RYEY -Chapter 404 Deliberate Arson

“Auntie Wang, make a few extra bowls. You should eat here before going back.”

“Oh, then I get to enjoy your good food again. I’m always taking advantage of you.”

“What are you saying, Auntie Wang? Wasn’t it you who heated our kang? Didn’t you chop our firewood? And isn’t our house so clean because you often come help tidy up? You’re just eating a bowl of noodles—do you really need to be so polite?”

Auntie Wang smiled until the wrinkles on her face deepened. But when she thought of the wheat ruined in the fields, she couldn’t help worrying. The whole village was counting on this season’s wheat harvest to sell for some money and save up.

“Qiao, who on earth is that despicable bastard, so shameless to destroy our crops? And the greenhouses were damaged too. The wheat that survived won’t it freeze to death?”

“It’s already late today. I’ll go take a look early tomorrow morning. Also, Lele’s husband, Qin Guoqing, has already contacted a plastic film factory. The plastic film should arrive in the next couple of days.”

“That’s great, but will we make it in time? The weather’s getting colder every day. So much wheat was burned. If it weren’t for the heavy snow, there really wouldn’t be anything left.”

Cheng Qiao nodded. Seeing that the noodle soup was ready, she quickly ladled out chunks of braised pork and the pan-fried fried eggs, carrying them to the main room so Li Huan and the others could eat first.

Auntie Wang happily took a big porcelain bowl and sat slurping noodles in the kitchen. The moment the braised pork entered her mouth, both her eyes and heart felt immensely satisfied.

They had originally prepared braised pork for the New Year’s Eve meal, but the sudden incident ruined everyone’s mood. The meat they ate then had tasted like nothing.

Now that Cheng Qiao and Huan-zai were back, it felt as if the villagers’ hearts finally had something to rely on. Whatever they ate tasted good again.

Secretary Hao slept directly at Li Huan’s house. The warm kang loosened his tightly strung nerves considerably. It seemed that as long as this fellow had returned, everything would be resolved smoothly.

After a good night’s sleep, early the next morning Li Huan and Cheng Qiao threw together a simple breakfast. After Ye Xiaolin and Secretary Hao finished eating, they followed Li Huan and Cheng Qiao to the fields.

Before they even reached the fields, Cheng Qiao wrinkled her nose. The air still carried the smell of gasoline and burned plastic film—an extremely unpleasant stench. Some of the burned film had melted and stuck directly to the wheat seedlings.

Cheng Qiao’s heart ached terribly. These seedlings were varieties she had cultivated in her space, planted in the fields and irrigated with space water.

The villagers had saved the best wheat seeds and planted them with such hard work, only for things to turn out like this. If she found out who did it, she would definitely let them taste the pain of being burned by fire.

“Li Huan, I think this was malicious arson. I’ve already asked the comrades at the Public Security Bureau to investigate—who bought gasoline during this period, who could have come here to set the fire, and whether there’s an insider in your village.”

When Secretary Hao learned that Xiangyang Village’s frost-prevention greenhouses had been burned and the wheat fields ruined, he immediately reported it. The incident aroused great anger among local cadres and the masses. County leaders took it extremely seriously and told Secretary Hao to keep a close eye on the case.

Early the next morning, Secretary Hao brought Public Security officers to Xiangyang Village. Smelling the gasoline in the air, they directly classified it as malicious arson.

They believed the arsonist came with hatred and definitely had inside help; otherwise, they wouldn’t be so familiar with Xiangyang Village or burn crops so viciously.

Cheng Qiao remained silent. Secretary Hao’s position was higher than Li Huan’s, so even if there were gaps in his thinking, it wasn’t appropriate to correct him in front of so many people.

This wasn’t an ordinary arson case. First of all, ordinary people didn’t have the ability to obtain so much gasoline, since gasoline wasn’t sold to individuals.

Those who could buy gasoline were drivers, and even drivers needed ration coupons and letters of introduction. Once checked, it would be clear who bought what, so they wouldn’t be foolish enough to do this.

There were also some large factories that needed gasoline. If they wanted to investigate, it might be better to start there. But Xiangyang County had no large factories, and the scope involved would be too wide, making it difficult to investigate.

Moreover, Cheng Qiao firmly believed there was no insider. The villagers valued winter grain greatly—it was currently the only path to prosperity. No one would destroy it.

In fact, Cheng Qiao already had some immature conclusions in her heart. Five villages in Xiangyang County practiced two harvests a year, yet this person chose Xiangyang Village.

So this person was targeting her. Back on the train, when their people failed to take her life, they turned to destroying her home instead. The urgent task now was to find this person.

Li Huan understood this as well, but he didn’t say much to Secretary Hao. Instead, he had Wang Xiangyang organize the villagers to start cleaning up—first clean up the site and dig out the burned wheat.

Cheng Qiao walked through the fields with Li Huan. Whenever she saw wheat that hadn’t been burned but was close to freezing to death, she secretly let out a bit of space water.

She also had some villagers start rebuilding the frost-prevention greenhouses. Hearing that the greenhouses could be rebuilt, the villagers’ confidence returned, and they immediately got to work.

A few days later, early in the morning, Xiao Dan drove a military truck to the entrance of Xiangyang Village. Because the village roads were narrow, the truck couldn’t get inside.

Niqiu had already brought several childhood friends, waiting at the village entrance with a tractor. Seeing the plastic film arrive, they immediately turned into porters, transferring the film from the truck onto the tractor.

Niqiu made trip after trip. His once fairly clean face had been cracked by the cold wind in several places, but he didn’t care. He simply wrapped his head with a torn piece of plastic film.

Cheng Qiao took out a brand-new Lei Feng hat and put it on Niqiu’s head. Feeling warmth on his head, Niqiu couldn’t help taking it off to look. At that glance, he was so surprised he almost couldn’t speak.

“Second Aunt… this is for me?”

“Yes. Wear this—cover your mouth and face. And here, these gloves too. Your gloves are too thin; they won’t keep out the cold.”

Seeing the white gauze gloves on Niqiu’s hands—already filthy yet still not thrown away—Cheng Qiao directly took out a pair of cotton gloves from her backpack and handed them to him.

Niqiu’s eyes almost filled with tears, but he forced them back. He couldn’t cry now—if tears froze on his face, it would really hurt.

“Thank you, Second Aunt.”

The younger generation in the village was used to calling Li Huan “Second Uncle” and Cheng Qiao “Second Aunt.” Cheng Qiao accepted it by default—it didn’t make her sound old and still showed seniority. Perfect.

The tractor went “putt-putt-putt” back and forth, and Xiangyang Village became lively again. People were setting up sheds everywhere. As rows of frost-prevention greenhouses took shape, Auntie Wang organized people to light coal stoves so the temperature inside would rise faster.