Chapter 180 179. The Tomato Thief
Although Lei Dashan said that tomatoes were not worth much money, the tomatoes from Lei's family were still stolen.
In the three acres of land, there are not only the tomato seedlings that have just been transplanted, but also mature plants that have already produced a lot of fruits. The fruits are in bunches and look like small lanterns, which are quite conspicuous.
No one was left to guard the area at night.
——People in the village are patrolling with dogs. Although they are preventing people from stealing the quickly ripening rice and peppers, they will also stop by to patrol the Lei family’s tomato field.
Everyone in the village felt that this new thing was very important to the Lei family. They had all received favors from the Lei family, so they were naturally more cautious about it.
It is impossible for Zhou Yi to pick every red tomato in time. He has to taste the picked tomatoes first to see how sour and sweet they are before taking the seeds and separating them. The remaining flesh is either eaten by himself or fed to chickens.
Unexpectedly, someone spotted it and stole it.
The thief was a lazy man in the village. His family was quite wealthy when his parents were alive, but he was too lazy. He neither went out to work to earn money nor went to the fields to farm.
When his parents died, he could no longer support them, so he sold all the land and furniture in the family. Now he is penniless and still hasn't found a wife even though he is over 30 years old.
Before the rumor spread in the village that Lei Li had killed someone and no one dared to marry into the Lei family, this lazy man still thought about marrying Lei Li, even if it was just to marry him.
"I didn't agree."
Lei Li curled his lips and glanced disdainfully at the lazy man tied up on the ground. "It sounds nice to say he's coming to my house, but in reality, isn't he just sucking the blood of his parents and wants to suck our blood?"
"Other men work in the fields to earn money to support their families."
"He's so good, relying on me, his brother, to raise him, and relying on my parents to take care of his food, drink, defecation and urination. He's really like a toad looking in the mirror and not realizing how ugly he is."
He had been tormenting Zhou Yi late at night. Just as he pushed him down to sit down, he heard a series of knocks on the door, which was so loud and noisy that it sounded like thunder.
Lei Li was startled.
Zhou Yi was so frightened that he instantly wilted.
Lei Li held his breath, put on his clothes and went to open the door aggressively, but there was a huge crowd of people outside the door, men, women, young and old, holding torches and lanterns. If he hadn't known, he would have thought they were there to seek revenge.
"Brother Li, you're finally awake!"
"Catch the thief!"
"You don't even know what happened!"
"Call your husband!"
Lei Li didn't understand a single word of the chatter, so he frowned and asked, "First, someone tell me what happened. What thief?"
"Your field of red fruits! It was stolen!"
Sanliuzi's mother was a loudmouth, and she was the first to speak. "Tonight, my Sanliuzi, Niu Dashu from the village chief's family, and Niu Fugui from the village head's family, Niu Siye, are touring the village with two dogs!"
"When I walked to your Red Fruit Field, I saw a figure sneaking around. My Sanliuzi didn't say anything, but when the two dogs started barking, the figure took off running. Why would he run away if he hadn't done anything wrong?"
"Indeed!"
"That's Niu Chengcai, the village leader! That lazy fellow stole fruit from your field! My son Sanliu caught him dead, and now he's bringing him to the village chief's house for justice!"
Lei Li and Zhou Yi didn't have much contact with Sanliuzi, but people in the same village also knew him. He used to work as a laborer at the county port.
Although he was a little short, he was dark and strong, and had a lot of strength. He earned more money than the average person, but he gave it all to his mother, so he didn't often go to the Lei Ji fast food restaurant at that time.
The lazy man Li Chengcai was too lazy to even cook. He went to his uncle's house to beg for food all day long. He went hungry for at least six meals in three days and was so lazy that Sanliuzi could grab him by the collar and carry him up.
With Niu Dashu and Niu Fugui also around, he naturally couldn't defeat the three big men.
Stealing is no small matter.
What’s more, it was stealing things from the Lei family.
After catching Li Chengcai, Sanliuzi and his companions knew they had no say in the matter, so they took him to the village chief's house. Sanliuzi's mother happened to be out looking for Sanliuzi, and after she knew what had happened, she shouted it out to everyone in half the village.
Then it evolved into what it is now.
Lei Li and Zhou Yi followed the villagers to the village chief's house. Li Chengcai was tied up with a cloth stuffed in his mouth. A group of people gathered at the door of the village chief's yard. It should be that half of the village came to watch the fun.
Just now when Lei Li and Zhou Yi came back from home, they found that the lights in almost every household in the village were on. There were husbands and wives in their clothes standing at the door holding their children, their eyes looking towards the village chief's house.
When he saw the two real bosses coming, he kept talking about how to deal with Li Chengcai and prevent him from stealing and destroying the crops in the fields.
"That's right!"
Liu Xiaocao put her hands on her hips and spat on the ground. "Before, he only wanted you to work for him to earn money. Toad needs him every day. Now you're doing stealing!"
"If he steals tomatoes today, he'll steal gold and silver tomorrow! Break his hands and take him to the authorities!"
“Woo woo woo!
When the lazy man Li Chengcai heard that he was going to see an official, he screamed in panic. There was a piece of cloth stuffed in his mouth, and no one could hear what he was saying. Seeing this, Niu Dashu pulled the cloth off.
"Stop, stop! I don't dare anymore! Don't drag me to the authorities! This is not what I want to do!"
