Li Lanzhen stood in front of her thatched hut, arms crossed, coldly watching the group of people below.
She had a premonition that the group of people Zhou brought would cause them a lot of trouble, and she wanted to see how the old village chief and the others would handle the matter.
If there is any danger, she will wait for Xue Laohu and Han Mingjiang to return, and then quietly leave with several families under the cover of darkness.
"Ring ring ring, reminding the host that you cannot abandon the people of Han Family Village and run away."
As Li Lanzhen was pondering these things, the system suddenly reminded her in her mind.
"What? You can't? You're just a lump of iron, what do you know! I'm not leaving, I'm staying here to die!"
"Host, you must not use foul language. This is a reminder that in this small world, you cannot artificially eliminate humans who are already bound to you."
Moreover, Hanjiacun is your root, the place you depend on for survival; you can't abandon them. Of course, this excludes those who died out due to natural causes or were eliminated by nature.
Li Lanzhen really wanted to curse. What kind of mess was this? She got this damn system, but it hadn't brought her much benefit at all, and it was always restricting her activities.
"Host, I am not a broken system. I have now grown into an intermediate system. In the small world of survival in ancient times, I have provided our General Administration with a textbook template."
Li Lanzhen snorted and said, "Isn't that putting my life first, going through all sorts of trials, forming a template, and providing you with a model? You still have the nerve to say that you've grown? What about my space? This broken mall is dispensable, and this broken space has no land to plant, no trees to grow, and no rivers! Not to mention the spiritual spring water that cleanses the marrow and strengthens the bones."
Li Lanzhen was arguing with the system in her mind, but she kept her ears perked up, listening to the conversation between Zhou Shi and the old village chief.
Li Lanzhen was arguing with the system in her mind, but she kept her ears perked up, listening to the conversation between Zhou Shi and the old village chief.
It turned out that Zhou had brought some villagers who had become separated from Zhoujia Village, including his parents and brothers, as well as the two sons of the village chief of Zhujia Village.
When the family reunited, they embraced and wept bitterly. This time, Li Lanzhen had no tears left to shed. She guessed that Zhou would probably beg the old village chief to let them stay, but that would be very troublesome.
When Hanjiacun fled the village to escape famine, about ten households in the village followed their in-laws.
When they encountered robbers, Wu took 10 households with her, leaving 11 households to flee the famine with Li Lanzhen and her family. Even if we include the more than 20 people from Dongjiazhuang, there are only a little over 100 people left, and more than half of them are elderly people and children.
Li Lanzhen looked at the people from Zhoujia Village that Zhou had brought, which numbered about sixty.
Li Lanzhen didn't hear what they were saying, but she eventually saw that a large group of people from Zhoujia Village had gathered and were resting at the foot of the mountain, about 200 meters away from Hanjia Village. Zhou Shi also went there.
Before leaving, she rushed to the old village chief's thatched shed and shouted loudly to her daughter, "Shanya, Shanya, you dead person, your grandma, your uncle and the others are here, your eldest brother and second brother are here too. Hurry up and take out the grain, I'll take it back to honor your grandma and grandpa."
Those around her shook their heads as they listened to her matter-of-fact words, wondering how the village chief could have ended up with such an awful in-law.
The village chief's second daughter-in-law, Shanya, came out of the shed dejectedly, trembling all over. She glanced at Zhou Shi, and when Zhou Shi looked at her, she quickly lowered her head and rubbed her hands together.
When Zhou saw her pathetic state, she was furious. She rushed over and slapped Shanya's back three times.
"You blockhead, can't you say a word? Hurry up and go in and get the food, or you can never come back to your parents' home again. Just pretend I never gave birth to you."
Aunt Huaihua came out and pointed at Zhou Shi, saying, "In-law, what's wrong with you? If you want to be crazy, take your daughter home and teach her a lesson. This is my Han Family Village's territory, so don't cause trouble here!"
Turning to his second son's wife, who was standing silently with her head down, he called out, "Second son's wife, why aren't you going inside? What are you doing standing here?"
