The outside helpers were also people Old Wolf Ren arranged for secretly. They pretended to be extremely angry and acted together.
“Get the money first!” Old Wolf Ren called out and immediately led them as they rushed into the bedroom. “You are not allowed to go in. If you guys barge in, I’m calling the authorities!”
Old Yu shouted. However, it was useless. Old Wolf Ren directly barged in and used the tools that they prepared earlier to dig the ground.
They were all able-bodied men and five minutes later, the floor of the bedroom was dug through, revealing over ten large chests. Old Wolf Ren then dragged the chests into the courtyard.
The villagers who were spectating all craned their necks to see things. Some even walked into the courtyard.
“You guys are not allowed to move, these are all my money!”
Old Yu lunged toward the wooden chests, but he was soon stopped. He shouted for his juniors to help him, but no one moved.
After all, this was 300,000 taels of silver, a heavenly sum. Who didn’t wish to take a look?
Bang! Bang!
Old Wolf Ren used brute force and broke the locks, opening up a chest. Taels of silver could be seen within, shining brilliantly under the glow of the sun.
The entire courtyard fell silent. Only Old Yu was still shouting helplessly.
“You guys are not allowed to touch them. They are mine, mine!”
“What? Yours?”
Old Wolf Ren scolded, “This money is clearly the funds paid by Central Province Academy to purchase the products, yet you are the corrupted one who swallowed the funds. Speaking of which, this should be the sum shared equally to the villagers.”
At the start, the villagers were filled with envy and had no other thoughts about it. But after hearing what Old Wolf Ren shouted, their minds were immediately filled with greed.
That was right, everyone was a farmer. Even if village leader Yu plowed the land 100 times more than them, it was impossible for him to make so much money. He must have corrupted and embezzled the funds gained from the sold products.
These funds were all from the efforts of the villagers.
“Nonsense, I’m not corrupted!”
Old Yu argued.
“Where did this money come from then?”
Old Wolf Ren questioned. “I…I…”
Old Yu couldn’t answer.
“Everyone chose you to be the village leader, yet your conscience has been eaten by the dogs! Everything generated from everyone’s effort is used to fill your private coffers. If you don’t have so much money, can you afford to keep mistresses? Also, look at your illegitimate children. Shouldn’t you apologize and seek everyone’s forgiveness?”
Old Wolf Ren criticized.
A commotion appeared among the villagers.
“Everyone has to bask in the heat of the sun as they till the land. All of this effort is just for them to have a meal every day. But you are so awesome. You eat fish and meat every meal, and you can even sleep with a different woman each day.” As Old Wolf Ren scolded, he was observing the expressions of the villagers as well. When he saw them getting angrier and angrier, he couldn’t help but feel more impressed by Sun Mo.
Sun Mo’s grasp of the human heart was truly accurate.
The words he spoke earlier were told to him by Sun Mo.
Humans were creatures who didn’t worry about scarcity but uneven distribution. If the village leader’s family had a slightly better life, everyone wouldn’t grumble. But if they had too good of a life, it would absolutely engender jealousy. This was especially so if the money was indeed from their efforts. All their unhappiness erupted forth immediately.
Ding!
Favorable impression points from Old Wolf Ren +30. Friendly (140/1,000).
The people secretly arranged to mix in with the crowd started to pick up stones and toss them at Old Yu.
The majority of the villagers didn’t dare to smash the stones at their village leader. However, there would always be some rogues among the villagers, or they might have been bullied by Old Yu before. Hence, now that there was such an opportunity, they also picked up the stones and started to hurl at him. The amount of force they used wasn’t great. It was purely to vent their emotions. “Are you guys looking for death? How dare you all throw stones at me. Little Tan, go and report this to the authorities!”
Old Yu was too used to riding roughshod over people, so how could he endure this? He immediately shouted for his son to report this to the authorities. However, he felt some pain in his heart. If the constables came here and settled this, he would surely have to spend money to calm the villagers down.
“You are actually reporting this to the authorities despite you being in the wrong? Do you still have a conscience?”
