Peaceful Farm Life

Chapter 318: Chapter 318 Tragedy_1

An Jing was completely puzzled, ”What could possibly happen to us?”

Surprised, An Fu said, ”You don’t know yet? Liu Sizi went mad, he put arsenic in the well, and everyone who drank from it is dead. Now, Jiuping Village is left with fewer than half of its people.”

Neither An Jing nor Xiao Changyi had expected it to be so. No wonder there were coffins in front of every household, no wonder the village was filled with paper money, no wonder all the villagers they could see were dressed in hemp and wearing mourning bands. It turned out that most of the people in Jiuping Village had been poisoned to death.

After taking a moment to compose herself, An Jing asked, ”Why did Liu Sizi go mad?”

”Alas,” An Fu heaved a heavy sigh, ”it’s all because the people of Jiuping Village were without virtue, always saying that Liu Sizi wasn’t Uncle Liu’s son, but rather the son of Mrs. Hongxia and Uncle Liu Yingen, calling Liu Sizi a bastard. In short, they kept saying unspeakable things to Liu Sizi; and then, unable to bear it any longer, Liu Sizi poisoned the well with arsenic yesterday. There’s only that one well in Jiuping Village, every household drinks water from it, which is why so many people ended up dead.”

”At first, no one knew that Liu Sizi had poisoned the well,” An Fu continued, ”but when so many people in a village died, it quickly alerted the County Grandpa, who brought a Death Investigator. The Death Investigator declared that they were killed by arsenic poisoning.”

”And with every household having victims of arsenic, it was easy to connect it back to the well. Upon examination of the well water, they indeed discovered that arsenic had been placed there. Then, the County Grandpa ordered an investigation of those who had been near the well, and gradually the suspicion fell on Liu Sizi.”

”Then, the County Grandpa sent people to arrest Liu Sizi, but he refused to be captured; he even swallowed arsenic in a fit of anger. And before dying from the poison, he kept shouting madly that he wanted to kill everyone in Jiuping Village, because of the way everyone treated him, saying that the people of Jiuping Village deserved to be poisoned to death.”

”Yesterday was just the ninth day of the first month; we were still celebrating the new year. Some people were even visiting relatives when this tragedy occurred...”

As he spoke, An Fu sighed deeply again, before he added, ”After such an incident with Liu Sizi, I suppose no one in Jiuping Village will dare to be so unscrupulous with their words again.”

Listening, An Jing just felt endlessly shaken. To have driven Liu Sizi to madness, the people of Jiuping Village were also quite capable.

They say that the deceased should be respected, but now, looking at the white paper money floating in the sky, hearing the extremely sorrowful cries of the surviving villagers of Jiuping Village, An Jing felt both pity and hate, as well as a deeper sense of tragedy and lament.

If everyone had been a little kinder, how could such a tragedy have occurred?

”It’s fortunate that you moved out of Jiuping Village,” An Fu suddenly said with relief. ”When we heard about this yesterday, we were worried that something might have happened to you, so we went to your house to find you and found that you weren’t home at all, which worried us terribly, especially Xiao Lan, who was afraid something might have happened to you.”

An Jing was very moved and said, ”We went to the county early yesterday and have just returned now; it’s no wonder you were worried. I’m sorry about that. Brother An Fu, please go back and tell Xiao Lan that we are fine, and not to worry.”

”I’ll go back and tell her right now.” An Fu turned and headed back to An Village.

At this moment, whether it was An Fu or anyone else, no one had the mind to pay attention to Zhuri, who was being led by Xiao Changyi.

”Husband, let’s go home,” said An Jing. The tragedy had already occurred, and she had nothing more to say, nor did she want to stay and watch. It was better to go home.

”Mhm.”