Chapter 433: Chapter 433: Hotspot Events

Upon hearing there was an escaped convict, the able-bodied men of Chongyun Village were immediately excited. Word spread like wildfire, from family to friends, nobody slept and all were in high spirits!

Soon a large group of people, armed with hoes, wooden sticks, rakes, and even kitchen knives, gathered at Liu Caifu’s house. To an outsider, it might have seemed like they were preparing for a riot.

Liu Caifu was somewhat overwhelmed by the sight of these young men, full of energy, screaming at the top of their lungs, and undeterred by the heavy rain, despite many of them lacking raincoats or umbrellas.

His original plan was to enlist a few young men from his family to help with the search. But that plan changed when a thunderclap woke everyone in the village.

Through their chat on the WeChat group, they quickly learned about the escaped convict from the news, and that Deputy Director Liu was trying to gather manpower to apprehend him. The overall spirit was one of “when the village is in trouble, every man has a duty.”

Liu Caifu felt as though these lads were about to join a feast, not capture a fugitive.

Strangely, at least half of them were busy recording videos on their phones, providing enthusiastic commentary, as if they were planning to post it on TikTok or WeChat Moments.

Despite the chaos, the loud thunder and widespread knowledge of the fugitive through smartphones did simplify the search in the village.

By the time the police arrived, Liu Caifu had already led a search throughout the village, almost certain that the fugitives had left. Of course, with all the commotion they had made, it was likely that the fugitives had already fled.

The police officers obtained information from Liu Caifu and the Liu Brothers, thoroughly inspected their home, and found clothing discarded on the hillside. From this, they concluded that the intruders who broke into the house and stole the clothes were indeed the escaped convicts.

Further examination of some footprints on a nearby mountain road, which had not been completely destroyed by the rainwater, led the police to believe that both fugitives had fled into the mountains during the night.

Due to heavy rain and darkness, for safety reasons, the pursuers decided to wait until the rain stopped before venturing into the mountains, while also taking the time to familiarize themselves with the terrain by communicating with villagers and studying satellite maps.

Upon hearing that the police required locals as guides, a swarm of young villagers volunteered. Having been unable to capture the fugitives in the village, they were eager for another opportunity.

However, many of the young men, who mostly worked outside the village, had limited knowledge of the mountains. They were unable to answer the police’s questions and seemed more interested in capturing the excitement on video than anything else.

Although there were a few villagers in their forties and fifties who were familiar with the mountains, the police officers preferred to take younger men for their physical stamina and the challenging conditions in the mountains.

In the end, the Liu Brothers Liu Zhengyi and Liu Gaoshang, who had often wandered in the mountains when they skipped school, were chosen, as they were very familiar with the mountains surrounding their village.

At about 4 a.m., as the downpour gradually subsided, the police officers, despite the muddy ground and slippery mountain paths, ventured into the mountains without waiting for daylight.

They arrived at the site of the previous night’s lightning storm just after sunrise and unexpectedly found two heavily charred bodies, whose identities were beyond recognition.

However, from the other items at the site, some burned and some resilient to the fire, the pursuers tentatively confirmed that the unfortunate souls struck by lightning were indeed the two escaped convicts.

Upon this confirmation, all the pursuers except for the Liu Brothers turned to look at one of their members.

The man was stunned. He certainly didn’t expect the joke he had casually made in the car to actually come true!

Subconsciously, he looked up at the clear blue sky.

…

The news of the two fugitives being killed by lightning spread quickly once the Liu Brothers returned to the village.

Given the public concern about the case, the police released an announcement through the media after the bodies were returned for further identification.

The news that two escaped convicts were struck dead by lightning was astonishing not only to the villagers of Chongyun Village and residents of nearby towns close to Wushu Mountain Prison, but also to netizens across the country.

Many people thought it was fake news or clickbait when they first saw the headline in their WeChat groups or Moments.

However, driven by curiosity, they clicked on the link only to find that it was indeed real news, confirmed by a police announcement. The escaped convicts were indeed killed by lightning strike!

By that evening, the related topic “fugitives struck by lightning” was trending on all social media platforms.

Which then spawned all kinds of ridiculous discussions, like “how much sin do you have to commit before you get struck by lightning?” and “Did the fugitives know they were going to be struck by lightning and decided to escape into the mountains to avoid harming their jail mates?” or “Has Mr. Lei become a public servant?” and “Has the state electric grid been incorporated into law enforcement?” among others.

Even on Zhihu, questions such as “What does it feel like to be struck by lightning?”, “What do you think about the escaped prisoner from Wushu Mountain Prison being struck and killed by lightning?”, and “How to avoid being struck by lightning in the mountains?” all made it to the top ten hot topics.”

That night, some people in Chongyun Village and the surrounding villages filmed the transient lightning storm in the mountains from afar using their mobile phones or other recording devices. Despite the poor quality due to the distance, the footages posted online were enough to convey the terror of the thunderstorm, further enhancing the discussion.

Especially a girl who was originally filming a selfie video at home, captured the thunderous explosive sound from the mountains, creating a feeling as if the whole sky was smashed apart by something.

Variety of discussions, scientific explanations, humorous comments, crafted stories, all came pouring in continuously.

For a while, this news became a national hotspot.

But for the few people who personally experienced this “hot spot event” in Chongshan Village, they each had different reactions.

