Chapter 50 Shadows in the Middle of the Night

Because the door was dilapidated, almost broken in two, Liu Ye could see through the crack that two sneaky figures had suddenly appeared in the originally dark courtyard. Judging from their figures, they were a man and a woman, and each of them was carrying a basket on their back.

She was so angry she gritted her teeth. "You bastards! They've come to pick up some goods! Fine, let's see how I deal with you!"

Widow Zhang and Wang Ergou went straight to the kitchen. After searching around the kitchen and finding no grain, Wang Ergou whispered, "The grain must be inside. Let's go look inside."

Widow Zhang nodded, and she and Wang Ergou quietly crept to the doorway. As soon as Wang Ergou's right foot stepped across the threshold, Liu Ye swiftly and decisively severed his leg with her knife. Blood immediately spurted out, accompanied by a piercing wail.

"Ah!" Wang Ergou cried out in pain and fainted, his body collapsing limply to the ground. Zhang the widow was so terrified that she collapsed to the ground, excrement and urine flowing freely beneath her: "Ah, murder! Help! Murder!"

Widow Zhang cried out and retreated in terror. Liu Ye, carrying a wood-chopping knife, stepped over the threshold and walked towards Widow Zhang step by step: "You still want to leave? You stole my grain during the day, didn't you? Humph! My things aren't so easy to take. You'll leave one leg behind too. I'll give you a choice because you're a woman. Tell me, will you leave your left leg or your right leg?"

When Widow Zhang heard that Liu Ye was going to cut off her legs, she was so frightened that she quickly got up and knelt on the ground, begging for mercy: "Spare me! Sister, spare me! I was forced by Wang Ergou! Please spare me, sister! I'll go back and bring you the grain right away. Please, sister, have mercy! I'm a pitiful person too! My husband died just a year after I married into the family, and my heartless mother-in-law won't let me remarry. My life is so hard! Please let me go!"

Liu Ye snorted coldly and raised her wood-chopping knife high towards Widow Zhang. She didn't intend to let her go just because she was a woman. When a woman is wicked, men have no chance. She didn't believe that Widow Zhang was forced into this situation. Perhaps Widow Zhang was the mastermind. She had to teach her a lesson!

Just then, another person ran in through the front door. Liu Ye recognized him as Bai Zilin. Bai Zilin quickly ran to the door and saw one person kneeling and another lying on the ground, with a broken leg at the doorway. He understood what had happened.

He looked at Liu Ye with concern and asked, "Are you alright?"

Liu Ye put down her wood-chopping knife and said, "I'm fine, they're the ones in trouble. They've come to steal again. They stole our grain. I chopped off that man's leg. Brother Bai, step aside. I need to teach this woman a lesson too!"

Widow Zhang quickly scrambled to her feet and ran towards the gate, shouting as she ran, "Help! Murder! Village Chief Wu, help! The outsider has killed someone!"

Bai Zilin and Liu Ye exchanged a glance. Neither of them was afraid. Before long, Village Chief Wu and the villagers, carrying torches, arrived at Liu Ye's house. Among them were Wang Ergou's parents, brother, and sister-in-law.

When Wang Ergou's parents saw that his leg had been cut off, they rushed to him and wailed, "Oh, my son! My poor son! Who was the heartless person who cut off my son's leg? I curse him to die a horrible death! I'll make him pay with his life!"

Wang Ergou's mother, Granny Wang, was also crying and cursing at the same time. Every word she uttered was about genitals, and she cursed wildly. Wang Ergou's elder brother, Wang Tiezhu, and his sister-in-law, Qian Huahua, stood to the side, their eyes darting around, calculating.

Village Chief Wu glanced at Wang Ergou, who was still unconscious, and roared at the two men with a dark face, "Tell me, why did you cut off Wang Ergou's leg!"

In truth, he knew perfectly well that Er Gouzi was out at someone else's house late at night, probably up to stealing chickens and dogs again. Er Gouzi's mother was his cousin, and Er Gouzi was his nephew, so he had to side with him.

Just as Bai Zilin was about to step forward and say that he had cut off Wang Ergou's leg, Liu Ye grabbed him and pulled him aside: "I did it! Wang Ergou and a widow came to my house to steal things in the middle of the night, and I happened to wake up in the middle of the night and caught them, so I cut off his leg!"

Village Chief Wu snorted coldly and said, "Even if Wang Ergou came to your house to steal things, you didn't need to cut off his legs. How could you be so heartless? You could have just driven them away. You cut off Wang Ergou's legs, and he's become a cripple. How is he supposed to live the rest of his life? Who will take care of his parents? You have to give me an explanation!"

Wang Ergou's father, Wang the Cripple, jumped up from the ground, wiped away his tears, pointed at Liu Ye's nose, and cursed, "You cut off my son's leg, I'll make you pay with your life, you filthy woman, I'll kill you!"

Wang the Cripple reached out to grab Liu Ye's neck, but Bai Zilin pushed him to the ground, causing him to fall awkwardly on his backside. "Ouch! You little bastard, how dare you hit me! Village Chief Wu, these outsiders have gone too far! How dare they hit someone right under your nose! You have to stand up for your brother! Stand up for your nephew!"

Wang the Cripple was helped up from the ground by his eldest son. Village Chief Wu looked at Bai Zilin with a dark face: "Bai Zilin, you are too arrogant. You dare to hit someone in front of me. It seems that you really don't respect me. Since you don't take me, the village chief, seriously, I won't be polite to you. Humph! Tell me, how much silver will you pay in compensation!"

Bai Zilin almost laughed in anger upon hearing this, and Liu Ye was also furious. Village Chief Wu was being too unreasonable. However, she could pretend not to understand: "Village Chief Wu, you're actually a very kind person. Wang Ergou came to our house to steal things and scared me to death. He should compensate me. He and that woman stole all our grain during the day, and then came to our house to steal things again at night. I'm a kind-hearted person, so I cut off one of his legs as a small punishment for him. Out of respect for Village Chief Wu, I won't report him to the authorities or make him compensate me for my mental distress. You can take him away."

Village Chief Wu blinked, looking completely bewildered: "Heh, you're ugly, but you're dreaming. Wang Ergou will compensate you? Keep dreaming! You cut off his leg, what do you expect in return? I'll tell you to compensate Wang Ergou. Since you're trying to evade me, I'll give you a figure."

“Give Wang Ergou 30 taels of silver and we’ll call it even. Otherwise, even if I don’t kick you out of Erdaogou Village, you won’t be able to stay here. Half the village is surnamed Wang. You can think about it yourselves!”

Wang Ergou's sister-in-law, Qian Huahua, also stood up with her hands on her hips and said, "That's right, you have to compensate us. Ergou will be a cripple from now on, and our parents will have to rely on us to support them. You have to compensate us, or we'll never let you off the hook!"

Wang Ergou's elder brother, Wang Tiezhu, spat on the ground and said fiercely, "If you don't compensate us with 30 taels of silver, you might not live long either!"

The villagers, not wanting to miss out on trouble, chimed in, saying that 30 taels of silver was too little compensation and that it should be 50, 80, or even 100 taels.