Old Wolf Ren scolded and aimed a kick at the wooden chest.
Bang!
The wooden chest splintered apart, and the taels of silver flew everywhere, some of them hitting the villagers.
This scene caused all the villagers to be stunned. Some of them wanted to pick the silver up, but they didn’t dare to.
“This money clearly belongs to everyone. Everyone trusted in you, that was why you were chosen to be the village leader. But what have you done?”
Old Wolf Ren was still following Sun Mo’s instructions as he cursed Old Yu. He glanced at the silver ingots while coldly laughing in his heart. (Even if you guys manage to snatch the ingots, you will have to hand them obediently over to Sun Mo in the end.)
“Old Yu, you are black-hearted!” “You are not fit to be the village leader!”
“Pay us back our hard-earned money!” The subordinates Old Wolf Ren inserted in the crowd shouted out. The emotions of the villagers immediately erupted.
(That’s right, this is our money. Why can’t we take them?)
When the first person went to pick up the silver, the chaos could no longer be controlled. The villagers all rushed everywhere; some even got into fights. “Everyone stop! These are my money!” Old Yu grabbed a villager. In the end, that villager retaliated with a backhand slap, causing Old Yu to fall to the ground.
Pak! Pak! Pak!
The villagers rushed forward. It was unknown how many pairs of feet trampled on Old Yu.
Naturally, Old Wolf Ren had arranged for some people to intentionally trample on Old Yu and aim kicks at Old Yu’s limbs.
Kacha! Kacha!
After the stampede, Old Yu’s limbs were broken. Even a few of his ribs broke as well.
“Don’t snatch my money!”
Old Yu felt his heart breaking when he saw the wooden chests being overturned and the silver ingots snatched away. He spent 20 years saving up so much money!
“Old Yu, Teacher Sun asked me to say something to you!” Old Wolf Ren squatted beside Old Yu.
“Everything was his plot?”
Old Yu immediately remembered the look on Sun Mo’s face.
“You only understood this now?”
Old Wolf Ren smiled. “Teacher Sun said that he is a teacher and is very kind-hearted. Hence, he won’t exterminate your entire family. However, you have to die!”
As Old Wolf Ren spoke. The luxurious residence Old Yu constructed by spending a large amount of money began to burn. “You guys actually commit arson?”
Old Yu was incomparably shocked. After that, he felt even more pain in his heart. This residence was the achievement he was the proudest of.
“Who? There are so many people here and it’s so chaotic. Isn’t it normal for there to be a fire?”
Old Wolf Ren mocked, “Oh, the legs of two of your sons were broken by someone else too. How tragic!”
“All of you are scum, you guys will die a terrible death!”
Old Yu could see that his two sons were already unconscious, lying in a pool of blood. “You are the scum, alright? You spent money to purchase three female children to be your playthings. In the end, two of them were killed by you and the last one was sold away by you after you finished enjoying yourself. To whom could they complain?”
Old Wolf Ren’s gaze was ice-cold. Old Yu’s evil deeds weren’t limited to only this. “No, I’ve never done such a thing. You are speaking nonsense.”
Old Yu was shocked. How did they learn of this? Everything had been conducted in secret.
“Just die in peace!”
Old Wolf Ren teased, “Oh ya, this money will be taken back by the authorities since they are considered ‘stolen goods’. After that, the money will be paid to the Central Province Academy as compensation. Naturally, since Teacher Sun is An Xinhui’s fiance, he can be considered half-an-owner of the Central Province Academy. This sum of money would naturally land in his hands.”
“No, I don’t want to die!”
Old Yu struggled and screamed but it was useless. Numerous legs stomped on him, causing him to cough up blood. Now he felt some regret and despondent.
How many times had he succeeded in his exploitation? In fact, even An Xinhui would treat him to tea. But what went wrong now?
(Yes, it’s all because of Sun Mo!)
(Damn, why didn’t I offer gifts and apologize to him earlier?!)
In the Zhang Clan’s residence, Ma Cheng and the other two were drinking wine together.
