Chapter 38
"I'll ask you one last time, are you sure your second brother, Liu Li, wasn't involved in the grain robbery on the 24th?"
After Liu Cheng was forced to kneel on the ground by a villager holding down his right shoulder, Mo Daowan pulled the dagger out of his back after he confessed and grabbed a handful of wood ash from the charcoal brazier in the house to smear on his back to stop the bleeding.
At this moment, Fang Wei is conducting his final interrogation before heading out to arrest the person.
"Even if you ask ten thousand times, Liu Li will still say he never did such a thing."
Liu Cheng's lips were pale and dry due to blood loss.
After giving a serious answer, he smiled wickedly, "Didn't expect that, did you? My father had already prepared an escape route."
Liu Yinxue had three sons, named Liu Yuan, Liu Li, and Liu Cheng from eldest to youngest.
Of the three children, the eldest and the youngest were clearly not reliable people; they had perfectly imitated Liu Yin's roguish ways. Only the second child was more steady and willing to work the land steadily.
Liu Yinxue heard that his father would always make sure things were settled in the village before he went down the mountain to rob, so that if he died down the mountain, his elderly mother, wife and children on the mountain would not survive either.
When Liu Yinxue went to rob grain this time, he looked at his three sons and chose to follow the ancestral rules, leaving behind a backup plan—Liu Li.
Even if all the others were captured, Liu Li could still farm the land, protect the women and children in his family, and continue the Liu family bloodline.
Fang Wei felt that his previous bad premonition was indeed correct.
Although the case is progressing smoothly so far, he has encountered a guy who had already planned his escape route before committing the crime, so things will definitely get complicated later.
Without delay, Fang Wei ordered Mo Daowan: "To catch the thief, catch the king first. You take five villagers to arrest Liu Yinxue. Don't worry about anything else, go now!"
Mo Daowan agreed with a firm look in her eyes, quickly selected five people, and left.
Fang Wei continued to make arrangements in Liu Cheng's room.
He first called on a villager and asked him to go home and get some hemp rope to tie up Liu Cheng. Then he said to the village head, "I'll trouble you to take two men here and watch over him. I'm going to arrest Liu Yuan."
"Aaaaaaaaaaaah!"
Amidst the village chief's series of responses, Fang Wei left with a tense expression.
The two teams set off one after the other, but it was Mo Daowan who ran into Liu Yinxue first.
In the freezing cold of winter, Liu Yinxue sat outside with an air of nonchalance, not at all surprised to see Mo Daowan appear; it was as if he had been waiting for her all along.
A table was placed in front of him, with a bowl and a jar of wine on it.
Mo Daowan, holding a dagger, cautiously approached step by step.
When Liu Yinxue was less than three steps away, an unexpected incident occurred!
Liu Yinxue downed the rest of the wine in one gulp and then hurled the wine jar and bowl at Mo Daowan.
This was just the prelude. As Mo Daowan dodged, Liu Yinxue pulled out a woodcutter's knife from under his buttocks and viciously slashed at Mo Daowan's vital points with such speed that there was no way to avoid it!
The villagers who came with him were unable to exert any strength with their hoes and other tools, and they watched as Mo Daowan suffered several injuries.
Fortunately, he reacted quickly. Every time the machete touched the flesh and before it completely fell, he had already grabbed the dagger and rushed forward to deflect the remaining force.
After blocking Liu Yinxue's machete once again, Mo Daowan shouted at the villagers who were standing there helplessly watching: "Get sticks!"
"Hit his leg!"
These inexperienced villagers, armed with machetes and hoes, were likely to accidentally injure innocent people when they joined the melee. However, if they discarded sharp weapons and used blunt weapons, even if someone was accidentally injured, it would not necessarily result in death.
However, after only a brief moment of distraction and a few words, Liu Yinxue seized the opportunity to inflict another wound on Mo Daowan.
There was a woodpile next to the house, with many thick sticks inside. Seeing the villagers grab the sticks to use as weapons, Liu Yinxue's face contorted with rage, and he made a move to attack Mo Daowan's face.
Mo Daowan instinctively stepped back and blocked, but Liu Yinxue stopped halfway and retreated.
When it comes to walking through thick snow, southerners are slower than northerners.
Liu Yinxue quickly withdrew and fled along the route he had planned in advance. Mo Daowan had wounds on her left forearm, shoulder, and waist, with the wound on her waist being the deepest.
He covered the bleeding wound and, without hesitation, ran after Liu Yinxue.
After several twists and turns, it was already dark. The farmers who had just picked up their sticks hesitated and stopped where they were.
