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The Green Lotus Peasant Girl

Chapters List

Chapter 94: Thief

"What happened after that? Where did the mother and daughter go to live after that??"

Mrs. Zhou shook her head, "As she was injured, she had to be taken to the town to visit a doctor."

"Was she severely injured?" Li Qinghe was very surprised. The relationship between Mrs. Qian and her sister-in-law was good, but after thinking about it, Mrs. You probably hated her because the scholar title earned by her son was now ruined by Mrs. Qian.

"Of course, she fought to take her life, how can it be not serious? If the village chief hadn't arrived on time, seeing them fight for life and separate them, it may not have been how it is now." Mrs. Zhou sighed, "It was a good thing that your father got separated from her, otherwise, he would've been entangled in these matters."

"Since the people are already dead, does it even matter if others instigated it or not? Even if he was insisted by others to do the murder, at the end of day it was he who killed them, so it was his doing's right? Although the money was also given to Qian Laixing, Qian Qian Laiwen also spent the money on drinking in a brothel that came from his parents' funeral ceremony, whom he killed. It's more than enough to sentence him to death!"

Li Qinghe agreed.

"In fact. Mrs. Qian had to pay a lot for her brother. She could have married your father in the beginning but in the end, she married into the Zhao family because the bride price given by the Zhao family was higher and she wanted to use that money for her brother's studies. Later, the Zhao family drove her out.." Mrs. Zhou shook her head, "Today, at the entrance, many people said that after marrying your father too, she used to send money back to her family."

In the end, although Li Fu was good to her, his kindness was limited. Especially when he had to give them the money that he worked hard for and, also; if he wanted to show filial piety to her parents, it would have to be on his terms, and not because someone forced him to do it.

These were the words Li Qinghe had heard more than once.

"Maybe they wanted too much money, which he couldn’t give them." Li Qinghe tentatively said, "At that time she also wanted to help the Qian family raise a child, but I refused. I said that time, unless she gave birth herself ...... cough ......"

After that Li Fu came to live with her for half a month, it was because Mrs. Qian wanted to have a child.

"Your father is lucky. If he was still entangled with her, he would also have been dragged into this mess. After seeing her state today, it would at least take ten to fifteen days to nurse her back to health. Mrs. Zhou looked at the mushrooms on the ground, "Although you picked them, they are worth the effort. They may taste delicious but it's oily."

"Mother, people just live a fulfilling life, and not just eat to live." Li Qinghe laughed, "They don't cost us money so I picked some. Anyway, they taste delicious."

Mrs. Zhou didn't say anything else.

The Yang family next door had another commotion going on in their house though. The villagers again went to his house with hoes and kitchen knives and forced him to return the money. If he can't give them money then they were fine with him compensating them with this year's harvest. But even after being threatened for life, Mr. Yang didn't give in to them this time. He got injured too. After getting injured Mr. Yang went to the mayor. No one knew what was discussed, but everyone agreed for the wages to be delayed for a year and Mr. Yang also didn't sue them for injuring him.

In Li Xingwang's opinion, they were probably never going to get the silver.

After they hired the couple, they had a lot of free time. Mrs. Chen was the one who was feeding the chickens and fish now. The couple helped them feed the animals, and cleaned inside and outside of the courtyard. In fact, they were so free that Li Qinghe had to hatch chicks for them to watch.

This year's fish was much cheaper, but the price was still higher than in previous years. It was now sold for 20 cents a pound. Recently, the fish in the pond have grown up again. Originally, the two of them planned to take them to the county and sell them, but recently they found that there were many people in the town who were also buying them. So after the good harvest this year, they simply decided not to go. The big deal was just to feed the fish a few more months and sell them during Chinese New Year.

The front yard and backyard were cleaned by Mrs. Chen and Mrs. Zhou seemed to be quite free besides taking care of her grandson during the day. She even wanted to sleep with her grandson at night. To all this, Zhou Chengkang agreed without any hesitation. It seemed that after coming back from the town he let Mrs. Zhou do whatever she wanted to do.

So, for the next few days, the child slept with Mrs. Zhou. After the three had spent most of the year together, the couple was finally able to spend time alone.

That night, Li Qinghe woke up in the middle of the night to use the washroom and was going back to her room. The moon was brightly shining so there was no need for her to take a candle. When she almost reached the bottom of the eaves, she saw little rhubarb suddenly get up and stand in an alert position. He was looking in the direction of the door wanting to bark and then looked at her again.

She was slightly stunned and slowly walked to the gate. From behind the gate, she saw several figures outside sneaking towards the pond. Two figures were already inside the pond with buckets.

They are stealing fish!

