"Puff."
Sun Peng spat out a mouthful of tea and almost choked to death.
Even Lin Shengwen stepped closer. His already serious expression grew even more solemn, his eyes shining brightly.
"Human trafficking?"
This was a major, high-profile case. Ever since he arrived in Daxing County, he had not encountered a single interesting case.
"Yes." Tang Ning kept her flat tone, continuing to drop bombshells. "Tang Xingfa and Zhang Miao sold their daughter to Zhu Changling and Li Guilan's idiotic son to be his wife. The half-bag of grain they got as payment is still in the Tang Family root cellar."
Lin Shengwen had already unscrewed his fountain pen and was recording the details in the notebook he carried with him.
Then, every word the girl spoke grew more and more shocking.
"I am Tang Xingfa's daughter. My name is Tang Ning. Everyone in the village calls me Tang Daniu. I am only fifteen. I don't want to be sold to an idiot's family to bear an idiot's child. Li Guilan tied me up with rope, locked me in the woodshed, and gave me nothing to eat or drink. The idiot tried to rape me, so I bit him. Li Guilan beat me, so I knocked her down. Zhu Changling wouldn't let me leave, so I slashed his arm with a sickle and escaped. I don't want to be sold, I don't want to give birth to a little idiot in the future, and I don't want to die."
Sun Peng, standing to one side, clicked his tongue in astonishment. For such a frail young girl to escape from that kind of environment—just picture that scene...
Lin Shengwen's notes were extremely concise, recording only valid information.
Hearing this, he felt the despair in the voice of the girl named Tang Ning, and his pen tip paused.
He raised his head and met those calm, dark, fog-shrouded eyes.
"I didn't know where a path to survival was, so I felt my way here in the dark. I thought... the government wouldn't ignore me, and the police wouldn't watch me die."
With that, Tang Ning closed her eyes and collapsed to the floor!
"Oh my! Th-This is—"
Sun Peng was stunned into complete bewilderment.
He couldn't understand how she had been speaking just fine, calm and composed and methodical, only to collapse the moment she finished!
It was as if she had been saving up that one last breath just to finish speaking!
Lin Shengwen wrapped Tang Ning in his military overcoat and scooped her up into his arms.
"To the hospital. There are likely other injuries."
"Right, right, hurry to the hospital." Sun Peng ran out into the courtyard to push his bicycle. "Then this case—"
"Investigate Zhu Family Village. You stay with her at the hospital, leave the rest to me."
Tang Ning's body was weak to the extreme, her constitution ruined to begin with, compounded by hunger, imprisonment, beatings, and the crushing despair of being sold by her parents. She had long been on the brink of death, and the only thing that had kept her going until now was sheer willpower.
Zhu Family Village was also bustling with activity. Village Party Secretary Zhu Fugui rode the village's only bicycle back from a meeting in the county, only to find the villagers milling about in crowds.
"Why isn't anyone sleeping in the middle of the night? What's going on?"
"Uncle Fugui, Tang Daniu ran away! Xingfa's Daniu!"
"Ran away?"
Zhu Fugui got off his bicycle and hurriedly called out to someone to get the details.
There was nothing that happened in the village without him, the Party Secretary, knowing about it, and he was well aware that Zhu Changling and Li Guilan wanted to take in Goudan's wife.
Though he didn't approve in his heart, Zhu Family Village was called Zhu Family Village precisely because the Zhu surname was the largest clan. They were bound by flesh and bone, all relatives near or far.
That was the one thing on the old couple Changling's mind, and the Tang family was more than willing. Why should he play the villain? Even though he was the Party Secretary, if he stepped out to oppose it, his own clansmen wouldn't agree.
The policies from above were one thing, the villagers' mindset was another. Zhu Fugui wouldn't have been a slippery politician able to hold onto his position as Party Secretary for so many years if he lacked sense.
