Chapter 12 Meeting
Everyone in the Li family has their own thoughts.
I originally thought I could get a bargain after listening to Wu's words, but in the end I spent half the night on the mountain feeding mosquitoes.
"I'll take care of you when you go back!" Seeing his father and his wife about to leave, Li Tian glared at Wu sternly and followed him down the mountain.
Wu's heart skipped a beat when she saw everyone leaving, fearing that she would be scolded again if she went back.
Nanzhi got up and looked to see if the hare was okay. After all, a live rabbit would be easier to sell than a dead one. When he saw the rabbit jumping around in the basket, he threw a sweet potato into it.
Then he turned around and went to the kitchen, cooked two potatoes, mixed some black flour and made two potato pancakes, and then went to wake up the dog.
The first thing the little guy did when he woke up was to see the hare in the basket.
Seeing that the big fat rabbit was still there, he ran to the kitchen happily.
"Auntie, are we going to sell Tutu?" Gou'er looked at Nanzhi with bright eyes.
Nanzhi was a little worried that the dog was reluctant to sell the wild rabbit. Just as she was about to tell him about the current situation at home, she heard him speak again.
"How about we sell the rabbits and buy a lot of food?"
Looking at the dog's shining eyes, Nanzhi nodded. It seemed that she was thinking too much.
The dog was very curious about something like potato cakes that he had never eaten before. He took a bite and found that it tasted good, so he ate it up in big gulps.
"Dog, if someone asked you what you ate at home, what would you say?"
"Eating potatoes." The dog blinked.
Potato cakes... aren't they just potatoes?
Nanzhi touched the dog's little face with satisfaction.
After packing up and locking the courtyard door, I took the dog to find Aunt Liu.
Aunt Liu looked at Nanzhi who was in a good mood and asked with some doubts, "Girl Lin, did you hear anything going on over there last night?"
She was afraid that someone would go to Nanzhi's house to cause trouble. After all, they were orphaned and widowed and had no one to help them. But looking at Nanzhi's clueless look, she must have been overthinking it.
"Motion?" Nanzhi recalled carefully for a while, but still shook his head.
Last night, she and the dog ate porridge and then went to bed. After eating and sleeping well, could they hear any noise?
"It sounded to me like Mrs. Wu was howling there." Mrs. Liu muttered a few words and didn't think much more about it.
That person from the Wu family was very unpleasant. He must have been beaten by Li Tian again.
It wasn't until the two of them went up Dongshan that Nanzhi felt something was wrong. The originally hidden path was now much wider due to people stepping on it, and the weeds had fallen down.
It looks very disorganized.
Because Li Zheng hadn't told everyone about the chestnut forest yet, Nanzhi and Aunt Liu were very careful when going up the mountain, leaving no obvious traces.
"Auntie, I feel something is wrong." Nanzhi looked carefully at his feet - there were already many footprints.
Someone must have come to Dongshan last night, I'm afraid there were quite a lot of people.
"Has someone been here?" Aunt Liu looked around and asked with her eyebrows raised.
"Mom, I picked this up." The dog tugged at Nanzhi's sleeve, and there was a ribbed handkerchief in his hand.
"Where did you pick up the dog?" Nanzhi took the handkerchief and looked at it, and found some dark red blood stains on the corner of the handkerchief.
"Isn't this Wu's veil?" Aunt Liu came over to take a look and recognized the owner of the veil.
When Wu got this handkerchief, she showed it off in the village for a long time. During that time, she would come out with this handkerchief to wipe her sweat when meeting people.
That is to say, Nanzhi was taking care of two seriously ill old people at home every day and didn't know about it.
"Why did she lose her veil on Dongshan?" Aunt Liu also asked Nanzhi's doubts.
"But since the handkerchief is stained with blood, I'm afraid something happened. Madam Liu, I guess we have to ask the village chief to tell everyone about the chestnut grove today."
Nanzhi's heart was heavy. She originally thought she could pick more chestnuts today, but now it seemed that Wu had already known about the chestnut forest, so she had to plan ahead to avoid being slandered by Wu for no reason.
