sbdcsierra Chapter 1396 A Thief Comes in the Middle of the Night
Chapter 1396 A Thief Comes in the Middle of the Night
Chapter 1396 A Thief Comes in the Middle of the Night
"Hmm?" Zhao Youcai was a little unimpressed by his son's words and said, "What? They're beating a yellow fox in front of or behind their house, peeling its skin and selling it, and you're not buying it?"
Before Zhao Jun could say anything, Wang Meilan had already snatched the account book away. She turned to the previous page and took a look. Her face suddenly turned very ugly.
"Son!" Wang Meilan pointed at the one above and said to Zhao Jun, "Yesterday morning, there was also a man who came to our house and sold a yellow leaf."
Zhao Jun took a quick look and found that everything was clearly recorded in the account book.
"Mom." Zhao Jun said to Wang Meilan, "Think back, think back, can you remember that person from yesterday?"
Wang Meilan frowned slightly, recalling the man from yesterday, then shook her head and said, "Neither your uncle nor I know that person."
"Did he tell me where he was from?" Zhao Jun asked again. Wang Meilan said, "Your uncle asked him and he said he was from Shenjiabao at the foot of Fenghuang Mountain."
"From Shenjiabao..." Zhao Jun looked at Zhao Youcai when he heard that. Zhao Youcai said firmly, "The guy who came here today is a scoundrel from your uncle Zhang's camp."
"Chen the rogue?" As soon as Zhao Youcai finished speaking, Wang Meilan shook her head and said, "It was definitely not him yesterday. If he was from that village, we would know him."
Even though it is impossible to have dealt with all the people from the nearby villages, I would still feel familiar with them when I meet them.
"It's not the same person, that's fine." Zhao Youcai's face darkened. He took a towel and wiped his feet while saying, "If we're going to step on the spot, we can't have the same person come for two days."
"Step on the spot?" Wang Meilan's face turned pale instantly. She was a woman after all, and she couldn't help feeling a little scared when she heard such a thing.
"Mom." Zhao Jun saw this and hurriedly comforted Wang Meilan, saying, "Don't worry, it's not certain what's going on."
"Okay." At this time, Zhao Youcai said to Wang Meilan, "Lan, stop thinking about it. It's useless. Hurry up and pack up. It's time to go to bed."
After saying that, Zhao Youcai threw the towel for wiping his feet to Wang Meilan.
"Okay, Dad and Mom, you two should go to bed early." Zhao Jun said, "I'll sort this out when I get back."
"Hey?" At this moment, Zhao Youcai called Zhao Jun and asked Zhao Jun to come to him, and at the same time reached out to take the account book.
"This..." Zhao Youcai pointed at a line of crooked words and said to Zhao Jun, "This is sold by Qin Qiang's brother-in-law, Tao Sansheng."
"Who?" Zhao Jun and Wang Meilan were both stunned. The mother and daughter were more surprised to hear the news than suspecting that someone had come to their house to scout the place.
"Tao Sansheng." Zhao Youcai repeated, and Wang Meilan was surprised when she heard him say, "Then the old Qin boss hasn't even sent them out yet, and they're already in a hurry to sell the skins? What kind of people are they?"
"That's what I said." Zhao Youcai said, "I saw that they were getting angry, so I calculated the original skin at 36, and I calculated it at 26 for him."
In this matter, Zhao Youcai did not choose to conceal it or to hide the money.
After hearing what Zhao Youcai said, Zhao Jun took the account book and took a closer look. Then he asked Zhao Youcai, "Dad, what are the 38 and 28 you wrote on top?"
"I'm afraid he'll come to settle the bill in a couple of days." Zhao Youcai said, "I'll just write it down as it was originally."
"You're just messing around!" Wang Meilan even hit Zhao Youcai with a stick, and said unhappily: "If your actions get out, what will happen to us? Who will come to our house to sell goods?"
"Others... I don't have that." Zhao Youcai said, "If someone else comes, I will pay them as much as they deserve."
