"Someone died?"
The brigade leader's vision went black, and Xiang Nuan quickly stepped forward to support him, her voice urgent, "It's still unclear. People at the educated youth settlement have been shouting that someone has been killed. When I got there, I saw blood everywhere."
The sound of villagers talking suddenly rose from the mountainside. Some cursed the educated youth, saying they were all troublemakers and should be sent back to where they came from, while others ran down the mountain excitedly without saying a word.
Xiang Hongjun handed the hunting rifle to the hunter and instructed the brigade cadres to take the villagers back to the village as soon as possible, thus concluding today's harvesting activity.
Then he charged ahead down the mountain, and the villagers followed closely behind without even being told.
Not far away, Wenrou collapsed to the ground with a thud. She knew she was finished!
If something happens to Ye Guo, she can't escape, she definitely can't escape!
...
When the brigade leader rushed to the educated youth settlement like his pants were on fire, it was incredibly lively inside...
— Cries, curses, and pleas for mercy blended together!
Pei Lanhua lay on the ground covered in blood, with traces of wood ash on her forehead. The bleeding had stopped, but she was still unconscious.
The three notorious troublemakers in his team were ganging up on the educated youth. Some were hitting him with baskets, some were kicking him, and some were even biting him.
Jiang Wenli screamed in agony as he was bitten and fled in all directions around the yard.
The petite and delicate Ruan Zhiqing sat on the steps, tears streaming down her face, and glared fiercely at the Red Army.
This guy looks pitiful, but his intuition tells him that the other person is the culprit!
He roared, "Stop! All of you, stop!"
But having just been frightened, and with Ruan Xianxian's intentional or unintentional instigation, how could the aunties, who were venting their fear, obediently listen?
Ye Guo and his group, who had been severely injured by Ruan Xianxian and then besieged by the aunts, saw the captain as their savior.
She ran towards him frantically, yelling, "Help! Help! These crazy women are going to kill me!"
"If something really happens to us, you, the captain, will be held responsible. Stop them quickly."
"Pah!" Wang Juhua spat, her eyes red with anger. If it weren't for Ruan Zhiqing kicking her at the crucial moment, she would be lying on the bed with Pei Lanhua right now.
She grabbed Liu Xiatian's hair and slapped her twice, once on the front and once on the back.
Liu Xiatian's lip was cut, and his eyes were seeing stars from the slap.
With a dark expression, the brigade leader stood amidst a group of villagers and educated youth circling around him, and angrily ordered in a deep voice, "A few people come in and separate them."
The villagers, who had been waiting for a long time and were eager to see what would happen, filed in and pinned Ye Guo and the others to the ground.
Taking advantage of the situation, the three aunts, Mei, Zhu, and Ju, kicked her a few more times, but when they saw that the brigade leader was going to get serious, they reluctantly withdrew their feet.
The educated youth settlement was in a mess. Wild vegetables were drying in baskets, clothes were hanging in the yard, and water ladles were flying all over the yard.
He glanced around, then had the unconscious Pei Lanhua carried to the clinic before asking in a deep voice, "Tell me! What happened?"
"You guys are really something, not going to work, not going into the mountains, just hiding here stirring up trouble!"
Jiang Wenming and Ye Guo exchanged a glance, and Jiang Wenming spoke up before the other women could say, "It's Ruan, the educated youth. Spring planting is too hard, so we just wanted to take a break and come back for a while."
It was Ruan Zhiqing who led a group of people in, storming in, not only accusing us of stealing her things, but also shouting and threatening to kill us.
"Yes!" Ye Guo exclaimed in anguish, "We were beaten without even knowing what happened! Captain, you must do us justice!"
Liu Xiatian kept crying.
The four men's heartfelt performance stirred up righteous indignation among the villagers. The reason was simple: these four men usually caused trouble in the village, making them disliked by everyone and even dogs.
It's quite possible that they deliberately caused trouble.
"The other day, Zhu Zi scared my child by saying that eating candy would cause worms to crawl on his teeth, so he forcibly took the candy out of his child's mouth and stuffed it into his own."
“Yes! Wang Juhua’s own chickens ran out because she didn’t keep an eye on them. She insisted that the eggs were laid in my house and demanded that I return them to her. When I refused, she lay down at the door and started crying and making a scene.”
"Sinking plum blossoms..."
The crowd voiced their accusations, giving the captain a headache. The three usually arrogant and domineering aunties looked pleased with themselves, while Ye Guo and the others exchanged glances and breathed a slight sigh of relief.
Ruan Xianxian clicked her tongue, stood up, and walked up to Xiang Hongjun. "Captain! I need to report this to the police."
As soon as he finished speaking, the entire room fell silent.
Her voice wasn't loud, and though it was choked with sobs, every word was clear:
"I came back with four aunts to take the geese. As soon as I opened the door, several people rushed out of my room and attacked Aunt Lanhua. The murder weapon was still there!"
All eyes turned to the blood-stained wooden stick that had been kicked onto the woodpile, and gasped.
Ye Guo tried to argue, "We were acting in self-defense; it was you who forced your way in and attacked first."
"Bullshit!" The three aunties, having regained their senses, exploded. "It was clearly you who went into the young educated youth's room and were caught red-handed by us."
"Yes! You have ill intentions. You tried to attack and injure people even after we cornered you in the house. You thieves and murderers, Ruan Zhiqing, we support you in reporting this to the police."
Captain, you didn't see it, that fair-skinned young man was aiming for Lan Hua's life. Our village absolutely cannot tolerate someone like that.
Report it to the police! Make sure you report it to the police and have them locked up behind bars and forced to eat peanuts.
Having served in the Red Army, Xiang had a general idea of what was happening based on the evidence and the reactions of the people present. He gestured with his chin towards Ruan Xianxian, who was secretly wiping away her snot bubbles.
"Go inside and see what's missing."
This statement implied that they believed the men had stolen the goods, which panicked Ye Guo and the others.
Ruan Xianxian shook her head, "I won't go in. Going in will disturb the scene. Let's wait for the police to come and investigate! The truth will out, and the thief won't get away."
"Don't report it to the police!" An old man, panting heavily, ran up to the gate of the educated youth settlement. He was short in stature, but his eyes were gloomy.
"Reporting to the Public Security Bureau will affect the selection of outstanding brigades. How much less fertilizer will we get next year? And what about the quota for the Workers, Peasants and Soldiers University?"
"Village Chief!" Everyone made way for the old man, who strolled over to Ruan Xianxian, his lips twitching into an ugly smile.
"Child! Go and see what's missing and ask them to return your things."
Take my advice: if this gets out of hand and the police are involved, they'll refuse to reveal the whereabouts of the stolen goods, and you'll end up losing both your money and your reputation.
Even the captain thought he made sense. The important thing now was to determine what was missing. He could handle something as small as a few cents, but if the amount was huge...
You must and can only report it to the police.
Ruan Xianxian seemed to be persuaded and asked the brigade leader and the village chief to go into the house with her to check.
The house wasn't ransacked. The most noticeable thing was a military green waist bag that was wide open in the middle of the kang (a heated brick bed), with several bundles of newspapers spilling out.
Ruan Xianxian grabbed the item and quickly searched through it. Then, as if she were about to lose her balance, she suddenly turned around.
"Captain! The 1,000 yuan in family division funds and 1,000 yuan in compensation that I had in my bag are gone. The total of 2,000 yuan has all been replaced with newspapers."
"What? Two thousand yuan?" The village chief was shocked. The entire commune's public funds combined didn't even amount to two thousand yuan. He angrily turned to Ye Guo and demanded, "Where's the money?"
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