Li Rui smacked his lips helplessly and nodded. "Okay, okay. You're the uncrowned king now. Whatever you say, I'll listen to you, okay?"
Ma Ruoxi said, "Let's go. Take me to the place where the collapse happened this morning."
Li Ruiqi asked curiously, "Why are you still looking? Isn't it enough to see the collapse? "
Ma Ruoxi said casually, "We're going back anyway. Let's go take a look."
Li Rui thought it made sense and nodded. "Let's go." Then he said, "Actually, I haven't been to the site of the second collapse. I need to ask the villagers."
When they returned to the village, Li Rui asked the villager who had asked the question earlier. The villager didn't know the exact location of the collapse this morning. He pointed them in the general direction according to the direction of the tremors in his memory.
The three of them walked along the alley at the southwest corner of the village. They couldn't find it after looking around, so they asked a villager who hadn't moved away in time.
The villager pointed to the north and said, "The collapse is very close to my house. I feel that the rumbling sound came from under my house. You can go to the courtyard facing my house in the north and take a look. No one lives in their house, so outsiders don't know about the collapse. "
The three of them followed the direction he pointed and went to the alley under his house in the north. Soon, they found the abandoned house. The gate was closed, but the mud walls on both sides of the gate had collapsed. The shortest part was less than a meter high and could be stepped over to enter the house. The courtyard was full of weeds. The north and east rooms were dilapidated and seemed to have been abandoned for decades. As a matter of fact, these old houses built with adobe walls and gray bricks had disappeared from most villages in the 1990s and were replaced by new rural houses with red brick floors.
Li Rui looked at the north and east rooms and frowned. "Is this the site of the collapse? The house doesn't seem to be affected. "
"Why does it smell like firecrackers? Do you smell it? "
Ma Ruoxi arrived in front of the collapsed courtyard wall. Just as she was about to step in, she suddenly smelled a faint but distinct smell of gunpowder in the air.
Li Rui sniffed and could also smell the faint smell of firecrackers. He asked Ma Yuming, but the latter shook his head, indicating that he did not smell anything.
"Hmm? Why are there so many footprints on the wall? "
Ma Ruoxi's eyes were sharp. She noticed that there were many dense and messy footprints on the collapsed wall that could be stepped over. This was an adobe wall. Due to the erosion of wind, rain, and snow, the surface of the adobe had already turned into dust. Stepping on it would leave footprints. The footprints in front of him were very clear and very deep, as if they had just been left not long ago. Many of the footprints even had a darker color of yellow soil.
"Does someone live here?"
Li Rui muttered to himself, but he shook his head as soon as he finished speaking. Looking at the environment of the courtyard, not to mention living in it, even the Firewood Dog wouldn't be willing to live in it. Not to mention, if someone really lived in it, they would come in and out from the front door.
Ma Ruoxi glanced at him, despising the stupidity of his words. She lifted her long legs and stepped over the wall. Li Rui quickly reached out to help her.
"Hey? Where did this yellow soil come from? Scattered all along the way? "
As soon as Ma Ruoxi stood in the courtyard, she found that there was a trace of yellow soil under her feet that could be seen with the naked eye. The landing point was uneven, roughly falling within the range of ten centimeters. It extended to the center of the courtyard, forming a visible but not solid dirt road. She walked along the dirt road and came to the side of the well. When she came here and sniffed, the smell of gunpowder was even stronger. She looked into the well and saw that it was full of yellow soil. It seemed that it had just been dug out of the ground not long ago.
"Come here and smell it. The smell of gunpowder is even stronger here!"
Ma Ruoxi waved at Li Rui and squatted down. She looked back at the yellow dirt road on the ground and then at the yellow dirt in the well. She muttered, "It's obvious that someone brought yellow dirt from outside and poured it into the well. But what's the meaning of this? Is it to fill the well? But why isn't it filled? Besides, no one lives in this courtyard. Who would have the time to fill this well? "
Li Rui walked to her side and squatted at the mouth of the well to sniff it. The smell of gunpowder was indeed stronger here. He looked at the yellow soil in the well and said, "How do you know that someone poured this yellow soil into the well and that it wasn't caused by the ground collapse?"
