C55

Xia Li comforted the unstable Lee's, patted on Xia Qing's head, and said while squatting down.

"Xia Qing, since Big Sister is not here, you are just a little man. Remember to protect Mother, okay?"

"I will definitely protect my mother and not let bad people bully her!" Xia Qing was so young, yet he nodded his head like a small adult, which actually amused Lee's, who had a worried expression the entire time.

"Silly child, I'm not that weak. I need you to protect me." After she finished speaking, she wiped the tears from the corner of her eyes and firmly held Xia Qing in her arms.

She looked at Xia Li, "My daughter, go quickly, I cannot drag you down, we will wait for you here."

"Mom, then I'll be leaving first." Xia Li waved towards Lee's and walked out the door. She was not at ease.

He still had wounds on his body, and she couldn't let those people cripple him again. Otherwise, her conscience would be condemned forever.

Thinking of this, Xia Li lifted her skirt and immediately ran off.

"Look, that girl Xia Li is here. Young Master Sun is not lying!" Grandma Wang was the first to point at Xia Li's flying figure and shouted.

Following the direction she pointed in, everyone turned to look. Their eyes were all filled with excitement as they rubbed their fists and wiped their palms, prepared to make things difficult for the little girl.

As he got closer to the crowd, Xia Li's footsteps were actually filled to the brim. She carefully tidied her dress and pushed the hair at her ear behind her ear, revealing a smile and walking forward to the crowd.

Her gaze had been searching the entire crowd of people, sweeping past many familiar or unfamiliar faces, before finally finding Sun Chun in the middle of the crowd. He was sitting in the middle of an open space, and not far from him, there was a muscular man curled up on the ground with a painful expression on his face.

Xia Li looked at Sun Chun and saw that he was not injured at all. He sat on the ground without any worries, stretched his legs forward, and played with a blade of grass in his hands.

As their gazes met, the corner of Sun Chun's mouth curved slightly. He spread out his hands and made a fist gesture to show that he had done his best.

Xia Li's face turned red, she nodded towards him in gratitude, then forced out a smile. After calming down, she faced the group once again.

"Xia Li, you came at the right time, this is the promissory note that your father made when we were borrowing money, it even has his handprint on it, 1 tael of crushed silver, when will you return the money!"

A short middle-aged man was the first to speak up against Xia Li, waving an IOU in his hands.

"I also have the IOU from 500 years ago."

"I have three hundred coins in my possession!"

The crowd immediately burst into an uproar, Xia Li only felt endless sounds in his ears.

When she spoke evenly, no one paid attention to her. Her mind was buzzing as she suddenly shouted, suppressing everyone's voices. "Listen to me!"

Maybe it worked, but everyone started to quiet down, Xia Li took a deep breath and then said calmly: "All of you line up in front of me, one by one, and come to me with the IOU. If you don't have any, find someone to testify on it, if you do, then I will return the debt that you owe my father, and if there aren't any, you can go to the County Yamen to report it to the county magistrate."

After Sun Chun finished speaking, he walked over to Sun Chun's side and leaned beside his ear, whispering a few words into his ear. Sun Chun nodded his head, got up and went back to his room, then took a pen and paper and placed them on the table under the big tree.

"You're really willing to pay me back?" Everyone who was originally prepared to fight a war of words, upon seeing how straightforward Xia Li was, couldn't believe it for a moment.

"Then you can try." Xia Li stopped smiling and said seriously, he took out a big purse from his bosom and looked at everyone.

In that moment, everyone's eyes were glued to the purse in Xia Li's hand.

"I don't have any IOUs! "It was your father who stole my money! That was my old age's money. At that time, he looked for me and my wine and took advantage of my drunkenness to steal my money. It was a full three liang!"

An old man around sixty years old, with a beard that was completely white, glared at Xia Li and roared.

"This is our village's Old Man Hu. He only has a daughter and he's married off to another place. He has no one to rely on now, so he won't wrongly accuse your father for no reason." Some people couldn't bear to see this, so they stood up to speak up for Old Man Hu.

"Lordmaster, I trust you." Xia Li didn't really want to argue with an old man.

However, she didn't continue speaking. She silently stood by the table and opened the purse.

After two hours had passed, the purse in Xia Li's hands deflated very quickly. After he had paid the village's debts, he only had ten taels of silver left.

Everyone took the money and scattered. Xia Li's heart was in a mess.

She thought that the villagers would make things difficult for them, and that some people would even go up and throw rotten eggs at them. However, after giving away the money, people would choose to take the money and leave.

One had to say, money sometimes could really settle many matters, giving people the dignity that they should have.

"What are you still thinking about now that everyone has left? Didn't you already pay the money back? " Sun Chun walked over to Xia Li's side and looked at her lost in thought. He advised her and showed her the payment slip that was recorded.

