"I don’t think many people are aware about N county, it’s a relatively undeveloped area. Fifteen years
ago, the Government dispatched a group of officers to inspect the countryside. In order to pass the
inspection, the count magistrate searched for a group of artisans to build a school. At the time, we
didn’t have a school in the area, the children in the village all learned from a sister who received
education and they would go to her house. With no books or a blackboard, they depended on her
knowledge that was delivered verbally, and they would just listen.
It was impossible to construct a school in such a short period, and everyone was unwilling to work
under such time restrictions. They felt like they were doing more harm to their own children, a school is
meant to be a place for them to learn after all. On the other hand, these officers couldn’t care less
about their concerns, they would bring in their men to bash our homes and cause a scene. Thinking
about how these officers would make our lives difficult, they were forced to start the project. The
building materials that they had were of poor quality, and the scaffoldings and concretes collapsed
halfway through construction. My father and four other constructors were killed in that incident.”
The reporter followed, “Why wasn’t there a school at the time? The higher ups would have funded for
the institution.”
The teenager gave a crooked smile, “I think the funds ended up in someone’s pocket.”
What she said was vague but self-explanatory.
Everyone could tell what she meant by that.
The interviewer pressed on for more questions, “How was this matter handled during the time? Didn’t
the inspectors resolve the issue on the papers?”
“It was already resolved. Not only did the inspector not take it to the papers, but even aided the culprit
in concealing the truth.”
Up till that point, everyone already knew what this demonstration was all about.
“How was the issue settled then? Was there any compensation that was made to the deceased?” the
reporter queried.
This time an elderly came up to the front and said, “Since when was there any compensation, and not
only that, but they also forbade us from letting this news out. For anyone who opened their mouth
about the matter, their houses would’ve been taken down.”
The reported widened her eyes upon learning such news, that was too much!
Technology wasn’t as advanced back then, there was no such thing as the internet. On top of that, they
were in the mountainous areas, which was easily hidden from sight.
The elderly started to shed tears, “I only had one son, and his life was taken away in that accident. I
want them to address this matter, apart from ignoring the issue, they punched and kicked us and
threatened us with words.”
As the old woman lifted her sleeves, there was a big scar on his arm about ten centimetres long, “They
did this to me with a hoe.”
Although the scar had healed, but due to improper treatment, it didn’t heal smoothly and looked rather
hideous.
“We are all family members of the deceased at the time. We didn’t come to make any trouble or start
an argument. Even though it has been a long time, we still want justice to be served for the ones who
passed on." The old woman wiped her tears, her face was full of wrinkles, and the palm of her hand
was rough. No one could bear such a sight.
After the publicity by the media, the incident went viral in a mere two hours, and it the higher ups were
quick to notice.
Netizens were deeply involved in the news, and they wondered who the officer in charge of the
inspection was fifteen years ago.
This was what everyone was most concerned about, even the county magistrate at that time did not
pay much attention to it. People hated those who helped the evildoer even more.
Someone deliberately circulated the information about the officer in charge then over the internet.
The net today was well established, thus the news got out so fast that it caught people off guard, it was
impossible to make any cover ups anymore.
Once people started to pick up on the officer’s information, they would continue to dig deeper into the
incident, they wanted to know about the wellbeing of that officer.
Everyone was more well informed now, they started to show indignance.
All kinds of thing had been said.
“Someone like that should just die already, how is this person worthy of serving the people? This is
really the devil in disguise.”
“How did such a person secure his or her position today?”
A random person responded, “This person has no guilty conscience at all!”
“Such people are better off dead, that poor elderly! If this happened fifteen years ago, those kids were
only one or two years old when they lost their father. At the same time, the wife had also lost her
husband and the mother, her son. This is really tragic.”
“That’s right, I really want to kill these black-hearted bastards!”
“These people are not humans, but they are the devil. They oppressed the powerless and took
advantage of them. They should have received punishment of the olden times, decapitation using five
horse carriages.”
Very quickly the county-level officials at the time were also discovered. When the matter went out of
control and spread too quickly, the higher ups were swift to calm the people down temporarily. They
then announced that an investigation will take place, if this was true, the relevant officers would be
severely punished!
Everyone commented one after another
“I hope justice will be served!”
“I believe the Government will give us a satisfactory explanation. If this were to be true, I hope that
person gets shot dead, this is detestable!”
Today was destined to not be an ordinary day, this incident has aroused the attention of everyone in the
nation.
The Bailey family were also in a hot discussion on the matter.
Even the daughter and son of the Bailey family were not aware of such happenings.
“Is this true or false?” Declan asked his mother.
Mrs. Bailey’s face was ghastly, she trembled and nodded, “This is true.”
“How could father do such a thing?” with no hesitation, the fifth daughter stood up. She didn’t dare to
believe that her father was someone this heartless.
They only knew their father placed more importance on boys than girls, but never did he come across
as such a person.
“This is unthinkable.” the second daughter too, was in disbelief that her father was this inhuman.
Mrs. Meyer sat in the corner without uttering a word and made no comments either. As a daughter, she
had to obey her mother whenever she was called upon, but she never once thought about doing
anything for her father.
She even resented why she had to be born into this family.
“Someone must be framing him, otherwise how did this incident from such a long time ago resurface
again? Everything was exposed in such a detailed manner.” Although Mrs. Bailey was horrified at the
time, as a good wife she remained rather composed, “With the situation now unsalvageable, someone
must be behind all of this.”
Those people showed up out of nowhere and exposed the incident through media channels, the
interviews that happened on-site streamed how pitiful the victims were to garner sympathy from the
viewers. Now the public demanded for an official statement by the Government and gave them
immense pressure as the full story unravelled, which threw them completely off guard.
It would be unfeasible for this incident to spread like a wildfire if there wasn’t a mastermind.
“Did father offend anybody?” Declan asked.
Mrs. Bailey shook her head, “I’m not too sure myself, it is inevitable to avoid conflicts in the officialdom.
Even so, no matter how bad it may have been, it wouldn’t drive someone to dig up such a past.”
“We shouldn’t be cracking our heads the cause of things right now, but we ought to find a solution. For
a case gone wild, once the truth is verified, punishment will be unquestionable.”
The authorities would take serious action for the matter to appease the hearts of the people after such
a havoc.
“My sisters, our father is in trouble, we have to figure out some way to save him,” Athena Bailey, the
eldest daughter of the family, announced to her sisters.
“What can we do?” Breenda Bailey, the second daughter of the family, returned a question.
Her husband disagreed on letting her come over, when she answered his call, he even said to her,
“How are you his daughter?”
The husband was clearly unhappy about this issue.
If the choice was given to her, she wouldn’t want to be part of this patriarchal family.
It’s not that she was cold hearted and didn’t care for her father, but the fact that she didn’t grow up in
the Bailey family, it was natural for her to not feel so attached to them. Her parents paid very little
attention to her, and she had never experienced the warmth of kinship. Her husband and Alan were no
different, both of them were alpha males, and they never bothered to build a relationship with the Bailey
family.
“My husband is not a high-ranking official, I don’t think we would be of much help. I’ll be taking my
leave, I still have some matters to settle at home,” Breenda had expressed her she felt.
Declan was infuriated and stopped her, “Breenda, you’re still one of father’s children, do you have any
conscience left? You don’t even care about him.”
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