Green Lotus Peasant Girl

103

Zhou Chengkang helped him apply the medicine. Eldest brother Zhou was still talking about what happened. He grimaced in pain as he spoke, tugging at the wound at the corner of his mouth. He said that by dawn the thieves took the silver and jewelry and ran away. Mrs. Zhou couldn't bear it any longer and asked, "How is Xili? What about Mei Hua? Was she also beaten?"

Eldest brother Zhou waved his hand, "The two of them are alright. It's just the silver… sigh.."

When she heard him say that Xili and Mei Hua were alright, Mrs. Zhou was slightly relieved. But when he mentioned the silver, she asked with a distressed look, "How much did they steal?"

"Fifty taels of silver and all the jewelry that Mei Hua owned. It should be around 60 or 70 taels in total." With a sullen look, Eldest brother Zhou said, "It's all gone now."

There was silence in the room. Eldest brother Zhou continued, "The situation was so bad that we couldn't refuse them. They told us that they would beat me if we didn't give them money. Mei Hua was then forced to bring the money. She gave them 30 taels but they still beat me up. Then they also caught Xili and told us that if we don't give everything they would beat Xili too. She is so small. How could she withstand their beatings?

"So we had no choice but to give them the silver and money."

Zhou Chengkang finished applying medicine to his face and asked, "Did you go to the magistrate's house?"

Eldest brother Zhou shook his head, "No, I'm not familiar with him. I came here to ask you to accompany me to the magistrate's house."

Zhou Chengkang got up, "How many of them were there? Did you see what they looked like?"

"They all had their faces covered." Eldest brother Zhou thought for a while and said, "I couldn't see them." Then he added, "But they were all men."

Zhou Chengkang was dumbfounded. Just based on the fact that the thieves were men, can they find them? There were hundreds of men in the town. "Think again."

"There was one person in the group who was fair-skinned. Mei Hua scratched his neck when he tried to take off her bracelet." Eldest brother Zhou pointed towards his hand and said, "The bleeding probably occurred here. He grimaced in pain as if he had never done this before."

In fact, eldest brother Zhou was not stupid at all. He knew that identifying them was important. As long as they can find the person whose neck was scratched, they can force him to confess about the other people.

Zhou Chengkang got up and said, "Let's go to the town now so that we can catch the thief quickly."

Mrs. Zhou thought for a while and said, "I'll also come with you. I'll go to take a look at the child."

Such an incident happened, it would be inappropriate for Li Qinghe to not go to the eldest brother Zhou's house. But Xiyu was still sleeping at that time, so Zhou Chengkang said, "You should stay back or come later in the afternoon."

Li Qinghe then carried Xiyu back to the bed and slept beside him.

When she woke up again it was already early in the morning. She took Xiyu to the kitchen and started preparing breakfast. Mrs. Chen entered the kitchen and said in a low voice, "Madam, there's something strange going on."

Like most of the women in the village, Mrs. Chen liked to gossip about other families' affairs the most. Li Qinghe casually asked her, "What's the matter?"

"You know about the Yang family situation right?" Mrs. Chen pointed in the direction of the Yang house, "The Yang family just announced that they will be paying off their debts and urged the people to hurry up to collect their wages… Why would they urge people to hurry to pay debts? The news had spread fast and I made a trip to eldest uncle's house to tell them about it. They also went there quickly."