At this moment, the doors of the main house and the west house opened, and Old Man Zhou and Zhou Lin came out together.
"Xiaomai, what happened?" Old Zhou frowned as he looked at the four people curled up on the ground, groaning and clutching their legs. He asked Limai.
“Dad, when I got up in the middle of the night, I saw a few people lurking around our door, and they even had knives in their hands. It was really scary,” Li Mai said, feigning a trembling voice.
Enraged, Zhou Lin rushed forward and looked at each of them. When he realized they were four people from the village, he kicked each of them hard in the buttocks. "It's you guys! Don't you want to live anymore?"
Several people were kicked by Zhou Lin and became angry. They tried to get up and fight back, but Li Mai beat them with a stick several times, and the four of them lay on the ground groaning.
"Dad, go find some rope, tie these guys up and take them to the clan chief's house. Didn't a few houses in the village get robbed? Tonight we finally caught the thieves." Li Mai waved a stick above the heads of the men, and if any of them dared to raise their heads, they would be hit on the head with the stick.
Old Man Zhou quickly ran to find his own rope, and the father and son worked together to tie up the four people.
Just then, Zhao hurriedly finished dressing and came out. "Xiaomai, are you alright?"
Zhao was still trembling with fright. She had been awake when she heard a noise outside the door. The next moment, she saw what looked like fire being thrown in through the doorway, and there was also the smell of incense in the room. She quickly nudged Old Man Zhou.
Hearing what sounded like wailing coming from outside, Old Man Zhou jumped down, put on his shoes, stomped out the incense, put on his clothes, and then hurried out.
"Mother, I'm fine, I was just scared." When Li Mai saw that the four people were tied up, she immediately became weak and threw away the bamboo pole, leaning against Zhao Shi for comfort.
Zhao quickly hugged Li Mai with heartache, "You're so brave, daring to hit people with a stick! I'm still trembling with fear!"
Li Mai quickly grabbed Zhao's hand, and the mother and daughter comforted each other.
"Alright, Xiaomai, go back to sleep. Dad and Xiaolin will take these people to the clan chief's house." Old Man Zhou picked up the bamboo pole that Limai had thrown in the yard, had Zhou Lin hold the rope in front, and the two of them led the people away.
Zhou Chun and the others tried to struggle, but Zhou Lin kicked them hard in the buttocks several more times.
Having been caught, the group didn't dare to make a sound. At first, they begged for mercy from Old Man Zhou, but when Old Man Zhou brandished his bamboo pole, they dared not beg for mercy anymore. They just glared fiercely at Old Man Zhou and Zhou Lin.
Li Mai went back to the two doors and picked up the incense sticks, then handed them to Zhou Lin, saying that they were evidence that they had come to harm someone.
Zhou Lin agreed, blocked the gate when he left, and then followed them away.
After they left, Li Mai told Zhao to go back to her room to rest, saying that she would listen to the sounds outside and wait for her father and second brother to return.
Zhao knew that Li Mai knew martial arts, so she nodded and said, "Then go back inside and wait. Come out when you hear any noise."
Li Mai agreed and went back inside.
Zhou Quan was anxiously waiting on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed). When he saw Li Mai come in, he looked her up and down to make sure she wasn't injured. Relieved, he asked, "How many did you catch?"
“Four, but I don’t know their names. Father and my second brother have already tied them all up and sent them to the clan chief’s house. You go to sleep first, I’ll wait for Father and the others to come back before I sleep.” Li Mai said, looking around the room, and finally stretched out her hand to him.
Zhou Quan said "Oh," and when he saw her outstretched hand, he immediately understood what she wanted. His face flushed, and he said in a low voice, "No need, I'll pour it myself tomorrow."
"Aren't we husband and wife? Are you trying to be distant with me?"
He was a patient, and Li Mai felt that it was no big deal to help him empty the chamber pot, especially since they were now husband and wife.
"It's not that I'm being distant, it's just that it's dirty. I'll do it myself tomorrow..." Zhou Quan still couldn't bring himself to say it, and he didn't dare to look at Li Mai.
Li Mai looked him over carefully and, seeing how red his face was, decided not to make things difficult for him. She turned around, went to get a wooden basin, and brought back some water, handing it to him. "Wash your hands!"
Zhou Quan dipped two fingers into the basin to wash them, but then remembered that Li Mai was in front of him. His face turned red again, and he quickly put both hands in to wash several times before taking them out and whispering a thank you.
Knowing he was shy, Li Mai didn't make things difficult for him anymore. She turned around, went out to pour water, went to the outhouse herself, and washed her hands outside before going back inside.
"You should go to sleep first!" Li Mai said, seeing that he was still sitting.
"I'll wait with you," Zhou Quan said softly.
Li Mai glanced at him but didn't say anything more. She put the lamp on the table and randomly picked out a book from the ones she had brought back for Zhou Quan on the windowsill to read.
There was no name on the book cover, but once Li Mai opened the book, she became more and more interested in what she was reading.
It tells the story of how our ancestors discovered through some serendipitous encounters that certain plants, fruits, flowers, grasses, and stones could change the color of other things. Through generations of continuous research and experimentation, they developed methods to dye cloth, paper, wood, or bamboo, making life more colorful and no longer limited to the simple black, white, gray, and the five elements of heaven and earth.
Although this book is not as meticulously compiled as later books, it already has the rudiments of professional and research directions. Although it is simple and not comprehensive, Li Mai believes that it should be regarded as a groundbreaking work in the professional field of this era.
It seems that not everyone can have such books. At least, she didn't see any professional books like this on the bookshelves in Shen's Paper Mill that day.
Actually, she could roughly guess this. In ancient times, professional skills were basically passed down from family to family, generation after generation. Sometimes they would take on apprentices, and sometimes they would only pass them on to their descendants. Generally, family-specific skills were rarely allowed to be passed on to others. This was also a form of family inheritance.
As for which generation the family line will last, that remains to be seen.
In short, Li Mai also knew that many ancient and famous cultural treasures had been passed down to later generations, but basically little of their essence remained.
Many ancient artifacts are created by later generations through unearthed relics, combined with existing historical records and records, and through speculation and calculation, or by using modern technology to recreate scenes or objects one-to-one, thus presenting many lost ancient civilizations to future generations.
Many inventions from ancient civilizations have left even the most technologically advanced people in awe, with the wisdom of the ancients proving to be in no way inferior to that of modern people.
In the post-apocalyptic era in which Li Mai lived, all technology and civilization had vanished. All the ancient and later civilizations were reduced to ruins in the apocalypse, and all traces of civilization could only be seen through films.
The purpose of these humans still living on Earth every day is to eliminate the mutated beasts, survive, destroy the apocalypse, and restore human civilization.
As she ran her fingers over the book, Li Mai sighed inwardly. It seemed that among the gifts Mr. Yun had given to the Zhou family ancestors, the most valuable items were not the gold and silver jewelry, but these books she had received.
Those gold and silver jewels were likely given to them as capital to develop this business.
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