Ma Ruoxi glared at him and scolded him rudely, "Are you stupid? When the ground collapses, it goes underground. How can it go up? Oh, your house didn't go underground when it collapsed, but went up instead? Do you live on top of a volcano? "
Ma Yuming, who was standing behind them, laughed when he heard this. He thought that County Magistrate Li's godsister was really sharp-tongued. No wonder she could become a reporter.
After scolding Li Rui, Ma Ruoxi was still angry. She raised her hand and pinched Li Rui's chin, twisted his head, and made him look at the yellow soil on the road. She said, "Is there something wrong with your eyes? Can't you see the yellow soil? It's almost formed a dirt road. This is obvious evidence. Obviously, someone transported yellow soil from outside and poured it into this well. They accidentally scattered it down on the road and left traces that I found. "
Li Rui pushed her hand away and said, "But what does this prove?"
Ma Ruoxi frowned and said, "Don't ask me. Think about it yourself. The footprints on the wall and the yellow soil on the road are fresh. They must have been left not long ago, at most a day. There's also the smell of gunpowder at the mouth of the well. It's obvious that something happened here not long ago. "
Li Rui raised his eyebrows and said, "There was a collapse. What else could have happened? This is the scene of a collapse. There shouldn't be any escape. "
Ma Ruoxi rolled her eyes at him and said patiently, "God gave you a brain for you to use. Can you use your brain? Is this the scene of a collapse? Why would soil come out of the well when there's a collapse? And the soil even sprayed out of the well? And there's a strong smell of gunpowder at the mouth of the well? How do you explain the footprints on the wall? "
Hearing her words, Li Rui suddenly realized something. He said confusedly, "There's no hurry to find the answers to these questions. I found a new problem. This should be the scene of a collapse, but I can't find any disaster scene caused by the collapse."
Ma Ruoxi frowned and said, "So, this is very strange."
Li Rui's mind was in a trance. He didn't know what to think, but at some point, his mind suddenly became very clear. He connected all the things that had happened since the early morning. First, there was a sudden second collapse. Then, Zhao Jinyou organized the villagers to visit the county government, but they didn't get any results. Then, he returned to the village. When Li Rui found him and asked him to ask, his attitude changed very strangely. Then, Zang Ning called to say that there were online posts about this incident, and someone sent a letter to the provincial leaders' mailbox. Then, the editor-in-chief of Ma Ruoxi's newspaper received the news and asked her to write an opinion article. However, all three of these were false news. They were all malicious attacks on the Shuanghe County government. Finally, right now, he and Ma Ruoxi were standing at the scene of the collapse, but they couldn't see any signs of a collapse. Instead, they found something strange … Ah, he kind of understood.
"Ruoxi, I still haven't figured out the inside story behind the second collapse, but I've figured it out. Someone is adding fuel to the fire behind the scenes. Someone is using this incident to slander and attack our Twin River County government, and Zhao Jinyou is one of their chess pieces. He played a key role in this incident. At the very least, everything that happened in the village is related to him. Let's go ask Zhao Jinyou now. He must know the inside story! "
Li Rui said to Ma Ruoxi excitedly. If it weren't for Ma Yuming's presence, he would have pulled Ma Ruoxi's hand and rushed to Zhao Jinyou's house.
Ma Ruoxi looked confused and said, "Who is Zhao Jinyou?"
Ma Yuming interrupted, "Zhao Jinyou is a villager. After the second collapse this morning, he was the one who organized the villagers to go to the county to make a scene."
Li Rui added, "But his family lives in the south of the village, which is quite a distance away from the site of the collapse. He was not affected by the collapse at all, but he was the most active one after the collapse. He was not afraid to take responsibility and organized the villagers to cause trouble in the county. His actions provided the poster with pictures and videos as evidence to slander and attack our county government. At least in the eyes of the netizens, the villagers had a conflict with the county government and formed a mass gathering. If the higher-ups saw this, we county leaders, especially me, would be criticized or even punished."
Ma Ruoxi pondered for a moment and said, "So, this Zhao Jinyou is really suspicious. But since he can organize the villagers to make a scene in the county, he can't be an ordinary person. If you go and ask him, he will definitely not admit it. You better call the police and give him a lot of psychological pressure. It's best if you can find one or two pieces of evidence to make him speechless. Only then will he be honest. "
Li Rui rubbed his nose and said worriedly, "It's easy to call the police, but the problem is, where are we going to find evidence?"
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