Chapter 212: Rural Absurd Past Events Chapter 212: The Real Culprit Turns Out to Be Someone Else

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

The moment Zhang Zhongtian spoke, He Dashu's body trembled, a trace of panic flashing in his eyes — he was clearly guilty.

Wang Zhanggen spoke up at this moment, cursing loudly:

"Damn it, He Dashu, has your conscience been eaten by dogs? You even dismantled and sold the school gate! Shanggou Village Primary School is the only school in our village!"

The gamblers in the den all showed stunned expressions upon hearing this.

Even the school gate was dismantled and sold — that's going too far.

But He Dashu hurriedly denied it at this moment:

"It wasn't me, I didn't steal, why would I steal that thing!"

Wang Zhanggen said angrily:

"You still have the nerve to quibble? I just went to Shanggou Village Primary School — everything inside has been cleaned out. In our village, besides you, who else would do such a thing? Back when my family was building the house, you even stole my steel bars and cement!"

He Dashu still denied it:

"It really wasn't me. I wouldn't steal from the primary school no matter what — I still have my bottom line. That's where I once studied; how could I possibly steal from it?"

Seeing He Dashu's shameless, dead-to-shame face, Zhang Zhongtian asked impatiently:

"If not you, then who? I had you keep watch, and the school got cleaned out without you even coming to tell me!"

He Dashu's face showed a bitter smile:

"I've had some other matters to attend to these past few days, just didn't go keep watch for a few days. Before that I always went to keep watch. Didn't expect it would get cleaned out just like that."

Seeing He Dashu's attitude, Zhang Zhongtian was even more displeased.

"Fine, fine, fine. You won't admit it, huh? I'm calling the police right now, let them investigate. You'll have a bad time then — prison food is inevitable for you!"

He Dashu's face looked very ugly, but he remained hard-mouthed:

"Call the police then. Anyway, it definitely wasn't me who stole! That big iron gate at Shanggou Village Primary School is so heavy — even if I stole it I couldn't carry it away!"

In the end, Zhang Zhongtian really did report it to the police.

About half an hour later, people from the Town Police Station arrived in a police car.

They first found Zhang Zhongtian, then under his guidance went to Shanggou Village Primary School to collect evidence.

Seeing the desolate scene at Shanggou Village Primary School, the police couldn't help but say:

"The school only has some scrap copper and iron left — even if stolen and sold it wouldn't fetch much. Old Zhang, why not let this go? I reckon it's most likely your own villagers who did it. Anyway the school's already closed down, the stuff left inside is useless anyway."

The officer at the station knew Zhang Zhongtian. As Village Committee Secretary of Shanggou Village, Zhang Zhongtian ran to the Town Government every few days — his connections were quite extensive by now.

But Zhang Zhongtian said:

"No. This must be pursued to the end. Thieves can sneak into the village to steal chickens and dogs, can go steal fruit from orchards — but they absolutely cannot steal from the school. That's the bottom line!"

The station officer could only smile helplessly and bitterly:

"Alright then. We'll file a case and investigate. If we catch your fellow villagers, and you end up tearing faces and making enemies with them — don't blame us!"

Zhang Zhongtian said:

"You just investigate. The rest doesn't need thinking about!"

Zhang Zhongtian thought: it's just offending He Dashu, a Five Guarantees Household — what does he have to fear?

This kind of thing is actually very easy to investigate.

The thief stole the school's desks, chairs, big iron gate, etc. — nothing more than to sell for money.

And the only channel to sell these things is the scrap yard.

So the police comrades visited several scrap yards in town and immediately locked onto the suspect.

But to their surprise, the thief who cleaned out Shanggou Village Primary School turned out not to be He Dashu!

The scrap yard boss who bought the school's big iron gate told the police: the ones who hauled the big iron gate to the scrap yard to sell were two young guys.

One had hair dyed purple with a slanted fringe; the other had green hair and a stud on his nose.

Based on the clue provided by the scrap yard boss, the police quickly found the real culprits.

Shockingly, they were two dropout teenagers from Shanggou Village.