"Dad, you're not doing this right." Zhao Jun said, "You collect the skins from other people at thirty-eight, and then you come to him at thirty-six or twenty-six. Then Qin Qiang's family will come to you in a few days, right?"
"You!" Wang Meilan pointed at Zhao Youcai and said, "You've been causing trouble all day long. Tomorrow you should pay me the money I owe you."
"What are you sending me?" Zhao Youcai stiffened his neck and said, "Why should I send them anything? They are just a bunch of beasts. Their father died and they are just looking for money."
"What did you say when they come back to you?" Wang Meilan pressed on. Zhao Youcai said, "What did you say? I gave 28 or 38 yuan to everyone, and everyone in the village knew about it. Tao Sansheng didn't take back that much money, that's his problem."
"Huh?" Zhao Jun and Wang Meilan were both stunned, and then they heard Zhao Youcai say, "There are a total of 33 yellow leaves, and I owe them 66 yuan. Tomorrow, let Ru Hai take the money and go to Chen Dalai's house to buy me a roe deer. When the eldest son of the Qin family leaves, I will give him the roe deer and that's it."
Hearing Zhao Youcai say this, Wang Meilan rolled her eyes at him and said, "What are you doing? What's the point of doing this? Try not to do this in the future."
Zhao Jun stood aside without saying a word. Wang Meilan could scold Zhao Youcai, which showed that he was not a good son.
But thinking back to what Zhao Youcai had just said, Zhao Jun said, "Dad, you can't go out these days."
"Why?" Zhao Youcai raised his voice instantly, and then he heard Zhao Jun say: "What if Qin Qiang and the Tao family come looking for us? Can my mother and the others handle this?"
"I..." At this time, Zhao Youcai regretted it in his heart. If he had known earlier, he would not care about the Qin family's mess.
Wang Meilan understood the hidden meaning of Zhao Jun's words, smiled but said nothing.
Zhao Youcai glared at Zhao Jun fiercely, stood up from the edge of the kang, walked to the east wall and raised his hand to pick up the semi-automatic gun on the wall.
"What are you doing, Dad?" Zhao Jun asked hurriedly, but Zhao Youcai said, "Put the gun next to me. If anything happens, I can grab the gun and get up."
"Please stop it." Wang Meilan hurriedly stopped Zhao Youcai and said, "Don't get excited."
"Is that possible?" Zhao Youcai said so, and Zhao Jun hurriedly persuaded him: "Dad, it may not be a big deal, it won't be that serious."
Zhao Jun pointed outside and said, "There are so many dogs in our yard. Who can just come in?"
"That's right!" Wang Meilan echoed, then snatched the semi-automatic from Zhao Youcai, hung it back on the wall, and said, "Our son is right, don't mess around with it."
……
At the same time, in the two thatched houses of Mangliutun.
A row of people were lying on the kang in the east room. On the head of the kang were women and children, and on the side of the kang were two men.
There is no way, the family is poor. When guests come to the house, the male host is separated from the male guests, and the female host is separated from the female guests.
Chen Jinmin, the hooligan mentioned by Zhao Youcai, was lying between his wife and Hu Zhonghou.
This Hu Zhonghou was the man who went to Zhao Jun's house to sell a yellow leaf the day before yesterday. He claimed that he lived in Shenjiabao at the foot of Fenghuang Mountain, but in fact his home was in Wanshoutun, Dongershiqiao.
Hu Zhonghou's parents gave him a good name, but this man has nothing to do with the words "loyalty" and "honesty". He is idle, lazy and cunning all day long. He is almost forty years old, but he doesn't even have a wife.
When his parents were around, Hu Zhonghou was more restrained. But after his mother passed away the year before last, Hu Zhonghou, who was left alone, began to steal and cheat in the village.
This guy is not a village boss. If he is caught stealing, he will be beaten up.
Everything happens over time. The more Hu Zhonghou stole things, the more the villagers disliked him.
