Chapter 33: Harvest

Chi Nan Yi nodded: "Hello, Village Mayor."

"What a pretty girl. No wonder you grew up in Jingcheng—you're much better-looking than us rough folk who face the yellow earth with our backs to the sky." Zhao Xifeng thought for a moment, then lowered his voice: "Chi Family girl, did you really hear there are locusts?"

Chi Nan Yi nodded: "That's right, there is indeed such news." Seeing the grave expression on Zhao Xifeng's face, she couldn't help asking: "Village Mayor, have you heard some rumors too?" Could it be that Meng Qinghe had told others about the locusts?

Zhao Xifeng shook his head: "Not that. It's just that today some children in the village found this." He took out the locust: "In past years, grasshoppers were never this big. Looking at it now... the locust plague you mentioned isn't impossible."

Zhao Xifeng looked at Chi Nan Yi, hesitating to speak. Chi Nan Yi knew the reason—he simply wasn't certain whether there would be a locust plague or not. If he had the villagers harvest everything and there really was a plague, that would be fine to explain. But if there wasn't, it would mean the villagers would all lose about thirty percent of their harvest.

That was a loss he could not afford to bear.

"Village Mayor, if you think there will be a locust plague, harvest your own fields first. As for whether the villagers follow your lead, that's their own business." Chi Nan Yi's words suddenly enlightened Zhao Xifeng.

He smiled and said to Chi Nan Yi: "It takes a child from Jingcheng—you've really got a good head on you. I'm going back to harvest right now!"

Chi Zhiqiu heard this and couldn't help being stunned.

"Little sister, how did the Village Mayor understand? Understand what?"

"The Village Mayor wanted them to harvest all the crops, but he was afraid that if there was no locust plague at all, the villagers would blame him."

"But having him harvest only means harvesting his own family's fields, doesn't it? It's not like he'd harvest other people's fields too." Chi Zhiqiu still didn't understand. Looking at his clear eyes, Chi Nan Yi couldn't help laughing: "Big brother, let me ask you—if you weren't sure whether there'd be a locust plague, but the village mayor harvested his crops first, what would you do?"

"Me..." Chi Zhiqiu suddenly understood: "I'd harvest mine too."

"Exactly."

"Little sister is so smart!" Chi Huaijin said with a smile: "If little sister were a boy, she'd surely come back with a good ranking from the imperial examinations."

After Zhao Xifeng returned home, he took his sickle and went to harvest the crops.

Seeing this, the villagers all began to waver in their hearts.

"The Village Mayor has already started harvesting. Could the locust plague be real?"

"Hard to say. Our Village Mayor usually treats his crops like his own life. The only reason he'd harvest early is one possibility."

Several people exchanged glances and said in unison: "Locust plague!"

"I can't sit still—I'm going back to harvest mine too. What if there really is a locust plague?"

"That's right, I'm going too."

"Harvesting early means some loss, but it's far better than losing everything."

In no time, the villagers one after another took up their sickles and went to harvest the crops.

"Little sister really is something—getting it done with just a few words." Chi Huai Qian said to Chi Huaijin beside him: "Second brother, do you think what little sister said is true?"

"I believe her." Chi Huaijin nodded without hesitation: "What little sister says is definitely more reliable than you."

Chi Huai Qian: "..."

If you can't speak properly, you really don't have to speak at all.

As Yuping Village began harvesting their crops, several neighboring villages also heard the commotion and couldn't help being curious about their behavior.

They'd all been farming their whole lives—they surely wouldn't not know when to harvest.

After much inquiry, they heard the news about the locust plague.

"Locust plague? How is that possible? We haven't heard of a locust plague in Daqi for so many years. Where did this baseless rumor come from?"

"Yuping Village has the lowest harvest every year and harvests the latest in past years. For them to harvest this early, there must be something fishy going on. Maybe there really is a locust plague!"

The village mayors of several villages came one after another to Yuping Village to verify. Zhao Xifeng didn't hide anything and directly explained the whole sequence of events with perfect clarity.

The several village mayors looked at each other in dismay—could this all be true?

Zhao Xifeng brought out the locusts that children in the village had recently found, his tone heavy: "Perhaps, a natural disaster really is coming."

The other villages received the news in the morning and began harvesting in the afternoon.

When the Town Mayor of Changxi Town heard that the villages under his jurisdiction had started harvesting, he spat out a mouthful of tea.

"What did you say? Harvest crops? Who started this?" Hou Qinian slammed the table and stood up, saying angrily: "This is utter nonsense! There's still over a month before the crops are truly ripe—harvesting now is just throwing away the harvest for nothing!" He paced back and forth on the ground, his tone full of anxiety: "Xie Yuwei just took office and is burning hot right now. If the villages under our town's jurisdiction harvest their crops ahead of time and this gets to his ears, he'll definitely think I'm deliberately making things difficult for him. Someone! Take me to those villages for a look—I want to see exactly who came up with this rotten idea."

Most importantly, if the harvests in the villages under him were reduced, didn't that mean the benefits he could reap would also be reduced—how could that be acceptable?

When Hou Qinian arrived at the several villages closer to the town, they were right there harvesting. Hou Qinian grabbed a villager and demanded loudly: "Who told you to harvest the crops?"

"Mayor Hou, it was the Village Mayor. The Village Mayor said locusts are coming and told us to hurry and harvest."

"Locusts?" Hou Qinian said angrily: "Which idiot told you that?" He found the village mayors of several villages and learned from them that this news all originated from Yuping Village.

"Yuping Village..." Hou Qinian's eyes narrowed slightly, and he said through gritted teeth: "Zhao Xifeng! You old rogue!"

He stormed into Yuping Village, and what met his eyes was bare, stripped fields—all the crops in Yuping Village had already been completely harvested.

Looking at this scene, Hou Qinian nearly fainted from anger.

"Zhao Xifeng! Zhao Xifeng!" Hou Qinian stood at the village entrance and shouted loudly: "Get out here before this Town Mayor!"

Zhao Xifeng was drying grain in his courtyard. Learning that Mayor Hou was looking for him, he hurried to the village entrance.

"Mayor Hou—"

"Slap!"

Before he could finish speaking, Hou Qinian's palm was faster than his mouth.

"You old thing! Your own village can't grow much grain, so you go inciting other villages to harvest too, is that it? Locusts, my foot—I say you're the locust! You parasite!" One slap wasn't enough for Hou Qinian; he raised his hand to strike again.

The villagers had all more or less experienced Hou Qinian's temper—he was not someone easy to deal with.

Every year, over the issue of taxes, many villagers were whipped. Every time, Hou Qinian told the constables to beat them as hard as they could. The Chi Family included, they had been beaten many times—even when they paid their tax grain in full, they would still take a few lashes.

Though the villagers of Yuping Village were dissatisfied in their hearts, they had no way to deal with it and could only let Hou Qinian bully them.

They all said ordinary folk don't fight with officials. Hou Qinian's rank as Town Mayor wasn't high, but it was more than enough to crush them.

Before Hou Qinian's slap could fall, a jade-like hand seized his wrist and twisted it forcefully backward. A crisp crack came from Hou Qinian's arm, followed immediately by his ceaseless wailing.