Little Rhubarb was about to open his mouth and bark when she touched his neck and soothed him. Last year, when someone stole her fish, she failed to capture them. She knew that someone was eyeing her fish and sooner or later she would catch them.

She raised her hand to open the door. She paused and, after thinking about it for a moment, she turned around and returned to the room. Zhou Chengkang was in bed, already awake when she went out, and when he saw her enter, he said, "Come back to bed."

"There are thieves outside." Li Qinghe whispered.

Zhou Chengkang was a little surprised and got up to put on his clothes, "Little rhubarb didn't even bark."

"I calmed him down or else he would've barked earlier." Li Qinghe's voice was low, "Since they came again to steal we have to catch them." Now it was autumn so it was fine to watch the pond, but in winter, the night would be so cold, who would come out to watch the pond all night?

When the two were about to go out, Li Qinghe went to Mrs. Zhou's room and told her. As soon as they opened the door they saw three people pulling the net by the pond. Little Rhubarb suddenly rushed towards them.

The last time when she opened the door, Little Rhubarb wasn't able to catch them. But this time he rushed over before the three people even had time to react. The people immediately ran and scattered in different directions. Two people went to the Yang family's side and one ran towards the village.

Once Little Rhubarb started chasing, the door of the newly built house by the pond over there was also opened. Min Rui also got up in a hurry. Seeing little rhubarb running toward Yang's family house, he ran and followed Zhou Chengkang to chase the person running towards the village.

When Li Qinghe walked to the pond, Mrs. Chen arrived, "They filled two buckets and still wanted to cast the net."

It wasn't easy casting a net and they had already filled two buckets of fish. In the beginning, she and Zhou Chengkang had to wait for half a day to pull the fish net out of the pond but still, they wouldn't catch much fish. But these thieves caught so many fish, it looked like they were not novices.

And in the Wang Village, as much as she remembers, no one knew how to fish and no one raised fishes. Usually, they would go to the small river to catch a few small fishes and there was no need for the fishing net for it at all.

She took the fishing net and looked at it for a long time. Zhou Chengkang and Min Rui had already brought a person back there. When they got closer, Li Qinghe realized that she actually knew that person. Not in a million times would she have thought that the person was from the Yang family next door. It was actually Yang Lanrou's younger brother. His white skin was very recognizable among most of the dark men in the village.

After tying him up, they realized that Little Rhubarb still hadn't returned. If he didn't catch them, then he should have come back earlier. Zhou Chengkang was a little worried, so after tying him up, he ran towards the Yang family house.

Soon, another person who had a piece of meat torn from his leg was dragged out. They also knew this person. He was the younger brother of the person from whom they occasionally bought fish from. Before she used to buy fish from him, but after Li Qinghe started selling fish, the two families had a falling out. After Zhou Chengkand himself started breeding the fish, the two families completely stopped any contact between them.

Although the two families did not clash head-on, Li Qinghe was somewhat unhappy with him. It didn't make sense that in Luoyue Town, only he could sell fish.

But she didn't expect them to actually steal from her pond.

"Another one ran away." Zhou Chengkang tied up the man.

Li Qinghe didn't care at all, "I'm not afraid, we caught these two, and sooner or later they will confess."

Looking at the two people who were gagged, whimpering, and trying to talk, Zhou Chengkang asked, "Should we take them to the town now or wait for the dawn?"

It was only an hour more before dawn. Li Qinghe looked at the two and asked, "Does anyone else know you came to steal the fish?"

Both shook their heads. Then Li Qinghe looked at Yang Lanhong, "Your father doesn't know?"

He shook his head again.

Li Qinghe smiled and said, "Let's go to town tomorrow morning. First, we should have breakfast, as we have a lot of work to do in the morning."

However, before the two people were moved into the yard, Mr. Yang from next door rushed over. He was panting, and was surprised to see the two people tied up on the ground, "Lanhong, why are you here?"

Then he asked Li Qinghe and Zhou Chengkang, "What just happened? Why did your dog run to our house in the middle of the night to bite? I seemed to have heard someone screaming, seemingly bitten by the dog."

Zhou Chengkang pointed his finger at the person who was bitten in the leg, "They came to steal our fish, but when they saw us they fled. I chased after one and Rhubarb went after the other. He is very powerful, I didn't raise him for nothing."

"Steal fish?" Mr. Yang questioned them. The surprise on his face could be seen clearly under the moonlight, "How could this be possible? My son stole your fish?"

The people from the village might be polite to the Yang family but Li Qinghe really didn't like the Yang family, so she wasn’t polite to them. She folded her arms and sneered, "In the middle of the night, they came to my pond with fishing nets and buckets. If they didn't come to steal fish, could it be that they were sleepwalking?"

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