Chapter 1150: A Dumb Person Eating Bitter Herbs

He nudged the sack with his foot, and after hearing an even louder noise from inside, he quickly pulled his foot back, shivered, and then followed them into the main room.

Rice had been deliberately left in the pot; as for dishes, it didn't matter—in the height of summer, hot food wasn't a must.

Ye Yaodong watched Xiao Wu wolfing down his food and asked, "There looks to be quite a lot in there—feels like more than a hundred jin."

"More than that, because they caught way too many. The whole family went out together. If it weren't for the village I happened to pick being small and remote, and most of them looking skeptical without really moving to act, it would've been several hundred jin."

"Good thing I said at the start that I'd only take about a hundred jin at most—if it went over a hundred jin, I wouldn't have the money to pay. So later I prioritized taking the snakes and rats, and only after those were done did I take the toads."

"Then because toads were too easy—even kids could catch them—they caught a ton. Later, the families who'd already earned some money just gave me the extras for free. After all, they found the things disgusting and useless."

"Besides, I told them old snakes were one mao per jin, rats were five fen each, toads were one fen each, and to prioritize snakes and rats. Really, only a few of the poorer families actually got moving."

Ye Yaodong nodded. "No wonder. I was wondering why there were so many—the money I gave wasn't nearly enough."

The family had been crammed into a space of twenty or thirty square meters to begin with; several hundred jin would've been way too much.

"They all thought I was a swindler. At first nobody paid me any attention. It was only when some folks got desperate enough that they kept asking me to confirm. I told them folks back home like eating old snake soup, like eating dried rat, and like eating toad—explained it all just like you said, Brother Dong."

"Mm, not bad."

"Brother Dong, is what you said even true? Old snake soup I get it—we eat that too—but dried rat? Isn't that too weird? You'd have to be desperate, haven't eaten meat in generations, to eat rats? And toads… who'd eat those two disgusting things? I wanted to ask this morning, but we were in a rush and you kept rushing me."

Ye Yaodong laughed and, having nothing better to do, chatted with him. "Believe it or not, there's a place in Minxi in our province where folks specialize in eating dried rat—though they don't eat the disgusting house rats, they eat field rats."

"That dried rat is supposedly one of the eight great dried vegetables of Minxi. I hear it's supposed to be really tasty, though I haven't tried it myself."

"I'm gonna puke. Field rats are still rats… how could anyone bring themselves to eat it? And that toad—even more disgusting…"

He coughed once. "The edible one is the bullfrog, not the toad, but they look pretty much alike. Frogs look pretty much like them too—about five hundred years ago they were basically one family. Anyway, those folks don't know the difference. You say your piece, they listen to theirs. As long as there's a halfway plausible reason, that's enough."

"Anyone who'd eat those two things must really have nothing else to eat."

"In places with lots of mountains and forests where you can't farm to fill your belly, you just have to find different ways to get food."

"I'd rather die than eat that stuff."

"When you've got nothing to eat, or when you've got so much you've gotten sick of it, you'll start thinking about trying all sorts of weird, novel things."

"Me, eat till I'm stuffed?"

"Believe it or not, that bullfrog thing might really be how it happened—got researched into being food."

Ye Yaodong was just talking off the cuff. He'd heard it was introduced from abroad. Anyway, Chinese people eat everything—as long as they haven't tried it, they want a bite or two.

Things that overrun and wreak havoc abroad all become edible delicacies once they reach China.

He sat for a while, then moved back to the doorway to listen to the big guy bragging about him to the neighbors.

Earlier, only he had heard the commotion at Xiao Wu's back door. The others were all so worked up bragging to him that, even though their Mandarin was pretty awkward, it didn't stop them from gesturing and chatting with the neighbors around them.

Just as he stepped out, the old neighbor lady grabbed him and said dramatically, "So you're here as an official? That's impressive?"

"What do you manage?"

Father Ye, glowing with pride, took over the conversation. "He manages the sea. Didn't a bunch of people die from jellyfishing in the next town a while back? They just set up some new unit specifically to manage that…"

He babbled on and on, and the others chimed in wherever they could, flattering the neighbors into astonishment. Every one of them looked at him with visibly shining eyes.

