Chapter 151
The river that the village uses for water is blocked, and as a member of the village, Yin Zheng cannot help but go.
He lowered his head to glance at Jiaojiao, who was standing next to his legs, and asked Li Daqiang and the others, "Have you had breakfast?"
Li Fangshan and Li Daqiang nodded and said, "We ate it."
In fact, I hadn't eaten yet. When I heard that the branch river was blocked, I was so angry that I wanted to rush to the upstream village with my weapons immediately. How could I have the mood to eat breakfast?
"I haven't eaten yet." Yin Zheng said as he bent down and picked up Jiaojiao: "You guys go first, I'll come after I have breakfast."
Li Daqiang and Li Fangshan looked anxious. They opened their mouths to say something, but they met Jiaojiao in Yin Zheng's arms, who was looking at them with confused and curious eyes. The words came out of their mouths.
Yes, the children in their family are taken care of by their wives and mother, and Yin Zheng is alone, so it is obviously impossible for him to leave without even making breakfast.
Yin Zheng brought out the prepared breakfast from the kitchen and ate with Jiaojiao. He then went to make some more food and placed it on the low table within Jiaojiao's reach.
Jiaojiao turned her head to look at the food on the low table, then looked up at her father, blinked, and stretched out her hand to him: "Daddy, hold me."
Yin Zheng did not hug Jiaojiao. He squatted down and looked at Jiaojiao. Just as he was about to say something, Jiaojiao walked forward and squeezed into his father's arms when he saw his father squatting down.
Yin Zheng lowered his eyes and looked at him. He simply sat cross-legged on the ground, holding the soft little ball in his arms. He rested his chin lightly on his furry head and said softly, "I'm going out for a while. Stay home and be good. When I come back, I'll take you to town to buy pine nut candy."
Jiaojiao looked up at her father, her eyes as bright as glass reflecting the hideous scar that ran through Yin Zheng's face.
Yin Zheng was a man of few words, yet his brow ridges were incredibly sharp and oppressive, giving him an inexplicable sense of danger that most villagers feared. Ever since he replaced Yin Yuanzhi in the military, he returned with a scar on his left cheek running from his brow to his jaw, adding to his unspoken aura of hostility. Despite his restraint, his daily silence and focus on his work, the village children would still cry in fear at the sight of him.
Everyone in the village said that children could see things that adults could not see. I don’t know when the rumor started that Yin Zheng had killed someone, otherwise the kids would not cry when they saw him.
Yin Zheng did not comment on this, and no one dared to ask him about it.
Only Jiaojiao was not afraid of him from the first meeting. Not only that, she was also very close to and dependent on him. Sometimes Yin Zheng would be confused, and sometimes he felt that this was how it should be between him and this child.
His eyes moved, landing on Jiaojiao's neck, which was so fragile that it seemed like it would break at the slightest touch. His eyes darkened, and he raised his hand that was wrapped around Jiaojiao to protect the back of his neck. He said in a low voice, "Be good, don't cry, and don't open the door for anyone else."
Jiaojiao nodded: "Be good, don't cry, and don't open the door."
As she spoke, Jiaojiao came out of her father's arms, ran to the low table, took a boiled egg, ran back and stuffed it into her father's hand, and said in a serious tone: "Be good, Dad. Remember to eat when you are hungry."
Yin Zheng was speechless. He reached out and pinched Jiaojiao's soft face: "Okay."
Jiaojiao, whose face was pinched, bent her eyes, stepped forward, buried her head in her father's arms and rubbed it: "Dad, come back early, Jiaojiao misses you."
"Okay." Yin Zheng responded and then remained silent for a while before standing up and walking out.
After her father left, Jiaojiao ran into the inner room, stood on a stool and tiptoed to take her bottle from the table, then carried it to the yard, climbed onto the recliner with difficulty, drank a big sip of sugar water, and then lay down on the recliner, basking in the sun while waiting for her father to come back.
After seeing that everyone had left and the village had become quiet, Li Ergou quietly walked to the foot of Wushan Mountain, looked at the yard that had been renovated by Yin Zheng, looked around for a while, and when he found that there was no one there, he strode over.
