"Yaojie, why aren't you asleep yet? It's so late!" In the dim moonlight, Jiang Ling noticed someone looking around at her door. As she approached, she saw it was Jiang Yaojie.
“Mother, I’m worried about you, but I don’t dare go to the back mountain for fear of causing you trouble, so I’ll just wait for you at the door.” It was dark, but Jiang Yaojie’s eyes were bright.
Jiang Ling felt a warm feeling in her heart and gently raised the corners of her mouth, saying, "Let's go in. You're not asleep yet, and there are some things I want to talk to you about."
Inside the old house, the mother and son sat on the ground. In the two days since the ditch was dug, Jiang Ling could clearly feel that Jiang Yaojie had changed. Both his body language and the confidence in his voice were much better than before when he was timid and hesitant.
Seeing the changes in Jiang Yaojie, Jiang Ling also felt gratified.
"Yaojie, do you remember when I accompanied your mother to Changning Town last time, and we overheard the aunties talking about the Li Shan family on the oxcart?" Jiang Ling asked.
Jiang Yaojie nodded, and Jiang Ling continued to ask, "This time, the discovery of a water source in our village is essentially the same as the theft of Li Shan's granary."
Jiang Yaojie was speechless, looking at Jiang Ling with a puzzled expression.
Jiang Ling continued to explain, "Every household has little surplus grain, except for Li Shan's family. Every village is experiencing drought, but our village has abundant water..."
"Mother! Mother, do you mean we're being too obvious?" Jiang Yaojie asked, scratching his head.
Jiang Ling nodded and continued to guide the conversation, saying, "That's right. The reason Li Shan's family was able to discover the theft in time is because they have servants. Where would we farmers get servants? If it weren't for Mother's timely discovery, things might not have gone so smoothly."
“Yes…yes…” Jiang Yaojie scratched his head, frowned, and began to ponder.
After a while, Jiang Yaojie seemed to have thought of something. He suddenly looked up at Jiang Ling and said, "Mother, although our village does not have servants, we do have people. Each household sends out a male member to form a patrol team to patrol the mountain for an hour every day at midnight. I think this will greatly reduce the likelihood of such incidents happening."
Jiang Ling nodded in satisfaction and continued to Jiang Yaojie, "Yaojie, that's great. I think your idea is excellent. Tomorrow we'll go to the village chief's house, and you can tell him about it then."
"Mother...I..." Jiang Yaojie stammered as he rubbed his clothes.
"Yaojie, be more confident. Didn't you succeed with the ditch project before?" Jiang Ling comforted him.
"But... Mother... that... that was your idea!" Jiang Yaojie really couldn't understand how the idea of digging ditches had become his own, since it was clearly his mother's idea.
"Yaojie, we're all family, so why care about whose opinion it is? It's late, go and rest!" Jiang Ling didn't wait for Jiang Yaojie to say anything more before going back to her room alone.
Jiang Ling went to the kitchen, washed the mint, chopped it into small pieces, and secretly bought some white sugar from the system store. She boiled the water, threw in the mint pieces and white sugar, covered the pot, and started simmering it over low heat.
Ten minutes later, Jiang Ling opened the pot lid, carefully put the brewed mint water into a bowl, placed it in a shady spot, and tiptoed back to her room to sleep next to her two daughters.
The sun slowly dispelled the darkness of the sky, and everything on the ground was bathed in an orange glow.
The rooster stood on the fence and crowed loudly.
Jiang Ling lay on the bed, covering her ears, trying to fall back asleep. In her half-awake state, she felt someone calling her. She slowly opened her eyes and met four pairs of concerned eyes.
"Mom, you're awake? Get up quickly, Grandpa Village Chief is ringing the bell at the door again!" Jiang Suihe said.
"Ah~ I'm so sleepy!" Jiang Ling yawned widely, her eyelids still very heavy.
Amidst the children's chattering, Jiang Lingxin reluctantly sat up in bed, quickly washed up, and then led her four children out of the house.
All along the way, everyone's eyes were on Nianci, whom Jiang Ling was holding in her arms. Whispers and pointing were constant. Nianci had never seen such a scene before and was already trembling in Jiang Ling's arms. Jiang Ling stopped angrily, looked around, and grabbed a woman who was talking the loudest, saying, "What can't you say to my face? Aren't you afraid of your tongue rotting from talking behind my back?"
Although the woman looked displeased, she could only keep quiet because of Jiang Ling's recent reputation and status in Lujia Village.
Jiang Ling coldly swept her gaze across the crowd and said, "If you have something to say, say it to my face. What's the point of whispering in private?"
After saying that, Jiang Ling led the four children to the village entrance.
As Jiang Ling had expected, the two guys she caught last night were tightly bound with rope, their heads drooping, looking utterly hopeless.
"Jiang, come here!" The village chief spotted Jiang Ling in the crowd and waved to her.
Just as Jiang Ling reached the village chief's side, the village chief struck the bronze bell hanging on the tree again and said, "These two guys tried to poison our water source last night!"
An uproar erupted around them, everyone looking on with anger and righteous indignation at the two bound men.
"Kill them!"
"Pah! Shameless bastard!"
"Village chief, we're going to Dahua Village right now to demand an explanation!"
"Yes! Village Chief, let's take these two guys to Changning Town right now and let the county magistrate decide things for us!"
The angry shouts grew louder and louder. If the village chief hadn't been standing around those two guys, the people of Lu Family Village probably would have already lost their temper and attacked them.
"Quiet! Quiet!" The village chief waved his hands, trying his best to maintain order.
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