The one with purple hair was named Yang Jiahao — son of Yang Xiaocai from Shanggou Village. Yang Xiaocai had previously clashed with Li Xiulan because she was building a new house and needed to transport materials past his door, and he deliberately made things difficult.

The green-haired one was named Zhang Jiajun. His father was Zhang Defa, a regular at the village gambling den, idle and lazy, barely working.

Yang Jiahao and Zhang Jiajun were only fifteen this year — even younger than Wang Xiaohua. They hadn't even finished junior high year three before dropping out, and didn't go out to work — just idled around the countryside. They often rode a modified motorcycle into town to rev their engines, hanging out with those non-mainstream youths in town who had dropped out early and mixed in society.

When the police caught them, they were still giggling and laughing.

They completely failed to realize the seriousness of the matter.

The police asked if they were the ones who stole everything from inside Shanggou Village Primary School. They admitted it with a couldn't-care-less attitude, saying they wanted money to buy phones, saw the school had no one guarding it, so they stole. While speaking, they even couldn't help laughing smugly.

As if being caught and brought to the police station for questioning was some glorious thing.

Seeing these two good-for-nothing youths who were beyond help, the police were also speechless deep down.

Because they were still minors, and the juvenile detention center had already been abolished — so in the end there really was no way to deal with them. They could only notify the parents to come pick them up, and make the parents compensate for the losses inside Shanggou Village Primary School.

However, unexpectedly, when Yang Xiaocai arrived at the police station, not only was he unwilling to compensate, he coldly said:

"Just a few pounds of scrap copper and iron from the primary school — what's with the big fuss? My son was just fooling around — what crime is that!"

Zhang Jiajun's father, Zhang Defa, wore a stiff face with an utterly indifferent expression:

"Compensation is impossible. Just lock my son up. I won't pay a single cent. A few years inside is fine too — food and lodging provided, saves me the worry."

Seeing this, Zhang Zhongtian didn't know whether to cry or laugh.

After all, they were children from the village, and even he, the Village Committee Secretary, couldn't pursue the matter too far.

In the end, he could only compromise and let the Police drop the case; it would be best to resolve this matter internally.

Wang Zhanggen, however, was very unwilling:

"Secretary Zhang, they stole everything from the entire Primary School, and you're just letting them go like this?"

Zhang Zhongtian smiled bitterly:

"They're all people from Shanggou Village; we have to see each other every day. Besides, children in their rebellious teenage phase making some mistakes is normal. Continuing to pursue it will only create conflict and won't recover anything."

Zhang Zhongtian also said self-mockingly:

"Anyway, I was planning to renovate Shanggou Village Primary School anew. Now they've helped me dismantle and take away everything inside the school to sell, saving me the trouble of hiring Workers to demolish it. Hiring Workers to demolish would cost quite a bit of money! Them helping me demolish it is free!"

Wang Zhanggen was speechless at this.

He felt that Yang Jiahao and Zhang Jiajun, these two children, simply lacked discipline and needed a good cleaning up. They even dared to steal from the place where they studied — simply utterly without bottom line!

Truly, morals are declining. No matter how bad people were in the past, they would still hold respect for schools. No matter how desperate, they would never steal from a school!

Even He Dashu never thought of going to steal things from the Primary School!

Today's young people, not even starving to death, actually stole the Primary School clean just to buy Mobile Phones!

One doesn't know what they have inside their Funeral Item!

Because of this matter, Wang Zhanggen became enemies with Yang Xiaocai again.

Yang Xiaocai attributed all the responsibility for his son being taken by the Police for questioning to Wang Zhanggen. He felt that if Wang Zhanggen hadn't gone to Zhang Zhongtian's Home to tattle, the theft at Shanggou Village Primary School wouldn't have blown up this big, and his son wouldn't have been taken by the Police for questioning.

It was all caused by Wang Zhanggen.

So when they came out of the Police Station, Yang Xiaocai immediately pointed at Wang Zhanggen and cursed violently:

"Wang Zhanggen, don't you fucking think having Three Sons makes you something special. You insist on making things impossible between our families, right? You just wait, I'll make you pay a painful price!"