Su Niang took Chu Huan's clothes into the house to mend it. Chu Huan laughed in her heart. Sometimes, although Su Niang's mouth is more mean, her heart is very good, which is what people often say is a knife-like mouth and a tofu heart.

It was drizzling outside the house. Chu Huan walked to the corner of the house and picked up his gray package. He didn't tell Su Niang that he went out of the door in the drizzle.

At this time, the sky had already darkened and it was very dark. Chu Huan carried the package and walked westward, but he looked around and listened to all directions, and was sure that no one found his trace.

He left the village, passed the river at the west end of the village, and still headed west. In the night, it was like a ghost, with a very fast speed, and it flashed by. It was more than ten miles away, and it was empty all over the place. Chu Huan stopped, caught a glimpse of a dirt slope, walked quickly, walked back and forth along the dirt slope, and then found a place, squatted down, took out the dagger given by Wei Tianqing from his arms, and dug a deep pit on the ground, then put the gray package into the dirt pit. Just as it was about to be buried, suddenly thought of something, and took out the red stone from his waist.

When the stone was bought, it was extremely warm and even had a faint red light. Unfortunately, Chu Huan knew nothing about this strange stone. After looking carefully, he found that the black lines on it were still extremely clear.

After pondering for a while, Chu Huan finally stuffed the red stone into the gray package, and then filled the pit. There was only a layer of new soil on it, which was easy to see that it had been dug up here.

Although it was very desolate and there were no roads around and there were few people coming, Chu Huan still got up and found a big stone, pressing the big stone on the new soil, leaving a mark.

It just so happened that it was raining today. After heavy rain, the new soil would soon be mixed with the old soil. In less than a day or two, it would be seamless and difficult to see.

Squatting beside the stone, Chu Huan pondered for a long time, and finally said in an extremely low voice: "Stay rest, let me do what's happening later!" After saying this, he did not stop, and in the night rain, he returned to the village like a ghost.

The door was covered with vain. Chu Huan gently pushed open the door. As soon as he entered the door, he saw bowls and chopsticks on the table in Zhengtang, two bowls of rice porridge, a plate of vegetables, and half a bowl of dog meat, which was only five or six pieces of dog meat.

However, Su Niang held her cheeks with her hands and her arms on the table, as if she was asleep. The oil lamp on the table was flashing, and the light shining on Su Niang's fair face was as beautiful as a flower, very charming, and the food on the table was no longer hot.

Chu Huan turned around and closed the door, but woke Su Niang up. He opened his eyes. His first reaction was to reach out to his waist to touch the scissors. When he saw that it was Chu Huan, he breathed a sigh of relief. Then he frowned and said, "When has it been? Where have you been?"

"It's okay, I'm just going out for a walk!" Chu Huan smiled and sat down at the table, picked up the bowl of porridge, and Su Niang hurriedly said, "I'll go and heat..."

"No need!" Chu Huan shook his head and said, "It's comfortable to drink cold porridge!" He raised his hand and drank half a bowl.

Su Niang picked up the bowl of porridge and said, "My mother is in poor health. I served him for dinner early in the morning and now I have fallen asleep..." After looking at the dog meat, my face turned red. I thought of Chu Huan seeing him when he was stealing dog meat during the day, and his face was feverish. "That... Mom likes...I like to eat dog meat, so...so I...I keep all the excess meat first..."

Chu Huan pushed the dog meat in front of Su Niang and said, "Sister Su Niang, I can't eat dog meat. Once I eat dog meat, I will have red spots... Well, you have eaten all these!"

Su Niang blinked her eyes and said strangely: "There is such a thing?" But in a blink of an eye, she realized that Chu Huan's words were probably fake, and she was just leaving dog meat for herself to eat.

Chu Huan didn't speak, just smiled and drank the rice porridge in two mouthfuls. For him, this ration was not even half full, but he knew the difficulties at home and would not talk much.

After eating the porridge, Chu Huan lay down on his own bed in the corner of the house, but he was already thinking about it. Although Master Li had already made plans for himself, he could not place all his hopes there. Winter was coming soon, and a big man like himself was added to his family. If he only relied on Su Niang's knitting and embroidery to exchange for some food rations, it would never be possible.

Su Niang saw Chu Huan lying down and curled her lips. She was extremely gentle when drinking porridge. She just ate a few bites of vegetables and kept picking up dog meat. When the rice porridge was finished, the fragrance of dog meat fluttered on the tip of her nose. Su Niang looked at Chu Huan and seemed to be asleep. Then she picked up a small piece of dog meat and put it in her mouth. She also chewed it, put it in her mouth and cleaned up the dishes and carefully put it away. Then she went back to the room to taste the taste of the dog meat in her mouth.

...

...

The next day until dusk, Liu Tianfu and others were not coming back. Chu Huan went to the village to visit the injured villagers and finally came to Shitou's home. Yesterday, Shitou fought head-on with the third brother Balitang. Although Kong Wu was powerful, he was no match for the third brother after all. He suffered several injuries on his body and had a broken left arm. Fortunately, after being treated by Doctor Xu, the arm was kept, but he still had to rest for ten days and half a month.

Shitou was very happy to see Chu Huan visiting her. Her family was poor. She asked his wife to bring a chair. Chu Huan sat down. Shitou smiled and said, "Erlang, you really have you. Your skills, tsk tsk..." He raised his uninjured hand and gave a thumbs up.

