"Lin Tian, what are you guys talking about?" Xiao Manxuan looked at Lin Tian, then at her sister, and asked curiously.
Lin Tian smiled and pointed to a few tree stumps by the roadside, "Second Miss, do you see anything strange about those stumps?"
Hearing that, Xiao Manxuan looked over at the stumps. After a few seconds, she exclaid in surprise, "The cuts on the stumps are very smooth, clearly man-made, and the cuts are very fresh, probably made today."
"Exactly, I can confirm 100% that soone deliberately cut down the trees to block this road. There was a dump truck overturn on the main road, and now these trees blocking this road—could it really be such a coincidence?" Lin Tian analyzed.
"Could soone be planning a robbery?" Xiao Manxuan exclaid.
Lin Tian couldn’t help but laugh, "Second Miss, there’s not that much robbery going on."
"If it’s not a robbery, then what is it? I think this is a preditated robbery: first, causing an accident on the main road, then cutting down trees to block the small road. It’s just like in the movies, ’This road was opened by , this tree planted by . If you want to pass, leave a toll fee.’" Xiao Manxuan analyzed seriously and eloquently, with reason and evidence.
"Uh, Second Miss, I think you have quite the talent for being a detective. I’ll start calling you Detective Xiao from now on," Lin Tian laughed.
"Hmph, you’re making fun of ..." The little girl glared at Lin Tian, then turned to ask her sister: "Sister, do you think soone’s planning a robbery?"
The older sister shook her head decisively, and Xiao Manxuan, still unconvinced, said, "If it’s not a coincidence and not a robbery, then what do you think it is?"
"If you want to know, why not go down and take a look?" Lin Tian said, then opened the car door and got out.
"Lin Tian, be careful." Even though she knew Lin Tian was quite capable, Xiao Manxuan couldn’t help but remind him.
Lin Tian waved reassuringly, closed the car door properly, and walked to the fallen tree, but his eyes were on the woods by the road.
"Co out, I can hear you," Lin Tian suddenly shouted.
But no one answered from the woods; it remained silent. Lin Tian sneered, bent down, pulled a branch, and threw it hard at a big tree in the woods.
The branch, filled with considerable force from Lin Tian, smacked against the tree, shaking it violently and dislodging a bunch of leaves, along with several dark shadows falling from the tree.
"Thud, thud, thud..." Several thuds followed by screams.
"Co out imdiately, or I’ll throw sothing else in!" Lin Tian shouted again, his tone carrying a heavy threat.
"No, brother, have rcy... Ouch, my butt, it hurts like hell," a man’s voice called out, and then a person stood up from the bushes, followed by a few more, making a total of four people, each either clutching their butt or holding their waist, expressions full of pain.
"Sister, look, it really is a robbery," Xiao Manxuan shouted excitedly, making the older sister feel helpless—other people get nervous when they see a robbery, but her sister acts like it’s an exciting ga.
"Let’s take a look first; maybe it’s not a robbery," the older sister said.
The four people helped each other out, and once they got a clear look at Lin Tian, they were taken aback.
"Tian... Brother Tian, how is it you?" the leading young man exclaid.
"You guys know ?" Lin Tian asked, puzzled. He scrutinized the four, finding them vaguely familiar, but couldn’t rember where they had t.
The leading young man tried to stand up straight, gesturing, "Brother Tian, don’t you rember? That day on the road, you were driving, and we rode out on our motorbikes..."
"Oh, it was you guys. You sure have a lot of nerve to try and rob !" Lin Tian rembered and then turned stern, speaking coldly.
The four young n shivered with fear, with the leader saying, "Brother Tian, it’s not a robbery, we... we were just purely blocking the road."
"Daring to block my road—looks like I didn’t teach you enough of a lesson that day, huh?" Lin Tian gazed at the four, narrowing his eyes with a dangerous gleam in them.
The four young n stepped back in fright, nearly tripping over the trees behind them. One of them nervously explained, "Brother Tian, we... we didn’t know it was you. If we had known it was you, we wouldn’t dare block your path even with ten tis more courage."
"You have a chance to explain. If I catch you lying, your legs will end up like these trees," Lin Tian said coldly. Though his voice didn’t seem too loud, the four felt like they had a mountain pressing on their chests, making it hard to breathe.
Looking at the broken trees, their legs went weak, nearly collapsing if they weren’t supporting each other.
"Brother Tian, we’re telling the truth. Yesterday we got a call saying to go to a place and just block the road, do nothing else, and we would get paid."
"The person even sent us a map with the location marked. I looked at it and thought there didn’t seem to be any danger, so I pretended to agree to see if they’d transfer the money."
"They were very straightforward. Minutes after we agreed, we got a text saying the money was in. When you live this life, you follow the code; soone’s straightforward with you, you don’t ss them around. We figured since it was just blocking the road without showing up, it was a good easy job we could do."
"So, we ca here early following the map directions, secretly cut down the trees to block the road, not expecting it was blocking Brother Tian’s way."
"Brother Tian, everything I’m saying is true, not a single lie," the leading young man quickly said, then looked at Lin Tian nervously, fearing he might retaliate in anger.
"The person who called you—do you know who it is?" Lin Tian asked.
"No idea, we only know it was a man’s voice, with a local number from Xikou City," the lead young man hurriedly answered.
Lin Tian’s face turned cold with a snort, "As I said, the consequence of lying to is broken legs. Looks like you don’t want your legs."
"Brother Tian, please believe , I’m definitely telling the truth. We really don’t know that person," the young man said, turning pale and trembling.
"If you don’t know him, how did he get your bank account?" Lin Tian asked coldly.
"It’s like this, Brother Tian. Sotis we do jobs for people, and we’ve given our bank account to others. Maybe soone gave our info to him. Around here, we are sowhat known," the young man explained nervously.
Having worked in a bar, Lin Tian understood what "doing jobs" implied—not anything good, typically settling private grudges, intimidating, or fighting, things done by petty thugs.
The young man was so scared he nearly wet his pants, and Lin Tian saw that he wasn’t lying. It ant soone deliberately orchestrated the roadblock incident during this crucial exam period, and the motive was clear.
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