Chapter 23: Embezzlement

Chapter 23: Embezzlement

"Hey, elder sister-in-law, you really have been concerned about my 'weakling' label," Zhen Mier sneered. "I've heard people in the village find my 'weakling' label disgusting, but I didn't know you could still eat the wild boar meat I hunted with this label. Aren't you afraid that if you send some to your parents, they'll be 'contaminated' by my 'weakling' label too? If those wild boars really come to drag me away, I'm afraid I'll have to dig you out first, since you're the one who has hidden the most meat from them. You've hidden dozens of pounds indoors, and there's more hidden in the firewood pile outside your house, isn't there? And there's quite a bit in the old well in your yard too. Aren't you afraid that the meat will spoil in this hot weather?"

Zhen Mier ╰＿╯: Think you can get away with this? I’ll make sure you give it all back. Originally, if you had given what Liu Zhiguo mentioned properly, I would have let it slide. After all, I just wanted an excuse to eat more meat. But you only gave me some boneless meat and a few ounces to try and send me off. Not a chance.

"Big brother." Zhen Chong and Zhen An each carried a basket as they arrived at Liu's front door.

Zhen Mier motioned for the two brothers to step forward, then grabbed the baskets from their hands and tossed them into Liu's yard. He casually said, "Come and see, everyone. This is the meat that our fair and just Village Head distributed today. As the grandson of the village head, I don't actually need any special treatment from Village Head Liu. I just hope for fairness, especially since the Zhen family has more than just me. Can you really live with yourselves after doing this?"

The crowd, who had been called over by Zhen Mier to watch the spectacle, craned their necks to look. What they saw made their expressions turn strange.

"Is this rib deliberately stripped of meat?"

"Why is the pig head so small? It's even smaller than the one given to Wang Feng's family in the village."

"Wang Feng and Feng Xiuying have a close relationship, of course, she got a bigger one."

"Oh dear, even the pig intestines are small. That piece of meat, if I'm not mistaken, is just a piece of skin, right?"

"If I had worked all morning and got this, I’d be furious too."

"Exactly, it's infuriating!" The onlookers, not afraid of stirring up trouble, shouted loudly.

"This is the meat that was distributed to my Zhen family today. Look at it closely. Oh, and one of the large intestines has already been washed by my grandmother. Don't say we hid the good meat. When my grandmother and mother saw this, they were so angry they couldn't even eat lunch, let alone touch the meat. Well, they were too full of anger to eat anything else." Zhen Mier coldly looked at Liu Zhiguo. Whether or not he was responsible for today's incident, he was going to be held accountable. "I know that people in the village don't like me, so I rarely move around the village to avoid bothering anyone. But ever since I was five years old, I've relied on my own labor to support myself. I really don't know how I offended Village Head Liu to deserve such treatment. Village Head Liu, care to explain? Don't say it's because my grandfather was the village head and we should be more understanding. If that's the case, your 'understanding' has led to you hiding at least 70 to 80 pounds of meat, if not more. As the deputy village head, you’ve set quite an example. Or maybe I should help you find the hidden meat first, since it might not have been you who hid it."

"We need to find it to have proof." someone in the crowd shouted.

Zhen Mier sneered and, as Liu Zhiguo's face turned pale, actually turned to head towards the haystack by the Liu family's yard. But before he could even reach out to flip it over, Feng Xiuying ran out.

"How dare you! This is our haystack."

Immediately, villagers called out, "Who would touch your haystack? We're just looking for evidence. Don't worry, if even one piece is missing, with so many of us here, we'll each compensate you with three pieces."

"Yes, yes, ten pieces even."

"Haha..."

"Oh, I see it. There are so many mosquitoes over there, maybe it's hidden there." A keen-eyed person quickly spotted something unusual on the haystack. Before Zhen Mier could even act, someone climbed onto the Liu family's firewood pile and tossed down several pieces of meat, wrapped in ash, totaling at least 20 to 30 pounds.

Liu Zhiguo ⊙▂⊙: ...

"Is this how you repay everyone, Liu Zhiguo?"

"Never mind that for now. Just now, Xiao Fu said there's more meat hidden in their well."

Seeing the meat wrapped in ash, the villagers who had come to watch no longer laughed. Earlier, they had said countless nice things to Feng Xiuying just to get a better share of the meat. But in the end, the best meat went to those who were related to or close with the Liu family.

To stretch the meat, the adults skipped lunch, just so their children could have more. But when they stepped out, they heard Feng Xiuying’s allies boasting about how much meat they had received!

They said the extra meat was for work, but it all ended up in their own pockets.

"Waaah..." Feng Xiuying sat down on the ground and burst into tears.

"Go ahead and cry. Once we find everything, you’ll have plenty to cry about. Don't think that just because you're the village head's wife, I won't dare hit you. After I hit you, I'll go to the town and turn myself in to the police. Let them decide if my beating was justified." An elderly woman in her fifties or sixties, with bloodshot eyes, spat a thick loogie at Feng Xiuying.

