Li Linsen picked up the loudspeaker again, and this time, it worked remarkably well.
More and more villagers left, until only twenty-odd burly men from the Ma clan remained.
Several criminal investigation officers stepped forward to secure the scene.
Zhao Xin took off his police uniform jacket, draped it over Tian Jiawen, and said gently, "Come get in the car. We'll take you home!"
At the word "home," Tian Jiawen abruptly lifted her almost bloodless face. A glimmer of life returned to her numb, vacant eyes, and then tears came pouring out. At first, she sobbed silently, before breaking into anguished, full-throated wails.
In another police car, a man wearing a mask, with his body thoroughly covered as well, looked at the officer beside him with awe and said quietly, "The wife Ma Erli bought last year is buried in the garden behind his house... I'll take you to Feng Baofa's and Ma Changsheng's houses next. Those two still have some humanity left. They aren't quite so cruel to the wives they bought..."
Cai Xiaobo nodded and looked at him. "By the way, Tong Xuan asked us to get your contact details. What's your mobile number?"
"No need, no need!" The man waved his hands and gave an honest, simple smile. "Well, I don't have a mobile..."
He had come to terms with it now. His father had been right: a female university student from a big city could never fall for a country bumpkin from a mountain backwater like him. It was better to give up that hope sooner rather than later.
With their informant's guidance, they successfully rescued three more women, including Hu Wenhui, and dug up no fewer than five sets of remains from Ma Erli's garden, beneath a crooked tree on the hillside behind the village,