"Elders, I, Wen San, swear on my life that I had nothing to do with this. I wholly agree with what Uncle Zhang said earlier.
"Since the murderer deliberately left behind this ring, they must have intended to frame me.
"This person may bear me an enormous grudge, which is why they went to such painstaking lengths to put me in the wrong."
Wen San was also turning it over in his mind. Who had killed Crippled Li, then pinned the blame on him?
His first thought was another troublemaking thug in the village—Gu Xiaoqing.
That kid was vicious by nature and domineering in conduct. His family was well-off too, and he had gathered a group of young men from the village around him, often squaring off against Wen San.
More importantly, he had an older brother from the same parents who ran with a gang in the county town. That was his great backing.
It was no exaggeration to say that Gu Xiaoqing's influence in Little Cold Village was even a notch greater than Wen San's, mainly because he had such a capable brother.
His brother served as Gu Xiaoqing's patron and backer, allowing him to act without restraint while everyone else feared him.
Why had Wen San come up with the idea of leaving Little Cold Village to make his way in the world?
At its root, he knew that only by leaving Little Cold Village could he truly find a new world. Otherwise, he would never be able to get the better of Gu Xiaoqing.
He even harbored the wild ambition of going to the county town himself, joining a gang, and making a name for himself. If one day he could become someone else's backer, that would be even better.
As for whether Gu Xiaoqing had