sbdcsierra Chapter 227 The Little Thief Who Stole the Trap
Chapter 227 The Little Thief Who Stole the Trap
After saying goodbye to the Chen family, Li Ju'an followed the Lu brothers and took Sun Hao back to the family settlement.
Lu Zhiqiang, in a menacing manner, didn't even send the chubby boy to the Sun family's house. He entered the village shouting and ran towards Li Dong's old house.
Li Dong's family still lived in a mud-and-straw house, with the chimney on the outside and paper windows. They could be waterproofed by applying paste, covering it with hemp fibers, and then smearing it with oil. The windows looked rather dilapidated, having been repaired many times. Many people in the village lived in these kinds of thatched houses, while brick and tile houses were still quite rare.
Li Dong's elderly father filled a bucket with water from the well in the village, pumped it up, poured it into a water vat, and returned to the old house. This old thatched house was lined with sheep grass cut from the mountain; this grass grows tall, is hollow, and doesn't easily rot. In his hand was a ladle, used to split a ripe gourd in half, remove the pulp, and dry it. He used the ladle to scoop water into a basin, intending to go to the kitchen to cook for his three grandchildren.
It was getting late, and a faint oil lamp shone from Li Dong's house. Lu Zhiqiang stormed in, yelling, "Li Dong, where are you?! Get out here!"
Lu Jinyang, playing the good guy, grabbed Lu Zhiqiang's coat and said, "Don't be like that. It doesn't necessarily have to be Uncle Dong. Nobody saw it, did they?"
The more he tried to persuade him, the louder Lu Zhiqiang shouted, startling the three children of the Li family who all turned around.
Li Ju'an looked up and saw the black spots on the roof. The Li family was so simple that they didn't even have a simple paper shed inside. He turned his head and saw Li Dong's youngest son wearing shoes made of wild boar skin, stuffed with grass. This grass was cut in the summer and then pounded until soft with a wooden mallet before being put into the shoes for the child to wear.
Li Ju'an looked around the old house. There were willow baskets, kerosene lamps, and several hides of unknown origin in the corner. They hadn't been made into raw hides; they were just peeled off, dried in the shade, and casually placed in the corner. They looked like the hides of greyhounds or jumping cats.
He looked up and saw a lot of cured meat hanging from the rafters, and sausages being dried in the air inside. The aroma was incredibly strong, and the big tiger at his feet kept sniffing, its mouth watering. There were also many used, burnt iron wires in the corner of the west room.
Lu Zhiqiang also saw it. When he saw so many leather pieces, his eyes turned bloodshot, as if he was about to fight someone at any moment. His aura was terrifying.
Lu Zhiqiang was still shouting for Li Dong and arguing with Li Dong's father. He was determined to see Li Dong and get to the bottom of things today.
"You still say you didn't steal anything? How much leather is this? With Li Dong's abilities? He couldn't even bend a wire, let alone make a clip? Do you think I believe that?"
He thought about how he had painstakingly broken 200 traps, only to have them all stolen, and felt indignant that all his hard work had been wasted on dogs. After he shouted it out, Lu Jinyang added fuel to the fire, saying, "Feeding them to dogs? At least the dogs can help you fight off dog fodder. Don't look down on dogs."
Li Ju'an then realized that Lu Jinyang was also cunning. Although Lu Jinyang grabbed Lu Zhiqiang's coat, his grip was loose; he could easily slip away. The two brothers were essentially performing a comedy routine. Lu Jinyang also felt sorry for the clamps; he had used them the most that night, and calluses had formed on his hands.
Li Dong's father is hard of hearing and quite old, and his legs are also weak due to rheumatism. The two of them were speaking very hurriedly, and it was rather pitiful to see them like this.
Li Ju'an stopped the two men and asked his elderly father when Li Dong would be returning. The father pointed to the sky, indicating his son would be back soon. The Lu brothers calmed down somewhat and sat on the edge of the kang (heated brick bed), waiting for Li Dong to return and cause trouble.
Before long, the two of them actually waited for Li Dong.
Li Dong returned with a broad smile, looking quite pleased with himself. Lu Zhiqiang rushed up, grabbed him by the collar, and yelled, "What were you doing in the mountains?"
