Chapter 38 I heard there's been something strange happening in the village lately...
I heard that something strange happened in the village recently. Several families' fields had problems; the rice seedlings they had just planted were flooded and rotted. Fortunately, his two acres of land were unaffected.
Li Zhengyang's family finished their farm work, leaving only a little bit for his father, the village chief, to finish up. With nothing to do, he picked up a handful of pumpkin seeds and came to chat with him, saying in a serious tone that someone had done it on purpose, otherwise how could it be so mysterious? The other families' fields were fine, only theirs had problems.
As for the suspects, there are two: one is a man surnamed Huang, whose name seems to be Huang Zhongyi, and the other is someone he knows, the family that claimed to be Xie Pei's aunt and offered to sell his vegetable garden at a high price.
Li Zhengyang got really into gossiping with him, and even went so far as to analyze the people he thought were suspicious.
“It’s probably Huang Zhongyi. He’s the kind of person who loves to compete and is very concerned about his reputation. I heard that the families whose fields were flooded were the ones who made fun of him a few days ago. As for Li Zhu’er,” Li Zhengyang clicked his tongue, “he’s good at petty theft, he definitely wouldn’t dare to do something like this.”
Zhu Mingyue tilted her head, her big eyes blinking as she looked at him: "Isn't this petty theft?"
Li Zhengyang was taken aback by his question and choked on his words: "I guess so, but didn't Li Zhu'er break his leg a while ago?"
"You fell and got crippled?" Zhu Mingyue was surprised; he had no idea. He still remembered how the guy had brazenly stolen his spicy rabbit meat earlier, and he was furious at the time, thinking that the guy deserved to be taught a lesson. He never expected that heaven would have eyes and directly teach him a lesson.
Li Zhengyang probably had a grudge against that man surnamed Huang, and continued, "Anyway, I think it was Huang Zhongyi. Think about it, all the drainage outlets around here were blocked, but his land was perfectly fine in the middle. If it wasn't him, then who else could it be?"
Zhu Mingyue raised an eyebrow, took out a handful of raspberries from her pocket, and offered half to Li Zhengyang. However, the other party waved his hand and refused, saying that this stuff was for children and he wouldn't eat it.
Zhu Mingyue, who will turn eighteen in a few months: ...
If he didn't want to eat them, he didn't. He casually popped two more into his mouth.
Xie Pei picked the raspberries for him on his way back from the fields. There were many children in the village, and unlike in later generations, they didn't lack snacks. When they were craving something sweet, they would even dig up tree roots to chew on, let alone these delicious wild fruits. Basically, as soon as they were half-ripe, the children would eagerly pick them and devour them all. It was purely by chance that Xie Pei was able to pick a handful.
The juice of the raspberries burst in her mouth, sweet and sour, making her feel happy. Zhu Mingyue thought to herself that she was not yet an adult and could barely be considered a child!
"Hehe, Mingyue, you look so beautiful when you smile like that." Like his little tabby cat catching a mouse, Li Zhengyang spat out the sunflower seed shells, looking completely infatuated.
Zhu Mingyue's unconsciously upturned lips quickly straightened into a straight line after his reminder. "I wasn't smiling."
"You smiled, I saw it."
"No, you're mistaken." Zhu Mingyue said expressionlessly, "You've gone off on a tangent again."
"Oh right, right, we've gone off on a tangent." Li Zhengyang realized his mistake, scratched his head, and steered the conversation back to gossip. "Not only do I think Huang Zhongyi did it, but those people also think it was probably him."
“Li Zhu’er is the only able-bodied man in his family. After his leg became lame, even farming became difficult. His parents alone are not enough. It would be understandable if he held a grudge because everyone else was farming while his family was lagging behind. But he would rather use that energy to cultivate his own land first. Besides, he has a personal grudge against Huang Zhongyi’s family. It doesn’t make sense to flood other people’s land but not his.”
Zhu Mingyue nodded thoughtfully: "That makes sense."
Seeing him nod in agreement, Li Zhengyang assumed it was an endorsement of his own insights and grinned from ear to ear. After chatting for a while, he noticed it was getting late and time to make dinner, so he happily said goodbye and went home.
After he left, Zhu Mingyue sat in the courtyard for a while, silently finished the last raspberry, and slowly smiled.
Li Zhengyang, that big idiot, doesn't he even consider what Huang Zhongyi is trying to achieve by doing this? Is it simply to satisfy his momentary urges, thus making himself the target of public criticism?
For farmers, crops are their life. They only have a few acres of land, and after taxes, they still have to support their entire family. Nothing can touch their lifeline.
If Huang Zhongyi really dares to do this, he is gambling with his own life.
I just heard from Li Zhengyang that several groups of people have gathered in front of Huang Zhongyi's house to demand an explanation. They used to be like brothers when they worked together, and some even flattered Huang Zhongyi because his family was better off. But now that their own interests are threatened, they are determined to break off relations with him and demand an explanation.
Huang Zhongyi was very distressed. He had just exhausted a group of people and spent a lot of time and effort explaining to them, but they were determined to believe that he was the one who did it.
But was it necessary for him to do something that harmed others and himself? A smart man like Huang Zhongyi would only do things that harmed others and benefited himself.
Wait! Selfish and harmful to others! As if his mind had suddenly been enlightened, Huang Zhongyi slammed his fist on the table, his eyes wide with anger, and shouted, "You good-for-nothing Li! You don't learn anything good, but you've learned this trick of killing two birds with one stone!"