"Okay." Aunt Liu is not a stupid person. You can see the chestnut forest just a little further from this place. How could a lazy person like Wu suddenly run to Dongshan to look for something?
I'm afraid I followed them up the mountain yesterday.
But it looked like there was an accident and I couldn't find the right place.
"Aunt Liu, I have to go down the mountain and ask Li Zheng if you want to go back and ask Uncle Shen and the others to pick more chestnuts. I'm afraid we won't be able to pick until noon today."
Aunt Liu nodded tightly, and the three of them hid their things behind the haystack and went down the mountain.
Even though the dog didn't know why he had to go down the mountain after coming up, he still held Nanzhi's hand obediently all the way.
"Aunt Qin." Nanzhi patted the courtyard door.
It's just getting dark now, and most of the villagers are already up.
Mrs. Qin was sweeping the floor in the yard when she heard Nanzhi's voice and hurriedly opened the door.
"Girl Lin, why are you here so early?"
"Auntie, is Uncle Li Zheng here?"
Seeing that Nan Zhi and Gou'er were sweating, Qin quickly let them into the house and poured a bowl of water for each of them before calling Shen Dashan.
"Girl Lin, what's so urgent?" Shen Dashan hurried over as soon as he washed his face, fearing that it was something big.
"Uncle Lizheng, you have to tell the villagers about the chestnut forest at noon today." Nanzhi took a sip of water before he felt that he had come over again.
She wanted to hurry up and ran with the dog in her arms all the way.
"What's going on?" Shen Dashan was also a little surprised. Originally, he was planning to tell the villagers tomorrow morning. Anyway, the chestnut trees were growing there, and he wasn't afraid of them running away.
Nanzhi didn't say much, just took out the bloody ribbed handkerchief and handed it to Aunt Qin.
"Isn't this Wu's handkerchief? Why is there blood on it?" Aunt Qin screamed when she saw the handkerchief. There were large areas of blood on the handkerchief, which looked dark and scary.
"I picked this up on the mountain." Nanzhi said.
"Dongshan?" Shen Dashan smacked his lips. How many years has it been since you visited Dongshan? That is to say, Lin Yatou, an orphan and a widowed mother, would run to Dongshan Mountain when she couldn't survive. Where would Wu's laziness, known to the whole village, go?
Nanzhi looked at Shen Dashan and said steadily, "It looks like there is more than one person."
"you mean?"
Shen Dashan was certainly not a fool to be the village leader. Wu had always been greedy for petty gains, and he lived next door to Miss Lin. He probably followed them into the mountains and discovered the chestnut forest.
This handkerchief was stained with blood. He was afraid that something happened to someone on Dongshan Mountain. He would say that he heard some noise last night, but it was only for a moment and he didn't pay much attention to it.
But if this is really what she thinks, I'm afraid Wu will have to pour dirty water on Girl Lin again.
"I don't want to get into any trouble either."
Nanzhi touched the dog's head. The two looked pitifully tight.
"Hey, I understand. Girl Lin, take advantage of the moment to pick more chestnuts and take them home. Just remember to sneak back before noon."
After telling Li Zheng the location of the chestnut forest in detail, Nanzhi took the dog into the mountain again.
Shen Dashan only had breakfast at home and then took Shen Qingchuan and Shen Qinghe to knock on the doors of each house, asking each house to send a steward to the entrance of the village.
When someone asks me about it, they just say they have something important to say.
It took half an hour for the villagers to finally gather at the entrance of the village.
Seeing everyone making noise, Shen Dashan coughed.
"Qingchuan, whose house doesn't have anyone here?"
"Dad, Old Man Li's family is not here." Shen Qingchuan glanced at everyone briefly and replied.
Shen Qinghe scratched his head and added, "There was no response when I knocked on his door just now. It must be that no one is home."
"Yeah" Shen Dashan didn't say much and just asked his eldest son Shen Qingchuan to knock on the gong.