The village head pointed at Old Man Liu.
"You are the head of the family, so make your own decisions. Don't mess around with these kids. I won't punish you with a rod today, but we can't encourage this kind of bad behavior."
"It's already kind of the Su family not to go to the authorities to sue you; you still have to pay the compensation you owe."
Hearing this, Old Liu was so angry that his hands behind his back trembled. The village head had already given him some face by saying this. If he continued to make trouble, his family might be in an even worse situation.
"Have you thought it through? If not, I'll give you an idea. Since you've frightened the children, just give them one or two taels of silver as compensation, and we'll call it even."
Upon hearing this, Old Liu felt like collapsing backwards. His family didn't even know if they could save two taels of silver a year, and here they were asking for one tael.
When Old Mrs. Liu heard that she was going to be fined, she naturally objected and pointed at the village head, saying, "I say, why should the village head fine our family? Let's not even talk about whether that child is actually ours."
Even if we admit we were wrong, this punishment is too harsh!
The village headman said one tael of silver was actually hoping they could haggle over it and have room for negotiation.
But seeing this old woman directly criticizing him, he realized she really didn't appreciate his kindness.
The village headman spoke slowly, "What do you think is a suitable price for the old lady of the Liu family?"
The old woman snorted, "I think giving each of these children a copper coin is enough compensation. Logically speaking, these children shouldn't even be given a single copper coin!"
Basically, it's our child, but some people are just clinging to this "blessing" and unwilling to return the child to our family. They're just saying this on purpose.
"Village chief, don't take their side just because they're rich and you're willing to accept a small benefit. Otherwise, people will talk about you later."
Before Old Su could even get angry, the village headman couldn't sit still any longer. He slammed his hand on the table and shouted, "What? You think I only helped them because I received a bribe? You think I'm slandering someone else's child and trying to forcibly take the child away?"
This crime is so minor, worth only a few copper coins? Not only will the Su family not agree to this, but we, the elders and folks of our village, will not agree to it either.
Otherwise, if such a thing happens again in the future, and it can be resolved by simply giving two copper coins, then everyone would be willing to take the risk since the loss wouldn't be too great.
"Since you disagree with my verdict, then go to court and confront me! I'm not going to get involved in your messy affairs anymore."
Old Su was a shrewd man, and upon hearing this, he immediately picked up where the village head left off.
"Let alone one or two taels of silver, my family might not even agree. My children have been terrified."
Moreover, you can be considered child abductors. Since you don't want to pay compensation, let's face each other in court.
Seeing that things had escalated to this point, and that the tael of silver had to be paid out no matter what, Old Liu quickly tried to smooth things over and apologized to Old Su.
“Brother, we all live in the same village and see each other all the time. Please be magnanimous and let this good-for-nothing child off the hook. We’ll give you this tael of silver.”
As the saying goes, you can't hit a smiling face. Since he had already said that, Old Man Su nodded and said, "I hope there won't be a next time, otherwise it won't be as simple as just compensation. We won't want a grown man like you with children."
"Yes, you're right."
Finally, after borrowing from several villagers who were watching, and adding what he had on him, Old Liu managed to scrape together one tael of silver and handed it over.
That was the end of the matter, and everyone led their families back to the village.
On the way, Old Liu gave his son, daughter-in-law, and Mrs. Liu a thorough dressing-down.
"What a useless thing, going to someone else's house to ask for their child without even any evidence."
"If you can't get it, fine, but to dare to rob us by force, do you really think you're thugs or bandits?"
Old Mrs. Liu glared at Cai Feng with hatred as she walked along the road.
It's all because of that wretched woman who threw away our good fortune, and now we don't even have the ability to get it back.
You watch as others get richer and richer, while you yourself are losing money.
And that damned little slut has such good fortune, not knowing that she brings good luck to her own father but instead brings prosperity to an outsider's family.
After returning home, Old Man Su and his companions handed over the one or two taels of silver they had obtained to Old Madam Su and explained the situation they had encountered with the village head.
"Now that this matter is out in the open, they won't dare to cause any more trouble in the future."
Grandma Su frowned. "That's true, but it's not the thief you should be afraid of, it's the thief who's eyeing you."
And judging from their expressions, they must have seen the mark on our granddaughter's hand when she was born, otherwise they wouldn't be so sure.
Old Man Su grabbed Old Woman Su's hand and said, "What are you afraid of? We'll deal with whatever comes our way. With so many people protecting our little darling, they won't dare to cause any more trouble."
Grandma Su slapped her husband's hand away from hers.
"What are you doing? What if the children come in? You old lecher."
"What's there to be afraid of? I can't even touch my own wife."
When Su Muyao was handed over to her mother by her father, she already felt dizzy.
I don't know why, but on the way back, I felt like my head was throbbing.
"Mom, I want to go to sleep for a while. Wake me up when it's time for dinner."
"Okay, okay, you go to sleep. I'll come and wake you up when it's time for dinner."
Wang Taoxiu felt that going to school for a day was already quite tiring, and the child was so young to be taken to the town and then rushed back, he must be exhausted.
She closed the door and went to cook dinner with her sister-in-law.
At this moment, Su Muyao was lying in bed, feeling a terrible headache, as if the space around her was shaking.
To find out what was going on, he used his mind to examine the items in the space and found that the space, which was originally full of things, had become much larger.
Most importantly, the attic also became more luxurious.
Pushing open the attic door revealed a new medicine furnace, a vast collection of books, and recipes for making medicine, along with information on the process of medicine preparation.
"No, it isn't."
She won't need these things for the time being, and besides, even if there's a prescription, it's useless without the herbs.
Having just finished thinking about these things, and after leaving the attic, intending to go out for a stroll, I saw a mountain appearing closest to the house.
It wasn't until Su Muyao walked up the mountain that she discovered the entire mountain was covered with medicinal herbs, all kinds of rare herbs.
Ginseng, Ganoderma lucidum, Panax notoginseng, Angelica dahurica, Hell Fruit...
There are also many particularly precious medicinal materials that I had only skimmed through in the medical books in the attic before, and even some herbs that are only recorded in history.
What I was thinking was how tiring it would be to climb up the mountain, and how wonderful it would be if I could get to where I wanted to go in one go.
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