99: Chapter 99 The Stolen Ox

A young man couldn't hold back and asked loudly, "Secretary Li, when do we start? We can't wait any longer!"

Li Dakang responded with a smile, telling them not to be impatient, as the township working group would make unified arrangements when the time came, which finally calmed the excited villagers down a little.

As the meeting dispersed, the villagers walked away in twos and threes, chatting incessantly: "Listening to Secretary Li is definitely the right thing to do!"

"I'll put forward all three acres of my land!"

"I'll go sign up to learn the technique tomorrow!"

...

Watching the backs of the departing villagers, Li Dakang knew that starting tomorrow, Guantian Township would once again welcome a fervent transformation!

...

The Guantian Township Police Station was located at the west end of the township's main street. Like the Township Government, it was also a two-story brick-concrete building that had weathered over twenty years of storms.

Its off-white exterior walls were long since mottled, with dark red bricks exposed where the plaster had peeled away in several places.

The five concrete steps in front of the door had been polished smooth by years of footsteps, and the four gilded characters for "People's Public Security" on the iron gate, though somewhat faded, remained solemn and dignified.

Early that morning, just as the sky was beginning to brighten, the on-duty police officer, Xiao Zhao, was organizing the case files from the previous day.

The Police Station was quiet, with only the ticking of an old-fashioned wall clock and the occasional chirping of birds.

Suddenly, a burst of hurried footsteps broke the morning silence, and Lao Zhang, a village cadre from Shixi Village, rushed in with three villagers, looking flustered.

Lao Zhang was in his early fifties, his dark face covered in wrinkles, and he was currently wiping sweat from his forehead incessantly.

"Comrade Police, something big has happened!"

Lao Zhang said, panting, his voice trembling with anxiety.

"Several households in our village have had their oxen stolen!"

Xiao Zhao quickly put down his pen and gestured for them to sit on the long wooden bench: "Don't worry, tell me slowly, what exactly happened?"

He reached for the enamel tea mug on the table and poured a cup of hot water for each of them.

It turned out that it was currently the busy spring plowing season, and the villagers were all rushing to plant and sow in the fields.

There are usually two ways to graze oxen in rural areas:

First is "free-grazing," selecting a hillside with lush grass and water, driving in a wooden stake, and tethering the ox there;

Second is "herded-grazing," where someone is specifically assigned to lead the ox to graze.

But during the busy farming season, no one was available to specifically herd the oxen, and the children were all at school, so everyone used the free-grazing method.

An old man in his sixties slapped his thigh, his rough palms covered in calluses: "When we went to get the oxen yesterday evening, we found that the oxen were gone, and even the wooden stakes used to tether them were missing!"

"At first, we thought the oxen had run off on their own, but after asking around the village, we found that Wang Laowu's family and Li Laosuan's family had also lost their oxen!"

Xiao Zhao listened while quickly recording in the duty logbook, his brow furrowing deeper and deeper.

He noted several key details: the location where the oxen were lost was on the hillside behind the village, the time was concentrated between three and four in the afternoon yesterday, and the modus operandi was very professional—not only stealing the oxen but also pulling up the stakes, clearly intending to leave no clues behind.

"We searched all the nearby hills and gullies throughout the night, but we didn't even find a single ox hair!" Village cadre Lao Zhang said, wringing his hands in anxiety.

"Comrade Police, these oxen were bought with loans from the Credit Cooperative. If we can't get them back, how are we supposed to live?"

A villager's voice was choked with sobs, tears welling up in the corners of his eyes.

Xiao Zhao comforted them: "Don't worry for now; we will definitely investigate this case seriously. However, clues are limited right now, and it might take some time..."

Just then, the door of the duty room was pushed open, and Qi Tongwei walked in, yawning.

His eyes were bloodshot and his uniform was wrinkled; it was clear he had stayed up all night.

As a key operational backbone of the Police Station, Qi Tongwei had just led a team to bust a gambling den last night and had spent the entire night interrogating suspects.

"Brother Wei, you've come just in time."

Xiao Zhao quickly explained the situation briefly and handed over the logbook.

After listening, Qi Tongwei's sleepiness vanished for the most part.

As a child from the countryside, he understood all too well what an ox meant to an ordinary farming family.

Qi Tongwei took the logbook and flipped through it carefully, his fingers tapping lightly on the key information: "How many were lost in total? What specific kind of oxen were they?" His voice was somewhat hoarse from exhaustion.

"Three of them, all four- or five-year-old prime yellow oxen."

Lao Zhang answered, counting on his fingers: "According to current market rates, one can sell for over two thousand yuan! Three would be over six thousand!"

Qi Tongwei's heart sank upon hearing this; over six thousand yuan, in an era where the average monthly salary was only about a hundred yuan, definitely counted as a major case.

He looked at the anxious expressions of the villagers and remembered that his own family had raised oxen when he was a child, and he couldn't help but empathize.

In those years, his whole family had scrimped and saved just to scrape together enough money to buy a calf, raising it like a treasure...

"Alright, you all go back and wait for news for now."

Qi Tongwei said in a firm tone: "Report any developments to us at any time; we will definitely do our utmost to solve this case."

After seeing the villagers off, Xiao Zhao sighed and poured a cup of strong tea for Qi Tongwei: "Brother Wei, this case won't be easy to handle. There are no eyewitnesses, the scene has likely been destroyed long ago, and it's a mobile crime..."