Mr. Wang's smile froze, and he said in a low voice, "Mr. Lin, please don't misunderstand."
As soon as he finished speaking, a group of people ran over from the village path, each carrying a stick.
When Luo Shisan saw this, he was so frightened that he almost knelt down.
They've come here today genuinely seeking cooperation, but they also know it won't be easy.
So I deliberately chose this time, because the seafood market is too busy to attend to everyone...
"Do you think we're all alone in Haibi Village?" A-Jian shouted from afar.
Mr. Wang immediately stepped aside, his eyes filled with panic.
Lin Ziyan leaned against the doorway, watching them with an icy gaze.
What are they trying to do? They're just thinking of threatening me if they can't get a gift, right?
After all, the Lin family has no men to back them up, so how could she, a woman, be easily manipulated?
At this time of year, families without male heirs are easily bullied.
The village's farmland, and even homesteads, could be seized.
"We didn't mean that..." Before Luo Shisan could finish speaking, a stick struck him, scaring him so much that he immediately ran away.
One of their shoes was left at the Lin family's door.
After he ran away, the others followed suit and fled.
Mr. Wang's hair, which was usually neatly combed and shiny, became completely disheveled as he ran.
They ran fast, but the people from Haibi Village chased them fast too, and they were almost hit on the back several times.
When we arrived at the village entrance, an old woman who was chatting threw several stones at us.
Lin Ziyan didn't follow along to watch the commotion. Instead, she turned around, went back into the main room, poured a few glasses of water, and came out again.
She had just sat on the stone bench for a while when she saw the chubby girl run back.
"Those fish farmers from Luojiao Village came... to cause trouble?" the chubby girl asked, panting heavily.
There was a men's leather shoe on the ground. She kicked it, sending it flying into the stinking ditch.
Lin Ziyan raised an eyebrow slightly. "They wanted to cooperate again, but I refused, so they tried to threaten me..."
"How dare they show their faces here? Have they completely forgotten about the time they turned the tables on us?" the chubby girl said, adding a curse as she finished speaking.
Lin Ziyan shook her head, looking at her rosy face, and couldn't help but reach out and pinch it.
It was red and tender, even more pleasant to touch than a fair, fleshy face.
Fat girl, "..."
"I'm just touching for good fortune," Lin Ziyan explained after a light cough.
"They must have lost a lot of money, and now they're desperate, that's why they're coming to us."
“However, we will not cooperate with such people a second time,” Lin Ziyan continued.
The chubby girl nodded. "They don't deserve any sympathy; they brought it all on themselves."
The sunlight slanted down, casting a shadow on the top of the gate.
Before long, the clouds in the sky grew thicker and thicker, and soon the sky was covered with dark clouds, and the wind howled.
A torrential downpour suddenly descended, catching everyone off guard.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the village...
Wei Er was hitting his son with a bamboo stick, and Li Zhaodi kept blocking him, getting hit several times herself.
"Get out of my way!" Wei Er shouted.
Clang! The thunder accompanied it, making everyone's heart leap into their throats.
"Do you know how much money he stole? If you keep protecting him, you're going to go back to your parents' house and take this spendthrift son with you." Wei Er's eyes were bloodshot as he glared at Wei Sheng, who was hiding behind him.
Li Zhaodi shrank her neck. "How many could there be?"
She thought it was no more than twenty or thirty yuan. She didn't know how much money her family had, but that was all she could give her son.
"One thousand yuan!" This time the shout was even louder.
Wei Sheng's lips trembled, his legs shook, and he lost his balance and fell to the ground.
He kept thinking that he could definitely win back his losses as long as he kept sitting at the gambling table.
He once won five thousand yuan; he was lucky with his gambling.
The thought lingered in my mind, and the anxiety from just losing money slowly dissipated.
"How much? A thousand yuan? Impossible." Li Zhaodi's eyes widened, her face full of disbelief.
While she was stunned, Wei Er swung the stick forcefully, hitting Wei Sheng on the back.
"Ask him if it's a thousand yuan."
"I wouldn't have known if people from the next village hadn't told me he was losing money at the gambling table."
"He withdrew all the money from the family savings account and gambled it all away." Wei Er trembled with rage, glaring at his son on the ground, wishing he could beat him to death.
You can't earn back a thousand dollars even if you work yourself to the bone at the port for months.
Unexpectedly, this spendthrift son gambled it all away at the casino.
Li Zhaodi dared not stop her anymore. She grabbed Wei Sheng by the collar and shouted, "Son, have you been scammed out of your money?"
“You wouldn’t have gone to those dirty places before.”
Wei Sheng's back was burning hot, and he couldn't say a word.
He recently borrowed a book from his fellow villagers, which discussed some money-making techniques. He read it many times, and the fastest way to make money was to gamble.
"You'll come with me to work at the port tomorrow. From now on, you're not allowed to take a single penny of your salary from yourself until you pay back that thousand yuan. Otherwise, both of you get out of this house." Wei Er lashed out and hit him several times before stopping.
He had intended to use that money to open a small shrimp farm, but now it's all gone down the drain.
Watching others make money is more painful than cutting off their flesh with a knife.
Who in the village isn't trying to make money these days? Only his spendthrift son goes to the casino and squanders his money.
Wei Er thought to himself, it's all that old woman's fault for dying in the first month of the lunar year, which brought bad luck to the family after the New Year.
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became, and he was almost certain that this was what had led his son astray.
Thunder rumbled incessantly, and the rain poured down relentlessly, showing no sign of abating.
The waves at sea grew larger and larger, surging and crashing against the reefs, as if opening a gaping maw to swallow everything.
The next morning, the fish farm overflowed and flowed into the mudflats.
The rain is still falling, sometimes light and sometimes heavy.
The rainfall was significantly higher than usual, but no one paid attention, thinking it was just ordinary rain.
The sea breeze, carrying rain, lashed against every wall of the fishing village.
The muddy water flowed downstream into the ditch.
Lin Ziyan put on her raincoat and rain boots, and wore a hat, ready to go to the fish farm.
She felt something was off about the sea breeze, but there had been no news of a typhoon making landfall recently.
Lin Ziyan encountered Professor Shen and his wife Min Jing halfway there.
"Ziyan, why are you out here too?" Min Jingxian asked first.
Shen Hai was equally suspicious, turning to look at her with a questioning gaze.
“Master’s wife, this sea breeze is unusual, but the weather forecast didn’t say that a typhoon would make landfall…” Lin Ziyan quickly caught up with the two.
She wasn't worried about the shellfish on the mudflats, but about the fishponds.
If the water level continues to rise, the fish in the fishpond may jump out and fall into the mudflats.
Min Jing's eyes were full of worry. "Zi Yan, you need to be prepared. This might be a typhoon, and this is just the beginning..."
"Then why wasn't there any prior notice?" Shen Hai suddenly stopped and asked suspiciously.
Since returning from Beijing, Min Jing has stayed indoors and hasn't gone out, as if she's calculating something.
Looking back now, I realize something's wrong.
Min Jing didn't speak, her face revealing no emotion, but her heart was churning with turbulent emotions.
She had already reported the typhoon level to her superiors, but they didn't believe her at all and were unwilling to submit the report to the highest level.
After writing an anonymous letter, Min Jing packed her things and headed straight for Haibi Village.
"Oh no, the water level is about to reach its maximum..."
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