The next morning
Jiang Yuwei thought that taking Ning Zhao to school in town today was the most important thing, and she would discuss the matter of last night with the village head when she returned in the afternoon. So she woke Ning Zhao up first:
"Zhao'er, get up quickly. Today, your mother is taking you to the academy. When you get there, you must listen to the teacher and study hard. Your mother will come to pick you up when the holidays come."
When Ning Zhao heard Jiang Yuwei say she was going to send him to school, he thought he was dreaming, so he pinched himself hard.
"Oh, Mother, it hurts! Am I dreaming? Is Mother really going to send me to school?"
Jiang Yuwei patted Ning Zhao's head and laughed:
"Don't just stand there like an idiot, hurry up and get dressed and come out. We'll go to Uncle Ning's house together and take an oxcart to town."
Upon hearing Jiang Yuwei's words, Ning Zhao hurriedly got up and dressed happily.
After the two finished getting ready, they went to find Uncle Ning Wu together. Uncle Ning Wu was very happy to hear that he was going to send Ning Zhao to school, and he quickly drove the oxcart out.
After arriving in town, Jiang Yuwei first went to the bedding store to choose a single bedding set for Ning Zhao, and then bought four sets of bedding for the family to change into. If they didn't have enough for winter, they could come back and buy more later.
Jiang Yuwei thought that Ning Zhao only had this one outfit to wear out, so she took him to a clothing store and picked out two more outfits to change into. Then she saw a light green jacket and, thinking that she didn't have any nice clothes to wear out, she bought it too, so she could wear it when she went out to do business in the future.
After buying the clothes, Jiang Yuwei took Ning Zhao to a snack shop on the corner of the street and bought some food for Ning Zhao to take with him.
Only then did Uncle Ning drive the oxcart to North Street. Jiang Yuwei first bought the writing brushes, ink, paper, inkstones, and the necessary books before sending Ning Zhao into the academy. Jiang Yuwei gave Ning Zhao some instructions before leaving the academy and riding in Uncle Ning's oxcart towards Ning Family Village.
While on the train, Jiang Yuwei calculated that sending Ning Zhao to school had cost twenty-five taels of silver. In addition, she had spent another five taels on various household necessities. Now she only had thirty taels left. In a few days, after the house was repaired, she would have to settle the wages owed to the villagers for the past few days, which would be about ten taels of silver.
As Jiang Yuwei calculated that her money was dwindling, she realized that she couldn't keep up with the speed at which she was spending it. Now that she had just separated from the family, she needed money for everything, including food and other necessities. In the future, when Ning Zhao started school, there would be even more expenses. She needed to speed up the process of earning money.
As Jiang Yuwei was lost in thought, she saw that Uncle Ning had driven the oxcart to the edge of the village, so she said to him:
"Fifth Uncle, please take me to the village head's house first. I'll need you to take the things on the cart back to my house."
Uncle Ning nodded and smiled:
"It's alright, you've already chartered a car today anyway, I'll just deliver it to you."
Uncle Ning saw Jiang Yuwei off at the village head's door and then left. Jiang Yuwei carried some snacks she had bought from town and went into the yard. Aunt Ning, who was feeding the pigs in the yard, saw Jiang Yuwei and hurriedly went up to greet her:
"Yuwei, you're here. Are you looking for Ningqiu?"
Jiang Yuwei handed the snacks in her hand to Aunt Ning and smiled:
"Auntie, I came today to talk to the village head about something. Is he home?"
Seeing this, Aunt Ning quickly took the things Jiang Yuwei handed over and smiled:
"You've come all this way, why did you bring anything? It's such a waste of your money. Come on in, your uncle is inside."
Jiang Yuwei followed Aunt Ning into the house and saw that the woman inside was drinking tea, so she went up to her and said with a smile:
"Village head, I've come today to ask you for some help with something."
The village head smiled and handed Jiang Yuwei a cup of tea.
"What is it? Is it about the house?"
Jiang Yuwei sat down, casually took the tea, and shook her head, saying:
"No, it's just that I came back a little late last night. When I passed the west end of the village, I encountered some bad guys, probably men from our village. They dragged me into the grove at the west end of the village. Luckily, I managed to escape, and then I ran into Tiezhu, who was on his way home, who saved my life. Otherwise..."
Hearing this, Aunt Ning was so startled that she dropped the pastries she was holding to the ground.
"Weiwei, you must be terrified to find such a wicked person in our village."
Ning Qiu, who came out from the inner room, had also heard what Jiang Yuwei had said. She quickly stepped forward, took Jiang Yuwei's hand, and asked with concern:
"Sister Yuwei, how are you? Are you hurt? Are you alright?"
Jiang Yuwei smiled and patted Ning Qiu's hand, saying:
"Qiu-mei, I'm fine now. I injured him with a stone last night. If we go now, we might still be able to find out who that person is."
Ning Qiu turned to look at the village head after hearing this:
"Father, hurry! Get the villagers to investigate. This matter cannot be delayed. If we don't find out who that person is, our village will probably be in big trouble in the future."
The village head frowned and said:
“We really can’t delay. Ningqiu, go and invite the village chief to the west end of the village. Old woman, go and find our relatives to come to the west end of the village as well. We’ll start our search from the west. If it’s someone from our own village, we’ll find them even if we have to dig three feet into the ground.”
Aunt Ning and Ning Qiu, having received their instructions, hurriedly ran out to call for help.
Li Zhen looked at Jiang Yuwei and said:
"Yuwei, you were there in the middle of this, so I'll have to trouble you to come with me to identify the culprit. Can you go?"
Jiang Yuwei knew that Li was worried she couldn't handle it, so she smiled faintly and said:
"Of course I'm going. I won't feel at ease until I catch him myself."
The village head nodded and led Jiang Yuwei toward the west end of the village.
Upon reaching the west end of the village, Jiang Yuwei first led the village head to the place where she had been murdered, and then went into the woods to investigate. Jiang Yuwei discovered that there were still footprints left by the thief in the woods the night before, and she remembered them.
The village head then took Jiang Yuwei to visit each household, knocking on doors. Upon entering a house, he would have the man of the house come out and say a few words to Jiang Yuwei, because Jiang Yuwei still clearly remembered that man's somewhat high-pitched voice.
When they reached the fourth house, the village head and Jiang Yuwei knocked on the door repeatedly, but no one answered. The village head wondered:
"This lazy bum is a good-for-nothing. He doesn't own any land and just loafs around all day. He's probably sleeping at home. Why hasn't he come out to open the door after we've been knocking for so long? Could something have happened?"
Just then, Aunt Hua, Zhang Laizi's neighbor, came out and bumped into them, and said with a smile:
"Village head, what do you want with Zhang Laizi?"
The village head frowned and asked:
"Isn't Zhang Laizi home? Why is no one answering the door when I knock?"
Aunt Hua smiled and said:
"How could he not be home? He hasn't left the house all day. He's probably asleep at home."
As Aunt Hua spoke, she came up and kicked the door:
“Look, the gate is locked from the inside. He’s definitely hiding at home. Village head, what has he done now that he’s afraid to go out?”
Upon hearing Aunt Hua's words, Jiang Yuwei suddenly thought of something and said to the village head:
"This door must be opened today! I need to see Zhang Laizi!"
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