In the early 1970s, I went to a remote mountain village in the countryside located in the northwest and witnessed a true story.This true story evolved around the team leader in this village. He was a very smart young man who returned from the county. The wife he married was the most beautiful woman in the countryside. The two of them were very affectionate. However, there were always rumours circulating in the village that she had an extramarital affair with the accountant in the village. All these rumours upset the team leader.In order to verify this, the team leader deceived his wife that he would be going to the county for a meeting and wouldn't be home for that few days.  However, in the evening, the team leader sneaked back home quietly. He climbed over the wall and entered the yard. After sneaking into the house, he saw that his wife was cooking up a feast in the kitchen. Hence, the team leader sneaked into his bedroom and discovered to his dismay that the accountant was sound asleep on their bed.Seeing this, the cuckolded team leader was fuming with anger. He immediately leaped in and strangled the accountant to death.  As his movements were so rapid, his wife, who was busy cooking in the kitchen, is totally unaware of what has just happened in the room. After strangling the accountant, the team leader quickly ran away in a haste.The team leader's wife walked into the bedroom with the prepared meal. When she realised that the accountant was dead on their bed, she was so petrified. Just as she is pondering over what to do, she heard a knock on the door. She opened the door to see her husband appearing at the doorstep. Upon seeing her husband's return, she knelt down in front of her husband instantaneously, telling him the whole story. "It is all my fault, it is all my fault," his wife said remorsefully. The team leader became soft-hearted after seeing the pitiful looks on his wife's face. "As long as you promise to behave well in future, I would help you in this matter," the team leader said.The team leader came up with a plan. He carried the dead accountant on his back, went to the villager Lao Han's yard together with his wife. He placed the accountant's corpse just beside the chicken coop, in a position that made the dead accountant looked like he was stealing the chicken. Before the team leader left, he purposely threw a stone into the yard. This motion successfully startled Lao Han. Lao Han picked up a shovel and ran out of the house to check it out. As it was pretty dark in the yard, all he could see is a figure with his head stretched into the chicken coop and it appeared like he is stealing the chickens. Lao Han got so angry, pounded the chicken thief with his shovel. When he saw that the chicken thief was motionless, he was terrified. He turned the body over to take a look. "Isn't this the accountant in their team? Oh no, I'm in deep trouble," Lao Han thought in his mind. Lao Han, who has a low status, was already having difficult times in the village. If he committed a murder crime, that would mean it's the end for him. While he is squatting on the ground, Lao Han decided to take a gamble. He woke up his wife to help him put the accountant's corpse into the basket, covered with some vegetable leaves on top, then sneaked out of the door. Just after walking a short distance, they ran into the team leader, who had been waiting for a long time for them.　　

The team leader asked, "why are both of you still going out at this wee hour?"　　

Lao Han's legs wobbled, he replied: "To... to visit my relatives."

"What are you carrying in your basket?"

"Carrot."

"Quick, opened up to let me take a look. Hurry up!"Fearing that they can't hide the truth anymore, Lao Han and his wife burst into tears, kneeling in front of the team leader, asking for his mercy.  The team leader rejoiced in his heart. He deliberately asked them to recount the incident and said, "So he stole your chicken and was beaten to death accidentally. Firstly, it doesn't sound good if the news spread widely. Secondly, you would be jailed. If I agreed to help you out, you better make sure that both of you repay my kindness in future. Is that alright with both of you?" Lao Han agreed and kowtowed repeatedly. The three of them carried the accountant's corpse back to his own yard. In the dim light of night, they hang his body and made it looked as though he committed suicide. The very next day, the whole village knew that the accountant had hanged himself. He could have committed suicide for fear of losing face and punishment as he had illicit relations with the team leader's wife. 　　

After this accident, the team leader's wife loved him even more dearly. Lao Han's family sent things to the team leader's house every now and then. The team leader got whatever as he pleases. Sometimes, he called on Lao Han's family and when Lao Han saw him coming, he would go out to buy wine, dared not return home for a long time.The team leader looks fine on the surface but in fact, he is entangled in his heart. His greatest worry is his wife. As long as his wife is alive, she would pose as a major threat to him.On a particular day, the team leader asked his wife to invite her father over for a drink. Although she was a little bit surprised, the wife still complied with her husband's instructions. The two men started drinking wine in the living room while his wife was cooking a meal in the kitchen. Halfway through the drinking session, the team leader told his father-in-law that he was going to the kitchen to get his wife to cook some noodles for them. Then he walked to the kitchen, where he saw his wife standing on a small stool by the side of the water vat, scooping water from the water vat. He pushed the wife into the water vat, kept pressing her head down into the water vat till the wife lost her consciousness. After which, he went back to the living room to continue drinking with his father-in-law, as though nothing has happened. After quite a while, his father-in-law felt puzzled that his daughter had not brought the noodle to them yet. He stood up to go to the toilet, saying that he would go ask whether the noodles are ready on his way to the toilet. When he went to the kitchen, he was taken aback to see that his daughter was drowned inside the water vat. He yelled for help loudly. Upon hearing this, the team leader rushed to the kitchen, sobbing uncontrollably while he pulled his wife out of the water vat. Seeing the devastated son-in-law, the father-in-law consoled his son-in-law instead, saying that his daughter was not blessed to live a good life. A few days after the funeral, his father-in-law insisted to betroth his youngest daughter to the team leader. A year later, on the first death anniversary of her elder sister, after returning from her grave, the youngest sister cooked a feast and prepared some wine to drink with the team leader. Just when they were full, they heard a knock on the door in the yard and the youngest sister went to open the door immediately. The team leader waited for a long time without seeing anyone in sight, so he waddled to the yard, but still there was not a single soul either. He decided to go search in the kitchen. Suddenly, a woman with dishevelled hair stood up from the water vat in the kitchen. The team leader's ex-wife appeared.All of a sudden, the drunken team leader slumped on the floor, confessed to the woman and admitted all his wrongdoings. But in actual fact, this woman who looked like his ex-wife was his new wife, the youngest sister of his ex-wife, and the person who knocked on the yard door was his father-in-law.The team leader finally received the punishment he deserved. I still remembered that the execution ground where he was shot was chosen to be right in front of his deceased wife's grave. All the villagers in the village attended the public trial meeting. Amidst the scolding, the team leader heard this last sound of his life, which is the sound of the gunshot that made him trembled with fear.

Up to now, the villagers finally found out the truth of his ex-wife's death. It turned out to be his father-in-law always had this feeling that something was amiss when his eldest daughter died so suddenly. After which, the father-in-law and the youngest daughter spent one entire whole year plotting and staged out the scene mentioned above. They had indeed taken great pains in order to find out the truth.

（End）

Author: Huang Hua 黄華

Translated by: Ow Ai Khim 欧蔼琴