Last week, Hu Zhonghou was caught stealing sticky rice dumplings, and three families beat him up. And they didn't just beat him up, they beat him whenever they saw him.
Hu Zhonghou couldn't bear it anymore and fled from the village.
But when he left the village, Hu Zhonghou found that he had nowhere to go. In the past two years, he had not only offended the villagers, but also had no relatives who were willing to pay attention to him.
Hu Zhonghou was not stupid. He thought that things far away were fragrant while things near were smelly. Since he could not find refuge with his old relatives and neighbors nearby, he would just go farther away.
So Hu Zhonghou came to Chen Jinmin's house.
Suddenly a guest came, and Chen Jinmin and his wife really entertained him. Although there was no meat, Chen Jinmin's wife took out the frozen tofu that they had saved for the New Year.
But what people didn't expect was that Hu Zhonghou stayed and refused to leave. With the Chen family's financial situation, it was difficult for them to afford food and drink, so how could they tolerate him eating and drinking for free?
Chen Jinmin's wife was really helpless and had to ask Hu Zhonghou something, but Hu Zhonghou seemed not to understand. Chen Jinmin's wife had no choice but to let her child ask "Uncle, when did you leave?"
Hu Zhonghou's answer almost scared Chen Jinmin and his wife to death. Hu Zhonghou said that he would not leave until after the Chinese New Year.
This time Chen Jinmin refused to do anything and kept persuading Hu Zhonghou to go to his sister's house.
But Hu Zhonghou's brother-in-law looked down on this brother-in-law the most. Hu Zhonghou had been there twice before, but every time he went there to eat, his brother-in-law would get drunk. Then, under the influence of alcohol, he would slap Hu Zhonghou hard in the face.
After two beatings, Hu Zhonghou realized that his brother-in-law did it on purpose. Although he was shameless, it really hurt to be beaten. So, Hu Zhonghou never went to his sister's house again.
Hu Zhonghou was annoyed because he was always chased away by Chen Jinmin. He thought, since you won't let me eat and drink for free, I will go out and get something to eat.
When Hu Zhonghou was wandering in Mangliutun, he heard a group of people discussing the Zhao Family Chamber of Commerce. They were talking about how rich the Zhao family was, and how many skins and bear gallbladders the family collected.
After hearing this, Hu Zhonghou immediately became treacherous. He mixed in with the crowd, chatted with them, and got a general understanding of the Zhao family's situation.
Then, he went into Yong'an Village and made an on-site inspection of the Zhao family.
But when Hu Zhonghou returned home, he found that Chen Jinmin and his wife were arguing.
In this era, when a couple lives together, they don't easily quarrel in front of outsiders. When Hu Zhonghou entered the house, Chen Jinmin's wife was still cursing, saying that Chen Jinmin was a bully and was calling him a tyrant. It was obvious that she was cursing Hu Zhonghou.
Hu Zhong was extremely shameless. He smiled and walked into the room to mediate the fight. Chen Jinmin's wife was helpless against such a shameless man. The fact that she could marry a hooligan meant that her family conditions were not good, and she couldn't even go back to her family's home.
The next morning, Chen Jinmin took Hu Zhonghou out of the house on the pretext of buying wine. But when they were outside, Chen Jinmin took out two yuan from his pocket and asked Hu Zhonghou to use the money to find another place to go.
Hu Zhonghou was happy to receive the money, but after receiving it, he said to Chen Jinmin: "Old Chen, I will help you get rich?"
This sentence made Chen Jinmin confused.
Chen Jinmin didn't dare to think about getting rich, but he dreamed of giving his wife and children a good life.
So even though Hu Zhonghou was unreliable, Chen Jinmin took the bait.
But when Hu Zhonghou told Chen Jinmin about his plan, he shook his head like a rattle.
Chen Jinmin had never been to the Zhao family, but he had heard that the Zhao family was strong and had many dogs. There were more than ten dogs tied up in the yard. If he wanted to steal things from his house, that would be better than dreaming.
