In fact, many people involved on both sides will occasionally hesitate and consider whether it is necessary to have a direct conflict with the other party over such a small case, which could lead to unpredictable consequences.
Time passed day by day...
Some people want to immediately convict Cao Gangchuan and Zhang Hao and sentence them to prison.
Some people are insisting on reopening the investigation; others are subtly putting pressure on the investigation to stop; and still others are hinting that we shouldn't be afraid and should continue the investigation, not just into the case itself, but also into certain individuals within the public security department.
If Xu Zhengyang knew about these things, he would definitely slam his fist on the table, point at the telephone pole, and curse. "Damn it, all you guys are doing is fighting amongst yourselves, attacking each other, and vying for power and profit! My two good buddies are still sitting in the detention center, full of grievances! Do you realize how much money you're delaying their earnings by dragging this out?"
In the blink of an eye, half a month has passed.
That morning, Xu Zhengyang was too embarrassed to ride his bicycle out to exchange millet. He couldn't bear to see Cao Gangchuan and Zhang Hao's parents. So, he hid inside like a starving wolf, pacing back and forth, baring his teeth and cursing Zhong Shan, Zhong Zhijun, Wu Feng, Guo Tian, Guo Haijun...
Since Cao Gangchuan and Zhang Hao were arrested, their mothers have been going to the local earth god temple every day to burn incense and pray for help to save their children.
Left with no other choice, Xu Zhengyang could only mentally tell his two aunts to rest assured that the two children would be fine.
He felt that his two aunts must have sensed his words, so they happily kowtowed repeatedly in gratitude and promised that after the two children came out safely, they would set up a tablet of the Earth God at home and offer incense and sacrifices at the end of each month.
Although the feeling of being worshipped made Xu Zhengyang feel extremely comfortable and enjoyable, he was also very uncomfortable inside.
I feel so guilty! Several days have passed… That bastard Zhong Zhijun clearly said the city bureau leaders were paying attention to the case, and that Cao Gangchuan and Zhang Hao would be fine! Why haven't they been released yet? Xu Zhengyang called several times, and Zhong Zhijun always replied helplessly that these kinds of cases are like going to court; they can't be resolved so quickly. He told Xu Zhengyang not to worry and to wait a little longer…
Wait, wait, wait what?!
Xu Zhengyang was filled with remorse, even regretting that he and Chen Chaojiang shouldn't have acted impulsively in their youth, unable to tolerate the slightest provocation, and had a conflict with Guo Tian. This resulted in a violent fight, Chen Chaojiang and Liu Bin going to jail, and their brothers being detained and fined. And that wasn't all; they had incurred the wrath of the wealthy and powerful Guo Tian, and now Cao Gangchuan and Zhang Hao were being unjustly implicated.
Zhou Qiang, who rarely came back to Fuhe City because he was doing business with his family, came back after hearing about this. He glared at the crowd and said, "Zhengyang, how about I find a few people in the city and ransack Guo Tian's house! Damn it, if we don't teach that bastard a lesson, will he go crazy?"
Xu Zhengyang gritted his teeth and immediately nodded in agreement, but was stopped by Zhong Zhijun, who arrived shortly afterward. Zhong Zhijun told them not to act rashly, that things were not as simple as they thought, and that if they acted recklessly now, the higher-ups would definitely investigate thoroughly. He told them to wait and see... Zhong Zhijun did not explain exactly how complicated the matter was or why the higher-ups were taking it so seriously; he genuinely did not know either, only having heard some information from their team leader.
After calming down, Xu Zhengyang realized that he really couldn't act recklessly. Cao Gangchuan and Zhang Hao were still inside. If he took action to retaliate now, it would be detrimental to the two of them if it were discovered!
Even though I understood it in my heart, it was really hard to hold back that anger inside.
He couldn't confide these feelings to anyone, so he felt increasingly distressed and frustrated... Xu Zhengyang pulled out the local record and searched through it, hoping someone in the village would die in the next couple of days, then he could find the ghost and order it to cause trouble at Guo Haigang's house, to torment him! Damn it! I'll torment you to death, you son of a bitch! I'll show you what it means to have a guilty conscience and have a ghost knocking on your door in the middle of the night!
Unfortunately, everyone in the village is healthy. A few people died before, but they've all disappeared long ago.
He took out his phone, about to call Zhong Zhijun again to ask, when he heard someone knocking on the door. Xu Zhengyang looked up in confusion, wondering who was so polite as to knock? You see, in most rural families, the gate is left open when someone is home. Whoever comes in just walks in and greets them, and if they are close, they go straight inside.
