Jiayin nestled in her older brother's arms, gave a small yawn, squinted her eyes, and listened to her mother and aunt talking before slowly falling asleep.
Jiaren wanted to take his sister inside, but he was reluctant to leave the lively and warm atmosphere. So, he took off his coat to shield his sister from the slightly chilly evening breeze.
When Li Ge'er and Mao Ge'er saw this, they also came over and surrounded their little sister...
As night deepened, the family members dispersed and went to rest.
Jiaren, Lige'er, and Maoge'er all went to live with their third and fourth uncles in the west room of the main house, sleeping on a kang (a heated brick bed).
So Tao Hongying took Jiayin and Zhao Yuru to sleep together in the east room.
Jiayin woke up in the middle of the night because of the heat, only to find that the little fox had snuggled into her arms. Just as she was about to push the little fox out, the door to the west room rang.
Jiayin looked out through the half-open window and saw that it was Cat Brother going to relieve himself.
He had already eaten almost half of the jade melon, and his bladder was probably about to burst.
The sky was overcast tonight, and the moon had disappeared; the courtyard was pitch black.
Cat was too scared to go to the outhouse, so he ran to the wall and peed. He probably wanted to have a bowel movement, but he couldn't hold it in, so he pulled up his pants and walked back.
Just as Jiayin was about to imitate a bird's call to scare her brother, she heard footsteps outside the yard, but they stopped when they reached the outside of her own yard wall.
Jiayin found it strange, and Maoge'er obviously felt something was wrong as well. He stood in the yard, feeling that it was not good to go back into the house, but he didn't dare to go to the door to check.
Just as they were hesitating, something was suddenly thrown in from outside the courtyard. It scattered in mid-air like a shower of flowers, landing all over Cat Boy.
He instinctively grabbed a piece of rope or something similar from his head; it was sticky and had a pungent, bloody smell.
"Ah! Fourth Uncle, help me!"
In the quiet courtyard, Cat suddenly let out a shrill cry, startling everyone into opening their eyes.
Jiayin pushed open the window, ready to jump out, but the little fox was faster, darting out and disappearing in a few swift movements.
Li Laosi kicked down the door and was the first to rush out. He picked up his crying nephew and threw him into the house. Li Laosan followed and took the nephew from him.
Then look, Li Laosi has already climbed over the courtyard wall!
It wasn't that he didn't want to use the courtyard gate, but it was locked and opening it would take too much time.
At this moment, Tao Hongying, Zhao Yuru, Jiaren, and Lige'er were all awakened.
Li Laosan handed Maoge'er over to Zhao Yuru, then went to find a lantern. After lighting it, he carefully examined the scattered items in the yard, his face turning ashen with anger.
The entire yard was filled with the cruelly dismembered pieces of cats and dogs.
It has a head, claws, a heart, liver, and intestines...
Tao Hongying and Zhao Yuru were also furious and quickly took Cat Brother to take a bath and change his clothes.
Jiaren and Lige covered Jiayin's eyes and carried her back to the house.
Jiayin wasn't actually scared, but the smell of blood made her feel nauseous.
She secretly took a few small ice cubes from her spatial storage, popped one into her mouth, and her churning stomach calmed down a bit.
She then gave the remaining two pieces to her brothers.
Jiaren and Lige didn't ask where the ice came from. They crunched it up and felt the coolness from their throats to their stomachs. Their wildly beating hearts felt much better.
Li Ge'er held his younger sister and sat by the window, whispering to his older brother, "Big brother, who do you think came to cause trouble?"
A fierce glint flashed in Jiaren's eyes as he said, "It must be those food stall owners on the street. These days, many people have heard them complaining about the lack of business."
Li Ge'er was surprised and annoyed, "Third Uncle asked them before and invited them to open a stall in the canteen together, but they didn't go. Why are they jealous of our family's good business now?!"
Jiaren shook his head. "No one wants to admit they're wrong or take responsibility for the consequences. They just want to vent their anger on others."
After saying that, fearing that his younger siblings would worry, he added, "Maybe I'm wrong. Let's wait and see if Fourth Uncle can bring the person back."
"They definitely can!" Jiayin added. "San Tiao has gone after them and will definitely help Father catch them."
Jiaren ruffled his sister's hair and said nothing more.
He had previously advised his third uncle not to be too polite to these fellow food vendors.
The vegetables from their own fields were fresh and of good quality, so they insisted on buying them at a low price, and Uncle San agreed.
But in reality, there's almost no profit to be made at home; it's like we're growing vegetables for them for free.
My third uncle said that they are all in the same industry, and the canteen does indeed account for most of their business. These people have it tough.
In retrospect, these people clearly don't deserve any sympathy; they've taken advantage of us and think the Li family is easy to bully...
Soon, Cat was cleaned up and brought to the east room.
When Tao Hongying and Zhao Yuru arrived at the courtyard, they wanted to clean up, but Li Laosan stopped them, saying, "Wait a minute, let's see what Lao Si has to say when he comes back."
Before the words had even finished, there was a commotion in the alley outside. Just as Li Laosan was about to open the door, Li Laosi grabbed a person and jumped into the yard.
Li Laosan quickly stepped forward and asked, "Lao Si, are you injured?"
"No, Third Brother, this guy isn't very capable, he's just very familiar with this area and hid well. Luckily, Third Brother went with him and used his scent to pull him out of the woodpile."
At this moment, the three dogs had already jumped onto the windowsill, chirping and begging for a reward from their little master.
Jiayin quietly took a handful of dried meat and threw it to the dog to chew on, then lay on the windowsill and looked out into the yard.
The man was knocked unconscious and tied up tightly. Li Laosan filled a bucket with water and poured it over him, which woke him up.
When Li Laosan shone his lantern on the ground, he was so angry that he kicked it hard!
"Huang San'er? It's you! You heartless beast! You take the most vegetables from my garden! I always sell them to you at half price, just because you said your mother is sick and needs money to buy medicine!"
"Not only are you ungrateful, but you also come here to cause trouble, throwing dead cats and rotten dogs into my house! Where is your conscience? Has it been eaten by dogs?!"
The man was writhing on the ground in pain, unable to escape, and could only cry out and beg for mercy.
"Brother Li, it's a misunderstanding, it's all a misunderstanding! It wasn't me, I was just sleeping in the woodpile! I don't know what happened, I was just knocked unconscious!"
Li Laosan wasn't particularly shrewd, but compared to an outsider, he naturally trusted his younger brother's abilities more; his brother couldn't possibly have made a mistake.
Besides, who would choose to sleep in a woodpile in the middle of the night instead of going home?
"Keep making things up, keep making things up!" Li Laosan kicked him several more times, panting heavily. "I'll send you to see the authorities at dawn! Where did you find these dead cats and rotten dogs? Where did you cut them up? A simple investigation will find out. Let's see how you try to deny it then!"
Huang San'er was kicked in the stomach, and he hunched over like a shrimp in pain.
Perhaps feeling he couldn't escape, he shouted again, "Brother Li, I was wrong! I just misunderstood! I just... yes, yes, I was instigated by others!"
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