Chapter 44

Cheng Duo and Yong-ge returned to the village the next afternoon. Originally, Yong-ge planned to go to Cheng Duo's house together, but when Cheng Duo saw someone in his yard from a distance, he asked Yong-ge to go back first.

They hadn't officially become a couple yet, and if rumors spread about their disappearance for several days, even if they eventually got married, Yong-ge would find it difficult to hold his head up in the village.

Fortunately, Li Wang was out. If someone asked about Yong-ge, he could say that he went to deliver something to his own father.

Yong-ge and Cheng Duo had agreed on a story, and Yong-ge nodded, saying, "Then I'll go. You go back and apply the medicine quickly."

"I know. If you need anything, remember to come find me."

Cheng Duo returned to his own home and found that Village Head Li and his son Li Da Zhuang were waiting in his yard. In addition, there were over a dozen wolf skins hanging there, all processed. Although some of the wolf skins were tattered and the edges were uneven, they were damaged during Cheng Duo's fight with the wolves.

"Cheng Duo, you finally came back…" Village Head Li saw Cheng Duo and immediately stood up excitedly, but when he saw his appearance, he hesitated, "What… What happened to you?"

Cheng Duo smiled bitterly, "Village Head Li, you've seen it too. The wolf pack attacked my house in the middle of the night. I barely managed to escape and had to run into the mountains. Later, I killed the leader of the wolves but got lost in the mountains. It took me several days of struggling to find my way back…"

"Why did you lose so much weight?" Li Da Zhuang asked in astonishment.

Cheng Duo had prepared a response for this. He sighed, "After killing the wild boar, I fell ill. My body wasn't fully recovered, and then I got injured during the wolf attack, which left me in this sorry state… Village Head Li, how many days have I been gone?"

"About five or six days. It was when Sha Er saw your door open and entered the yard, only to find dead wolves all over the place. He hurriedly ran to inform me…"

Village Head Li explained that Cheng Duo's yard was indeed quite frightening, so he didn't want to let the villagers get scared. He didn't let his two sons speak about it outside either. Even Sha Er was given instructions not to say anything temporarily.

"With such a big incident, why didn't you run to the village?" Village Head Li scolded. He thought Cheng Duo was being considerate and didn't want to cause trouble for the villagers. As an outsider who brought the wolves into the village, others might gossip.

Cheng Duo couldn't explain the situation, so he just remained silent.

"By the way, you've killed so many wolves. I had Sha Er bring back some wolf meat, and we kept some for ourselves as well. I had the rest carried to Twenty-Li Slope to sell. I'll have him give you the money when he returns. The weather has gotten hot, and it won't sell well if we keep it. You won't blame me for making the decision, right?"

"Of course not, thank you, Village Head Li," Cheng Duo still trusted Li's character.

To be honest, even if Village Head Li didn't give him any wolf meat and left him with nothing, Cheng Duo couldn't say a word of complaint.

Village Head Li's actions made Cheng Duo feel relieved. If the villagers were to immediately divide up his belongings and house as soon as he went missing, he would have felt a chill in his heart.

"Alright then, now that you're back, Da Zhuang and I will head back." Village Head Li and his eldest son had helped Cheng Duo process the wolf skins these past few days, and they were already a bit tired. Now that Cheng Duo had safely returned, fearing that they might inconvenience him, they quickly bid their farewells.

"I'll see you off."

"It's fine, you go back. You've been through a lot these past few days, so clean yourself up quickly. Look at what state you've become," Village Head Li spoke politely but felt pleased in his heart. Rarely did he use the tone of an elder to jest with Cheng Duo.

Just as the father and son had returned to the village, they saw Yong-ge coming angrily, "Grandpa Li, there's a thief in our house!"

"What? A thief?" Why didn't he know about it!

While the two were talking, Wu Guihua arrived with Feng-ge, chasing after them, "Yong-ge, don't talk nonsense!"

"I haven't said anything yet. Aunt, why are you so anxious? Could it be that you're the one who sneaked into our house and stole something?"

