sbdcsierra Chapter 1746 Visiting the Village
Chapter 1746 Visiting the Village
Chapter 1746 Visiting the Village
There was a commotion in the middle of the night, so everyone woke up late this morning. But it was relatively late; it just meant they got up at 7 a.m. instead of the usual 6 a.m., because everyone is used to being diligent.
The children were still in bed, not even up yet, but the adults had already gotten up because of the noise at the door.
"Oh dear, you overslept! It's already 7 o'clock. You need to hurry to the village committee and see if they've interrogated the thieves we caught last night." Mother Ye was in a panic, feeling like she had missed out on a fortune.
"It won't be that fast. They won't have anyone until eight o'clock."
"Today is different. It was agreed that the trial would be held today, so there must have been people waiting there early in the morning. Let's hurry over and listen in."
"It doesn't have to be 7 o'clock, what's the rush? Who's so free that they don't sleep? They were up and about all night yesterday, they can still make it after breakfast. In the past, large meetings were held at 8 o'clock, it's still early now, just get the result."
Ye's mother slapped him, "Why aren't you worried at all? They almost sneaked into your son's house."
"We've already arrested them, what's the rush? They can't escape, let's eat first."
Ye's mother glared at him, went to wash up first, and then chatted with the neighbors at the door to make sure there was still no news before sitting down to eat breakfast.
Others who were supposed to come also arrived one after another for dinner.
She asked Lin Xiuqing, "Did Dongzi call yesterday to say what time he'll be home today?"
"I said I'd come back after I woke up, but I guess I won't get home until noon at the earliest."
"Those three guys last night probably went to your house. They knew Dongzi wasn't home, so they thought they could take advantage of the situation and make a quick buck before the New Year."
Lin Xiuqing frowned. "I was thinking that since it was the New Year, all the men in the village would be back, and no one would dare to cause trouble in our village. I didn't expect them to be so audacious as to come over in the middle of the night."
"They probably just got out of jail a few days ago. They only know your family is rich, but they don't know that those dogs are mostly kept by the sea. They think that bringing a few poisoned buns will be enough to deal with them."
Mr. Ye also analyzed, "They might be thinking that you'll leave after the New Year, and you'll definitely take the money with you. Since you won't be home, there won't be much to steal."
Ye Yaopeng chimed in, "That's possible. So we should take advantage of the fact that Dongzi is away and only Aqing is home by herself to make our move quickly. Otherwise, it won't be so easy to make a move if there are other people at home later."
Sister-in-law Ye said angrily, "They're too arrogant. Everyone in the village has come back, and they still dare to commit crimes. They're only doing this because they're relatives and don't dare to kill them directly."
Sister-in-law Ye also looked disgusted, "Who would want to be related to someone like this? I'm ashamed to even talk about it. He shouldn't have been released. He should have been locked up until he died."
Ye Yaohua: "I was bitten by a dog last night and then beaten up badly by the villagers. I was locked up and left to freeze all night. I'm probably half dead. If I had to wander around the village for another two days, I probably would have died too."
Ye Chenghai: "We have to make an example of them to warn other villages. Otherwise, if the able-bodied men in the village are not at home all year round, they will be easily bullied."
Chen Xiuni: "But their family members will probably come looking for us, right?"
Ye Chenghe sneered, "It's no use coming here. They dared to come and steal and even poison people. We've already shown mercy by not killing them on the spot."
Ye Chenghai chimed in, "That's right. I wouldn't dare waste any food. They even poisoned the buns. What if some were missed and not cleaned up properly, and the children picked them up and ate them?"
Chen Xiuni's face turned pale with fright. "This is terrifying! Luckily it was the middle of the night. If they had come during the day to poison food, and children, adults, or the elderly had picked it up, that would have been terrible. Who could just watch food go to waste and not pick it up?"
Ye Chenghai: "If their family members come knocking on our door, our village won't take it lying down."
Mr. Ye said, "Eat quickly, and then go to the village committee to take a look."
"Now you're in a hurry?" Ye's mother glared at Ye's father and quickly started eating.
After the family finished eating, they headed towards the village committee. Along the way, there were many other people heading in that direction as well. They walked and talked, all cursing the three thieves from the previous night.
Everyone is afraid, what if the man isn't home?
The village committee building was converted from the former production team's auditorium, so the space is quite large. In the past, we ate communal meals here, and later it became a dumping ground for production tools when we were making seaweed.