Upon hearing this, Shan Ya hurriedly lifted her foot to enter the thatched shed, but Zhou Shi grabbed her and threw her to the ground. She sat on Shan Ya and slapped her several times, cursing as she hit her, "I wasted my life giving birth to you. If I had known, I would have thrown you into the back mountains to be eaten by wolves. What use are you? I asked you to give some food to your grandparents, but you didn't give a single grain and didn't even say a word."
"If you don't bring the grain home before dark, I'll disown you as my daughter."
After saying that, she got up and walked away triumphantly. Before leaving, she seemed to sense that Li Lanzhen was watching her. She turned around, looked at Li Lanzhen, gave her a strange smile, and walked towards Zhoujia Village without looking back.
"That look is definitely up to no good; it's probably after my food," Li Lanzhen thought.
Sure enough, before a cup of tea had been brewed, Zhou arrived with the people from Zhoujia Village.
Today, the men from Li Lanzhen's family all went up the mountain to chop firewood and cut thatch. Han Yinan was on duty in the Red Tassel Spear Squad, and Xue Bao was not at home either.
Gou Dan and Su Chen and a few other children were gathering firewood not far away. Su Chen looked in the direction of his family's woodshed and shouted, "Gou Dan, look, is someone coming to fight with Grandma? Hurry up and blow your whistle so Uncle Xue Bao can come and deal with him."
Gou Dan knew Zhou Shi, who was walking ahead, was up to no good. He grabbed the whistle hanging around his neck and started blowing it.
Speaking of this whistle, it was also taken out of Li Lanzhen's space. It was mixed in with the goods by the merchant who had exchanged labor protection supplies with her.
Li Lanzhen gave Xue Bao and his guards two iron swords, while Han Yinan and Gou Dan each had a plastic one hanging around their necks; Han Yinan's was red, and Gou Dan's was yellow.
Upon hearing the whistle, Han Yinan, who was nearby, led his squad of red-tasseled spears and rushed over. Before Zhou Shi and the people from Zhoujia Village arrived, they stood in front of Li Lanzhen, holding their red-tasseled spears and glaring at the approaching people.
As they approached, Han Yinan shouted, "Hey! Who are you people? Why are you gathered here? Are you trying to rob us, or are you trying to arrest us?"
Zhou's face darkened instantly, and she shouted, "You little bastard! You're supposed to be protecting us with your red-tasseled spear, but you've brought them to your house to protect your family!"
What else did Han Yinan want to say? Li Lanzhen patted her head and said, "You stand in the back, Grandma will deal with them."
Li Lanzhen walked over with a smile and stood in front of Zhou Shi. Perhaps it was because the people of Zhou Family Village were backing her up, or perhaps it was because she had forgotten how formidable Li Lianzhen was. So she was still muttering curses under her breath.
Li Lanzhen wasn't going to tolerate her and slapped her twice.
The two loud slaps not only stunned Zhou Shi, but also frightened the people of Zhoujia Village.
Li Lanzhen clapped her hands and said with a smile, "Old Zhou, you've probably forgotten how powerful I am. Dare to insult my grandson, I'll knock your teeth out!"
With a howl, Granny Zhou charged towards Li Lanzhen.
“Brother, son, you just watch this scumbag beat me up, why don’t you charge? Look, this is the scumbag old woman. She got some grain from the cave and only gave us a little. She has plenty at home. Her big blue mule cart and donkey cart are full of grain. We are starving to death, but she is heartless and won’t give us a single thing to eat.”
Li Lanzhen glanced at the people of Zhoujia Village and saw several men angrily trying to rush into her family's thatched hut.
He took a few steps forward, grabbed Zhou's hair, held a kitchen knife in his hand, and shouted at Zhou's neck, "If you dare to take one step forward, I'll slit her throat."
The cold kitchen knife pressed against her neck, and Zhou was startled, too afraid to move.
They remained frozen in place, locked in a standoff.
At this critical moment, the system's ding-dong sound suddenly rang in Li Lanzhen's mind.
"Warning! Warning! Host, please note! The in-game store will be permanently closed in one day! The in-game store will be permanently closed in one day!!"
"Host, please redeem the items you wish for within one day! Redeem them!"
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