At the beginning of the afternoon, a group of disaster victims came towards Yang Village in a mighty procession.
"Boom boom boom!" The sound of gongs rang out.
At the same time, Zhang Fan pointed to the thatched cottage at the entrance of the village and said, "Look, the kind-hearted man knows everyone is coming and is beating the gong to welcome us!"
The victims were all very happy holding the broken porcelain bowls.
"I heard that there are white flour buns to eat here. Is that true?"
Zhang Fan shook his head. "I'm not sure. Just go and ask!"
Some victims frowned and asked, "What do you do?"
Zhang Fan was speechless. He searched among the victims but couldn't find the servant. Then he raised his neck and said, "None of your business. This road is not yours!"
After saying that, he squeezed out of the crowd and left without looking back, but he didn't notice that several victims behind him looked at each other, turned around and followed him.
At the entrance of the village, men stood in a row with spears in their hands, blocking the way.
"What do you want to do?"
The victims were somewhat confused, and some shouted angrily: "Aren't you going to give out porridge?"
The villagers frowned and said, "Who told you that? We don't even have enough food to eat, how can we possibly give out porridge? If you know what's good for you, stay away!"
When the victims heard this, they immediately refused to work and some of them sat down on the ground and started complaining.
"Call the leaders of your village to come out! We were living well in the county town, but you tricked us into coming here. We've walked for over an hour, and you didn't even give us a bowl of porridge. That's unacceptable!"
"Exactly. Are you trying to gain a good reputation? Now that you think we have more people, you've changed your mind. Let me tell you, even though I'm a disaster victim, I'm not that easy to fool!"
"Bah... You tricked us into coming here and didn't give us any food, treating us disaster victims like we're inferior? Today, you must give me an explanation!"
The villagers were furious and directed their anger at the victims.
"Are you being reasonable? Who notified you to come? Send someone out to confront us!"
"If you dare to take a step forward, the spears in our hands will not be to be trifled with!"
The victims looked at each other and only then realized that they had been cheated.
Someone quick-wittedly reacted, "Could it be that this village has offended someone, and we are being used as pawns?"
Someone scoffed, "I don't care. The porridge at the county government office has all been distributed. We can only go back hungry. If I can't eat white flour buns today, I won't leave."
When Tang Youyou came over, she heard these words and couldn't help but sneer.
"I've seen shameless people, but I've never seen someone who takes advantage of others like this!"
"You... bitch, if you dare to talk nonsense again, I'll tear your mouth apart!"
Tang Youyou pushed aside the villagers and pointed at the man, "Come and challenge me if you dare!"
The man shrank his neck and said, "A good man doesn't fight with a woman. Don't be so arrogant. Tell the leader of your group to come out!"
"Heh...coward! I'm telling you, stay away from our village, or else you'll only have your own faults if you end up losing limbs!"
"Heh... you're so arrogant! We're serious disaster victims. The government won't easily kill us. How dare you?"
"Do you dare? Why don't you try it?"
These words instantly angered the victims.
"Bah... We've come all this way through so much hardship and endured so much contempt. What's the difference between you and us? We're all just peasants. Do you think you're superior?"
"Fuck him! I'm not going to take this vengeance today!"
So the victims rushed forward.
Tang Youyou didn't use a slingshot this time. Instead, she snatched the spear from a villager's hand. Her target was very clear: to stab the victim's feet.
Seeing this, the villagers followed suit. For a moment, the victims cried out in pain and dared not move forward.
Tang Youyou swept a cold gaze at everyone, "Heh... I'll give you a quarter of an hour to leave, otherwise, don't blame us for being serious!"
"You...you just wait for us, I'm going to report to the police!" A disaster victim was indignant and limped out of the team. Seeing this, the others also left.
But on the way, they unexpectedly found Zhang Fan's body.
Everyone was terrified. A few men endured the fear and stayed beside the body, while the rest went back to report to the police.
Zhang Xianwei, now the acting county magistrate, first heard that the disaster victims who went to Xiangyang Village were beaten. He snorted coldly: "Tell all the refugees and disaster victims that if they dare to break into the village, they deserve to be beaten!"
A yamen runner whispered, "Sir, what about the dead?"
County Lieutenant Zhang glared at him and said, "Bring the coroner to investigate. Let's first determine the cause of death and the identity!"
He guessed that someone must be trying to kill for money. At this critical juncture, although the victims were temporarily under control, there were still people with evil intentions. It was really a headache.
When he learned that the deceased was Zhang Fan, the first person he thought of was Li Baisong. He then shook his head and said, "Brother Li, if he wanted to take his life, he could have just moved his fingers in prison. He couldn't have survived until now!"
He looked at the yamen runner and said, "Go, notify the Zhang family to come and claim the body!"
Zhang Baozi was rich but unkind. Now his family has fallen into poverty and his only son has died. Naturally, the title deed to the house fell into the hands of several other families.
When County Magistrate Zhang thought of this, he couldn't help but sigh, "It seems that people should do more good deeds, otherwise retribution will come to their relatives!"
Within two quarters of an hour, the body was carried back. The yamen runner handed over a silver note from his sleeve, "Sir, this is from the Zhang family. They say Zhang Fan died from an unfortunate head injury. Your Excellency is busy right now, so this case will be dropped!"
County Magistrate Zhang snorted coldly, "If we are not from the same family, we will not enter the same door!"
Looking at the yamen runner, he said, "Use the banknotes in your hand to buy food and porridge for the disaster victims. Thank the Zhang family for it!"
The bailiff was surprised for a moment, then nodded, thinking that although County Magistrate Zhang was upright, he was not greedy for money, and perhaps Qingshui County would get better in the future.
After the Zhang family learned about what happened, they felt extremely depressed, like a dumb person eating bitter herbs.
"I told him he was tougher than iron and hard to fool, but you bribed him in public. Now your fifty taels of silver have gone down the drain!"
"What can we do? Our family's reputation has plummeted. Who would still support our business? Sigh... I originally wanted to test it out, but I didn't expect them to give me any respect. Forget it! Let's go to Nanzhou when the situation stabilizes a bit!"
"It's not a bad thing. At least he accepted the money, and Zhang Fan's matter is over! We finally got what we wanted!"
No one knew that the servant was planted by the second house next to Zhang Fan. His purpose was naturally to get rid of him so that they could seize his family property openly!
Li Hongyuan knew nothing about these things. He was just a "teacher" at the moment.
The children gathered around him, chattering loudly.
"Ahem... one by one, start by learning to write your own name!"
Tang Youyou raised an eyebrow. This child was simple-minded and very popular among other children. With his talent, he was not suitable for being an official. Perhaps being a teacher would be a good option for him.
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