No one could hear what he was saying.
Meanwhile, no one had time to listen to what he was saying; the main task now was to interrogate Hao Lizheng.
Nobody believed him when he said it was for Wang Youcai!
No matter how they asked, Hao Lizheng just sneered and remained silent.
Seeing him like this, the villagers' already angry hearts grew even angrier, and the Wang family and Dazhuang family even wanted to beat him to death!
The village chief stopped them in time.
"This is a ruthless killer. We can't afford to get our hands dirty with his blood. Let's hand him over to the authorities!"
As he spoke, he sent someone to invite Yang Qiuci over.
When Yang Qiuci learned that the "evil spirit" of Anping Village was actually Hao Lizheng from the neighboring village, even the usually cold and stoic Yang Qiuci almost couldn't resist smashing the beast to death.
Many villagers also heard the commotion and rushed over.
Da Bao's mother also came.
Last night, when Da Bao's mother heard Qian Bao say that they had retrieved many children's remains, she immediately thought of her two sons who had fallen into the well.
She rushed over.
There were many children's skulls and bones by the well, but only bones remained.
She couldn't tell which of her children was which.
Unable to recognize them, she hugged all the bones that had been salvaged tightly.
She didn't want to cry.
She didn't want her dead child to worry, but tears streamed down her face uncontrollably.
She didn't want to cry out loud, but how could she bear to look at so many children's remains that had died so tragically?
She went from suppressing quiet sobs to heart-wrenching cries, and then to fainting several times from crying.
Even now, her eyes are still bloodshot.
There are many other families whose children were killed in the same way as hers. Last night, when everyone heard Da Bao's mother crying, they all ran out to see what was happening.
They also saw the child's remains.
Everyone's eyes were red from crying, and they wished they could skin that beast alive right away!
Upon learning that it was Hao Lizheng who was behind this, they all seemed to go crazy and rushed over to tear Hao Lizheng apart.
The village chief cannot allow anyone to get their hands dirty with human blood.
Because if Hao Lizheng dies at their hands, they will face legal trouble, which is not worth it!
He quickly ordered his brothers to stop them...
Before he could speak, several soldiers rushed in from outside the door, blocking the angry villagers and shouting at them to retreat.
General Cui then rushed in.
He thought the villagers were going to harm the Tian family.
Tian Laosan was also outside. Upon seeing this, he quickly came over to explain to General Cui.
He also told General Cui about all the evil deeds Hao Lizheng had done.
General Cui frowned as he listened, and as he turned to look at Hao Lizheng, he picked up Guoguo and held her in his arms.
He then turned to his bodyguard and gave him a few instructions.
The guards immediately responded and left.
When the guards returned, they not only had an extra carriage, but also several more brothers and the prefect.
To be precise, he is the new prefect.
Yesterday, General Cui reported the prefect who had colluded with Tian Laoda to the emperor, and the emperor dismissed the prefect from his post that very night.
The current prefect is a man in his 30s.
But we can talk about that later; let's deal with Hao Lizheng first.
The new prefect first greeted General Cui.
General Cui didn't have time to waste words with him, and directly had Tian Laosan repeat what he had told him to the new prefect.
Finally, General Cui asked, "Such a beast who disregards human life, is it not too much for me to punish him?"
He appeared to be asking the new prefect, but in reality, regardless of whether the new prefect agreed or not, he had already made this decision!
The new prefect was originally General Cui's man!
How could he possibly say "no"?
Of course he had to agree quickly. As for what would happen if His Majesty found out about this and questioned why they didn't follow the normal procedures?
At worst, he can just use his silver tongue to talk to the emperor properly!
The emperor is a wise ruler and will certainly not blame you!
Therefore, he quickly and respectfully replied to General Cui, "No problem!"
He nodded, and General Cui immediately ordered his guards to remove the instruments of torture.
At the same time, Hao Lizheng was moved to the front door so that he wouldn't dirty the Tian family's courtyard.
The instruments of torture included nail boards, branding irons, finger crushers, and rusty nails.
They started with a nail board, nails of varying lengths like thumbtacks hammered into a wooden board, stripping Hao Lizheng down to his undergarments and making him roll on it.
The nail board was a full 3 meters long. If Hao Lizheng didn't want to roll, he would be whipped to roll.
The pain made him scream in agony, and all his previous bravado was gone.
General Cui is about to undergo the second form of torture.
The village chief was the first to come over and ask, "General, may we ask you a question?"
Everyone felt relieved when Hao Lizheng was punished, but at the same time, they still had questions: why did he want to harm people?
General Cui didn't ask any further questions and agreed.
The village chief then asked Hao Lizheng, who was already suffering terribly from the first torture, so how could he not answer!
He quickly said…
It turns out, it was all because of jealousy and self-interest!
Anping Village and Haojia Village were originally poor villages, but Lin Chunde discovered that growing black fungus could make him rich.
The two villages then started cultivating wood ear mushrooms together.
As a result, for some unknown reason, even though the same method was used, the wood ear mushrooms in Anping Village grew larger than those in Haojia Village.
Larger wood ear mushrooms naturally fetch a better price.
The two villages, which were originally economically comparable, soon diverged, with Anping Village gradually becoming wealthier than Haojia Village.
Even the village head's residence was built in Anping Village.
Furthermore, the higher-ups said that the village head would be chosen from among their own village leaders, and Hao, the village head, had given many gifts to the higher-ups, and it seemed that the position of village head was about to be his...
But at that moment, Yang Qiuci descended from the sky!
All the injustices suffered by Hao Lizheng made his mind increasingly twisted, to the point that he even contemplated killing the people of Anping Village and driving away the village head and the headman.
After that, he had the idea of becoming the new village head!
The villagers all sighed with emotion upon hearing this.
After Hao Lizheng finished speaking, it seemed as if all the resentment he had accumulated over the years had been released, and he suddenly burst into laughter.
It's like he's gone mad...
The villagers became even angrier when they saw him like this.
To want to kill innocent people for one's own selfish desires is simply worse than an animal.
Everyone was shouting that they wanted to kill him!
General Cui, in accordance with public opinion, gave his personal guards a meaningful look.
Soon, guards came and used finger-crushing instruments to pinch Hao Lizheng's hands. Hao Lizheng screamed like a pig being slaughtered from the pain, and even fainted from the pain.
The guards immediately branded him with a red-hot iron, which jolted him awake, followed by screams of agony.
That's not all, next came the rusty nails.
The guards drove 100 nails into Hao Lizheng's limbs. The rusty nails were especially painful to the touch.
Hao Lizheng was in so much pain that his veins bulged all over his body, and his eyes almost popped out several times; one can imagine the agony he was experiencing.
Even so, he remained incorrigible!
Never beg for mercy!
Seeing this, the guards hammered the nails harder and harder, until Hao Lizheng died from the pain before all the nails were driven in.
The villagers present laughed and cried, shouting that they felt great. Afterwards, they all knelt down to thank the villagers of Qingshan Village and General Cui.
If it weren't for them, who knows how many more people would have died in the village.
If it weren't for them, Anping Village would still have treated the village head of Haojia Village as an honored guest!
The village chief quickly told everyone to stand up and said things like they were all family from now on, which made the villagers of Anping Village grateful.
After finally managing to coax everyone back, the village chief still had important matters to discuss with the villagers of Qingshan Village.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com