Chu Huan waved his hand and smiled, "It's not worth talking about." He asked in a different way: "Shitou, you have been exploited by Feng Ergou in the past two years, and you have only 20% of your food ration every year. How can you eat enough for your family?"

"Of course I can't eat enough!" Shi Tou smiled bitterly, "I've starved to death by relying on those 20% of my food."

Chu Huan nodded slightly and asked, "You also know that our Chu family has not harvested two acres of thin fields. Now that winter is coming, there is no time to grow grain. If this winter goes on, it will be impossible to hold on if the family has no input!"

Shitou said: "Erlang, I know what you mean. Are you trying to find a job?"

"That's what it said!"

"In fact, in addition to farming, we always go to the county town whenever we have free time. When outside the gate of the county town, the masters and wives in the city need to work for short-term labor and find those who work hard, they will come outside the city to find some work every year, and can also receive some work to help people carry things. Although they can't make two money, they can also make up for their family income." Shi Tou sighed: "Especially every winter, there are more work... It's a pity that Doctor Xu instructed me that my arm cannot do heavy work within two months, otherwise it will be difficult to heal. This winter will be difficult to survive this winter." Then he smiled and said: "But I took the land deed back and planted fields in the spring next year. It's not a problem to rely on the few acres of land at home to support the family... If there is a surplus next year, I will pull two feet of cloth and make new clothes for my family, hahaha..."

Although he was injured, he got the land deed and had hope next year, and Shi Tou was still very happy.

Chu Huan also lamented in her heart that these people at the bottom of society do not have much extravagance. For them, they can be satisfied with their food and clothing.

But he also made up his mind that if Master Li couldn't find a job, he would go back to the county gate according to the method Shi Tou said, and wait for work outside the county gate, and survive this winter first.

As the two were talking, they suddenly heard someone outside calling: "The Chief of the Security Council is back, the Chief of the Security Council is back!"

The sound soon spread throughout the village, and the people in the village went to Liu Tianfu's house. Although Shi Tou was injured, he was very concerned about the matter and insisted on coming to Liu Tianfu's house with Chu Huan.

The doorstep of Liu Tianfu's house was already full of people. It was dark. Liu Tianfu was already standing in front of the gate and raised his hand and shouted: "Everyone, listen to me, the magistrate has decided the case. Zhao Bao was the one who killed Feng Ergou. The yamen has posted documents and wanted Zhao Bao everywhere." After a pause, he said: "But the magistrate also said that this happened in our village, and someone in our village has taken action, so it is unrelated!"

The villagers became nervous, and someone asked loudly: "Uncle Liu, what should the magistrate do?"

"The magistrate said that Feng Ergou bullies men and women, and is not a good thing, but he died in the end. If he dealt with this, he was worried that the other end of the city would blame him." Liu Tianfu took the water handed over by someone next to him, drank a big gulp before continuing: "He wants to go to the county town to handle this matter and calm it down, but it will cost money to make money. The magistrate estimated that it would cost at least two or three hundred taels of silver...!"

The villagers were all surprised. For the villagers whose food rations are a problem, this was a huge amount.

"Security Secretary, he wouldn't let us take this money, right?" A villager immediately reacted and sneered: "Even if we demolish our house and sell our children, we can't make up the money!"

Liu Tianfu said: "I also told the magistrate like this. The magistrate hesitated for a while and finally made up his mind to let our village collect 100 taels of silver. He would take out the extra silver himself!"

When Shi Tou heard this, he immediately shouted: "Don't he damn fart, he is willing to pay the money by himself? He really treats us as fools. He wants to take the opportunity to squeeze our money. What's the point of making money? That's nonsense!"

The villagers shouted, all of whom looked very angry.

Liu Tianfu raised his hand and calmed everyone down. Then he sighed: "We all know what he was thinking. But then again, Feng Ergou died in our village. The people did not fight with the officials. If we don't pay the money, we are afraid that he will continue to make trouble with this matter. We will not be at peace after all..." He coughed twice and said in a deep voice: "I have decided on this matter. I will use the money to eliminate disasters and share the money according to the land property of each family. Now the land deeds are back in everyone's hands and can always bear it. I know that you don't have any cash on hand. I will think of a solution again. Whether it is borrowing money or other methods, I will send the money first. The money that everyone lacks will be handed over again!" Suddenly, I thought of something and said loudly: "Chu Erlang, is Erlang here?"

Chu Huan stepped forward from the crowd and said, "Uncle Liu, I'm here!"

"It's a loss to you that the village can get rid of Feng Ergou this time, so I won't send the allocated money to your house." Liu Tianfu said with a whisper, and then asked the villagers loudly: "Do you have any objections?"

"No, that's how it should be!"

"Erlang is a great hero in our village, and none of us can say anything!"

Chu Huan just hugged his fists around to show his gratitude, but when he thought of the yamen placing such a heavy burden and exploiting the people without shame, he felt full of anger.

After this incident, two days later, the weather became colder and charcoal fires began to grow in the house. Seeing that there was no news from Master Li, Chu Huan was ready to go to the county town with a few strong laborers in the village to find work.

But it was not yet timed. At noon that day, Master Li had already arrived in the carriage last time. As soon as he got off the carriage, he shouted excitedly: "Erlang, Erlang, pack up quickly and follow me to the county town!"
Chapter completed!