When Li Dong saw three strong young men enter, he was startled and quickly said that he had gone to play cards and that Lu's father was also there.
Lu Zhiqiang sneered, staring at the mud on his boots, and said, "You're playing cards in the snow shed in this heavy snow and you still get mud on your hands? Besides, Mom's been scolding Dad these past few days, and all his secret stash of money has been taken away. Where would he get the money to play cards? Are you lending Dad money to play cards?"
Pressed for answers, Li Dong had no choice but to admit that he had gone into the mountains. This angered Lu Jinyang, who stopped pretending and stood next to Lu Zhiqiang, asking him, "What were you doing in the mountains in this freezing weather? Don't give us that nonsense about picking mushrooms."
Li Dong blinked, looked at Li Ju'an and the many hunting dogs at his feet, and suddenly understood. He quickly said, "You're looking for that batch of pelts, right? I know where they are. I'll lead you there."
After he finished speaking, he stretched out his hand, indicating that he wanted money.
Lu Zhiqiang's eyes widened, and he punched Lu Zhiqiang, cursing, "The wire we broke off is in your room, and so is the leather. I don't believe you could have gone into the mountains to hunt! You were just bragging about playing cards, but you only confessed after someone found out you went into the mountains. You stole our things, so I won't just beat you up, I'll send you to the police station to be detained."
The punch made Li Dong see stars and feel dizzy. His three children ran over crying. Li's elderly father's hands trembled with anger.
Li Ju'an realized this had gotten out of hand. It wasn't that he felt sorry for the children; the three Li children seemed obedient, but they often hung out with Sun Hao and were quite the little tyrants in the village. The two girls were as mischievous as boys, and the three children were only well-behaved when their father was around.
His concern was that Li Dong must have connections to get the five-guarantee household support certificate, and those connections must be very strong. Otherwise, with his qualifications, how could he possibly get the five-guarantee household support? This coveted position isn't something you can just get through connections.
Li Ju'an acted as a peacemaker, advising, "Alright, Lu Zhiqiang, Uncle Dong came back empty-handed, so maybe he'll just go for a stroll in the mountains."
Lu Zhiqiang's eyes widened: "Li Ju'an, you didn't take any bribes from his family, did you? Why are you speaking up for him like this? In this snowy weather, what decent family wouldn't be warming themselves by the fire inside? Why would they go for a stroll in the mountains? Do they think they're just digesting their dinner? When Li Guaizi comes back later, he'll definitely have news that Li Dong stole the trap."
Li Dong's words couldn't keep up with Lu Zhiqiang's rambling. But when asked where he found the burning wire, he couldn't give a clear answer.
There was so much meat hanging from the rafters—some badger meat, some raccoon dog meat, some greyhound meat, some jerky meat. These things were rubbed with salt and hung from the rafters to air-dry as dried meat. When asked, he simply said he'd found the meat.
"Bullshit! Where did you find the meat? Tell me, and I'll go into the mountains and find meat too. Forget hunting, I'll just find meat every day."
Lu Zhiqiang was furious, and Li Dong said, "It's hanging on the big tree."
"The wire rings were also hanging from the tree?"
"Yes, we also searched for the wire in the tree."
"So many hides were also hanging on the tree?"
"Yeah! How did you know?"
Upon hearing this, Lu Zhiqiang became furious and laughed. This time, without Lu Zhiqiang lifting a finger, Li Ju'an grabbed Li Dong by the collar, dragged him to a place in the yard where the children couldn't see him, and gave him a severe beating.
That's so infuriating! He just spouts nonsense and it's impossible to swallow this insult.
At this moment, Li Guaizi was guarding the mountain, holding an old wooden plow handle, crouching behind the bushes, staring at the cat trap 200 meters away.
He surveyed his surroundings, warily watching the traps containing the jumping cats. The snowdrift wasn't deep; it was specifically designed to hold the traps, just like the previous trap placement locations.
It wasn't completely dark yet, and Li Guaizi yawned, thinking that no one would be going into the mountains to steal traps today. He had just bent down to tidy up his cloth bag, intending to lift his numb thighs to catch his breath before getting up to take the cat traps back. Suddenly, he heard a whooshing sound.
When he looked up again, he found that the snowdrift 200 meters away was no longer covered with traps.