Chapter 37 Catching Robbers
One day, Fubao came home carrying a basket full of apricot branches. Miao Xiuju was overjoyed when she saw the basket of apricot branches: "Our Fubao is really capable. How did he pick up so many?"
Gu Shengtian leaned over to take a look: "Was this broken off a tree? Where did it come from?"
How come he has never seen such a big wild apricot tree!
Fubao thought of Xiao Dingkun and wanted to say that he had helped him pick it, but then he remembered that he and Xiao Dingkun had made a promise not to tell anyone about their relationship, so he didn't say anything. He just said vaguely, "I saw an old apricot tree with dead branches hanging down to the ground. I pulled at it, and who knew it would come down."
Gu Shengtian naturally believed it. He knew that Fubao always had good luck. He felt a little regretful at the moment. If he had known earlier, he would have followed Fubao. Wherever Fubao went, he would have followed and he would have been sure to pick up something good.
After Fubao handed the apricot sticks to Miao Xiujiu, he was still thinking about Xiao Dingkun and couldn't help licking his lips.
The fried noodles were so delicious, so fragrant that her mouth started watering just thinking about it.
He is such a good man.
As I was thinking this, I heard a commotion coming from the street, and the sound of a woman screaming and cursing, saying all kinds of nasty words that were disgusting to watch.
Miao Xiuju came out of the kitchen, a spoon in hand. "Who is this person cursing in the streets in the first month of the lunar year? It's so ugly and unlucky!"
Chen Hongying ordered Gu Niudan: "Go and see who it is. Let the captain take care of it. It's a festival here. Why are you scolding me? Can't we talk about it after the first month of the lunar year?"
Country people seek good luck and don't quarrel, swear or smash plates or bowls in the first month of the lunar year. If there is no peace in the first month of the lunar year, there will be no peace in the whole year.
Niu Dan put down his work, ran out to the street, and came back saying, "Nie Lao San's wife got beaten up like a pig's head. She's so angry she's cursing in the street. My uncle Chen is trying to stop her, and there's a bunch of people watching."
When the children nearby heard this, their eyes suddenly lit up and they all wanted to go out to the street to watch the fun.
You have to know that in this small Pingxi Production Brigade, everyone has lived here for generations and knows each other very well, even knowing how many chickens each family has. It is impossible for anyone to beat someone up for no reason, so this kind of thing has never happened.
This was a rare and serious event, and the children immediately lost their desire to work.
Miao Xiuju and her wives had almost finished cooking. Upon hearing this, she chuckled, "Oh, she got beaten up and turned into a pig's head? Okay, let's go and see what's going on."
Anyway, it was still early and the meal was almost ready, so she put the last piece of firewood in the stove and let the porridge slowly rot in the pot. She took a shoe sole and started mending while taking the children to the street to watch. When the wives saw this, they all followed her example and went over.
When we got to the street, we saw it was bustling with activity. A group of young women and wives who had just finished cooking were all watching the excitement, crowding around. In the middle, Nie Laosan's wife was crying and sobbing, "I don't know which heartless person hit me like this. Who did I offend? Captain, you have to give me justice. I want justice! That man slapped me in the face and kicked me in the chest. He was trying to kill me!"
Chen Youfu was extremely worried and helpless as he tried to comfort Nie Laosan's wife: "Don't worry, I will definitely find a way to find out and give you justice. This kind of thing has never happened in our production brigade. There are actually such evil black sheep who do evil things. We must find them no matter what!"
The people around were puzzled, and one couldn't help asking, "Nie Lao San's wife, they beat you up like this, and you didn't even see who they were?"
Nie Laosan's wife: "He came up and covered my eyes with leaves and blocked my mouth. I cried to the sky and the earth but no one answered. How could I see? He beat me, he beat me right up!"
Wang Fugui's wife suppressed her laughter and said, "Mrs. Nie San, was the one who hit you a man or a woman?"
Nie Lao San's wife: "Man, Lao Gao is a man! That hand is really strong!"
When they heard it was a man, some people on the street showed ambiguous expressions: "It's a man, I hope he is interested in you..."
Finally, someone couldn't help but burst out laughing.
Nie Laosan's wife was so angry that she jumped high.
Chen Youfu shouted coldly: "Stop laughing!"
When everyone saw that the captain was anxious, they stopped laughing.
Chen Youfu: "One of our members was beaten in the mountains. This is a serious matter and we can't be careless. We must investigate thoroughly and hand it over to the commune for handling. First, go back and eat. After dinner, at 6:30 pm, everyone should come to the threshing ground outside the production brigade, men, women, young and old. No one should be left behind. I have to investigate one by one. If it fails, I will have to call the police."
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During dinner, the Gu family naturally discussed the matter. Miao Xiuju was very disgusted with Nie Laosan's wife. Seeing her being beaten, she sneered, "She deserves it. Maybe she offended someone with her mouth one day, and they hold a grudge and beat her up in secret."
The wives below naturally thought so too, but after discussing the matter, everyone still felt it was strange.
There had been fights in the Pingxi Production Brigade over the years. There had been fights between daughters-in-law of one family and another, with hair pulled all over the floor. There had been fights between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law, with the whole family in chaos. There had also been fights between two families over the small canal for watering their private plots in the spring.
However, it is rare to see someone being hit secretly and then disappear without a trace, and it is quite creepy to talk about.
Miao Xiuju thought for a moment and said, "Could it be those educated youth who did this? But her family, Old Third Nie, didn't offend the educated youth!"
