Chapter 36 I Slept with Her

Xia Qianqian looked at Liu Xiao'e and retorted sarcastically, "Oh? What if they find grain in your house?"

Seeing her calm and composed demeanor, Liu Xiao'e felt a sudden chill run down her spine. She straightened her neck and said, "If you find any grain in my house, then I, Liu Xiao'e, am at your mercy, without a word!"

"Okay, you said it yourself!"

Xia Qianqian turned to the other villagers and raised her voice, "Fellow villagers, did you all hear that clearly? You'll have to be my witnesses later!"

After saying that, she took a step back, signaling to the production team leader that they could lead their men in to search.

Seeing Xia Qianqian's determination, the production team leader also felt a little hesitant.

But the die was cast, and he had no choice but to go. He said to the villagers, "Alright, everyone, go in and take a look!"

The villagers immediately dispersed and began searching the Lu family's courtyard thoroughly, leaving no corner untouched.

About ten minutes later, everyone returned to the center of the courtyard and shook their heads at the production team leader.

"Captain, we haven't found any food. We've searched the house inside and out, even turned over the woodpile, but there's nothing!"

"How could there not be?!" Liu Xiao'e shrieked, her eyes wide. "The footprints clearly ended at this intersection, who else could it be but her?!"

Suddenly, as if she had just realized something, she pointed at Xia Qianqian and said, "I know! Did you move the grain ahead of time?!"

From the time Lao Wu went to hide the grain in the Lu family's courtyard to when he rushed back to "discover" the theft and call the villagers, there was a gap of more than ten minutes. If Xia Qianqian had discovered the grain earlier, she would have had plenty of time to move it out.

Liu Xiao'e was speechless for a moment after being cornered by Lu Zheng, but she refused to give up. She took a step forward, her finger almost poking Xia Qianqian's face, and demanded in a shrill voice, "Tell me! What exactly were you doing an hour ago?! Don't try to fool me!"

The villagers' eyes all fell on Xia Qianqian again. When Lu Zheng saw this, he simply pulled Xia Qianqian closer to his chest, rested his chin on the top of her head, and said, "We were in bed just now."

The crude remark made several young women blush. Meanwhile, a few bachelors immediately whistled and let out a burst of ambiguous laughter.

"Wow! Lu Zheng's words are so true!"

"That's right, young people have a lot of energy, it's normal for them to stay in bed!"

Mother Lu's anxiety subsided, and she glared at Liu Xiao'e: "Did you hear that? My Qianqian was in the house all night! But you, you keep saying 'she stole it,' and now that they can't find anything, you're starting to make trouble. What are you up to?!"

Xia Qianqian looked at Lu Zheng, not expecting this big, silly guy to lie. She should give him a chicken leg later.

With her alibi, Xia Qianqian looked at Liu Xiao'e with a half-smile: "I've finished searching my house, shouldn't we go to yours now? You were dawdling for so long just now, did you take the opportunity to have someone move the grain away?"

"Bullshit!" Liu Xiao'e shouted, jumping up and down. "I, Liu Xiao'e, am an upright and honest person. How could I be a grain thief? Lao Wu is definitely not mistaken. It is you who stole the grain!"

"Say it again?"

Lu Zheng's eyes turned cold. He grabbed Liu Xiao'e by the collar like a chick and lifted her off the ground.

Liu Xiao'e's face was a deep purplish-red from the tightness of her clothes. She coughed and struggled to say, "Let...let me go...cough cough...I was wrong...I was wrong, okay...?"

Lu Zheng then let go, and Liu Xiao'e fell to the ground, clutching her neck and coughing violently, no longer daring to utter a single defiant word.

Seeing this, the production team leader dared not delay any longer and said to everyone, "Since nothing was found at the Lu family's house, let's go check Liu Xiao'e's house!"

A group of people carrying lanterns and torches marched in a grand procession to Liu Xiao'e's house.

Seeing that everyone was about to enter, Huang Zhaodi hurriedly stopped them: "You can't go in! My house isn't a den of thieves! What right do you have to search our house?!"

But before she could finish speaking, a sharp-eyed villager in the crowd pointed to several bulging sacks at the base of the courtyard wall and shouted, "Captain! Look! Aren't those the grains we lost piled up in that corner?"

His shout was like a thunderclap from a clear sky, and the villagers all raised their torches and looked in the direction he was pointing.

In the flickering firelight, the outlines of several burlap sacks were clearly visible. Immediately, some impatient men ran over and hurriedly carried the two sacks of grain back.

"Captain! There's no mistake! This is the summer rice we lost! Look at these rice husks, it's freshly harvested rice from just a few days ago, it feels damp to the touch, the husks still have a damp smell!"

The production team leader's face darkened completely. He never expected that this woman would dare to cry wolf. He had almost been deceived by them and wrongly accused Xia Qianqian!

When Liu Xiao'e saw those bags of grain, she looked as if she had seen a ghost.

She stared intently at the fifth brother in the crowd, her eyes almost popping out of their sockets.

How could this happen? That damned Fifth Brother actually dared to trick me!

"Liu Xiao'e! What else do you have to say?" The production team leader pointed at the bags of grain and demanded an answer in a stern voice.

In front of so many villagers, Liu Xiao'e refused to admit it. She slapped her thigh and shouted in a shrill voice, "How should I know! You are clearly framing an innocent person! Lao Wu saw it clearly. The one who stole the grain was a woman with curly hair. Who else could it be but Xia Qianqian? She must have deliberately moved this grain into my yard to frame me!"

Xia Qianqian stood to the side, her eyes darting around, a cold smile playing on her lips: That's true. She did indeed have Lu Zheng move the grain to Liu Xiao'e's courtyard, but it was her own fault; after all, she had started with malicious intent.

Seeing that Liu Xiao'e was still being stubborn, Xia Qianqian said to the production team leader, "I heard you saw footprints on the road just now?"

The production team leader nodded.

"Don't you know those footprints were made by high heels?" Xia Qianqian said, lifting her foot.

Only then did everyone notice that she was wearing a pair of small, delicate high heels, while the footprints on the road were clearly left by coarse cloth shoes!

Xia Qianqian said, "I was wearing high heels the whole time. If those footprints weren't from high heels, why don't you take Liu Xiao'e's or Huang Zhaodi's shoes and compare them with those footprints?"

Upon hearing this, Liu Xiao'e was about to throw a tantrum, but several of her sisters-in-law, who had long disliked her, held her down firmly. Someone swiftly and decisively pulled her cloth shoes off her feet and compared them with the footprints at the intersection.

"It matches! It matches!"

Soon, the person who went to compare them ran back and shouted, "The pattern on the sole of these shoes matches the footprint exactly; they are Liu Xiao'e's shoes!"

The production team leader was furious that it was really Liu Xiao'e who did it, and he slapped her hard across the face.