Chapter 238: Share Hardships ③
Not just Li Kai, but as soon as that woman spoke, Huang Yan, Nie Qiu, and Zhang Haiyang were all stunned. The land they had gone to yesterday evening to break sugarcane and pick oranges was at least an acre in size when combining both things. How could they have only stolen half an acre?
Nie Qiu came back to her senses, thinking of only three possibilities. First, these people wanted to extort them. Second, someone had genuinely stolen things from their field and suspected them. Third, it was possible that other classmates had broken their sugarcane and eaten their oranges in places they couldn’t see…
However, Nie Qiu also knew that the third possibility was almost impossible. That piece of land was full when they were eating yesterday evening. If over forty classmates were to eat, one sugarcane each and one large orange each would be enough to make them full. Even after eating so much, the sugarcane would only consume one row, and the oranges would at most consume forty catties. It was impossible to consume half an acre.
Although the light was dim at night, after adapting to the darkness, it was still possible to see things clearly. In that field, the sugarcane had not yet been broken for sale, and the oranges had not yet been picked. If the classmates had gone up the mountain to steal after they fell asleep yesterday, they would not have failed to notice.
Because the noise made by a large group of people acting together is different from the noise made by the four of them acting together. Nie Qiu took a deep breath, “Excuse me, how much compensation do we need to pay?” They chased after them, wasn’t it all for money?
“Five hundred yuan!” the old man said without hesitation.
Five hundred yuan?!
Huang Yan got angry upon hearing this, “Five hundred yuan, are you robbing us!”
“Are we robbing you or are you robbing us, make it clear! Do you brats have no upbringing? Born of a mother but abandoned by a father?” The woman who had spoken earlier raised her carrying pole again, “Without notifying us, without telling us, without our consent, you broke our family’s sugarcane and picked our family’s oranges, that’s called stealing!”
“What the hell do you mean by that?” Zhang Haiyang got angry and was about to go forward and fight with the woman, cursing.
Li Kai quickly pulled Zhang Haiyang back, and Nie Qiu also helped Li Kai hold Zhang Haiyang back, suppressing her anger, “What do you mean by ‘born of a mother but abandoned by a father’? You are all holding hoes and carrying poles, chasing after a bus with no decorum? Is this what your parents taught you? Or is it that you feel a sense of accomplishment by scolding us like a shrew? I respect you all as elders, calling you uncle and aunt. But do you have the demeanor of an uncle and aunt? You were born of a father, so you are raised by a mother, right? A shrew refers to a woman, and it seems you all learned from your mothers.”
As soon as Nie Qiu said this, the middle-aged man behind them was about to step forward to slap Nie Qiu.
Luo Xu held up his dead mobile phone and said loudly, “I advise you not to make a move. As an adult in your forties or fifties, if you beat a minor, I’ll record it and post it online. I don’t know how many reporters will come to say you’re bullying the weak, so be careful of moral condemnation!”
“Since you uncles and aunts have chased us all the way here, we don’t want to just take the loss and pay the money. I think this way, since you say we stole your things, we’ll go to your field and see how much is missing, and we’ll compensate you according to market prices.” Nie Qiu glanced gratefully at Luo Xu, then said to the people on the bus, “Everyone go back first, the four of us will stay behind to see exactly how many oranges and sugarcane are missing!”
Luo Xu, standing at the bus door, could see clearly and heard everything. He raised his eyebrows and saw another bus stop in front. He took out a hundred yuan from his pants pocket, handed it to the driver, and said to the classmates in the bus, “Everyone get off the bus, don’t delay the driver from picking up passengers.”
The driver shook his head and did not accept the money Luo Xu handed over. “Since we haven’t even traveled a hundred meters, how can I accept your fare? We still have to pick up passengers on the way back, so keep your money!”
Luo Xu nodded. Seeing that all the classmates had gotten off the bus, he then said to the old man, “Since you say we stole your oranges and sugarcane, as Nie Qiu just said, we will compensate you at the price! However, if you say we stole your things, you must also have evidence.” How could he leave Nie Qiu and Li Kai and the other two alone? Even if they hadn’t stolen anything, they were outnumbered. Four mouths couldn’t argue against five mouths! If they left, what if those people started fighting with Nie Qiu and the others? They would definitely not have a chance of winning! With classmates present, everyone together would be a support.
“If that’s the case, then take us to see your field!” Ma Xin also said indignantly.
The people on the bus in front saw that everyone on the bus behind had gotten off, and they also got off the bus. Soon, both buses drove away on the gravel road.
As more people gathered, that group of people lost their earlier momentum.
“I say you stole it, you stole it! I saw it yesterday!” the woman next to the old man said, “What’s there to see the field for? Don’t think of making excuses!”
“Madam…” Zhang Haiyang said through gritted teeth, “Even Judge Bao would need witnesses and evidence to solve a case. You have no proof, so what makes you so confident that we should believe you? If we really stole something, we’ll admit it. If we didn’t steal it, why should we admit it?” This was a matter of reputation, who would admit to such a thing?
“Since you say you saw us break your sugarcane and pick your oranges, why didn’t you jump out then and make us pay? Why did you only jump out when we were about to leave?” Nie Qiu said, “Our class has a total of forty-nine people. If each person ate one sugarcane and four oranges, let alone half an acre, even a quarter of an acre wouldn’t be enough to eat! So if you say we stole so much from you, you have to provide evidence!”
“Yeah, yeah! Find the evidence!” As soon as Nie Qiu finished speaking, the classmates behind started to chime in.
The old man was not an unreasonable person, so he nodded, “Alright, if you want to see evidence, I’ll take you to see it!”
Nie Qiu and Li Kai let go of Zhang Haiyang, exchanged a look, and followed. The group walked mightily across the stone bridge over the reservoir, towards the camp, then walked along the country path, heading up the mountain. They passed a lake and arrived at the field in front of where the four of them had eaten yesterday evening. Half of the sugarcane in the sugarcane field was gone, and more than half of the oranges in the orange grove had been picked.
Nie Qiu took a deep breath, “So, you have witnesses. May I ask if you have physical evidence?”
The old man pointed to the field, “This is the physical evidence!”
“Then I ask, where did we hide the things? With over forty of us, it would take you two or three days to finish eating half an acre’s worth of things, right?” Nie Qiu roared.
“Each of you is carrying such a large backpack, bulging full, it must be our oranges and sugarcane,” a middle-aged man said.
Nie Qiu snorted, “That’s hilarious.” Saying that, Nie Qiu took her bag from Li Kai, opened it, and inside were a tent, a sleeping bag, four books, and a pencil case. There were no miscellaneous tools.
The classmates all unzipped their large bags on their backs in unison, some even shaking out their tents and sleeping bags, staring at those people with displeasure. The contents of their bags were similar to Nie Qiu’s. They hadn’t taken their seasonings, and they had eaten all their vegetables, so they only had some tools, and two people were carrying folding stools strung together with rope.
There was no sugarcane, and no oranges.
The woman did not expect these students to be so open about showing the contents of their bags. She muttered, “Who knows where you hid the things!”
