Chapter 352: Fire
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“If I were to practice it, can I achieve this level too?” Tong Wei asked.
“It’s theoretically possible, but it depends on your luck.”
“Luck?”
“Yeah. It must be a right time, the right place, and the right person. Not a single condition can be omitted. It’s true that personal effort are important, but sheer luck is indispensable,” w.a.n.g Yao replied.
Tong Wei walked around the hill. She felt a bit tired, so she took a short rest in the cottage. Then, the two of them went down the hill.
“Wei, don’t go home tonight. Why don’t you stay here for the night?” Zhang Xiuying asked.
“Okay.” Tong Wei’s voice was soft and her face was blus.h.i.+ng.
“Haha. Great. Don’t go up the hill.”
“Okay.” w.a.n.g Yao nodded.
There were four big roof-tiled houses. In addition to the South house, there were also the East and West houses. There were plenty places for her to stay in. Tong Wei stayed in a separate room.
The sky gradually darkened.
After dinner, w.a.n.g Yao’s family sat on the kang. They chatted while laughing. They only went to bed after nine o’clock at night.
Lying on the soft and cozy bed, Tong Wei had many thoughts.
It was slowly getting late. The village was in a state of tranquility.
The street lights in the village were still on.
Woof, woof, woof. A dog of another family suddenly barked very fiercely.
“What’s wrong?!” The family hurriedly got up to take a look. They thought that there was a break-in.
They walked around with a torch and they did not notice anything. The dog was still barking very fiercely. It seemed to be barking towards the outside.
The man looked outside. What’s that?!
It’s on fire!
Boom, boom, boom!
Late at night, w.a.n.g Yao was awakened by the knock on the door. He hurriedly wore his clothes and got out of bed.
“What’s going on?” Tong Wei had also come out from her room.
“Who is it?!”
“Yao, it’s me. Your newly-built house is on fire.” The anxious voice of a man came in from the outside.
“What?!”
w.a.n.g Yao hurriedly opened the door. He then dashed out at his fastest speed.
He had already seen the flare at the entrance of the alley.
The flames were particularly bright in the night sky. The flames were coming from the south of the village.
w.a.n.g Yao sprinted there very quickly, like an arrow that was shot out from the bowstring. People were already busy putting out the fire outside the medical center. The fire was not big. Only a corner of the house was on fire. There was also fire in the courtyard.
“Yao.”
“Thank you everyone.” The people who came to put out the fire were the old and young men who lived nearby.
With a glance, w.a.n.g Yao remembered all of them in his heart. After that, he bolted into the courtyard. The corner of the wall in the courtyard was on fire. One of the acacia trees caught on fire. It seemed to be splashed with gasoline and it was burning vigorously.
w.a.n.g Yao hurriedly looked for water to put out the fire.
His parents and Tong Wei soon arrived. Together with the villagers nearby, the fire was extinguished within an hour.
There was not much damage. A corner of the medical center and half of the acacia tree were burnt.
After that, w.a.n.g Yao’s family was busy thanking the people who came forward to help.
After a while, the people who came forward to help dispersed. They each went home and went to bed. It was late at night. They still had to work the next day.
“Why don’t you go back and rest?” w.a.n.g Yao said to Tong Wei gently.
“It’s okay. I’ll stay with you.”
w.a.n.g Yao and his family went home, but no one could fall asleep.
“What’s going on?” Zhang Xiuying asked.
“I’ve already called the police,” w.a.n.g Yao answered.
Obviously, someone deliberately set his medical center on fire.
w.a.n.g Yao looked very calm, but his heart was full of rage.
This time, no matter who it was, he must make the person pay a painful price!
He thought about it carefully. There were only a few people whom he had offended or had conflicts with recently.
Li Shaoyang and Wu Yueran whom he had just met.
Let’s spare some time and have a chat!
Soon, the police came. Committing arson in this village was considered as a horrible incident. They asked about the particulars of the incident. Soon, they found a suspicious person from the monitoring in the village. However, the person was obviously an old-timer. He was wearing clothes which covered his face. The bag he carried probably contained gasoline.
“He’s a recidivist. It’ll be a bit difficult to investigate this case.”
“He knows where I’m staying. He’s obviously prepared.”
“We know. Don’t worry, we’ll do our best.”
After that, they brought up the surveillance videos of several villages in the vicinity to investigate the person. Soon, they had a clue. Not long after the arson, a motorcycle was moving along the road in the north of the village. There was only a motorcycle in the two hours before and after the arson. After all, it was already late at night. Furthermore, the motorcyclist was also wearing the same clothes.
Things became much easier to handle with this clue. They soon brought up the monitoring of the roads and conducted an investigation one by one. At the same time, they checked the information of the unlicensed motorcycle.
They did not rest for the whole night.
Early in the morning, w.a.n.g Yao’s family was in a very bad mood.
Zhang Xiuying wanted to speak but she stopped at a second thought. After all, her future daughter-in-law was still home. She was not able to say some things.
“Don’t worry. I’ll handle this,” w.a.n.g Yao comforted his family.
“Why don’t I accompany you for a walk?” Tong Wei asked by the side.
“Okay. You must’ve been terrified last night.”
“No. I’m just a little worried,” Tong Wei replied. “Are you okay?”
“I’m okay.”
Both of them went to the medical center again. w.a.n.g Yao specially used the ancient spring water which he had prepared earlier to water the burnt acacia tree.
In the morning, w.a.n.g Yao contacted Tian Yuantu and asked him to arrange for someone to renovate the outer wall of the house.
