Seeing Aunt Zhao blocking Grandma Lin's way, before she could even speak, Lin Jingge preemptively said, "Auntie, please make way. We're going back, and you're blocking our way."
Aunt Zhao's fawning expression froze, and for some reason, she obediently stepped aside.
Aunt Zhao followed Lin Jingge back, chatting with her along the way.
"Bring your grandma to my house for dinner sometime, and I'll cook something delicious for you." At the crossroads, Aunt Zhao said to Lin Jingge in a flattering tone.
After saying that, without waiting for the other party's reaction, she hurried towards her house. Aunt Zhao was walking fast, wanting to get home quickly to tell her husband that there was a wood-type cultivator in the village.
For dinner, Grandma Lin cooked a pot of sweet potato rice, which Lin Jingge ate with great relish.
The grandfather and grandson were having a meal in the yard when they suddenly saw a group of people holding torches appear in the distance.
As the crowd drew closer, Lin Jingge finally recognized that the person leading them was the village chief of Qingyun Village.
She didn't want to join in the fun, so she didn't go forward, but she didn't expect that the group of people were heading towards her house.
"Village chief, what are you doing so late?" Granny Lin asked as they crossed the wooden fence and entered the courtyard of the dilapidated house.
The crowd, carrying torches, came on strong.
Suddenly, a person darted out from the crowd. The person was incredibly fast, reaching Granny Lin in the blink of an eye, grabbing her sleeve tightly: "Old woman, give me back my son!"
"What son? What do you mean by this?!" Seeing her grandmother being pulled, Lin Jingge quickly stepped forward, pried open the fingers of the person grabbing Lin's grandmother's sleeve, and freed her from the sleeve.
"Grandma Sun's son is missing, and the last place he was seen was near your house." Shen Ting stepped out from behind the village chief and quickly gave a brief account of the events.
“They must have kidnapped my son! No child has ever gone missing in our village in all these years, and my child is gone in less than two months since they came! They didn’t steal him, they stole him!” Grandma Sun was so emotional that she couldn’t help but hit her while speaking.
Grandma Sun had a son late in life, and she cherished him dearly. Today, she wasn't paying attention and he disappeared. Some villagers had seen the child in the neighborhood, so Grandma Sun brought people to search the area for a long time, but they still couldn't find him.
Lin Jingge grabbed Granny Sun's hand, which was about to strike, and said coldly, "Did anyone see us stealing a child?"
She flung away Granny Sun's arm and looked coldly at the person standing in front of her.
"You dare to come to our door without any evidence?"
Grandma Sun's husband came out and stood behind her. Facing Lin Jingge's gaze, he glared back and shouted, "You didn't leave the village today. Whether the child was stolen or not, we'll know if we search the house!"
"We didn't steal any children, so why should we agree to let you search our house?" Lin Jingge scoffed. "Does this mean that every time someone loses something, they'll come and search our house? Outsiders aren't allowed to be bullied like this!"
Lin Jingge's words struck a chord with some people. There are many outsiders in Qingyun Village who have settled down there and have suffered discrimination. Whenever something happens, they are blamed for it.
"I think you're just feeling guilty!"
"Village chief, there's no witness or physical evidence, are you just going to let them cause trouble in my house?" Lin Jingge was too lazy to continue talking to Aunt Sun, and looked directly at the village chief who could take charge.
"The last place the child was seen was near your house. Why don't you let us search the area to clear your name?" The village chief naturally sided with the villagers of Qingyun Village.
“Father…” Shen Ting nudged his village chief father with dissatisfaction, feeling that Lin Jingge was right.
However, before he could even open his mouth, his father glared at him, and the rest of his words were stuck in his throat.
"No need to say more, I definitely won't let you search today. We didn't steal the child, so you'd better look elsewhere!" Lin Jingge blocked the way for the crowd.
Despite being a petite woman, she showed no fear whatsoever when facing the menacing villagers; on the contrary, her aura overwhelmed the crowd.
“Yes, village chief, we don’t have any witnesses. If we really search them, it might give others something to say.” Aunt Zhao stepped forward to speak up for Lin Jingge, giving Grandma Lin a kind smile.
Ultimately, despite Lin Jingge's repeated obstruction, the village chief had no choice but to leave.
The group of people left in a hurry and disappeared in a moment.
"Come out!" Granny Lin shouted at the air beside her.
Her voice carried spiritual power, causing the tree branches to shake violently and the person hiding on the trunk to fall to the ground.
Upon seeing this person, Lin Jingge recalled what had been said in the village: the last place the child was seen was near her home.
Thinking of this, she looked at the person on the ground with a cold gaze: "Did you steal the child?"
"I...I didn't..."
"Then what were you doing hiding in that tree so suspiciously?" Lin Jingge narrowed her eyes slightly. "Hurry up and tell me the truth!"
The man didn't know how to refute it, his whole body trembled violently, and he stammered for a long time without being able to say anything coherent, which only made Lin Jingge's suspicions grow stronger.
"Grandma, why don't we tie him up and hand him over to the village chief? He looks familiar; he should be from Qingyun Village." Afraid that the thin man in front of her would run away, Lin Jingge kept her eyes fixed on him while talking to Grandma Lin.
She was just trying to bluff him, but when he heard "send the village chief," he became terrified.
Before Lin Jingge could ask any more questions, he confessed everything.
The other party mentioned that someone in Lingyun City was buying children at high prices recently, which piqued my interest. Who knew that Aunt Sun found out too quickly? Before I could even sell the child I had kidnapped, the village chief sealed off Qingyun Village, forbidding anyone from leaving the village.
He originally thought these two outsiders were easy to bully, so he hid here, intending to sneak out of the village in the middle of the night, but he never expected to be discovered.
Lin Jingge: "Where's the child!"
"I hid her behind the house, don't kill me, I'll take you to find her!" The man thought these two outsiders were weak and helpless, but who would have thought that the old woman was actually a cultivator!
Ordinary people always feel a sense of fear towards cultivators.
Just one sentence was enough to shake him down from the tree; he was truly terrified.
They followed the thin man and found the unconscious child in the haystack behind the house.
Lin Jingge turned around and glanced at the man.
The man was immediately startled and quickly said, "He's fine. I gave him some medicine; he just fainted."
"Grandma, what should we do now?" Lin Jingge was worried as she looked at the child lying on the pile of straw.
If they just hand the child over like that, Aunt Sun will definitely accuse them of stealing the child.
And this man in front of them is unreliable. If he turns around and accuses them of stealing the child, being kicked out of the village would be the least of their worries.
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