Aunt Guimei insisted that Li Xiangdong and his younger sister Li Yan stay overnight at her house.

“It’s already nine o’clock, it’s completely dark, and you still have more than ten miles to walk home. If it were just you, a grown man, I wouldn’t worry about it. Look, Yan Yan is fast asleep, why are you disturbing her!”

My younger sister, Li Yan, was fast asleep on the kang (a heated brick bed), her face flushed, covered with a thin blue and white striped blanket.

“Auntie, if it were just me, and I didn’t sleep at home for ten days or half a month, I don’t think my mother would care. But if my little sister doesn’t come home, my mother will be worried sick.”

Li Xiangdong insisted on leaving, so Huang Guimei wrapped her younger sister in a thin blanket and carefully placed her on the mattress in the stroller. She earnestly instructed, "Be careful on your way back. The dirt road is full of potholes, so don't wake Yan Yan up. If Yan Yan does wake up on the way, remember to cover her eyes with the blanket. It's late at night, and children's eyes are very sensitive; don't let her attract anything unclean..."

After giving a long and detailed explanation, Li Xiangdong agreed to everything and then said goodbye to Director Yan.

Factory Director Yan waved his hand, "Be careful on your way home, and come back early the day after tomorrow. Remember to bring your little sister!"

Even in the county town, there are hardly any streetlights now, so Li Xiangdong walked home under the bright starlight.

One thought was to pay back the money to her third sister, but then she wondered what kind of people Uncle Yan would introduce to her, and how much her precious Ganoderma lucidum and Polygonum multiflorum could sell for. She also pondered that if she just kept digging for wild Chinese medicinal herbs, there would eventually be a day when they were all gone, and in a few years, the production would be contracted out to individual households. Could she develop the Chinese herbal medicine planting industry?

As they walked and pondered, they unknowingly left the county town.

There is a dirt road in Huichuan County that leads directly to Lijiapo Village. Six miles outside the county town is the county brick kiln, which is where Li Guoling and his fourth sister Li Zhen work.

Because firing bricks requires a lot of soil, there are two very deep pits next to the brick kiln, filled with water.

Four miles north of the brick kiln is Lijiapo, and west of Lijiapo is Panjiazhuang Village.

When Li Xiangdong passed by the brick kiln, he saw some lights and fires and heard workers talking. It was the brick kiln on night shift.

After passing the brick kiln, it turned pitch black again, and the starlight shone on the surface of the pit, making the water appear even deeper.

Li Xiangdong was preoccupied with his own thoughts and didn't notice two shadowy figures quietly flanking him from behind.

With a whoosh, the sound of a heavy object cutting through the air rang out. Li Xiangdong felt a chill run down his back and his scalp tingle. Before he could think, he quickly ducked to avoid the sneak attack from behind.

"Damn it!" the attacker cursed under his breath, then swung the stick in his hand and struck Li Xiangdong from in front of him, aiming straight for his face.

In a flash, Li Xiangdong remembered that it was Pan Jiwen's voice, the same voice that had been encouraging everyone to oppose him when he was buying meat that afternoon.

Well, Ban Ki-moon is here to ambush me. I wonder if he's just seeking revenge for the beating I received before, or if he saw me buying meat and is trying to rob me, or maybe both.

Li Xiangdong reached into his right waistband and pulled out an axe. The snow-white blade gleamed coldly in the starlight. He neither dodged nor avoided, but swung the axe directly at Pan Jiwen's stick.

With a "crack," the stick was chopped in half by the axe, and the blade grazed past Pan Jiwen's face, causing him to stumble backward in fright.

Before Li Xiangdong could put the axe away, he felt a sharp pain in his back. Damn it, there's another one.

Li Xiangdong turned around and kicked the man in the chest, knocking him to the ground.

Without bothering to kick him a couple more times, Li Xiangdong walked over to Pan Jiwen again.

Pan Jiwen was so scared that he wet himself.

Why does this madman carry an axe with him all the time?

He had accidentally stumbled upon Li Xiangdong buying a lot of meat and candy, so he and his follower Pan Ga Zi had been tailing him, hoping to get something for nothing.

Li Xiangdong ate and chatted at Director Yan's house until nine o'clock. He and Ga Zi waited outside and almost got bitten to death by mosquitoes.

After finally tracking them to this deserted place, the two discussed it and decided that each of them would take a stick as thick as a child's arm and ambush them from behind. They would knock Li Xiangdong unconscious first, so that they could beat him up to vent their anger and also steal the fatty meat and candy he had bought, without anyone knowing that they were the ones who did it.

The original plan was perfect, but who could have imagined that Li Xiangdong could tuck a sharp axe into his waistband!

It seems fate is against me!

Li Xiangdong never expected that the axe that Uncle Yan insisted on giving him would actually come in handy!

When he left, Aunt Guimei was busy taking care of her younger sister, and Uncle Yan silently handed him the axe he had used to chop wood that afternoon, saying, "Take this and keep it on your person. You have so much money on you, it's better to be prepared."

Li Xiangdong thought to himself that no one else knew he was rich except for Uncle Yan and Brother Wang. Besides, the county was cracking down on crime at this time, and even hooligans who harassed young girls were less common. So why would anyone rob him on the road?

I thought that to myself, but I couldn't refuse out loud. Uncle Yan said it was better to be prepared.

Li Xiangdong took the axe and tucked it into his waistband.

I really didn't expect that, haha!

"Where did this robber come from, daring to rob us on the road!" Li Xiangdong didn't expose Pan Jiwen, but quickly stepped forward, caught up with Pan Jiwen who was about to run away, and kicked him in the butt. Pan Jiwen fell to the ground and made a face full of shit.

"I'll beat you to death and then send you to the police station."

Li Xiangdong tucked the axe back into his waistband and rained punches down on Pan Jiwen.

"I was wrong, I was wrong, it was me!" Pan Jiwen cried and begged for mercy.

Pan Ga Zi, who had just recovered, rubbed his heart, which was still aching from being kicked. He looked at Li Xiangdong, who was sitting on Pan Jiwen and hitting him hard, and silently lay back down on the ground, pretending to be unconscious.

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