"Who stole something? You're the thief! I even suspect you stole people! Where did you run off to these past few days when there wasn't a single person in your house? Were you in someone else's warm embrace?"

Well, Wu Guihua had actually guessed half of it correctly.

Fortunately, Yong-ge had already coordinated with Cheng Duo on their story, so he didn't panic. "I went to deliver something to my father. Aunt, how did you know that there was no one in our house? Did you go to our house?"

Wu Guihua didn't back down at all. "The head of the household and Second Brother are blood brothers. When I found out that no one was in their house, of course I had to go take a look! Village Head Li, could something unfortunate have happened to Second Brother's family? First, my two nephews disappeared, and now Second Brother is gone too!"

She pointed at Yong-ge with an exaggerated expression and said, "Look at him, his skin suddenly turned so pale, and his lips are so red. Maybe the real Yong-ge was eaten by a monster, and this is the monster pretending to be him…"

"Mother, don't scare me!" Feng-ge, upon hearing Wu Guihua's words, quickly dodged behind her, imitating her actions.

"Wu Guihua, what nonsense are you spouting! Li Wang told me before he left. He went to Mountain with Cheng Duo's friend,to find Li Da and Li Er!" Village Head Li was quite angry and immediately scolded her.

Does Wu Guihua not have a brain? If she says there are monsters in their village, how can the villagers go out in the future?

"Then why did he turn out like this?" Wu Guihua persisted and insisted on labeling Yong-ge as the monster.

"Aunt, don't change the subject! The several pounds of cured wild boar meat that went missing from my house, and the several dozen pounds of grains we had stored, the mushrooms, pine nuts, and dried bamboo shoots that my father and I painstakingly picked in the mountains, and several of our clothes… return them to me!"

What Yong-ge didn't mention was that she even took the medicine bag he had made for Cheng Duo. At that time, he got four sets of medicine from Doctor Wang, boiled one set for Cheng Duo, and the remaining three sets mysteriously disappeared!

Fortunately, his tiger bone whistle looked old and worthless; otherwise, it probably wouldn't have been spared either.

"You're the one changing the subject! Maybe it's you who was eaten by this monster!"

"Whether she took it or not, we'll know once Village Head Li and I go to your house and take a look. If we find the wild boar meat from last time, how should we settle it?"

At this moment, Yong-ge truly despised Wu Guihua. Ever since he learned about his parentage and heard his father emphasize their severed relationship, Yong-ge no longer considered Wu Guihua as his aunt. The reason he still called her that was just to avoid giving others ammunition.

He hadn't settled his accounts with Wu Guihua regarding that matter, and now she took the opportunity while he wasn't home to sneak into their house and steal things. Truly, her thieving nature never changed!

"What? Mom, you're saying that the cured pork was taken from Second Uncle's house?" As soon as Li Changsheng arrived, he heard Yong-ge say this and immediately exclaimed. He was a bit slow and hadn't noticed his mother and brother signaling him with their eyes. It was only after speaking that he realized something was amiss.

However, the onlookers had already heard.

"Wu Guihua has gone too far. She even stole things from her own family!"

"She has taken things from Li Wang's household for years. It's a wonder that Li Wang is so honest."

"Even a straightforward person like Li Wang couldn't stand it anymore. He publicly announced that he severed ties with the Li family, but who would have thought that Wu Guihua would still have such thick skin!"

Wu Guihua panicked, "Who said I took things from Second Brother's house? The cured pork I have was bought!"

As she spoke, she hinted to Feng-ge to go home and hide the things. Unfortunately, Yong-ge had been keeping an eye on him. Seeing the situation, Yong-ge immediately grabbed his wrist and said, "Feng-ge, where are you going? Are you going home to hide something?"

Little did they know that Feng-ge reacted strongly, forcefully opening Yong-ge's hand and screaming, "You monster, don't touch me!"

He pushed Yong-ge away and was about to run. However, Aunt Qian suddenly emerged from the crowd and firmly grabbed Feng-ge's wrist, saying, "Where are you running off to? Since you didn't take anything, we need to search to be sure!"

