Chapter 55: Seeing Injustice on the Road
The pancake stall owner was quick; Zhao Daya had just finished counting the coins when he started packing her five pancakes. She became flustered, but Ge Niu reacted quickly and caught the money bag that was about to fall.
Just as they were about to catch it, someone suddenly appeared out of nowhere, bumped into them, picked up the money bag that had fallen to the ground, returned it to Ge Niu, said "Sorry," and then quickly left.
Only when his gaze fell upon the money pouch in his hand did he realize with a start that it was not Zhao Daya's money pouch!
Shen Zhiyi was the first to react, shouting in the direction the person had disappeared: "Stop thief! Pickpocket! It's that guy in the gray shirt and short-sleeved shirt with a black cloth strip around his waist, the one running ahead!"
The crowd initially gave way to the man for his reckless driving, but upon hearing this, some well-meaning but fearful individuals might hold a grudge tried to trip him up, but he managed to nimbly avoid them.
Zhao Daya ran in the lead, followed by Tang Huaya, and then Shen Zhiyi and the others. Amidst their running, she shouted, "Quick, catch that person! He stole my purse!"
After running for a while, no one came to stop her. Zhao Daya shouted as she ran, "Whoever catches him, I'll give them twenty coins!"
With such a generous reward, brave men were bound to appear. Some people tentatively reached out to stop the thief, only to be frightened by the scissors he pulled out.
However, the scholar blocking the way did not give way. Instead, he tore down the flagpole of a nearby stall. His smooth and fluid movements looked familiar to Shen Zhiyi.
The scholar swung the flagpole at the thief, striking him hard on the wrist with the pole. The scissors fell to the ground with a clang, and the scholar kicked them away. Then, in a swift movement, he pulled the thief's arm back.
"My arm, my arm is going to break!" the thief shouted. "I'll only be locked up for a few days at most, but if you, scholar, break my arm, you'll go to jail too, and that will damage your reputation..."
Snap!
Zhao Daya, who had caught up with him, slapped the thief on the head and said angrily, "You think you're right to steal? If it weren't for this scholar helping you, you would have gotten away! Once you get a taste of the benefits of doing something wrong, you'll do it again and again, until you commit a terrible crime and lose your head, do you even know that!"
"Where does she get all these reasons?" Ge Niu couldn't help but ask softly.
“Perhaps it was something her grandfather once said,” Shen Zhiyi said calmly.
Seeing this, Sun Sanni couldn't help but take another look at their interaction. She could sense that Ge Niu was relaxed, otherwise she wouldn't have asked that question. Perhaps they really could use "their usual way of getting along".
"Miss, please check if anything is missing." Feng Yuanzhou took the money pouch and handed it back to Tang Huaya, who was relatively calm.
Seeing the money bag handed to her, and having learned from her experience at the pancake stall, Tang Huaya immediately reached out, her movements swift and strong, grabbing Feng Yuanzhou's hand in the process. She blushed deeply and whispered, "Thank you."
Feng Yuanzhou quickly withdrew his hand and said, feigning composure, "You're too kind, young lady."
"I will take this thief to the county government right away," Feng Yuanzhou said coldly, his gaze fixed on the person at his feet.
"No! No! I've already returned my lost items, not a single coin is missing!" the man pleaded. "Besides, don't you scholars always say things like 'forgive those who have wronged you,' and 'correct your mistakes if you admit them'? I know I was wrong! I really know I was wrong!"
"If small mistakes aren't punished, they won't learn their lesson. Do we have to wait until a big mistake happens?" Zhao Daya said angrily, taking the money bag given to her by Tang Huaya and carefully counting the copper coins and silver coins inside. This was all the wealth her family had!
"Let's go! I'll go with you and take him to the county government!" Zhao Daya said with a righteous expression, but as soon as she finished speaking, she realized she had spoken too quickly and couldn't help but look at Shen Zhiyi with a guilty conscience.