Their neighbor was actually an official—telling people that would make them look good too. If they ever ran into trouble in the future, maybe they could even ask him for help…

Ye Yaodong felt a bit awkward sitting there so long. The person involved wasn't suited to hearing this in person—only suited to hearing others brag about him behind his back.

Hearing it face-to-face felt great, but it was awkward. Plus everyone was asking him directly, and he couldn't very well brag about himself—a man has to stay humble. The bragging could only come from others.

He laughed, said a couple of words, then went back inside. He tidied up the things he'd need for going out to sea tomorrow, and took the chance to check on the live critters in the backyard.

After some hesitation, he still poked two small holes with a branch. They'd have to wait several more hours until the dead of night. A few dying was fine, but they couldn't all croak on him.

After finishing all that, he sat back in the yard to enjoy the cool air. Once the others had come in, he told them to have two or three people come with him at eleven at night to release them.

He'd already scouted the location during the day. Once the time came, the few of them shouldered carrying poles with the stuff and headed for the destination.

He didn't expect to do much harm to anyone—as long as he could disgust them and scare them a little, that was enough. After all, they'd only been disgusted once this morning.

Not everyone is unafraid of snakes, rats, and toads. City folks live in the city and don't see as much, so most of them will be scared—especially snakes. Once the numbers pile up, no one won't get goosebumps, even snake-catching experts.

And once the numbers of these things pile up, cleaning them up is never that easy. City folks can't compare to country folks—cleaning up this stuff definitely isn't as easy as cleaning up feces.

But none of his critters were venomous—purely meant to disgust people, to teach them a lesson. Otherwise, if he did nothing, they'd think he, an outsider, didn't dare do anything and could only go to the police.

This kind of disgusting business—who has the police coming to the door every day? If you don't teach some people a lesson, they'll think the other guy's easy to bully, and they'll push their luck, coming every day to dump feces. Was he supposed to sit there every day waiting to clean it up?

Even if they guessed it was him, and wanted to come back during the day to argue and cause trouble, once they heard he was an official, and remembered that he and Zeng Zhao Weimin had been going in and out together during the day, they'd probably have a question mark in their heads, too cowardly to do anything to him again.

Even if the couple squatting in his house got sentenced next, they wouldn't really dare do anything to him.

Even the tiniest sesame-and-mung-bean official looks like he can kill you in the eyes of the masses. "The common folk don't fight with officials"—that's a saying passed down from ancient times.

It took Ye Yaodong and the others about an hour to reach a place resembling an urban village—actually far more rundown than Chengdong Village. It was all tiny houses standing shoulder to shoulder, each household really only having twenty or thirty square meters, no yard, unable to grow a thing.

"Which one? So many houses, they all look the same." Da lowered his voice and asked.

"This way, we still have to go further in."

The few of them kept going forward, then finally stopped in front of one house.

"This is it. After following them here this afternoon, I stacked a few small stones at the corner of the wall as a marker."

Everyone shone their flashlights over, and sure enough, there was a pile of crushed stones at the corner of the house's wall.

Ye Yaodong gave a thumbs up. "Smart."

"Quick, find a window and pour them in. Otherwise these things will keep making noise here, and if we stay too long we might get caught. If we don't stay too long, people in their sleep might just think it's a brief bout of rats or frogs croaking, or think they're just dreaming."

"Pour, pour, pour—their windows are iron bars too, it's hot in summer and they didn't open them…"

"Shh, shh, shh… keep your mouth shut, hurry up and do it."

Sneaking around as they were, they stood at a window together, lifted the sack, and stuck the opening inside.

Once everything was ready, they untied the rope tying the opening shut.

Those snakes, rats, and toads had been cooped up in the sack all day. The moment they were poured out, they excitedly scurried all over the floor.

The three who had just arrived got excited too.

"Done…"

Ye Yaodong waved them over, then stood a bit farther away, about four or five meters off. He planned to listen for a reaction first before running off.

