Educated Youth Camp. Female Dormitory!
Tang Xue looked nervously at the plainclothes police officer hiding beside the wardrobe!
After Feng Qian, Sun Lu, and the others had left for work, she was the only one left in the entire women’s dormitory.
Although she knew he was a police officer and wouldn’t harm her, being alone with a man still made her a little nervous.
The officer clearly sensed Tang Xue’s nervousness and unease, and whispered, “Don’t panic—you don’t want to give yourself away and alert the killer!”
“Okay…”
“Listen to me. The others have just left, and there’s a chance they might return, so the killer usually won’t make a move. In 20 minutes, pretend you need to use the restroom and leave the dorm!”
“Okay!”
“Remember, keep your expression natural—don’t let them see anything’s wrong!”
“Got it!”
The twenty minutes slipped by quietly. At the signal from the public security officer, Tang Xue composed herself and walked out the door.
Since the restroom at the educated youth camp was quite a distance from the dormitory and required passing by the male educated youths’ quarters, each round trip took some time.
It was precisely for this reason that Li Yi, Li Gang, and the others believed the poisoner likely took advantage of Tang Xue’s trip to the restroom to mix the poisonous mushrooms into the batch picked by Feng Qian and the others.
As she passed the male educated youth dormitories, Tang Xue made no sound and did not look around; she merely slowed her pace slightly.
However, she didn’t notice anything unusual; the doors to the male educated youths’ dormitories were all tightly shut, as if no one were inside.
Yet, just as Tang Xue’s figure disappeared into the restroom, a shadowy figure peeked out from one of the male educated youth’s dorm rooms.
The figure looked around, and after confirming nothing was amiss, nodded to the person behind them.
Then, clutching a package, he quickly crept toward the female educated youth dormitory.
Upon reaching the female students’ dormitory, the figure feigned a shout.
Seeing no response from inside, they pushed open the slightly ajar door.
Seeing that the room was indeed empty, he immediately shifted his gaze to several baskets on the floor. He pulled a few poisonous mushrooms from the small bag he was carrying and was about to place them inside.
However, just as he made a move, he suddenly heard a stern, commanding voice from behind him: “Don’t move…”
The male educated youth was instantly terrified and turned around immediately!
He discovered that, at some point, a stranger had appeared behind him.
Realizing he’d been caught red-handed, the male educated youth knew he was in trouble. He suddenly leaped to his feet and tried to run out of the dormitory.
The public security officers were well accustomed to such situations; when apprehending suspects, most people do not surrender without a fight.
Therefore, during arrests, they always anticipated various possible scenarios—such as violent resistance or even a desperate attempt to take the officer down with them.
Seeing the man try to flee, the public security officer immediately charged forward, intercepted him, and grappled with him.
Li Gang and the others, who had been hiding in the shadows, also noticed the commotion and immediately rushed over to provide backup.
In an instant, the entire educated youth commune was filled with people running everywhere!
In the male educated youth dormitory, Xu Hong was keeping watch for Liang Jianhui, making sure Tang Xue didn’t return from the bathroom early.
Suddenly, he saw people running toward the camp from outside and heard screams and the sounds of a scuffle coming from the female students’ dormitory. Quick-witted as he was, he immediately realized their plan had been exposed!
Seeing this, Xu Hong’s first instinct was to flee!
But with the household registration system so strict these days, even if they ran, where could they possibly go?
Noticing that the voices coming from the dormitory behind him were men’s, Xu Hong immediately came up with a plan.
Seeing that no one was paying attention to him, he immediately slipped out of the male educated youth dormitory and then left the camp by scaling the wall.
But instead of running away, he headed straight for the southern lowlands where the educated youth were working!
Once he reached the edge of the field, he shouted in front of everyone, “Help! Something’s happened! Help!”
Hearing Xu Hong’s cries, the educated youths and commune members all put down their tools and gathered around.
“Comrade Xu, what’s all the commotion about? What’s happened?”
“Exactly, what’s going on this early in the morning?”
“Hurry up and tell us—what’s going on…”
Hearing the villagers’ questions, Xu Hong replied breathlessly, “Just now, Comrade Liang saw Tang Xue meeting her lover in secret and hiding him in the dormitory. He immediately sent me to call for help while he went to catch them in the act. We’d better go take a look right away!”
At these words, the villagers were all stunned.
“Comrade Xu, this is a matter of someone’s reputation—you can’t just make things up!”
“Exactly! Comrade Tang and Yiwa are perfectly happy together—how could they possibly be cheating?”
“Besides, there are only a handful of people in the village—who could be better than Yiwa…”
As for Tang Xue having an affair, no one would believe it no matter what.
After all, everyone had seen the young couple together day in and day out lately; their relationship seemed very strong. Plus, the Li family’s new house was already built, and the two were about to get married—there was no reason for Tang Xue to do something like this at a time like this.
Xu Hong immediately said, “We saw it with our own eyes—how could that be a lie?”
“Plus, when I came over, I heard them fighting inside. We should all go take a look!”
Seeing that Xu Hong didn’t seem to be lying, everyone began to waver between belief and doubt!
As for the male educated youths, though they didn’t know exactly what was going on, they sensed something was definitely wrong. They immediately grabbed their hoes and other tools and ran toward the village.
Since the distance wasn’t far, they soon returned to the educated youth settlement.
Seeing everyone following him back, a cold smile played on Xu Hong’s lips.
He couldn’t escape, but he could stir up trouble.
Whether Liang Jianhui had been caught red-handed or not, as long as he insisted he’d gone to catch them in the act, he could stir up the emotions of these ignorant villagers.
By then, the thugs that Li Yi had brought in would surely face consequences. Not only could they rescue Liang Jianhui, but they could also take the opportunity to smear Tang Xue’s reputation.
The group of commune members, unaware of his sordid scheme, followed him back to the educated youth commune.
As soon as they arrived at the commune, the crowd saw Liang Jianhui being pinned to the ground by several unfamiliar men, while Tang Xue stood nearby.
Before anyone else could speak, Xu Hong shouted, pointing at Li Gang, who was holding Liang Jianhui down: “That’s the man Tang Xue’s been seeing on the sly—the rest are his henchmen!”
Hearing this, the villagers, unaware of the truth, surrounded them with looks of anger.
Xu Hong continued to fan the flames, saying, “Comrade Liang, you came here to catch them in the act, so how did they beat you up like this?”
Liang Jianhui was no fool; he caught on immediately and shouted, “Everyone, don’t let them get away! I just saw a man in the female educated youth’s dorm, so I came to check it out—and I never expected to catch Tang Xue secretly meeting with this man!”
“I tried to劝 her not to do anything that would bring shame upon us educated youths, but I never expected her lover to get violent—and that he actually had accomplices…”
Seeing Liang Jianhui, his face swollen and bruised, and then glancing at these strangers who had suddenly appeared, the villagers instinctively chose to believe their story.
So, one after another, they grabbed their tools and rushed forward to “rescue” him!
For a moment, the situation was on the verge of spiraling out of control!