Chapter 664

The noise outside the house also woke the old lady. The old lady was a light sleeper to begin with, and the commotion from the dogs earlier had already disturbed her, but she thought it was just stray dogs passing by.

It was a habit in their village to dump trash onto the beach so the tide would wash it away, which is why the beach was a place stray cats and dogs often visited.

It was normal to hear barking from far to near and near to far, and besides, Adong was at home, so she was very much at ease.

It was just that the voices this time made her curious enough to climb out of bed to see who had come to the door.

"Oh? So many people?"

"Why are you up?"

"I heard the commotion and got up to see. Why aren't you moving the dried fish?"

Ye Yaodong thought about it and decided to tell the old lady what had just happened. There was a living person standing in the corner, and since it was dark, she hadn't noticed, but she would see him in a moment.

He had to explain it anyway.

After hearing it, the old lady was also very angry, "Oh my, the dogs in the house look so well-behaved. How can this person's heart be so bad? Coming specifically to the door to put down rat poison, why can't they stand to see others doing well? It's a good thing the dogs in the house get pig bones and chicken and duck bones to eat every few days, so they're picky and don't eat just anything."

Ye Yaodong was also very glad that his dogs were often fed bones, so they knew what normal bones tasted like and wouldn't be foolishly deceived.

In the past, when they went outside, they would sniff things they saw but wouldn't eat them. However... whether they would eat poop, he didn't know; he hadn't looked closely.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help but rub his cheek; he had to remember to wash it later.

"They were almost wiped out. It's a good thing the dogs at home have seen the world; a few bones couldn't fool them."

Uncle Zhou had originally just been standing on the side watching, but after understanding everything, he also spoke up, "Earlier, I thought they were just jealous that your family had made a fortune. I heard a large Liberation truck was parked at your gate during the day. I didn't expect they had been prepared for a long time and had already come to scout the location the day before."

"It might be more than just jealousy. There was a grudge before. When this bastard was catching squid last year, he went to steal from the sea area where we put our incubators. Didn't the people from his village come to our village to make trouble? Later, they were beaten out."

"Oh! Are they from Haiqing Village?"

Everyone instantly realized.

They had said it themselves: the village was only so big, and they knew everyone in their own village. This little thief was clearly not from their village. Just now, they had been wondering which village he was from and were just about to ask. So it turned out there was a grudge long ago.

"No wonder they targeted your family. I guess they saw your family suddenly make a fortune and felt bad. People with small hearts are easily jealous of others, and those with grudges can't stand to see you doing well even more."

"That's right. It's a good thing he was caught today, otherwise we wouldn't know who was so poisonous."

The more they talked, the angrier they got. They were almost left with none, and it would have been a waste of raising them.

Ye Yaodong was annoyed in his heart and kicked and beat him hard again. Everyone was watching, and even the old lady didn't stop him, feeling that this person deserved to be beaten.

It wasn't until the person being beaten stopped moving and didn't make a sound that Lin Xiuqing hurriedly pulled him back.

"Alright, alright, Adong, stop hitting him. He's not moving anymore, and he's not screaming in pain. We can't beat him to death; it'll be troublesome if we do."

A Zheng said coldly, "It's what he deserves if he's beaten to death. Just throw him into the sea. Anyway, who knows how many corpses are fished up every year? Since we're right at the gate, it's convenient to throw him in. The waves will wash him away, destroying the body and erasing the evidence, and no one will find him."

"Nonsense! We are law-abiding citizens!" Ah Guang glanced at him and nudged him with his elbow, signaling him to look at Uncle Zhou.

There wasn't just the few of them here; there was an outsider. How could he say such things? What if something really happened to this person and they were blamed?

They were good citizens who followed the law, so naturally, they couldn't get involved in a human life.

Ye Yaodong also glared at him, "What nonsense are you talking about? I'm a good person; how can I commit murder and abandon a body? You'd go to jail for that, and you might even be shot if you're caught. Besides, throwing someone into the sea pollutes the ocean, and we still need to catch fish. Do we still want to eat fish? If someone falls in by accident, that's one thing, but we can't do this kind of thing."

The old lady also echoed, "Yes, yes, you can't do this kind of thing. You are all good children; you can't do that."

A Zheng rubbed his nose and gave a dry, awkward laugh, "I was just running my mouth, don't take it seriously. He's been beaten like this, so it's good enough."

"Anyway, nothing happened, the dogs at home are all fine, and you haven't suffered any losses. Why don't you drag him out, put him outside, and have someone send him to Haiqing Village tomorrow?" Uncle Zhou said with a frown.

"Otherwise, it's not easy to deal with in the middle of the night, and we have to go to the city immediately. We've already been delayed for quite a while, and the dried fish hasn't even been moved out and loaded onto the car."

Adong nodded, "We can't delay any longer. If we delay any further, it'll be dawn by the time we get to the city, and A Zheng wants to buy a large batch of fish; who knows if there will be any left."

"Then let's go hang him up first. Where should we hang him? The two osmanthus trees in your courtyard are too small, the trunks are too thin..."

Ah Guang didn't care what Uncle Zhou said; how could he listen to him?

Just throwing him outside, wouldn't that be letting him off too easily?

It's rare to have someone walk right into the gun barrel; naturally, he has to be hung up to warn everyone and remind them that Dongzi's house isn't so easy to sneak into, and it might also calm things down a bit.