"That's not what you wanted to do?"
Lei Li narrowed his eyes and half leaned over to look at Li Chengcai, "You didn't do it, did someone else instruct you to do it?"
"Y-yes! Someone asked me to do it!"
"Who is it?"
“Yes, yes…”
Li Chengcai's eyes darted around, his face filled with anxiety and panic. He couldn't come up with a story for a while, but when he saw Gui Fulang in the crowd, he immediately opened his mouth and said,
"It was Liu Guihua! He ordered me to do it! He couldn't stand you hiding good things from the villagers! He asked me to steal the fruit!"
"What?!"
Guifulang Liu Guihua screamed in shock and anger, and was about to rush up to hit Li Chengcai, but was stopped by several aunts and husbands, but his mouth was firing like a machine gun.
"You scoundrel, you deserve to be executed in hell and face the magistrates! You have lost all conscience! How dare you throw dirty water at me, saying I asked you to steal the Lei family's fruit?!"
"Everyone in the village knows that my land is planted with the Lei family's peppers. What good will it do me if I let you steal the Lei family's fruits?!"
"Why should I let the villagers know what a good thing that is? So that you can earn money with me? Or will I offend Brother Li and not be able to earn money from the peppers?"
"I might as well please Brother Li and let him do it just for me! Don't blame me for your own evil heart!"
Although Gui Fulang is a stingy and vengeful person, he is only interested in making money and is willing to go to great lengths to please the Lei family. How could he possibly ruin the Lei family's business?
Everyone in the village knew Gui Fulang's temper, and they might have been a little skeptical at first, but after hearing what Gui Fulang said, they all realized that he would never do it.
"Don't try to frame a good person!"
“That’s right!”
"Did you have evil intentions of your own or was it someone else who asked you to do it? Don't you know it yourself?"
"If it's my opinion, beat him up once. If that doesn't work, beat him up twice. He'll behave himself after that!"
The surrounding villagers started arguing in a mess, holding torches and lanterns, and their shadows fell on Li Chengcai, like a group of evil spirits shouting and threatening to tear off his hands and feet and eat them.
"No! No! I'm telling you! I'm telling you the truth!"
Li Chengcai trembled.
He hadn't eaten for several days because he often went to his uncle's house to beg for money, which made his aunt and several cousins dislike him. They often found excuses to drive him out or only gave him a little food that was not enough to fill his stomach.
He had almost sold all of his own land. The remaining one and a half acres was in a bad location, and he had hardly taken care of it. The already thin land was overgrown with weeds, so no one would want it.
He wanted to grow his own vegetables, otherwise he would have nothing to eat. Maybe weeding and tilling the land was too tiring, so he got too tired and lazy after working for a while and didn't want to do it anymore.
So he stole other people's food.
This family pulled a little, and that family pulled a little. Because the amount of vegetables pulled was small, few people noticed it, or if they did, they were too lazy to bother with it.
"...But the vegetables in the fields are terrible when eaten raw. I don't have firewood, salt, or oil at home, so I can't start a fire. And if I eat too many raw vegetables, I get diarrhea."
Li Chengcai whispered, "I just accidentally ran to the Lei family's field a few days ago. I thought I couldn't eat the fruits like the peppers, so I stole a few."
"I didn't expect it to be sour and a little sweet. It was quite delicious. I wanted to steal more so I wouldn't have to go out and steal every day and I wouldn't have to light a fire."
When Lei Li and Zhou Yi heard this, they were speechless and it made perfect sense.
Most of the vegetables grown by the villagers are green vegetables, eggplants, beans, etc., which are not suitable for eating raw. Naturally, they are unpalatable when eaten raw, especially eggplants, which are high in oil. They taste good only when they are cooked with lots of oil and soy sauce or vinegar.
But tomatoes are different.
Although it is a vegetable, it is also like a fruit and has a unique flavor when eaten raw or cooked.
When Li Chengcai first saw tomatoes, he naturally wanted to steal some to take home and store. He saw that the field was full of tomatoes, and with so many fruits, no one would know if he stole more. Unfortunately, he ran into a patrol team.
Fortunately, Lei Li and Zhou Yi thought so much when they came here. They thought it was the colleague who ran the restaurant in the county town. He knew that his family was growing this tomato, so he sent Li Chengcai to steal the tomatoes and take them back to plant.
Or maybe the family in the village was unhappy with their family's prosperity and wanted to cause trouble. After all, jealousy has existed since ancient times, so no one can say for sure.
"Then why don't you go into the mountains and find something to eat?"
Liu Xiaocao asked suspiciously, "Aren't there a lot of fruits in the mountains? There are also sour straws, which can be eaten raw. Otherwise, you can catch some fish in the river and roast them, which is better than stealing other people's fruits, right? Do you want to keep stealing fruits from Li Ge'er's house?"
"In the mountains, in the mountains, isn't that..."
Li Chengcai stammered, and after being kicked by Liu Xiaocao, he continued, "Aren't there wild boars in the mountains?... If I run into a wild boar, I'm dead. Besides, the mountains are quite far away, and I have to climb trees to pick the fruit..."
It’s not easy to enter the mountains.
It’s not as fast as stealing if you work hard on your own.
"Thank goodness you figured it out!"
Liu Xiaocao kicked Li Chengcai hard, making him cry out in pain. He begged for mercy and said he would never do it again.
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