"Let's all go, we can all testify about this!" Shen Zhiyi said, which also helped Zhao Daya out of her quick wit.
The group turned and headed towards the county government office. The constables on duty at the entrance all stared at them, startling Zhao Daya, who was walking in front. She couldn't help but ask Shen Zhiyi, "Why are they all looking at us? Do they think we're going to fight at the government office because there are so many of us?"
Shen Zhiyi also had questions about this, but she didn't have Zhao Daya's wild imagination and chose to wait and see.
"Scholar Feng, what crime has this man committed?" the constable standing in front asked.
“Theft,” Feng Yuanzhou replied succinctly.
"He stole my purse!" Zhao Daya quickly added.
"Alright, then hand the man over to us." The constable said slowly, "Recently, the magistrate has stopped locking up these kinds of people for a few days and started having them go around emptying chamber pots. That stuff..."
"What are you doing!" County Magistrate Mu's voice came from behind them. His gaze passed over the people in front of him and landed on Shen Zhiyi. He blinked rapidly in disbelief, pushed the person in front of him aside, and smiled. "Miss Shen, you haven't been to the yamen for a long time. How have you been lately?"
Shen Zhiyi still remembered when she first met Magistrate Mu. Why did he seem to be trying to curry favor with her now?
"Your Excellency, thanks to you, our Xiaba Village is doing quite well," Shen Zhiyi replied politely.
County Magistrate Mu stroked his meticulously groomed beard and said with a smile, "This is all thanks to the magistrate's excellent governance!"
Although he didn't understand why Magistrate Mu wanted to chat with him, he didn't want to end the conversation in a bad mood. Fortunately, Scholar Feng finished explaining the matter briefly, and then they ended their conversation.
Feng Yuanzhou said "Goodbye" and then turned to leave. Zhao Daya hurriedly took out twenty coins to chase after him, but was stopped by Tang Huaya. She looked at the departing figure and said slowly, "Young Master Feng is a gentleman, he won't accept it."
"Does a gentleman not eat?" Zhao Daya asked, puzzled.
Sun Sanni couldn't help but chuckle softly.
Zhao Daya wanted to ask, "What are you laughing at?" but then she turned her head and remembered something more important, and shouted, "Oh no, my sesame seed cake!"
After saying that, she hurriedly ran towards the pancake stall, but after a few steps she turned back and saw that Tang Huaya hadn't followed, so she quickly pulled her along, saying, "You didn't take your pancake either, we have to hurry back, or the stall owner won't honor it!"
Driven by these words, everyone quickened their pace.
As Shen Zhiyi and Aunt Zhao, who were walking at the back, arrived at the pancake stall, they saw Zhao Daya's big smiling face, indicating that she had gotten the pancakes.
No one expected that this trip to the city would be so eventful. On the oxcart back, the others were unusually quiet.
Shen Zhiyi deliberately chose a seat close to the carriage and spoke to the old man driving it: "Uncle, do you know the way to Shunshui Village?"
“Yes, I recognize her. A family in our village had a daughter who married there,” the old cart driver said slowly.
"I'm thinking of renting the old man's oxcart tomorrow to deliver seedlings to Shunshui Village," Shen Zhiyi said frankly. "If that's the case, the old man won't be able to carry people that day, and the journey is longer than going back and forth, so I'm planning to rent it for eighty coins a day. I wonder if that's feasible?"
As the old man was deep in thought, Zhao Daya suddenly said, "I want to go too! Wherever you go, I'll go!"
"Okay, okay," Shen Zhiyi replied, completely unaware of where Zhao Daya's clingy nature came from.
The old man driving the cart then asked, "When are you going to your village tomorrow?"
"We can leave tomorrow at 9:00 AM. If the sun is too strong at noon, we'll wait under the shade of the trees until it gets a little cooler before we set off. That will make things easier for both us and the cattle." Shen Zhiyi carefully planned the itinerary. "We'll probably set off for Shanshui Village around the end of noon. I'll try to be as quick as possible and be back by 5:00 PM at the latest."