Li Ergou is Li Dayuan's only son. During a severe drought in his early years, Li Dayuan died in a river blockage incident in the upstream village.
Now, Li Ergou is left with only his widowed mother. This widowed mother is not a pushover, and she's incredibly shameless. There's no one in the entire village who hasn't been extorted by her, from anything as small as a chicken to a scallion or a clove of garlic. The villagers have become so desperate to avoid her that they're afraid she'll rip them off if they're not paying attention. This time, when they went to Shangyou Village, everyone tacitly avoided the mother and son.
“Knock knock knock—”
There was a series of rapid knocks on the door. Jiaojiao, who was waiting for his father on the recliner, sat up suddenly. Thinking that his father had returned, he quickly got off the recliner with the bottle in his arms, ran to the door, and asked happily in his little voice, "Dad, are you back?"
"Jiaojiao, right?" Li Ergou's voice rang out from outside the door, with an indescribable urgency: "Your father forgot to take something, open the door quickly!"
Dad forgot to take his things!
Jiaojiao suddenly became a little anxious and said, "Uncle, please wait a moment. I'll open the door right away."
After saying this, he put the bottle on his back, shook his little hands, and ran to drag out his little stool, put it in front of the door, stood on it, and tiptoed to reach the door latch.
This was enough for about a quarter of an hour.
Li Ergou, who was feeling dizzy from the sun outside the door, heard a voice from inside from time to time saying, "Uncle, wait a moment, Jiaojiao will be there soon." He suspected that the kid was deliberately teasing him, and Li Ergou's face became obviously unfriendly.
He looked up and found a small crack in the door, so he moved forward and looked inside through the small crack.
Jiaojiao, who was struggling to reach the door latch, looked up and saw a pair of sinister eyes looking in through the crack in the door.
Jiaojiao was stunned and subconsciously took a step back, falling off the stool. In pain, Jiaojiao tried hard to purse her lips and not cry. She supported herself on the ground and stood up, brushed the dust off her butt, turned around and dragged the stool into the inner room, not paying any attention to Li Ergou's shouts outside the door.
This uncle is a bad guy, he tricked Jiaojiao into opening the door!
Realizing this, Jiaojiao ran back to the house, stepped on a bench, gritted her teeth and struggled to pull the latch of the inner room's door. Since the latch of the inner room's door was not very high, Jiaojiao could reach it by standing on the bench and tiptoeing.
After unlocking the door, Jiaojiao climbed onto the bed and tried to push her butt into the quilt. It was difficult to do so with the bottle on her back, so Jiaojiao put the bottle down and hid it in the quilt first, then she climbed in herself.
After crawling into the quilt, Jiaojiao curled up into a small ball. A little scared, he patted his chest and comforted himself: "I'm hiding under the quilt. Bad guys can't find me. Don't be afraid!"
Outside the courtyard, Li Ergou watched Jiaojiao running away. No matter how he called out to the kid, he refused to stop. His face immediately turned dark.
It seemed that there was no way to trick the kid into opening the door. Li Ergou took two steps back and looked at the courtyard wall, wondering if he could climb over it. Only then did he discover that there were obvious signs that Yin Zheng had raised the wall a lot.
Before the wall was raised, he could barely climb over it. After it was raised... Li Ergou circled the yard and found that there were no trees around. The only tree that was relatively close had been cut down by Yin Zheng.
Li Ergou gritted his teeth, remembered the ladder at home, turned around and walked back quickly.
After spending a lot of effort and hiding from others, Li Ergou brought a ladder, placed it on the courtyard wall facing the mountain, and climbed up.
This ladder was made by the family when they were repairing the roof. It was not very high. After Li Ergou climbed up, there was still some distance between him and the courtyard wall. He gritted his teeth and jumped up, but even with his fingertips stretched out, he still couldn't touch the courtyard wall.
Li Ergou turned his head and spat, and was about to give up when he suddenly stopped as if he thought of something. The more he thought about it, the more he felt that this sudden idea was useful.
