Chapter 831: The Tip of the Iceberg

“Alright, thank you!” Chen Shi spoke to the questioning uncle after understanding the situation.

The young man was confirmed dead, and his body was temporarily moved to his own home. While waiting for Old Zhang and others to arrive, Chen Shi and Lin Dongxue separately went to learn about the situation from the villagers here.

“This young man, XX, was a local and a farmer,” Chen Shi noted. “However, I found out something interesting. Three years ago, he also planted Shennong 24 rice in his field. One day, a group of people came and pulled out all the seedlings. After that, he switched to growing something else. Dongxue, how about you?”

“Three years ago? That’s quite a coincidence! I was asking around if anyone had gone missing or died in the village,” Lin Dongxue replied. “They told me that a fool had disappeared around the same time, right across from that house. His biggest trait was his heavy smoking habit; he was always seen with his father’s old smoking pipe, visiting around. After he disappeared, the local police station came looking for him, but then no one asked about it anymore.”

Looking at the body, Chen Shi muttered, “Did he dig up that pit to show us a corpse? And now he’s ended up as one. The wounds are severe, and the murder site must have been the alley near here. The murderer’s goal was clearly to silence him.”

Lin Dongxue glanced outside as the sky gradually darkened, yet many people stood outside watching the spectacle. With no street lights, a large, dull mass of shadows seemed somewhat eerie. She whispered, “Could the murderer be among the villagers?”

Chen Shi silently nodded.

“Did he say anything to you before he died… ‘rice’?”

“I don’t know if he said ‘rice’ or ‘grass’!” Chen Shi shook his head. “What’s the secret behind this rice!”

As night fell completely, a line of police cars, sirens blaring, drove into the village where the murder occurred.

Under a roadside pagoda tree, a shadowy figure crouched, smoking a cigarette and making a phone call, saying, “There’s a troublesome guy in Xujiakou. He almost spilled the beans about something from three years ago to the cops today. Good thing Xiaolong’s knife was quick.”

“Awei, we can’t let the cops dig any deeper. No secret can withstand such scrutiny. Once exposed, our business in Long’an is completely ruined,” an elderly voice responded on the phone.

“Boss, we’ve been hiding, doing everything possible to avoid the police’s eyes!”

“Hiding is not enough; the more you hide, the more they’ll investigate. You need to divert their attention. Xu Wenqiang once told Ding Li, ‘The French Concession is easier to control when it’s in chaos.’ It’s the same here. Let it descend into chaos, let a few more die, so the cops won’t have time to investigate the rice.”

After a pause, the shadow said, “Who should we kill? The two cops we’ve got locked up?”

“No, no, no, don’t kill the cops. That’ll only escalate things.”

“Kill the farmers?”

“Not impactful enough. Kill someone significant. There’s a group here to shoot a film at Wangcheng Gang…” The implication was very clear.

“Boss, I…”

“Stop hesitating. Need money? I’ll send it right away!”

“I saw your daughter today. She… is beautiful!”

“Haha, she has my blood!”

“When you sent me to do that thing years ago, I became a wanted man. I hid for a whole year, eating instant noodles till I got sick of them. Later, you had me collect rice for three years. I wanted to go home to get married, but you said I couldn’t leave. Now it’s been nine years, boss, and this year I really want to go home and get married. I just want to live a simple life with a wife and kids.”

“People in our line of work can’t afford to seek comfort. Awei, you’re too naive. Life on the edge is about licking blood off the knife’s edge, like Xu Wenqiang who still ended up gunned down by a stray bullet.”

“So why do we bother with this life!” he burst out. “We started as thugs because we didn’t want to suffer. Wasn’t it all for the sake of enjoying good cigarettes, drinks, and women? You big shots talk about our lifestyle like it’s some kind of martyrdom, but isn’t it all just for pleasure? Look at this business, you’re already so rich, yet you still want to make money, risking our lives collecting rice for you. Last year’s harvest bought your mistress a villa, and what did we get…”

“Do you want to die!!” the old man’s angererupted through the phone.

“I’m sorry… I’m sorry!”

“Thinking of going back to your hometown to get married? Does anyone even want to marry you?”

“No… no one, but I’ve saved enough money from collecting rice these past years. Finding a young, beautiful, and gentle wife shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Ah, you really don’t understand women. It’s easy to find someone young and beautiful, but those coming for the money won’t be gentle or virtuous. At your age, be a bit more self-aware!”

“Boss, I brought it up nine years ago.”

“Yes, you did bring it up back then, but you were penniless. Now you have money…”

“And I might not have much time left!”

“Don’t be so negative. Just do your job. If you and Xiaolong can’t hold up, I’ll have Mr. Zhou assist you. Back then, to protect this secret, we took out three cops. If things really spiral out of control, I don’t mind burning everything down. No one can investigate my secrets! I have your back, as do Mr. Zhou and your sworn brothers. Just finish this job well, and I’ll find you a good woman so you can retire.”

“What if I get caught?”

“Why think so much!” the other side roared. “If you get caught, you get caught. Eventually, everyone has to pay for their deeds. Now go and do your work, stop whining. I’m your boss, not your mother!”

With a clatter, the call was abruptly ended.

He dejectedly put down the phone, looking towards the village where the police were investigating the daytime victim. It looked like they would be delayed here tonight.

He dialed another number, “Xiaolong, prepare some stuff for me.”

Just then, someone with a flashlight came walking over, shouting, “Who’s there!”

Seeing trouble, he quickly ran off.

The policeman walked over, discovering a cigarette butt on the ground and picked it up, placing it into an evidence bag.

Lin Dongxue asked from the roadside, “What happened?”

“Some guy was lurking around here, not sure what he was up to. I called out to him and he bolted. This is a cigarette butt I found at the scene.”

“Alright, hand it over to me,” she said.

By eleven o’clock at night, Peng Si Jue finally arrived from Wangcheng Gang to examine the body. The distance between the villages made it a hectic day for the police.

In a tractor warehouse at Wangcheng Gang, Peng Si Jue indeed found signs of a struggle. Fingerprints, DNA traces, and a button that had fallen off a police uniform were discovered at the scene, coincidentally owned by Jia Lao Si.

According to the ID card usage records, Jia Lao Si wasn’t even in Xi’an; he was hundreds of kilometers away in a town near Long’an, and local police had been contacted to find him.

The whole case seemed to have uncovered just the tip of the iceberg, but it appeared more confusing and elusive than ever…