When everyone arrived, the place was already packed with people and quite noisy.
Ye's mother asked the woman next to her, "What did they say? Is there any result?"
"They said they knew A-Dong wasn't home, so they deliberately chose last night. Otherwise, they were worried that with so many people at home during the New Year, it would be difficult to make a move. They were also concerned that you would all leave after the New Year, so they chose last night to make their move."
"My goodness, they really targeted my third son! They've lost their conscience, and they're even relatives!" Mother Ye cursed, spittle flying everywhere.
Mr. Ye asked, "What are they doing up there?"
"It was their family who came looking for them. They are begging the village committee to show leniency. There's an old lady there who's about to kowtow."
"Show mercy my ass! What if the steamed buns last night killed a person instead of a dog? Could they afford to compensate us? They'd have to be paraded around the village."
As Ye's mother was cursing, the people in front were lifting up several people from the neighboring village, especially an old woman who was wailing and screaming. Her hands were held up, so she couldn't lie on the ground and cry out; she could only wave them in mid-air.
“Your village bullies people because you’re rich, you’ll die a horrible death… My poor grandson was beaten half to death, your village will die a horrible death…”
"Your whole family deserves to die a horrible death. You raised a scoundrel, and your misfortune will last for three generations."
"If you dare to bully us here, not only will the three of you be leaving this village!"
"That's right! Just because we're not showing our power doesn't mean you can take our village for a fool. If you dare to come here to bully us, you won't be going home today!"
"Why? What gives you the right to detain people like this?"
The village chief shouted defiantly, "On what grounds? On what grounds? These three sneaked into our village in the middle of the night. They deserved to be caught and beaten to death. We're always right wherever we go! If you dare to come knocking on our door, we'll beat you up too! Nobody can say we're in the wrong!"
"We haven't taken their lives yet, we're just making them parade through the village. If you keep nagging, we'll kill them right now and drag them back to their village."
"Drag them out and parade them around the village!"
The villagers from the other village immediately fell silent. When you're under someone's roof, you have to bow your head, especially since they were in the wrong.
Someone grabbed a gong and started banging it on, shouting, "They're parading through the village! They're parading through the village! Three thieves are parading through the village!"
“We’ll tour all the nearby villages. We can’t let them get away with this. We need to show everyone what these three thieves look like.”
"Make way, make way, a thief is wandering the village."
The villagers spontaneously organized a tour of the village.
Mother Ye stood on tiptoe to look, then angrily pinched Father Ye, "It's all your fault! I told you to come earlier, but you dawdled and insisted on finishing that one bite of food. Look, you missed the beginning and only read half of it now."
Mr. Ye was wearing thick clothes and didn't feel any pain. "Who knew they would start so quickly? There were still many people on the road when we came. We weren't the only ones who didn't hear what was happening ahead. We arrived at 7:50, which gave us 10 more minutes. Who knew they would start earlier?"
"This is a big deal, everyone must have come to wait long ago, who cares about the time? When people arrive, we'll naturally drag them out and ask them what's going on."
"Well, I'll find out if I ask anyway, and I haven't missed anything, so I'll just catch up quickly."
Mother Ye pulled aside the woman who had arrived earlier and asked her a series of questions, not missing a single detail. Only after she understood everything was she satisfied.
They were only about 10 minutes late, so they didn't miss much. At most, they missed the process of dragging the three people out and their family members sitting on the ground crying and wailing after their pleas for mercy were ignored.
The whole village followed behind as they walked out of the village committee.
Someone was leading the way with gongs and drums, while others shouted and recounted the names and crimes of the three men.
The three of them were carried and dragged along.
Behind the three people, weeping and wailing, were their family members.
However, probably because they felt ashamed, they stopped crying after leaving the village committee and instead lagged behind at the very back of the group.
Some villagers have started throwing rotten vegetable leaves, and children have started throwing stones.
"You can't all go and watch the fun. Someone needs to stay home and look after the house. Don't all follow along, go home quickly."
Mother Ye pointed to a few younger relatives and told them to go back first, but no one listened to her.
Lin Xiuqing didn't dare to follow them for too long. She lived alone at home, so leaving for a while was fine, but leaving for too long was not an option.
She had no choice but to stop and watch the large group of people moving through the village.
The old man next to him shook his head and said, "Serves him right."
Sister-in-law Ye stayed with her instead of going along, since none of her sons listened to her and wanted to go see the excitement, so she had to stay behind to look after the house.
