Upon hearing the system's words, Li Lanzhen's hand trembled, and she made a cut on Zhou's neck, causing blood to flow out. Zhou screamed like a pig being slaughtered.
The village chief of Zhoujia Village smiled insincerely and stretched out his hand, saying, "Sister, please have mercy, please have mercy. We're not here to cause trouble, we just thought if you have any extra grain, you could share some with us."
Our Zhoujia Village was scattered halfway through the journey, a village torn apart. We were only able to reach this point because we met you all. The people behind me have suffered a great calamity, so we thought..."
Before he could finish speaking, Li Lanzhen interrupted, "Shut up, I'm not your sister, stop trying to get close to me. I don't have any extra food either."
Li Lanzhen had long disliked the village chief of Zhoujia Village. Not only was he selfish and self-serving, but he was also very cunning. He always watched Zhou Shi jump around and take advantage of everyone, while he hid behind and did not say anything to stop him, enjoying the benefits.
Zhou's eldest son stared fiercely at Li Lanzhen, "Didn't we all sign contracts for the grain we were allocated? It's the same now. You can borrow grain from us and sign a contract too, and we'll return it to you later."
"You can't understand human language, can you? I've already said, there's no food."
Li Lanzhen was extremely anxious. What had that damn system been saying? The mall was going to be permanently shut down. What did that mean?
If you want to take back the space and the mall, does that mean this iron lump also has to leave you?
He wasn't saying that the system and they were one entity; if Li Lanzhen died, the system couldn't live either; if the system disappeared, Li Lanzhen would vanish into thin air.
However, the immediate problem must be solved quickly. Only by being ruthless and assertive can we drive them back.
There's no reasoning with these ingrates; just kick them out.
So she let go and kicked Zhou Shi into the crowd of people in Zhujia Village. Waving the blood-stained kitchen knife in her hand, she shouted viciously, "Get out of my house, or I'll chop whoever I catch!"
Gou Dan, Su Chen, and Han Yinan all pointed their red-tasseled spears at them, but how could the old and young possibly drive away the people from Zhoujia Village who harbored resentment and wanted to take advantage of them?
Zhou sat on the ground, clutching her neck, and cried out, “Go in and search their shacks, there must be food there. Think about the old mothers and children in your families who have no food.”
Her words stirred up the restless hearts of the people in Zhoujia Village. Zhou's eldest son and his own brothers waved their hands and shouted loudly, "Go in and search us!"
Li Lanzhen pulled the children behind her and said, "Han Yinan, take your red-clad squad and retreat." She then brandished a kitchen knife and charged forward.
Suddenly, swish, two arrows shot directly at the feet of the two men from Zhoujia Village who were charging up.
At that moment, it was as if the scene had been frozen in time, and time itself stood still.
Li Lanzhen was also startled. Where did this arrow come from?
Just then, Xue Bao shouted, "Let's see who dares to move. Are you out of your mind? Charge! Kill them all!"
Han Yuemei rushed over immediately and looked at Li Lanzhen's hand, because the blood from the cleaver was flowing down her arm.
"Mother, they hurt you. Those beasts, those ingrates."
It turned out that Han Yuemei was looking for some green wild vegetables with the two little ones nearby when she heard Gou Dan (Han Yinan) whistling.
She immediately handed Miaomiao and Linglong over to Lingdang, then headed towards the side of the mountain to find Xue Bao.
Fortunately, Xue Bao arrived in time; otherwise, just thinking about the consequences would send chills down one's spine.
Xue Bao held a sword in his hand, the tip of which was pointed directly at the people of Zhoujia Village. The other members of the guard also raised their broadswords and clubs, pointing them at them.
Li Lanzhen said, "Xue Bao, clear the people from Zhoujia Village out of the guard team and take back all the big sticks."
Village Chief Zhou, now enraged, retorted loudly, "Why did you take away the big-headed stick? It's not yours!"
Li Lanzhen said with a smile, "I'm sorry, the big stick really is mine. Almost all the weapons the guards in Hanjia Village carry were given to me by Jin Fulai, the young master, for self-defense."
The three men from Zhoujia Village were a little embarrassed at this point. They put down their big sticks and walked towards their own homes, ignoring the other people from Zhoujia Village who were causing trouble there.
Li Lanzhen didn't want to distinguish who was good and who was evil in Zhoujia Village. She didn't want to leave any future troubles for herself and her family.
Let's wait and see how the old village chief handles this. If he doesn't handle it well, his family and his relatives will leave as soon as Xue Bao and Han Mingjiang return.
Just as she thought of this, her head felt like it was being stabbed by a thousand steel needles. She hugged her head with both hands, bit her lip tightly, and squatted on the ground.
When the children saw that she was in pain, they immediately rushed over and called out to her. Han Yuemei helped Li Lanzhen into the thatched shed and made her lie down.
Just then, a dozen or so people came running down the mountain. Xue Bao recognized them as Han Minghai and Li Xishui.
Han Minghai, panting heavily, saw Xue Bao and shouted, "How is my mother?"
Xue Bao said, "Auntie has a headache; the people from Zhoujia Village didn't gain anything."
