20demayo Chapter 33 Isn't this just a marriage scam?
Chapter 33 Isn't this just a marriage scam?
Just as Liu Dezhu was about to kowtow, Li Mu reached out and pulled Zeng Dazhen aside.
"Village Chief Liu, what are you doing?"
Li Mu spoke coldly, and Zeng Dazhen, whom he had pulled behind him, also looked annoyed.
Although the Liu family did wrong the Tao family in this matter, it didn't warrant kneeling and kowtowing.
But by doing this, doesn't Liu Dezhu clearly tell everyone that the Tao family is unforgiving even when they are in the right?
"Aunt Zeng, I didn't mean anything by it, I just feel so guilty towards your Tao family." Liu Dezhu suppressed his anger and looked at Zeng Dazhen with a bitter expression.
He looked so pitiful, as if he hadn't made a mistake but had suffered a tremendous injustice.
"Come on! Village Chief Liu, if you really feel sorry for the Tao family, you shouldn't have let your son do such a shameful thing."
"Don't tell me you didn't know that widow Liu is four months pregnant with your son's baby."
Li Mu spoke sarcastically.
As soon as he said this, the faces of all the villagers who had come with Zeng Dazhen changed.
In particular, Zeng Dazhen's cousin, Fang Xiaocao, immediately spat at Liu Dezhu.
"Pah! Your Liu family is shameless. The baby is already four months old and you're still proposing marriage to our family. Isn't this just marriage fraud?"
"Get up now, stop pretending to be pitiful."
"You, a dignified village chief, don't kneel before us. We're afraid it will shorten our lifespan."
……
As soon as Fang Xiaocao spoke up, the other villagers also joined in the shouting.
Kneeling on the ground, Liu Dezhu's face turned from white to red, then back to white. He clenched his teeth, his eyes rolled back, and he fainted.
Two older villagers who had been standing outside the courtyard rushed in, helped Liu Dezhu up, and started shouting at Li Mu and his group.
What are you doing?
“Our village chief has already kowtowed to you, so please don’t be unreasonable.”
As soon as the two of them finished speaking, the villagers outside the courtyard seemed to have received a signal and all stood up.
"Exactly! They've come to bully us in our neighboring village. Do they think we're nobody in our village?"
As they spoke, those people made a move to rush into the courtyard.
Upon seeing this, the inspection team members hurriedly tried to stop the person.
Unexpectedly, Li Mu suddenly stood in front of those people and shouted coldly, "What, are you people from the neighboring village trying to rebel?"
"You all remained silent when the Liu family was caught in adultery, but now that Liu has found out he's made himself faint from anger, you're all able to get up."
"It seems that in your village, the village chief is much more important than reputation."
As Li Mu spoke, his icy gaze swept over everyone present.
Those people's eyes flickered slightly, as if they were trying to avoid me.
He scoffed and mocked, "Those who know him say that Liu Dezhu is a good village chief, protected by all the men in your village, young and old. Those who don't know him... think he's the tyrant of your village."
As soon as Li Mu said this, everyone present had a different expression.
Some were confused, some were surprised, and some were afraid.
The inspectors were all skilled at inspections; they observed everyone's expressions and immediately devised a plan.
This is abnormal! This is extremely abnormal!
The people in the neighboring village all seemed strange.
After saying this, Li Mu stopped looking at the others and turned to Zeng Dazhen, slowly saying, "Let's go, Aunt Zeng, let's go back to the village."
"Since the people from the neighboring village love to act, let them act as they please. We don't have time to watch them perform."
As they spoke, Li Mu helped Zeng Dazhen walk out.
The two middle-aged men who helped Liu Dezhu up from the ground wanted to speak up to stop him, but they fell silent after Liu Dezhu, who was pretending to be unconscious, pinched their arms.
Soon, Li Mu helped Zeng Dazhen back to the village with the other villagers.
On the way, when everyone learned that it was Li Mu who first discovered that Liu Mancang had a problem, they all praised him.
"I never expected that Mu, who usually seems so lazy and irresponsible, would be so decisive when it comes to getting things done."
"I don't think he's lazy; he just doesn't want to do farm work. If he were lazy, would he have gone into the mountains to find wild ginseng for Village Chief Tao?"
"Yes, not only are they not lazy, they're also incredibly bold."
Everyone was talking at once.
Li Mu spoke up at this moment, saying, "As for going into the mountains to find wild ginseng, that was purely coincidental. My main purpose in going into the mountains this time was to find birch polypore."
"Birch fungus? What's that?" Zeng Changzhen, supported by Li Mu, asked the question that everyone was wondering about.
In the 80s, chaga mushrooms hadn't become popular yet, and not many people knew about them. Those who bought them were mostly Russians.
However, the price is quite considerable.
It wasn't until the 90s that birch polypore truly became popular, and people went to every place where birch trees grew to pick it.
Li Mu gave a brief and rough explanation of what birch polypore was, and casually mentioned its price.
"The person who bought it from me said that the brownish-yellow ones are one yuan per kilogram, while the dark brown ones are three yuan per kilogram."
(The price of Chaga mushrooms is based on prices at the end of the 80s and is not precise.)
"What? One yuan a pound?"
"What is this thing? And why is it so valuable?"
……
Li Mu's words were like a stone thrown into a calm lake, instantly stirring up a thousand waves.
But before everyone could finish discussing it, Li Mu spoke up again, saying, "I didn't know how to talk to the people in our village about this."
"After all, this thing is like the Ganoderma lucidum. Not many people know about it yet. If we go into the mountains to look for it, we're sure to find it."
“But we can’t call on the whole village to search for them. After all, the nine sons of the dragon are all different. If even one of them is not on our side, we’ll lose this business.”
It's not a pleasant thing to say, but that's how things are.
Nobody's stupid, and nobody doesn't understand the reasoning behind this.
Seeing everyone nodding in agreement, Li Mu continued, "I can tell from the fact that Aunt Zeng invited everyone here today that you are all people she trusts and none of you are gossips."
"I trust Aunt Zeng, and I trust everyone even more. The only question is whether any of you have the guts to come into the mountains with me!"
Li Mu thought that once he said this, everyone would definitely think it over carefully, after all, there had just been a tiger attack not long ago.
But to his surprise, the men responded immediately after he finished speaking.
"Yes, I'm willing to go."
"I do too!"
Li Mu was happy to see that everyone was willing to follow.
However, he still has to say the unpleasant things upfront.
"Everyone, come with me on this mountain hike, but we'll have to wait until after the New Year."
"Also, no one else should leak this information to us. If someone tries to sabotage it, the whole thing will fall apart."