That afternoon, after returning from the county, Liu Fa returned home, called his wife and younger brother over, and said, "I can't help you these days. I will never care about Liu Yongfu's family affairs in the future!"
After hearing this, Liu Cai clapped his hands happily and said, "Great, brother, you finally figured it out. I'll go get Yinglan and the child back."
Liu Fa's wife was not as optimistic as he was. She observed her husband's expression, frowned and asked, "Did something happen?"
Liu Fa looked at her and sighed deeply, "Zhang Ju went to the Yang family yesterday and wanted to extort a large amount of money from their family."
"Ah!" Liu Fa's wife and Liu Cai were both stunned.
Liu Fa's wife was about to burst into tears and said, "What can we do? It's too late to stop us. Liu Xiang's death is obviously that Yang..." She didn't dare to tell the truth, she just vaguely said, " For such a big thing, a person has to do whatever he needs to do, how can Zhang Ju and the others handle such a person!"
Liu Cai also turned pale and said: "When the time comes, will they involve our family? Everyone in the village knows that they often live at home. Then will the Yang family think that we instigated them to do this?"
Liu Fa said: "I originally thought that if she wanted to give Liu Xiang an explanation, even though I am an unknown person, I can still come forward and fight, at least to make Liu Xiang understand."
After hearing this, Liu Cai stamped his foot and said, "Brother, you are confused!"
Liu Fa gritted his teeth and said cruelly: "I won't care about it from now on. I will go to the village chief's house now to explain this matter clearly and ask him to be a witness."
With that said, Liu Fa stood up and left, and his wife quickly followed him.
Liu Cai walked around in circles a few times, hesitated for a long time, and decided not to go to the neighboring village to pick up Yinglan. He would wait and see.
Liu Fa and his wife went to the village chief's house. As soon as the door was closed, they told everything about Liu Xiang. The village chief looked horrified when he heard this.
Liu Fa said: "What I said is what I saw with my own eyes. As for how Liu Xiang got together with that person and how he died, I don't know. No matter what the outcome is from the government, I don't know." I admit it and will never continue to deal with this matter."
"From now on, our family will have nothing to do with Liu Yongfu's family. I will not lend his help to their wealth. If they are in trouble, I, Liu Fa, have already been worthy of my kindness in taking them in. I will never interfere again."
Liu Fa's wife kept wiping tears beside her. The village chief sighed, stood up, patted Liu Fa's shoulder and said, "I know what to do. You and your wife go home."
The couple left the village chief's house.
On the way, Liu Fa's wife was worried, "Will this be useful?"
Liu Fa looked more relaxed than before. He said: "It's useless to talk to others about this matter. You have to go to the village chief. He is related to the Yang family. Although he doesn't move around much, he can always talk. ."
"I went to the village chief because I wanted him to bear witness to us. Whatever happens to Liu Yongfu's family in the future has nothing to do with me."
"Besides, I can't borrow his help, so I won't instigate him and Zhang Ju to ask for money."
"One more thing, I also expressed my attitude. How did Liu Xiang die? I won't ask anymore, and I won't go to the county government. The county will resolve this case however they want."
When these words reached the ears of the Yang family, they naturally understood what Liu Fa meant and would not cause trouble to him in the future.
Sure enough, two days later, the village chief came to see Liu Fa. Without saying much else, he just left a message: "Just rest assured and live a good life from now on."
Whatever happens next will have nothing to do with Liu Fajia.
Qi Yinglan came back with the child in her arms, and Liu Fa's wife also had a smile on her face.
Liu Cai became more energetic when working in the tofu shop.
Only then did Liu Fa realize that the peaceful days had not passed for a long time. Liu Cai was right, he was too confused before.
However, after so many commotions, the Liu family's wealth was almost emptied.
There are so many people in the family who need to eat, the tofu shop clerk needs monthly payment, and the cow pulling the cart is old and can no longer move, so he has to buy another young and strong ox.
There are also tofu factories that need to feed in materials every few days. The price of soybeans has been rising since last year. The cost is higher this year, but the price of tofu cannot be adjusted up for a while.
