Chapter 318
The next day, while the villagers still had no idea what happened, Hendrick’s family could not locate him. Hendrick had never gone missing for an entire day without turning on his phone.
Another day went by and Hendrick was still missing. The family quickly called the police, afraid that something bad might have happened to him.
As the police got involved, the villagers realized that Hendrick had gone missing.
Since Nico was the one helping them make money and Hendrick had been a roadblock, the villagers were upset and not overly fond of him. When they found out Hendrick had gone missing, they believed it was good news.
The police investigated almost every villager in the village, and everyone cooperated.
“Does the village chief have any enemies?”
“No.”
“Has the village chief gotten involved in any conflict lately?”
“No.”
“Where does the village chief usually hang out?”
“I don’t know.”
The police were not able to get any useful information despite questioning half of the entire village.
In the end, the police found out from Hendrick’s family that he had gotten into an argument with Nico recently and that Nico had just been released from prison recently.
The police officers knocked on Nico’s door, but Nico was prepared for this.
“I didn’t have any arguments with Hendrick. My brother used to be a criminal, and Hendrick simply doesn’t like me.” He said that although he had turned over a new leaf, the village chief remained prejudiced against him.
The police then asked the villagers about Nico’s character and how he usually interacted with the village chief. Again, Nico helped them make money and for the whole month since his release, he had been working hard every day, so everyone had a decent impression of
him.
“Nico is an honest man. He might be an ex–convict, but I believe he’s good now.
“Hendrick always gives Nico a hard time, maybe because of his record and because Nico’s brother used to be the ex–village chief. Nico, however, doesn’t really care about Hendrick.”
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+25 BONUS
“Nico is hardworking and honest, but you suspect he’s responsible for the village chief’s disappearance? Why don’t you assume that the village chief got lost in the woods?”
All signs pointed to Nico not being related to Hendrick’s disappearance.
The police then tried to find out who Hendrick had contacted before disappearing. After discovering that Hendrick got a call and then went missing two days later, they traced the phone number beyond the borders.
In addition to the recent happenings with the South Regent, everyone thought they had found out about the truth.
“Hendrick is related to people beyond the borders. Maybe he’s already crossed the border by now.”
As the case reached the end, Stone Village started to elect a new village chief to take over the official affairs.
Everyone recommended Nico to be the new village chief. Under his leadership, everyone made money and that was even before he was the village chief. They believed he would only lead them to more riches as the new village chief.
Nico never said he wanted to be the village chief from the start. It was the people who suggested and recommended him. Therefore, even if Hendrick’s disappearance remained unsolved, Nico was cleared of all suspicions.
Nico knew that not all the villagers were on his side, so he did not simply move on to the next phase of his plan. He secretly allowed the villagers to continue logging rare trees, and he contacted the people beyond the borders to make purchases.
When all the villagers finally got a taste of the pie, then it would be time for him to move on to the second step.
At the same time, Julius and George spent 15 billion to purchase all the required lands for the new freeway.
George was surprised by the price. It was incredibly low.
The proposed freeway stretched across 50 kilometers, and he thought it would at least cost 30 billion to purchase all the required lands, yet Julius only spent half of that to solve the problem.
Julius went to Stephen and said humbly, “We can start the construction for the freeway.”
Stephen was surprised. He thought it would at least take two weeks or a month to get all the lands but it had only taken Julius three days.