That was why he had gone to meetings early in the morning and only returned at this hour—just to miss the whole affair. If the people didn't press charges, the officials wouldn't investigate; even with a one-in-ten-thousand chance of trouble, he could keep himself out of it.
Hearing this now, his heart gave a violent jolt, and he was nearly scared out of his wits.
That meek, honest daughter of the Tang family actually had the guts to pull something like this off?
"What are you standing there stunned for!" He kicked a young man nearby. "Light the torches! Able-bodied men, come with me up to the back mountain to search for her. Women, search all around the village!"
The moment he thought about Tang Daniu losing her mind, running into the mountains, and meeting with some accident that cost her life, Zhu Fugui's head began to pound.
If a life was lost, the County Public Security Bureau and the Armed Forces Department would come investigating, and when that time came, he, the Party Secretary, would be in deep trouble!
No one had imagined that a country girl in the village who barely knew a few characters would dare to run far. She hadn't even been to the county town a few times; blind to the world, where could she possibly run?
She must have hurt someone, panicked, and hidden in the mountains—it wasn't like the village hadn't seen examples of kids getting into trouble, fearing a beating, and hiding in the hills.
Li Guilan had taken Zhu Goudan to the village doctor. His ear couldn't be stitched back on; the flesh had been bitten right through, and bloody pulp was spit out on the floor. All the doctor could do was sprinkle it with hemostatic powder and bandage it up. Even after the wound healed, a piece of it was bound to be missing.
Zhu Changling's arm had been gouged. The doctor saw that the wound was quite deep and told him to go to the county hospital for treatment, but unexpectedly, he thought it was too shameful and refused to go.
What could a barefoot doctor do? He only had those few standard tricks.
Fever tablets, pain relievers, and hemostatic powder.
No matter who came for treatment, administer medicine according to the symptoms; if it couldn't be treated, off to the county hospital.
Tonight, having treated Zhu Changling and his son back-to-back, the medicinal powder wasn't even enough, so he just hastily bandaged them up in a muddled rush.
Li Guilan felt her chest ache even more. Looking at her husband and son, she cursed bitterly.
"I hope that little whore doesn't come back alive, courting death... No, I'm going to the Tang family to demand an explanation!"
It was her first time in her life suffering such a huge loss, and the more she thought about it, the angrier she grew. Boiling with rage, she stormed over to the Tang family and kicked the door open.
"Tang Xingfa, Zhang Miao, get out here! I don't want the good daughter you raised anymore. Pay up! Give me back my money!"
Zhang Miao was inside the house rubbing her chest. The moment she heard what her daughter had done, she was so furious that her already scarce milk dried up completely.
Right then, Tang Tianbao was wailing loudly on the bed with hunger; the rice gruel hadn't even finished simmering yet.
Hearing the words "pay up," she grabbed a fire poker and rushed out.
"My good daughter went to your family and is gone now. I haven't even come looking to you for a person, and you dare make me pay? Besides, the deed is done—Daniu is your Zhu family's daughter-in-law now. A married daughter is like water poured out!"
"Oh, so that's how it is, Zhang Miao! I see how things are now. If you won't pay me back, fine—then I'll just go take back my Zhu family's money and grain myself!"
Li Guilan's execution was swift. Mid-sentence, she rushed straight into the root cellar to carry out the grain bags, and the Tang family naturally wouldn't let her take them.
The two families stood at a stalemate, looking on the verge of a brawl, when someone called out:
"Is this Tang Xingfa's house?"
The few of them looked over and saw several figures in military overcoats appearing at the entrance.
"We're from the County Public Security Bureau and the Armed Forces Department. Is this Tang Xingfa's house?"
The leader, handsome and of impressive height, asked again with a stern expression.
Li Guilan's hand trembled, and the bag of grain dropped onto her foot, though she didn't dare cry out in pain. "Yes, he's Tang Xingfa, and she's Tang Xingfa's wife, Zhang Miao! Comrades, if you're looking for them for something, we won't get in your way."