These all require money.
Seeing that she couldn't make enough money, Liu Fa's daughter-in-law wanted to borrow it from her parents' house, but Liu Fa stopped her. It was not easy for his father-in-law and mother-in-law to help them raise three children, and he really couldn't talk about anything else.
Liu Fa's wife asked him, "What should we do?"
Liu Fa said: "Let me go and talk to He Nian."
So Liu Fa went to the blacksmith shop to find Qiu Henian and told him about borrowing money.
Qiu Henian followed Lao Liu's family several times and had a general understanding of the situation. He knew that their family was in real difficulty now.
Liu Fa had helped him in the past, and the relationship between the two families had always been very good, so he naturally would not refuse.
But he didn't say anything. Qiu Henian said that Qingyan was in charge of the family's money, and he had to see how much money he had when he got home.
Liu Fa also understood that his wife was in charge of the money in his family, and he was also in business. He understood that Qiu Henian and his wife now had to purchase materials and goods, and it was very possible that they would lose their entire family fortune at once, even if they really had no money. normal.
Then he went home and waited.
That night, before it got dark, Qiu Henian and his wife went to Lao Liu's house. Qingyan gave the banknote to Liu Fa's wife.
She lowered her head and took a closer look, and saw that there were two hundred taels. She was surprised and delighted and said, "This is too much."
Qingyan said: "Sister-in-law, I'm not in a hurry to use this money. Your family has many places to use money, so just take it."
Liu Fa and his wife were naturally very grateful.
There was a lot of mess going on in his house before, and the neighbors who used to come and go frequently have not come to the house for some time. That is to say, this couple comes to visit from time to time, and every time they come, they are always empty-handed.
Qiu Henian and Qing Yan are a help in times of need, which is more rare than the icing on the cake. The Liu family must remember their good deeds.
As far as Qingyan is concerned, the business of Lao Liu's tofu shop has always been very good. Now it is just a temporary difficulty. It will get better in a few months and the money will be paid back. He is not worried at all.
...
The couple came out of Lao Liu's house and went to the butcher shop to buy a chicken leg for A Miao before returning home.
After being busy on the eighth and fifteenth day of the lunar month, Qingyan and the others could finally breathe a sigh of relief.
It's tiring to stare at people all the time in the store, and now that there isn't that much traffic, the three of them take turns taking a day off from time to time.
If you are too busy in the future, you can also hire someone to help look after the store. Now that you are still busy, let's do this first.
The next day it was Qingyan's turn to rest.
When they got home, the two of them cooked together. By the way, they boiled the chicken legs in plain water, tore them into strips, let them cool, and gave them to A Miao to eat.
Dinner for two people is two dishes and one soup. One platter with smoked sauce includes pig ears, pig snout, sausages and pig trotters. The other plate is scrambled eggs with garlic sprouts. The soup is tofu stewed with kelp. The shrimp is in and it tastes delicious.
After eating and cleaning up, Qingyan lay on the bed to relax.
Qiu Henian said he needed to boil water for a bath. After hearing this, Qing Yan blinked and got out of bed to help.
Now the two of them have a tacit understanding, and they both understand what it means when they talk about taking a bath.
After fifteen days of busy work, Qiu Henian would basically do that thing every other day.
It was obviously not the fertile period anymore, but the frequency never stopped, and Qingyan never raised any objection.
After bathing, the two of them went back to bed. Once the bed curtain was put down and the oil lamp was blown out, it was so dark that nothing could be seen. They could only hear sounds like slaps and intermittent crying.
The tossing didn't stop until quite late.
When he woke up the next day, ate breakfast lazily, and took a short rest. The sky was bright, and the man lifted the bed curtain again.
As soon as it was daytime, Qingyan was not as open as he was at night when there was no light. He was very reserved and his legs were tightly clamped.
He didn't know that this would be more annoying, and the blood vessels on Qiu Henian's forehead were about to burst.
...
He said he didn't care, but he couldn't bear it and went to the door himself.
