Chapter 22 Blackmail
"My son is back, and he brought a big wild boar with him!" Mrs. Jin said proudly to Mrs. Cai.
Mrs. Cai curled her lips when she heard this and said sourly, "It's only been a short time since they came up the mountain. How could they have killed a big wild boar? What has your son got to do with this wild boar? Maybe it was killed by the Gu family..."
When Mrs. Jin heard this, her heart skipped a beat. It was obvious that she had also realized this possibility.
But her son, Zhang the Hunter, had already said loudly: "The Gu family killed this wild boar. Mingda said that we should share the wild boar equally with those of us who came up the mountain to look for people!"
As soon as these words were spoken, they immediately caused an uproar among the villagers.
Just by going up the mountain to find someone, you can share a wild boar that weighs at least 200 kilograms. Who wouldn't want such a good thing?
The villagers whose family members went up the mountain were overjoyed, but the villagers who had not gone up the mountain to help search for relatives were beating their chests and stamping their feet in regret.
Some people even looked at Mrs. Cai with unfriendly eyes.
"It was you who said Niu Niu was a jinx and stopped us from entering the mountain. We were also going up the mountain to help find people!" The villagers lost a good opportunity to divide the pork, so they naturally would not blame themselves, but would vent all their dissatisfaction on others.
Zhang Guangzong and his family, who had previously been jumping up and down to stop the villagers from going up the mountain, naturally became the target of public criticism at this time.
After scolding Mrs. Cai, they still felt it was not enough, and they chased after Zhang Guangzong and scolded him: "You are a scholar, but you stopped the child you raised for five years from rescuing him after he got lost in the mountains. You are such a black-hearted person!"
"You are such a rotten-hearted person, you deserve not to pass the exam to become a scholar!"
Zhang Guangzong, who always considered himself a scholar, naturally couldn't stand hearing these words that could be regarded as curses.
When my mother had a fight with someone before, Zhang Guangzong, who boasted of his status as a scholar, did not step forward to help. Now that he was involved in the matter, he could not stand it anymore and did not care about being polite. He cursed directly: "It is obviously you who are afraid of death, and now you blame me!"
Zhang Guangzong liked to act like a scholar, which not only meant that he didn't like dealing with villagers, but also meant that he had no experience in quarreling.
The old ladies in the village are different. Quarreling and fighting are an important part of their lives. For them, dealing with a scholar who looks innocent is a piece of cake.
"If you hadn't stopped us, we would have gone into the mountains long ago. You bad guys, you even harmed our relatives!"
"The Gu family is so unlucky that they got married into your family!"
"Yunniang is really a good bamboo shoot out of a bad bamboo. She is completely different from you and your black-hearted mother!"
"Although your last name is Zhang, it's not certain whether you are a member of the Zhang family. I've seen Mrs. Cai hooking up with strange men before!"
"Yes, yes, everyone in the village knows about the scandal between Mrs. Cai and the bald guy from the next village!"
When these old ladies in the village quarrel, they have no control over their mouths and say anything without restraint. They even brought up all the bad things that happened to Mrs. Cai in the past.
Zhang Guangzong had never faced such a scene before, and he was so angry that his face turned red and his neck became thick. After all, he was a scholar, and he had the dream of becoming a superior person after passing the imperial examination. How could he tolerate such filth?
But people who are not good at arguing, after all, can only say things like "Why are you talking nonsense?" and "How can you casually accuse someone of innocence?"
These pale rebuttals seemed so powerless in the face of the erotic scenes made up by the village women.
As a well-known gossiper in the village, Mrs. Chen was not afraid to gossip in public. She described the incidents between Mrs. Cai and the bald man in vivid detail: "I saw it with my own eyes. In the woods outside the village, Mrs. Cai and the bald man were rolling on the ground, both of them were bare-headed..."
