Chapter 16: Black Eats Black
Why was there no one out to watch the commotion despite the chaos? This all started with the location of the Jiang family's house.
Du Hehua and her husband, Jiang Laicai, were newcomers, so how could the village give them a good place to live? A thatched hut near the foot of the mountain had once been the home of an elderly hunter, now widower and vacant. Because the hunter looked fierce and engaged in predatory activities, the villagers were somewhat wary of him and didn't dare take advantage of him. This, in turn, benefited the newcomers, the Jiang family.
The Jiang family settled in a thatched cottage, a little further from the village, separated by a river. Few people usually visited. It was also the summer harvest season, and everyone was exhausted in the morning. After dinner, they had to take a quick nap to rest, otherwise their bodies wouldn't be able to bear it.
Despite such a big commotion, no one in the village came to watch the fun.
After the Wei family left, Du Hehua dropped the kitchen knife with a bang and fainted on the ground.
To be honest, Jiang Mancheng and Jiang Manpo inherited their shrewdness from Du Hehua. Even when the old lady was at home, she never accused them of feigning madness. She was putting on a serious show.
After she fainted, more than a dozen members of the family hurriedly carried the old lady into the house. Jiang Mancheng jumped onto the kang to watch over her, not forgetting to instruct everyone, "Brother and sister-in-law, go boil some hot water and make some brown sugar ginger water for Mom to calm her down. Everyone else, go out to eat. Jinhua, Xiaonan, and I will stay here."
"Well, let Xiaogui stay too. He is careful and efficient at work." Ma Honghua suggested, as she was worried about Jiang Mancheng's family taking care of the old lady alone.
"Okay, Huaizi, stay too. Everyone else go eat. It's okay, Mom will be fine soon." Jiang Mancheng started to drive people away.
Jiang Manpo wanted to say something but was dragged out by his eldest brother. He could only be thankful that his son stayed and their second branch did not suffer any loss.
Inside the house, Du Hehua slowly woke up, sat up, took the bowl of water handed to her by her youngest son, and gulped it down. Seeing that everyone in the room was knowledgeable, she told them what had happened.
"I'm not hiding it from you, I have to scare the Wei family out of knowing it. Mantang is an honest man, and I dare not tell him about family matters. You also know that your father and I worked for the master's family in the early years and got some benefits. Lamei was a little sister who worked with me. She died a few days ago. Before she died, she divided some hidden jewelry among her three sons. Wei Youwei, this wicked man, guessed that I have something here, so he set his sights on me. But don't worry, after what happened today, I guarantee that he won't dare to make trouble in public again. As for what happened secretly..."
She looked at her youngest son and snorted, "Do you understand why I called you here?"
Jiang Mancheng immediately saluted in a proper manner and said with a playful smile, "I promise to complete the task."
He put his hand down and continued, "Just wait and see tomorrow. I guarantee that their family will only focus on their internal strife and won't bother to pick on us anymore."
Du Hehua nodded and looked at everyone sternly: "You are all smart children. You should know what to say and what not to say. If I find out that you told your parents about this, I will break your legs!"
Everyone chuckled and nodded. Du Hehua then rubbed her stomach and ordered, "Jinhua, go get me some food. Damn it, they're causing trouble before they've even eaten. What a wicked bastard. Lamei doesn't look like a stupid person, so how could she have raised these worthless pups?"
After finishing their lunch with some curses, everyone took advantage of the time to rest for an hour, and when the afternoon sun waned, they went back to work. The summer harvest was just as busy as the autumn harvest, so Du Hehua's birthday was a chance for everyone to recharge.
Otherwise, why would she, an old lady from the countryside, be so obsessed with celebrating her birthday?
It's because I feel sorry for the children who have to work hard on the farm.
"Dad, let's go up the mountain this afternoon. Everything has to be done in the evening, and we have nothing to do this afternoon, so it won't be a waste." Jiang Nan suggested, holding little Jiang He in her arms. The meat was delicious, and she had been thinking about bringing back a rabbit since morning. A pheasant would be even better.
"Aunt, I'm going up the mountain too." Jiang He had just woken up, his eyes were half open, his little face was red, and his eyes widened when he heard it.
Chen Jinhua's eyes also lit up. She was good at martial arts and always gained something when she went up the mountain, but she was most happy to go up the mountain.
