Dong Bao's wife didn't move. She stood beside Dong Bao and asked, "What do you want me to do?"
"When I came in just now, I saw you steaming buns. The clay pot you used to hold the noodles is from my home. This is an ironclad fact. Do you admit it?"
"Admit it, shit."
Dong Bao's wife shouted, "The clay pot in your house is as big as a pig-feeding basin, and the clay pot in my house is much smaller than yours."
Qin Nian immediately asked: "How do you know my clay pot is bigger? Where did you hide my clay pot?"
"I, I I——"
Dong Bao's wife then realized that she had been set up by Qin Nian and had let the cat out of the bag. She simply stiffened her neck and said:
"Last year, I went to your house for a stroll and happened to see Mrs. Li kneading dough in a huge clay pot."
Mrs. Li was so angry that she laughed: "There has been a severe drought in the past few years. Last year, my family had no corn porridge for twelve months. How can we still buy white flour?
Besides, in the entire Dawa Village, the family I despise the most is your Dong family. I have never had any dealings with you. When have you ever been to my house?
Don’t talk nonsense about your mother. You are not as smart as my Xiao Nian. She tricked you into telling the truth.
Hehehe——"
Mrs. Li could no longer hold her temper and she burst into laughter.
Although Dong Bao's wife let the cat out of the bag, she insisted that she had been to Qin Nian's house while strolling.
Either last year, the year before, or before the New Year, I saw Mrs. Li mixing the dough basin. In a word, she just refused to admit it.
The Dong family members said in unison that it was not stolen.
The head of the village and several villagers knew clearly that they were the ones who stole the things, but they could do nothing about it.
Geng Zhenhai, Geng Feng and Geng Tian were all furious and were ready to fight to the death.
Qin Nian hurriedly stopped them. Even if the things could not be found, it was not worth it to risk their lives.
She looked at Dong Hu:
"You are the ones who stole the things. Are you going to deny it? If you really didn't steal them, let us check again."
Dong Hu sneered: "Qin Nian, don't be so arrogant. In front of the head of the village, I promise to let you turn it over.
If the things are found, I will admit defeat. If they are not found, what shall I do? "
Qin Nian also sneered: "You admit defeat? Tell me how you admit defeat first? We won't accept an apology."
"If I find your stuff in my house, I will return it to you and compensate you with two taels of silver. If you don't want the stuff, you can convert it into silver.
The village head and these villagers should be witnesses. What if it can’t be translated?”
Qin Nian said, "If you can't find it, I'll pay you twice the amount of what we lost."
Dong Hu was happy: "Okay, you can turn it over now, hurry up, we still have to cook and eat after you turn it over."
The village head thought that Dong Hu was so confident that he must have hidden the stolen things, probably somewhere outside.
As for the dough for steamed buns, if it had been delivered a step later, it would have become cooked buns, and there would be no way to prove that it was stolen.
Even if the steamed buns are not ripe yet, there is no way to prove that they were stolen.
He was afraid that Qin Nian would be fooled, so he hurriedly advised: "Xiao Nian, searching is not a good idea."
Geng Zhenhai was also afraid that Qin Nian would be fooled, "Let's think of another way."
He had murderous thoughts in his mind and planned to sneak over at night and chop Dong Hu and Dong Biao to death.
Qin Nian shook his head slightly: "There are still so many things to do at home, I can't spend too much time on this matter.
Anyway, the Dong family agrees, so even if we fail, we can just give them something as compensation."
Dong Hu seemed very anxious, "Okay, turn it over quickly, whoever regrets will be the grandson."
He seemed confident.
Mrs. Li never gave in: "We won't go back on our word, you're just dragging your grandson along."
Qin Nian stepped forward, took the stick from Li Pozi, and looked at the Dong family members standing around: "Then I will start searching."
She ran to the kitchen first and knocked the lid with a stick: "Geng Feng, take it down."
Hearing the sound, Geng Feng immediately stepped forward and took off the lid of the jar.
Everyone lowered their heads to look into the water tank. The water in the tank was quite turbid and green, like the water used for blanching vegetables, with vegetable leaves floating on it.
There also seemed to be something like bran. If it were a few years ago, no one would have doubted that it was a pig feeding trough.
In recent years, people have had no food to eat, and no one in the village raises pigs anymore.
Qin Nian used the stick in her hand to probe inside, but the stick did not reach the bottom of the jar. She sneered and said:
"There's something hidden here. It must be what we lost."
The faces of the Dong family, led by Mrs. Dong, all changed color and turned pale. No one spoke.
Qin Nian turned around and picked up the ladle from the stove to scoop up the green water in the tank.
Geng Feng took the scoop: "I'll do it."
He didn't want his little girl to touch the dirty water in the jar.
Geng Feng poured the green water he scooped out into the bucket next to the vat.
When one bucket was filled, a large clay basin was revealed, turned upside down.
Qin Nian knocked the bottom of the large tile basin with a stick, looked at Dong Hu and asked:
"What is this? Why does it look so much like the big clay bowl I use to hold noodles at home?"
Dong Hu's face turned from pale to liver color. He wanted to explain, but he had nothing to say.
After Geng Feng scooped out two and a half buckets of water, he took the stick from Qin Nian's hand, picked up the edge of the big clay basin, and took it out.
This time he could see clearly that what was covered by the large earthenware basin was the jar of lard from Qin Nian's family, and next to it was the small jar of sugar.
The Dong family’s water tank is really big, and it can’t even fit in the bottom of most other people’s tanks.
Qin Nian looked at the head of the village and said, "We found my family's food. They hid it under such filthy water. We can't eat it."
The head of the village sighed and said, "Dong Hu, you are not young anymore, how can you do this?
And Dong Bao, Dong Biao, Dong Feng, you guys went together, right?
Will you be able to hold your head up high in the village in the future?"
Mrs. Li took the stick from Qin Nian's hand and knocked Mrs. Dong on the head:
"Just now you were a dead duck, your mouth was so hard. Are you still hard now? Are you embarrassed?
Hurry up and open the safe to get the money, we don't have time to waste with you."
The head of the village also frowned and said, "Dong Hu, Xiao Nian doesn't want these things you stole. Give the money as we agreed just now, don't go against your will.
If you want to cheat, you can only go to the government office and let the county magistrate judge. "
Mrs. Dong doesn't want her sons to go to jail.
She walked up to Mrs. Li, and because of what happened, two tears came out of her small eyes: "Well, Mrs. Li, Ye Meizi, I can't make amends to you.
For the sake of us living in the same village and seeing each other every day, I will forgive them this time."
Qin Nian's eyes were cold: "When you were stealing things, why didn't you think that we lived in the same village, so that we would meet each other every time we looked up?
All of your sons are thieves, and you, as their mother, are a failure and a shame.
At your age, I don’t even want to say much about you.”
"I say."
Ye Meizi's face was filled with grief and indignation: "Mrs. Dong, do you know how difficult it is to make a jar of lard in a famine year like this?
If it weren't for the tiring work of building a house, who would be willing to eat like this? You, on the other hand, let your sons steal other people's ready-made food.
If we hadn't noticed, would you have been able to eat it?"
Mother Li used a stick to hit Dong Hu's chest hard and said, "My dear grandson, weren't you quite talkative just now?
Why are you silent now?"
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