Chapter 339

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Protagonist:

Chai Mi

Chai Mi left home and went straight to Lao Liutou's house.

Lao Liutou was the closest person to Chai Mi among the Chai Family Main Branch.

Chai Zhongxiao had gone in, and now among the elders only Lao Liutou remained.

Lao Liutou was still carrying stolen trees home…… Seeing Chai Mi arrive, he asked: "What's wrong, Chai Mi? Your complexion doesn't look good."

"Nothing. My corn at home was stolen by Liu Xiaochun. Calling it stealing is really robbery. My mom saw it, he ran away, and afterward he refuses to admit it……"

Chai Mi told him the whole story, adding embellishments as she said: "I was planning to report it to the police, but I was afraid that when the time came, Sixth Grandpa, you'd say: Oh, why report it, making it sound like the Old Chai Family has collapsed, with not a single living person left…… Right? So I didn't report it."

Hearing this, Lao Liutou immediately flew into a rage: "Rebellious! You wait, you scoundrel, bullying people right onto our heads."

Lao Liutou didn't go steal trees anymore; he went shirtless into the courtyard and called out his two sons and three grandsons: "Round up people, go to Liu Xiaochun's house. That scoundrel, bullying people like he doesn't know how."

In no time at all, Chai Mi's clansmen—uncles, elders, brothers—about forty or fifty of them came in a mighty throng.

Lao Liutou waved his big hand, too lazy to explain anything: "That Liu Xiaochun, that dog-beaten thing, bullying our family. Open robbery and plunder, the village doesn't care, and we won't report it either. We'll just beat him. Beat him until his own mother doesn't recognize him. Don't take weapons; in a moment listen to my command—I say hit, you hit."

The crowd then rushed toward Liu Xiaochun's house in a swarm.

At the door, Lao Liutou kicked the rotten wooden door apart with one foot.

Then a group of people entered the courtyard.

This courtyard had formerly belonged to the Chai family.

It was the courtyard of Chai Zhongming's five brothers; Chai Zhongming was a distant branch of Chai Mi's family, though also surnamed Chai, not an especially distant branch.

So everyone entered without any misgivings.

Lao Liutou led the way: "Liu Xiaochun, get out here!"

Liu Xiaochun, inside the room, saw this uproarious crowd and was completely dumbfounded; he grabbed an axe and came out: "What's the matter? What are you doing?"

"What are we doing? You're holding an axe—do you want to chop me?" Lao Liutou cursed as he stepped forward to snatch the axe.

Liu Xiaochun was tough, but he couldn't really chop people; holding the axe was just to scare them.

If he really had the skill to kill someone,

he'd have been executed long ago?

So when Liu Xiaochun saw Lao Liutou trying to snatch the axe, he gave a direct push……

Lao Liutou fell down accordingly.

The scene suddenly turned awkward……

Everyone:!!!

Liu Xiaochun:???

Before Liu Xiaochun could react, Chai Mi shouted: "Everyone saw it—Liu Xiaochun struck first! My Sixth Grandpa is over seventy years old, and Liu Xiaochun punched him right in the head!!!"

Everyone immediately rushed up.

Liu Xiaochun didn't even have time to explain anything before he fell down.

They say one person can't fight four hands.

Let alone the hands of forty or fifty people……

The axe in Liu Xiaochun's hand couldn't move anymore; someone had swung it away……

He was also pressed to the ground and given a fat beating.

At first Liu Xiaochun was still talking tough, threatening revenge on this one or that one, but after a while his mouth was crooked and his eyes slanted, his head full of big bumps, and he started begging for mercy. After another while, he was beaten so badly he defecated.

Liu Xiaochun lay on the ground shouting: "Stop hitting…… hit me again and I'll die. I was wrong…… I really was wrong. I won't dare again…… spare me some breath."

Everyone then stopped.