When Chu Xiuwen saw the lightning storm in the mountains the night before, his first reaction was to remember the news last month about the lightning storm at Zi Huan Mountain in Citong City.

At that time, Zi Huan Mountain had a torrential rainstorm, which resulted in a spectacular lightning storm, then it was rumored that someone saw a “fire phoenix”, even captured videos and pictures, but later people debunked the rumors saying it was just a flaming drone or something similar.

When he first saw the lightning storm, besides thinking of the thunderstorm at Zi Huan Mountain and being awed by the power of nature, he didn’t think too much about it.

But when the Liu brothers came back to the village, bringing the news that two escaped prisoners were struck and killed by lightning, Chu Xiuwen couldn’t help but think about Xiang Kun and the multi-armed monster.

Firstly, all the events he knew that involved the multi-armed monster were either “punishing” criminals or saving people, so striking the escaped prisoners with lightning seemed similar; secondly, he knew that Xiang Kun had something to do with the multi-armed monster; thirdly, Xiang Kun was likely to be in the mountains last night; fourthly, according to the information he got from chatting with Xiang Kun before, Xiang Kun returned to Citong City the night before Valentine’s Day, which meant he was in Citong when the lightning storm took place at Zi Huan Mountain.

Combining all these, even though he couldn’t be sure that the lightning storm was related to Xiang Kun, and the speculation was a bit far-fetched, the balance in Chu Xiuwen’s intuition had begun to tilt, giving rise to a faint guess.

His cognition of the world had already been shocked once when he discovered that Xiang Kun had something to do with the multi-armed monster that Mr. Guo and others saw when they were on the brink of death due to heart diseases, as mentioned by Old Xu. And he was still in a state of uncertainty, doubt and contemplation.

This faint guess further washes away his traditional belief of the past few decades , giving him the illusion that the world is unreal at one point, and suspicion that he may have developed a delusional disorder at another.

Even later when Liu Caifu received a phone call from Xiang Kun, and told him that Xiang Kun and Dr. Xia did go into the mountains last night but came out very early, only to have stayed at the construction site of the Research Base and thus were trapped by the heavy rain and could only return at dawn, Chu Xiuwen himself couldn’t help but question this anyway.

Yet Chu Xiuwen did not share his conjecture and doubts with Liu Caifu or anyone else, firstly, his conjecture was too absurd, secondly, he had no concrete evidence, and thirdly, whether the conjecture was correct or not, telling others would bring no good but harm.

He decided to get in touch again with Qi Haoguo, to probe a little, judging from his series of actions and the multi-armed woodcarving in his new house in Tongshi Town, he should know more than himself.

In contrast to Chu Xiuwen, Liu Caifu’s thoughts were much simpler. He just breathed a sigh of relief when he heard that Xiang Kun was fine.

But he noticed something was wrong with Chu Xiu, he felt that “Brother Chu ” seemed to be preoccupied since the time Liu brothers returned from the mountains and told them that the two fugitives had been struck dead by lightning. One would think he had some connection with those two prisoners if they didn’t know him well.

As for Liu Zhengyi and Liu Gaoshang, they were quite excited at first, because they were promised by the police that they had provided very important information and clues that directly helped the police find the two escaped prisoners. Although the prisoners were finally struck and killed by lightning, most of the reward money was still promised to them.

Then they also learned from Liu Caifu that Mr.Xiang had been trapped by the rain at the construction site last night.

On their way home from Liu Caifu’s house, Liu Gaoshang couldn’t help but say:

” Mr. Xiang is really lucky, if they were really in the mountains, they would be doomed, whether by the escaped prisoners or the lightning storm. Brother, why didn’t Mr. Xiang go into the mountains to take photos and conduct research during the day? Why did he have to do it in such bad weather in the evening? And that Dr. Xia, a delicate beauty, even went into the mountains with him…Brother, do you think Mr. Xiang has some sort of a special fetish? Like having a field battle in adverse conditions…”

Before he could finish his sentence, Liu Zhengyi slapped him on the head and scolded, “Watch your mouth!”

Liu Gaoshang rubbed his head in surprise and said, “Brother, you actually hit me?”

Liu Zhengyi lowered his voice and said, “Don’t you know that trouble comes from a careless tongue? Show some respect to Mr. Xiang! Don’t forget we’re looking to follow him in the future!”

Liu Gaoshang looked back at the path behind him, then looked left and right, they were walking on a bumpy path where there were no people around, the closest house was dozens of meters away, he looked at his brother with a sad face and said, ” Mr. Xiang isn’t here, and I’m not stupid enough to say it in front of him…”

“Even with your temperament, what if you accidentally spill it? You better start showing some real respect to Mr. Xiang deep down.” Liu Zhengyi stared at him as he spoke, even though he was much shorter than his brother, but in terms of aura, it was completely the opposite, also from a young age Liu Gaoshang was dominated by him, he had developed a high degree of obedience.

Liu Gaoshang nodded, but he still didn’t quite understand, and murmured, “Brother, don’t you think you’re a bit too… hmm… indulgent towards Mr. Xiang?” In his memory, his brother was always tough and never had this kind of attitude towards anyone. Even when they were yearning to follow Liu Feibao, they still gossiped about Liu Feibao and other “big shots” when they chatted privately.