The sons and daughters-in-law thought about it and felt that it was unlikely. Gu Weidong, in particular, shook his head and said, "Those educated youth are very good people. They came from the city and are more educated than us. They definitely wouldn't do such a thing—"
But when he said this, he suddenly thought of Xiao Dingkun.
Xiao Dingkun has a fierce look in his eyes. If anyone dares to offend him, he will never let you go.
But... Nie Lao San's wife shouldn't offend Xiao Dingkun.
As the family was guessing, he finished his meal without even washing the dishes. He simply cleaned up, locked the door, and went to the threshing ground.
When we got there, the threshing ground was already packed with people. They were squatting in groups of three or five, rubbing their hands to keep warm. "It's so cold, let's quickly find someone to take home."
The educated youth also came over and stood quietly in a corner.
Fubao looked over and saw Xiao Dingkun among the young people who were dressed much more fashionably than the surrounding rural people.
He stood straight, unlike the others who were rubbing their hands, and didn't look cold at all.
Xiao Dingkun also saw Fubao looking at her, so he just nodded slightly at her and looked away.
Fubao withdrew his gaze and lowered his head, but in his heart he secretly recalled the taste of the fried noodles.
At this time, Chen Youfu had already started speaking. He talked about how we were in the new China and it was time to work hard and strive for excellence. Everyone should focus on building socialism quickly, efficiently and economically. Everyone was getting drowsy, so he changed the subject and started talking about business: "Today, in front of everyone, we must find the person who beat us up. Now everyone must tell us what they were doing at that time in the evening, whether they went to Dagunzi Mountain, and everyone must find witnesses. If anyone saw anyone on Dagunzi Mountain, they must tell us."
Is this what it means to let everyone report on each other?
So everyone started talking, asking who could prove what I was doing in the private plot at that time, who could prove that I was not at Dagunzi Mountain at that time, and that Wang Baiou was in charge of recording there. Whoever already had a witness could then clear himself of the charges.
Gradually, more and more people distanced themselves from the incident.
The educated youth also started to make moves and began to prove each other's facts.
Fubao glanced at Xiao Dingkun who was not far away. He saw Xiao Dingkun standing alone in the night, motionless and without any movement.
Fubao couldn't help but start to worry.
Had he already come down from Big Roller Mountain by then? But judging by his pace, he probably hadn't made it down yet? In that case, who could prove it? What if he was wrongly accused?
Fubao frowned slightly.
He was such a good man, and it would be terrible if he was wrongly accused of being a robber. Should I testify for him and prove that he had come down from the mountain? But he had made a promise with me not to mention anything about him.
Just as she was feeling apprehensive, she heard a young woman's voice say, "Xiao Dingkun was also in the fields south of the educated youth site at the time. I even asked him the difference between wheat and leeks."
Fubao was delighted and looked over. He saw that the young lady was about fourteen or fifteen years old. She had two thick black braids and was wearing a floral shirt. She looked very pretty.
Fubao couldn't help laughing. Now Xiao Dingkun could be cleared of suspicion.
After registering, everyone had evidence proving they weren't at Dagunzi Mountain at the time. Chen Youfu frowned and said, "It seems this robber isn't from our Pingxi Production Brigade. I'll report this to the commune and ask the police to check other production brigades."
Nie Laosan's wife was upset: "Why are they not from our production brigade? It's so cold now, who would come to our Dagunzi Mountain for no reason? Our production brigade is the closest to Dagunzi Mountain, so it must be from our production brigade. Besides, why would someone from another production brigade beat me up for no reason?"
When she said this, some people got upset: "What do you mean? People from other production teams wouldn't beat you for no reason, so people from our production team would beat you? Who in our production team do you think would beat you for no reason? Do they have nothing better to do than to beat you? If I had that kind of energy, I'd just do more work!"
Nie Laosan's wife had a very bad reputation because of her previous decision not to accept Fubao. Now that she was beaten, some people said that it was retribution and she deserved it, so not many people sympathized with her.
She said something unintentionally, and the members expressed their dissatisfaction.
Nie Laosan's wife was frightened. It was hard to resist the public outrage, so she quickly said, "I, I didn't mean that either."
Chen Youfu coughed and asked everyone to be quiet: "Let's stop here for now. I will report to the commune tomorrow."
So the big screening ended. The next day, Chen Youfu went to the commune to report it, and the police also came to investigate. However, when they asked Nie Laosan's wife, she knew nothing about anything. In the end, there was no clue and the case was left unresolved.
Nie Laosan's wife suffered a loss for no apparent reason and was very angry. She looked around the production team and thought that this person looked like a bad guy, and that person looked like a bad guy. She often said sarcastic words and offended many people for this, but that's a story for later.
At first, the members of the Pingxi Production Brigade treated this matter as a lively discussion, but soon, everyone's attention shifted to another matter.
A great event happened to the members of the Pingxi Production Brigade.
A sow in the production team gave birth to nine piglets in one go.
Team leader Chen Youfu studied it and decided to distribute the nine piglets to the members of the production team as rewards, considering that the team already had enough pigs but not enough pig pens to feed them all.
When the time comes, everyone will gather at the threshing ground and draw lots. Whoever draws the right lot will get it.
When this happened, all the members naturally became excited.
Draw lots, and if you win, you get to raise piglets!
These piglets must hand over 100 kilograms of meat to the production team at the end of the year. Apart from that 100 kilograms of meat, the rest is theirs. They can give it to the government to exchange for money or meat tickets, or they can keep it for themselves to eat!
So everyone rolled up their sleeves and prepared to catch the piglets!
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