The Bank Burglary Case (12)

Chapter 12

The suspect Yun Song was looking for belonged to the second group of Sanli Village. Sanli Village was divided into six groups in total. Because the village was nestled deep within the mountains, each group had its own cluster of homes, and while the groups didn’t know much about one another, things were different within a group. The members knew each other intimately; if a family slaughtered a chicken or ate a piece of meat, everyone would know about it.

Life in the mountains was different from the city or the town. The people in these mountain villages had lived there for generations, and every household was connected by blood or marriage. When Yun Song, an outsider, came to question them, they wouldn’t dare offend her because she was a police officer, but they also wouldn’t say anything detrimental to one of their own.

This was exactly the situation Yun Song had encountered during her last visit.

“When was the last time you saw Wang Jiawang?”

“We’re busy all the time. No one paid attention to when we last saw him,” a villager in the fields replied.

“Then do you know who he usually gets along with?”

“We’re all from the same village. There’s no such thing as getting along well or not. Did he do something wrong in town?”

“The matter is still under investigation. We need him to cooperate with our inquiries.”

“Is it about that bank burglary in town? I don’t think it has anything to do with him. I don’t think he’s that brave.”

“Has he done anything unusual lately?”

“We wouldn’t know about that. Look at these fields, look at these paddies. We’re very busy.”

Someone who didn’t understand rural life might have been fooled, thinking the villagers had a good attitude since they answered every question and seemed quite warm.

But Yun Song was different. Although she had been born and raised in the city, she had once been kidnapped and sold to a village. She knew exactly how well neighbors knew each other. During her time in that village, she had seen with her own eyes how two families who were normally sworn enemies would immediately unite when faced with an outsider.

Even though Yun Song held the status of a police officer, in the eyes of these people, the police were only here for a brief moment and would soon return to the city, while they had to continue living here.

Naturally, they operated on the principle of not offending anyone if they could help it. During her last inquiry, the man had only been a suspect in a burglary.

Now, the burglary had turned into a murder case. If the victim had been a local villager, it might have been easier to break through the village’s defensive line of solidarity.

However, the victim was from the neighboring town and posed no threat to the people of this village.

Yun Song understood this, so she remained pessimistic about this round of interviews. Furthermore, she had her own internal reservations. She didn’t feel right forcing anyone to speak up, as their concerns were valid.

She was a police officer. Her job was to come up here, investigate a case, and leave after ten days or two weeks. If someone faced ostracization from the village for giving her information, what then? Could she take responsibility for their lives?

This was also why she had immediately declined when Mei Yue and her family invited her for a meal upon her arrival.

She was worried that even if the Mei family said nothing, the rest of the village would assume they had talked.

She visited the villagers one by one, trying to create one-on-one environments in the fields so that no one would know what was being said.

“Officer, I really don’t know what’s going on with his family,” a middle-aged man said cheerfully while spreading manure. “I can’t just spend my time staring at other people’s houses.”

“Then who in the village knows him best?”

“I’m even less sure about that. Officer, you’re from the city, so you must have plenty of leisure time every day. You don’t know how busy us farmers are. We have to head into the mountains before dawn and can’t come back until dark. Look at these fields, and those paddies down there. They can’t be left alone. If we lose focus for even a moment, a whole year’s work goes to waste. In our position, how could we have time to mind other people’s business?”

Yun Song’s mind was filled with her past experiences in Xinghua Village. It was precisely because the work was so grueling that people would seize every second to gossip. She had once reflected on this phenomenon, thinking that gossip in such an environment served as a unique form of collective psychological therapy.

Keeping her expression neutral, she said, “That’s true.”

Immediately afterward, the middle-aged man couldn’t help but ask, “Did he get into big trouble? Was it murder after robbing the bank? Have you solved that bank burglary yet? I heard tens of thousands of yuan were stolen. Has it been found?”

See? Even when they were this “busy,” they still wanted to gossip.

Yun Song asked, “Where did you hear about this?”

“Everyone in town is talking about it.”

“I thought you were too busy to know about other people’s business?”

“The things we want to know are the big events. As for who gets along with whom, we don’t have time for those little things.”

The villagers were all shrewd. Not only did they refuse to share what they knew, but they also wanted to pry information out of the police.

Yun Song had no choice but to move on to the next person.

“Huh? What?” An old lady pointed to her ear. “I can’t hear you.”

“I want to ask you about Wang Jiawang.”

“Jiawang! Yes, the family must prosper¹!”

Yun Song: “…” Thanks for the reminder about the meaning of his name.

Yun Song spent over two hours struggling like this. As the sky began to darken, she still hadn’t made much progress.

