Lin Yu looked at Ye Moxun, who nodded slightly. Lin Yu then took the knife and went to open the door with a wary expression. In fact, the village chief was just leaning on a cane, with three elderly people behind him, an old woman and two old men.
Four old men walked in, all leaning on canes and trembling. It was said that the village chief wasn't using a cane in the evening, so why was he using one at night? Could there be some secret about the cane?
After imagining this, Lin Yu became even more cautious, keeping his attention on the old village chief, waiting for any move he might make so he could take him down immediately.
Village Chief: I'm just an ordinary old man with no martial arts skills whatsoever. Young man, you think too highly of me.
"Grandpa, why are you here?" The girl cried even harder when she saw the village chief. It was all because of her incompetence that her grandfather and the other old people had come to plead for them. If these people were good, that would be fine, but if they were bad, then everything was over.
"Grandpa!" the village chief's grandson cried out.
"Great-grandfather".
"Great-grandmother".
Others also called out to their own elderly relatives, and after calling out, they gathered together and started to cry louder and louder than the other.
"Shut up, all of you," Ye Moxun said coldly, pinching his brow.
"Young master, please spare the children. We old folks will take responsibility for anything that happens to us," the village chief said, kneeling before him.
Ye Moxun lifted his eyelids, a hint of annoyance flashing in his eyes, "Where is the nearest yamen? Send them all to the government for processing."
Upon hearing this, the villagers, who had just been crying their hearts out, immediately knelt down, begging for mercy and wailing. Their cries were particularly eerie in the quiet night.
Song Tantan couldn't stand the noise any longer and couldn't help but shout, "Shut up, all of you! What's all the noise about? Talk it out. If you keep crying, I'll kill you all with one knife."
The intimidation was effective; no one dared to howl anymore, except for one person who was still sobbing softly. Finally, the village chief's granddaughter stepped forward and explained why everyone had reacted so strongly earlier.
"The world has been in chaos for several years, and the imperial court has long lost the energy to manage local officials, especially in poor and remote places like ours. The county magistrate and the prefect of the prefectural city are like gods, and the common people are not even as good as livestock in their eyes..." If you fall into the hands of those so-called officials, unless you have money to ransom, you will only face death.
"We dare to dress up as ghosts to scare people and rob passersby because the government doesn't care. Unless there's a bribe, they won't care whether you're the one being robbed or someone else is robbing someone else, as long as it doesn't threaten the interests of the government."
Song Tantan looked indignant after hearing this, "After the new emperor ascended the throne, he should have made some changes, how could he still be so outrageous?"
Ye Moxun was able to understand, “The sky is high and the land is far away. The world is so vast that it cannot be resolved in a year or two. Besides, the border war is the most urgent issue to be addressed. No matter how capable the new emperor is, he doesn’t have three heads and six arms to manage every little place.”
Even in times of peace and prosperity, local officials would deceive their superiors and act covertly, let alone the Great Jin Dynasty, which is now riddled with problems and not yet fully stable.
"Then we can't take them to the yamen. So what should we do with them?" Should we just pretend nothing happened and let them go?
Ye Moxun made a gesture, and Lin Yu immediately understood. He led the others to hold down the village chief and his group, and fed each of them a pill.
"What did you feed us?" The village chief asked in horror. Were the remaining dozen or so people in their village going to die here today?
"The poison? As long as you behave yourselves during this time, we will give you the antidote once we have finished our business," Lin Yu replied on Ye Mo's behalf.
"The effects of the medicine won't take effect for three days. Tomorrow we'll go to the town and the county to check. If it's really as you say, we'll let you off the hook. Otherwise, don't even think about getting the antidote." Lin Yu said arrogantly, raising his chin.
"But will you really come back in three days? If you don't, where should we look for you?" The village chief's granddaughter immediately thought of this, showing she was quite clever.
"I said I'd give you the antidote, and I will. It's not up to you whether you believe me or not," Lin Yu said, looking down at people with an attitude that was incredibly irritating.
It was getting late, and everyone wanted to catch up on some sleep. Just as Lin Yu was about to send the village chief and his group out at Ye Moxun's signal, Song Tantan stopped the village chief's granddaughter.
Seeing Ye Moxun looking at her disapprovingly, Song Tantan smiled and said, "I can't sleep, I want to talk to someone."
"Don't chat for too long, get some rest." Ye Moxun didn't say anything more, gave the instructions, and went back to his room to sleep. Tan Tan was skilled in martial arts and had the support of the space, so there was no need to worry about her getting into trouble.
Song Tantan led the girl to the gate and sat her down on the stone stool by the gate. "Sit down first, don't be afraid. I'm a girl just like you. The one with the coldest face just now was my fiancé."
When she heard that she was also a girl, Ahe followed the moonlight to look at her face. Upon closer inspection, she found that the other woman's features were very delicate, her eyebrows were very fine, and her skin seemed quite fair. But how could a girl be mixed up with a large group of men? Even if she had a fiancé by her side, it was not very appropriate.
If Song Tantan knew what she was thinking, she would definitely be amused and annoyed. So what if she had a bunch of grown men? She could take them all to the supermarket at once, and if she let them out, they would all turn into idiots. Who could possibly mess with her?
And the ancients were indeed conservative in their thinking. The idea of separating men and women was deeply ingrained. Even if there was nothing, they could find a lot of topics to discuss. Tsk tsk, luckily she and Ah Xun will be separated from the others in a few days.
"What's your name? Tell me about your village. By the way, where did you get all those props for dressing up as a ghost? Where did you get the rouge and powder for makeup?" Aren't you so poor that you don't even have enough to eat? How do you have money to buy props to dress up as a ghost?
When asked, the village chief's granddaughter hesitated for a moment before speaking, "My surname is Xia, my given name is He, and my family calls me Ahe. I am exactly twenty years old this year. My parents originally had five children. I have an older brother, two younger brothers, and a younger sister. But after the Hu people invaded, my parents, older brother, and younger sister were all killed. My grandfather led me and my two younger brothers to escape. Unfortunately, my eldest brother fell seriously ill during the escape and passed away because we had no money for treatment."
Their village wasn't very big to begin with. I heard that their ancestors were refugees who came here. There wasn't a village here when they first arrived. It was their ancestors who built houses and cleared the land that created the village.
When the Hu people invaded, more than half of the village died. Later, some of them died while fleeing elsewhere. When they returned, only a dozen or so people were left.
Because they were afraid that outsiders would bully the villagers if they barged in, some empty houses were also cleaned up to make it look like people lived there, giving people the mistaken impression that there were still many people in the village.
Song Tantan suddenly realized why the people she sent out to investigate reported more people than those who appeared tonight, but the village chief and the others insisted that there were only a dozen or so left. It turned out to be a false alarm.
"What about the props?" Song Tantan was quite interested in this. These people were mostly old, weak, sick, and disabled, but they actually managed to come up with the idea of dressing up as ghosts to scare people. They were still quite clever and knew how to outsmart people.
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