Chapter 4 Three-Court Joint Trial on the Thawing Ground
The donkey cart chugged along the road again, this time at a much slower pace.
The car only carried Gu Baobao, an injured person who needed special protection, and Wu Guixiang and Gu Dahe, who had to stay with her.
Gu Jianqiang was worried and insisted on going with the car, but the old man glared at him.
"You run after me! Who's responsible if the donkey gets exhausted? The brigade leader's face turned green!"
Helpless, Gu Jianqiang had no choice but to run alongside his brothers and nephews who had come after hearing the news, following the donkey cart.
Good heavens, the Gu family had five strong sons, plus a dozen or so grandsons, a total of over twenty men.
Wearing patched old clothes, they ran and kicked up clouds of dust. If you didn't know better, you'd think it was a militia training exercise!
People from other villages who passed by were dumbfounded.
On the donkey cart, Wu Guixiang held her granddaughter, her heart aching terribly, and kept cursing the Zhang family as scoundrels.
Gu Baobao, with her eyes half-closed, leaned against her grandmother's chest, looking weak and pitiful, but in reality...
[Host, brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!]
The system's electronic voice rang in Gu Baobao's mind, carrying a kind of excited, gossipy tone.
These eye drops are like a gentle rain, nourishing silently, yet they're incredibly effective at destroying one's spirit! Look how angry they've made your family, look how anxious they've made the team leader!
This system was almost fooled by your acting; it thought you were genuinely terrified!
Gu Baobao rolled her eyes inwardly:
"Shut up. I'm here to seek justice for the original owner. Zhang Pandi's crime was attempted murder, and although it failed, it's enough to make her suffer."
In this day and age, a bad reputation, especially one of viciousness and murder, basically ruins a person's life. I call this giving them a taste of their own medicine.
[Yes, yes, yes, host is wise! However...]
Deford paused.
[Your poor little act is so convincing! All those classic innocent... no, classic weak and delicate characters in this system's database have to step aside.]
It is suggested that the host may consider exchanging for 'Acting Skills Mastery (Beginner)', which only costs 5 merit points and is a great value...
No trade, no money, get out.
Gu Baobao refused without hesitation.
She needs to save the 10 merit points she just earned for something worthwhile.
Defu: [...]
The host is fierce, but it dares not say so.
The donkey cart swayed and rocked until finally the low mud-brick houses and wisps of smoke from the chimneys of Qinghetun came into view.
Li Guoqiang had something on his mind, so he flicked the whip lightly, and the donkey quickened its pace.
The Gu family men who were running behind them also breathed a sigh of relief, but the anger they had been holding back only grew stronger.
As soon as the donkey cart stopped in front of the Gu family's house, Li Guoqiang didn't even have time to drink a sip of water before running straight to the threshing ground, raising his arm, and striking the cast iron bell with a "clang, clang, clang".
The urgent tolling of the bell echoed throughout the small village, and all the villagers—whether they were working in the fields, cooking at home, or chatting at the village entrance—were stunned.
This bell isn't ringing for work hours or for a major meeting. Why is it ringing so urgently? What major event has happened?
When people gathered at the threshing ground in confusion, they saw the brigade leader, Li Guoqiang, standing next to the stone mill, his face so serious it looked like it could be squeezed dry.
The entire Gu family, except for Gu Baobao who needed to "rest" and was being helped to sit on a long bench by Wu Guixiang,
The other men all stood to the side with dark faces and arms crossed, creating an atmosphere reminiscent of a joint trial.
"Team members, quiet! Everyone, quiet down!"
Li Guoqiang waved his hand, silencing the murmurs, cleared his throat, and spoke in a loud voice.
"This afternoon, a vicious assault occurred at the entrance of our village! Everyone saw it—Gu Baobao, the girl from the Gu family, had a head injury and was bleeding profusely; she almost died!"
A stir ran through the crowd as they looked at Gu Baobao, whose head was wrapped in thick bandages, her face pale, shivering in her grandmother's arms. Many of the older women showed expressions of sympathy.
Although this chubby girl from the Gu family isn't particularly pretty and has a somewhat simple-minded personality, she's never argued with anyone and is a very honest child. How did she end up suffering like this?
Li Guoqiang continued:
"But! She didn't fall by accident! She was pushed down maliciously!"
"What? Pushed?"
"Who is it? So heartless!"
"My God, this could kill someone!"
The discussion grew louder.
Li Guoqiang took a deep breath, his sharp gaze sweeping across the crowd:
"The one who pushed the person was Zhang Pandi, the third daughter of Zhang Tiezhu from the Zhang family!"
"boom--!"
The threshing ground was in complete chaos!
"Zhang Pandi?! The one who's always been quiet?"
"Oh dear, you can never truly know a person's heart just by looking at their face!"
"He usually seems honest and unassuming, how could he be so ruthless?"
"Why? What grudge does she have against the chubby girl from the Gu family?"
Li Guoqiang raised his hand to suppress the noise again, and after organizing his thoughts slightly, he repeated Gu Baobao's words from the clinic to everyone:
"...Zhang Pandi cursed Gu Baobao as a money-loser, and was jealous that Gu Baobao had eggs to eat, so he tried to snatch them, but Gu Baobao wouldn't give them to him."
She then viciously shoved Gu Baobao from behind, causing her head to hit a rock and nearly kill her! Afterwards, she said extremely malicious things!
This is extremely serious! This isn't child's play; this is intentional assault, a crime!
Now, sympathy has completely turned into anger and condemnation.
"Stealing eggs? These days, whose eggs aren't precious? You can't just steal them like that!"
"Exactly! You're just greedy and then you go and harm others? What kind of person is that!"
"Pushing people? That's murder!"
"Zhang Pandi is nineteen years old, isn't she? Her mind is too vicious! What family would dare to marry a wife like that? Wouldn't that be inviting the King of Hell into their home?"
"Tsk tsk, the Zhang family never treats their daughter like a human being, and the way they've raised her... she's rotten to the core!"
Public opinion was almost unanimously against the Zhang family.
At this moment, the Zhang family members, who had been invited out of their homes by the militia squad, also squeezed into the center of the crowd, looking disheveled.
Zhang Tiezhu was a thin, old man with his neck hunched and his eyes darting around.
His wife, Zhao Jinlan, had high cheekbones and a mean-looking face; at this moment, her face was pale and bluish.
The protagonist of the incident, Zhang Pandi, was being escorted by two young militiamen, and was so frightened that he was trembling uncontrollably.
Her head was bowed low, almost burying itself in her neck, her face covered in tears and snot, but she dared not cry out.
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