This incident took place in a small village in Fengnan, Tangshan (or so it seems; it's been several years, and my memory is hazy. At the time, it caused quite a stir in our area).
Two neighboring families, the Wangs and the Lis, had always lived in harmony.
The trouble began with the Li family's child (reportedly less than ten years old) and his slingshot. The Lis had made a slingshot for their son, Xiao Xi, to play with. The boy happily shot stones around, aiming here and there. Who could have guessed that the Wang family's elderly patriarch happened to be passing by just then? A single stone struck the old man directly in the eye. This seemingly minor incident turned catastrophic: by the time he was rushed to the hospital, his eye was already blind, and he passed away just a few days after returning home.
The Wang family was furious. They stormed the Li household several times, demanding justice. The Lis, in turn, paid compensation and offered endless apologies. They covered all medical expenses and funeral costs. The Wangs then demanded that Xiao Xi keep vigil through the night, carry the funeral banner, and attend the burial (they practiced burial, not cremation). Feeling deeply at fault, the Lis agreed to every demand without protest.
Since the burial was scheduled for the next day, Xiao Xi was to stay at the Wangs' home to keep vigil. The child cried and resisted, but his father beat him and forced him to go.
The next day, during the burial procession, the child was nowhere to be found. Despite frantic searches, he couldn't be located. Everyone assumed he had run off to play somewhere, so the father took his son's place, carrying the funeral banner and attending the burial.
The weather had been fine, with clear skies and not a cloud in sight. But halfway through the procession, the sky suddenly turned dark. Heavy clouds pressed low, and the wind blew so fiercely that people could barely stand. The lead mourner shouted, "Hurry!" As the Li family's children wept beside the coffin, crying, "Father—don't be angry—your death was unjust—" a tremendous thunderbolt suddenly struck the coffin directly.
The bearers, terrified, dropped the coffin. It crashed to the ground. The lightning had already split the coffin lid, and the impact shattered it completely into two halves. Inside lay a horrifying scene: beneath the neatly dressed old man, a child lay in a kneeling posture, nailed alive to the coffin bottom...
Thus, the murder was revealed. I believe the culprit's identity no longer needs stating.
How thoroughly the killer had planned: first, to exact revenge on the old man by making the child a sacrificial victim; second, to bury the body so deeply that no one would ever find it.
Had it not been for that earth-shattering bolt of lightning, the boy, barely ten years old, would have vanished without a trace. As we lament the murderer's cruelty, we should also thank heaven—fate, it seems, has its own design.