Chai Mi walked over, smiling: "You hit my Sixth Grandpa, and you think you're some pillar of the Old Chai Family? Respect the elderly—hasn't anyone taught you? You bullied an elder; you deserved to be beaten."

Liu Xiaochun's wife didn't dare come out of the house; inside she was so scared she wet herself, and she was piled onto the kang.

Liu Xiaochun was beaten into no human shape at all; now he was truly afraid.

Hit him again and he'd really die.

"I submit…… I truly submit."

"What does your submitting have to do with us?" Chai Mi coldly laughed: "You have to apologize to my Sixth Grandpa. You struck first; we were acting in self-defense."

Although it was a bit excessive……

Liu Xiaochun said: "Sixth Grandpa, I was wrong; I shouldn't have hit you…… I was wrong."

Lao Liutou: "You were wrong and that's it? Go to your mother's! You were wrong and that's it? If admitting wrong was useful, the world would already be peaceful. You hit me, I hurt…… you have to pay my medical fees."

Liu Xiaochun: ……

Lao Liutou sat on the ground slapping his thigh: "Pay up! My ribs hurt from your slap! My head is buzzing!"

Liu Xiaochun raised his head with swollen eyes: "Sixth Grandpa, I really have no money……"

"No money?" Chai Youqing's cousin brother Chai Youliang kicked him on the butt: "You had strength when stealing corn, now you pretend to be poor? Old Sixth Grandpa at his age takes one hit from you, and we'd have to pay out coffin money!"

In the courtyard the Chai family spoke all at once:

"Exactly! Carry Sixth Grandpa to the County Hospital for an X-ray!"

"Without five hundred yuan, this isn't over!"

"Why waste words on him? Smash that broken iron pot in the kitchen first to offset the debt!"

Liu Xiaochun's wife, peeking through the door crack, trembled: "Don't smash the pot! We… we'll pay!"

Chai Mi squatted in front of Liu Xiaochun, poking his forehead with her finger: "Repay? With what? You ruined over one mu of river beach land, where's the sorghum?"

Liu Xiaochun had snot all over his face: "... Sold... sold it to Old Wu's family in Houtun for grain tickets..."

"Hah!" Lao Liutou jumped up in anger, "Fast hands and feet! Where's the money?"

"Bought... bought alcohol..." Liu Xiaochun's voice was like a mosquito humming.

Chai Youliang grabbed his collar and hauled him up: "Damn it! Stole grain to buy booze? If you don't cough up the sorghum money today, I'll break your legs!" The Chai family youngsters in the courtyard roared along, hoes and sticks thudding against the ground with a clang-clang.

"Repay! Definitely repay!" Liu Xiaochun's wife scrambled out, "My mother's family still has half a bag of sorghum, let that cover it first! The rest... after the autumn harvest we'll smash pots and sell iron to repay too!"

Chai Mi sneered: "Autumn harvest? Waiting for you to run away?" She turned to Lao Liutou: "Liu Yeye, you speak."

Lao Liutou brushed dust off his trouser legs: "Bring the sorghum now! IOU in black and white, press a fingerprint! One grain short, I'll bring men to tear down your roof beams!"

Liu Xiaochun and his wife nodded like garlic pounding. Just then Liu Zhanggui pushed through the crowd, saw Liu Xiaochun's blood-gourd face, and frightened, tugged Chai Mi's sleeve: "Al... almost enough..."

Chai Mi shook off his hand: "Now you know fear? When he was riding our necks shitting in broad daylight, where were you hiding?"

The courtyard fell suddenly silent. Liu Zhanggui's face turned pig-liver purple, lips trembling, unable to speak.

This matter had blown up a bit big, Liu Zhanggui's head was buzzing.

He steeled himself to persuade: "Let's drop it. Not a big deal... Liu Xiaochun has already submitted..."

Liu Xiaochun and his wife hurried to show: We've completely submitted.