But Hu Zhonghou said he had a unique skill, which was that no matter whose house he went to, the dogs would not bark.
Chen Jinmin didn't believe it, so Hu Zhonghou arranged to go to Yong'an Village. There were no dogs or shops in Mangliutun. Chen Jinmin had to go to Yong'an Village to get some wine anyway, so the two of them went to Yong'an together.
When entering the village and heading to Wang Fujia's store, they passed by Lin Xiangshun's house. Strangely, when Chen Jinmin passed by Lin's tent, the white dog in the yard barked. When Hu Zhonghou passed by himself, the white dog in the yard didn't react at all.
The two men then walked to Zhang Yuanmin's house, and so did the two dogs in Zhang Yuanmin's house.
I tried a few more stores and finally arrived at Zhao’s house, and it was the same.
Seeing Hu Zhonghou's ability, Chen Jinmin also had evil thoughts, so he took Hu Zhonghou back home.
Chen Jinmin went home and didn't dare to tell Hu Zhonghou that he and Zhao's family planned to steal. But his wife saw that they didn't send away the plague god, but lost two dollars. This made Chen Jinmin's wife angry, so she took the child and went back to her parents' home.
But her departure actually made things easier for Chen Jinmin and Hu Zhonghou. Chen Jinmin took a shovel and dug out a butter paper package containing a hundred yuan that the couple had saved for ten years.
Then, Chen Jinmin used the 100 yuan to buy two yellow leaves. Hu Zhonghou went to Zhao's house first, and Chen Jinmin went to Zhao's house again. The two of them inquired about the Zhao family's true situation twice.
But when Hu Zhonghou went, Chen Jinmin followed him, because Hu Zhonghou said that he would visit the Zhao family today, and it would be bad if the Zhao family got suspicious because the dog didn't bark.
So, when Hu Zhonghou came yesterday, Chen Jinmin also came. When Chen Jinmin came, the dogs in the yard barked, so Chen Jinmin hid aside and let Hu Zhonghou go into the house to "inspect" by himself.
After Hu Zhonghou entered the house, he observed the furnishings of the Zhao family. Seeing Wang Meilan taking the skins she had received to the west room and taking out the money from the west room, Hu Zhonghou thought that all the money of the Zhao family was in the west room.
Hu Zhonghou didn't dare to break into the house to steal, so he set his sights on Zhao's warehouse.
Today, Chen Jinmin came again for "inspection". When entering and leaving the Zhao family, he carefully observed the Zhao family's warehouse.
Erhei was guarding the warehouse door. Erhei weighed nearly 120 kilograms and stood there, making Chen Jinmin's legs weak.
When Erhei barked at him, Chen Jinmin pretended to be afraid and asked Zhao Youcai if the dog would bite him. At that time, Zhao Youcai's answer was, it's tied with an iron chain, how could it bite you?
After hearing this, Chen Jinmin felt more confident.
They slept until the second half of the night, around two o'clock, when the big rooster from the neighboring house crowed, Hu Zhonghou and Chen Jinmin got up.
The two men tiptoed off the kang with their cotton jackets and trousers, put on their clothes in the outer room, and then went out and headed towards Yong'antun.
After arriving at Yong'an Village, Hu Zhonghou asked Chen Jinmin to wait outside the village for pick-up, and he went into the village alone.
As Hu Zhonghou walked along, the dogs in various households noticed him, but they just looked up and did not bark.
In this way, Hu Zhonghou approached the Zhao family.
At this time, the big lantern hanging on the Zhao family's door had gone out. Hu Zhonghou walked all the way to the gate of the Zhao family's courtyard, and the dogs in the yard poked their heads out of their kennels one after another.
Hu Zhonghou is quite capable. When he opened the tent door, Erhei, Bailong and the three red dogs who were closest to the outside did not bark!
This chapter is to make up for the day before yesterday. I will update it as usual tonight.
(End of this chapter)