CHAPTER 393: CHAPTER 393: MALICIOUS INTENT, EMPTY ON BOTH ENDS

A million per household is no small sum.

Although the villagers earn some money through small businesses, making a million is not an easy task.

Now, with a ready-made moneybag sending them money, if they can’t squeeze money out, they’ve lived their lives in vain!

Watching the villagers surround Lu Zechuan and Xia Mian again, the village chief’s face darkened.

Just now, the village chief realized that Lu Zechuan was not a pushover.

If everyone continues to entangle with Lu Zechuan, they might end up bringing trouble upon themselves.

"That’s enough!" the village chief reprimanded, turning to Lu Zechuan again with a guilty look on his face, "Mr. Lu, you’re right, I’ll have someone check the surveillance right away."

The village chief spoke as he sent a skinny young man beside him to check the village’s surveillance.

Lu Zechuan wasn’t panicked, calmly sitting at the hostel’s entrance, waiting for the matter to resolve.

Regarding the village chief, Lu Zechuan was speechless. When he asked him to check the surveillance earlier, he didn’t budge. Now that his villagers were beaten up and suffered losses, they started speaking reason?

"Village chief, why are you being polite with them, a bunch of heartless profiteers!" Shuanzi said angrily on the side,

The village chief glared at him, "Shut your mouth!"

Even if they were numerous, Lu Zechuan wasn’t afraid of them.

He had money and power and could fight back. The point was, he was indeed in his room all last night; even if they wanted to frame him, they couldn’t.

The person sent to check the surveillance soon returned.

The skinny guy still appeared aggressive before he left, but now his eyes were somewhat evasive.

"Did you find out anything?" the village chief asked.

The skinny guy nodded with embarrassment, "Yes."

"Who committed the arson?" the village chief asked again.

The skinny guy’s face turned even redder, "No one committed arson..."

"No one committed arson?" the village chief’s voice suddenly rose. How could the village catch fire if no one set it?

The skinny guy looked down, "It was Shuanzi’s household appliances aging, causing the circuit to set fire..."

"Nonsense!" Shuanzi immediately stood up and refuted.

Originally, everyone could extort money from these two outsiders. Now, the village chief’s henchman Biaozi inadvertently spilled out the truth!

"Shuanzi! The fire started from your house!" Biaozi earnestly reasoned with Shuanzi, "No wonder you incited everyone to confront these two outsiders; you were afraid it might eventually pin on you, right?"

After all, the fire spread, causing damage to half of the village’s residents.

If responsibility was pursued, Shuanzi couldn’t afford to pay even if he lost everything!

"You’re talking nonsense!" Shuanzi stubbornly refused to admit.

If he admitted, the villagers would all come asking him to account.

"I’ve copied the video!" Biaozi pulled out his phone, handing it to the village chief to watch.

Seeing Biaozi had actually copied the video, Shuanzi immediately panicked and took a step forward to snatch Biaozi’s phone.

However, Biaozi was prepared, dodging Shuanzi, making him miss, while securely handing the phone to the village chief.

The village chief took Biaozi’s phone, his face gradually darkening as he viewed the video playing.

The video clearly showed that the problem started with Shuanzi’s house wiring, leading the entire line to catch fire, causing half of the village to burn...

"Shuanzi!" the village chief’s face turned grim.

No wonder Shuanzi was causing such a fuss; he wanted to use this opportunity to rid himself of fault!

The villagers who were beaten also realized they were fooled by Shuanzi!

"Shuanzi! How could you do this! Last night, when your house nearly burned down, weren’t we the ones who risked our safety to help put out the fire and save your family?" A villager began to reprimand Shuanzi.

They kindly helped put out the fire for Shuanzi’s family, saved them, and yet Shuanzi treated them like fools!

Because of him, they got beat up by the outsider, barely recognizable even by their own mothers!

Facing everyone’s accusations, Shuanzi became flustered.

He waved his hands awkwardly, hastily explaining, "That’s not it!"

Biaozi wasn’t buying it, "If that’s not it, then what is it? You nearly made us wrongfully accuse a good person!"

Getting beat up ended up in vain!

The fire wasn’t set by them, yet they aggressively came to trouble them, effectively getting beaten up for nothing!

The villagers realized they’d been played by Shuanzi, and no one dared to meet Lu Zechuan’s gaze.

They indeed wanted to extort money from Lu Zechuan, but now, Biaozi foolishly released the video, proving the outsider’s innocence. Even if they wanted to extort, they lacked the confidence.

"It wasn’t me!" Shuanzi was overwhelmed by everyone’s criticism, finally breaking down, "It was my tenant’s unauthorized high-power electrical use, that’s why my circuit burnt out..."

Tenant?

Xia Mian keenly detected the core of the issue.

The fire didn’t come early or late but erupted right when they arrived at the village, engulfing half of it in flames.

She didn’t believe it was a coincidence.

"Tenant? What tenant?" Xia Mian suddenly spoke, her voice not loud, but instantly suppressing the villagers’ accusations and curses.

Shuanzi’s face looked ugly, but he honestly replied, "A woman in her fifties."

Shuanzi briefly described the tenant’s appearance.

Listening to Shuanzi’s description, Lu Zechuan lightly frowned.

How come the person Shuanzi described sounded like someone he knew...

"Take us to her!" Lu Zechuan stood up, looking at Shuanzi with a sharp gaze.

Under Lu Zechuan’s sharp gaze, Shuanzi was startled into compliance and obediently led everyone to his own house.

After the fire, half of Shuanzi’s house was charred, with only a faint outline visible of the house’s structure.

After entering, Shuanzi and his wife headed straight to the eastern wing.

They usually rented out the wing while keeping the main house for themselves.

However, upon reaching the eastern wing, they found it empty.

"Gone?" Shuanzi was dumbfounded.

"Xiao Xuan!" Shuanzi urgently called his son, "Where’s the tenant staying here?!"

Xiao Xuan came running with his toy, looking at the empty eastern wing bewilderedly, "She’s gone!"

"Didn’t I tell you to keep an eye on her?" Shuanzi gritted his teeth in anger.

He initially planned two ways: one to extort Lu Zechuan, the other to pin it on the tenant.

Now both plans had backfired!