In the evening, the people from Apricot Flower Village came looking for them.
Both sides had fought during the day. Although the people from Apricot Flower Village had won, they had paid a huge price for it.
Aunt Bai’s size thirty nine shoe sent a person flying onto the door and knocked out a front tooth on the spot. That person’s wife came to settle the score with her and was miserably attacked by her dirty “Nine Yin White Bone Claw”. Half of that woman’s head was bald.
Shuanzi was thin and small. He didn’t look very powerful and majestic, but he played dirty. He hugged a person’s thigh and pinched it hard. At that time, that person didn’t feel anything because he was excited. But when he returned to his room and took off his pants, he saw that half of his leg was swollen like a stick!
The more the people of Apricot Flower Village thought about it, the angrier they became. They gathered at the entrance of each house and grabbed their weapons to attack Lotus Flower Village. They carried hoes and shovels, looking like they had the courage to slaughter any God or Buddha.
The aunties and wives gathered by the old well at the village entrance to chat. When they saw a wave of fierce villagers rushing over from the path, they were all shocked.
“What’s going on?” Asked the hunter’s wife, Cui Hua. “Who is it?”
She had only married over not long ago so she found this group of people unfamiliar. However, Aunt Zhang recognized the leader at a glance—the village overlord of Apricot Flower Village, Gao Sihai!
Oh my, why was this jinx here?
Coupled with what she had heard during the day, Aunt Zhang immediately realized that something was wrong. She said to the wife of the hunter, “Quick… quickly call the village headman!”
“Aye!” The young wife ran off!
When the village headman and Little Chen rushed over, Aunt Bai and a few villagers also heard the commotion and came over. Then, the villagers noticed the injuries on Aunt Bai, the village headman, and Shuanzi’s face. Before they could ask, the village headman said coldly, “Gao Sihai! What are you doing?”
Gao Sihai stabbed the shovel in his hand into the ground and said fearlessly, “What are we doing? Of course we’re digging the river!”
“Digging the river? What is he talking about?”
“That’s right. Is our village going to dig a river?”
Everyone in Lotus Flower Village was confused.
The village headman’s expression turned ugly, but Gao Sihai laughed loudly. “So you haven’t told them that Lotus Flower Village is going to be converted into a river?”
“What? Our village is going to be converted into a river? Who said that?” Shuanzi’s father asked in surprise.
Shuanzi bowed his head.
Shuanzi’s father realized something and slapped his head. “You knew, didn’t you? I asked you who you fought with, and you said you fell! You didn’t even say anything about such a big matter! You want me to die of anxiety, is it!”
The village headman tried to mediate. “I didn’t let him say anything.”
The news that Lotus Flower Village was going to be turned into a river channel exploded among the villagers. This was where they had lived for generations. Although they were extremely poor, it was their own home. Now, Gao Sihai told them that their home was going to be gone just because it was going to be turned into a river channel?
“Bullsh*t!” Aunt Bai spat with her hands on her hips. “The river was supposed to have gone through your Apricot Flower Village! Who knows what dirty methods you shameless people used to trap our village!”
Aunt Zhang explained to everyone, “Originally, the river was supposed to go through Apricot Flower Village and chisel a few acres of their land. They refused and forced the magistrate to change to our village. Our village is small. Once the river is dug through our village, our land and residences will be gone. The ancestral grave will be dug up too!”
“This is too much!”
“That’s right. There’s only so much land in our village. If we change it to a river, where will everyone settle down in the future?”
“Aiya, isn’t that so…”
Lotus Flower Village was small. All these years, it had always been the most disliked village in Lotus Flower Town. Almost every village could ride on Lotus Flower Village’s head. Good things didn’t come to them, but all the bad things came to them. For example, military recruitment. It was said that back then, Apricot Flower Village used the excuse of vigorously developing farming and animal husbandry to keep all the young and strong men. Their village didn’t have enough men, so they could only recruit from other villages. It was said that many of the men in the surrounding villages had been taken away. The worst was Lotus Flower Village. Originally, they only needed to hand over ten, but almost every family had been taken away.
The eldest son of the village headman died in battle the next year.
Zhao Heng was the only son in the family. Logically speaking, he shouldn’t be considered for conscription. If he hadn’t already passed the exam back then, he would have been captured and sent to war.
Gao Sihai snorted coldly. “I knew you wouldn’t be convinced. Fine, look at what this is!”
As he spoke, he waved to the people behind him. That person was Cripple Li, who had his front teeth broken by Aunt Bai’s shoe. His nickname was Cripple but he was not really crippled. He had broken his leg when he was young and always held a walking stick, so he got this nickname.
Cripple Li took out a document from his sleeve and said through his teeth, “Did you see it clearly? It’s written in black and white. The magistrate has stamped it! The matter of digging a river through Lotus Flower Village was left to us!”
He couldn’t read, and the paperwork was upside down.
The village headman didn’t know much, but he could almost recognize the words Lotus Flower Village and the river. It seemed like there was no room for discussion in regards to the matter of building a river.
Everyone’s heart sank when they saw the village headman was silent.
Just as everyone was about to despair, someone shouted, “Eh? Doesn’t Scholar Zhao know the county magistrate?”
Zhao Heng was talented and was highly regarded by the teacher in the academy. The teacher recommended him to the county magistrate’s youngest son as a teacher. Of course, the villagers did not know about this.
Everyone turned around and looked at the hunter who had just spoken.
The hunter cleared his throat and said, “I went to town on the first day of the New Year and saw him enter the county magistrate’s mansion.”
No wonder he did not visit his father’s grave. It turned out that he had gone to the county magistrate’s mansion.
“He… he can even enter the county magistrate’s mansion. He must have a good relationship with him. If he helps us…”
The hunter didn’t finish his sentence, but everyone knew what he meant.
Zhao Heng had done the wrong things and was despised by the entire village. The village headman even said that if he did not repay Yu Wan’s family’s debt within three months, he would expel the Zhao family from Lotus Flower Village. Wouldn’t the entire village owe Zhao Heng a favor if they asked him for help at this critical juncture?
It was a bigger favor than curing the only cow in the village!
In the Zhao Family, Zhao Baomei said smugly, “Big Brother! You’re confident in convincing the county magistrate, right?”
Of course, Zhao Heng was confident. He did not study for so many years for nothing. A mere river was not a problem for him. He had a way to satisfy Apricot Flower Village and also prevent Lotus Flower Village from suffering losses.
Zhao Baomei said proudly, “We can’t help the village for nothing. After we succeed, we’ll get the village headman to chase the Yu family out!”