After pulling a prank, you have to see how people react—where else does the sense of accomplishment come from?

Even from four or five meters away, they could still hear toads croaking nonstop from inside the house. They didn't hear the snakes or rats though—the toads were too many.

After a while, several noisy voices and cursing came from inside the house.

"Where is all that frog croaking coming from…"

"Damn, what's making such a racket in the middle of the night…"

"What was that sound…"

The moment the lights inside the house came on, several screams rang out.

"Ah!!!!!"

Ye Yaodong waved his hand broadly. "Go, go, go, let's get out of here fast. Don't stay to watch, or in a bit everyone in the neighborhood will be woken up and turn their lights on, and we'll be exposed."

"We only got to hear a few bits of sound—what a shame!!"

"Let's go. Hearing it was enough, don't get caught."

The screaming grew even louder, and the surrounding households were disturbed too, starting to curse and grumble.

Everyone hunched low, passing beneath the windows of house after house, then hurried out of the alley.

By the time they ran out, more than a dozen lights had already come on in the alley, and even standing outside the alley they could still hear the screaming nonstop.

"Oh my, they're really screaming loud!"

"Scream even louder!"

"The louder the better, right…"

"Hahahaha, why do I feel like you're making dirty jokes…"

"Scare them half to death. They dared to come dump shit at our house—we can't exactly go beat them up at theirs, but we can pay them back in kind, an eye for an eye." Little Wu's eyes were shining as he said excitedly.

Ye Yaodong was thoroughly satisfied. "Let's go, back to sleep. We still have to go out to sea tomorrow."

"If we all go out to sea tomorrow, what if they come cause trouble at our door?"

"Just leave two people to watch. No matter how they come to make trouble, it'll alarm the neighbors, and the neighbors will talk them out of it and send them home. Besides, they don't have any proof."

Seeing their half-understanding looks, he explained a bit more.

"Didn't you all brag for me tonight, saying I'd become an official? Who dares to fight with an official? Once they find out, they'll definitely slink away."

In an era when having many brothers at home meant you could throw your weight around, even the tiniest official could crush people.

Everyone looked at him in surprise.

"Brilliant! You're something else—you planned this in advance? That's why you had us brag our heads off to the neighbors tonight."

"Ah Dong is really amazing, his brain works fast. Not only can he make money, he can mess with people too—mess with them so bad they can't say a word back and just have to swallow it."

"Truly impressive. They say think three steps ahead with every move—that's exactly this. Way too sharp, he'd already figured it all out. Amazing."

Ye Yaodong was secretly pleased by the praise, but kept a calm face. "It's nothing. We just have to make them afraid, otherwise this kind of nasty business won't stop in the future. Let's go, walk faster."

"Just a bit of a pity we can't see that family in total chaos."

"You can imagine it without seeing—faced with snakes, rats, and toads scurrying all over the house, what would it look like? With so many of them, they'd probably want to hang themselves from the rafters."

"Hiding on the rafters won't help either—rats and snakes can climb up to the roof too."

"That's true, then that'll be more than enough trouble for them."

Ye Yaodong said with a grin: "By then the neighbors will hate them to death too, cursing them for ten days to half a month. With so many snakes, rats, and toads, they'll definitely scatter everywhere and spread to the surrounding households. Tomorrow everyone will have to buy insecticide and spray their houses."

Though the surrounding households definitely wouldn't have it that bad—at most a few would scurry into their homes, and they'd just catch them and be done. These kinds of houses always had rats and cockroaches running around anyway.

Toads were especially easy to catch—besides the disgust of their numbers, they weren't much of a threat. It was the grass snakes that would scare most city folks.

But they were all non-venomous, couldn't harm people. At worst people would use a branch to flick the snakes into the bushes and toss them away. Anyone bold enough to eat them would just toss them straight into the pot and get a free meal.

Once they were far from that area, everyone slowed their pace, walking and chatting as they went.

"Now I feel better. I was the one who scrubbed the front door this morning."

"I was the one hauling water back and forth—now let them run around like headless chickens…"