Chapter 1246

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

"Pin him down!"

At Zhong Hongtao's command, he had two men pin Wang Zhanggen down.

As a township cadre, he had plenty of experience dealing with this kind of unreasonable troublemaker.

He naturally knew that by this point there was no longer any need for discussion.

Pin down the one shouting the loudest, and everything would naturally quiet down swiftly.

Sure enough, once Wang Zhanggen was pinned, no one else came forward to stop him from opening the coffin.

"Top Scorer, my apologies, I'm just following the rules."

Zhong Hongtao wore an expression of impartial integrity.

Seeing this, Wang Xiaohua could only sigh.

This matter didn't affect him much; he didn't feel Zhong Hongtao opening the coffin for inspection was wrong — the man was indeed just following procedure.

Only this matter would likely deal a huge blow to his father Wang Zhanggen.

Take right now, for instance — the pinned Wang Zhanggen was furious, seething with anger.

Cursing nonstop under his breath.

He cursed eighteen generations of Zhong Hongtao's ancestors.

"You surnamed Zhong, got any humanity left? When your old man died, did anyone pry open his coffin to examine the corpse? We've said it over and over — no body, no body! All these people watching, everyone can testify for my family! Why do you still have to open the coffin!"

Zhong Hongtao turned a deaf ear to Wang Zhanggen's curses.

He simply waved a hand and had his subordinates go pry open the coffin for inspection.

They'd brought iron pry bars — clearly they'd come prepared.

On top of that, this wasn't any valuable coffin; the coffins used for first burial around here are basically all those relatively thin fir coffins, a few hundred yuan each — not coffins made of precious woods like nanmu, ironwood, or rosewood — so the quality was poor to begin with.

So in two or three moves, in the blink of an eye the coffin was pried open.

People from other regions might find this custom hard to understand.

Because nationwide, many places make their coffins very well.

As for why they make them so well, it's because they don't have the custom of bone-collection second burial; generally they're buried in one spot and basically never dug up again — equivalent to the coffin being the deceased's permanent residence.

But places with bone-collection second burial have different customs, because every three to five years they must perform the bone-collection second burial ceremony, and at that time no matter how beautiful or well-made the coffin, it has to be pried open.

So the quality requirements for first-burial coffins are never very high.

By this day and age, they don't even use coffins for burial anymore; when sending the body to the crematorium they just symbolically place the body in a coffin, then after burning it they put the ashes directly into a golden urn.

The coffin gets thrown into the crematorium and burned along with the deceased.

That kind of coffin has even worse quality.

After the coffin was opened, Zhong Hongtao walked over and took a look.

He discovered inside were indeed just some clothes — no corpse at all!

Only then did he believe what the Wang Family people had said.

He immediately hurriedly put on a smile and went around handing out cigarettes to Wang Erhai, Wang Xiaohua, Wang Dashan, and Wang Zhanggen one by one.

While handing out cigarettes he explained:

"Truly sorry, I really was just following procedure!"

Wang Erhai's face showed displeasure, but he still accepted the cigarette.

Wang Dashan also accepted Zhong Hongtao's cigarette with a speechless expression.

Wang Xiaohua, however, didn't take his cigarette, instead saying:

"Town Mayor Zhong, you actually could have used a more gentle method to handle this matter."

Zhong Hongtao gave an embarrassed laugh:

"Top Scorer, truly sorry, I'll personally come to your door to apologize later!"

Then he turned to face Wang Zhanggen — at this moment the two men Zhong Hongtao had brought were still pinning Wang Zhanggen's shoulders:

"Let go, let go!"

He walked up to Wang Zhanggen and held out a cigarette:

"Old sir, sorry about this, please forgive us for the difficulties of our work!"

"Cut that out!" Wang Zhanggen slapped away the cigarette Zhong Hongtao held out, breathing hard with rage, "I don't want your damn cheap smokes! Get lost!"

Zhong Hongtao could only wave a hand, bring his men along, and leave in a huff.

Wang Zhanggen's health was originally poor.

After such a shock, his complexion turned wrong.

Lips gone white, face turning blackish-purple.

