95 Catch the culprit in the act!
◎Isn't this ruining my reputation as a widow?◎
"What!?"
The corners of her mouth, which had been raised just now, instantly stiffened. Xia Hua looked at her in disbelief, then asked again, not giving up, "County Magistrate Ye, you didn't find the wrong person, did you? Someone stole our woven mushrooms?! Seriously?! Nothing in my mushroom shed was stolen... right?"
Seeing her reaction, Ye Yunzhao sighed and pulled her into the yard.
At this point, Xia Hua was completely confused. She took off her backpack, knelt on the ground like a raging wretch, and howled to the heavens, "Who on earth is this heartless bastard who dares to steal things from my house? Oh my God! I worked so hard to grow these things..."
Before Ye Yunzhao could speak, she stood up and asked, "County Magistrate Ye, you should know who it is! Otherwise, you wouldn't have come to me. Tell me! I now, I now..."
As she spoke, she looked around, then hurriedly picked up the hammer standing in the corner of the yard and said through gritted teeth, "I'm going to deal with him now!"
Ye Yunzhao had never seen her so aggressive before, but she also understood that the woven mushroom was as valuable as a silver ingot in Xixiang. She must have felt extremely unhappy when someone else secretly took advantage of the shade of the tree she had worked so hard to plant.
But even so, she couldn't be allowed to do what she wanted. Ye Yunzhao quickly snatched the hammer from Xia Hua's hand and hurriedly comforted her, "Madam Xia Hua! Madam Xia Hua! We need to think about this carefully! I'll go to the mushroom shed first to check on your losses. We can't be the ones to suffer the consequences!"
Xia Hua then let go, sobbed a few times, and walked towards the mushroom shed with her, one in front and one behind.
The two of them entered the warm mushroom shed. At first glance, they couldn't see any clues. Xia Hua walked inside and said desperately, "County Magistrate Ye, look, my mushrooms are still there. Did the county government make a mistake?"
Xia Hua's mushroom racks weren't properly arranged in the center of the shed, but rather wider on one side and narrower on the other. Ye Yunzhao followed her along the wide side. She looked up and observed carefully. The top layer of woven mushrooms had already been harvested, and now the second crop was showing signs of coming, with only a narrow strip of the second layer still being harvested.
Ye Yunzhao asked, "Did you cut all these?"
Xia Hua nodded quickly: "I read it several times every day!"
Hearing this, she was also a little puzzled. She had clearly seen Uncle Zhao climb over the wall into the summer flowers last night, and he even packed a bag when he left. Could it be that he hadn't stolen the weaving fungus? Had they really made a mistake?
Ye Yunzhao didn't believe it. She lowered her head to examine it more carefully. In an instant, she suddenly bent down and pointed to a corner at the bottom and asked, "Madam Xia Hua, did you cut this?"
Xia Hua was startled, and when she looked over, she saw that the weaving fungi near the narrow edge had been completely cut clean! A second crop had even grown out!
She felt her vision go dark, and she said in anger, "No! Which shameless bastard! Bah!"
Ye Yunzhao roughly counted and found that there was a deficit of nearly sixty cents. The mushroom tax was previously agreed to be twenty to one, but Uncle Zhao stole the money and sold it, and then did not pay a penny. He was definitely getting something for nothing!
After counting them clearly, she said his name. Xia Hua was not surprised to hear it was him. She rolled her eyes and cursed inwardly: "I knew it was him, that old bastard! Not only did he kick me out, he also did such a shameless thing! I must get back at him!"
"There's no evidence right now, so he won't admit it even if you go there." Seeing her about to storm off again, Ye Yunzhao quickly stopped her and told her his plan. "Now that he's had a taste of the sweetness, he certainly won't give up easily. If nothing unexpected happens, I'm afraid he'll come again tonight. Then you can catch him red-handed. Our people will be guarding outside the courtyard, so don't worry."
Only then did Xia Hua calm down and said in a deep voice, "Okay! That's a good idea! Thank you, County Magistrate Ye. Let's make it a deal!"
*
The setting sun was swallowed by the night, and the moonlight was as bright as a silver thread.
Xia Hua coaxed the children to sleep early, and she lay by the window, not daring to relax for a moment.
She felt like she had been waiting for a long time, her eyelids were drooping, but no one came.
Are you not coming tonight?
Stop stealing?
Thinking of this, Xia Hua was furious, but she became even more energetic than before. How could he not steal? How could we catch him if he didn't steal?
She looked down at the bamboo stick beside her and thought bitterly: Why should I beat him if he didn't steal?
After a while, Xia Hua felt that it was almost dawn, when suddenly, there were some rustling sounds from the east wall.
She held her breath and concentrated, only to see her former father-in-law clinging to the eaves with both hands, his whole body tumbling down in a somewhat awkward manner. However, this process should be very familiar to him. When he was still three or four inches from the ground, he suddenly let go and stood steadily in the yard.
Uncle Zhao walked briskly into the mushroom shed as if he were in an empty space.
Xia Hua turned her head to glance at the child sleeping peacefully on the bed, picked up the bamboo stick, tiptoed out of the door, took two steps at a time, and stuck her whole body to the outside of the mushroom shed.
"Plop-plop-plop" my heart was beating like a drum. It would be better to say I was excited than nervous!
She held the bamboo stick in her left hand and clenched her right fist. She found a convenient position to exert force, raised her right hand, and stared at the door of the mushroom shed with readiness.
The heavy curtain was lifted, and Uncle Zhao's somewhat thin back appeared in front of her. Xia Hua raised her hand and patted his shoulder. She saw him tremble and slowly turned around.
With a "bang", Xia Hua's fist hit his left eye directly!
