Tong Ran boldly guessed:
"Village Chief Wang, she looks to be in her thirties."
Wang Ruiyun shook his head and said:
"twenty two!
Her name is Zhang Xia, and she was only sixteen years old when she gave birth to her first child! "
"What!" Tong Ran and Mao Anping looked shocked.
The mother of three children in front of her is as old as Tong Ran and Mao Anping!
For them, twenty-two is the prime of youth.
It is an age full of hope.
But for the woman in front of her, she had been terribly damaged by life.
What on earth did she go through?
However, this situation is not uncommon in rural areas.
Especially in the 1980s and 1990s, it was common for teenage girls to get married.
Zhang Xia is just the worse one among them.
The old village chief and Wang Ruiyun walked to Zhang Xia's house.
"Get out!"
Suddenly a man in his thirties or forties with a red face rushed out of the room. He held a hoe in his hand and yelled to knock it down at the people outside the door.
Wang Ruiyun is a veteran and responded quickly.
He raised his hand to block the hoe in the man's hand and yelled:
"Jiang Dahu, what are you doing!
See clearly that this is a police comrade from the county. Believe it or not, I will handcuff you! "
Mao Anping stepped forward and helped Wang Ruiyun control Jiang Dahu, who was smelling of alcohol.
Jiang Dahu saw clearly that the person in front of him was wearing a police uniform, and when his mind cleared up, he immediately became scared and huddled in the corner with his head lowered.
Zhang Xia held the child in her arms and stared blankly at what was happening in front of her, with a look of horror on her face but also a hint of smile.
The house was filled with all kinds of unpleasant smells.
The old village chief took Zhang Xia and several children to the courtyard outside the house, and brought a stool for her and the children to sit down.
Tong Ran took out two candies from his pocket and handed them to the two older children.
Yang Xiao tried to ask Zhang Xia a few questions.
Her reaction was slow, she just held her youngest child tightly and shivered.
He seems to be afraid of meeting strangers.
The old village chief sighed:
"A few years ago, girl Xia just turned sixteen.
He secretly went to the wooden house to learn calligraphy from Madman Liu.
She was discovered by her family members and thought that the two of them had done something shameful.
The Zhang family members beat Crazy Liu so hard that they almost set the wooden house on fire.
Later, the Zhang family felt it was embarrassing and accepted the bride price from the second-rate son Jiang Dahu, so they married the girl off.
He is also a miserable child! "
Zhang Xia is not crazy, nor is she a fool.
She was just tortured by the unbearable life to the point where she looked less like a human being and a ghost than a ghost. Her eyes were filled with inferiority complex and she was unwilling to contact outsiders.
Tong Ran made the two older children laugh, diluting the tense atmosphere in the courtyard. Zhang Xia looked at the children with a smile on her lips.
Yang Xiao noticed Zhang Xia's change in mood, took out the letter, raised it in front of Zhang Xia, and asked softly:
"Did you write it?"
"Woo!"
The moment Zhang Xia saw the letter, her eyes filled with tears. She finally buried her head on the child and burst into tears.
Zhang Xia cried for a long time.
I cried out all the grievances I had suffered over the years.
She stretched out her hand, took the letter tremblingly, nodded and said the first sentence:
"Teacher Xie is dead, you are late!"
"We're still here, aren't we?" Yang Xiao squatted in front of Zhang Xia and said:
"I will investigate this matter and help your teacher regain his identity.
Can you tell me what's going on? "
"Um!"
Zhang Xia choked and nodded, talking about her and Madman Liu.
It was an afternoon.
Zhang Xia led her sheep to the hillside to graze.
There she saw Crazy Liu who was writing and drawing in front of a stone slab.
Zhang Xia's biggest dream is to read and write.
But family members say that girls will get married in the future, and studying is of no use.
She was never allowed to go to school for a day.
Zhang Xia was attracted by Madman Liu's words and stood nearby for a long time.
Madman Liu suddenly raised his head and asked Zhang Xia:
"Do you want to learn to write?"
It was at that time that Zhang Xia took advantage of her time to herd sheep and went to the wooden house to learn calligraphy from Madman Liu.
As time passed, Madman Liu told Zhang Xia a lot about himself.
His surname is not Liu, but Xie.
Someone used his name to get into college with his college entrance examination results.
Zhang Xia often asked Madman Liu why he didn't sue that person and get his own identity back.
Crazy Liu always smiles and shakes his head:
"It's too late! I've become useless, what's the use of getting my identity back?
Just die in vain. "
Zhang Xia wanted to help Crazy Liu seek justice, so she wrote this letter to the Town Justice Bureau in Crazy Liu's tone.
It's a pity that she didn't wait until the town came to investigate.
Instead, her parents discovered that she was with Crazy Liu.
The old village chief told Yang Xiao what happened next.
Crazy Liu had been crazy all his life. He left the answers to the college entrance examination papers on the wall of the wooden house and hanged himself with his identity as Crazy Liu.
Maybe he is completely desperate!
Zhang Xia hadn't talked to strangers for a long time. Her thinking was a little confused and she stuttered out the story. The logical relationship was sorted out by Yang Xiao based on her own understanding.
Yang Xiao asked patiently:
"Crazy Liu...well, your teacher Xie has been crazy for so many years. How did he know that he was impostered into college?"
"Because of a newspaper!"
Zhang Xia said to Yang Xiao:
“There is a newspaper picked up from the village hidden in Teacher Xie’s room.
When he was alone, he would always take out the newspaper and stare blankly at the words on it. "
Crazy Liu has been crazy for nearly twenty years!
Six or seven years ago, I picked up a newspaper and suddenly came to my senses when I saw what was on it. I realized that someone had used his identity to go to college!
Such a hypothesis appeared in Yang Xiao's mind.
The investigation has led to the investigation of Madman Liu and Zhang Xia who wrote the letter, but these have no connection with Cheng Liyan's fall from the cliff.
There are only three possibilities now.
First, Cheng Liyan did fall off the cliff accidentally.
Second, Madman Liu pushed Cheng Liyan off the cliff.
Why did he do this?
three! There was a third person at the scene when Cheng Liyan fell off the cliff. He didn't want Cheng Liyan to investigate Crazy Liu's matter!
If there really is such a person, he must be the one who pretended to be Crazy Liu and went to college!
That newspaper is the key!
Yang Xiao asked Zhang Xia the last question:
"Do you know what Teacher Xie's name is?"
Zhang Xia nodded and said two words from her chapped lips:
"Xie Chuan!"
"Thank you!" Yang Xiao stood up and shouted to Wang Ruiyun:
"Village Chief Wang, help me take care of Zhang Xia.
Tong Ran, Mao Anping, let’s go back to the cabin! "
The wooden house stands quietly on the hillside.
Only a solitary grave remains by its side.
It looked extremely desolate.
Madman Liu spent his last days here.
Maybe in a few years, the wooden house will collapse, and traces of him will completely disappear from this world.
Yang Xiao took Tong Ran and Mao Anping back to the wooden house again, where they searched for the newspaper mentioned by Zhang Xia.
The cabin was empty.
Except for a worn-out mat, everything inside had been emptied.
There is water on the ground due to moisture.
How can one keep a newspaper for a long time in such an environment?
