50s: Starting with a storage ring

Chapter 710 Bloodstains in the House

At that time in the countryside, for all remittance slips, letters and the like, the postman would first deliver them to the village office, and then the village office would forward them to the recipients in the village.

In other words, at the very least, the village chief knew that Yanlong was sending money over every month.

All veterans training on Subi Island receive a basic probationary salary of $800 per month until the end of their training.

This amount is significantly less than the basic wage for American workers, but at the current exchange rate of 1:3, it is still 2400 yuan.

At that time, the highest salary a domestic graduate student could earn after being hired as a full-time employee in a factory or mining enterprise was no more than 78 yuan per month.

Even in Shenhe, the region with the highest wages in the country, the highest wage for a worker is only 3000 yuan per year.

On Subi Island, food and lodging were provided, but Sun Zhiwei didn't know how much Yanlong sent back each month.

But he estimated it to be at least $500, or 1500 yuan, which is equivalent to half a year's salary for a senior worker at Deep River.

Paqian Old Village in Xishuangbanna is an old, impoverished village deep in the mountains.

The village has only about 40 households, and there is almost no flat land around it. The villagers can only grow some food in the corners and outcrops. The total farmland area is less than 100 mu.

The village's biggest source of income is the wild rubber trees on the mountain. After harvesting the raw rubber, the villagers would sell it outside the village. The money from the sale was enough to ensure that everyone in the village had enough food every year.

However, after deducting the money spent on food rations, if each family could have 50-100 yuan left over to share, it would be considered a bumper year.

Last year, the total cash received by all the villagers in the village was probably less than the amount Yanlong sent back in a single month.

Money is a powerful motivator; people in poorer areas are more susceptible to its allure.

If you only make a hundred or so yuan a month, at most it will arouse the jealousy of the villagers, who will then come to your door to borrow some money.

It costs thousands of yuan a month, and it's been going on for more than half a year, so the total amount has already exceeded ten thousand yuan. This is practically forcing everyone to take action.

Sun Zhiwei could already imagine what would happen next, but he still had some questions about the village chief who panicked as soon as he saw him.

It's getting late, and since there's no electricity in the village, most of the other villagers have gone to sleep.

The village chief's house is the largest and located at the village entrance. Currently, only the lights in the village chief's house are still on, and he is the only one who has gotten up to check the situation.

In such an old village, you might not even see a single stranger in a year, let alone someone dressed in such a fashionable way. It's not surprising that the village chief could notice something different about him.

Sun Zhiwei parked his motorcycle and then said to the village chief, "You must be the village chief. I'm from Yanlong's work unit. We spoke on the phone a few days ago, do you remember me?"

"Oh, I remember now. You came here to see Yanlong, didn't you?"

"Yes, Yanlong and I agreed to set off together on the sixteenth day of the first lunar month, but he has now gone missing. So, my unit sent me here to investigate the situation."

"Comrade, didn't I tell you on the phone? Yanlong and his whole family have already left the mountain."

"Now, I don't know where they went either. Why don't you go and look for them along the way again?"

"No rush, can you take me to Yanlong's house now?"

The village chief hesitated for a moment before saying, "Comrade, it's already dark, and we can't see anything clearly. How about I take you there to take a look tomorrow?"

"It's alright, just show me around outside their house first, and I'll go inside tomorrow."

Hearing the determination in Sun Zhiwei's tone, the old village chief stopped insisting. Instead, he went back into the house, put on a coat, grabbed a flashlight, and then led Sun Zhiwei up the mountain.

Paqian Old Village is built on a mountain, with the villagers' houses built along both sides of a winding path leading to the top of the mountain. Yanlong's house is located near the top. This location is actually not good, because the mountaintop is shrouded in heavy fog every day, and the damp environment can easily make people sick.

Therefore, the closer to the top of the mountain, the fewer houses there are, and the house at the very top is Yanlong's.

A dozen minutes later, the village chief led Sun Zhiwei to Yanlong's house.

This is an old house built with a mix of stone and wood. There is a small courtyard in front of the house, surrounded by a stone wall.

However, the gate to Yanlong's courtyard is currently wide open.

When Sun Zhiwei saw the open gate, he turned and glanced at the old village chief.

The village chief said awkwardly, "Yanlong said when he left that he would never come back, so he wants to give all the things in the house that they can't take with them to the villagers."

Whether he was telling the truth or not, Sun Zhiwei could see through the unfolded space that everything in the house had been moved out.

If it weren't for the fact that he could see everything in his personal space down to the smallest detail, he might have been fooled today.

Because he discovered two very unusual things about the house.

One is the roof of the house inside, half of which has been burned down.

In these impoverished mountain villages, houses are the most important asset besides fields.

A stone house with a yard like this would require several years of savings from each family, and would also require considerable debt from famine to build.

But this house, which is extremely valuable in the area, is now half burned down and left here unattended.

If the burned area was the adjacent kitchen or the woodshed at the back, he might have assumed it was an accidental fire.

The largest room, the living room, was clearly the one that could have been burned down, which is a clear point of suspicion.

Another unusual thing is that there are many signs of excavation and damage on the floor, walls, beams and columns inside the house.

Who did this, and why?

The only possible scene Sun Zhiwei could imagine was the scene of the soldiers searching high and low for money back then.

So he searched the house even more carefully.

Soon, he discovered scattered purplish-black bloodstains on the floor and walls of the house, and at that point, he no longer harbored any illusions.

Sun Zhiwei turned his head and said in a low voice, "Village chief, you just said that Yanlong's whole family has moved away?"

"Yes, comrade, they've been gone for many days now, and I really don't know where they moved to."

"Heh, I'm afraid they didn't just move away, they all died, right?"

As soon as Sun Zhiwei said this, the old village chief froze, then he began to shout angrily:

"Comrade, how can you slander us? It's clear that Yanlong's family became rich and looked down on the villagers, so they all moved away! Moved away!"

The old village chief's roar carried far across the open mountains.

The lights in other villagers' homes quickly came on, and villagers kept getting up and opening their doors to check the situation after hearing the noise.

(End of this chapter)