The personnel from Tian Yuantu’s company had arrived before 10 o’clock in the morning. They knew very well of what happened by looking at the condition of the outer wall of the house. He gave his boss a call. Tian Yuantu came over from Lianshan County within an hour.
“What’s going on?!” He understood just by looking at it. Someone purposely set his house on fire.
“Someone needs a beating!” w.a.n.g Yao replied.
“Have you called the police?”
“Yes. They’re still investigating.”
“Go ahead and tell me if you need any help.”
“Alright. Thank you.”
The materials to repair the outer wall and the workers had arrived that noon. Then, they started the restoration work of the outer wall.
w.a.n.g Yao was not idle. He went to the police station in town to ask about the investigation. Tong Wei accompanied his mother at home.
Tian Yuantu quickly utilized his connections. The police station in the county intervened in the investigation. The scale of the investigation was further increased.
The outer wall was repaired that afternoon and it was as good as new.
…
Somewhere in Haiqu City.
“I’ll give you 100,000 yuan. Castrate him!”
A man looked at the photo in his hands.
“This is a legal society. One has to go to jail if they deliberately hurt someone!” The man’s voice was low-pitched and hoa.r.s.e.
“Haha. It’s not your first time doing it.”
“You have to give me more.”
“How much?”
“Give me 50,000 yuan more.”
“No problem!”
…
w.a.n.g Yao initially wanted to drive Tong Wei home, but Tong Wei insisted on staying. She felt that it was inappropriate for her to leave when such a thing had just happened to w.a.n.g Yao.
At noon the next day, w.a.n.g Yao booked two tables in the restaurant in the downtown village and paid for all the old and young men who had helped out last night to feast.
There were good food and excellent beer.
They ate happily and drank to their hearts’ content.
He’s a dainty person!
This was another opinion of the villagers towards w.a.n.g Yao.
w.a.n.g Yao thanked the people who helped when the hill was caught on fire last time. He thanked the people this time. It was not verbal. Instead, there were real actions.
This young man is decent!
w.a.n.g Mingbao came back that afternoon.
“What’s going on? Did someone set your house on fire?!” He was already furious, all the way in Ji City. He immediately drove back when he heard his buddy at the police station say that someone set his buddy’s house on fire.
“It’s nothing serious. They’re investigating it.”
“I’ll tell my father and ask him to find someone to handle the matter quickly.”
“Okay.”
w.a.n.g Mingbao immediately gave his father a call. After receiving the call, his father also instantly sprung to action.
“Did you come from your shop?”
“No. I went to Ji City and investigated the person we talked about before.” w.a.n.g Mingbao was still unwilling to say the person’s name.
“How is it?”
“She’s not a good woman. We may know a woman’s exterior but not her heart!” w.a.n.g Mingbao said with resentment.
“Hurry up and break up with her.”
Near evening, a person came to the mountain village. He was a middle-aged man who seemed to be in his forties. After entering the mountain village, he directly went to w.a.n.g Yao’s medical center and knocked on the door.
“Didn’t you see that the door is locked?” someone who pa.s.sed by said.
“Oh. Do you know where he’s staying?”
“Walk down the road from here. It’s at the entrance of the fourth alley. Hey, that’s him, the person who’s standing on the side of the bridge.”
“Thank you.”
The man then headed north and walked towards w.a.n.g Yao.
“h.e.l.lo, are you Dr. w.a.n.g?”
“Who are you?”
“Oh. I’m here to get my illness treated.”
“Sorry. You’ve mistaken me for someone else,” w.a.n.g Yao replied.
“Huh?” The man was startled. He obviously did not expect that w.a.n.g Yao would give such a response.
“I’m really here to get my illness treated!”
“You’ve really mistaken me for someone else.”
The man pestered w.a.n.g Yao for a while. w.a.n.g Yao did not admit he was who he said, so he could do nothing else but leave.
w.a.n.g Yao looked at the man’s back.
“What’s wrong?” w.a.n.g Mingbao asked by the side.
“That man is problematic.”
“Problematic? Why?”
“He didn’t dare to look at me in the eyes when he was talking. He has an ulterior motive.”
“Why didn’t you ask him about it?”
“There’s no need to rush. We’ll catch up with him later down the line.”
The man came in a motorcycle. He was very careful when he left. He turned around to have a look from time to time.
Sitting in the pa.s.senger seat of the car behind him, w.a.n.g Yao said, “See, he’s up to no good.”
“Yes. Could he be the person who set the clinic on fire last night?”
“I don’t think so.”
They trailed the man to a hotel in Lianshan County.
There were two men who were quite strong in one of the guest rooms in the hotel.
“How is it?”
“Tsk, he didn’t take the bait,” the man who was looking for w.a.n.g Yao said.
“Are you sure that he’s in the village?”
“Yes, I’m sure. The location of his house is also confirmed. I’ve also met him.”
“Brother, our master has said that if we can complete this within three days, we’ll receive another 10,000 yuan.”
“It’s not easy to do this. It’s in the village. If something goes wrong, we’ll be trapped inside. We may lose our lives.”
“This is a problem. It’ll be best if he can come out!”
“Doesn’t he have a sister who’s working at the Agriculture Bureau? We can start with her.”
“Yes.”
They were conspiring in the hotel. w.a.n.g Yao and w.a.n.g Mingbao waited in the car outside. At about half past five in the evening, the three of them came out of the hotel and ate at a small restaurant nearby.