It turned out that Qi Jing went to find the head of the village early in the morning and said that his family originally had a half-foot-tall pure gold Buddha statue, which would not be burned. However, when he went back to look for it that day, he couldn't find it. There were no signs that anyone else had entered the fire scene, so it was possible that it had been taken away in advance.
Therefore, he wanted to ask the villagers to help think about whether there was anyone nearby on the day of the fire. If anyone could find the Bodhisattva statue, he would be rewarded with ten taels of silver.
As soon as she heard the news, Tang Shiyue understood what he meant.
Villagers stick together, especially when it comes to strangers. Besides, even if someone saw someone setting fire to a house, they wouldn't dare to speak out. Otherwise, if they say something wrong, wouldn't they be infamous? But Jubao Village is so small, and everyone in the village knows everyone else. Whatever you do, someone will see it.
So, in this way, it is easy to say. Money can move people's hearts, which means that everyone in the village is helping him find it.
By the way, the villagers only found out the man’s name now. It turns out his surname is not Qi, but Qi, and his name is Qi Jing.
Tang Shiyue asked: "Is there any letter?"
"I don't know!" Madam Zhou said, "The Qi family's area is not densely populated. It depends on whether anyone sees it when they go up the mountain."
Before he could finish his sentence, he heard someone shouting.
Madam Zhou immediately wanted to pull Tang Shiyue to watch the fun, so Tang Shiyue had to step back and put the fish and vegetables by the door.
...
...
I saw a man pulling Chen Laizitou, the two of them fighting and arguing, one of them said: "I saw it! You have been hanging around the door of Qi's house for the past two days!"
"What are you talking about!" Chen Laizi said, "I don't have time to go there!"
"It's obvious that you stole someone's heirloom! Why don't you return it immediately!"
"What heirloom? I don't know!"
The man who grabbed Chen Laizitou was also Tang Shiyue's uncle, named Tang Shunzi. When he yelled like that, Tang Shiyue suddenly remembered that she had run into Chen Laizitou at the door of Qi's house the day before the fire! Chen Laizitou even spoke to her!
Tang Shiyue said loudly: "I remember it!"
Everyone turned to look at her. Tang Shiyue thought about what Qi Jing had said at that time, pointed at Chen Laizi and said, "Tung oil! It's you, it was you who used the tung oil to ignite the other person's firewood pile!"
Chen Laizi's expression changed immediately.
Everyone was also shocked. After all, stealing things is one thing, but arson... becomes murder for money!
Looking at Chen Laizi's expression again, it was tantamount to acquiescence! Someone said, "Let's go and talk to the head of the village!"
Tang Shiyue was originally trying to trick him. In fact, she didn't know the specific operation process, so she said, "Wait a minute, let's go to his house first! Once we find evidence, we can tell the head of the village!"
She was looking for tools to commit the crime, but everyone inevitably thought of the "Pure Gold Buddha". They immediately agreed and swarmed towards Chen Laizi's house.
Chen Laizi had a dirty head and was a lazy person. He was almost thirty and still hadn't found a wife. His parents died early, leaving him three rooms and no one else in the family.
The villagers rushed in and rummaged around everywhere. They soon found the small barrel of tung oil and the cloth wrapped with tung oil. This almost confirmed his guilt.
But the Buddha statue was never found.
The place is so small, this thing can't be hidden, he must have sold it! So a large group of people became even more angry, dragged Chen Laizitou and went to the head of the village.
There are two major surnames in Jubao Village, Tang and Chen. To be honest, there are more people with the surname Tang, but the head of the village is surnamed Chen. He is also the patriarch of the Chen family and the great-uncle of Chen Laizitou.
Lizheng is equivalent to the village official appointed by the government. Generally speaking, four households form a neighborhood, five neighbors form a bao, one hundred households form a li, and five li form a township. There is one lizheng in each li. In reality, it is not so precise, and there was no baozhang in the Great Yan Dynasty, so the authority of the lizheng is still quite large.