"Dad, why don't you go back and rest?"

Wang Xiaohua hurriedly said this to Wang Zhanggen.

He was afraid Wang Zhanggen might suffer a mishap.

But Wang Zhanggen not only didn't listen, he stormed over in a rage and slapped Wang Xiaohua right across the face!

"Smack!"

A loud slap.

Everyone present was stunned.

"You university student, you really studied for nothing! Someone wants to pry open your wife's coffin, and you don't even resist!"

"Dad, don't be like this!"

Wang Dashan and Wang Erhai hurried over to pull Wang Zhanggen back.

Wang Xiaohua touched his own burning left cheek.

His face showed little expression; he only said to Lao Zan:

"Azan Zeng Shugong, continue!"

Several people fixed the coffin again, then continued the burial ceremony.

By the time the whole ceremony was done, it was already past two in the afternoon; only then did everyone descend the mountain and go home.

Back home, Wang Zhanggen's complexion looked even worse.

He kept muttering that his youngest son had read himself stupid, just a bookworm, didn't even know he was being bullied, simply stupid to death!

"Dad, you're actually afraid that when you're buried later, someone will also open your coffin halfway through, aren't you?"

Wang Xiaohua, who had stayed silent all this time, spoke this one sentence.

Wang Zhanggen seemed struck; his body trembled.

If he died, he truly didn't want cremation, burned by fire sizzling with oil, just like barbecued meat on a grill — how suffering would that be!

His soul would probably be burned to utter dispersion!

In a blink, evening arrived.

Zhong Hongtao personally came to the door to apologize, bringing two bottles of good wine and two cartons of good cigarettes.

Wang Zhanggen picked up a broom and tried to chase him out.

Fortunately Wang Dashan blocked him in time, preventing the conflict from escalating further.

"Old man, I truly apologize; I was just following the rules!"

Zhong Hongtao knew he was in the wrong, so he also said:

"Rest assured, I won't linger. I'll put down the gifts, say two sentences to you, and leave."

"Scram! Don't say two sentences, don't say two sentences, I don't want to hear even one!" Wang Zhanggen was very agitated.

Zhong Hongtao then said:

"Could it be you don't want to know who made the report call?"

At these words, Wang Xiaohua, Wang Erhai, and Wang Dashan all couldn't help but freeze.

Wang Zhanggen's anger also subsided a bit.

Zhong Hongtao spoke again:

"Actually, the one you should hate is the person who made the report call, not me, this person who just follows the rules."

Wang Xiaohua laughed at this:

"Town Mayor Zhong, when you opened the coffin you emphasized following the rules; if you're following the rules, you shouldn't be coming now to reveal the informant's information to us."

Zhong Hongtao gave an embarrassed laugh:

"Sometimes rules can be applied flexibly; as long as you don't tell and I don't tell, no one will know I broke the rules for you. This morning there were too many people, under the public eye, I was up on the stage — truly had no choice but to do it!"

Wang Zhanggen hurriedly said at this point:

"Don't listen to that bookworm's nonsense; you hurry up and say, who made the report call! I fuck his mother, let's see if I don't go hack him to death!"

Zhong Hongtao opened his mouth to say:

"It's Liang..."

"Town Mayor Zhong!" Wang Xiaohua hastily cut him off, "No need to say it, you hurry up and leave!"

Wang Xiaohua didn't want the conflict to escalate, that's why he cut him off.

Zhong Hongtao coming to say this now, where is he helping their Wang family, clearly he's just fanning the flames!

Originally this matter would pass after Wang Zhanggen digested it for a few days, but if Zhong Hongtao reveals the informant's information, Wang Zhanggen would still have to fight that person to the death!

That informant, no need to think, is definitely someone from Shangou Village itself, the kind you see every day with head down and head up!

Making things too stiff is bad for everyone!

Additionally, Wang Zhanggen saying he'll go hack the informant to death — this probably isn't just talk, he really could do it!

After all, he already went and hacked someone when he was young!

Now that he's old, his temper has become even more violent, and he knows he has an illness and his days are numbered — he'll probably be even more unscrupulous!