The male supporting character was actually myself.

Who dares to help?

Why is the widowed grandmother, who is already in her seventies, still living alone like this?

On the island, the rules set by our ancestors are the law; nothing is more important than the rules!

My widowed grandmother almost escaped back then, but my aunt found her and brought her back…”

Feeling frustrated, Jiang Chen threw a stone into the river and snorted coldly.

"Do you really think these people deserve to die?" Duan Chengze looked at the village woman carrying water away and said coldly, "Many places are like this; if one family buys and sells women and children, the whole village is an accomplice."

No sooner had he finished speaking than shouts of fighting and killing came from the village.

"Oh no, Master! The village chief can't control those people!" The little white cat hopped over in a panic and said, "Li Mingliang is inciting the whole village to take action to capture Shi Xiaotong and Liang Rumeng."

Many people have become greedy and taken action, you'd better hide quickly!

Jiang Chen pushed the clueless Duan Chengze towards the deep mountains, saying, "Hurry up! Li Shuaishuai is dead, and Li Mingliang is taking his anger out on Shi Xiaotong and the others. Now is the time for him to be furious. We need to avoid their sharp edge for the time being."

The two of them disappeared into the bushes one after the other to hide, while the little white cat ran out to check the situation at its host's signal.

The village was in chaos. The villagers, who had been lured and incited by Li Mingliang, formed several small teams and spread out of the village to search everywhere.

"Oh no! Fire!"

"Hurry, fire! Wangzi, your house is on fire! Come quick, your mother is still inside!"

"Gousheng, your house is on fire too! Hurry up and fetch water from the river!"

……

Of the more than one hundred people in the village, more than half were employed by Li Mingliang; the rest were preparing for the banquet and the sea god worship ceremony under the supervision of the village chief. Just as everyone was busy, a cry of surprise suddenly came from the village.

The houses of several families who had previously defended Shi Xiaotong and others near the waterfall caught fire.

The fire raged and the weather was dry. The crowd who were busy preparing the banquet in the square rushed to put out the fire, but in the end, it was burned to the ground.

Wangzi held his paralyzed, bedridden mother, who had been burned to death, and wailed, "Mother! Your son failed to save you, your son deserves to die!"

The other families, seeing their homes burned to the ground, were filled with despair.

“This is definitely man-made.” The village chief frowned as soon as he arrived at the scene with the others.

His eldest son carefully examined the body of Wangzi's dead mother and said with absolute certainty, "It was lit after being doused with gasoline. Judging from the burn marks on the aunt's body, it is obvious that she was also doused with gasoline."

Unfortunately, there were hardly any people in the village at the time, and no one could hear the woman's cries for help.

"Pouring gasoline and setting it on fire, that's pretty ruthless!" The village chief angrily threw his cigarette on the ground and stomped on it twice. "Go, call all those people causing trouble outside back here!"

For a few pennies, they blindly joined in the fighting and killing, ignoring the sea god sacrifices; they didn't even notice when someone in the village set fires and killed people.

Everything's in complete chaos!

Wangzi held his mother's body and cried his heart out for a while. When he came to his senses, he got up and rummaged through the burnt-out kitchen to find a kitchen knife he had made himself. As he walked out, he said angrily, "It must have been Li Mingliang's family who did it!"

I argued with them a couple of times, and they came to my house, set it on fire, and killed me.

"I'm not going to live either, I'll chop up the whole house!"

The villagers whose houses were also burned down also realized what was happening, and they all grabbed their tools, called on their relatives and friends, and rushed to Li Mingliang's house.

"Stop them quickly, or someone will die!" The village chief slapped his thigh in frustration.

The team that had been searching all over the mountains for Shi Xiaotong and Liang Rumeng was soon called back to the village.

"Li Shuaishuai fell to his death on his own, what does it have to do with the tourists? They didn't push him! He's a hopeless case, why are you all making such a fuss over a few bucks?"

The village chief's third son snatched the opera troupe's gong, banged it a few times, and shouted at the top of his lungs, "None of you even use your brains!"

If someone dies on the island, the authorities won't investigate unless the people file a complaint.

Those are tourists from outside. If anything happens to them, their families will come looking for them and file a complaint. Everyone involved will go to jail!

Is it worth it for a thousand dollars?

The most urgent task now is to find the arsonist and murderer!

They poured gasoline on us and set us on fire, killing our villagers with their own hands. How can we let them harm people at will?

"cannot!"

"That's too cruel! They poured gasoline on people and set them on fire, burning them alive."

"Wangzi and Gousheng were against Li Mingliang's parents. That's right, it must have been that old woman who did it!"

"If she can ruin her own daughter, what wouldn't she dare to do?"

……

The villagers were quickly drawn into the opposing camp, clamoring for Li Mingliang and his family to pay with their lives.

Chapter Fifteen: Terrifying Desert Island 14

Li Mingliang wasn't home, so the villagers blocked both the front and back doors of his house.

"Are you jealous of how well my family is doing and trying to rebel?" Upon seeing this, Wang Siya jumped out of the house, hopping around in the yard, crying and shouting, "You're bullying us!"

My grandson was just murdered, and the village chief brought people to bully us, a widow and her orphan!

Do you really think our Li family line has ended?

My son is still alive, and you want to eat up his childless family?

You have lost all conscience; you deserve a terrible death!