She had heard from his own son, Yu-ge, that the rumors about him being an ill-fated spouse originated from Feng-ge's mouth. He had naively thought that Yu-ge and Feng-ge had a good relationship, but it turned out that Feng-ge secretly sabotaged his marriage!

"Let go of me!" Feng-ge struggled a few times, but as a young ger, he couldn't overpower Aunt Qian , who had worked on the farm for decades.

Under Yong-ge's urging and Aunt Qian's encouragement, a group of people marched towards Li Man Cang's house. Li Man Cang had just rushed back from the field and was nervously heading out the door with a package in his arms. The crowd entered just in time to block him!

"Good, catch the thief red-handed. Let's see you deny it now!" Aunt Qian was extremely excited. She took a step forward, snatching the bundle of cloth from Li Man Cang's hands.

"You return it to me…" Li Man Cang wanted to grab it back, but he was stopped by other villagers.

"This cloth belonged to my father, and I personally sewed the patches on it! And our grains, the cured wild boar meat…" Yong-ge recognized all of it.

And most of these things were missing, especially the wild boar meat. He initially took five pounds, and later, Cheng Duo gave him seven or eight pounds… If he hadn't returned quickly, there probably wouldn't have been anything left!

"You say it's yours, so it's yours?" At this point, Wu Guihua still wanted to argue.

"Aunt, let's not talk about anything else. This needle and thread, I made it, that's for sure, right? And the wild boar meat, where did it come from in your house? You tell us, we can go ask each family!" Yong-ge said.

Wu Guihua secretly gritted her teeth. If she had known that Yong-ge would be so reckless and cause a scene, even if they were barely getting by, she shouldn't have left these things behind!

In fact, Wu Guihua acted on a whim. She was already worried about losing her land and money, so she became more meticulous in her daily life.

But their family was used to living extravagantly. Not to mention the pampered Feng-ge, even she couldn't stand it.

Later, she happened to notice that Second Brother's house hadn't been opened for several days, so she went in on a whim. Yong-ge was in a hurry when he left and only closed the door without locking it, which gave her the opportunity.

Both Li Man Cang and Wu Guihua denied it, but faced with the undeniable evidence, they had no choice but to admit it.

Li Man Cang tried to argue, "Chang Sheng's mother saw that no one was at Second Brothers house, so she took it back to help take care of it. It's not stealing. We didn't steal…"

Before he could finish speaking, Aunt Qian interrupted, "I think you've taken care of it by putting it into your family's stomachs, right?"

"Hey, my husband and Li Wang are blood brothers. If he says it's taking care of it, then it's taking care of it! Besides, this is our Li family's private matter, you have no right to interfere!" Wu Guihua looked at Aunt Qian with hatred, almost wanting to devour her flesh.

Aunt Qian wasn't afraid at all. "Who said that? Li Wang said he wanted to sever ties with you all!" He then turned to Village Head Li, instigating further, "Village Head Li, this family is unscrupulous. Shouldn't we think of a solution? Otherwise, what will happen if things continue to go missing in the village?"

This is where the difference in character becomes apparent. Wu Guihua was usually sharp-tongued and always took advantage of others, and she had quite a few feuds in the village.

When their family was in trouble before, many people were busy watching the show. Now, they were adding insult to injury. There was even a relative of the Li family who suggested that Wu Guihua be divorced, claiming that she had caused the Li family to lose people.

Wu Guihua's face turned pale as soon as she heard it. "The head of the household, say something…"

Li Man Cang, of course, wouldn't agree. He quickly pleaded with Village Head Li, "Village Head Li, it's the first time for Chang Sheng's mother. Please spare her. Our family was deceived so miserably before, and Chang Sheng's mother had no choice…"

Yong-ge became unhappy as soon as he heard this. "Uncle, our family doesn't even have a mu of land! Have you thought about how Aunt stole our grain? How can my father and I survive?"