"If they visit a few nearby villages, their reputations will be ruined, and everyone will want to kill them. Their villages will definitely not tolerate them."
"Whether you survive or not is another question. If you're beaten to death, you deserve it. Otherwise, who knows how much your family will lose?"
“There’s nothing of value in the house now. I used to keep all my money at home, but now it’s all in the bank. There’s nothing that would attract thieves.”
"Others may not know, but everyone in the surrounding area knows your family is very rich. If any thieves are tempted to steal, they will definitely target you first. Today, we'll make an example of you to warn others, and we can also tour the village to warn those good-for-nothings in other villages."
"Yes, we can rest assured now. We'll be leaving after the New Year."
Sister-in-law Ye was instantly envious. "After the New Year, I'll go with them too. Anyway, Ah Hai is going to take his wife and children back to the provincial capital, and Cheng He is going to take his wife and children to Zhoushan. The girls at home are all grown up now, so I don't need to take care of them. They all live with their parents, so I don't need to worry about them."
“I have to go up with Xiuni to help her take care of the child. The couple has no experience in raising children and can't manage on their own. I'll go up and lend her a hand.”
As Lin Xiuqing and the two women walked home, Lin Xiuqing said, "Your two sons help one take care of the child, but not the other. Won't they have something to say about that?"
"There's no other way. They're both my children. Ah Hai's wife's family is over there, and her mother-in-law will help take care of her. But Cheng He's wife doesn't have a mother-in-law around. I'm worried about the young couple, so naturally I went to help."
"That makes it easy for people to criticize you, saying you helped one person but not the other."
"Then we'll give the eldest son's wife some money for baby formula every month, and give her more of whatever we have at home."
"Having too many sons can easily lead to imbalances."
Lin Xiuqing thought that her two children were still young, and she didn't have any worries about imbalance at the moment, so she felt fine.
"What's unbalanced? The two brothers definitely won't have any objections. The only ones who will complain are their wives. One of me will contribute the effort, and the other will contribute the money, isn't that enough?"
"pretty good."
"I'm going to the new house to see my two grandsons. Do you want to go there or to your own house?"
“I have to go back to my own home to keep an eye on things. There’s no one there, not even my children. I can’t rest easy.”
"Then I'll take the child over later. Can you watch one for me? This couple left the child at home because they were out watching the fun."
Sister-in-law Ye scolded them, but her face was full of love. When she thought of her two grandsons, she couldn't help but smile.
Lin Xiuqing nodded and headed home first.
The noise of the village faded into the distance.
The gate to the courtyard was still locked, and the surrounding area was unusually quiet. Apart from a few dogs lying at the gate, everyone was chasing after the group to watch the excitement, even the children were following along.
As soon as the dog saw someone, it immediately got up from the ground and ran towards her, barking a few times.
She smiled, patted the dog's head, opened the door, and went inside. The house was exactly the same as when she left.
It wasn't a good time to call Ye Yaodong so early in the morning. She walked to the phone, intending to call and ask him what time he would get home, but no one answered.
He's probably already left by now, and he might have called back but didn't answer.
Ye Yaodong arrived home around lunchtime; the tractor drove directly from town to his doorstep.
As soon as she jumped out of the car, the three children happily called out "Mommy" and bounced around her.
After paying the fare, Ye Yaodong asked, "Why didn't you answer my call this morning? Did you go to your mother's to help cook breakfast early this morning?"
He was still completely unaware of what had happened that night.
Something happened last night.
Lin Xiuqing's smile faded, and she told him what had happened the night before.
The more Ye Yaodong listened, the more serious his expression became.
"It's true that man proposes, God disposes. I was only gone for one night, and someone caught me red-handed. Luckily, they found out and caught me. So what do we have to say now? How did the parade go?"
"I haven't finished swimming and come back yet. I don't know which village I've swum to. It's almost lunchtime now, so I'll probably bring it back first."
Ye Chenghu said angrily, "If I had known, I wouldn't have gone. I stayed home and almost got into danger. Why didn't you kill them on the spot last night? Why did you spare their lives?"
“Now, parading through the streets with villages one by one is even more impressive.”
"Mom, I'll stay home to protect you next time."
Lin Xiuqing smiled broadly, "It's alright, the person has been caught. Now that we've made such a big show of it, even if there are thieves around, they won't dare to come to our village."
"They're lucky they didn't get bitten to death."
"He was half dead this morning, I'll come back and check on him later."