sjar Chapter 1018 Cousins Who See Each Other as Fire and Water
Chapter 1018 Cousins Who See Each Other as Fire and Water
Under the old locust tree at the village entrance, several elderly people were sitting around a stone table playing chess, the crisp sound of chess pieces hitting the board mingling with the chirping of cicadas.
"Grandpa, I'm bothering you again." Xiao Wang familiarly took out cigarettes and handed them to the elderly men. "I'll have to trouble you to tell me about Zhang Dahai last time. Is his relationship with his cousin Zhang Baohai really that good?"
Grandpa Li, leaning on his jujube wood cane, exhaled a puff of smoke, his cloudy eyes darting around: "Good? They can devour each other alive! To tell you about this, we have to go back to that plot of land five years ago. Old Master Zhang passed away suddenly without having time to make a will, and that three-tenths-acre plot at the east end of the village became a thorn in the hearts of the two brothers."
Aunt Zhao, wearing reading glasses, chimed in, "That's right! Baohai said he was the eldest son and grandson and should inherit; Dahai said he had taken care of the elderly for many years and it should belong to him. At first, they argued, but then..." She lowered her voice, "One night, I heard Baohai's window shatter with a crash, and the next day Dahai had bruises on his face, saying he had fallen. Who would believe that!"
Xiao Wang opened his notebook, his pen scratching softly: "What exactly happened? Did anyone try to break it up?"
"Persuade him? There's no way to persuade him!" Uncle Chen slammed the chess set on the stone table. "The village committee mediated three times, and each time it ended badly. Bao Hai even threatened that anyone who dared to help Da Hai was going against him. That kid, he was a tough guy when he was young!"
Following the villagers' directions, Xiao Wang arrived at Zhang Baohai's old house. The red paint on the mottled courtyard wall had faded, and weeds grew rampant in the yard, with several wild wormwood plants reaching waist height. Next door, Aunt Zhou opened the door tremblingly, her eyes wary: "Officer, I don't know anything about this."
"Auntie, I just wanted to ask about Zhang Baohai and Zhang Dahai," Xiao Wang said with a smile, trying to reassure her. "I heard they even got into a fight over a plot of land for their house?"
Aunt Zhou looked around before lowering her voice and saying, "That's right! Last summer, the two of them got into a fight on the main road at the village entrance. Bao Hai was carrying a shovel, and Da Hai was carrying a wooden stick. If the villagers hadn't stopped them, someone would have been killed! Since then, the two families have completely cut off all contact and act like enemies whenever they meet."
During his visits, Xiao Wang noticed that almost every villager hesitated to speak about the two cousins. It wasn't until he encountered Liu San, a drunken old bachelor, at the end of the village that he understood. "Heh heh, the homestead? That's just a cover!" Liu San slurred, hiccuping. "Bao Hai's been up to no good outside. I heard he got involved in something he shouldn't have, and Da Hai found out and wants to use that to get to him..."
"What exactly happened?" Xiao Wang immediately pressed for details.
Liu San suddenly came to his senses, his eyes filled with terror: "I didn't say anything! I don't know! I don't know!" He turned and stumbled away.
Xiao Wang stood there, lost in thought. Xiao Chen leaned over and said, "Captain Wang, it seems the conflict between these two brothers isn't as simple as it seems."
"Yes. Continue the investigation and find people who know both of them."
Finally, Xiao Wang obtained a crucial clue from Mr. Zhang, a retired teacher at the village primary school. Mr. Zhang, wearing round-framed glasses, flipped through a yellowed photo album: "They were so close when they were little, always together, catching fish in the river, climbing trees to steal birds' nests, inseparable. What a pity..." He pointed to one of the photos, where the two boys were arm in arm, smiling brightly, "Ever since Bao Hai started hanging out with some shady characters in the city, he's changed completely. I heard he was even involved in theft and went to jail."
"Does the ocean know about these things?"
“How could I not know!” Teacher Zhang sighed. “Dahai tried to persuade him, but it was no use. Later, Baohai became successful and drove back to the village in a car, showing off in front of Dahai. Dahai couldn’t stand it, so he started to fight him for the homestead, actually hoping to make him come back to his senses.”
As the investigation deepened, more details came to light. Villagers recalled that before Zhang Baohai disappeared, he had repeatedly threatened in the village that he would make Zhang Dahai pay; and Zhang Dahai was also seen looking flustered and frequently going out at night during the period when Baohai disappeared.
Xiao Wang went to Zhang Dahai's house again. The red bricks in the yard were still piled up there, covered with a thick layer of dust. He squatted down and found half a bloodstained strip of cloth in the corner of the wall, the color of which matched the shirt Zhang Baohai was wearing when he disappeared.
"Captain Wang, we've found Zhang Dahai's call records!" Xiao Chen rushed over. "Around the time of the incident, he was in frequent contact with a man named Li Fengqiang. This Li Fengqiang..." He flipped through the files, "is the scrap yard owner we investigated before, with a prior theft conviction!"
Xiao Wang stood up, his eyes sharp: "It seems this case is more than just a land dispute. What secrets are hidden between Zhang Dahai, Zhang Baohai, and Li Fengqiang? Notify the bureau to immediately launch a full investigation into Zhang Dahai and Li Fengqiang!"
As the sun sets, the afterglow casts a long shadow of Xiao Wang. This seemingly ordinary village, embroiled in a dispute over a plot of land, has unexpectedly uncovered a murder case, and the truth may be more complex than they imagined.
The autumn night air was chilly. Xiao Wang and his plainclothes investigation team lay in wait in the bushes surrounding Li Fengqiang's scrap yard. In the distance, Li Fengqiang's two-story building was dimly lit, and the clanging of metal could be heard intermittently from the tightly closed garage below. A technician's voice came through the walkie-talkie: "According to Zhang Dahai's call records, he contacted Li Fengqiang 17 times in the three days before the incident, the last call being at 23:17 PM on the night the body was disposed of."
"Action!" Li Ming's command came through the headset. Xiao Wang waved his hand, and the team members moved like cheetahs through the weeds, their hydraulic shears instantly cutting the garage padlock. In the blinding beam of flashlights, a black SUV covered in a gray cloth came into view. The body was covered in mud, and the license plate had been deliberately smeared, but three unique cracks in the reflective strip on the side and rear perfectly matched the features seen in the surveillance footage.
"Take photos as evidence, and focus on checking the trunk." Xiao Wang squatted down and used tweezers to pick up the gravel from the tire grooves. "These granite fragments are consistent with the composition of Qinglan Mountain." Xiao Sun quickly stepped forward with his investigation kit, pointing the portable spectrometer at the car paint: "There are obvious traces of secondary painting on the surface. Wavelength detection shows that the dark red substance remaining at the bottom matches the fluorescence reaction of the deceased's clothing fibers."
As the trunk slowly opened, a stench mixed with the pungent smell of disinfectant wafted out. Brown stains remained on the inner lining, gleaming eerily blue under ultraviolet light. "Nluminol reaction positive!" Xiao Yang's voice was filled with excitement. "Extracting the stains for DNA testing, this is the vehicle that transported the body!" He suddenly pointed to a corner, "Look at this, the yellow fibers on the woven bag fragments are the same material as the rope found at the scene."