Chapter 103: But I’m Worry About You!
“Oh, then call the person out, and I’ll confront him,” seeing He Dong’s Wife about to speak again, Lin Xin quickly cut her off: “If you don’t let him come out, it proves you’re in cahoots to frame me!”
“You!” He Dong’s Wife looked utterly aggrieved, subtly glancing at a certain spot in the crowd.
“Where’s the person? Who are you looking at?” Lin Xin also glanced at the crowd, her gaze accurately landing on the person who had been staring at them and muttering through gritted teeth from time to time.
“It’s, it’s He Shun!” He Dong’s Wife gritted her teeth and said a name.
“He Shun? Who is He Shun?” Lin Xin asked suspiciously.
The onlookers all turned in unison to look at a skinny young man, who was precisely the one who had been gritting his teeth at He Dong’s Wife earlier.
“I-I am He, He Shun,” the young man stepped forward and stammered.
“Shunzi, tell everyone what you saw, and let them all see Lin Xin’s true colors!” Seeing He Shun step forward, He Dong’s Wife felt relieved, her attitude visibly emboldening.
“Yeah! I also want to hear what vicious thing I supposedly did that made you come knocking at my door like a mourner first thing in the morning.”
“You! How dare you curse me?”
“Hmph!” Lin Xin sneered coldly and ignored her, turning to look at He Shun.
Under her gaze, He Shun swallowed hard, forcing himself to stay calm as he said: “I saw you yesterday afternoon carrying a can to the outside of Brother Dong’s courtyard wall, but I didn’t see what you did.”
“Are you sure the person you saw was me?” Lin Xin smiled, “Let me remind you, heaven watches from three feet above, and liars will end up in the hell of tongue-pulling!”
“You, you don’t need to scare me, I’m not lying, everything I said is the truth!” He Shun’s eyes darted around, then he said loudly.
“Fine, then tell me more: what clothes was I wearing at the time, which direction did I come from, and what kind of can was I carrying?”
“I…” He Shun couldn’t answer, then suddenly changed his tune: “I didn’t say it was definitely you, I just said it looked a lot like you, don’t believe me, ask everyone else.”
“Oh? Is that so?” Lin Xin looked at him mockingly, then turned to He Dong’s Wife, “Did you hear that? He said he’s not even sure it was me, so how did you come charging at my door with a kitchen knife?”
“I……” He Dong’s Wife was even more speechless, chilled by Yan Yue’s gaze, and suddenly turned on He Shun: “You plague-ridden rogue, you damned dog, say it again in front of everyone what you just told me at my house?”
“What’s wrong with saying it? I said the person looked a lot like Lin Xin, but I’m not sure if it was, who told you to be so stupid and come at her with a kitchen knife?” He Shun refused to back down and started arguing with her.
“Both of you shut up!” Lin Xin was extremely irritated, grabbed a large stone from beside the courtyard wall and smashed it on the ground, sending up a splash of snow and mud with a “bang,” blinding nearby He Dong’s Wife, He Shun, and He Dong.
“Listen up, the one who harmed your family wasn’t me, I’ll say it one last time, if you come looking for trouble again, next time that stone won’t hit the ground, got it?” Lin Xin held the baby with one arm, the other hand on her hip as she issued the threat, looking quite comical, but no one present dared to laugh or thought she was bluffing.
“Hmph! Always looking for trouble when there’s none!” With that, Lin Xin turned and went back inside, slamming the courtyard gate shut with a “bang,” and upon turning around saw Mo Ziyuan standing at the main hall door.
“Why are you here?” she asked.
“I heard villagers came to make trouble at your house, so I came to check,” Mo Ziyuan walked to her side, carefully examined her complexion, and seeing nothing wrong, finally relaxed.
“As if they could do anything to me.” Lin Xin proudly raised her head, though she had to admit seeing Mo Ziyuan improved her mood a bit.
“I know,” Mo Ziyuan’s voice grew a bit low and husky, leaning close to her ear: “But I’m worried about you!”
With a “boom,” Lin Xin felt her ear must be on fire, otherwise why would it be so hot?
“You, stay away from me!” She unhesitatingly pushed him to a safe distance and started shooing him away, “As you saw, I’m fine here, nothing at all, you should go back quickly! If someone sees you, that would be the real trouble!”
Mo Ziyuan reluctantly glanced at her nearly bleeding earlobe, a flash of regret on his face, then nodded: “Alright then, be careful, I’ll head out first, if anything happens remember to call out, okay?”
“Got it.” Lin Xin stood at the main hall door, watching Mo Ziyuan leave over her courtyard wall, looking back every few steps.
“Pfft~ hahaha……” After his figure disappeared, recalling her earlier embarrassment, she couldn’t help bursting into loud laughter.
Lin Tao, who had been peeking over her shoulder the whole time, kicked his chubby little legs and giggled “gaga gaga” along.
“What are you laughing at?” Lin Xin poked his little nose.
Lin Tao thought she was playing with him and laughed even harder.
Two days later, the culprit who led the wolf pack to He Dong’s house still wasn’t found, only known to be a woman about Lin Xin’s height, with no other clues, so the matter had to be dropped.
As for their losses, it seemed every household in the He Clan pitched in some money, her family’s two big fat pigs had been bitten to death, the He Clan Leader got the village butcher to cut off the mangled parts, and the rest was made into pork dishes for the whole village to eat.
Lin Xin didn’t dare go, who knows how many bacteria were in the wild wolves’ mouths, she didn’t dare eat that pork.
Influenced by her, Mo Ziyuan and the others didn’t go either, and when the He Clan Leader later brought He Dong to their house to give thanks along with a big piece of pork, they didn’t dare eat it and quietly buried it that night.
The weather grew colder, snow falling more and more, and the village saw a few more wolves sporadically, but none in packs, just stragglers each time, killing only a few chickens, no pigs harmed.
The villagers itched with hatred for the wolves, and finally the three family clan leaders went together to the village’s old hunter, as per custom every winter before New Year they entered the mountain once, and this year they discussed going deeper into the deep mountain, ideally finding the wolves’ den and wiping them all out.
The old hunter puffed on his tobacco pipe several times, and after a long while said: “Relying just on villagers to wipe out that wolf pack is a joke, if you really run into them who knows who’ll wipe out whom! Unless you can get those new young men who just moved in, plus Xin Yatou, then maybe you could fight the wolf pack.”
The three family clan leaders looked at each other, none confident they could convince Mo Ziyuan and the others, those people clearly weren’t ordinary and wouldn’t lack a couple bites of meat, getting them to go deep into the mountain to hunt wolves probably wouldn’t be easy.
As for Lin Xin, she was a villager, so a call would definitely get her on board.
