Even Li Mantian himself never expected that one day, even the bandits would feel sorry for him and advise him to move to the county town.
Bags of grain were carried out one by one. The head of the household had his underlings carry the potatoes first, trying to leave the wheat and cabbage behind, as a way of showing some leniency to the county magistrate.
As he was leaving, he patted Li Mantian on the shoulder before calling his underlings out of the courtyard, making sure to close the door behind them.
The head of the gang walked to the cart piled with grain, touched the heavy bags of grain, sighed with great regret, and said, "What a pity, the Li family's grain is about the same as yours. I've almost finished moving all of it, and I only have a little more than you. Who was it that just said the Li family's grain was twice as much as yours? You have to pay the price for deceiving me."
The villagers avoided eye contact and dared not utter a sound, but the chief still spotted the woman who had spoken the loudest at a glance. He patted her on the shoulder with his scabbard and said, "Since you're a woman, take all the remaining grain from her house."
These words seemed to have struck a nerve with the woman. She immediately grabbed the gang leader's leg, crying and sobbing, "Gang leader, please! I have elderly parents and young children to support. If you take it all, how will our family survive the winter? We'll starve! Please, leave us some!"
The gang leader impatiently stretched his leg, pointed at the woman, and angrily shouted at the henchmen standing around him, "Are you blind? Why aren't you pulling her away right now?"
Seeing the woman being roughly dragged away and thrown aside, the leader, still worried, instructed, "Be careful, don't cause any deaths. If we really provoke the immortals, none of us will be able to escape. Alright, alright, let's go back now."
As the grain that had been stored for a whole year, representing an entire village, was driven further and further away, many people burst into tears on the spot.
"What kind of mess is this! We worked hard all year, and in the end, it all benefited a bunch of bandits!"
"Alright, alright, at least no one got hurt this time. We can plant the crops again next year."
"My food... I was just thinking I'd have a better winter this year! Now look what's happened, we're going to have to tighten our belts again!"
"As long as we don't starve, it's better than her, right? She really lost both her wife and her army; in the end, even that little bit of food was taken away!"
"That's true, but it's strange. I remember the Li family harvested a lot of grain during the autumn harvest, so how come there's only such a small amount?"
"Alright, you still have the nerve to say that?"
...
The villagers helped each other and slowly made their way home.
Li Shi carried Ye Shuang out of the bedroom. Seeing Li Mantian sitting silently in the cellar, she felt a pang of sympathy and went to comfort him, saying, "It's alright, it's just some grain. As long as we're all here, that's all that matters. How about we don't go to the county town for now, and make plans after next year's autumn harvest?"
But Li Mantian suddenly raised his head and looked at Li Shi, saying, "I was wrong these past few days. They say a close neighbor is worse than a distant relative. I have been helping them as much as I can, but this is the only treatment I get in return. Tomorrow I will go to the village chief, sell all the land in the village, and take all our belongings to settle down in the county town!"
Mrs. Li was startled: "Even if we're moving to the county town, there's no need to sell the land, is there? What if we want to come back in the future? Our ancestors have worked so hard to build up this little bit of land; we can't just sell it like that, can we?"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com