“Old Yu is dead!”
Wei Ziyu had a heavy look on his face. He and Old Yu were responsible to get the villagers to create trouble in the Central Province Academy. However, the butler had just reported that Old Yu’s residence was burned down and he died due to a stampede.
“Such a coincidence? Could this have been done by Sun Mo?”
Ma Cheng frowned.
“It can’t be, right? Sun Mo is still a teacher after all. Is he capable of doing something that lacks moral principles like this?” Zhang Zehao was surprised, but he had to admit that this move was brilliant. Now that Old Yu had died, it was much more difficult for them to control the villagers.
“That might not be the case. Have you forgotten how he instructed those people to beat the villagers?”
Ma Cheng coldly snorted. “Speaking of which, Sun Mo’s way of doing things is so tyrannical and decisive. He is much more impressive compared to An Xinhui. The Central Province Academy might really be able to overturn its situation by depending on him!”
Wei Ziyu praised.
“Overturning its situation? After offending Prince Li, the Central Province Academy is finished for sure!”
Ma Cheng lifted his cup. “Come, let’s drink!”
At this moment, the sounds of someone quarreling rang out. This made Zhang Zehao unhappy as he cursed, “What’s going on?”
A servant rushed in, but before he could make a report, someone already shouted. “A fire!”
A fire had broken out.
The people of the Zhang Clan’s residence immediately moved as they tried to put out the fire.
“Old master, things aren’t good. There are some hoodlums in our courtyard, wanting us to hand over the ‘black-hearted money’ we earned through these years.”
The butler reported. “What?”
Zhang Zehao was frightened badly. After that, he cursed, “Sun Mo, f*** you!”
“Old Zhang, calm down first.”
Wei Ziyu consoled.
“Calm your shit!” Zhang Zehao stared at the dense smoke everywhere in the large residence and was so anxious that his head was completely covered with sweat. He personally went to direct the efforts of putting out the fire.
An hour later, the fire was finally put out. However, one-third of his residence was already burned down, becoming ashes.
“Sun Mo, I will always stand in opposition against you!”
Zhang Zehao roared angrily. Just when he was preparing to go to the authorities to report that Sun Mo instigated the farmers to do this, the constables had arrived at his residence.
“Zhang Zehao, you are a suspect too. Follow us back!”
Constable Wu had a solemn look on his face. He waved his hand as the other constables immediately rushed forward and cuffed Zhang Zehao with metal locks. “Old Master!
The people of the Zhang Clan were shocked when they saw this.
“You dare to capture me? Do you know who my backer is? It’s Prince Li!”
Zhang Zehao coldly laughed. “When tomorrow comes, this daddy will make sure you can’t be a constable head anymore!”
“Old Master Zhang, there’s no need to be so arrogant!”
Constable Wu mocked, “Do you know who gave the order to come and arrest you? It’s Prime Minister Zheng!”
“What?”
When the words rang out, the calm expressions that were originally on the faces of Zhang Zehao and the other two immediately turned to fear.
“This matter has a connection with Prime Minister Zheng?” Wei Ziyu was so frightened that his legs were trembling. That was the retired prime minister that had great influence and a good reputation. He was famous for loathing evil and being impartial. Once he acted, they would all die for sure.
For businessmen, how could they be the law-abiding ones? Zhang Zehao and the other two had always conducted shady deals.
“Bring him away!”
Constable Wu then looked at Ma Cheng and Wei Ziyu. “The two of you, if you want to use your connections, I suggest you do so fast. If not, I don’t dare to guarantee that the two of you would be safe either.”
Ma Cheng hurriedly rushed home. As for Wei Ziyu, after he stood for a while on the streets, he decided to rush to the Central Province Academy. If he knew that Sun Mo had such a good relationship with Prime Minister Zheng, even if someone threatened to beat him to death, he wouldn’t have dared to create trouble.
“What a troublesome matter!” Wei Ziyu was depressed. This time around, they had rammed their toes into a hard steel board. He could only hope that Sun Mo could be the bigger man and forgive him.