Tang Shiyue rolled her eyes and quietly went over to remind Tang Shunzi: "Third Uncle, why don't you go and invite our clan leader? What if the chief favors Chen Laizi? He's our uncle!"
Tang Shunzi was reminded by her words and said repeatedly, "Yes, yes!" and trotted away.
Chen Lizheng had already heard the noise and came out. As everyone talked about the matter, Chen Lizheng's face turned black. Without saying a word, he kicked Chen Laizi in the head and said, "Tell me what you have been doing all day long!"
Chen Laizi huddled his head on the ground, not daring to look up, and only whispered, "Uncle, it's not me."
"If it's not you, then what's the matter with the tung oil in your house?"
Tung oil is poisonous and cannot be eaten. It is mainly used for external use to treat sores, detoxify, etc. Mountain people also prepare it to make torches, as sometimes they inevitably need to travel up the mountain at night.
Chen Laizitou said, "I use it to wipe my hair!"
Chen Lizheng said, "You use it to wipe your head, so just wipe it at home! Why are you wiping it outside Qi's house?"
Chen Laizi was originally a scoundrel and a poor man. He tried to think for a long time but couldn't come up with an answer. Then he exploded and jumped up: "He is just a foreigner. Why did he come to Jubao Village? He relies on his good looks and lacks ability. He is the only one who attracts attention in the village! I just don't like them!"
Chen Lizheng's beard trembled with anger, and he pointed at him: "Qiangzi! You unlucky thing... What others do has nothing to do with you! No matter how angry you are, you can't set fire to others' houses! How can they live if you burn down their houses!"
Chen Laizi stuck his neck out and said, "That was originally the Chen family's house! We lent it to him for free! It's not his house!"
"You still dare to be stubborn!" Chen Lizheng kicked him again, "Why don't you apologize to Qi Xiaolang right now!"
Chen Laizitou said: "Why?"
"Are you going to listen to me?" Chen Lizheng glared at him and said, "If you don't listen to me, I will slap you to death!"
Chen Laizitou immediately shrank his neck. His parents died early, and he was most afraid of this uncle. He dared not speak. Then Chen Lizheng said, "Hurry up!"
Chen Laizi hummed and turned to look for Qi Jing.
At this time, someone said, "This is not just about setting fire to the house, this is about killing people!" As these words came, the head of the Tang family slowly walked over, and Chen Lizheng's brows immediately frowned.
The head of the Tang family stroked his beard and said slowly, "My little brother is still in the house. This is a life! Qiangzi, you are hurting him like this, don't you feel guilty?"
Chen Lizheng and the head of the Tang family had been competing with each other secretly. Chen Laizitou did not accept him and cursed: "He's just a fool! What a piece of shit! So what if I burn him to death! And there are still people who meddle in other people's business! Bah!" He glared at Tang Shiyue fiercely.
Tang Shiyue had a confused look on her face and looked very well-behaved.
In fact, she had already prepared a plan in mind on how to pretend to be an eyewitness, but she didn't expect that she was not needed at all, and Chen Laizi confessed... To be honest, people these days are really simple-minded!
Chen Lizheng's face turned black with anger.
He twisted the murder for money into arson to vent his anger, but it was a pity that the stupid Chen Laizito didn't understand the meaning at all and actually admitted it without hesitation.
In front of the head of the Tang family, he couldn't let him off the hook anymore, so he said with a dark face: "You are right to harm someone's life! Where's the Buddha statue? Hurry and give it to him!"
"What Buddha statue? I didn't enter the house, I didn't see any Buddha statue!" Since he had already confessed, Chen Laizi said in a careless manner: "I just wanted to burn his kid to death, burn down his house, and make him get out of our village!"
Qi Jing and Qi Yang had been standing in a corner. Seeing him so arrogant, they couldn't help but angrily asked, "How did I offend you that you are so vicious?"
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