Chapter 154: Fighting Violence with Violence in the Human Trafficking Village (5)

Chapter 154: Fighting Violence with Violence in the Human Trafficking Village (5)

Sure, they could talk tough, but the thought of actually swinging a hammer and smashing holes in their walls made the two brothers hesitate even more.

Their family was dirt poor, and the house had been built with their father’s life savings. Now, during the New Year, they couldn’t afford to make things worse by damaging it. If they smashed a hole in the bedroom, wouldn’t the cold wind at midnight freeze them to death?!

With the search getting closer to their home, Grandma Wei hurriedly called out for action.

“Hurry up and burn all that crap in the yard! Are you done yet?!”

“They’re almost here! We can’t let the whole village talk shit about us behind our backs!”

Wei Jiehua was busy, holding a hammer in his left hand and a fire tong in his right.

“Maybe I should let that animal loose to help?”

Grandma Wei cursed immediately, “You want to make things worse? That little shit only works when he’s half-starved!”

“You might as well shut him up for good before he starts spouting off and dragging us through the mud!”

Wei Jiehua had an epiphany, “Right, we’ll cut his tongue later so he can’t cause any more trouble.”

They worked faster than they ever had before, tossing anything they could into the pigpen and burning the rest in the fire pit.

Watching the flames rise three feet high, the two brothers wiped their sweat and wondered, still unable to figure it out.

“How the hell did everyone else’s bedrooms get trashed last night, and all the blankets and coats just disappear without anyone seeing a thing?”

Yesterday, it was a hole in the kitchen and missing New Year’s goods; today, it was all the winter supplies taken away and even stuffed into their own home?!

“Could it be... it’s a haunting?” Wei Jiehua said blankly.

“Ghosts? His dead sister ain’t got that kind of power. What kind of ghost can tear through brick walls? More like someone from outside the village is trying to set us up and steal stuff for cash!”

“Then how come no one can find the thief!”

“Dude, there’s all kinds of drugs out there now. Just slip something into the animals, sneak in, and act like a ghost!”

After discussing it, they both straightened their backs with conviction.

That must be it.

Their family was innocent and being framed. It was definitely someone from outside who had a dirty heart, doing dirty deeds at night and trying to smear their family!

Pah! Who knows where this bad luck came from!

Even though it was still early morning, every household had their charcoal pits going, and people were huddled together in the yards and living rooms trying to stay warm.

It was cold, really cold. There were no cotton jackets, no army coats, and even the quilts and blankets they could wrap around themselves had all been stolen!

Some people tried to borrow from their neighbors, but the villagers, who were usually united, avoided them like the plague, shaking their heads and saying they didn’t have any extra blankets.

“Please, Iron! My grandma’s freezing and sneezing her head off!”

“My grandma’s still sick, and I don’t have any extra blankets to give!”

“No quilts, clothes will do! No coats, bed sheets will do! Bro! Just give me a few towels to wrap around my face!”

“Go ask someone else! We’re shutting the door!”

"Bro, don't, bro—"

"Bang!"

It wasn’t long before someone started banging on the door.

"Feel free to come in and check," the old lady clutched her head and cursed under her breath, "I haven't been sleeping well anyway, and now we've got demons causing trouble every day. Everything's gone mad during the New Year!"

A few strong men with iron rods and torches looked around, inspecting the condition of their old house. The leader's face changed as he looked up.

"Nothing happened to your place?"

"Third Brother! Your words are heartless!" Wei Jiehua shouted, "When you had trouble, we even helped stoke your fire. Do you wish something would happen to us?!"

Wei Laosan abruptly shook his head, showing no fear.

"Something’s not right here."

He stepped back a few paces and pointed.

"Everyone, look, about twenty other households nearby have had something happen, right?"

"But y'all’s house is untouched! Our kitchen was stolen from, and even the entire bedroom wall disappeared. How come nothing happened to your house?"

"Nonsense!" Wei Haoyu, who had just hidden the hammer he used to knock on the wall, forced his voice to shout, "Damn it, we had quite a few cured chickens and fish stolen, and who knows which bastard got away with it!"

"Where's the hole? I'm asking you two, where's the hole?"

Wei Laosan planted his hands on his hips and snapped, "How come out of twenty-something households, we all lost money and walls, but nothing happened to your house?"

"I’m telling you, there’s a ghost in your house!"

As soon as these words were spoken, several people echoed and began to speculate.

"A woman passed away in their house..."

"Yes, yes, she died not long ago. I heard she wasn't even buried properly, just wrapped in a straw mat and thrown away!"

"Wei Haoyu, is your family trying to drag our entire village down with you?"

"A female ghost! No wonder! Female ghosts are the fiercest!"

Seeing that the situation was turning bad, the old lady sat down on the ground and started crying, slapping her knees.

She couldn’t cry real tears right away, but her wails were so loud and shrill that they echoed through the neighborhood.

"Old man, they’re bullying you while you’re lying there helpless, spreading lies while you’re still breathing! Both of my sons are being humiliated— how will they survive when I'm gone?"

