Chapter 230 Dealing with the Bad Guy
The person who wanted to escape was none other than the village idiot, who was idle all the time. He had an old mother at home who was over 30 years old and still couldn't get married. He spent all day stealing chickens and dogs in nearby villages. A few days ago, during the autumn harvest, he stole a chicken from the neighboring village while there were few people in the village. He was discovered by the children and told the adults, so he was chased to Shizi Village and had his leg broken. That's why he didn't escape last night. However, he was not hacked to death by the Beiliang people, so he was lucky.
"Where do you want to go, idiot?"
Jinfeng grabbed Erlaizi by the neck and pushed him back into the crowd.
At this time, everyone's eyes were on Er Laizi. Seeing that he was timid and hesitant when speaking, they knew that Er Laizi was definitely up to no good.
"I...I want to go home. I have to pee urgently. Why do you care about me? You are so nosy. Why don't you care about my food and drink?" Er Laizi saw that more than a dozen people gathered around Jin Feng, and his voice gradually weakened.
Jin Feng did not agree with him and argued with him, but directly exposed Er Laizi's stealing behavior. Jin Feng's next words also confirmed everyone's guess.
"You want to go home to pee? I think you want to go home to sell the stolen goods. Your family has only one acre of land, and the grass is taller than a person. Did you receive the grain this year? Why do you have more than a thousand kilograms of grain? Where did it come from?"
"It was definitely stolen by this thief. I was wondering why two hundred kilograms of food was missing from my house. My house is closest to his. When he escaped last night, he didn't even have time to lock the gate of my yard. He must have stolen it. There are marks on the cloth bags at home. I'll check it out later."
Er Laizi's neighbor Liu Changqing said angrily after hearing this.
At this time, all the families who lost their food stood up and pointed at Er Laizi and cursed him.
"You are a lazy, greedy monkey. When others are working the land, you take a nap under the shade of a tree. When others are weeding, you bask in the sun on a hilltop. When others are harvesting, you steal from behind. What are you still doing here? If you die, our village will have one less scourge, and you will not bring bad reputation to Shizi Village."
"Why are you wasting your time talking to him? In my opinion, we should expel him from the village today. His mother was hacked to death by the Beiliang people, but he didn't care and refused to claim the body. We had to help him carry it back. If such a heartless person stays in the village, it will only bring shame to our village. Who knows when it will cause a disaster."
Er Laizi listened to everyone's accusations against him, especially the woman next to him, who cursed the most fiercely. He was so angry that when everyone was not paying attention, he punched the woman in the eye. Blood immediately flowed from her eye, and a scream was heard in the crowd.
Jinfeng reacted quickly and knocked Erlaizi to the ground.
"Hurry up, get a rope, this guy is going crazy again, tie him up quickly."
Those who were nearby quickly took a rope from their homes and handed it to Jinfeng, who quickly tied the man up.
"Village Chief, what should we do with this person?"
Everyone looked at Taurus.
Jinniu looked up and saw that the sun was not too bright at noon, so he said, "Hang him under the big tree at the entrance of the village for three days. Do not allow him to eat or drink. After three days, throw him far away. Life and death are determined by fate. Whether he can survive depends on his own luck. If you drive him out now, he still has the strength to run back. Throw him far away so that he cannot run back."
Everyone had no objection to Jinniu's method. As for the injured woman, it was impossible for her to get compensation from Erlaizi. Everyone knew that Erlaizi's family was so poor that even mice didn't visit them.
"As for Er Laizi's recent beating, his family has no money to pay compensation, so I'll give you his two shabby thatched houses as compensation."
The woman then felt better.
Jinniu looked at the crowd below and continued, "I will give you another half an hour. If you return the food you stole, we will forgive you. If you still haven't returned it after half an hour, you will end up like Er Laizi."
The crowd below immediately became agitated, and more than a dozen people retreated from the crowd in shame and hurried home, but they had lost all their face.
Everyone knows about their stealing behavior and will be more careful in the future.
Taurus looked at Jin Xi and Jin Feng and saw them shaking their heads, which meant that some people had not gone out yet.
Jinniu's face darkened even more, and he said in a deep voice, "I mean what I say. Don't think that if you don't take much, others won't notice. After the autumn harvest, I have records of how much grain each of you has collected. If you don't return the grain within half an hour, I will bring people to weigh it at each household. If I find any discrepancy with the records, don't blame me for being ruthless."
As soon as Jinniu finished speaking, dozens of people went out again. They were afraid of being discovered, so they only took 200 kilograms. They thought that if those who went to the Dead Man's Ditch did not come back, it would be the same if they went to get more. They never thought that they could come back after going to the Dead Man's Ditch. God was really blind.
This time, neither Jin Xi nor Jin Feng said anything, which meant that the people who stole the grain had gone back to return it.
This is also a way to give them some face, allowing them to go back and return the food first. Otherwise, when everyone goes back later, it will be embarrassing for them to come back to return the food.
Er Laizi was hung up and forced to tell whose family the grain was moved from, and someone would go and take it back himself.
Half an hour later, everyone went home. Wan Laoer looked at the food at his doorstep and found that what he brought back was not enough, as he was still short of about 200 kilograms.
Jinniu hurried back to find the village chief.
"Village chief, my family only brought back more than 300 kilograms of grain, and we still need more than 200 kilograms."
Jinniu became anxious when he heard this. The Wan family's harvest this year was better than that of other families. He planned to keep all the grain of the Wan family for planting before the government came to collect taxes in the next few days. Now he had less than 200 kilograms of grain, which was enough to plant four or five acres of land.
Jinniu immediately took it seriously and personally took Wan Laoer to Jinxi's house to ask.
"Jin Xi, when you went to check the food just now, whose family had extra food? Are you sure there is nothing left out?"
Jin Xi thought for a moment and said, "No one is missing, but there is one family that has not been checked. She doesn't allow us to check, saying that it will disturb her husband's ghost, and then it will haunt us... and she, a woman, probably can't move the food."
"Whose house?" Taurus will not miss any clue.
"Rong's mother's house."
"Is it her house?" Wan Laoer was a little shocked. If it was her house, it would be really unlikely. After all, his family lost more than 200 kilograms of grain. Even a strong man would have difficulty moving it, not to mention Rong Niang's thin arms and legs, who definitely could not move it.
But Jinniu took Wan Laoer Jinxi to Rong's mother's house.
"Why are you two so rigid-minded? She can't carry one bag, so how can she carry baskets of things? We stayed in the Dead Man's Ditch for one night. She could have carried 500 kilograms, let alone more than 200 kilograms."
Wan Laoer and Jin Xi suddenly understood and admitted that they had indeed been stuck in a dead end.
But when the three of them arrived at Rong Niang's house, the door was locked. This was because she was the only one at home when she went to the meeting just now. She used the excuse of needing to keep vigil and did not go to the meeting, and now she was gone.
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