Chapter 33 Isolation
Zhang Defu nodded and said, "Be careful not to wake anyone up."
After saying this, the two of them stood up and carefully walked through the people lying on the ground and came to the cart where the luggage was piled in the second room.
After exchanging a glance, they prepared to act. Bai Xiaowei carefully bent down, uncovered the cloth covering the wheelbarrow, and searched carefully.
But she searched for a long time but found nothing. Zhang Defu also found nothing.
Just when the two were about to give up, Bai Xiaowei noticed a bulge in the quilt covering Xie Lanqin.
Her eyes lit up and she quickly pulled Zhang Defu's sleeve. It seemed that the food was hidden under the quilt.
At this moment, a sickle was suddenly raised from behind and pressed against Zhang Defu's neck.
"Don't move!" Zhao Chunhua shouted.
Zhang Defu and Bai Xiaowei quickly raised their hands and explained, "Second brother and sister-in-law, it's us, what are you doing?"
Zhao Chunhua stared at them and asked, "What are you trying to do secretly? Are you planning to steal my stuff?"
Zhao Chunhua's voice was so loud that it quickly alarmed the villagers.
When Xie Lanqin opened her eyes and saw Zhang Defu and Bai Xiaowei standing in front of her, she almost jumped out of fright.
"Uncle, aunt, why are you standing here so late?"
As Xie Lanqin spoke, she hugged the food in the quilt tightly.
Of course Zhang Defu and Bai Xiaowei did not dare to admit that they intended to steal food.
Especially now there is a woman with a sickle standing behind him. If he says something wrong, this shrew will probably start to chop him.
Bai Xiaowei was the first to realize the situation. Her eyes lit up and she said, "Second sister-in-law, we are catching mice!"
Zhang Defu immediately replied, "That's right. We just saw a mouse jumping in. It was quite big and fat, so we followed it in. It just so happens that my wife is pregnant, and we were afraid that she would be frightened by the mouse, so we came to take a look."
Of course Zhao Chunhua didn't believe them.
She sneered and said, "What big rat? I didn't see it. I think you want to steal things from my house!"
The surrounding villagers were woken up and looked over here in confusion.
Zhang Defu hurriedly defended himself: "My second brother and his wife are wrongly accusing us. We really saw the mouse, but we don't know where it ran to now. We are looking for it now."
Zhang Daniu and Zhang Dajun wandered around for a while but didn't find any rats.
"Uncle, are you sure the mouse ran to our place? How come there is no mouse?" Zhang Daniu asked with his eyes wide open.
Zhang Defu nodded: "He did run this way, but he disappeared again."
Zhang Daniu smiled and said, "Uncle, aunt, you have very good eyesight. You can see the rat jumping in even in such a dark place."
With this reminder, everyone suddenly felt something was wrong.
After all, everyone was sleeping soundly, the firewood pile was almost burned out, and the cave was so dark, how did Zhang Defu and Bai Xiaowei see the mouse running to Xie Lanqin?
Although Zhao Chunhua added two more fires to keep the pregnant Xie Lanqin warm, there was no light at all from the entrance to the deepest part of the cave!
Some villagers couldn't stand Zhang Defu's behavior and said directly: "Zhang Defu, why do you have to be a thief when you can do anything else? People like you who specialize in stealing things should be kicked out of the village!"
Another villager said nervously: "They have been on night duty these days. Maybe they have taken our things too. Let's check if anything is missing from our house."
So everyone quickly checked their luggage.
Zhang Defu clenched his fists and said with all his strength: "I said, I'm not a thief, I just came in to catch mice!"
"Stop pretending!"
Zhao Chunhua put down the sickle in her hand and retorted: "Nowadays, even people can't get enough to eat, where do the fat rats come from? You don't even need to draft a lie, right?"
Seeing his lie being exposed, Zhang Defu was both panicked and angry.
What if things get out of hand and these people want to drive them away? It's all the fault of that troublemaker Zhao Chunhua!
Zhang Ruoan was also attracted by the noise here. He held up a torch and asked Zhang Defu, "Zhang Defu, are you causing trouble again? What are you doing here in the middle of the night?"
Zhang Defu repeated the lie he had just made up to Zhang Ruoan.
Zhang Ruoan knew at a glance that Zhang Defu was lying, but he did not get angry immediately. Instead, he asked them to go back and continue to keep watch.
Zhang Defu and Bai Xiaowei were immediately surprised and delighted, and ran out immediately as if they had been pardoned.
Zhao Chunhua frowned, confused. What was the village chief trying to do?
"Village chief, Zhang Defu and his wife obviously sneaked in while everyone was asleep and tried to steal things. Why don't you punish them?"
Zhang Ruoan sighed, looking worried.
He whispered to Zhao Chunhua, "Sister Zhao, I'll tell you the truth. The area ahead is the territory of Luoshan. I heard that there are several villages there that specialize in cannibalism. Our village is small in number to begin with, and we can't afford to be short of manpower."
Cannibalism???
Zhao Chunhua was shocked beyond words. Although she knew that there had been cases of "eating one's own children" in ancient times, she had never seen such a horrific group of people.
When she thought of that scene, her stomach churned.
If there really is such a village ahead, it might be a good idea to keep the two branches of the Zhang family, so that there will be more helpers in case something really happens.
As for Zhang Defu and Bai Xiaowei, they were extremely happy to see that the village chief did not pursue the matter. They thought that the village chief thought they had behaved well and had spared them.
After checking the luggage, the villagers found that there was no loss and they felt relieved.
But after this incident, everyone became alert and held on to their own food even when they slept.
The same was true during the day. As soon as the villagers saw Zhang Defu approaching, they would immediately hide away, fearing that he would have evil intentions towards their food.
Zhang Defu noticed this and felt very unhappy. He felt like he was isolated by everyone, but there was no way to solve this problem.
The situation at the third family was not much better. Because of their previous actions, they were not considered good people in the eyes of the villagers, and everyone tried to avoid their two families.
Zhang Ruoan simply didn't let the two families participate in the work and just let them lag behind the team.
Bai Xiaowei was very dissatisfied with this: "This village chief is really heartless! I just heard someone say that there might be a cannibalistic village ahead, and he is looking for trouble at the back of the team. He deliberately let us walk at the back. Isn't this deliberately doing us a disservice?"
"Is it true?" Zhang Defu was skeptical.
"Of course it's true!"
Bai Xiaowei said with certainty, "I heard it from Hu Zi's wife myself. She also warned her children not to run around, saying that those people were particularly cruel!"
After hearing this, Zhang Sanbao became more and more frightened.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com