Seeing these people cowering like quails, Uncle Zhao really wanted to give them a good whack with his cane.
He coughed and raised his voice, saying, "Greetings, Princess! Greetings, Lord! Greetings, Madam! Greetings, Village Chief Wu!"
The villagers of Dahuaishu, Dawangzhuang, and Xiaowangzhuang finally realized what was happening and bowed, but still dared not utter a sound.
After all, they were the village heads of the three villages. They couldn't stand the cowardly behavior of their own villagers, and they also believed that they had a good relationship with Village Chief Wu and some influence in the Li family. So they stepped forward, bowed, and said in unison, "Greetings, Princess, Lord, Madam, and Brother Wu."
Jiayin and Old Lady Li simply nodded, but Li Lao Er replied coldly, "The three village heads are here too. Very well, today is the first general meeting of the four villages of Suijintan. With you here, things will be easier to handle."
The three village heads felt uneasy as they listened, glancing again at Zhang Jin hanging upside down.
The village head of Xiaowangzhuang tentatively asked, "Sir, has this good-for-nothing done something to anger you?"
Li Lao Er shook his head and said, "I usually have to attend court and am mostly in the city. The village chief handles the village's affairs. Why don't you ask Uncle Village Chief to tell us?"
The three village heads looked at the village chief again, smiling ingratiatingly.
The village chief snorted and cursed, "Of course this scoundrel made a mistake. Otherwise, why would everyone be here in the wind for him when we're all so busy?"
“Although we belong to four different villages, as you know, the area within a radius of twenty li of Broken Gold Beach is the fiefdom of the Princess. Whether it’s our new village or your three villages, we are all under the jurisdiction of the Princess’s mansion, we are all one family, right?”
“Yes, yes, brother is right. From now on, we’ll all be one family, all subjects of the princess. We were all happy when we talked about this yesterday,” the village head of Xiaowangzhuang quickly chimed in.
The village head of Dawangzhuang also chimed in, "Yes, putting everything else aside, life in Xincun is getting better and better, all thanks to the princess. Everyone is hoping to live as prosperously as Xincun."
Only the village head of Dahuaishu Village was the most astute. He stepped forward and guessed, "Brother, this good-for-nothing has made a mistake... could it be that he has ruined the friendship between our villages?"
Sure enough, the village chief nodded and said, "That damned guy colluded with the casino in the city before the New Year to lure Wei Dajun from our village to gamble. When Wei Dajun was heavily in debt and couldn't pay it back, he forced Wei Dajun to come back to the village and recruit people to gamble together to pay off the debt."
"What is this? This is blatantly undermining the foundation of our new village! They're trying to turn it into a gambling den and ruin the good life we've worked so hard to build!"
The three village heads gasped in shock. They had thought Zhang Jin was just a petty thief caught red-handed, but it turned out to be a setup to lure people into gambling!
That's absolutely despicable!
Everyone knows that nine out of ten gamblers lose!
Gamblers who have lost everything are often selling their houses and land, betting their wives and children.
It can be said that once you become addicted to gambling, the result is always the destruction of your family and the loss of your life; there are no exceptions.
No wonder the Broken Gold Beach held such a grand meeting, with such solemnity...
"Pah!" The village head of Big Locust Tree Village spat fiercely at Zhang Jin and cursed, "Why wasn't this bastard beaten to death on the spot?!"
The village head of Dawangzhuang also cursed, "Even a rabbit doesn't eat the grass near its burrow, yet he's ruthlessly ripping off his own family members. He's utterly despicable and heartless!"
The village head of Xiaowangzhuang was as black as the bottom of a pot, because Zhang Jin was one of their villagers.
Normally, everyone knew that Zhang Jin was not a decent person and occasionally did bad things, but no one expected him to be so audacious.
They saw that the people in the new village were getting rich and living a good life, so they came here to try and take advantage of it!
Zhang Jin was hanging upside down, his head was congested with blood, and his face was as red as a pig's liver. Seeing that everyone was looking at him with contempt and disgust, he began to cry out that he was wronged.
"I didn't do it on purpose, I didn't have any bad intentions! I just wanted to befriend Brother Dajun and get rich with him!"
"Pah! What a load of bull!" Wei Dajun's wife jumped up and down and cursed. "If you can make a fortune, why are you still wearing cloth shoes in the dead of winter? You lost everything yourself, and now that you see that my Dajun is honest, you want to drag him down with you!"
"You squeezed all of Dajun's money dry, and then forced him to gamble with the villagers. You're very skilled at this; you've cheated countless people before!"
Zhang Jin struggled desperately, protesting, "No, no, it really was my first time. I know I was wrong, and I'll never do it again!"
"I was just blinded by greed. The casino manager said he'd forgive my gambling debts if I brought someone over, so I did it! I'll never do it again!"
"He's lying!" A young woman couldn't stand it anymore and shouted, "We live next door to Zhang Jin, and he used to take my husband to gamble."
“My husband gambled away all the family money and even tried to take my dowry. I got my brother from my maternal family to give him a good beating, and only then did he stop gambling!”
The young wife's husband, his secret exposed, blushed and tried to tug at her sleeve to stop her from continuing.
Unexpectedly, the young wife was quite formidable. She flung the man away and angrily said, "Why are you stopping me? This kind of thing should be said out loud. Otherwise, if everyone doesn't know Zhang Jin's true colors and we're not on guard, he might actually drag our husbands to the casino. How will we live our lives then!"
“Yes, sister is right!” the woman next to her echoed. “In my village, there are families where people sell their wives and children into slavery because of gambling. A perfectly good family falls apart in less than three months. It’s outrageous!”
"Kill this despicable bastard! He drags people to gamble, ruining their lives!"
"Yes, yes, kill him, kill him!"
"Let him be so immoral! Let him harm everyone!"
Women are more family-oriented than men; the thought of them and their children being sold by gambling men terrifies them.
All the fear turned into anger, which was then unleashed upon Zhang Jin.
He was hung upside down under the archway, like a target, with no way to escape.
In an instant, the women rushed forward and surrounded him. One pulled his hair, another tore at his clothes, and yet another pulled off his shoes!
By the time the village chief yelled at everyone to step back, Zhang Jin was already looking more pathetic than a beggar on the street.
Both feet were bare, and the clothes on his body were torn into strips, with only his dark underpants remaining intact.
The few strands of hair that had survived in Wei Dajun's wife's hands were gone forever, leaving behind a bald, bloody head...
The women felt relieved, but the men instinctively shrank back.
You must never anger women again, or the consequences will be dire!
Only then did the village chief call for someone to bring a long bench and invite the three village heads to sit down.
The village head of Xiaowangzhuang was ashamed and bowed to apologize, "Brother, it's all my fault for being negligent. I've let such a bad apple spoil the whole bunch. I'm too ashamed to sit down!"
The village chief personally got up and helped him sit down, then said, "Even when you're eating sunflower seeds, you can't avoid getting a stink bug. In a village this big, it's normal to have a few black-hearted people. You have to make a living too; you can't have an extra pair of eyes to keep an eye on his house every day, can you?"
"Don't think too much about it. Now that something has happened, we'll figure out a way to solve it and make sure it doesn't happen again."
The village head of Xiaowangzhuang only dared to sit on a small stool, his eyes secretly glancing at the Li family of three...
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