Meanwhile, the old man driving the carriage was also estimating the time. He nodded in agreement, understanding that the girl had a plan, and said, "Alright, we'll do as you say, girl."
Upon arriving at Xiaba Village, Aunt Zhao saw Old Man Tang and his group standing at the village entrance. She quickly got off the oxcart, her gaze filled with worry, but her words shifted to: "If you sprained your ankle, just stay home and behave yourself. Why are you wandering around like this!"
"I'm just afraid you might accidentally fall into a pit too..." Before Old Man Tang could finish speaking, Aunt Zhao interrupted him with a few "Pui pui pui" sounds, saying, "Do you think everyone is like you, with eyes just for decoration?"
Even when spoken to like that in front of the younger generation, Old Man Tang just smiled, hobbled over to Aunt Zhao, silently reached out and took her basket, and said, "You sold your stuff? Someone actually bought it?"
Upon hearing this, Aunt Zhao slightly raised her chin and hummed softly, "Of course! We've arrived in the county town..."
As Aunt Zhao walked, she talked about what had happened in the county town. Suddenly, she swayed, and Ge Niu and Tang Huaya, who were following behind, quickly reached out. Old Man Tang swiftly picked her up around the waist.
"Oh my God..." Aunt Zhao exclaimed, not frightened by the pit in front of her, but by the moment she was suddenly picked up.
Shen Zhiyi witnessed this incredibly romantic embrace, and then heard Aunt Zhao, who was standing in the middle, ask coldly, "Who dug the drainage ditch right in the middle of the road? Why aren't you backing it up properly?"
"Hey, I heard you shouting from far away. What happened?" someone asked as they walked over.
"When did this pothole appear on the main road in the village? I almost fell in!" Aunt Zhao said angrily.
"What you're talking about, a lot of people have encountered this, so everyone is filling in the holes. I don't know who dug up the village roads and made them so bumpy," someone else said.
"A lot?" Shen Zhiyi asked.
"Upon closer inspection, we discovered that each plot of land had a small ditch, but the ditch was broken when we tried to reach it. Who would dig drainage ditches in the fields without notifying the people in the neighboring fields? It certainly wasn't done by someone from our village," someone immediately concluded.
“This is indeed a bit strange,” Shen Zhiyi said slowly, then turned to find out more from the village chief.
As soon as she arrived at the village chief's house, she bumped into Li Shitou, who was carrying a hoe as he went out.
"Uncle Stone, where are you rushing off to?" Shen Zhiyi asked.
“The back mountain! I don’t know which scoundrel dug a ditch in the back mountain. If the ditch is flooded, our village will be submerged!” Li Shitou said with lingering fear. “Alright, you go home and rest. We men will take care of filling the ditch.”
"I know, then you guys need to be careful while you're working," Shen Zhiyi said, and then walked towards home.
Sunlight fell on the fence, and Shen Zhiyi saw two figures in the distance at the gate of her yard. When she got closer, she found that they were Wang Cuihua and Zheng Lanhua.
“Miss Chen,” Zheng Lanhua said, clearly flustered.
“Don’t call me Miss Chen, call me Sister Chen.” Wang Cuihua said as she lifted the kudzu cloth on her basket. “I asked my dad to save some ribs. Sister, didn’t you want to eat some ribs? I remember.”
Shen Zhiyi had mentioned sweet and sour pork ribs before, and she didn't expect the other party to still remember it, which made the friendship seem all the more sincere.
"Thank you, Sister Cuihua," Shen Zhiyi said gently, looking towards Zheng Lanhua. "Sister Lanhua, did you come to tell me if the land reclamation in Yugou Village is finished?"
"Hey, Aunt Chen, you're so clever, you guessed it right away," Zheng Lanhua said with a smile. Although her skin was several shades darker, her smile was still very beautiful.
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