Today, apart from Xu Zhengyang, there was no one else at home. My father went to work, and my mother and sister went to visit relatives at my uncle's house in Xuzhuang Village.
Xu Zhengyang walked to the door and lifted the bamboo curtain. He saw a burly man in his thirties standing at the gate. He had short hair, wore sunglasses, a white short-sleeved shirt, black trousers, and black leather shoes. He was knocking on the open wooden door with his thick fingers.
They looked familiar, but I couldn't quite place them.
Who are you looking for?
"Hmm, hello." The burly man saw Xu Zhengyang, took off his sunglasses, smiled slightly, and said, "Our young lady has come to see you."
"Huh?" Xu Zhengyang was taken aback, only then remembering that this person was the driver who had driven Li Bingjie at the train station more than half a month ago. "Hmm, Li Bingjie is here? Where is she?"
The driver smiled, turned around, and walked out.
Xu Zhengyang scratched his head and unconsciously walked towards the courtyard. He had to greet the guests.
The sorrow that had been weighing on my heart vanished because of this unexpected arrival, replaced by a hint of surprise, a touch of joy, and a... expectation?
Before he even stepped out of the courtyard gate, Li Bingjie, dressed in a pure white casual sportswear, appeared at the entrance. Upon seeing Xu Zhengyang, her expression and eyes remained unchanged. Without waiting for Xu Zhengyang to say anything, she strode into the courtyard as if she were in her own home, so casually, so...unceremoniously.
Xu Zhengyang greeted her with a wry smile, exchanging polite words as he invited Li Bingjie into the house. In his heart, he was thinking that he would have to install an air conditioner in the house later. In this sweltering heat, Li Bingjie had come to the house, but there was only a broken ceiling fan... Oh, the house also needs to be rebuilt. There isn't even a false ceiling inside. The beams, bricks, and rafters are exposed. It's too ugly and embarrassing.
Unexpectedly, Li Bingjie ignored his politeness, paused briefly, then turned and walked to the grape trellis on the east side of the courtyard, sitting on a small stool next to the stone table supported by bricks.
Xu Zhengyang had no choice but to follow and sit on the stone bench next to him. He turned to beckon the driver to come and sit down, but the driver just smiled and shook his head. Then he put on his sunglasses and stood at the gate of the courtyard as if no one else was there. The big, burly man stood there like a gatekeeper.
Then……
Li Bingjie remained silent, her expression and gaze calm, so calm it was almost inhuman, as she looked at Xu Zhengyang.
Being stared at by such a beautiful girl made Xu Zhengyang feel awkward, embarrassed, and at a loss. His eyes darted around, looking here and there, and he would occasionally mutter a few short words that even he found boring.
"Hmm, I'll pick some grapes for you." Xu Zhengyang suddenly remembered something and quickly, as if looking for something to do, took two small plastic basins from the west room. He climbed onto a chair, picked several bunches of ripe purple grapes, pumped some cool water from the hand pump, washed them clean, and brought a few bunches to the driver. He also put a basin on the stone table, smiling as he said, "Try some, they're homegrown grapes..."
And so, silence returned.
After a while, just as Xu Zhengyang was about to helplessly go into the house to find a pen and paper to relive the days when he and Li Bingjie were deskmates and wrote notes, Li Bingjie unexpectedly reached out, picked a clean grape that was still wet with water droplets, gently put it to her lips, bit into it, and began to savor the grape little by little.
"Hmm, very good." Xu Zhengyang's eyes narrowed into crescents.
So Li Bingjie ate the grapes little by little, her eyes still fixed on Xu Zhengyang's face, seemingly without even blinking.
The driver stood at the door, looking outside, completely oblivious to what the two people inside were doing, smiling as he savored the grapes grown in the farmhouse courtyard.
Volume One, Land, Chapter 33: The Realms of Superficial Qi and Tranquil Mind
“You seem to have something on your mind,” Li Bingjie suddenly said.
"Ah? No..." Xu Zhengyang had just finished speaking when his eyes darkened. He was happy that Li Bingjie had spoken to him again, but Li Bingjie's words had also revealed his true feelings. The troubles that he had temporarily forgotten because of Li Bingjie's arrival returned to his mind.
And so, silence returned...
Time always seems to pass very slowly in silence and an unusual calm.