Just ten days after Liu Fa went to the village chief's house, something happened to Liu Yongfu's family again.
When Liu Yong visited the brothel, he got jealous with other customers and was beaten.
This time, Zhang Ju asked people to carry Liu Yong, who was beaten half to death, to the Liu family.
And it was still the same, Liu Yongfu remained silent while Zhang Ju cried and cursed all the way.
But this time, they could not carry the people into the courtyard of Lao Liu's house because the door was locked tightly and they were not allowed to enter at all.
Zhang Ju jumped up and scolded Liu Fa for having no conscience, and scolded their children that they would not have a good death in the future.
It was still afternoon at this time, it was not dark yet, and all the idle villagers in the village came to watch the fun, pointing and pointing in groups.
After cursing for almost a while, the village chief came.
The village chief deliberately raised his voice for the rest of the village to hear, and said to Zhang Ju: "You have spent no less than five hundred taels of silver from Liu Fa's family."
As soon as he said this, the villagers were in an uproar.
The village chief added: "As you said, you have to have a conscience. He has emptied his family's money to pay back what he owed you before. You'd better not trouble others anymore. This child is injured like this. You two are the parents." If you don't hurry up and send it to a doctor for treatment, are you going to take this child's life?"
Zhang Ju was originally a little afraid of the village chief, but when she saw him coming, she shut up and stopped scolding him. But when she heard this, her eyes widened, and she cursed along with the village chief: "You damn old man, why did you take advantage of Liu Fa? You speak for him everywhere!"
The village chief has always been respected by others. Of course, the villagers didn't believe this, but they still made him very angry. He shook his robe and said: "It's really nonsense. You just go to settle the score with whoever you hit. Why bother bothering the innocent person?" Where are the people involved!"
When Zhang Ju heard this, she didn't know what she thought of. She rolled her eyes a few times and stopped cursing.
She followed him like a man possessed and murmured: "Why didn't I think of it? Let him get nothing!" I carried Liu Yong over and put him at the door of his house. I said that he had killed his younger brother and beat him half to death. , if you don't give me the money, I will take him to the Yamen and see what the Yang family will do!"
After saying that, she asked the porter to lift the person into the carriage again, and Liu Yongfu followed behind like a wooden man, and left in a noisy manner with the clatter of horse hooves.
After they left, the surrounding villagers were driven home by the village chief, and the door of Old Liu's house creaked open. Liu thanked the village chief, who waved his hand and left.
And when Zhang Ju entered the outskirts of the county in a carriage, he was blocked by a dirty child.
Zhang Ju thought it was a little beggar asking for money, so she impatiently stretched out her head to chase him away. However, the child ran over with a smile and stuffed a note into her hand.
Zhang Ju looked down in confusion. After just one glance, his face changed color.
On the white paper, there was a deep pit drawn like a child's doodles. A man was struggling to climb out of it, his belly was bulging, his mouth was wide open, and he looked in pain.
Next to the big pit, stood a shovel inserted into the soil.
The child was still smiling and said: "Do you really think it was the inmates who beat me? Now you can do whatever you want, next time you won't just be half dead."
Zhang Ju caught the child, slapped him twice, and asked him what was going on. The child burst into tears and said that someone taught him to say this after giving him two buns.
But when asked who taught it, he was confused and couldn't tell.
Zhang Ju threw the child aside, took the piece of paper and read it carefully for a while. The more he looked at it, the worse his face became, and there was fear in his eyes.
She handed the piece of paper to Liu Yongfu with shaking hands. After reading it, the old man also looked horrified.
Zhang Ju hurriedly said a few words to the coachman, and the two got on the carriage again.
The carriage changed direction and did not go to the city anymore. Instead, it went east along the periphery to a residential house.
Zhang Ju got out of the car and asked someone to carry Liu Yong out. Liu Yongfu was no longer stunned. He ran into the yard and pushed out the big cart from the warehouse.
Zhang Ju packed up the important things at home, and the two of them carried Liu Yong onto the cart. The three of them left Muling County overnight and went straight to their hometown.