Chapter 1191

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

Those two police officers' attitudes changed, and they started doing things efficiently.

They immediately went to the village to conduct door-to-door investigations.

The remaining population of Shanggou Village wasn't large to begin with, so by the time they finished around seven o'clock in the evening, they had already questioned everyone once, and then summoned everyone to the Wenhua Room Square.

One of the officers shouted at the top of his voice, saying to everyone:

"We've already conducted door-to-door investigations and basically locked onto the culprit, but we won't go arrest them directly. After all, we have to give the culprit a chance to turn over a new leaf. So we'll go back to the police station first, then come back tomorrow at noon. If the culprit can surrender at the police station before we arrive at Shanggou Village tomorrow at noon, we'll help them fight for lenient treatment. But if the culprit doesn't know what's good for them and refuses to confess, then when we put handcuffs on them tomorrow at noon, we'll have to handle it strictly according to the law!"

The other officer said:

"That culprit, don't think this is a small matter. Poisoning is a criminal offense, and the sentence will be heavy — at least three years to start. If it causes major consequences, like someone eating fish from the pond and dying from poisoning, then it's at least ten years, even life imprisonment."

The crowd below whispered among themselves, murmuring quietly.

Everyone was very curious — who could be so heartless as to poison Wang Erhai's fish pond?

Only one person had a heavy expression, palms gripping a handful of cold sweat.

That person was Liang Xinghua.

After the police finished speaking, they left in the police car.

Wang Erhai wanted to keep them for lunch, but they all declined, saying they don't take a single needle or thread from the masses, let alone eat a meal from the masses.

That night, Liang Xinghua lay in bed tossing and turning, unable to sleep.

Lan Menglian beside him was disturbed, very impatient:

"What's wrong with you? Not letting people sleep!"

Liang Xinghua really couldn't hold it in anymore, and finally confessed:

"Tell me, should I go surrender at the town police station tomorrow morning?"

"What?" Lan Menglian was stunned, instantly awake, hurriedly sitting up from the bed: "No, don't tell me Wang Erhai's fish pond was poisoned by you!"

Liang Xinghua's face looked very ugly, and he said truthfully:

"It really was me who poisoned it."

"How could you be so reckless? I was just saying it casually, and you actually went and did it!"

Liang Xinghua gave a bitter laugh:

"Hehe, isn't it because Wang Erhai kept screwing me over? Seeing him back in the village still making so much money, I got angrier the more I thought about it, so this morning while Li Xiulan and Zhou Aidi were away, I went to town and bought three packets of Huangteng Jing and threw them in. I just wanted to punish that kid Wang Erhai a bit, thought it was just a small matter. Didn't expect the police to say it's a big deal, that it could mean prison time..."

Liang Xinghua really didn't know this kind of thing carried a prison sentence. He was just someone ignorant of the law, just like back at Liguo Mountain when he misappropriated public funds — at first he didn't think it was a big deal either.

One can only say when a person's ignorance reaches a certain level, they lose all sense of proportion in their actions.

"The police have probably really investigated me by now. Those three packets of Huangteng Jing, I threw the packaging away casually after using them. I really was stupid — why didn't I take the packaging with me? They'll trace it through the packaging and definitely find out I bought them!"

The more Liang Xinghua spoke, the more fearful he became. He surprisingly didn't regret poisoning Wang Erhai's pond, but regretted not disposing of the poison packaging properly, regretted leaving clues for the police!

"Maybe I should go surrender tomorrow morning, hope to get leniency for confessing..."

Liang Xinghua was extremely fearful. The police hadn't even found him yet, but he was already completely uncalm.

But this is normal. He's just an ordinary person, not a criminal with hardened psychological fortitude.

The police said in front of the whole village that they'd already found out who the culprit was. It's just that since everyone's from the same village, they gave him a chance to surrender — that's why they didn't arrest him immediately!

Under these circumstances, how could he stay calm?

So tonight he directly couldn't sleep, and cold sweat broke out on his back, growing more afraid the more he thought.

After learning the situation, Lan Menglian instead said:

"You're reckless. If you go surrender, even with leniency it'll probably be at least three years! Didn't you hear those two police officers? Lightest is three years, heaviest is life imprisonment!"

Liang Xinghua was full of fear:

"Then what do I do?"

Lan Menglian said:

"You run tonight. Right now. Immediately. Flee to another place. As long as you run, they can't do anything to you!"

Liang Xinghua hesitated a bit:

"If I run, what about you and our daughter?"

Lan Menglian said:

"If you go in, me and our daughter will have even less way to live! You hurry up and run. Just send money back every few days from now on!"

Liang Xinghua thought about it, and it made sense.

So that very night, he went to the neighboring village to borrow a motorcycle, rode through the night to town, then took a vehicle from town to the county city.

Arriving at the county city side, because he couldn't find a vehicle to Guangzhou, he found a small guesthouse to stay one night.

But he didn't know that by listening to Lan Menglian's terrible advice and running like this, he was truly cutting off his own way out!

If he had gone to surrender immediately, and sincerely apologized to Wang Erhai and admitted his mistake, gaining Wang Erhai's forgiveness, perhaps in the end he wouldn't even have been sentenced!

But by fleeing like this to avoid punishment, that's absolutely an aggravated crime!

Getting Wang Erhai to forgive him should be impossible now.

Additionally, he probably would never have imagined that those two police officers, after visiting the whole village, hadn't actually locked onto him as the culprit. The reason they gathered all the villagers at the Wenhua Room Square and claimed they already knew who the culprit was — that was just a psychological tactic.

In the blink of an eye it was the next day at noon. The police still hadn't waited for the poisoning culprit to come surrender.

So they went to Shanggou Village again, gathered all the villagers. One look, and among the villagers who were all there yesterday, today only Liang Xinghua was missing.

Then they asked his wife Lan Menglian, and Lan Menglian hemmed and hawed, very clearly guilty.

They immediately locked onto Liang Xinghua, and then, holding Liang Xinghua's photo, went to every pesticide store in town to inquire; they soon found out that Liang Xinghua had bought three packs of Huangteng Jing at the Hai Ji Pesticide Store in town yesterday.

Huangteng Jing is something that normally sells very little, so the pesticide store boss recognized Liang Xinghua at once.

To clear himself, the boss also told the police:

"Comrade Police, this person said he bought Huangteng Jing to clean his own fish pond; I didn't know he was taking it to poison people, you can't blame us!"

After the police locked onto Liang Xinghua, they then brought Lan Menglian to the police station and had Lan Menglian call Liang Xinghua, asking where Liang Xinghua was now; Liang Xinghua said he was still at the Huixin Guesthouse in the county town, planning to drive back to Guangzhou in the afternoon.

Actually, the reason he still hadn't left the county town was because he was still hesitating over whether or not to turn himself in.

However, he thought back and forth, but could never make up his mind.

As a result of this delay, the police no longer needed him to turn himself in.

They directly sent people to the county town, raided the Huixin Guesthouse, and arrested him.