After a moment of hesitation, someone slapped their forehead and remembered, "Isn't there an official here? Go tell him!"
"Yeah! Let's go! Let's go together!"
Fang Wei went to Liu Yuan's residence, only to find it empty.
He wasn't too surprised, and without pausing for a moment, he turned around and went to where Liu Yinxue lived.
On the way, he encountered the farmers who were on their way to find him. Fang Wei sighed, looked at the mountains and forests where no one could be seen, and turned back to Liu Cheng.
Afterwards, the village chief sent his son to the county town to report the news and ask them to send more people to help arrest Liu Yinxue and his son Liu Yuan.
...
When the county government's reinforcements left the city, Shu Wanxiu, who knew nothing about the progress of the case, was dozing off in bed on a barren mountain in Wupai Village.
Although nothing bad happened during the day and she had a very pleasant day, her nerves inexplicably became tense again in the evening, just like last night.
Every time she was about to fall asleep, she would think of herself and Shu Shouyi living alone in the mountains, with deep snow outside, endless mountains, and unknown wild animals... or murderers hiding there.
When she fails to fall asleep, the first thing she always does is look at the door, check the latch, and then look at the window.
Whether it was her imagination or not, she heard some sounds when she opened her eyes wearily again.
It's like the 'crunching' sound of your feet sinking into the snow.
The sound was irregular, sometimes there and sometimes it was not; she had not yet drawn a conclusion.
"Knock knock knock..." A sudden knocking sound rang out.
Is anyone there?
The unfamiliar male voice that suddenly rang out following the knocking made Shu Wanxiu's heart leap into her throat.
She held her breath tightly, not daring to move an inch.
The lack of response didn't bother the person outside the door. He continued, "I'm a yamen runner from the county town, here to arrest the murderer in the grain robbery case... cough, cough!"
"I was injured while chasing the criminal just now. Is there anyone who can kindly help me?"
The person outside sounded very weak, and his occasional coughing made it seem as if his injuries were quite severe.
Shu Wanxiu heard every word, but her vigilance remained unwavering.
She remained silent, slowly sat up from the covers, and gently pulled the hoe, which she had placed beside the bed for self-defense, into her arms.
From that moment on, a silent standoff seemed to unfold between the inside and outside of the house.
As time went by, Shu Wanxiu gradually realized that her choice to remain silent was the right one, but... this also meant that the person outside was in great danger.
Liu Yinxue's patience ran out in the silence. He grabbed a handful of snow and rubbed the congealed blood off his wood-cure. He coldly ordered Liu Yuan, "Kick down the door."
Without saying a word, Liu Yuan kicked the door hard.
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
"Bang!"
The not-too-thick wooden door struggled to withstand each impact.
The deafening noise woke Shu Shouyi from his sleep.
He didn't know what was happening, but he felt as if the house was shaking. He reached out and touched the side, but his aunt wasn't there.
Overwhelmed with fear, he couldn't help but shout, "Auntie?!"
Shu Wanxiu had already arrived at the door with a hoe as soon as the first kicking sound was heard, trying to stop the people outside from breaking down the door.
Hearing Shu Shouyi speak, she immediately turned around: "Don't make a sound!"
The rhythmic pounding on the door suddenly stopped, but Shu Wanxiu became even more panicked.
"Ha ha ha ha!"
"So that's why you weren't saying anything!" Liu Yinxue chuckled amusedly from outside the door. "So there's no man in the house?"
Shu Shouyi was a precocious child; otherwise, he wouldn't have developed hysteria after the successive deaths of his parents and relatives.
The blatant malice in the voice made Shu Shouyi realize that he had gotten into trouble.
What to do? What to do?
Driven by extreme fear, self-blame, and remorse, Shu Shouyi's gaze suddenly became clouded.
The sound of kicking the door started again from inside, each kick louder than the last.
Shu Wanxiu gripped the hoe with both hands and placed it horizontally in the middle of the wooden door, trying to make the door hold up for longer.
However, the wooden door could not withstand the weight and, after taking another kick from Liu Yuan, finally developed a hole.
'They can't open the door!' That was the only thought in Shu Wanxiu's mind.
To stop her, she pressed her entire body against the door.
This did have some effect; Liu Yuan felt that the resistance behind the door had increased.
"You've been kicking down a door for so long, why isn't it broken?"
Sensing the impatience in Liu Yinxue's tone, Liu Yuan hurriedly replied, "Coming soon."
After saying that, he held his breath, concentrated, and delivered the heaviest kick.
"Bang--"
The bolt came loose, and the door panel crashed down.
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