Moreover, Xu Zhengyang was already in a state of agitation and irritability, which made time seem even slower, causing him anxiety and a sense of unease.
He was originally a farmer with no skills, a young farmer, an uneducated farmer, naive to the ways of the world, unaware of the ugliness and coldness of human nature, incapable of scheming, plotting, or turning the tide... He lived his days in his own wishful thinking and petty calculations. In the past, when there were any problems or conflicts, he could rely on his passion to recklessly and impulsively resolve disputes and vent his resentment with violence;
But now... we can't exactly break them out of prison, can we?
He was somewhat resentful of the position of the Earth God and the abilities he possessed. Damn it, why couldn't he have more skills? For example, he could directly collect people's souls, take their lives, or cause them to suffer disasters or illnesses, so that he could threaten them and force them to submit.
I don't need to have this ability in a large area; even if it's done in one's own hometown, that would be enough to help Cao Gangchuan and Zhang Hao, wouldn't it? And enough to vent their anger?
Xu Zhengyang, his brows furrowed in worry, occasionally looked up and saw Li Bingjing's cold and indifferent eyes, quietly watching him. The cold gaze in his eyes, like a still, icy pool, seemed to penetrate the heart and instantly extinguish all the anger and irritation in Xu Zhengyang's heart.
"Have you ever heard of the Earth God?" Xu Zhengyang suddenly asked.
Li Bingjie didn't speak, and continued to look at him as if he were a wooden stake.
"I want to tell you something, well, something I don't want many people to know."
Li Bingjie turned her head and looked at the driver standing at the door.
The driver, who had been watching this side out of the corner of his eye, turned his face, smiled slightly, shook his head, and walked a few meters outside the gate from one foot inside. He leaned against the wall of the house directly in front of him, took out a cigarette, lit it, and put it in his mouth.
Inside the courtyard, Xu Zhengyang saw the driver leave and stop looking at them. He scratched his head awkwardly. "It's not my fault. I didn't mean to kick them out!"
"Actually, I am a local earth god, believe it or not?"
"Hmm, it's the local earth god in the earth god temple on the west side of our village. Ah, that temple was just rebuilt, it's new. Did you see it when you came?"
"Really, I'm not lying to you. I can't tell anyone else about this, I'm only telling you. Yeah, because I think, oh no, I trust you, that you won't tell anyone about this secret..."
Once he started talking, Xu Zhengyang felt the invisible pressure weighing on his heart surge forth like a flood breaking through a dam. The pressure instantly lessened, revealing a clear path ahead, a vast and open landscape. Xu Zhengyang's heart skipped a beat, and he suddenly realized that his identity as the Earth God, his abilities, and this secret had unknowingly become a heavy burden on his heart, a suffocating torment, a hidden secret he couldn't express. Furthermore, after the incidents involving Cao Gangchuan and Zhang Hao, the Earth God, knowing everything yet powerless to change anything, had only intensified the pressure and anguish in his heart.
"Do you know what the Earth God can do? Let me tell you, he's incredibly capable."
"As long as I'm in our village, I can see what's buried more than a meter below the ground; I also have X-ray vision, I can walk through walls and see things that others can't... If someone dies, I can summon their ghost at any time to do this or that..."
"Don't believe me? Hey, do you remember this thing?" Xu Zhengyang waved his hand and summoned the clean white jade artifact.
Perhaps it was because the sudden appearance of the local record was too bizarre, a hint of doubt and surprise flashed in Li Bingjing's ethereal eyes before disappearing.
“It’s not that I’m stingy. I was thinking of giving it to you last time, but I really can’t give this to you. This thing is called the Local Recorder, something used exclusively by the Earth God. From here, you can see what’s happening in any corner of the whole village, even if it’s whose dog stole whose chicken, I can know it all…”
Xu Zhengyang suddenly stopped, lowered his head and remained silent for a while before raising his head with a wry smile and saying, "It's not much of a skill; most of the time, it's useless."
Unexpectedly, Li Bingjie suddenly raised her fair and jade-like right hand, traced a few lines on the stone table with her slender fingers, then tilted her jade-like neck slightly and looked at Xu Zhengyang with her ethereal eyes.
"Do you need paper and pen?" Xu Zhengyang seemed to understand Li Bingjie's meaning. After asking, he got up and ran back into the house without waiting for her reply.
Is this what tacit understanding is?
Xu Zhengyang found an old notebook and a pencil that was only half a pencil, and placed them in front of Li Bingjie.
