Chapter 23

"Such matters shouldn't be decided by a villager assembly and then announced, right? What, Village Chief, you're pulling the strings alone?" Ye Cheng sneered.

Chen Jinhai's face darkened; this Ye Lao Er actually dared to speak to him like that, too arrogant.

Xiao Hu behind Ye Cheng kept tugging at his clothes; his words were too overbearing, offending the Village Chief's authority would bring no good outcome.

Chen Jinhai darkened his face and said coldly, "This is a collective decision of the village committee; don't pin this big hat on me."

"Village committee?" Ye Cheng snorted through his nose, "Aren't they all your people? You decide however you want."

Ye Cheng's attitude completely infuriated Chen Jinhai; he pointed at Ye Cheng and shouted, "You have no respect—back when your father was alive, he never dared to speak to me like this."

Mentioning Ye Cheng's father also made him angry; according to the original host's memory, his father had also often been bullied by the Village Chief back then.

"Chen Jinhai, do you still think it's the old society? You're a landlord, right? This is the new society—people are the masters. Why won't you let villagers speak?"

"You dare call me a landlord?" Chen Jinhai was so angry his moustache bristled.

"With your pointy mouth and monkey cheeks, you'd be perfect playing Zhou Bapi."

"You..."

Chen Jinhai was so angry he could barely catch his breath; Zhang Guafu beside him hurried forward to pat his back,

"A yellow-haired brat who peeks at women bathing, always stealing chickens and dogs—what do you think you are, some good stuff?"

"Auntie Zhang, rest assured—someone like you, even if you stripped naked and stood before me, I wouldn't bother to glance; yet you think I'm peeking at your bath—you're overthinking." Ye Cheng said calmly.

Zhang Guafu was also a shrew, but hearing Ye Cheng say that, she instantly lost her composure: "You... you dare say that about me? I'll rip your mouth apart."

Saying that, she bared her teeth and claws, lunging forward to give Ye Cheng a Nine Yin White Bone Claw; this woman relied on the crowd's numbers, thinking Ye Cheng wouldn't dare touch her.

Unexpectedly, Ye Cheng didn't even think, just sidestepped and lightly tripped her; Zhang Guafu flew out, landing with an "ouch" on the ground.

Ye Cheng shrugged, "See? She fell on her own—nothing to do with me."

Zhang Guafu lay on the ground, hair disheveled, angrily pointing at Duan Yong and the two others: "What are you three waiting for? Come on, get him!"

Duan Yong's expression hardened, he clenched his fists, about to rush forward, but Ye Cheng shot him a fierce glare and jabbed his shovel into the ground, sending sparks flying.

Xiao Hu also picked up the shovel he had been holding, stared at the three, and would definitely strike if they dared to approach.

The five of them just stood there in a standoff.

Chen Jinhai coughed and said softly, "What are you doing? What are you doing? This is a law-governed society; if you want to fight, you'll end up in jail."

Hearing Chen Jinhai speak, Duan Yong and the two others lowered their fists, stepped back a few paces, but still kept their eyes on Ye Cheng and Xiao Hu.

"Ye Cheng, this is the village committee's decision; your family's and the Wang family's tidal flats are innermost. If you have objections, you can raise them with the committee, but if you go to someone else's area to gather seafood and something happens, don't blame others."

After Chen Jinhai said that, he turned and walked away with his hands behind his back; Duan Yong and the others gave Ye Cheng a hard stare and followed.

Only after Zhang Guafu got up, brushed off the dirt, and looked at Ye Cheng with a smug, schadenfreude expression.

"Brother, what should we do? That innermost patch is just a rocky beach—nothing there at all." Xiao Hu looked worried.

Ye Cheng also knew that area was all broken stones, with little muddy beach, making it hard to gather anything like here.

But if they went to dig in someone else's area, since Chen Jinhai had divided the zones, it would easily provoke conflict.

Rural folks have an unwritten rule: if you dare cross a demarcated boundary, they'll resort to lethal force, and there's no reasoning with them.

"Let's go take a look first." Ye Cheng said; as for Zhang Guafu, she was probably left behind to monitor him.

Ye Cheng led Xiao Hu along the beach inward; after about twenty minutes they reached the far end, where a wooden stake was planted bearing the names of the Ye and Wang families.

It was just a rocky beach—hard to walk on, and the usual small holes on the beach were rare.

What is this? In ancient times it would be called exile to Ningguta.

Xiao Hu stared at the rocky beach ahead, deflated like a punctured ball: "What's the point of digging? There's nothing."

Ye Cheng, however, didn't mind; according to his understanding of the system, this was a heaven-defying thing, unrelated to whether it was a beach or not.

Today his purpose was to verify the Luck Value; where he foraged didn't matter.

"No problem, let's go down and try." Ye Cheng said, then led the way down.

Zhang Guafu, watching them from afar behind, sneered disdainfully: "Tch, just now you were so tough, yet you're still doing what the Village Chief said."

So, if you want to get along well in the village, you still need to cling to the Village Chief's thigh.

Just as they went down, Ye Cheng frowned; these little stones were irritating, making the soles of his feet ache, like a modern acupressure mat.

"Brother, there's nothing at all." Xiao Hu wandered about with his shovel, "Apart from some dead shells, it's just stones."

"Let's check over there." Ye Cheng pointed ahead; there was a relatively flat patch of beach.

The two went over, and indeed the beach had more signs—at least some footprints and protrusions were visible.

Ye Cheng found a small hole and dug; the mud and sand came out, the hole disappeared—it was a false one.

He tried another; this time it was a somewhat deeper hole, and Ye Cheng pulled out a razor clam—not the King Razor Clam, just a small one.

But as soon as he held it, a foul stench rose, the shell wouldn't close—it was dead beyond revival.

"Brother, look at this sand clam—it's been eaten clean, only a shell left, really unlucky." Xiao Hu angrily tossed over a shell, which was indeed just a shell.

The two searched this small beach stretch for half a day, nearly digging through a whole layer, and found a total of ten live sand clams.

As for the reefs by the sea, even the common spicy snails were scarce, mostly dead.

Xiao Hu looked at the empty bucket, lost all motivation, and simply sat on a rock to smoke.

"Brother, they're trying to drive us to death."

"What? You're anxious after a day with no catch? Keep your mindset right." Ye Cheng lit a newly bought Liqun cigarette.

Taking a puff, he thought, "Yeah, this one suits me best."

"Brother, why don't we go talk to the Village Chief and switch plots? Many of them don't even forage—why hog such a good beach?"