"Are you tired, Xiaomai? Let me take you back to rest." Zhou Quan didn't want to stay here any longer; he just wanted to go back with his wife and get some rest.
Just as Li Mai was about to say she wasn't tired yet, Zhao Shi and Zhou Xing came over. "Xiaomai, let Xiaoquan accompany you back. There are too many people here, and you might get bumped into. We can handle the rest of the things here. Zhuzhu, go back and play with your mother too!"
Zhao and Zhou Xing were also worried that something might happen to Zhuzhu. She was their precious daughter, and they would go crazy if anything happened to her.
Upon hearing this, Zhuzhu obediently responded and followed her parents, along with Xiao Piaoliang and the magpie, home.
Before she left, she also took Nannan and Dongdong with her, telling them to come home with her and play.
Nan Nan and Dong Dong also liked the little girl and the ugly cat she was holding, so they didn't struggle at all and happily followed their uncle's family back to Zhou Quan's courtyard.
People watched silently as the family left.
Even if Zhou Quan offered one hundred taels, it would still be beyond their reach, so no one present said anything.
It's their money; they can decide how much to contribute and what they want to contribute.
As Zhou Quan walked out, he gave Zhou Heng and Zhou Tao a wink before leaving.
After Zhou Heng and the others finished their worship, they quickly made plans with their brothers to go find Zhou Quan.
After returning home, Zhou Quan told Li Mai why he had donated one hundred taels of silver.
Li Mai also asked him why Zhou Ermao was following behind him at that time.
Zhou Quan said that on their way back to the village, Zhou Chun pestered Zhou Ermao and Zhou Erleng, wanting them to take him into the new village, but Zhou Ermao and the others refused.
Zhou Chun is now a pariah. They've finally managed to make money and live a good life with Zhou Quan's family, so how could they possibly still associate with Zhou Chun?
It took them a year to truly realize how awful they had been before, and that Zhou Quan was their role model. They now wanted to earn money, get married, and settle down.
In particular, when the clan chief asked Zhou Ermao if he would join Zhou Quan's family to grow flowers next year, he scolded him. Zhou Ermao realized his problem and decided to turn over a new leaf and be a better person.
Actually, they were originally being harassed by Zhou Chun at the back of the group, but Zhou Quan had been keeping his hearing sharp all day, listening to the sounds around the village. He was in charge of the village's security, and he had to guard against anyone following Zhou Chun to cause trouble in the village and persecute the villagers who worked for his family.
Then they heard Zhou Erleng, Zhou Ermao, and Zhou Ju angrily rejecting Zhou Chun.
Hearing that the few people didn't want to get involved with Zhou Chun anymore, Zhou Quan thought of how these people had come to him to apologize and said they wanted to work hard for him in the future when he was in the village a while ago. He decided to go back and save them.
So he took Zhou Heng, Zhou Tao, and Zhou Zhong back to rescue Zhou Ermao and Zhou Erleng, and ordered people to keep an eye on Zhou Chun. Anyone who brought him into the village would also be driven out of the village.
Upon hearing this, Li Mai sighed, "It seems that Zhou Ermao and Zhou Erleng have truly reformed?"
"Probably. We'll see next year. If they're working hard and earning money through their own efforts, that's a good thing. What happened today has also confirmed one thing for me: Zhou Chun was brought back to the village by someone."
"Their purpose may be targeting us. Zhou Heng said that he and Zhou Zhong went to check on it secretly. Zhou Chun took his mother and his two children back to his old house last night. I don't know who helped, but they helped put the roof back on and there were bedding and other things inside."
“There’s even food, but we put up a barrier around the village gate last night, so the villagers can’t get out. It’s possible that it’s just the people behind it,” Zhou Quan and Li Mai analyzed.
Li Mai nodded and also recounted the incident involving the girl and the child who pushed her. Zhou Quan nodded, "I know, I saw it too. I've already asked Zhou Heng and the others to keep an eye on Zhou Ermao and the others."
"First, we need to make sure that they have nothing to do with that girl." Zhou Quan shook his head. "It's a pity that my spiritual power is too low right now. Otherwise, if my restriction spells were stronger, I could set up more restrictions and personally monitor these people."
Li Mai glanced at him silently. They had no idea that someone would sabotage the village's sacrificial ceremony behind their backs this time!
“Don’t worry, these things are beyond our control. We don’t have many enemies. If we’re talking about those targeting us, there are obviously two possibilities: one is the mastermind behind those mutated beasts, and the other is that crazy woman from Zhou Shu’s family,” Li Mai said softly.
She couldn't think of any other enemies she might have. She had only been married into Zhoujia Village for a little over a year, and she was quite popular there. She had helped many people, and even if they didn't thank her, they wouldn't hate her or try to oppose her.
Only that little Zhao seemed to have inexplicably hated her ever since she met her. She could sense Zhao's hatred for her from the big tent on the mountain. Although Li Mai didn't know why, she believed that her intuition was correct.
These later events further proved that she and that woman were truly incompatible, and things would inevitably happen when they met.
Now, Li Mai suspects that her mental insanity is feigned. If she isn't, then the person behind all of this is the mastermind behind the mutated beast. It's even more impossible to find them or determine their ultimate goal. All they can do is wait for their next move.
The couple were drinking tea and chatting at the table inside the house, while the children were playing in the yard. Suddenly, Zhou Heng and his group's voices rang out in the yard. Zhou Quan told Li Mai to go and rest for a while, and he went out to meet Zhou Heng and the others.
"What's the situation now?" Zhou Quan saw them, led them into the house, sat them down at the table in the outer room, and personally made tea for them.
Li Mai, on the other hand, went to rest on the couch in the inner room.
To make things easier, Zhou Quan and Li Mai used antique shelves and some flower stands to divide their house into inner and outer rooms. The inner room was not big; it contained a couch, a small kang (heated brick bed), and a table. Sometimes Li Mai would write or draw on the table, or the couple would drink tea and chat there.
In the outer room, there was a couch and a set of tables and chairs for receiving guests. On the wall hung a painting of flowers and plants, a gift from Mr. Yang from the town.
"That girl seems to be related to Zhou Shu's family, and that child is Zhou Shu's eldest son. I heard that the girl is a relative of Zhou Shu's crazy wife's family and came to take care of her. It seems that after they came, the crazy wife has become much better and is not as crazy as before." Zhou Heng told Zhou Quan what they had found out.
Zhou Quan remained calm and gave a cold snort. "We guessed right, she was indeed faking it. Any other discoveries? Did you find out they had any dealings with Zhou Chun's side?"
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