"I don't want to see these things. They are all man-made evildoers, yet they implicate his family to atone for his sins. I really, really hate him. When I see him one day, I will definitely teach him a lesson!"

"If we don't have money now, how far will my mother, my brother, and I be reduced to? Will we be drowned by the saliva of the entire village, or will we be forced to flee for the rest of our lives, not daring to return, or will we be sold by the Rich Man Yang?"

As Xia Li said that, he pushed away the payment slip in front of her.

"Everything you say will become a reality, and the outcome should be pretty miserable. After all, your father was the one who made the first mistake."

Sun Chun smiled faintly and kept the receipt.

"Alright, the things you were worried about did not happen. Where are Aunt and Xia Qing?"

"My mother was sent to the Water God Temple by me. I brought her and my brother back, so I'll have to trouble you to look after the house for me."

After Xia Li finished speaking, without waiting for Sun Chun's response, he walked towards the Water God Temple.

But what surprised Xia Li was that the Water God temple did not have any Lee's or Xia Qing inside.

"Mother, little brother, where are you?" "Come out, I'll take you home." Xia Li shouted again and again as he searched around the Water God Temple little by little.

However, Xia Li did not find the person even if he gained nothing.

"Mother, Xia Qing, where are you? "Hurry up and come out." Xia Li walked from the Water God temple to the vicinity of the deep pond. Other than the deafening sounds of the waterfall, he heard nothing else.

Xia Li had a bad premonition. Could it be that Lee's and Xia Qing had returned to the village?

Although Xia Li was unwilling to admit it, he still walked all the way back to the Tianshui Village, and continued to search through the alleys.

"Don't hit me, I only came back to take a look. I beg you, please let my child go. Ladies and gentlemen, consider this my begging."

The voice of the Lee's came from the depths of the alley, causing Xia Li's heart to rise as well.

She quickened her steps and started running while carrying her skirt. Only when she ran all the way, did she realize that this road led to the old house that the Lee's and Xia Qing used to live in.

It was an extremely dilapidated thatched house. The short, earthen walls were already covered with moss, and there was a sumptuous table of meat and wine in the courtyard. The table was also filled with freshly gnawed bones, as well as a pile of wine jars.

There were two or three boorish men standing in the yard. They were big and tall with crooked mouths and slanted eyes. Their eyes were like bronze bells, and their limbs were as thick as iron rods. Their voices were rough like a lion's roar.

At this time, a brute was holding a child in his hands, throwing him back and forth in the air, but what followed was the child's miserable shrieks. This child was none other than Xia Qing.

Lee's was so scared that he kneeled on the ground and continuously kowtowed with bruises all over his forehead.

But who cares?

Those boorish men laughed while clapping non-stop, as if they were watching a monkey show.

In Xia Li's eyes, this was worse than a beast, it would not be excessive to send these people directly to the government, but the support they had behind them was the government. Xia Li's brain was working extremely quickly, thinking of a way to resolve this issue, if he could not use force, then he would have to use wits.

Blood dripped from Xia Li's heart as she clenched her fists so tightly that the veins stood out. Despite the rage in her heart, she still walked over with a smile on her face.

"This little one greets all the good men, and also greets Lord Rich Man Yang. I would like to trouble the good men to bring my daughter's greetings to Lord God of Fortune."

Xia Li walked to the front of the crowd, bowed and took his stance, giving them face.

"Who is it? So it was Xia Manjiang's daughter, Xia Li. You brought your mother and your brother to the Li Village together these few days, but why aren't you dodging it? Isn't your First Aunt hard to deal with too, hahahahaha! "

The brawny man with a knife scar on his right eye was laughing heartily.

"How do you know all this?"

When Xia Li asked this question, he immediately regretted it. They knew that he had followed her, so what else could he say?

Then didn't Rich Man Yang already know that she was selling painkillers?

Xia Li felt a lingering fear in his heart for no reason. How many people had Rich Man Yang sent to secretly follow him, and how long had he been following her for? Why hadn't she noticed it?

In his memory, although Madam Zhou was a spicy person, he had never dared to go against Madame Zhao's wishes. This year, however, Madam Zhou was exceptionally out of line, not only did he dare to scold the Zhao Family, even the one-year-old Little Stone was much more mischievous than before. He did things cruelly, completely not like how a child would do things, especially Little Stone, who threw Xia Qing into a well.

The Little Stone was clearly only one or two years older than Xia Qing, and Xia Qing was also six years old. How could an eight year old child have the strength to directly carry a six year old child and throw him into the well? Isn't the Little Stone too strong?

All of the questions that Xia Li had not thought about before, all appeared in his mind now, and he realized more and more that these were all loopholes.