Chapter 39: Verifying the Testimony

The man with the mole’s eyes widened in disbelief.

"Zhang Yang, what kind of nonsense are you spouting?" he barked. "Who hit you? It was you, you brat, who held our squad leader at gunpoint! You’re the one who was trying to take his life!"

Zhang Yang chuckled. "I’m just one man with a single rifle against seven or eight of you. How could I possibly threaten your squad leader’s life?"

"But we were all inside the cave, and you were outside, you—" The man with the mole suddenly clamped his hand over his mouth, terrified to continue.

Zhang Haiquan turned to face him. "If you were hunting wolves, why were you all inside the cave? And all of you went in?"

The man with the mole kept his mouth covered and shook his head violently.

Nearby, the other men from Wulipu were sweating with anxiety. One of them rushed to answer, "We were all in there to carry the wolf out! We had it cornered in the cave and gunned it down! We only went in once it was dead!"

"That is a pathetic lie," Zhang Yang laughed. "The Captain only needs to take a look in that cave to see if there are even enough bullet holes to support your story!"

The men from Wulipu fell silent. Zhang Haiquan glared at them. He already had a fairly good idea of what had happened. He had heard rumors of the misdeeds of the Wulipu group for some time, but he had never had the evidence to act. Today, he would use this incident to impose some penalties and give them a stern warning.

"Your marksmanship in Wulipu is abysmal. I am confiscating three of your rifles. Once you have been retrained and can actually hit a target, you can have them back," Zhang Haiquan said sternly. "Otherwise, giving you so many guns and bullets is just a waste of national resources!"

The man with the mole was furious and pointed a finger at Zhang Yang’s nose. "Our aim might be off, but this brat is lying! Who hit them? Our two squads were chasing the wolf together; the scene was chaotic. Everyone was fighting for the meat and the credit. It was dark in the mountains, and we couldn't see clearly—a little accidental injury is perfectly normal! You make it sound like we’re some kind of bandits or thugs! It was clearly you, you little—"

At that exact moment, Zhang Yang slowly took off his cotton-padded hat. The bruise on his forehead was jarringly visible. The man with the mole froze, staring blankly, unable to utter another word.

Zhang Yang looked toward Zhang Haiquan. "Captain, if it weren't for saving my brothers, I wouldn't have stood for this humiliation or taken this beating. If you don't believe in my fighting ability, feel free to have any one of them from Wulipu face me in a one-on-one fight!"

"Enough of that!" Zhang Haiquan reprimanded him. "What kind of fighting are you talking about?"

There was no need for a fight. Look at the age difference between Zhang Yang and those old men. Zhang Yang could easily take three of them at once; there was no way any of them could win a fair fight against him. This only confirmed to Zhang Haiquan that Zhang Yang’s injuries were suspicious, and the truth seemed increasingly to align with the account given by the Zhangjiatun side.

"You, you, you! That injury on your head must have come from bumping into Zhao Dong! What does that have to do with us? You’re lying! You made it all up!" The man with the mole refused to shoulder the blame, standing with his hands on his hips and shouting.

Just then, the gate to the Zhang family’s courtyard opened, and the brothers Gao Wen and Gao Wu stepped out.

"Captain, if you don't believe Yang and Dong, take a look at us." Both brothers took off their hats, revealing the bruises and swellings on their faces.

Zhang Haiquan remembered these two brothers from Gaowutun. During the autumn harvest, they had come to him with complaints that the people from Wulipu were stealing their grain. However, since the grain hadn't been weighed yet, no one could be sure, and the matter had ended up being dropped. Why were they at Zhang Yang's place?

"Captain, we heard about the wolves and wanted to learn how to hunt some meat to bring back," Gao Wen said sincerely, his voice full of indignation. "But we didn't expect that on our first night up the mountain with Yang, we would witness the people from Wulipu robbing others right in front of us! This time, it wasn't grain—it was a wolf. That wolf must have weighed at least sixty or seventy pounds. They had so many people attacking that they almost beat the men from Wulipu to death!"

"Little Wu and I couldn't just stand by and watch, so we tried to help, and as a result... we got beaten up too."

"But at least we managed to save them!" Gao Wen added. "We just don't know if the two of them have woken up yet..."

Gao Wen’s grievances were so bitter and his voice so strained that Li Huifang, listening from behind the door, couldn't help but wipe away tears.

Zhang Haiquan made a swift decision. "Which family are the injured ones from? Let's go take a look!" As he started walking, he pointed at everyone behind him and ordered, "From now on, only the injured are allowed to speak! They aren't from the same family, right? Perfect! I want to hear their accounts and see exactly what happened."

He took a deep breath. "If a single word doesn't match up, both of your squads will be punished!"

The crowd surged toward the homes of the two men injured the previous night. The houses were not far apart, but currently, only the elderly, women, and children were moving about the courtyards; no men were in sight.

An elderly woman from one of the houses dropped her broom the moment she saw Zhang Haiquan. "Captain, my son almost died on the mountain yesterday... The squad leader saved him and managed to save his life, but the boy has gone mad! From last night until now, whether he’s awake or asleep, he keeps shouting, 'That’s our wolf, that’s our wolf...'"

The man with the mole tried to jump in again, but Zhang Haiquan silenced him with a single glare.

Zhang Haiquan comforted the old woman, "Don't worry, I’m here specifically to get to the bottom of this. Is your son awake or asleep right now? Can we go in?"

The woman wiped her eyes with her sleeve. "He's awake! He just woke up again! He’s complaining that his legs hurt... We're too poor to send him to the clinic, and I don't even know how bad his injuries are! He won't let us look..."

Zhang Haiquan’s expression hardened. "If he’s injured, how can you not take him to the clinic? Never mind anything else, get him to the clinic immediately!"

With the Captain’s order, Zhang Yang and Zhao Dong moved to enter the courtyard to help, but Zhang Haiquan stopped them with a sharp look. "I said I would investigate this carefully, and no one is to interfere in the process."

"If you want a fair and just resolution, you had better follow my instructions. Otherwise, don't come back to me complaining about grievances or seeking justice!"

Zhao Dong wanted to argue, but Zhang Yang held him back. "Just listen to the Captain."

With other men from the village present, Zhang Haiquan called for two of them to use a wooden plank as a makeshift stretcher to take the injured militiaman to the clinic. The doctor soon examined the man and came out to report to the Captain.

"How many people beat this man? How could they do this to him? There are bruises all over his body—there’s hardly an inch of unblemished skin left!"