When Zhang Guangzong heard this, he felt his head buzzing. He could no longer bear it and even forgot the difference between men and women. He pounced on the old woman Chen and said, "Nonsense! I'll tear your mouth off! My mother is loyal to my father. It's not like what you said!"
Although Zhang Guangzong was a man, he never did farm work.
Mrs. Chen was an elderly woman, but she worked in the fields almost every day. When the fight really broke out, Mrs. Chen didn't need anyone's help and could hold down Zhang Guangzong's hammer by herself.
While she was hammering people, she was still using her expertise, yelling to everyone, "You all saw it, Zhang Tongsheng flirted with me! He is a scholar, but he actually had evil intentions towards me. He saw that I was pretty, and he acted like a beast towards me in public!"
Zhang Guangzong was almost mad after hearing such nonsense.
He was only thirty years old, while Mrs. Chen was already over fifty. Because of years of working in the fields, Mrs. Chen's face was full of wrinkles and her hair was mostly gray. She looked older than his own mother, Mrs. Cai.
Zhang Guangzong felt that even if he was so hungry that he had no choice but to eat, he would never fall in love with such an old country woman!
The reason why Mrs. Chen dares to be so shameless and doesn't care about her reputation at all is very simple, because her whole family is like this.
There is no educated person in her family, and compared with a good reputation, her family cares more about the benefits they can get.
Mrs. Chen’s husband’s surname is Liu, which is also the largest surname in Qingshui Village.
Chen Pozi's family was a well-known rogue family in the village. After seeing Chen Pozi and Zhang Guangzong fighting, they rushed up to help immediately. The two tall and strong men directly lifted Zhang Guangzong up.
Of course, during this process, the Liu family members often made physical advances towards Zhang Guangzong, kicking or pinching him on purpose, leaving Zhang Guangzong speechless.
"You are so bold, you actually dared to flirt with my mother in broad daylight! If you, the Zhang family, don't give us an explanation for what happened today, I will go to the county and make a scene in front of your classmates, and explain to them what a piece of shit you are!" said the Liu family angrily.
When Zhang Guangzong heard this, he immediately struggled violently, but the two strong men from the Liu family were no pushovers. They held him down so tightly that he could not move at all.
"With so many eyes watching us, how dare you talk nonsense! Clan leader, the Liu family is bullying me, you have to stand up for me!" Zhang Guangzong shouted to the head of the Zhang family.
Patriarch Zhang was extremely annoyed at this moment.
Previously, when Mrs. Cai was fighting, Patriarch Zhang tried to stop them and was scratched by the old woman. His face is still burning with pain. Mrs. Cai is still being held down, and Zhang Guangzong has started fighting with someone again. His attempts to stop the fight are just like trying to get in a fight. All his efforts are in vain.
But no matter how upset he was, for the sake of Zhang Guangzong, the only educated person in the clan, Clan Leader Zhang gritted his teeth and looked at Clan Leader Liu standing beside him.
Clan leader Liu was also troubled when he saw Mrs. Chen's family. They were a notoriously rogue family among their Liu clan, and none of the family members dared to provoke them.
Clan leader Liu certainly knew that today's incident was caused by Mrs. Chen's family trying to scam him, but if he dared to go against this family, he, as the clan leader, would definitely be troubled by them in the future.
After rolling his eyes, Chief Liu immediately pretended to have a headache, covered his head and said, "I'm old and confused. I don't know what just happened. I'm very dizzy. Help me go back and rest."
Patriarch Zhang was so angry that he wanted to organize all the Zhangs in the village to unite and fight against Mrs. Chen's family.
Unfortunately, Zhang Guangzong did not have a good reputation in his family. He was usually arrogant and looked down on others. The Zhang family did not like him very much, so even if the clan leader called for help, it was of no use.
Before Zhang clan leader could come up with a solution, the Liu family had already started to make demands: "Zhang Guangzong flirted with my mother today. If he doesn't pay us thirty taels of silver, we will never let him go!"
(End of this chapter)
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