The minority obeys the majority. Although Jiang Mancheng would rather lie in bed, he still struggled to get up and accompany his wife and children up the mountain.
Because they lived at the foot of the mountain, the Jiang family had their own path up the mountain. The three of them climbed up the mountain easily. Oh, no, it should be said that Jiang Nan and Chen Jinhua, holding little Jiang He, climbed up the mountain easily, while Jiang Mancheng was pulled up by his wife and daughter.
Very confident and righteous.
Well, asking saves effort.
If you ask any more, I'll just call you a gigolo. I'm proud of being a gigolo.
Because the villagers often went up the mountain, the ripe fruits in the forest had basically been picked. The three and a half people walked for half an hour before they barely found a few thorny rose fruits. They were so sour and unpalatable that even the little Jiang He frowned and spat them out.
Seeing no results, Chen Jinhua and Jiang Nan, relying on their kung fu skills, walked deeper into the forest, but they didn't dare go too deep. Jiang Mancheng grew up in the village and had heard many stories of tigers and wild boars biting and injuring people in the old forest.
Maybe they were lucky, but not long after the three of them entered, they saw a silly roe deer drinking water by the river.
Chen Jinhua picked up a stone and threw it at the silly roe deer. The roe deer's head started bleeding instantly and fell to the ground, unable to move.
Jiang Nan laughed and ran up: "Mom, you are amazing! So amazing! You are the most amazing mother in the world!"
Chen Jinhua was so delighted by the compliment that she was very strong and did not let her daughter help. She carried the roe deer down the mountain.
You mean Jiang Mancheng? He always shows with his actions that he is a gigolo.
He was not capable of this kind of work. Look, he was already panting with exhaustion even while holding his two-year-old nephew.
It took some time for everyone to look for wild fruits, and when we got down the mountain, everyone had finished work and gone home.
"Little brother, you guys are really great. You managed to catch such a fat roe deer." Jiang Mantang's eyes sparkled and he praised Jiang Mancheng sincerely.
Du Hehua rolled her eyes. If she hadn't been watching over her eldest son all the time, he would have been left with nothing by his two younger brothers.
"Hehe." Jiang Mancheng didn't explain and said generously, "We're stewing a roe deer leg today. We'll smoke the rest tonight and take them all back. This is what my family hunted, so don't be jealous."
He glanced at the second brother and his wife intentionally or unintentionally, and the meaning was self-evident.
"How can that be?" Because it was her mother Du Hehua's birthday, her only daughter Jiang Manping did not go back to her husband's house that night. She still went back to the Jiang family, but this time she did not bring her husband and son.
She smiled and said, "Mancheng, you should do it. You are good at cooking, and we can enjoy the food too."
Speaking of which, although Jiang Mancheng was a eunuch in his previous life, he wasn't a master of everything. While he could cook, he wasn't a chef, so he wasn't a skilled cook. He'd only gone to the imperial kitchen a few times to pick up food and chatted with the chef. He did know some basic cooking techniques.
Don't underestimate these little common sense tips, like pouring vinegar along the edge of the pot and blanching the meat in cold water. Many people still don't understand them. Firstly, information wasn't as developed, so news spread slowly. Secondly, many people consider these tips to be secrets, and they won't be easily passed on.
So Jiang Mancheng, as someone who had seen the imperial chef cook, became the best cook in the family.
But there was meat, and even though the cooking wasn't great, everyone still ate heartily. Even the fourth-generation kid, Jiang He, had his mouth drooling. I guess tonight's dreams will be sweeter than any other.
In the middle of the night, the door of the Jiang family's west wing opened quietly, and three people left with their bodies bent and small steps.
"Dad, what do you want to do?" Jiang Nan asked softly after they left the yard.
"Of course, I'm trying to cause a quarrel among the brothers." Jiang Mancheng took the opportunity to teach his daughter a lesson. "Others are giving you trouble because they have too much free time. You have to find something for them to do. Stop talking nonsense, just follow me and learn more so you don't suffer any loss in the future, okay?"
"Stop talking nonsense to my daughter." Chen Jinhua knocked Jiang Mancheng on the head and said dissatisfiedly, "Our daughter knows kung fu, she will never suffer any loss. You should stop talking, or she will learn bad things."