Mei Yue had been watching Yun Song from a distance. She didn’t know much about the situation; she was just a child living in her own world. Usually, when she wasn’t reading, she liked to go to the mountain streams to catch crabs. She knew very little about the people or the affairs of the village. She desperately wanted to help but didn’t know how, so she could only ask her mother.

“Mom, do you know that Uncle Wang? He killed someone outside. The whole town is talking about it.” She had been a bit scared at school, but once she was home, her fear vanished completely.

To Xiao Mei, their square little earthen house was the safest place in the world. No ghosts or monsters could enter here.

“Don’t get involved in adult business, you’re just a child. Go do your homework.” Xiao Mei’s mother was also thinking about the matter.

Mei Yue’s mother was named Ning Xiangxiu. She was very grateful to Yun Song for speaking up at the school earlier, which had allowed her daughter to continue her studies smoothly.

Feeling that she owed a great debt of gratitude, she wanted to treat Yun Song as an honored guest. She had hoped to bring Yun Song to her home and cook a meal to entertain her.

However, Yun Song was busy asking everyone about Wang Jiawang and could not come for dinner.

Now that her daughter had mentioned it, she realized what was happening. She watched Yun Song from a distance as she spoke with people on the hillside.

Ning Xiangxiu found it a bit strange. Why hadn’t Yun Song come to ask her anything?

Yun Song questioned several more villagers, ensuring she had a ten-minute one-on-one conversation with each of them before finally returning to the Mei family’s side to find Ning Xiangxiu.

“I was just wondering why you hadn’t come to ask me yet,” Ning Xiangxiu said. She had been about to go fetch water but set down her carrying pole². She was a straightforward person and voiced her confusion directly.

Yun Song explained, “I came to the village with your daughter, Mei Yue. If I find anything out later, regardless of whether your family said anything, people might suspect it came from you. That is why I went to ask the others first. While chatting with them, they could see for themselves that I wasn’t getting any information from your family.”

“So, did they talk?” Ning Xiangxiu asked, though she already had an answer in her heart.

Yun Song shook her head.

Ning Xiangxiu wasn’t at all surprised that no one had spoken.

She immediately said, “What do you want to know about Wang Jiawang? As long as I know it, I can tell you.”

Ning Xiangxiu knew that Yun Song, the police comrade who had helped her, needed to ask questions. She had been prepared to speak from the start, but when she noticed the other woman wasn’t asking her, she had felt a bit dejected. Now, hearing Yun Song’s reasoning, she felt the other woman was being very considerate of her. A wave of warmth washed over her, making her feel even more determined to speak.

Ning Xiangxiu was not highly educated. Her father had died when she was young, and her mother had remarried, later having more children. As a child, she had felt like an outsider in her own home. Back then, the only thing that brought her joy was the outdoor movies. Their village’s Auntie Xiang Mei was a very diligent projectionist. Whether it was summer or winter, whenever she was free, she would show movies for everyone. Young Ning Xiangxiu took every opportunity to watch those films over and over again. She was often so obsessed with the movies that she forgot to eat. she held the characters in those films in the highest regard. Most movies at that time told stories of heroic sons and daughters³ during the war, and she often looked to them as role models.

This was also why, in a village where everyone insisted on having a son if their first child was a girl, she had strictly adhered to the national one-child policy⁴. Others thought she was foolish, but she thought they were the foolish ones. While others believed a girl only needed to know how to write her name and do basic math, she insisted that her child attend middle school and later high school.

At this moment, as she prepared to actively cooperate with the police investigation and break a silence that no one else in the village dared to break, she felt no fear. Instead, she felt a sense of pride.

Yun Song, on the other hand, had more concerns. She made sure no one was paying attention before pulling the woman toward the hillside behind them. This way, it wouldn’t arouse suspicion.

After all, she had questioned everyone else on the hillsides or in the fields. If they talked inside the house, it would actually look more suspicious.

Once Yun Song was certain no one could overhear, she said, “I’ve spoken to the adults in the village, and no one knows what anyone else said. If people ask you later, don’t tell them the truth. Just say that you told me you were too busy with the farm work to worry about other people’s business. That’s the excuse the vast majority of your village used.”

“Don’t worry, I understand! They can’t hurt me. If anyone suspects me, I’ll just suspect them right back.” Ning Xiangxiu felt that the policewoman before her truly had her best interests at heart. She asked, “What is it you want to know?”

“What kind of person was he in the village? How did he usually conduct himself? Did he have anyone he was close to in the village? Was there anyone he didn’t get along with?”

Translator’s Notes