Chapter 493: Bai Yutang's

Originally Lao Wangtou had already been comforted by Su Yang and the others a little, his heart had relaxed a bit, but after hearing this, his anxious heart leapt up to his throat.

"Secretary Bai, you-you-you, what's going on? If someone dies, do they have to pay with their life? Will they really be shot? What should we do then?"

He has never caused such a big trouble in his life; this is it. In the past, when he saw police, he couldn't speak clearly; now he's even more panicked, not knowing what to do.

"It was my gun; I saw a rabbit and was aiming to shoot it, but then Gao Hai rolled down from over there and just happened to bump into the muzzle; I didn't mean to do it, and now I really don't know what to do."

Lao Wangtou was so frightened he was about to lose control of his bowels. What was just mentioned was merely jail time and fines; if handled leniently, it would be like Su Yang said—go to the Paichusuo to make a statement or something.

Now this has directly escalated to the point of facing execution; his three hun and seven po have been scared away, leaving only three hun and six po, basically he's on the verge of collapse.

At this moment, he kept muttering, "What should I do? If I'm really going to be shot, what should I do?"

Bai Yutang suddenly picked up some clues, he placed both hands on Lao Wangtou's shoulders and said, "Don't panic, steady yourself! What exactly happened? Tell me the whole story from start to finish!"

"I ask you, when you saw Gao Haisheng, had he already rolled down from above? You don't even know why he rolled down, right? Then you only fired the gun to shoot a wild rabbit, and Gao Haisheng accidentally bumped into your gun muzzle, causing him to be shot?"

Lao Wangtou nodded: "Yes, yes, yes, that's exactly it, exactly that!"

Bai Yutang continued asking, "Wasn't it that they had already fired their guns before you fired? By 'they fired,' I mean Chief Xiang and them, because besides you, only Chief Xiang and Director Su carried guns when they went up."

Lao Wangtou didn't understand what Bai Yutang meant, but he kept nodding anyway.

Bai Yutang immediately had an idea and said, "Alright, since that's the case, then I know what's going on. Now listen to me; maybe you can save your life and avoid jail time and fines!"

Upon hearing this, Lao Wangtou felt as if he saw a savior; he actually threw himself to the ground and kowtowed to Bai Yutang, saying, "Thank you, Secretary Bai! As long as you don't let me go to jail, be fined, or eat a bullet, I'll do anything you ask; I'll even be an ox or horse to repay you!"

Bai Yutang said, "We're all fellow villagers; you're saying that's off-topic. I'm just helping you out of pity, offering some ideas, thinking of solutions. Now you must remember every word I say."

Regardless of whether Gao Haisheng is okay or not, you will definitely be called to the Paichusuo to give a statement, or go to the district/county Public Security Bureau to describe what happened on scene; of course other departments could get involved, but no matter what, remember: you must never admit that you fired the gun!

Just say that after you went up, you originally wanted to check if anyone was illegally hunting there, but after going up the mountain you got tired, so you left your gun on the mountain and went elsewhere to look for people hunting illegally.

Then you heard gunshots, and then you saw someone rolling down from the mountain; at that moment you ran over and caught the person who was about to fall off the cliff. This way, you would not only be blameless, you might even earn merit and receive a reward.

Lao Wangtou has been honest and simple all his life; suddenly asking him to lie to cover up his crime and even claim merit is something he simply cannot do. Moreover he knows he cannot lie or do such things; for a moment he doesn't know how to respond to this cadre who is being good to him.

Bai Yutang also saw that, so he continued, "If you say you feel guilty inside…… no, can't do that! You must say that from the start! Because later someone will definitely come ask you, and then you'll feel really forced by them to have no choice, and only then will you change your story to say the gun was fired by you."

"But before you fired, you saw someone on the mountain push Gao Haisheng, and then Gao Haisheng rolled down from above! At that time you must insist on saying that, got it?"

Although this story is full of loopholes and inherently contradictory, Bai Yutang clearly understands that he's doing this to buy time, to completely eliminate any possibility of Su Yang becoming Township Party Committee Secretary during this period.

As long as he officially becomes Township Party Committee Secretary, even if the truth of this matter comes out, what can be done? Moreover he knows Su Yang has connections behind him; Lao Wangtou will definitely be questioned and spill the truth; what he needs most now is time, to stop Su Yang from getting the project underway and securing funds during this period; most importantly, he needs Su Yang to have the development project for Xiushui Mountain approved by the Tourism Department and Tourism Bureau, so that he can reap the benefits later.

Thinking of this, he again instructed Lao Wangtou, "Remember what I say! Otherwise you'll definitely be shot, and also fined, and they'll even tear down your house; I'm telling you, this responsibility is something you can't bear! I won't say more; for now just pretend nothing happened and honestly do your work here."

After saying that, he wanted to quickly call Su Yang or catch up with him. But when he ran to the place where they had just been riding motorcycles, he discovered Su Yang and them had already left; even if he had wings on his legs he couldn't catch up, so he thought of this, took out his phone and called Su Yang.

At that moment, Su Yang was already on the motorcycle, glanced at Gao Haisheng's injury, felt somewhat relieved; it was just a bullet to the abdomen, possibly just a temporary unconsciousness, wouldn't cause death, nor leave any aftereffects.

After receiving Bai Yutang's call, Su Yang thought for a moment, pressed the answer button, wanting to know what this old thing wanted to say.

"Director Su, just now you all rushed off and I couldn't keep up. Gao Haisheng is injured; this is a big deal, but we must keep the impact within what we can control, absolutely cannot let it spread, nor let the county leadership know!"

"The reason I say this is because you're now in charge of the whole township's work, and Xiushui Mountain is also within our Xiushui Township's management scope; if this gets out, you're the primary person responsible for the incident! Moreover this matter also involves you and Chief Xiang; once the higher-ups find out, aside from various investigations, you might even be punished."

"'So we must suppress this matter completely; I'll instruct the people here, and then you all just act as if nothing happened, directly send him to the hospital for treatment and that's it!'"