The Yang family and the Xu family didn't come to the funeral. It was as if they had decided it together, to not attend. The person searched for them around the yard, but couldn't find them. In the end, he quickly went to the Yang family.
But he came back in less than half an hour, "Qingsong, the Yang family said that they can't control these people. They say if you really don't want to feed them, just don't put food in front of them."
Li Qingsong walked under the eaves of the house and frowned. Because he didn't tell anyone to, no one served food to those people on their table. After waiting so long, the workers were getting impatient and were banging the table, demanding for food.
"What's the matter with this family? Do they think we won't help them carry the coffin later when it's time?" One worker barked impatiently.
No one could carry the coffin. In order to carry the coffin, the person has to be a junior of the deceased, and Li Qingsong himself had to invite them one by one. In the end, he will also need to give a thank-you gift to the juniors that helped in carrying the coffin, such as a packet of snacks and peanuts.
They would take the coffin and go up the mountain in a while. Also, the mourners had been invited already. Why would they need these strangers now?
Seeing that group of workers shouting more and more loudly, Li Qingsong gritted his teeth and said frustratedly, "Serve them food."
"Yang family! When this matter is over, I will seek an explanation from them."
In fact, all the families in the village, whether it was a happy event or a funeral, would come to the host's house and were sincerely willing to help, even if the two families usually had some disagreements. As long as they come to the host's house, they will not purposely create any difficulty or make them uncomfortable. After all, there would always be times when everyone would need help with something from others.
It was very unkind of the Yang family to do this with them.
Though these people were said to be hired by the Yang family and were also living over there, everyone knew clearly in their hearts that these people were clearly found for them by the Xu family.
As soon as the food was served to them, they didn't bang on the table anymore and started to gobble up the served food. But only after a short pause, they started to bang again, "Give us more food!"
It was fine to add more food on the first few days of mourning meals, after all, they couldn't get enough home-cooked meals. But it was not possible today, as the food quality was better today and the quantity of the food dedicated to each table was already fixed. If they would add more then there wouldn't be enough for others.
It was about time to take the coffin up the mountain. Li Qingsong didn't care about them anymore and said, “serve them with some more food."
Whenever there was an event in the village, Li Qinghe would go to the host's family to help out, and would help out with the kitchen most of the time. When she heard that there was a need for more food, she thought about it and filled a few plates with vegetarian dishes and took them out. When she saw her cousin, who was serving the food with a disgruntled look on his face, she whispered to him, "Politely, tell them that they were late in arriving and all the meat dishes had already been finished. So they can just eat this."
The person who was serving the dishes was not stupid and instantly understood her plan. After he served the food at the workers' table, he repeated Li Qinghe's words with a smile. There were people in the village who couldn’t eat as much as they could, but they would not shout or make a fuss to get more food.
They kept eating and didn't leave the table. Even after the rest returned from the mountain after the burial, they still hadn't finished and were still drinking. It was a cold winter day and they were still sitting upright and drinking.
When Li Qingsong saw this as soon as he entered the courtyard, he immediately frowned, "Who served them the wine?"
Someone sighed and said, "The wine was placed under the eaves and they took a whole jug by themselves. I tried to hide it, but I couldn't do it in time."
Li Qingsong immediately became angry. Anyway, his father had already been buried at this moment, and the funeral was considered to be over. So, he angrily went to the Xu family house with a knife in his hand.
Seeing his stance, the villagers were worried that something might happen and they followed behind him.
The Xu family members were inside the house. Li Qingsong kicked their door and shouted, "Come out."
Everyone pounded on their door and soon the whole Xu family came out of the house. Even the two brothers who were in the Yang family also arrived there.
"What are you doing this for?" Mrs. Xu frowningly asked.
Li Qingsong was not polite, "Do you care about those people filling up the two tables in my yard? Whose family is like yours, let us raise those long-term workers for you. Haven't given them food for half a month?"
Mrs. Xu stepped forward, "They are also human beings, and they can do whatever they like. Why must we care about them?"
"You couldn't care less?" Li Qingsong sneered and asked rhetorically, "Then tell me, where did you find those people?"
Mrs. Xu paused for a moment and said quickly, "What do you care?"
Li Qinghe stood in the crowd and carefully thought about those people at the party. Before today, people in the village would at most say that: "He looks so big and strong, but I didn't expect him to be unable to do any work."
Today, looking at the way they ate and their tone of voice, and their movements, they did not look like the sturdy laborers of ordinary farming families. Rather, they looked like rascals and gangsters.
Moreover, the most important thing was that there were so many people in Wang Village, and their in-laws were spread all over Luoyue Town. There were girls from the next town who married the men in this village, and none of them knew even a single one of them.
This also proved that these people came from other places.
"You are correct. It doesn't matter." Li Qingsong nodded, "Then you go and ask them to leave my house, or else I will go to the town to report to the mayor. I will report that they are trespassing my house."
Hearing this, Mrs. Xu became a bit anxious, "You are from a business family. You should know that if someone visits your house, you should treat them as guests. You want to report this to the mayor just because they ate a meal at your place…"
Seeing that she didn’t seem to back down, Li Qingsong nodded and looked to Zhou Chengkang, "Brother-in-law, I beg you to lend me your carriage."
Zhou Chengkang agreed. Seeing the two walking out, Mrs. Xu realized that they were really going to the town to look for the mayor. Mrs. Xu became more anxious, "Can't I just go and call them? You're being so stingy!"