Lao Liutou roared at Liu Xiaochun: "Write it yourself! When you'll repay the money, what happens if you don't, and if that half bag of sorghum isn't delivered before dark, I'll burn your house!"

Liu Xiaochun wrote trembling all over.

Liu Zhanggui didn't dare say anything either.

Liu Xiaochun's wife scrambled to find half a pencil stub and a sheet of cigarette paper. Liu Xiaochun lay on the ground, fingers swollen like carrots, trembling as he wrote:

"Owe Chai Mi family... river beach land sorghum... one mu... priced at... one hundred fifty... yuan..."

"One hundred fifty?" Chai Youliang kicked his butt, "Think you're feeding chickens? Market price twenty-five cents a catty, one mu yields at least eight hundred catties, two hundred yuan! One cent short and I'll break your legs and stuff them in the stove!"

Liu Xiaochun's wife wailed: "Where's that much! That land was drought-stricken..."

"Drought?" Chai Mi sneered, squatting down to poke his head, "Drought didn't stop you stealing so happily? When you were breaking stalks why didn't you mind the drought? Two hundred, not one word less! Write!"

Liu Xiaochun gasped in pain, hurriedly crossed out "one hundred fifty" and changed it to "two hundred".

"When to repay?" Lao Liutou stood with hands on hips, full of vigor, not looking like someone who'd been beaten.

"Au... autumn... after selling grain..." Liu Xiaochun's wife rushed to say.

"Bullshit!" Chai Youliang spat, "Autumn you'll have run off, who do we find? Cash! Latest by tomorrow noon!"

Liu Xiaochun wore a mourning face: "Kill me and I don't have it either... really bought alcohol..."

"Don't have it?" Lao Liutou's triangular eyes glared, pointing at the only valuable thing in the courtyard, "Take that pig away! Count it as one hundred!"

Liu Xiaochun's family's skinny half-grown pig squealed in fright in the pen.

"No, Sixth Grandpa!" Liu Xiaochun's wife threw herself at the pigpen gate hugging it, "That's the piglet we caught in spring, hasn't grown up yet! Count... count as one hundred, okay?"

"Fifty!" Lao Liutou wouldn't budge an inch.

"Eighty! Eighty okay? We... we'll pool together more..." Liu Xiaochun's wife cried with snot and tears.

Chai Mi lost patience: "Fine! Pig valued at eighty! Remaining one hundred twenty, IOU, press fingerprint! Three days! Three days later if money not seen," she swept a glance at their tottering mud house, "I'll tear down your roof beams!"

Liu Zhanggui rubbed his hands anxiously: "Chai Mi! Tearing down a house is illegal!"

Chai Mi lifted an eyelid: "Village Chief, he stole my things, is that illegal? He beat my Liu Yeye, is that illegal? You can't handle it, but I can't make up my own losses? Or will you repay for him?"

Liu Zhanggui instantly wilted, shrank to the side without a sound.

Liu Xiaochun and his wife completely collapsed. Liu Xiaochun trembling pressed a red handprint on the IOU, wrote "Three days later repay Chai Mi one hundred twenty yuan exactly". His wife cried and wailed going to drive the pig.

Lao Liutou directed two youngsters: "Go, lead the pig to Chai Mi's house! Watch it, don't let it get skinny!"

Chai family people swarmed following the pig and IOU, like they'd won a battle walking back. Liu Zhanggui looked at the courtyard's mess and Liu Xiaochun collapsed on the ground, sighed heavily, and walked off with hands behind his back.

Song Qiushui had run back early, bouncing excitedly: "Satisfying! So satisfying! Chai Mi, still you! That pig looks skinny but it's meat anyway!"

Lao Liutou stroked his non-existent beard proudly: "Hmph, little rabbit scoundrel, turned against him! This time know how many eyes Lord Ma has?"

Chai Youqing shrank in the back of the crowd, watching that wheezing skinny pig driven out, face a bit embarrassed yet a bit relieved, whispered to Su Wan: "Pig... how to feed the pig? We don't have pig feed either..."

