417 Past Events Are Like Smoke

"The Jiang family rendered help for so many years. Even if they didn't achieve much, they still deserved credit for their efforts. Don't tell me the He family turned on them because of work issues? Are the He family members all ingrates?" Qiao Mei scolded indignantly.

"People die in pursuit of wealth, like how birds die in pursuit of food. People always want to get the share they think they deserve. Moreover, the He family kept feeling that there was something strange about the death of He Ning's father," Xia Zhe said.

"Didn't they say he died of illness?" Qiao Mei asked Xia Zhe in surprise.

Xia Zhe did not understand everything that happened either. At that time, he was still young. However, Xia Wen had told him before that He Ning's father did not pass away at home, but that he had an accident on a business trip. Old Master Jiang was originally supposed to be the one going on this business trip.

"We don't know what exactly happened. At that time, the news was very strictly suppressed. Even my grandfather doesn't know the exact details. Probably only the Jiang family and the He family know how He Ning's father died. All we know is that something suddenly happened to the Jiang family after that and their family was broken up overnight. Old Master Jiang was also beaten up until he was on his last breath. Later on, he passed away as he was too badly injured to be saved. The rest of his descendants also suffered serious injuries and they later fled to different places," Xia Zhe said.

At that time, Xia Zhe and Xia Wen were at the scene in person and saw with their own eyes the realities of human nature.

Qiao Mei was stunned. She could not believe that Old Master Jiang had been beaten to death. Was there no law and order in place?

Qiao Mei sat up in disbelief and looked at Xia Zhe as she asked, "Doesn't anyone care that this happened? And they just let these people do whatever they want."

Xia Zhe shook his head. Too many people had rushed in then and no one knew who was involved. In addition, everyone felt that the Jiang family deserved their fate and was unwilling to testify, so there was no investigation done on the matter.

"Someone reported that the Jiang family colluded with the enemy and committed treason in the past, and that they even engaged in opportunistic speculation. Each one of these accusations is a serious crime on its own," Xia Zhe said. Opportunistic speculation meant the act of buying and selling items in private, which was not allowed in that era.

The ancestors of the Jiang family were all former soldiers. Many of these ancestors worked in the armory and some of them even knew how to make weapons and had a unique love for firearms, so they also collected a lot of weapons in private. However, as the Jiang family became smaller and the family members went on deployments all year round, they lost the skills of making firearms and only continued to collect them as part of their hobby.

Most of the firearms in their collection were unique to other countries. This later became the key evidence of the Jiang family being in collusion with the enemy and committing treason. The opportunistic speculation part was that the Jiang family bought and sold weapons and handed weapons over to enemy states in exchange for money. There were even people who surmised that the Jiang family was making prototypes of weapons used by the nation's army for enemy states to carry out research.

As news spread, the truth of the matter became more and more bewildering, and the Jiang family was accused of more and more crimes.

Although there was no proof behind the initial slander, there was indeed a box full of an enemy state's country-specific ordnance dug up from under the Jiang family's house. If it was not bought from someone, where did it come from? Could it be that the Jiang family had made the same ordnance used by the enemy state out of thin air?

No one would buy the story.

At that time, there were a number of extremely paranoid people who rushed in indiscriminately and said that they wanted to beat the "traitors" to death. They said that the Jiang family members were sinners and should be arrested and executed to serve as an example to others. In their eyes, the truth was not important. What was important was that as long as these things appeared in someone's house, that person would be the "enemy" and they would have to eliminate the "enemy".

Old Master Jiang was already old then and not in good health. There were many assailants and they attacked quickly and ruthlessly. As if they were targeting him, he was directly pressed to the ground and made immovable. Then he was punched, kicked and verbally abused.

Just like that, he was surrounded by a big group of people. By the time the other Jiang family members rushed in to save Old Master Jiang, he was already on the ground and on his last breath. He did not even have the strength to explain himself, so the entire matter was hastily concluded on the spot.

In the end, they did not even manage to send him to the hospital in time. Before they even reached the door, Old Master Jiang had already died with his grievance unsolved.

The Jiang family was helpless in this matter. In order to protect themselves, they pushed all the blame to Old Master Jiang and only then did they manage to protect the descendants of the Jiang family. After all, as long as there was life, there was hope. It was much better than having their entire family die. As long as the descendants of the Jiang family were still alive, the truth would be revealed one day.

A few of the other members of the Jiang family were taken away and locked up while others were sent to the labor camps for rehabilitation. A few luckier ones escaped from the capital and their whereabouts were still unknown till date.

This matter had long been forgotten by people over time, and even the Xia family only remembered the Jiang family now that there was a "need".