"Yes, she did come to see me last night, but she only came to see me about something, not what you think." Ye Cheng originally wanted to say that Widow Zhang wanted to seduce him, but then he thought it wouldn't be good for her reputation, so he changed his story and said that she had something to do.
Seeing that Ye Cheng looked serious and didn't seem to be lying, Ye Guowei began to waver.
"You really weren't with her?"
"What nonsense! Dude, I'm so handsome, I can have any woman I want, why would I need to look for someone so old?"
"But you haven't found a woman yet, you're still single," Jiang Yunxiang interjected softly.
Ye Cheng was speechless. My sister-in-law, is this the time to say something like this?
Ye Guowei rolled his eyes at his wife and continued, "That's good, that's good. Those people in the village love to gossip. They kept saying you'd slept with her. I thought you were really bewitched. It scared me to death."
“That’s right, Cheng, you don’t know how convincing they are about it. Your older brother and I are so worried. She’s a widow, and she’s so much older than you. If you really go after her, we don’t know how to persuade you.” Jiang Yunxiang also started lecturing Ye Cheng.
Ye Chen's ears were ringing, so he quickly took out some money to interrupt the two of them, "Sister-in-law, this is the money from selling oyster pearls today, please keep it."
It's best to give the money to your sister-in-law; you'll almost never accept it from your older brother, Ye Guowei.
Sure enough, Jiang Yunxiang took the money, glanced at it, and exclaimed in surprise, "So much money! Several thousand yuan?"
"Yes, it sold for 10,000, and we split it in half."
"How can that be? These are the oysters you brought, we can't accept money from them." Ye Guowei waved his hand, trying to refuse.
Ye Cheng quickly said, "No, brother, some of the oysters are from the beans. Oysters only cost a few dollars each, and not everyone can tell the difference. I've already deducted the cost of the oysters, so don't worry."
Hearing Ye Cheng mention that his son had also found one in his food, Ye Guowei felt a sense of pride for no reason and became less insistent on getting a refund.
"Sister-in-law, here you go. I deducted the cost of the oysters."
Jiang Yunxiang smiled and put it away, "Then I'll take it, Acheng."
"I'll take it, I have to. I don't have anything else to do, so I'll be going now." Ye Cheng finished paying and was about to run away; there was no point in staying here and getting scolded.
Just then, a loud, rough voice, tinged with some background noise, rang out in the air.
"Hello, hello everyone, this is village chief Chen Jinhai. Please send one person from each household at 6:30 tonight for a village committee meeting."
To reiterate, this is Chen Jinhai. I'm here for the meeting at 6:30 PM.
Ye Cheng looked at his older brother with a puzzled expression, "What major event has happened in the village recently?"
Generally speaking, village meetings are not held unless there are major events in the village, and the village committee is elected every five years. It seems that it is not time for a re-election yet.
Ye Guowei scratched his head. "I haven't heard anything major. Let's talk about it tonight. It's getting late. Why don't you eat something here and come with me later?"
Ye Cheng is now an adult, and most importantly, he has separated from his family, so he is considered an independent household and is eligible to participate.
Ye Cheng checked the time and realized it was indeed getting late, so he agreed.
The two ate something quick, timed their departure, and set off. The village committee building is much better now than before, and there's even a meeting room, so they don't need to bring their own stools anymore, whereas they used to have to bring their own.
Along the way, Ye Guowei encountered several groups of people, greeted them all, and asked what they were going to do that night, but they had no idea.
"That old bastard Chen Jinhai is clearly up to no good," Ye Cheng said.
After saying that, he had a sudden thought. Under the pretense of taking a smoke, he went out to make a phone call and asked Xiao Hu to come over. He had a feeling that it might be related to him, and he would suffer if he didn't find some help.
After making the call, Ye Cheng followed Ye Guowei to the village committee.
Baiyun Village is neither too big nor too small, with several dozen households of varying sizes.
A group of people, mostly men, sat noisily on the benches, not caring about their image. They lit cigarettes, and damn, the PM2.5 levels were off the charts. Ye Chengdu couldn't take it anymore.
Fortunately, the meeting room windows were large enough that opening them on both sides reduced the smell of smoke considerably.
At 6:30, a coughing sound came from outside, and then Chen Jinhai rushed in, shouting to the crowd,
"Come on, put out all your cigarettes. The old man is coming, and he can't stand the smell of so much smoke."
The old man is here?
Ye Guowei suddenly had a bad feeling, and he looked at Ye Cheng.
Everyone else glanced at Ye Cheng. Recently, Ye Cheng was the only one who had anything to do with the old master. He said that Ye Cheng had offended the Sea Dragon King, and that he had suddenly come to the meeting today, so it was most likely related to Ye Cheng.
Ye Cheng's expression remained unchanged as he coldly watched Chen Jinhai, waiting to see what he could do.
Chen Jinhai and a nephew from the same clan helped Old Master Chen into the room. Everyone had forgotten what the old man's name was. He was 90 years old and hunched over. It was said that he was a tall man of 1.8 meters when he was young, but now that he was old, he had shrunk down.
Taking advantage of this moment, Ye Cheng looked back and saw that Xiao Hu was already sitting in the back. Ye Cheng felt much more at ease. In some matters, even his own older brother might not be as supportive of him as Xiao Hu.
"Um, everyone, please be quiet. I called you all here today because the old master has something to say." Chen Jinhai gestured for everyone to stop talking.
The room fell silent as everyone craned their necks, eager to see what the old man had to say.
"Hello, hello, cough cough." The old man coughed twice into the microphone before standing up unsteadily, looking around, and beginning to speak.
“I dreamed of the Dragon King a while ago. He said that someone in our village was using evil magic to catch seafood.”
As soon as he finished speaking, murmurs arose below, and many people began to secretly look at Ye Cheng.
Many people have heard the previous rumor, but this time it was said in a formal setting, which is different.
Whether the Dragon King is real or not is not within their consideration; they have already assumed he is real.
Ye Cheng looked up at the ceiling without saying a word.
The old man continued, "The Dragon King said that if this person continues to do this, he will punish our village, and then no one will be able to catch any fish when they go out to sea."
For fishermen, not catching fish is like cursing farmers to not be able to grow crops—it's a bit malicious.
The people below couldn't sit still any longer and started shouting.
"No, who is it? Go and offend them yourself. You're making it so that no one in the village can survive."
"That's right, this is cutting off people's livelihood! Village chief, who is it?"
"Tell us, and we'll see who it is."
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