't know them."
"Mo Xue, wake these three up and ask them some questions."
An Moxue took out a silver needle and pricked the Baihui acupoint of the three people. After a while, the three people slowly woke up. They were all stunned by the current situation. Then their faces were like a palette, turning red and white, white and red, twisting and contorting, and they were making soft, suppressed sounds.
After waiting a while, the village chief spoke slowly: "I am the village chief of Anle Village. Who are you people, and why are you arresting her?" He pointed at An Moxue.
One of them exclaimed excitedly, "Village chief, grab her quickly, don't let her get away!"
Another person chimed in, "Quickly, grab her!"
Only the person who asked An Moxue the question noticed something unusual. An Moxue and the others were sitting, while several men carrying weapons surrounded the three of them in the room.
The two men kept shouting that they had captured An Moxue, but everyone in the room seemed not to hear them.
The village chief slammed his hand on the table and stood up. "I'm asking you questions. What are you doing? What's your name? Why did you arrest An Moxue? Answer me properly, and don't shout nonsense."
The two men's shouting was interrupted by the village chief's words, and they fell silent, but stared at An Moxue with resentment.
The man named Wang Hai replied to the village chief, "Hello, we are from the county's armed forces department. We have received orders from our superiors to secretly arrest An Moxue."
The village chief then asked, "Who gave you the order? Did you see the arrest warrant? Were there any clear instructions?"
Wang Hai replied, "The orders were all relayed to us by Jiang Shi, who was our squad leader. He said the orders came from the provincial military and were secret, so there was no arrest warrant."
The village chief asked, "So you're saying that everything was said by Jiang Shi alone, and that's what you all heard from him, is that what you mean?"
“Yes,” Wang Hai replied.
"What about you two? Is it the same for you? Is there anything you'd like to add?"
The two men looked at each other, both somewhat bewildered. What was going on? Weren't we supposed to be catching bad guys? How come we're being interrogated instead?
The village chief's eyes widened as he asked, "I'll ask you both one more time: Is what you know the same as what Wang Hai knows? Was it also an order from Jiang Shi? Did you see the arrest warrant?"
They both shook their heads, then nodded, then shook their heads again.
"What do you mean? Explain it clearly, answer me."
One of them said, "All the orders Jiang Shi gave us were given to us by Jiang Shi himself; we were just following orders." The other person nodded in agreement.
Then the village chief said, "Do you know the identity of this Comrade An Moxue whom you are trying to arrest?"
Several people shook their heads, indicating they didn't know. Then the village chief said, "This Comrade An Moxue's parents just died a few months ago. She's a newly arrived educated youth in our village. And although she hasn't been here long, she's already made several contributions recently, catching bad guys and enemy agents. You say she's made a mistake, do you have any evidence? What right do you have to arrest her? Do you have an arrest warrant? You're arbitrarily arresting people and being used without even realizing it, a bunch of idiots."
The three of them were stunned when they heard this.
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