Han Minghai clenched his fists, his eyes glaring fiercely in the direction the Zhou family villagers had left. Li Xishui grabbed a wooden stick, ready to chase after them, but Xue Bao stopped her, saying, "Can you beat them all by yourself? Don't provoke them. I'll take care of them."
At this moment, Li Lanzhen, who was lying on the straw mat, had fallen into a coma. She felt that she had returned to the small courtyard where she had lived for decades. One moment she was floating to Hanjia Village, leading her children and grandchildren to escape famine and chasing after the people of Hanjia Village. The next moment she was arguing with a round-headed iron lump.
The machine's cold voice called out in her ear, "Host, you must be strong. I have already warned you that you cannot have the idea of running away and abandoning Han Family Village again."
Hanjiacun is your root, the root of your children and grandchildren. You cannot abandon them. In this little world, you and Hanjiacun are bound together and inseparable.
You'd better pull yourself together and think of something quickly. Time is running out; the online store will be permanently gone within 24 hours.
It was that last sentence that made Li Lanzhen sit up abruptly, feeling dizzy. She clutched her head with both hands, inwardly cursing.
This system is a real jerk. It brought me into this world, gave me this system, gave me this ridiculous online store, and now it wants to take it all back. It's a complete block of metal, heartless, bloodless, and devoid of any emotion.
Tongzi rolled his eyes and didn't say a word, afraid that Li Lanzhen would faint again.
"Mother, Mother, have a bowl of brown sugar water." Zhang Yueniang held a half-bowl of brown sugar water to Li Lanzhen's lips.
Li Lanzhen knew that this was another penny her eldest daughter-in-law had painstakingly saved up. She usually saved it for the children and Han Yuemei, and she was sure she would give it to her mother as well. She didn't mind, took the bowl, and drank it down.
Zhang Yueniang lowered her head when she saw the way Li Lanzhen was looking at her. She was uneasy, afraid that Li Lanzhen would blame her for saving the brown sugar and taking it back to her parents' home for her sickly mother to drink.
Li Lanzhen didn't blame him. How could she bear to blame such a filial child? She could just give her a little more in the future.
Next, she needed to deal with the mall's affairs quickly and didn't have time to say much more to them.
Seeing that his mother was in better spirits, Han Minghai said, "Mother, let's leave on our own. Let's not get involved with them. Let's go by ourselves."
The children were chattering away, clearly very angry.
Li Lanzhen looked up at Han Minghai and said, "Boss, go ask the old village chief what his attitude is towards the people of Zhoujia Village."
Let's find out first. Neither my Uncle Xue nor your brother have returned yet. We'll talk about it when they get back.
Then, she looked around at her family members and instructed them, "From now on, Yuemei and the children will stay at home. At most, they can sit outside our shack for a while. They must not leave our shack."
She looked at her father and Zhang Deshui and said, "Father, Zhang, you don't need to go up the mountain either. Find some work to do at home these few days and take good care of the children. I don't think the people from Zhoujia Village will give up. They'll gather all our donkeys and mules together and keep a close eye on them."
Li Lanzhen, the most important thing right now is to quickly enter the mall and exchange as much as possible. We also need to discuss with the system whether this space should be taken away as well. If so, we need to take out the food, cloth, and other items we took from Ankang City and store them properly.
Thinking about all this gave her a headache.
"You can all leave now, I'm going to lie down for a while longer."
Han Yuemei draped a thin sheet over Li Lanzhen and then took the children out.
When the families were building their shacks, they used straw curtains to create an open thatched shed with a few flat stones on it. They usually sat there to chat and eat. Now, Han Yanmei led them outside to sit there.
After Li Lanzhen lay down, she immediately began a conversation with Tongzi.
"Master, I have a question for you. Now that the shop is permanently closed, is the space also being taken back?"
Tongzi said, "The mall is going to be permanently closed, but your space will need to be upgraded."
Li Lanzhen was delighted. "What will it be upgraded to? Will it have farmland? Herb gardens? Mountains and rivers?"
"I really don't know what kind of space it should be upgraded to."
Li Lanzhen retorted angrily, "What use are you? Other people's systems try to get as many benefits as possible for their hosts, but what about you? You gave me this broken space, which is like a big warehouse. You gave me a shopping mall, but after a short time, you're taking it all back."
She muttered to herself as she browsed through the items in her space, preparing to hang up all the stones and rooted plants, as well as the vases and jade objects.
Keeping them is pointless; they're neither edible nor drinkable. Let's put them all up for sale. Isn't there someone who likes to collect these things? This time, we'll demand a hefty sum of supplies from him.
Perhaps all the merchants in the mall knew that the mall was going to close permanently, so when Li Lanzhen put her goods up for sale, the large screens next to the merchants' windows were filled with a dense scrolling list of the goods they needed to exchange.
After dealing with these matters, Li Lanzhen breathed a sigh of relief. As soon as she opened her eyes, she heard Han Minghai outside say, "Xue Bao, when I came back, I saw more than a dozen burly men enter the shacks of the Zhoujia Village people."
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