He had thought it through. If it was Li Zhu'er who did it, then everything would make sense. He had always looked down on Li Zhu'er, who was so old and still couldn't find a wife and spent all his time around his mother. He had talked about him as a joke a few times in private, but he never expected that Li Zhu'er's mother would hear him.
After the argument, although neither side suffered any losses, the feud was now firmly established.
Some time ago, I heard that he had met a good girl from a good family. The betrothal gifts were clearly agreed upon, and Li Zhu'er was very happy during that time. But for some reason, the marriage fell through, and he ended up crippling himself by drinking.
Upon seeing this, he launched into another round of mockery.
This is probably why Li Zhu'er, who already harbored resentment towards him, rekindled his hatred. By deliberately flooding someone else's field, he managed to make him misunderstood and unable to clear his name.
"Oh no! Oh no! Our drain has been blocked again! Who the hell is messing with us?!" The sound of wailing came from outside the door again. It was his nearly fifty-year-old mother, who couldn't sleep day or night because of the family's land.
Huang Zhongyi clenched his teeth tightly, his chest heaving violently with anger, as if he were about to explode at any moment.
If you want to mess with me, then nobody's going to have a good time, especially you, Li Zhu'er.
...
In the Xie family courtyard,
Just like yesterday, Xie Pei brought a bunch of raspberries and handed them to him without saying a word.
Zhu Mingyue: ...Okay, they really treat him like a child.
The taste of raspberries still lingered in his mouth. He savored it briefly and found it suited his taste perfectly. Since Xie Pei had picked them for him, he figured he might as well eat them. Just to be clear, he wasn't intentionally trying to steal snacks from the village kids.
He wondered where Xie Pei had found all these fully ripe raspberries. He walked along the road looking for them, but couldn't find even a single half-ripe one.
Zhu Mingyue ate another handful of raspberries, completely satisfied.
As for the questions he had prepared to ask Xie Pei, well, never mind, I won't ask them.
In fact, he had already roughly figured out that the one who flooded other people's fields was neither Li Zhu'er nor Huang Zhongyi; the culprit was Xie Pei.
Having read countless detective and suspense novels in her previous life, Zhu Mingyue knew best that the person no one suspected was often the most suspicious.
Others might not have thought that far ahead, just like Li Zhengyang, but for Zhu Mingyue, Xie Pei was the one who flooded the fields. From the moment Li Zhengyang mentioned that Huang Zhongyi and Li Zhuer had a private feud, he understood, but he was unwilling to say more in front of others.
But none of that mattered anymore. Huang Zhongyi wasn't a good person, and he wasn't unaware of the blatant looks Huang Zhongyi and his so-called brothers gave him under the tree. Li Zhu'er was no better; if he hadn't heard for certain that Huang Zhongyi's limp was caused by a drunken fall down a hillside, he would have even suspected that Xie Pei was behind it.
Xie Pei was willing to pick wild fruit for him, so what kind of bad person could he be? He was simply someone who hated evil. In modern times, he would be a brave young man who outwits thugs and hooligans.
Zhu Mingyue thought to herself, as if through eight layers of filters. She drifted off into a sweet, sour dream, the sweet and sour taste of fruit filling her senses.
The next day, the village was in an uproar.
Zhu Mingyue and Xie Pei went to town early in the morning and didn't close the shop until the afternoon when business gradually slowed down and they went home.
When they arrived at the village entrance, they could see a large group of people standing on the ridges of the fields near his house. Men, women, and children were all disheveled, clearly having been through a fierce battle before they returned.
Zhu Mingyue's desire to watch the drama was burning brightly, but after glancing at Xie Pei, she decided against it. Xie Pei had gone to great lengths to make them fight like dogs, and she didn't want to get dragged into it again just to watch the show.
However, he didn't go to watch the excitement, but Li Zhengyang always liked to come and share these strange and unusual stories with him.
The matter escalated, and the village chief went to mediate early on. Li Zhengyang, of course, watched the spectacle unfold.
"Mingyue," Li Zhengyang said, as if he could eat pumpkin seeds forever. When he got excited, he even forgot to spit out the shells, chewing and swallowing them.
Zhu Mingyue tried to offer a reminder, but was directly interrupted.
"I told you it was Huang Zhongyi who did it! Someone witnessed him diverting water into Li Zhu'er's field last night. This morning, the field was completely flooded. The method was exactly the same!"
Zhu Mingyue: ...
What else could he say? That idiot Huang Zhongyi fell for Xie Pei's trap so easily. After this mess, the crime of flooding the fields is now branded on him, and no matter how he explains, he can't clear his name.
Li Zhengyang continued rambling on: "The two groups started fighting at noon. I ran to see it without even eating lunch. The fight was incredibly intense. I must say, Huang Zhongyi is a ruthless character. He didn't care how others hit him. He specifically targeted Li Zhuer, punching him squarely in the face. His mother managed to squeeze in to protect him, but she also got punched twice."
Li Zhengyang laughed at himself at the end, "Li Zhu'er is even worse off, his fields were flooded and he got a severe beating."
Zhu Mingyue wholeheartedly agreed with this, her shoulders trembling as she tried to suppress her laughter. Although Li Zhu'er deserved it, he was still too miserable. He must be terrified to wake up from nightmares after such a series of misfortunes.
Zhu Mingyue clicked her tongue inwardly; Xie Pei's move was indeed quite ruthless.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
