Traveling in the sweltering heat is no easy task. Covered in dust, Yang Laosan moved to the shade of a tree before saying, "Old man, I have a relative in Xujia Village. Is this the place?"
Xu Changming put down the basket of dog excrement he was carrying, squinted, and leaned closer to look Yang Laosan over. His face full of doubt, he asked, "Aren't you a local?"
Old Yang nodded vigorously, forcing a pitiful smile, and said, "My hometown suffered from war, and now I've settled in Pingchuan County!"
"Then you should go back and live a proper life, and stop running around!" The old man, who had just been questioning, suddenly flew into a rage.
He tossed aside the dog-feces-filled bamboo basket and started chasing people away. (No pictures of bamboo baskets could be found online, so a friend from Chongqing posted one.)
Yang Laosan nimbly dodged, but unfortunately, he had been traveling dozens of miles and was too tired to dodge. He was still hit in the waist by the dog poop basket, and the dried dog poop and mule dung inside almost spilled on him.
"What...what are you doing?" Old Yang said angrily.
He was thirsty, hungry, and hot, and the old man's movement made him want to fly into a rage.
Xu Changming was also furious: "No one is allowed to enter Xu Family Village. If you want to find someone, wait at the post station until your relative comes to pick you up."
Looking for relatives, looking for relatives—people who haven't shown their faces for a hundred or two hundred years are now looking for relatives.
At this time, the relatives in the village had not yet left when another person from out of town arrived.
They were all sent out and disappeared.
A few months ago, Xu Xiaogu came to visit relatives, but ended up injuring several people in the village.
Xiaoman almost lost her life, but luckily the village women knew how to sew shoe soles and mended them.
Now another one has arrived... Hmph, they think Xu Family Village is the main street, everyone's here to join the market.
Yang Laosan's eyes widened: "What? You can enter the county town, but you can't enter a village? What kind of thing are you hiding in your village that you're ashamed to show your face!"
Xu Changming curled his lip: "What our village does is none of your business, why are you asking!"
These words are so firm and unyielding, they're like something out of a fight that could break out at the slightest provocation.
Xu Changming was really angry at this moment.
Relatives from the village came to visit; they weren't from other people's families, but from our own.
His wife's nephew came with his child.
His wife had been dead for over a decade, and this nephew hadn't visited for over a decade either, not even once when they were fleeing from war. Now, however, he had come to visit.
Carrying large bags of gifts, he knelt down as soon as he entered the house to burn paper money at his aunt's (great-aunt's) grave, and then apologized to his uncle.
You can't hit someone who's smiling, especially since they've been relatives for decades, so Xu Changming had no choice but to stay for dinner.
But the child brought by the nephew on her mother's side was very talkative. He kept calling his uncle "uncle" and subtly asked how much the green grain had sold for, what the shed in the field was doing, and what was being done with the truckloads of bark and leaves collected from the village.
This was a village secret, and no one could tell it. Although Xu Changming was not afraid of death, he did not want to die in a state of being buried in water and sand, so he made up an excuse to go out and pick up dog poop.
Unexpectedly, someone came looking for him even while he was hiding outside the village. He had really run into trouble. He had nowhere to vent his anger, so he started yelling at Yang Laosan.
Since Yang Laosan was now on someone else's turf, he didn't dare to act arrogantly. He could only swallow his anger and say ingratiatingly, "Uncle, I'm a stranger in this place, so I don't dare to lie."
The main problem is that your village chief is so unreasonable; I'm here to reason with her!
Upon hearing that they were looking for Jiang the shrew, Xu Changming immediately perked up.
He dumped the few lumps of dog poop he had picked up from his bamboo basket into the grassy area next to him, then stuck the mouth of the basket onto the ground, patted the bottom of the basket facing upwards, and said, "Come on, sit here and tell me what she did!"
Yang Laosan looked at the mandarin duck's backside and remembered that there were still a few lumps of excrement inside. No matter how tired he was, he couldn't sit down.
Before fleeing the famine, my family was quite well-off, and I dressed in silk and satin. How could I possibly sit in a dog-dung basket?
Having been on the move for so long, I couldn't care less about such things anymore. I forced myself to sit down and asked with a forced smile, "Uncle, do you know that female village chief...?"
Xu Changming pursed his lips: "I'm her elder!"
"What...what does that mean?" Old Yang didn't understand.
Xu Changming said irritably, "She's my nephew's wife!"
“Oh dear, you’re the clan elder! Since your village has such a reasonable elder as you, why let a woman… sigh, come out and cause trouble.”
Yang Laosan was now very clear-headed and immediately realized that the old man in front of him and the female bully were at odds.
It makes sense, no one can stand a woman who is unreasonable and cunning as village chief, she might even be a tyrant in the village.
He deeply regretted being persuaded by his mother and sister-in-law to sell people while he was in the refugee camp.
After half a month, we arrived at the new village where we were resettled. We were still living in shacks and it was very difficult to get used to having no one to do our laundry or cook for us. That's why we kept asking around and trying to find a way to bring people back.
At least if I sell it again later, I'll keep the money in my own hands.
Being praised made Xu Changming, who was feeling very angry, feel better, but he didn't like hearing Jiang's unreasonable words.
You just said that she is the village chief of Xujia Village and also your nephew's wife, yet you still say to your face that she is being unreasonable.
That's like pointing at a monk and calling him a bald donkey, picking the tallest among the short, and slapping him in the face!
But Xu Changming couldn't say that directly, so he changed the subject, saying, "Tell me why you want to see her. If she's caused trouble outside, I, as an old man, will have to uphold justice!"
Yang Laosan immediately told everyone that there was a war going on in his hometown, and that soldiers on both sides were either beheading people to earn military merit or recruiting people as laborers.
Unable to stay in his hometown, he had no choice but to flee to Ba County for refuge, where at least he could find some wild vegetables to eat in peacetime.
"Our whole family came to Pingchuan County and everyone had diarrhea. The medicine from the government was ineffective. We really didn't have any money to treat the illness, so we had to pawn our wife and children to get a few taels of silver to buy medicine."
My elderly mother at home is seriously ill and can't wait any longer. I only agreed to sell my wife and daughter after we agreed to a five-year contract.
But Village Chief Jiang took advantage of my desperation for money and tricked me into signing a contract of servitude, without even giving me any money!
As Yang Laosan spoke, his voice grew more and more pitiful, tears streaming down his face, which was covered in a mixture of ash and mud, making him a truly unsightly sight.
"I miss my children and want to see them. Could you let them come and see me?"
Xu Changming originally wanted to uphold justice. When he first heard about the plight of the refugees, he felt deeply sympathetic and expressed his understanding and compassion.
Upon hearing the servants that Jiang Zhi had tricked into buying, they immediately realized that the family that had sold the Tan mother and daughter had come looking for them!
Half a month has passed, and thanks to Pi's propaganda, almost everyone in the village knows exactly what the Yang family did to Tan and her daughter.
Pi said that Yang's wife jumped the highest that day, and kept saying that the wife she bought was like a beast of burden, but she didn't seem to be seriously ill or dying.
These women from the Qin family are always tearing people apart, and now that someone's here...
Remembering how he had been humiliated when he went to the city to arrest someone during the Dragon Boat Festival, and how Qin Shi had ridiculed him mercilessly, he was determined to regain his dignity this time!
Xu Changming coughed, cleared his throat, and said calmly, "Why didn't you say so earlier? I'm an elder of Xu Family Village. I would definitely stand up for you in this matter. Come on, let's go into the village!"
Old Yang was overjoyed and quickly followed Xu Changming inside, eager to see Madam Tan.
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