"You're talking nonsense! Who went into your kitchen?" Zhang Yijin raised his voice.
"Didn't go into your kitchen?" Bai Sheng smiled mysteriously. "My dear 'little thieves,' are you sure?"
"You lowly slave! Who are you calling a thief?" Li Qiang's face contorted with rage. He was the most proud person in his life, hence his name Li Qiang, and he could not tolerate insults to his character.
As soon as he finished speaking, Lightning whipped out its snake tail and slapped him across the face. Then, it brought its snake head close to his face, baring its fangs and flicking its red tongue.
Li Qiang's face immediately swelled on one side. He looked at Lightning in terror, his lips pursed, looking as if he wanted to cry but dared not.
"Now, please, all you 'thieves,' look at your palms and the soles of your feet!" Bai Sheng chuckled as she looked at Li Qiang's face.
Lu Ye and the others also began to laugh in low voices. The children were particularly disrespectful of Li Qiang, laughing heartily and unrestrainedly.
The four of them spread out their palms to reveal that their palms were completely blackened.
"Wh-why is there so much black soot?" Lu Fengshou exclaimed in shock.
"There's also on the soles of our feet!" Zhang Yijin's face showed panic.
Du Min sneered triumphantly, "Hmph, we knew you people from Huangsha Village would send someone to cause trouble, so we smeared soot on the water vats and grain bags in our homes, and scattered grass ash on the ground."
"You knew in advance... we would come?" Zhang Yijin repeated Du Min's words, feeling something was amiss.
"Yes, we knew in advance," Bai Sheng smiled, deliberately shifting her gaze to Zhou Ligen.
Zhou Ligen was bewildered: Why are you looking at me?
Zhang Yijin suddenly understood something. Even lying on the ground, it didn't stop him from kicking Zhou Ligen several times, "Good for you, Zhou! You colluded with them and deliberately set a trap for us! You scoundrel!"
Zhou Ligen was shocked. Only then did he grasp the profound meaning behind Bai Sheng's gaze. He waved his hands repeatedly, shaking his head, "I... I didn't! Brother Zhang, everything I told you was... was the truth! If I had set a trap, I wouldn't have trapped myself."
Suddenly, Zhou Ligen also had an epiphany. He abruptly shifted his gaze to Liu Shi, cursing her with a ferocious expression, "Good for you, you slut! You rotten old woman! Elbow turning outwards, you cheap whore, daring to sell me out! Open your dog eyes and see, I am your man!"
Liu Shi spat on the ground and said hatefully, "Zhou Ligen, stop spewing dirt on me! This is all your own wicked heart and digging your own grave! You kept saying you were wrong and wanted to apologize and make amends to the Master and Mistress. I've been with you for over ten years. Although I knew your wretched character, out of consideration for our marriage, I thought I'd give you another chance.
So, I, with a thick skin, went to the Mistress to plead for you. Who knew, the moment I told the Mistress what you said, she immediately guessed that you were trying to trick me into saying something to please those people from Huangsha Village. As expected! You are the fool who bites the hand that feeds you! Ungrateful wretch!
We, the dozen or so people in Hongshu Po, are all refugees with nothing, often bullied by people from nearby villages. Now, the Master and Mistress are willing to lead us to survive in this desert. We should all be united, but then there's you, a fool and a wretch with your elbow turned outwards. Zhou Ligen, I've seen through you completely. I'm divorcing you! Tonight!"
"You cheap shrew, you have no right to divorce me! Only I can divorce you!" Zhou Ligen, his secrets exposed, pointed at Liu Shi and cursed in a furious rage.
Liu Shi gave a cold smile, "I've been with you for over ten years, and not a single day have you treated me well. You often resorted to violence against me. Back when times were good, before we became refugees, you shameless man, you even went out and flirted with other women. Don't think I don't know! If it weren't for the sake of our deceased son, I would have divorced you long ago!"
"You... you damned woman! You rotten rag full of maggots!" Zhou Ligen was so angry he was about to spit blood, if he had any left in his body.
Bai Sheng gave Lightning a look, and Lightning immediately raised its snake tail and slapped Zhou Ligen across the face as well.
Such a foul mouth deserves a slap!
Lu Ye said to Zhao Dazhuang and the others, "Brother Zhao, tie them all up and send them to the authorities tomorrow morning!"
"Aye, alright!" Zhao Dazhuang agreed happily, and together with Hu Daniu, Ma San, and Huang Gousheng, they went towards the four men, each responsible for tying one up.
"No, no, no, let's talk this through. Lu Ye, as our former neighbors, name any condition you want, as long as you don't... don't send us to the authorities." Lu Fengshou immediately smiled ingratiatingly.
He had heard from Zhang Jiawang that the government prisons nowadays didn't provide food and water for the inmates. Prisoners sent to jail, regardless of their crime or the severity of their offense, were either sent to the deep mines for labor or conscripted to the front lines. If neither was possible, they would be discreetly killed and then dumped into the refugee camps to be eaten.
He didn't want to die young, let alone be eaten.
"Yes, Lu Ye, we are also neighbors, living one after another all these years," Li Qiang's attitude also softened.
Lu Ye said coldly, "Don't mention being my neighbor. You are not worthy."
Seeing that two of his companions were already wavering, Zhang Yijin glared at them and cursed, "Lu Fengshou, Li Qiang, what are you doing? Even if they send us to the authorities, they can't do anything to us. We didn't take anything."
Bai Sheng smiled slyly, "Who says you didn't take anything? Several ladles of water are missing from my water vat."
Zhang Yijin was about to explode with anger, "We didn't drink any water from the vat! You ugly, cheap creature! You... you are despicable and shameless, slandering us!"
"Slap!" Lightning's tail slapped Zhang Yijin's mouth again.
Anyone who insulted its master gets slapped!
Bai Sheng's gaze suddenly sharpened, and she rebuked sternly, "You didn't drink the water because you didn't have time to! If my Lightning hadn't intervened in time, you probably would have stolen all the water from the vat, stolen the grain, and then set my house on fire! Just like ten days ago! Since you are despicable and shameless, we will naturally see this through!"
Lu Fengshou and Li Qiang exchanged a guilty glance. How could this little slave know about the incident of setting Lu Ye's house on fire?
"That's right! You stole our water!" Tian Guihua's tone was particularly firm. "Now, your handprints and footprints are all over the kitchen. As soon as it's dawn and we report this to the authorities, you can all expect to rot in prison!"
Grandma Zhong also narrowed her eyes and said sinisterly, "The more than twenty people present can all testify that you stole our water!"
"I heard that the Judicial Official in the town yamen is a righteous and upright person, and he will definitely punish you!" Yang Shi said unhurriedly.
Ma San, however, said impatiently, "Master, Mistress, why don't we just not report them to the authorities? It's a waste of time. Let Lightning swallow them all in one gulp. It would be undetectable, and the authorities wouldn't be able to find anything. How much more convenient would that be?"
Lightning immediately opened its monstrous maw towards them as if in agreement, its snake tongue flicking rapidly. Inwardly, however, it mused: Swallowing them isn't impossible, but they'd have to be cleaned first. This Lightning doesn't swallow such stinky people.