"Ouch!" Uncle Zhao staggered, his eyes burning with pain. He covered his left eye and barely saw the direction with his right eye, but saw Xia Hualun raised his arms and hit him with a strong bamboo stick!
He turned around and tried to run, but Xia Hua would never give him a chance to escape. She raised her leg and kicked Uncle Zhao, who fell to his knees on the ground in a "dog eating shit" position.
"Pia—Pia—Pia—" Xia Hua whipped him silently for more than a dozen times. Seeing him wailing and rolling on the ground, she dropped the bamboo stick and shouted, "Help! There's a thief! Someone! There's a thief!"
Liu Mazi and his group, who had been guarding outside, heard the noise of Uncle Zhao being beaten at the beginning. They were still sitting by the wall, eating the pancakes baked by Xue Niang.
Uncle Zhao stole so many valuable mushrooms, so it's only right that Xia Hua should vent her anger.
Only after hearing her screams and knowing that she had finished venting her anger did Liu Mazi wave his hand and ask people to go into the yard.
Despite being mentally prepared, Liu Mazi was still frightened by Uncle Zhao's appearance. The thin bamboo sticks left more than a dozen shocking red marks on his face and neck.
But the most shocking thing was the black eye and bloody nose.
Upon seeing Liu Mazi, Uncle Zhao, with a bruised face and nose, burst into tears and rushed towards him wailing:
"Sir! Help...!"
The vigorous and lively Xia Hua would never give him a chance. She fell to her knees with a clang, pounding the ground and crying bitterly:
"Oh my God! Who is this heartless person who comes to steal mushrooms from a widow's house in the middle of the night? I'm a lonely woman raising two children. Oh my God! Just take my life! I won't live anymore! Zhao Dashi! If you are in heaven, please take good care of our children after I die!"
Is this still his dumb, clueless daughter-in-law, Xia Hua? Could it be that she went crazy after being kicked out?
Uncle Zhao was startled by her sudden movements. He stood there in a daze, looking at her with a questioning look on his face, secretly criticizing her in his heart.
Before Liu Mazi could open his mouth, Xia Hua's voice disturbed the sleeping birds in the woods, causing them to flutter and fly away. People living closer to the place heard the noise and put on their cotton coats to come out to watch the fun.
A few people who had lit torches saw that the courtyard gate was wide open, and they stretched out their torches to look inside the courtyard.
As soon as Xia Hua saw someone coming, she immediately repeated what she had just said twice. There was naturally a lot of whispering outside the door, but then a woman holding a torch exclaimed in surprise, "I think the thief is Zhao Dashi's biological father! Come and see if it's true!"
Upon hearing this, Uncle Zhao, who had been standing there stupidly for a long time, immediately raised his hands to cover his face. Seeing that he couldn't cover it anymore, he neatly poured the mushrooms in the bag all over the floor, and with a "swish", he put the indigo blue coarse cloth bag on his head!
"I didn't see it, Auntie, did you see it wrong?"
"Am I seeing things? He looks a bit like Uncle Zhao to me..."
People outside the courtyard were talking about it. Xia Hua, who was still kneeling on the ground in the courtyard, rolled her eyes and thought of a plan. She stood up and pulled the cloth bag off Uncle Zhao's head. Tears as big as beans immediately rolled down her face. She raised her voice and said:
"Dad?! Why is it you!?"
As she spoke, she pushed him towards the gate. Uncle Zhao quickly raised his hands to cover his face, while the people outside watched with great interest. Uncle Zhao, who used to be unpopular, had such a miserable time. Who wouldn't feel happy watching him?
Xia Hua changed the subject and turned back to Liu Mazi, "Yi Liu, I, I won't report it to the authorities!"
"What?" Liu Mazi was stunned. County Magistrate Ye hadn't explained this situation in advance. Uncle Zhao's theft of woven hat mushrooms was also linked to selling them cheaply. He absolutely couldn't let him go. He quickly said coldly, "What are you talking about? As an officer of the Lingnan County Yamen, I witnessed the theft with my own eyes. How could I turn a blind eye? Are you asking me to bend the law for personal gain?!"
Someone in the crowd said, "Yes! We can't encourage this evil trend! Stealing must lead to jail!"
"That's right! If you dare to steal the weaving mushrooms from Xia Hua's house today, you might come and steal mine tomorrow."
Xia Hua showed a dilemma. After hesitating for a long time, she said to Liu Mazi, "Well... well then."
She turned to Uncle Zhao and said, "Dad, I'm wrong. I almost remembered it wrong. I'm not the daughter-in-law of your old Zhao family anymore. Uncle Zhao, if you want to eat the weaving mushroom, you should tell me during the day. How can you sneak into a widow's house in the middle of the night? You know Dashi is gone... We are an orphan and a widow living together..."
Fortunately, I discovered this and let Liu Yayi know about it. If the villagers who got up at night saw you climbing over the wall to steal mushrooms, I don’t know what they would misunderstand! Uncle Zhao, aren’t you ruining the reputation of a widow like me?
After she finished speaking, she covered her face and cried, as if she had suffered a great injustice.
Everyone then remembered how heartless Mr. Zhao had been in trying to kick Xia Hua out of the house! He had been so ruthless to a weak woman before, and now he was even stealing her woven mushrooms! How shameless!
I don’t know who in the crowd first spat at Uncle Zhao, who was covering his face, but then everyone started spitting at him.
Liu Mazi looked at Uncle Zhao squatting on the ground and said in a deep voice, "Come with us!"
【Author’s words】
Xia Hua: You old bastard, you want to fight me? You’re dreaming!
P.S.: The hot-tempered and sharp-witted Lady Xia Hua is the heroine in the pre-collected novel "Getting Rich from Being a Widow" next door. Interested adults can click to collect it, muahmuah~
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