Chapter 760: Searching High and Low
Wuxian County, Wangli Village!
Li Yi and Zhang Ziqiang, seeing a stranger by the car, immediately quickened their pace.
Seeing people approaching, the person by the car looked panicked and tried to leave immediately.
But for some reason, the moment he turned around, he stumbled and fell to the ground.
Seeing this, Li Yi and Zhang Ziqiang immediately went over to check.
As they drew closer, they realized it was a woman in her twenties lying on the ground.
The woman was thin, wearing tattered clothes, her hair was a mess, and in the middle of winter, she was wearing nothing but a pair of thin canvas shoes.
If it weren’t for that braided ponytail, you’d never have guessed she was a woman.
Upon seeing Li Yi and Zhang Ziqiang, the woman looked flustered and terrified, backing away frantically.
Her reaction left Li Yi and Zhang Ziqiang a bit baffled. Were they really that scary?
“Comrade, don’t be afraid. We’re not bad people…”
Before Li Yi could finish, the woman scrambled to her feet and began walking forward in a strange, unsteady manner.
However, perhaps because she was too panicked or walking too quickly, she fell again after just a few steps.
Seeing the woman’s wobbly gait, four words immediately popped into Li Yi’s mind: “Polio!”
It turned out this woman wasn’t quite right in the head, which was why she’d suddenly fallen.
Zhang Ziqiang was about to step forward to help her up, but Li Yi pulled him back.
It was clear the woman was quite wary of strangers; if they approached to help, they might cause her to misunderstand their intentions, so it was best not to go near her.
Sure enough, after resting on the ground for a moment, the woman quickly got back up and walked off into the distance, disappearing from their sight in no time.
Zhang Ziqiang furrowed his brow, watching the woman’s receding figure in silence for a long time.
“What are you looking at? She’s probably from this village and will find her way home. Don’t worry!” Li Yi said.
“I’m not worried. I just think…”
Before he could finish, Li Yi cut him off: “Enough. Hurry up and help me—there’s a lot of stuff here, and I can’t carry it all by myself!”
His mother-in-law had heard that the two young women were living in hardship, so she had made a special trip to the county supply and marketing cooperative to stock up on supplies.
In addition to rice, flour, cooking oil, and meat, she’d also bought plenty of supplements like milk powder, malted milk powder, brown sugar, and white sugar.
Additionally, after asking Li Xiaoyan, she bought a new set of clothes for each of Liu Juanjuan’s children.
The two of them unloaded all the items from the car and then carried the bags, big and small, back into the house.
At that moment, Ye Lingyun was telling Liu Juanjuan about Jiang Xue’s background. Liu Juanjuan had left the cotton mill eight years ago, and due to her limited mobility and the need to care for her paralyzed husband, she hadn’t been to Yong County in many years.
As a result, she had no idea what had happened over the past two years.
Upon learning the truth, Liu Juanjuan was both shocked and outraged, and she felt deeply for her dear friend’s plight.
As she spoke, she thought of her own situation, and finally couldn’t help but shed tears!
Just as the two women were weeping, Li Yi and Zhang Ziqiang pushed open the door and walked in.
Seeing yet another pile of items, Liu Juanjuan immediately said, “Wanwan, I know your family is from Beijing and doesn’t lack these things, but you really didn’t have to buy me so much!”
“Juanjuan, why are you being so formal with me? If it weren’t for you and Chunfang taking care of me back then, I might not have even lasted a month!”
Ye Lingyun continued, “Do you remember that time when you were named a model worker at the factory and received a five-yuan bonus? You treated me to a plate of braised pork—it was the best braised pork I’ve ever had in my life. I still remember that flavor to this day!”
“How could I forget? A single serving of braised pork cost 70 cents—that’s about the same price as a pound of pork! The factory cafeteria was way too expensive!” Liu Juanjuan said.
Hearing this, Factory Director Yang and the others nearby lowered their heads, not daring to breathe a word.
At the same time, they were secretly wondering if they should ask the cafeteria to lower their prices when they got back—especially for that braised pork…
Just then, Ye Lingyun suddenly said, “By the way, Juanjuan, where are your kids? I haven’t seen them around.”
“We sent Dachun and Ernie to the military. The two younger ones went into the mountains to chop firewood—we’re running low at home. They should be back before dinner!” replied Liu Juanjuan.
“Isn’t it dangerous for two kids to go into the mountains?” Li Xiaoyan asked.
