Everyone in the village knew that Lu Qiqi was a capable person, and Li Shoucai knew it even better, otherwise he wouldn't have asked a young girl who was not yet married.
Compared to Li Shoucai's panic, Lu Qiqi appeared much calmer. She asked, "Uncle Shoucai, what exactly happened? Why is the village chief being escorted by the government?"
Li Shoucai stomped his foot, squatted down, and muttered in a low voice, "The villagers downstream said the river was muddy and came to demand an explanation. Not long after, the yamen runners came and arrested the village chief!"
"When the yamen runners come to arrest people, they always have a pretext. What do they say?" Lu Qiqi asked.
Li Shoucai looked up at Lu Qiqi, trying hard to recall what the constable had said, "It seems like he said it was about cutting down trees."
Upon hearing this, Lu Qiqi began to ponder.
Cutting down trees?
The villagers of Lijia Village cut down trees to build houses. They did cut down a lot of trees, but didn't Zhang Weiguo say that it was okay to cut down trees to build houses?
Could there be some kind of oversight?
Thinking of this, Lu Qiqi asked, "Uncle Shoucai, is there any law in the Great Jin Dynasty that prohibits cutting down trees to build houses?"
She looked at Li Shoucai's blank expression.
Well, it's pointless to ask.
Lu Qiqi then said, "Uncle Shoucai, why don't you go to the government office to check the situation first? If all else fails, go find Registrar Chen."
"He was the one who assigned us to this village. With something this serious happening, he certainly wouldn't just sit idly by. It would be good if he could at least check on the situation."
"Okay! I'll go right away!"
Li Shoucai felt that Lu Qiqi's words made sense, so he stopped covering his face and quickly got up and ran to the village entrance.
Li Shoucai ran far away, and Lu Qiqi continued walking towards the center of the village. With such a big incident, the village chief's house must be surrounded by a huge crowd.
As we approached the house, we had to turn a corner.
Lu Qiqi had just turned the corner and walked a few steps when she looked up and could see the earthen mound where the Li family village was logging.
The once lush and green hillside was now mostly bald, even shinier than the Mediterranean Sea with its few remaining hairs.
Lu Qiqi, "..."
When they arrived at the village chief's house, just as Lu Qiqi had expected, the whole village was gathered together, just like going to the market during the Spring Festival!
Amidst the chaos and noise, Lu Qiqi heard a familiar voice.
"Everyone, please be quiet for a moment. We don't know what has happened yet."
There's no point in making wild guesses here; we should just go back and wait for news.
"Let's wait until Shoucai returns, find out what really happened, and then gather everyone together to discuss it!"
Li Qingshan stood at the entrance of the village chief's house, his feet on a stool, making him half a head taller than everyone else. Lu Qiqi spotted him immediately.
What Lu Qiqi didn't expect was that Li Qingshan, who usually kept a low profile, would actually step forward to take charge at this moment, making her feel proud of her family.
"Uncle is right! We can't afford to lose our composure first, or how will we get the village chief out of trouble!"
As soon as Lu Qiqi shouted, the villagers all turned to look at the source of the sound.
Madam Lu was the first to see Lu Qiqi. She squeezed through the crowd, walked to Lu Qiqi's side, and whispered, "Qiqi, what brings you here? Getting someone out of the government office is no small matter, so don't talk nonsense!"
Lu Qiqi pursed her lips and said nothing. In her opinion, redeeming people was only a matter of time.
We can't keep the village chief in jail forever. The old man is already buried up to his neck; how can he withstand the cold in jail?
I'm afraid if I stay a few more days, even if I get out, I won't have many good meals left.
This is not something Lu Qiqi wanted to foresee!
Several older villagers thought about it for a moment and agreed with Li Qingshan. They then stepped forward and called the villagers home.
For a time, only Lu Qiqi's family and the village chief's wife, Lian, remained in front of the village chief's house.
Li and Lu worked together to help Lian back into the house.
Lian was sobbing uncontrollably, and she almost crushed the handkerchief in her hand.
Lu Qiqi pretended to pour a bowl of water for Lian Shi from the square table, but secretly replaced it with spiritual spring water.
She feared that before the village chief even came out, Lian would collapse from worry and anxiety.
Lian was so heartbroken that she didn't even have time to drink water.
Lu Qiqi advised, "Grandma, have some water and calm down. The village chief will definitely come back safely. Don't worry, the village chief will not be held responsible for the mistakes our village made."
For some reason, Lian Shi found Lu Qiqi's words believable!
Then she gradually quieted down and stopped crying.
After all, her grandfather had stepped over Lu Qiqi in front of her more than once.
After drinking the spiritual spring water in the space, Lian's pale complexion gradually improved.
Seeing this, Lu Qiqi felt relieved, at least the Lian family wouldn't collapse before the village chief came out.
Li Qingshan dismissed the villagers gathered at the door and sent them home before going inside with Lu Dahai.
Li Qingshan said, "Let's stay at the village chief's house and wait for Shoucai to come back and report."
No one in the family had any objections; they all stayed at the village chief's house.
As dusk fell, Mrs. Lu and Mrs. Li returned home to cook.
Li Shoucai, who went to check on the situation, and Li Yan, the village chief's son, also returned.
When Lian saw her son return, she hurriedly went up to him and asked, "Son, how is your father?"
Li Yan lowered his head and whispered, "He's in jail."
Startled by the announcement of being imprisoned, Lian lost her footing and fell backward.
Seeing this, the crowd hurriedly helped the person up, thus averting a disaster.
Elderly people are very vulnerable to falls; a fall could be fatal!
Finally, with Li Yan's help, Lian returned to her house.
Li Shoucai then poured himself a bowl of water, drank it down in one gulp, and said, "It's true that the village chief is in jail, but I went to see Registrar Chen as Seventh Sister told me to."
"What did Registrar Chen say?" Lu Qiqi asked.
Li Shoucai said, "Chen, the registrar, said that according to the laws of the Great Jin Dynasty, it is forbidden to cut down trees without authorization. Anyone who cuts down more than one hundred trees will be imprisoned."
Lu Dahai asked anxiously, "We've cut down so many trees, what are we going to do? Is there any way to salvage this?"
Li Shoucai said, "Yes, there is, but we have to pay five times the amount of silver for logging, and we also have to plant trees all over the cleared land."
Otherwise, the government will not only arrest the village chief and imprison him, but we can forget about staying in the veterans' village either; we'll all be sent back to our original hometowns!
Li Qingshan estimated the amount of timber to be felled and whispered, "Five times the silver is quite a lot."
“Then isn’t the only option to be sent back to our original place of residence? Yushan Town has been suffering from drought for years, and not a blade of grass grows there. If we are really sent back to our original place of residence, what’s the difference between that and going back to our deaths?” Lu Dahai said.
Lu Qiqi pondered for a moment and said, "Now we can only try to make up for the money and replant the trees."
Let's gather the villagers together for a meeting tonight to discuss what to do next.
After a moment's consideration, Li Qingshan said, "Let's do as Seventh Girl says!"
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