Qi Taiguo lifted the police tape and entered the Zhang family yard, heading towards the familiar officer.

"Hey, who are you? Get out." Someone stopped him.

Everyone looked over, and Qi Taiguo raised his hand to the officer: "Old Yang."

"Old Qi." Old Yang, as he was called, was also taken aback to see Qi Taiguo and waved his hand, allowing the officer who had stopped Qi Taiguo to step aside.

"What are you doing here?" Old Yang, dressed in a police chief’s uniform, must have been a bit of a boss now.

Qi Taiguo first looked at his outfit and asked, "Promoted?"

Old Yang chuckled, "Just got promoted last year, Deputy Chief."

The two were old comrades, though Old Yang had retired and returned to the countryside long ago. Later, he heard that Old Yang had joined the local police station, and unexpectedly, he was now a deputy chief.

Qi Taiguo offered him a cigarette and said, "Didn’t you know? This Zhang family is my older sister’s ex-husband’s family."

Old Yang was surprised, "What? Your older sister’s..."

Right, it seemed he had heard that Qi Taiguo’s older sister married into the Zhang family in this village, but he didn’t realize it was this family? What a coincidence.

"They divorced several years ago, and now she’s remarried, so the two families have nothing to do with each other. I just came here for something, who would have thought I’d see something like this." Qi Taiguo then saw someone carrying out a bundled-up corpse: "What’s going on? I just heard the villagers say the daughter-in-law hacked the in-laws to death?"

Old Yang sighed and said, "I found it strange. So, they divorced. Don’t mention it again, doing this during the New Year is just unfortunate."

Standing in the draft, the wind blew through, and the smell of blood wafted over again. Old Yang pulled Qi Taiguo a few steps away before speaking about the tragedy.

It all came down to money.

The elderly couple of the Zhang family were partial, always favoring the younger son. When the eldest son’s son fell seriously ill, they urgently needed to raise money. The Zhang family wasn’t rich, where would they get the money? So, they thought of selling land and houses, planning to use the money for the grandson’s treatment.

But Granny Zhang was unwilling, thinking that even if they sold the place, part of the money should go to the younger son, and this plan was overheard by the daughter of the daughter-in-law, Lai Jinlan.

The child didn’t understand and, while visiting her sick brother with Zhang Jisheng, recounted what she heard to Lai Jinlan while Zhang Jisheng was away.

Lai Jinlan, a shrew, was already exhausted from her beloved child’s illness and desperate for money for treatment. Even if it meant donating her bone marrow, she’d do it. Hearing this, how could she stand it?

Unable to hold back her anger, she felt even more distressed seeing her sickly son looking pale, so this morning, she went home to question her in-laws.

A disagreement quickly escalated into an argument. Hearing Granny Zhang blame her for the son’s sickness and saying even if he died, there’d be no sympathy, Lai Jinlan snapped. She secretly mixed pesticide into the family’s breakfast soup.

As if poisoning them wasn’t enough, when she saw Granny Zhang foaming at the mouth yet still cursing, she took a kitchen knife and hacked Granny Zhang’s face to a bloody mess.

Zhang Jisheng came back to see this scene and was completely stunned. If he hadn’t run away quickly, Lai Jinlan would have hacked him too.

"He escaped, called the police, and then we arrived. We have her in custody. Only then did she come to her senses upon seeing the police and admitted to the killing!" Old Yang sighed, "What kind of person does such a thing? Truly a venomous woman, especially during the New Year, alas..."

Qi Taiguo was already stunned listening to this and looked at the dejected Zhang Jisheng; no need to say, the lesson had already fallen upon him.