When Mrs. Xu entered Li Qingsong's house, she saw the workers sitting at the two tables, still drinking. She walked to the table and said, "Sangou, take them back when they are almost done eating. "
Sangou was a burly man, who was the head of the group. He waved his hand and said, "The brothers still have a lot to drink."
Mrs. Xu looked at the table and smiled, "It will be the same if you take the wine back home to drink."
"What do you mean?" Sangou slapped the table with his strong hand and stood up, "Does this make you feel ashamed? You only said that we can come here to eat dinner. It was all vegetarian dishes anyway. We can't even borrow a place to drink here?"
Mrs. Xu hurriedly laughed and said, "No, they are going to clear the table and return them to their owners. The weather is getting cold, so they want to rest after finishing their work. If you keep drinking here, they can't go back. The host kindly let you all eat here, you should also make it convenient for them…"
"That's fine." Sangou got up and picked up the jug, "Brothers, let's go!"
Watching the group of people leaving, the crowd was secretly relieved.
When they first saw them, they felt that the visitors were not kind at all. They didn't look like good people. Their intuition still made sense.
Li Qingsong was still angry. It was fine that they just left. If he got into a fight and agitated those people, then he might not have been able to win a fight against them.
The men looked big and strong, but they all listened to Sangou. He did not dare to provoke them.
There were not many things to do in the winter, and several families take advantage of this time of the year to hold weddings. The Xu family seems to have gained a sweet treat. Every time there was a happy event, they let this group of people go eat dinner at others' houses. The host family would hide the wine because if those men found it, they would not leave their houses until the dark. And if someone tried to ask them to leave, Sangou would act fiercely with them. They don't finish drinking until dark every time.
Moreover, whenever they were eating their eyes would sweep over the family's daughters and daughters-in-law. This made the married daughters not go to their maternal homes and the daughters-in-law not leave the kitchen or walk around when no one else was looking.
After a few more such incidents, someone approached the village head. The village had many girls, and with this group of big and fierce men around, it would be bad if something happened. They can't let their girls get married to them, right?
The village head was also in a dilemma. After all, these people hadn't done anything yet, but there were too many people looking for him to settle this matter, so he also went to Xu's house and asked them to send them away. If they really wanted to hire people, he said they could hire them at the beginning of the spring of next year.
Mrs. Xu agreed to keep them in check. But then turned around and said to those people that they can live however they wanted. Compared to before when they didn't go around much, they were now seen occasionally hanging around the village.
Li Qinghe heard about this and decided to raise two more dogs.
They were the wealthiest family in the village. Whether someone had any bad intentions or not, they had to be on guard regardless.
Even until the twelfth lunar month, those people didn't leave. Li Qinghe and Zhou Chengkang started to catch fish and sell them.
They caught the fish alive and sold them in the town. Some people liked to buy the fish earlier, as it would be cheaper that way. The price will definitely increase two days before the New Year anyway, so it was okay to buy the fish and keep it in the bucket at their homes for ten to fifteen days.
They started selling fish here and the Xu Changjie was also selling fish in the town. They were busy selling fish throughout the twelfth lunar month, and Li Qinghe didn't pay much attention to what happened in the village.
On the night of the twenty-ninth night of the twelfth lunar month, she suddenly heard screams coming from the direction of the Yang family's house.
At the same time, someone hastily knocked on the door, "Open the door! Open the door!"
It was a man's voice. He was violently smashing and kicking the door.
Compared to the other houses, the door of Li Qinghe's house was new and the walls were made of cement, which was extremely strong. The two men stood in the courtyard and didn't leave. They pounded on their door for a long time and then the noise gradually turned quiet.
But Rhubarb and the two puppies were still barking loudly at the door.
It seemed that the people had not left yet.
Both of them were not curious about whether they had left or not, as long as they didn't come in. When it was almost dawn, they saw someone standing on top of the wall trying to get inside. They actually set up a ladder to come inside the courtyard.
When the person got down to the ground, Zhou Chengkang took a wooden stick and hit him hard, until the person's head was broken and bleeding.
The others probably heard the movements inside, so no one came in from the outside. Rhubarb also gradually stopped barking, so there must really be no one outside.
Li Qinghe found a rope to tie him up, and the two lit a torch. After looking at the person's face, they found out that it was one of the people hired by the Yang family next door.
This was not surprising to be honest. It had been many years since a few petty thefts or incidents such as someone breaking into the house had happened. After Zhao Tianfu and the others had been caught, everyone understood the lesson and no one from the village dared to do that.
Only these outsiders will be interested in such things. The two woke him up with cold water and asked, "Where did you all come from? Where do you live? How did you end up at Xu's house?"
They didn't ask him why he climbed over the wall. In fact, it would be stupid to ask him. If he climbed the wall, it must’ve been to steal something.
One of the man's eyes was swollen. He squinted his eyes to see. It was still dark, so he couldn't see anything at all. He spat out a mouthful of blood and said with a sneer, "You don't have the ability to kill this old man."
"You are saying as if I don't dare to beat you to death." Zhou Chengkang swung the stick and beat him regardless of where the stick hit him.
The man rolled around to avoid it at first, but when he felt Zhou Chengkang's vicious attacks, he hurriedly said, "Stop beating!"
In fact, people from the village households were quite simple, and you might not find anyone who beats people to death like Zhou Chengkang.
Zhou Chengkang hit him again, which made him scream. He sneered, "If you still dare to climb over the wall, you deserve to be beaten to death."
"Will you tell us the truth now or not? If not then I will continue to beat you up!
By now it was dawn and the man's clothes were stained with blood, mud, and water, "We... (cough, cough) We came out of prison."