"Then we certainly can't hang him in my courtyard; it'll dirty my ground. Hang him on the tree outside. Tomorrow morning, Aqing, go find Secretary Chen and Dad. I won't be home, so you let them handle it. Since someone from another village sneaked into our village, we naturally have to let the village know and go talk about it."

Lin Xiuqing nodded.

"You can't say he came to hang our dog. You have to say he came specifically to put down poison, wanting to poison our whole pack of dogs to death, and then sneak into our house. Who knows what else he would have done? Yesterday, he already poured water on our dried fish, wanting to ruin our reputation so the dried fish wouldn't sell."

"Bringing this up can involve other people's interests. Our neighbors on the left and right certainly won't let it go easily. If our dried fish can't be sold, we certainly won't be able to buy dried fish from others."

"We have to let the villagers stand on our side. Even if we don't kill them, we'll make the people from the neighboring village peel a layer of skin, so they don't argue that we beat the person half to death."

"Okay, okay."

Ah Guang snapped his fingers, "You said that well! Sure enough, the more treacherous a person is, the better their brain works. The people from the neighboring Haiqing Village won't be able to take the person back so easily."

"That's for sure. This is called killing a chicken to warn the monkeys, and it also deters those who have other ideas. I guess there's more than one person who has bad intentions toward my family. Making a big deal out of it will also make the villagers weigh things carefully. The neighbors on the left and right can also be more alert. Only when I'm doing well can they do well."

"That's true. I'm just afraid of those who rely on you to make money but hope you'll have bad luck behind your back." A Zheng also said.

Lin Xiuqing also nodded; it wasn't like such people didn't exist.

On the surface, they're like brothers with you, close in relationship, flattering you wherever they go, smiling at you every day, but behind your back, who knows how they're plotting against you or talking about you.

Their family's life is looking more and more prosperous now. They're all in the same village, and the villagers see it all. There's no one who's blind, so it's certain that they'll be jealous.

She had just been thinking that hanging someone on a tree for a night might be too much, after all, he had already been beaten quite hard. Thinking about it this way, she felt Adong was right; you have to have a harsh time once to deter those who have ideas.

She didn't know that Ye Yaodong had really wanted to break this person's hand just now and have a harsh time.

It was just that he thought if he broke his hand, it would easily become a deadly feud. Now that medical conditions were so poor, if the bone couldn't be set, he would become a cripple, and his family wouldn't have peace in the future. He couldn't watch over his house every day, and his family had the old and the young.

If the person became a cripple and couldn't go on living, and came to a "fish dies, net breaks" situation, the consequences would be unimaginable.

Just beating him up like this and hanging him for a night is easy to talk about. After all, the other party was in the wrong and sneaked in first, so he could stand his ground no matter where he talked.

And when all is said and done, they didn't suffer any losses tonight.

Leave a line in everything so you can meet again in the future. Just treat it as accumulating virtue and doing good, accumulating blessings.

Uncle Zhou also said, "There are plenty of people like this. Hanging him for a night is good; at least it can calm things down for a period of time. If anyone else has ideas, they'll have to weigh it in their hearts: can they bear the consequences of being caught? You have so many dogs, they aren't pushovers."

"Right," Ye Yaodong also remembered to instruct Lin Xiuqing, "Tomorrow morning, buy more large bones to make soup. The kids can use it to supplement their nutrition, and the dogs can too. They were also frightened tonight and were almost wiped out, especially Xiao Hua."

"Okay, I know."

The old lady just listened without making a sound. After knowing which dog had suffered, she walked over and petted it.

"These bones, can kids use them to supplement nutrition? Your son has such good teeth?" A Zheng was stunned.

"You idiot, isn't there bone marrow inside those large bones? Do you understand 'supplementing shape with shape'? My son will be able to grow to be 1.8 meters tall like me in the future and look down on you!"

Ye Yaodong deliberately stood in front of him and looked down at the top of his head!

"Damn!"

"Stop 'damning', hurry up and get to work. Go into the house and help me move the dried fish. Move as much as you can until the tractor is stuffed full."

"This tractor trailer is only so big. If you stack it high, you can carry at most a thousand pounds. If you stack it too high and it's too heavy, it's easy to flip when turning on mountain roads."

"You guys figure it out. Move as much as you can move up. Later, take a rope and bundle it up, as long as it doesn't fall off. Drive a little slower if you have to. If you pull a little more in one trip, I can collect a little more from you tomorrow."

"That's true, then let's try to carry as much as possible."

"You and Uncle Zhou help move first, Ah Guang help me drag this bastard to the tree on the hillside over there."

"Fine."

Ah Guang folded the sleeves of his cotton-padded jacket before he and Ye Yaodong each grabbed one side of the person's shoulders and dragged him out of the courtyard.

The four of them divided the work and got busy.

Just after a commotion, although she hadn't seen it with her own eyes, Aqing couldn't lie down anymore and followed them to move the dried fish.

A weight of tens of pounds was nothing to their rural women; they were all used to farm work. Although she hadn't done any heavy work in the past two years, she hadn't done less carrying in previous years.

She could carry a hundred pounds of sweet potatoes down from the hillside to the brigade, so she could still carry this mere bag of dried fish.