“It’s fine. There aren’t any large wild animals in the mountains. As long as they don’t fall or get hurt, they’ll be okay!”
Liu Juanjuan continued, “Besides, that’s just how things are at home. Neither of us can go out, so we have to rely on the kids!”
“Do the kids go to school?”
“The third is in ninth grade, and the fourth is in seventh, but their grades are just average. I’m not sure if they’ll continue their studies,” Liu Juanjuan said.
Ye Lingyun fell silent. She had originally intended to urge Liu Juanjuan to make sure the children stayed in school, since only through education would they have a chance to leave the mountains.
But since Liu Juanjuan had already mentioned that the children’s grades were average, Ye Lingyun didn’t know what to say for a moment.
The atmosphere in the room grew heavy in an instant.
At that moment, Li Yi, trying to ease the awkwardness, quickly changed the subject: “Aunt Juan, when we went out just now, we saw a strange woman by the car at the gate, looking around. I wonder what she was up to?”
“What strange woman?” Liu Juanjuan asked immediately.
Li Yi then briefly recounted what had just happened.
After listening to Li Yi, Liu Juanjuan said with a hint of contempt, “It must be that thieving woman from the Yan family. Thank goodness you went out just in time; otherwise, who knows what mischief that thieving woman was up to!”
“So that woman is from your village too?” Li Yi asked.
“Right. That woman’s name is Zhou Shuxia. She’s from the village next door. She’s been lame since childhood because of some illness. Later, she married that good-for-nothing from the Yan family in our village, so now she’s technically one of us!” Liu Juanjuan said.
At that moment, Liu Xiaoyan chimed in from the side, “That scheming woman and that good-for-nothing Yan Minsheng are a perfect match. It’s actually a good thing they got married—at least they’re not causing trouble for anyone else…”
Hearing Liu Xiaoyan’s words, Li Yi’s heart skipped a beat, and he hurriedly asked, “Comrade Xiaoyan, what did you just say that woman’s husband’s name was?”
“Yan Minsheng—our village’s notorious good-for-nothing!”
“Boom!”
Yan Minsheng, meningitis, a disabled wife, polio…
One piece of information after another flashed through Li Yi’s mind, nearly causing him to cry out.
According to reports from his previous life, the murderous monster Yan Minsheng also had a disabled wife. Although the broadcast at the time didn’t specify where she was disabled, it did mention that she was a woman with a disability caused by meningitis.
And in this era, meningitis could easily lead to polio.
When he connected the name Yan Minsheng with the location of Wuxian and linked it to the disabled wife, Li Yi was almost certain that the strange woman was the wife of the demonic couple.
With this deduction, Li Yi sighed to himself—it truly was a case of searching high and low to no avail, yet finding the answer came effortlessly.
Seeing the pensive look on Li Yi’s face, Jiang Xue immediately asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, I was just thinking about something else!”
Then Li Yi turned to Li Xiaoyan beside him and said, “Comrade Xiaoyan, could you tell me about this Yan Minsheng? How did he end up marrying a woman like that?”
Li Xiaoyan assumed Li Yi was simply curious and replied immediately, “It’s a case of birds of a feather flock together. Yan Minsheng and that woman are a perfect match!”
“The Yan family is a prominent clan in the village, and Yan Minsheng is their only son. On top of that, he’s short—he stopped growing when he was around ten—so his parents spoiled him rotten. That led him to develop bad habits like being arrogant and idle. As an adult, he was always up to no good, stealing and causing trouble. What normal woman would want a man like that? He had no choice but to marry a disabled woman like Zhou Shuxia!”
Hearing this, Li Yi had no further doubts in his mind—this Yan Minsheng was the twisted monster he was looking for.
As mentioned in a previous broadcast, this murderous monster had been frequently bullied by classmates due to his short stature, which gradually led to a twisted personality.
Later, after marrying a disabled woman, Yan Minsheng came to hate her intensely due to his own feelings of inferiority. The hardships of married life gradually filled him with resentment toward society, and he began to immerse himself in a twisted psychological world.
Later still, Yan Minsheng encountered a mentally disabled man and, in a moment of impulse, killed him.
After ending this innocent man’s life, Yan Minsheng derived a twisted sense of pleasure and satisfaction, convinced he had “ridded the nation of a menace.”
From that moment on, he embarked on a path of no return, frequently venturing out to seek his next “prey.”
Once he confirmed that the person he was looking for was in this village, Li Yi immediately began to consider how to search the Yan household…
………