Li Bingjie picked up a pencil, lowered her head, and began to write carefully and slowly on the somewhat worn notebook.
Sunlight filtered through the lush grapevines and leaves above, casting dappled patterns on people and the stone table, making the smooth surface appear as if it were etched with bright, beautiful patterns. Xu Zhengyang squinted at the scene, feeling a sense of unreal reality.
Soon, Li Bingjie put down her pencil, leaned forward, rested her right elbow on the stone table, gently supported her chin with her hand, and stared directly at Xu Zhengyang with her cold and indifferent eyes. Although they were close at hand, she gave the impression of admiring distant mountains and rivers.
Xu Zhengyang took the notebook and saw a line of neat, small handwriting written on it:
A restless mind is like flowing water, unable to find peace; a calm mind is like a towering mountain, unmoving.
There was a somewhat familiar phrase to it; Xu Zhengyang couldn't remember where he had seen or heard it before. He looked up at Li Bingjie, a hint of confusion in his eyes, wondering what she meant by writing that phrase. Yet, it also seemed... like he had a sudden realization.
Xu Zhengyang slapped his forehead. Hmm, he remembered seeing that line in a martial arts movie at Zhou Qiang's house, spoken by a villain. At the time, he and his friends had said that the line made sense, was profound, and had a high level of understanding, but they couldn't possibly live up to it.
Now, facing Li Bingjie, who is as pure as an iceberg and as white as a snow lotus, and being gazed at by her ethereal eyes and infected by the faint aura emanating from her, Xu Zhengyang suddenly thought, could it be... that Li Bingjie can really see through people's hearts and know what you are thinking and what you are troubled by?
"I was really too impatient and stupid!" Xu Zhengyang sighed, muttering and shaking his head in self-reproach.
After a while, Xu Zhengyang looked up, smiled, and nodded, saying, "Thank you."
Li Bingjie rested her chin on her hand, pursed her lips, and looked at Xu Zhengyang with an unwavering gaze.
"Okay, okay, I'll tell you..." Xu Zhengyang shrugged, feigning helplessness. He glanced at the courtyard gate; the driver was nowhere to be seen. So, Xu Zhengyang slowly and deliberately told Li Bingjie about Cao Gangchuan and Zhang Hao... After finishing, Xu Zhengyang paused, then said with a wry smile, "Don't think I'm being long-winded, I was just feeling down. I'm not like those big shots with their terrifyingly deep-seated cunning, keeping everything bottled up inside as if afraid someone will find out their secrets... Hmm, I'm not saying I'm cunning and don't tell anyone. Well, I've told you, and I trust you won't tell anyone else. Oh well, I admit, keeping these things inside was uncomfortable. Telling you today feels so good!"
Li Bingjie sat up a little lazily, picked up a pencil, and wrote two more words after the sentence she had already written in her notebook: "heart-to-heart talk".
"Yes! That's it!" Xu Zhengyang clapped his hands and laughed, "I've got an idea."
Li Bingjie stood up, her lips moved slightly, her eyes curved slightly, revealing a not-so-obvious smile.
Xu Zhengyang was stunned for a moment, then asked, "Li Bingjie, I'm starting to really suspect that you... and I'm in the same industry!"
Li Bingjie ignored him, turned around, and walked gently towards the courtyard gate.
"Leaving already?" Xu Zhengyang remained seated, watching Li Bingjie reach the door before suddenly remembering he should see her off. He quickly got up and chased after her, waving and calling out, "Have some dinner before you go... Come visit us sometime..."
It is certain that this polite remark came from Xu Zhengyang's heart.
There was this eccentric, wonderful person, who became my friend and we confided in each other...
It was actually a very awkward, very relaxing, and very... pleasant thing!
Xu Zhengyang was unaware that Li Bingjie, whose heart was tightly closed except for a slight opening for him, deeply sympathized with him.
...
Volume One, Land, Chapter 34: We ordinary people are truly happy today.
After seeing Li Bingjie off, Xu Zhengyang turned back to his house, locked the gate, lit a cigarette, and walked briskly toward the cement products factory in the south of the village. He wanted to discuss something with Han Dashan.
Since Guo Tian can arbitrarily pin accusations on Cao Gangchuan and Zhang Hao, why can't we fight fire with fire? Besides, we're not wrongly accusing him! Admittedly, we followed their method, using random items as evidence to prove Cao Gangchuan and Zhang Hao's crimes, weren't we?