Chapter 70: Stingy
The thirst in the West Courtyard was like an invisible fire, burning everyone's throat and mind.
Especially Old Mrs. Chen, she sat on the doorstep, listening to the sound of bucket after bucket of clear well water being brought up from the east courtyard across the wall, and listening to the villagers' grateful voices of thanks. Every word of that voice was like a needle, piercing her heart.
She was mad with jealousy.
Why? Why did that unlucky star's family have water to drink and be admired? And she, the ancestor of the Chen family, was dying of thirst here?
She didn't dare go look for Feng Lan. Even now, the thought of Chen Kangbo's deadly shoulder pole still sent chills down her spine. However, the thirst she felt made her sit still and uneasy. It felt like a handful of sand was stuck in her throat, and even swallowing was painful.
Just then, she caught a glimpse of a small figure out of the corner of her eye.
It’s Erya.
Erya was playing cat's tuck with a few of her friends from the village in the open space not far from the east courtyard gate. Her little face was rosy and she was giggling.
Old Mrs. Chen's eyes lit up instantly.
A vicious thought emerged from the depths of her dry heart. She didn't dare to offend the adults, but could she not control a little girl?
She stood up tremblingly, forced a self-proclaimed kind smile on her face, and walked towards Arya.
"Erya, my good granddaughter, come here quickly and let grandma see you."
She shouted in a sickening voice.
Erya's laughter stopped, and she looked warily at the old lady who had suddenly approached her. She remembered her mother saying that no one in the West Courtyard could be trusted.
"You...what are you doing?" Erya took a step back.
"Oh, my dear grandson, grandma just misses you." Old Mrs. Chen continued to move forward, and the wrinkles on her face turned into a rotten chrysanthemum with a smile.
"Look, grandma is so thirsty that she can't speak. You are a good and filial child. Go and help your grandma fill up the water tanks in the west yard, okay? When grandma is no longer thirsty, I will buy you some candy."
Fill the water tank? Erya looked at her and thought of the two large water tanks at home. Her brows furrowed. How could she possibly fill them all by herself?
Seeing Erya hesitate, Mrs. Chen's patience was instantly exhausted, and the smile on her face disappeared, replaced by a sinister and threatening look.
"What? You don't want to? You heartless little bastard! I'm your grandmother! How dare you disobey your elders? Believe it or not, I'll teach you a lesson today on behalf of your damn parents!"
As she spoke, she stretched out her hand, which was as dry as a chicken claw, and was about to grab Erya's arm.
That hideous face, those resentful eyes, instantly overlapped with the look on his face when his second uncle Chen Kangzhong pounced on him that day in the back mountain!
"ah--!"
A huge fear gripped Arya. She screamed suddenly, turned around and ran, crying out of breath.
Old Mrs. Chen was frightened by her scream. She felt guilty and was afraid that she would attract the evil spirit Chen Kangbo.
She spat fiercely at Erya's back, called her a little bitch, then ran back to the west yard and closed the door tightly.
Feng Lan and Chen Kangbo were helping the villagers fetch water in the yard. When they heard Erya's terrified cry, their faces changed and they immediately dropped their work and rushed over.
"Erya, what's wrong?"
Feng Lan hugged her daughter in her arms and wiped her tears with heartache.
Erya was so frightened that she couldn't speak clearly. She just pointed in the direction of the west yard and cried.
The little friend next to him talked at once about what had just happened.
After hearing this, Chen Kangbo's face turned dark as ink. Without saying a word, he turned around and went to grab the shoulder pole in the corner.
"Comber!"
Feng Lan grabbed him.
"These bastards! It's never going to end! I'm going to break that old hag's legs today!"
Chen Kangbo's eyes turned red with anger.
"Will beating her up solve the problem?" Feng Lan's voice was cold. "She'll just lie on the ground and throw a tantrum. Then the whole village will say we, the younger generation, are unfilial. Beating someone like that is the worst option."
She comforted Erya, stood up, and walked to the villagers who were queuing up to fetch water.
Everyone stopped and looked at the couple with unfriendly expressions.
Chen Kangbo took a deep breath, suppressed the anger in his heart, and used all his strength to shout to everyone, word by word: "My fellow villagers! I, Chen Kangbo, am making this clear today! My well is for saving everyone's lives, not for quenching the thirst of those beasts who can't even think of taking advantage of a few-year-old child!"
His gaze, like a knife, swept across everyone.
"From today on, if anyone dares to help that family in the west courtyard, even by fetching a drop of water or even giving them a bucket of water, I, Chen Kangbo, will immediately fill up this well! Then, no one will be able to drink from it!"
As soon as these words were spoken, the whole audience was in an uproar.
This is simply cutting off the source of the problem!
The villagers looked at each other in bewilderment. On one side was the life-saving water source, and on the other was the Chen family, their fellow clan.
But you don’t have to answer this multiple-choice question at all.
Who would offend the East Courtyard and joke with the lives of the entire village just for the West Courtyard family whose reputation has long been ruined?
"Don't worry, the Cumber family! We will never help them!"
"That's right! They've done it themselves, so let them suffer the consequences!"
"Serves them right! Let them die of thirst!"
The villagers immediately expressed their opinions, and their words were full of contempt for the West Courtyard.
Since then, the West Courtyard has been completely isolated.
As the days passed, the drought became more and more severe.
When the crops in other families' fields in the village had withered and turned yellow, the fifteen acres of land in the east yard had a bumper harvest.
The plump corn cobs, heavy ears of grain, and the sweet potatoes piled up like hills in the cellar made Chen Kangbo's family the richest people in this year of famine.
Looking at their own full granaries and the villagers' increasingly thin and desperate faces, Feng Lan and Chen Kangbo discussed the matter all night.
The next day, they found the village head and expressed their willingness to give out some food to distribute to each household in the village for emergency use.
This news made the lifeless Pingjiang Village boil again.
A long line formed again at the gate of the East Courtyard, but this time, it was not to get water, but to receive life-saving food.
Feng Lan distributed the food in fixed quantities according to the number of people in each household. Most villagers were grateful and expressed their gratitude profusely.
But the forest is big and there are all kinds of birds.
A villager named Chen Erlaizi refused to leave after receiving the food, and instead started shouting.
"Village head! Look at this! This isn't fair!"
He pointed at his half-full bag of rice and shouted to the village head, "There are seven people in our family, and this is all we get. It's not even enough to fill our stomachs! They must have more food hidden away and are reluctant to give it away!"
These words instantly aroused the greed of some people in the crowd.
"Yeah, Chen Kangbo's family harvested so much grain, why did they only give out so little?"
"That's right. It's too petty to still hide it at this time."
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