Chai Mi was reading the IOU, head not raised: "Feed what feed?! Liu Yeye, go home, you're injured, beaten by Liu Xiaochun, just right to supplement for New Year!"

"Ah?" Su Wan startled, "Really take their pig..."

"Otherwise how to handle?" Chai Mi tucked the IOU in her pocket, "He gave it himself. What's to fear?"

"Fear a der! He's going out, just beat him! Come out the front gate, as long as he steps out with his right foot first, it's illegal, beat him!" Song Qiushui grinned ear to ear.

Chai Youliang came over: "Chai Mi, that remaining one hundred twenty, can Liu Xiaochun produce it in three days? I doubt it."

Chai Mi deliberately said loudly: "Even better if he can't. Just the excuse to drive him out of that broken Chai family courtyard. That land, clean it up, good for stacking firewood later."

Liu Xiaochun and his wife in the courtyard both trembled hearing this.

Especially his wife, scared to death again.

Chai Mi then turned to greet Lao Liutou, "Liu Yeye, thanks for your trouble running a trip today, tonight let Xiu'er send a few bags of flour over, and buy a few catties of alcohol."

Lao Liutou's face instantly beamed: "Aiyo, still my big granddaughter thinks of me! Fine! Call me if anything!" He walked off with hands behind his back humming a tune, steps even lighter than when he came.

Chai Mi then thanked everyone, everyone said it's all family business, what thanks... then dispersed.

Liu Zhanggui covered his head, took out a cigarette and lit it, took a drag: Hard to handle, day after day... you say is Liu Xiaochun sick in the head? Damn it, speak nice and he'd repay, he wouldn't. They beat him once, he behaved. This person... is a bit interesting.

But Liu Zhanggui wasn't at ease.

This matter was quite big after all.

Liu Zhanggui ran to Song Qingshan's house... Song Qingshan had just returned home, was drinking tea.

Liu Zhanggui lit another cigarette: "Aiya, Lao Song ah. This matter you see..."

What Liu Zhanggui spoke of was naturally Liu Xiaochun being beaten.

"Is the beating a bit too heavy? What if Liu Xiaochun goes to make a false accusation, how to handle?"

"He didn't pay it any mind; what could he report? This matter is the same principle as Su Wan watching Liu Xiaochun steal corn — Liu Xiaochun denies it to the death, and the two of us have no method. Conversely, if Liu Xiaochun goes and says someone beat him, but the beater denies it to the death, he also has no way. This trash, just asking for a beating. Beat him a meal, and he'll be honest and well-behaved."

"I think so too." Liu Zhanggui took a drag of his cigarette: "You say this plaything... he was dazed and stupid, just feeling like everyone was afraid of him. Result? Someone beat him a meal, he withered into no shape at all, beaten until he called dad — he even called it. Truly fucking interesting."

Song Qingshan smiled: "Some people are just like that. This one belongs to the soft fearing the hard, the hard fearing the harder. Chai Mi has two moves, using hard to control hard. Didn't see before that the Old Chai Family was this united, huh?"

"Their Old Chai Family originally also loved to cluster together. All fucking stubborn types. Before, besides me, it was always their Old Chai Family serving as Village Chief. If it wasn't for the current Village Chief not wanting to do it anymore, would it have come around to me?"

Liu Zhanggui sighed a breath.

"Right, you say this Liu Xiaochun won't retaliate against Chai Mi and them, right? In case..."

Song Qingshan laughed: "Can't. If he had that ability he wouldn't go steal. He'd directly rob, right? Right... if he had that ability, could he still live that poor? I reckon it's like this: he'll have to find Chai Youde, go borrow money... his family is truly poor to the point of not working. In the village, his family is poor second-to-last."

"Who is last?"

"His second grand-uncle Chai Zhongming, of course."