If it weren't for my daughter developing the island into a tourist attraction back then, would you all be living such a good life?

Now that you have enough to eat and drink, you turn around and start beating and killing us orphans and widows. Do you still have any shame?

Wang Ergou—don't you remember how much benefit you, as the village chief, have reaped from this?

Don't forget that your eldest son was just a junior doctor back then. How did he manage to open his own hospital...?

Before she could finish her tirade, the village chief immediately cut her off, his face darkening. "Wangzi, she burned your mother to death, and you're still letting her yell like that? Today I've spoken, those who owe a life will pay with their life, and no one can stop them!"

Wangzi and Gousheng, who were already blinded by anger, rushed forward and started robbing and smashing things. They dragged Li Mingliang's wife out of the house, tore her clothes, and threw her into the group of men.

Wangzi stabbed Wang Siya through the heart with a white knife.

The village chief watched coldly as Wang Siya convulsed and died. He then went into the side room, looked around, and finally pulled out a large white plastic bucket, throwing it on the ground. "Isn't this the bucket for gasoline? Daring to set fire to and kill people in the village, this is outrageous!"

The crowd's anger needed an outlet, and no one cared whether the bucket contained gasoline or not.

The villagers, whose houses had been burned down and who had suffered significant property losses, were much happier after looting Li Mingliang's belongings.

The villagers who couldn't find wives and envied Li Mingliang's beautiful wife had a good time and were all very happy.

The village chief announced that Li Mingliang's family property would be confiscated and distributed as dividends to the entire village at the end of the year, with those whose houses were burned down receiving an extra share.

This made everyone who was envious of his family's wealth feel comfortable, and they all praised the village chief for doing a good job.

Two dead bodies were buried in a pit, and the village chief led a team to arrest Li Mingliang;

The others, led by the village chief's sons, continued to busy themselves with the preparations for the banquet and the sea god worship ceremony.

The opera on the stage was in full swing, the square was ablaze with fire and steam, and everyone was talking, laughing and joking as they guessed how much wealth Li Mingliang's family had and how much money each family would receive at the end of the year.

"Am I safe?" Shi Xiaotong found Jiang Chen and Duan Chengze in the bushes on the mountain and asked in a low voice, "What exactly happened in the village? Are there any new clues?"

Jiang Chen noticed her serious expression and said, "Didn't I tell you not to come out no matter what?"

"For some reason, a huge snake suddenly came out of that hole!" Shi Xiaotong said, her face pale with fear. "I was terrified and ran out quickly to avoid being bitten."

Then they encountered the village chief and his group arresting Li Mingliang, but he said it was all over.

Seeing this, Duan Chengze quickly advised, "You must not let your guard down until midnight tonight when the update is released."

Quickly find a secluded place to hide;

No poisoning incidents have been reported in the village; we need to hurry and look for clues!

"Alright then." Shi Xiaotong sat down on the spot. "I'll wait for you here. Remember to let me know if anything happens."

"I'm all wet, and it's so uncomfortable to keep hiding like this."

Jiang Chen looked around and saw that no one was there, so he decided to leave without saying anything and went down the mountain with Duan Chengze.

They were warmly received by the village chief's son in the main square. Everyone drank some wine and were joking around with dirty jokes.

"Xiao Jiang and Xiao Duan, do you have girlfriends yet?" The village chief's eldest son, with a large scar on his bare arm, pulled them down to sit and poured them drinks, asking the question.

Jiang Chen shook his head and smiled, "I haven't met the right one yet."

"I don't have any either," Duan Chengze replied with a smile.

"Oh, it's good to be young, you can still be picky." Li Dahan, his face flushed from drinking, smacked his lips and sighed, "Unlike me, I can't find a wife and have to buy one with money."

Thirty thousand yuan!

"That's all the stuff I bought!"

The other villagers burst into laughter. "What's wrong? Weren't you showing off when you first bought it? Now you're complaining? Who said they look the same with the lights off?"

"That's right! Even though her face is ruined, she still has a great figure and fair skin. She's definitely a great beauty."

"Isn't that what women crave when they can't touch them?" Li Dahan said with a sneer, not bothering to hide it. "It's all the same when the lights are off, but during the day, don't you still have to see that grotesque sight? Besides, I just tried Li Mingliang's wife, and she was clearly different."

A pretty face and a nice voice—that's awesome!

"Aren't you being greedy? How much did it cost to marry Li Mingliang's wife?"

The woman he scrimped and saved, spending hundreds of thousands of yuan from his sister to marry him, is she really comparable to the woman you handed over with a measly 30,000 yuan wallet?

"If you're as lucky as that guy who went on vacation a few years ago and found an antique treasure on the beach, sold it for millions, you could marry someone even better!"

Li Dahan smacked his lips as he held his wine bowl, "Hey, you need good luck. I've been dreaming of finding an antique."

"Antiques are fine, winning the lottery isn't bad either."

"I saw on the news before that a lottery ticket that won a big prize was embezzled and the person was suing..."

By observing the villagers' conversations and laughter, Jiang Chen and Duan Chengze gleaned a lot of information from their detached observations.

Seeing that the villagers were drinking more and more alcohol without anyone dying from poisoning, it was determined that the poisoning attempt had been interrupted at some point, and the culprit had failed.

Could it really be Li Mingliang?