Unable to contain himself, he turned and ran to an old hunter's house west of the village, borrowed a ladder and some hemp ropes from there, ran back, tied the borrowed ladder to his own ladder together, placed it against the courtyard wall and climbed up.
This time he successfully climbed up the wall. Looking at its height, he didn't have the courage to jump down, so he took the ladder from outside the wall, put it down again, and climbed down along the ladder.
At the end, he was impatient and couldn't go down slowly, so he saw that the height was not very high, so he jumped down directly.
He landed on the ground with a thud, stumbling twice and grinning smugly. With just this little height, you still want to stop him, Li Ergou?!
He clapped his hands and was about to walk into the inner room when he accidentally glanced at the courtyard gate and stopped. He took two steps forward and stared at the door for a long time before he realized that there was no bolt on the inside of the courtyard gate.
"Fuck him!" he suddenly cursed and slapped his thigh hard.
There was no bolt on the door at all, it was obviously locked from the outside. Damn it, he was the ancestor of the locksmiths in town, and the lock could be opened with just a piece of wire. It was a waste of his effort, and he even got a bad reputation from the old hunter.
Li Ergou gritted his teeth. He thought there was someone in the room, so he assumed that the door was bolted from the inside. In addition, he was a little nervous, so he didn't pay attention to whether the outside door was locked.
In fact, if you think about it carefully, you will understand that the door bolt must be locked from the inside. Jiaojiao is so small that she definitely cannot lock the door. Of course, it can only be locked from the outside when Yin Zheng goes out.
Jiaojiao in the inner room heard the noise, her tightly closed eyes opened wide, she took a deep breath in fear, and quickly curled up into a smaller ball, clutching the quilt tightly with her little hands.
In three dilapidated huts connected together, a group of children aged three, four, five or six were huddled together shivering. The dimly lit room was filled with dust and some dry straw was scattered on the ground.
Several burly men came in. Two of them carried a bucket of foul-smelling soup and went to the next room with an impatient look on their faces. Another two came to this room carrying a chipped earthenware bowl and half a blackened steamed bun.
The babies in this room are all fair and pretty, and can be sold at a good price. Of course, they have to eat well, otherwise they will get sick from eating too much and it will be a waste of money to buy medicine.
After distributing the food, the group walked out laughing and cursing.
"I had bad luck yesterday, I must win it back today."
"Hahaha, impossible. San'er, let me tell you, I tried twice today and my luck is even better than yesterday. I guarantee you'll lose everything I have!"
"Hahaha, San'er, if you said that to me, I wouldn't be able to stand it!"
"Bah, go to hell! I'm lucky today, but I don't believe this!"
"Hahahaha, come on, let me show you what a money grabber is!"
Hearing the noise outside, five-year-old Qin Zhiyi squatted in the corner. His fair and tender face, covered in dust, was tense. He tried to look like he wasn't afraid, but his clenched fists had already revealed his inner fear.
He was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, and grew up with luxury. He rarely left home on the day of Qiqiao Festival, so he went out for a stroll with his cousins. Unexpectedly, there were too many people at the lantern festival in the evening, and they were quickly separated. Then, as his eyes went dark, he was forcibly carried away from the crowd.
Qin Zhiyi knew that he might not be able to go home in the future. He gritted his teeth and after a while lowered his head to chew on the steamed bread in his hand and swallowed it with difficulty. Two blisters appeared in his eyes on his stern little face.
A few days ago, a child ran away. When he was caught, his arms and legs were broken in front of them and he was thrown out to beg. He was so scared that he had a fever for two days.
He ate the steamed bread with cold water with great difficulty, and soon he and other children were taken onto the carriage in batches.
In Hengyang Town, Li Ergou was walking with a purse in his hand and a happy face.
The poor little kid that Yin Zheng picked up was so fair and tender that no other kid in the village or even in the whole town could compare to him, so he was sold for a good price.
But he was lucky. He happened to catch up with Mr. Zhao and his men when they were heading to other counties. He carried the child in front of the carriage and sold the child at a high price of eight taels.
