Chapter 212 - Two-Hundred and Twelve: Interrogation
Zhang Tao began to howl, "Damn it, you blasted curs! We didn't abduct or abuse your daughter! I bought this woman from Blindman Wang for 300 dollars! She's Blindman Wang's illegitimate daughter. She can't be your daughter! Let go of me! I want to call the police! Folks, call the police! They're bandits! This is a robbery! Help! Help!" Gu Bei gave her a look, and the bodyguard beside Zhang Tao immediately dislocated her jaw. Zhang Tao couldn't even close her mouth, so she naturally couldn't cry out anymore. She looked at the fiends before her in horror.
"Didn't you hear what she said?" the middle-aged villager who spoke before stated unhappily. "Your daughter isn't here. Let them go, or we'll call the police."
Gu Bei sneered, "No need, I've already called them. The police are on their way."
His attitude had the villagers looking at each other. Someone uttered, "They've already told you their daughter-in-law isn't your daughter. What more do you want?"
Gu Bei looked at the ignorant fools before him, and the anger in his heart reached its peak. 'Oh, NOW they have a sense of justice,' he inwardly fumed. 'If they'd been so righteous back then, Xiao He wouldn't have been trapped here for so many years. If just one of them had a conscience, Chen Yao and I wouldn't have only found our daughter after she'd passed on. We never even got to be with her in her last moments.'
He looked at these people murderously. These bystanders were also guilty of hurting their daughter! If these people didn't just sit on the sidelines, had they offered his daughter help and stopped what the Zhangs were doing, things wouldn't have ended so badly! He wouldn't let anyone who'd directly or indirectly hurt his daughter go!
"Don't you remember their family once had a child bride?" Gu Bei said coldly. The villagers who were whispering to each other fell silent instantly. The youngsters didn't know, but everyone over the age of 40 remembered that there was once a little girl in the Zhang family, raised in their house as a child bride, but that girl later ran away.
"D-Didn't she run away?" The middle-aged man who was the villagers' spokesperson stuttered as he retorted, no longer as self-righteous and arrogant as before.
'As expected, they knew about it,' Gu Bei's group thought. Shi Nian and Ye Kun stared at the villagers angrily. Chen Yao burst into tears and asked the villagers who were only there watching the show, "My daughter was only this tall and so young. Can't you tell that she was kidnapped back then? Why didn't anyone call the police when this family abused her? Why didn't anyone save her? Why?! Why didn't anyone save her?"
The villagers looked away. Only then did Zhang Tao understand that these people were actually Xiao He's parents who had come looking for her. Zhang Xian had just finished listening to that woman's story, so he opened his mouth and shouted, "Our family didn't kidnap her. Our family took her in! We took her in, do you understand? We raised her for many years! We're her benefactors!"
His mind was working frantically at this moment, trying to turn this situation to their advantage. Zhang Tao immediately perked up at her grandson's reminder. "That's right! I'm Xiao He's benefactor. I raised Xiao He like she was my daughter. Everyone in this village—
and some neighboring villages—knows about it. If you don't believe me, you can ask those in our neighborhood."
She knew how the village worked. The villagers could hate her, but she was a village member. She was one of their own! If these outsiders managed to pin the crime on her, it would be a disgrace to the village, so none of them would betray her!
Gu Bei sneered. Using a water ladle, Shi Nian scooped up some cold water from a traditional water tank and splashed it on the drunk old man's face. Ye Kun did the same and splashed cold water on the old man's son's face.
Bound as they were, the two wriggled on the ground. The old man licked his lips and said, "That barely tasted alcoholic at all. Did you buy fake alcohol? Did you get it from Old Zhao next door? I told you not to buy alcohol from him. The stuff he sells is fake! It's a scam!"
The middle-aged man's expression darkened. He was Old Zhao, the one who sold the "fake alcohol." He didn't expect this idiot who owed him money was slandering him behind his back.
Shi Nian looked around and took a bottle of alcohol from the windowsill. He opened it and took a whiff before he grabbed the old drunkard's collar and poured some down his throat. Shi Nian said to him, "I want to ask you something. If you tell me, I guarantee you'll have good wine to drink every day."
Old Man Zhang smacked his lips and looked at Shi Nian with sleepy eyes. He delightedly replied, "Keep your—your promise! Ask away. There's nothing—nothing I don't know in this place!"
"Where is Xiao He?" Shi Nian asked calmly.
"Xiao He? Which Xiao He? Are you talking about our family's Xiao He? God knows where she is!" Old Zhang furiously answered.
Shi Nian then gave him another mouthful of wine. Old Zhang gestured with his index finger, "Let me tell you something… Xiao He is—is the precious daughter of a wealthy family… My sister was a nanny… worked with someone to… steal her away and—and gave her to me… to be my daughter-in-law. Haha."
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