"Mom, I'm your daughter, how could I learn bad habits?" Jiang Nan immediately started to act like a spoiled child. "Besides, Dad never takes the initiative to cause trouble. You don't know that Dad only fights back when others provoke him. And since you followed me here, you must agree with what Dad does. Hehe, please stop nagging."
Chen Jinhua blushed, glanced at the father and daughter, and stopped talking.
The two immediately started whispering again.
Jiang Mancheng: "I've made a special observation today. The second son of the Wei family and his wife are both left-handed. When they were hiding, they used their left hands to grab and pull people. They must use their left hands more often. Let's use this trait to steal the treasure hidden in Wei Youwei's house. Wei Youwei's finger was broken today, so let's use this trait to steal the second son of Wei's house. Hehe, it would be strange if they don't make a scene."
With two strange laughs, Jiang Mancheng whispered to his daughter, "Have you found the location of the Wei family's treasure?"
"It's coming out. It's coming out."
At noon, Jiang Nan had the system connect to the brain waves of these people, and had already dug out everything about the Wei family, even knowing where the straw paper was hidden.
"Let's go!" Jiang Mancheng waved his hand and walked in front with a heroic and proud look. "If anyone dares to cause trouble in our Jiang family, let them know how many eyes the Horse King has!"
It was almost twelve o'clock in the night and the whole village was quiet. Under the cover of darkness, the three of them tiptoed across the bridge and came to Old Wei's house at the entrance of the village.
The Wei family's main house was brick and tile, while the others were mud houses. The courtyard wall was also a low mud wall. Jiang Nan was the first to climb over the mud wall and open the gate from the inside.
Because they had done so many bad things, the three of them worked together very well. Jiang Nan pointed to the stone mill where Wei Youwei had hidden his treasure, and Jiang Mancheng muttered quietly, "Wei Youwei is quite cunning. He hid it in the stone mill. Even if he wanted to steal it, he would have to have the strength to move it."
The Wei family's stone mill is composed of three parts: a cylindrical stone base at the bottom, a large stone slab in the middle, and the final stone mill at the top. Wei Youwei had no idea where he had the strength to hide the treasure in the base. If Jiang Nan hadn't had a system scan, it would be difficult for the average person to figure it out.
Chen Jinhua and Jiang Nan worked together to lift the nearly 200-jin (160-pound) millstone down. Next came the large stone slab, which proved even more challenging. The stone slab was built on the base, but Jiang Mancheng had brought a chopping axe with him. Rural masonry is often built with loess mixed with straw, which is naturally less durable than cement. The three of them carefully chipped away the cement that held it together, then worked together to lift the stone slab down.
A small blue bundle suddenly appeared in front of the three of them. Jiang Mancheng immediately took it in his arms.
The three men did not dare to delay and quickly restored the stone mill to its original state.
As for building it up again? Who cares? They're just hoping Wei Youwei will notice something's wrong and start a fuss.
Jiang Mancheng and Chen Jinhua crouched down and gently pushed open the door of Wei Youwei's house.
Maybe because he was frightened at noon, Wei Youwei took medicine at night and was sleeping very soundly at this time. He didn't even notice the clicking sound of the door lock.
Jiang Mancheng and Chen Jinhua weren't out to steal. Wouldn't they have to create the illusion that the second son of the Wei family had searched the eldest son's house, found nothing, and then went to look in the yard? They rummaged around the house with their left hands, deliberately leaving a few handprints, and then tiptoed away.
In this way, they robbed the treasures hidden under the firewood room by the second son of the Wei family, searched the house again, left some marks, and then left.
As for the third son of the Wei family, as the only one who did not lose the treasure, even if he did not do it, he would be envied by the other two brothers.
The three brothers of the Wei family can forget about living a peaceful life in the next few years.
The three of them carried two bags and happily headed home.
In those days, people were not able to get enough to eat, let alone keep dogs. In the village, any dog they saw was killed and eaten. The three of them did not disturb anyone or any dog along the way, and they arrived home smoothly.
Without rushing back to their own room, the three of them went directly to the main house, Du Hehua.
The old lady was still awake, waiting for her youngest son to come back. Seeing that the three of them were safe and sound, she felt relieved.
"Look quickly, what good things did the Wei family share? Why are they so greedy?"
Jiang Mancheng quietly closed the door, put the bundle on the kang, and quickly untied the bundle.
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