"Baldy, you're truly not human. This factory is our village's hope, and you smashed it, causing huge losses for Liunian and preventing us from working normally. You are the sinner of our entire village."
"That's right. Anyone who dares to smash the factory is a sinner to the whole village. We can't tolerate such a person here. Now that Baldy has done this, he cannot be easily let off, nor can he continue to stay here."
"Baldy, you ungrateful wretch. Liunian set up this factory in the village to help all of us live better lives. And you went and caused trouble. See if I don't beat you to death!"
"Beat him! I can't hold back either. Someone like him, who doesn't know gratitude, deserves to be beaten."
"Baldy doesn't deserve to be one of us in Zhangjia Village. How can someone like him live here? I'll go find the secretary later and get their whole family kicked out."
"Pah, you heartless thing."
"..."
The villagers who watched the entire scene were furious, each wishing they could beat Baldy to death. Who told Baldy to smash the pickle factory, which was the village's livelihood and Liunian's hard work? If anyone in the village dared to lay a hand on the factory, they wouldn't let that person off.
Thinking of this, as if receiving an order, they all swarmed forward and pinned Baldy to the ground, beating him.
"Ah..." Baldy cried out, covering his head and shrinking his body.
But what greeted him was an even fiercer beating. Baldy's wife tried to rescue her husband, but she was only one person with two hands. How could she contend with a crowd? After struggling for a long time, it was all useless.
Ma Erduo, standing aside, said nothing about this. He knew Baldy's intention in setting up the factory in the village was to help the villagers live better lives together. He was doing a good deed, but his kindness was thrown to the dogs, and someone had actually dealt such a blow. Such an ungrateful wretch deserved to be beaten. Therefore, he chose to turn a blind eye to the situation, letting them have their way, as long as they didn't kill or cripple him.
Thus, Baldy was beaten until his face was unrecognizable by the villagers. Baldy's wife stood outside the crowd, repeatedly shouting, "Stop!" But no one paid her any mind. The beating continued with thudding sounds.
"Alright, stop hitting him. If he's crippled, you'll all be detained," Ma Erduo said, seeing that it was almost enough. But everyone was too angry and couldn't control themselves upon hearing this.
Zhang Liunian knew Ma Erduo was looking out for everyone's best interest and quickly added, "Everyone, stop! If anything happens to Baldy, you'll all have to go to jail."
As soon as he said this, the villagers who were still indignant immediately stopped. Many of them had their fists raised to strike Baldy, but they forcefully restrained themselves.
Ma Erduo was quite surprised by this. When he had told them to stop earlier, no one had listened. But when Zhang Liunian spoke, they forcibly pulled back their fists, even when they were about to land, their faces turning red with effort. This showed the influence Zhang Liunian had in the village. However, thinking of what Zhang Liunian had done for the villagers, Ma Erduo could understand. After all, Zhang Liunian was the village's god of wealth, the hope for everyone to live a better life. If they didn't listen to Zhang Liunian, who else would they listen to?
"Baldy, you must be alright! Our family depends on you!"
Seeing the crowd disperse and Baldy lying on the ground, panting, Baldy's wife was terrified. She rushed over and began to cry and curse, "How could you be so heartless? You resorted to such violence before the matter was even clarified. If something happens to my Baldy, I will not let you off."
Baldy's wife's words provoked the anger of the crowd. The villagers already didn't like the couple, and now being threatened made them even more furious.
"The shoes you wore when committing the crime are right there. Doesn't that prove you are the culprits? You can't even protect yourselves, and you're threatening us? Are you out of your mind?"
"Exactly! We won't let you off either. The facts are right in front of us, Baldy did it to the pickle factory. Seeing that you're not surprised at all, could it be that you two were both involved?"
"I think they must have done it together. Otherwise, why wouldn't Baldy's wife let the police search the house earlier?"
"I think so too. Baldy's wife is definitely not clean."
"In my opinion, this whole pickle factory incident was done by the two of them."
"..."
Baldy's wife's face turned red with anger upon hearing this, "We absolutely did not do such a thing! You are slandering us!"
"Pah, still trying to argue."
Someone directly spat, landing on Baldy's wife's face, making her feel nauseous.
"Ugh..."
Seeing her gagging on her own, everyone again accused the couple of being ungrateful wretches and black-hearted, saying they should be driven out of Zhangjia Village.
Just then, the police officers who went to fetch Baldy's wife's parents arrived. As soon as he got out of the car, he said, "I just asked them if they had lent Baldy any money recently. They said they had. I asked how much they lent, and they stammered for a long time before saying one hundred yuan. So Baldy was lying."
Upon hearing this, the Baldy couple's faces turned ashen.
Ma Erduo didn't argue with them further. He directly ordered people to take the Baldy couple and a few others away for questioning. Zhang Liunian also went along to cooperate with the investigation. Wang Xiaoe, standing in the crowd, quietly slipped away from the throng, planning to leave later that night.
In the evening, Zhang Liunian returned alone. As he entered the main hall, he found it filled with people. Among them were Zhang Hao, Zhang Laoshi, Zhang Wenxue and his wife, Zhao Zhijie, Zhang Shan, and many others. Seeing that Zhang Liunian had finally returned, they all started asking about the results in a rush of words.
Zhang Liunian scanned the people in the hall, sat down, and said, "Baldy confessed that he did it alone and his wife was not involved. But he said he wasn't the mastermind, that he was acting under someone's orders."
Upon hearing this, Zhang Hao immediately interjected, "Who hired him to do such a thing? I'll go and break his legs."
Zhang Hao only found out about the major incident in the village after Zhang Liunian had left. He had been so furious at the time that he had almost exploded. Zhang Liunian's pickle factory was their village's welfare factory, the hope for everyone to achieve prosperity. Yet, someone in the village had dared to lay hands on it. This was the most unbearable thing for him. If outsiders from another village had done this, he could perhaps forgive them, understanding their jealousy. But for someone from their own village to do such a thing, he was deeply pained. After all, with the establishment of this factory, it was the people of their village who had benefited from its welfare. To think that after only half a year, someone would do such a thing. What else could this be but ungratefulness? It was truly infuriating.
Zhang Liunian didn't answer immediately. Instead, he looked at Zhang Wenxue and his wife. Seeing their younger son looking at them, Zhang Wenxue's heart sank, and a thought arose: could it be that the second child did this?
"Liunian, why are you looking at Uncle Wenxue? Who is behind this troublemaking? Just tell us!" Zhang Laoshi was anxious. He also desperately wanted to know the mastermind. The others were the same.
"Tell us, Liunian."
"Yes, Liunian, tell us quickly, who made Baldy do this?"
"..."
Seeing that everyone wanted to know, Zhang Liunian could only utter three words: "Zhang Liuxing."