It’s not the lack of meat that bothers people, but the unfairness. If all the meat had been given to the Zhen family, perhaps out of respect for Zhen Mier's contributions and the anticipation of the next feast, people might have only spoken behind their backs. But what did the Liu family do to deserve this? Just because the village head's family had to distribute meat for medical reasons, did it all end up in your own home?

When the angry villagers ran into the Liu family's courtyard and pulled up the two pieces of pork, suspended by thin hemp ropes, from the old well, their fury reached its peak upon seeing the half slab of pork that weighed at least fifty to sixty jin.

Shortly after, some of the bolder villagers entered the Liu family's house and retrieved the four large pig heads, five sets of pig livers, five sets of pig innards, and over ten jin of meat that the Liu family had kept for themselves that day.

Seeing all the hidden meat laid out in the courtyard, Feng Xiuying's cries grew even louder.

Liu Zhiguo, on the other hand, remained silent, his entire body trembling as he looked at the scene.

"Cry all you want, Feng Xiuying, but what right do you have to cry? You've got over a hundred jin of meat, don't you?"

"And don't forget the meat she was preparing to take to her family."

"I wonder if Old Man Liu has also hidden some meat?"

"We'll make them hand it over later."

"Oh my goodness, so all the hard work Zhen Mier put into hunting the wild boar ended up benefiting your family?"

"Such a big pig, earned with her life at risk, and all you gave her were bones..."

"Half a slab of pork, Liu Zhiguo. I used to think you were a good person. We even voted for you to be deputy village head, expecting you to treat the villagers fairly and justly. But you're worse than Liu Ming and Zhao Daguo."

"Cry your head off, Feng Xiuying, you deserve to be struck by lightning. It hasn't even been a month since the Zhao family was struck by lightning. Are you and Liu Zhiguo not afraid of being punished by the heavens too? Our village is protected by the heavens."

"Waaah... Zhen Mier, may you die a terrible death..." Cornered, Feng Xiuying lashed out at Zhen Mier.

Zhen Mier wanted to laugh but couldn't.

"Anyone else can die a terrible death, but not my Mier." A cold voice came from outside the crowd.

The crowd, buzzing with excitement, turned in surprise to see a bullock cart parked outside the Liu family's courtyard. Liu Zhiguo's younger brother, Liu Weiguo, and a man in military uniform stood nearby. The words had just been spoken by the man in uniform.

"Brother Hui!" Zhen Chong and Zhen An's eyes lit up.

Zhen Mier (⊙o⊙)⊙▂⊙: Oh crap... How did he get back so quickly? I'm not prepared at all! And when did he arrive? Did he see me being all 'mighty and majestic' just now? I wanted to keep up the act of being weak and helpless a bit longer...

Lian Hui ignored the twins and, without any expression, glanced at the somewhat dumbfounded Zhen Mier before addressing the hysterical woman lying on the ground. "Did my family's Mier offend you by catching the wild boar, or did she force you to hide the pork that belonged to the entire village? How dare you act so recklessly, just because you think the Zhen family is easy to bully? Do you think just because my grandfather was the village head, no one can say anything? You're just the deputy village head of a small village. I really don't know who gave you the courage to embezzle the village's labor credits and steal the village's pork. Even the mayors, ministers, and generals in the capital don't have the kind of audacity you do."

"Big Sister-in-law, is this... the meat you distributed to the Zhen family?" Liu Weiguo walked into the crowd, his voice trembling slightly as he looked at the contents of the basket on the ground. It had been hot when they slaughtered the pigs, and after his brother sent him to deliver the meat, he hadn't expected his sister-in-law to do something like this.

"Waaa..." Feng Xiuying, scolded by the cold military man, could only cry.

Liu Weiguo then picked up another familiar basket, opened the lotus leaf wrapping, and was so shocked he could barely breathe. After a long moment, he spoke to his elder brother, "Brother, I think you should step down as village head and village chief. You've only been in office for less than a month, and this incident has already happened. Do you think the villagers are blind or stupid? If you continue in your position, someone will report you for embezzlement tomorrow, and our whole family will end up in prison."

"No, no, it's all my fault, it has nothing to do with Zhiguo." Hearing that her husband might lose his position as village head and village chief, Feng Xiuying panicked.

"What's going on...?" Liu Zhiguo's parents, who had already separated from his household, had finally been woken up by their grandson.

As they emerged from the crowd, they saw a pile of pork lying on the ground in front of their son's gate.

"This..." It would have been impossible for Feng Xiuying to hide all this meat by herself, so there must have been accomplices in the Liu family. Just looking at Old Lady Liu's evasive gaze said it all.

Zhen Mier gave these people a disgusted look before walking over to Lian Hui, suppressing the excitement in her heart. She grabbed his hand and threw out a parting line, "Since you didn't want to share the meat with us, go ahead and feed it to your dogs. Maybe even your dogs will turn their noses up at the scraps you picked out."