"My mom has a heart condition! What are you trying to do by interrogating an old lady?" Wei Haoyu immediately shouted. "Stop playing games. If something happens, go ask the police. If you drive my mother to death, none of your family will get away with it!"

The old woman cried even more desperately, "Oh dear me, we can't live through the New Year!"

The search party exchanged uneasy glances, grumbling under their breath as they backed away.

With the incident causing such a stir, news quickly spread across the mountain, up and down. Folks, too cold without proper clothes, drove into town to buy new quilts and coats, but no one wanted to come back.

Like avoiding a plague, every household began keeping their doors tightly locked, avoiding contact with each other, fearing misfortune would strike their own homes.

The police came several times, but with no surveillance footage or fingerprints at the scene, there were simply no clues to follow.

At this critical moment, it was probably the search team members who gossiped behind their backs, causing everyone to change their attitude toward Wei Jiehua's family.

In the tight-knit village, everyone knew which family’s child had gone out to work, which family had married off a daughter-in-law or had a baby, and even which family had adopted two puppies. These small details spread quickly, leaving almost no secrets between families.

The incident last year where Huang Xuerui drank pesticide caused too much of a stir. There were people from Weijia Village working at the county hospital, and when a daughter-in-law suddenly died in the village, everyone knew about it.

With so many families experiencing misfortune, not even a tile had fallen from the Wei family's roof. Clearly, there was a ghost in their house!

Even if there was no ghost, why was it that every other household suffered losses and accidents, while theirs continued to live prosperously? Why!

Once people started discussing it, Grandma Wei’s social circle was immediately and devastatingly impacted.

The old lady cried bitterly at home.

"Your Aunt Cui spat on me when she saw me today! She used to greet me respectfully as Sister Fen!"

"No one from the east end of the village invited us to the baby shower. How are we supposed to live like this?"

Wei Jiehua, being a farmer, understood clearly that his entire family was being ostracized and viewed with cold disdain.

Feeling that something was amiss, he opened the storage room door and forced some cold porridge into the nearly unconscious Huang Yuxin, whacking him on the head with the spoon.

"Are you alive? Did you see your sister?"

Huang Yuxin hadn’t bathed for several days and was emitting a foul stench.

He seemed to have passed out, barely able to make a faint sound.

"We can’t silence him now," his brother suggested. "Keep him as a beast, train him until he's willing to work honestly, then gradually give him food. If he dies too, the villagers will think even more ill of us."

Wei Jiehua, still worried, gave him a sausage and added half a bowl of porridge.

He kicked the young man’s head with his foot.

"Don’t die, hear me?"

When the door closed again, darkness enveloped Huang Yuxin, muffling his final breath.

Keding had been tearing down walls for three consecutive days, and the villagers' resentment grew day by day. By the fourth day, it could no longer be contained. Someone wrote an anonymous letter to the police station, reporting the Wei family for breaking the law and disregarding human life.

Everyone knew the law.

Even those who couldn’t read knew that if you kill someone, you pay with your life.

Since only Wei Jiehua's family in Weijia Village remained unscathed, they had to face some misfortune; otherwise, the dozens of villagers couldn’t stand it.

It started with anonymous letters, then phone calls using county IC cards, and someone even found a photo of Huang Xuerui and called the county public security bureau.

Wei Jiehua, something must happen to your family!

If nothing happens to your family, none of us will be able to enjoy the New Year!

"It seems your plan has initially succeeded," the system collected information from all directions. "The villagers' resentment toward the Wei family is growing stronger, and someone even smeared chicken blood on their back door."

"It's almost New Year's Eve, I need to send a New Year gift."

Keding took a deep breath and said, "Back in the day, people at least got to keep their bodies intact, but now they actually want to cut his tongue out?"

The system suddenly sprang to life.

"Need some silencing potion? Or laxatives? Or maybe some bone-weakening elixir!"

"We’ve got everything in our points store—come and trade!"

"Oh, right, you still have a 'Bark Like a Dog Coupon.' Using that would be great too. You could have Wei Jiehua barking 'woof woof woof' while wishing everyone a happy new year!"

Keding shook his head.

"I’ve already got something prepared."

System: "Dog barking coupon?"

"No, a Rolls-Royce."

System: "……?"

Keding looked into the distance and said solemnly, "When I was a kid, I watched this creepy show called 'Approaching Science: Who’s Carrying Me Through the Air.'"

"That show sparked a lot of ideas for me."

That night, Wei Jiehua, who was still snoring, was tied up and thrown into the car.

The Rolls-Royce stepped on the gas and sped towards a deserted area 500 kilometers to the north.

By the time he wakes up, we’ll have a brand-new batch of 'Approaching Science' footage.

The system witnessed the entire process and felt its thinking being expanded to new heights.

This… this breaking point is way too easy to hit! Why didn’t we think of this sooner?!

"If he successfully survives the wilderness, what's the next plan?"

"Then throw him another 500 kilometers south."

“……!!!”

Besides dumping him in any direction, tossing him into a lake or ocean would be just as effective.

The future's Rolls-Royce could handle land, water, and air, giving this guy a real treat.

The young man watched the car leap over the valley in the night.

"Happy New Year, man."