The night was pitch black, like a huge black curtain covering the entire world.
The village chief looked solemn as he led the people of Sujia Village to a safe place to rest.
He led the way, looking back from time to time at the group of young and old behind him, his eyes full of concern and worry.
The villagers also followed the village chief closely. Everyone walked hurriedly but tried to remain quiet. Everyone's face was filled with fatigue and fear.
On the other hand, some brave young men such as Su Wenjun and Dahu took the initiative to stay and prepare to deal with the thieves who fell to the ground.
They stood there, their postures straight, like guards protecting their homes. However, their slightly trembling hands revealed their inner tension.
After all, they are just ordinary farmers and rarely see bloody scenes. Usually, they just kill chickens or rabbits at most.
Soon, a thief who had fallen to the ground seized the opportunity and tried to sneak away.
Su Wenjun was the first to notice the movement, and his eyes instantly became sharp, like a hawk discovering its prey.
Without any hesitation, he gripped the stick tightly in his hand and rushed towards the thief.
As he approached the thief, he raised the stick high and smashed it down on the thief's leg with all his strength.
At that moment, a crisp "crack" sound broke the silence of the night, and the thief's leg broke.
The thief immediately let out a heart-wrenching scream, fell to the ground, rolled over in pain, and kept emitting miserable wails.
The voice was like a sharp knife, piercing straight into Su Wenjun's heart, causing him to feel a little shaken.
He stopped what he was doing and stared blankly at the thief struggling in pain on the ground, feeling mixed emotions.
But when he thought to himself that if the night watchman hadn't been vigilant, the person lying on the ground right now might be a relative from Sujia Village, a kind old man, a young child, or his wife who had shared his joys and sorrows...
His heart suddenly tightened, and the desire to protect his loved ones instantly filled his body, making his heart harden again.
Su Wenjun took a deep breath, suppressed the discomfort in his heart, walked forward, and gave the still wailing thief another heavy blow, knocking him unconscious.
Afterwards, he and Da Hu and others checked one by one whether the thieves still had the strength to resist, not missing any details.
Only after confirming that nothing was missing did they finally feel relieved.
Next, the thief's valuables were searched.
They moved cautiously, fearing to miss any place where money might be hidden.
Su Wenjun's hands groped the thief's body. Every time he touched a pocket, he would look through it carefully, and every corner of the clothes he would pinch carefully.
After a careful search, they finally found five taels and two hundred and fifty coins.
When they found the village chief with the money, he was sitting on a rock to rest, with fatigue in his eyes.
Seeing them coming back, the village chief quickly stood up.
Su Wenjun walked forward and handed the money to the village chief. The moment the village chief took the money, a hint of surprise flashed in his eyes.
He gently stroked the five taels of silver and a handful of copper coins, muttering to himself, "I didn't expect these thieves to have some money on them. This is a pleasant surprise."
When the surrounding villagers heard the village chief's words, they all gathered around and looked at the money with relieved smiles on their faces.
At this time, the night was still very late, but everyone seemed to have more hope in their hearts because of this unexpected wealth, and the gloomy atmosphere seemed to have faded a little because of this joy.
At this time, only Mrs. Li and two old women from the village came running up, stumbling all the way.
Mrs. Li was running out of breath, and the wrinkles on her face were twisted into a ball because of anxiety. The two old women were not much better, their steps were hurried and their expressions were extremely panicked.
They rushed to the village chief, knelt down with a plop, and then started crying out loud.
Mrs. Li even hugged the village chief's thighs tightly with her hands, as if she had grabbed the last straw of life.
She cried with tears and snot, "Village chief, this is terrible! My family's food has been stolen. How are we going to survive? You have to make a decision for me!"
The voice became hoarse due to excessive effort and echoed far away in the silent night.
An old woman nearby also cried, "Yes, Village Chief, my family finally saved up enough money to buy some food, hoping to get through this period. But now, the thieves have taken away only half of it. How are we going to survive in the future?"
As she spoke, she wiped the tears from her face with her dry hands, her eyes full of despair.
Another old woman chimed in, sobbing, "Village head, our family depends on this little bit of food to survive. If we run out of it, we'll starve to death. You must help us."
As Mrs. Li listened to their cries, she became more and more excited and used more force in her hands. She pulled at the village chief's thighs and cried out regardless of anything.
The village chief stood there, staring at Mrs. Li. She saw tears streaming down her wrinkled face and was crying heartbrokenly.
While she was crying loudly, she used her rough hands to wipe the tears and snot from her face, completely ignoring the situation around her, and just wiped her snot directly on the village chief's pants.
The village chief frowned immediately, and a look of extreme disgust appeared on his face. He subconsciously took a step back, trying to avoid Mrs. Li's sticky "attack".
He angrily shouted at Mrs. Li and the other two old women, "I told you to look after the grain, what have you been doing?"
The village chief grew angrier as he spoke. He pointed in the direction of the other families in the village and continued in a louder voice, "Don't you even look around? Besides you three families, who else in the village has lost their food? Everyone is keeping a close eye on the food, afraid that something might go wrong. Now that you've lost your food, you come running to me and yell at me. I'm not a god. Can I make food appear out of thin air? Humph!"
But Mrs. Li didn't care about the village chief's complaints. She only knew that without food, she would have trouble living.
She still clung to the village chief's thighs tightly, as if afraid that he would run away, and continued to scream loudly: "Wow, you are the village chief. Don't you have to decide all the big and small matters in this village? We are really at our wit's end. You must help us. If we lose the food, we will really starve to death. Village chief, please..."
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