Only Mr. Zhao, who is not short of money, would spend so much silver to sell a child. Otherwise, other traffickers in the town would only offer five taels at most.
Oh, he is so lucky!
Li Ergou tossed the purse in his hand with great pride, thinking of the eight taels of silver in it, and wrinkles appeared at the corners of his eyes. Five taels of the eight taels of silver would be used to repay the debt to the gambling house, and the remaining three taels would be used to sell some flour and go home to let his mother cook a good meal. With the remaining money, if he was lucky, he might be able to earn back all his previous losses from the gambling house.
Li Ergou hummed a tune as he headed towards the gambling house at the west corner of the street. Before he had taken a few steps, he was suddenly kicked and flew a long way. He hit a small stall and slid a long way before finally coming to a stop.
Li Ergou, with his arm twisted and leg bones broken, was bent sideways, his face distorted with pain and he spat out several mouthfuls of blood.
The people on the street saw Li Ergou covered in blood, and then looked at Yin Zheng, whose eyes were full of cruelty and murderous intent. The timid ones immediately fell to the ground in fear and screamed, "Murder! Murder!"
The whole street was in chaos in an instant. Some people were running away, while others were brave enough to hear the news and rushed over to watch the excitement.
Yin Zheng looked at Li Ergou as if he were a dead object. He stepped forward and stepped on Li Ergou's chest, his face extremely gloomy. He spoke each word slowly and with a strong murderous intent: "Where is Jiaojiao?"
Li Ergou's eyes were filled with fear. After vomiting a few mouthfuls of blood, he said intermittently, "He was...taken away...by...Mr. Zhao..."
All kinds of darkness were churning violently in Yin Zheng's dark eyes. He raised his foot to break his neck, but just as his foot was about to crush his neck, he managed to hold back. If he was alone, he wouldn't have had any concerns, but now he had Jiaojiao, and he didn't want him to live a life of being wanted and wandering around.
Thinking of this, Yin Zheng leaned over and took out the eight taels of silver from Li Ergou's arms, turned around and chased in the direction he pointed.
When Yin Zheng found Li Ergou, Mr. Zhao's convoy had already driven out of Hengyang Town. When they reached a small path with sparse vegetation, the horse in the first carriage in the team suddenly lost control, turned around and galloped towards the woods.
Jiaojiao in the car was thrown unexpectedly to the ground, and before he could stand up he fell backwards again, hitting his head. Qin Zhiyi, who was also shaking violently beside him, saw this, pursed his lips and reached out to pull him into his arms.
Jiaojiao, who was circled, raised her little hand to rub her head which was hurt by the collision. Then she looked up at Qin Zhiyi, whose face was extremely tense with fear, and said, "Don't be afraid, brother. Jiaojiao is here."
Qin Zhiyi, who was swaying in the carriage, hugged the small, soft body in his arms tightly and said in a tense voice: "No... I'm not afraid..."
This sudden scene made it impossible for the people in the team to react in time. By the time they reacted, the carriage had already rushed into the woods, and the coachman was thrown off the carriage at the very beginning.
The group of people didn't even have time to help the driver who was on the ground, and hurriedly chased him into the woods.
The carriage ran for a long distance before stopping. The stopped horse wagged its tail leisurely, not looking crazy at all.
I don't know which alert kid in the car was the first to react. He kicked open the door, jumped onto the soft grass beside him, got up and ran away.
Seeing this, the other kids looked at each other, then quickly jumped off the carriage and ran away in all directions.
Jiaojiao also hurriedly pulled Qin Zhiyi out. Not daring to jump, he rolled over and lay down beside the carriage, sliding down a little before letting go and falling out. When Jiaojiao stood up, she didn't have time to rub her aching little bottom. She touched the horse's leg and said crisply, "Thank you, horse."
The horse snorted and wagged its tail, as if it was very happy.
Jiaojiao had already pulled Qin Zhiyi and ran away into the woods with her short legs.
Hehehe~ My second child gave birth to five kittens today~
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