Chapter 185:
“Thud!” Li Daniu heard the sound of shouting at the mule and quickly stepped to the side…
Turning his head to look, the person was Li Sanmao. He was scared half to death, shrinking his head, afraid of being seen by Li Sanmao!
Li Sanmao had a cold face as he passed by them. After walking more than ten meters away, suddenly Li Shi shouted at them in a shrill, piercing voice.
“Li Sanmao, wait!”
“Wait!”
“Father, Li Shi is calling us!”
Miaomiao really disliked them!
“Thud…” Li Sanmao shouted to stop the mule and waited for them to approach.
Li Daniu stuck out his neck, very afraid, but under his mother’s command, he still braced himself and walked forward…
“You, please don’t hit me!”
He even hugged his head…
Li Sanmao gave him a mocking glance. Miaomiao, disgusted by the smell, hid in Luo Zhi’er’s arms.
Li Sanmao said disgustedly, “What is it?”
Li Shi was squatting in the bamboo basket, her face sallow and yellow, panting heavily as she groaned in pain,
“San Mao, what do you plan to do about this leg of mine?”
“What do you mean?”
Li Sanmao said coldly.
“You know this leg of mine is inseparable from your wife. I’ve spent all my silver, and the doctor says it still needs twenty taels. You figure it out!”
Li Shi had just seen Li Sanmao pulling a mule cart full of things, especially that small bed, exquisitely made—something that couldn’t be bought without two taels of silver…
Connecting it to how her family had recently acquired so many things, this Luo Zhi’er must be hiding quite a bit of silver! Burning with envy, she demanded twenty taels in one breath.
“What?” Li Sanmao almost burst out laughing. This old woman had some nerve!
“This leg of yours is your own fault. No one invited you to put filthy stinking things in front of my Li family home to frame my wife!”
Thinking of the matter made him nauseous. He wanted to beat Li Daniu up! And they dared to come demanding silver? If his fists didn’t land on them, twenty taels? Was he Li Sanmao too easygoing?
“Fine! Since you won’t pay up, lending it should be okay, right? Lend me thirty taels temporarily, and I’ll pay you back once I’m better!”
Pay back my foot—she’d play dead and deny it later, claiming to outsiders it was compensation from Li Sanmao for her leg!
Luo Zhi’er had seen through her scheme early on. “No!”
“Even… more… no way!”
Thirty taels? Hilarious!
“Luo Zhi’er, this is all your fault. Hmph, if you’re going to be so heartless, don’t blame me for being unreasonable. I’m going to the village chief to report you, to the yamen to have the county magistrate stand up for me!”
“Hmph! Go ahead!”
How many unreasonable things have you done that you haven’t?
“You’re really not afraid?”
“Hehe! What’s there to be afraid of?”
“Fine, we’ll see about that!”
“San Mao, let’s go!”
“Good!”
Li Sanmao drove the mule cart away, going farther and farther. Li Shi was so angry she nearly spat blood!
She shrieked shrilly: “Hey! How can you just leave like that? We’re all from the same village—can’t you take us along?”
Luo Zhi’er was certain she wouldn’t dare go to the yamen; it was just a bluff. But going to the village to make a scene and play pitiful was possible!
This needed careful consideration and planning!
Back in the village, it was getting dark. When they got home, they found someone sitting under the big persimmon tree in their yard, waiting for them.
After hearing the purpose, Luo Zhi’er immediately felt she shouldn’t have gone out today without checking the almanac—why were they all debt collectors?
“You say the village chief sent you to inform me that they’re taking our family’s farmland?” Li Sanmao suddenly felt his head booming…
“Yeah, it’s not the village chief’s fault. After all, our village has a large population but little farmland.”
“Your family’s several grown men are now in prison cells, and who knows if they can get out. Li Lei ran away too. The village has just had a few more little children born. This farmland should be divided to those who need it.”
Male children can get farmland—one male descendant gets one mu of paddy field! Two mu of fertile land!
The Old Li Family, minus seven male descendants, that’s seven mu of paddy fields? Fourteen mu of fertile land?
Plus Jiayong, Jiabao, Muqing, Yunliang…
Old Li Tou’s family’s paddy fields are in a great location, right nearby, even by the riverside… Many people have their eyes on it!
The land is also very fertile!
Except for the portion belonging to Li Sanmao, everyone else’s has to be taken!
“What?” Li Sanmao was of course unwilling. “Hu Zi, it’s not that I’m not following the rules. My father, oldest brother, and fifth brother—their specific situations haven’t been judged by the government officials yet. They might be released without guilt like me?”
Zhao Hu hesitated but still insisted: “You can’t be sure about that. Besides, how is that possible?”
“Your second brother Li Lei owes so much silver and has to compensate Hongfutai. You were released, but your father, as Li Lei’s own father, can’t produce the silver or catch Li Lei—how can he get off scot-free?”
He’s definitely going to be sentenced!
Li Daqiang and Li Gui are even less certain, so they preemptively confiscated out of fear they’d come back!
What if they sold off all this farmland in one go to scrape together silver? This farmland is village property, after all. You can sell it with a deed, sure.
So many villagers went to the village chief to bring this up, preferring to give it to their own village descendants rather than let them sell to outsiders.
“This…”
That night, Li Sanmao was worried sick, tossing and turning. He had no way to deal with this. The farmland was divided from the village ancestors, it’s the village rules and policy. Could he save his father and them all from the big prison?
He was so anxious the whole night that a few white hairs grew on his head.
In the morning, before dawn, he reluctantly went to check his own fields. Unexpectedly, this trip nearly made Li Sanmao pass out from anger!!!
He didn’t know who had completely spoiled the summer beans in his field—there were signs of trampling and pulling, the summer bean leaves all yellowed, stems withered, like they’d been poisoned.
The paddy field wasn’t much better; the ditch for storing water and the channels for water in and out had been opened by them.
Because there were also summer beans in the field, a whole field of summer beans now soaked in water, about to form pods, but nearly drowned.
He had planned to plant some rice next year, but previously had no silver to buy rice seedlings, which were very expensive. Old Li Tou and Zhou Shi wouldn’t agree, always putting it off, saying to transplant next year…
He hadn’t had time recently to check the fields. This check nearly killed Li Sanmao with anger—this second half of the year was all for nothing. If not for Li Zhengxin’s connivance, would they dare?
Li Sanmao returned home with an ashen face, changed clothes, rolled up his sleeves, and stormed off aggressively to Li Zhengxin’s home to demand an explanation.
Luo Zhi’er quickly pulled him back. “Husband, if you go, what are you planning to do?”
Go beat someone?
“I’ll ask him what this operation is all about?”
“Husband, this isn’t the village chief’s doing. Not only should you not go aggressively to question him, you should bring things and go thank him!”
“Wife, what do you mean?”
“From his perspective, thinking for the village, he’s not wrong. And he didn’t direct them to do this!”
He didn’t direct, but his ambiguous attitude made everyone think it was okay, putting pressure on him.
“Although you and I know what’s going on, are you sure you want to completely fall out with them?”
