Xu Tongdao swept his gaze over the village head and the others, then nodded slightly. "Alright."
His goal of establishing authority today had basically been achieved. Since the village head and the others were willing to help him recover the remaining items, there was no reason for him to refuse.
After all, with the village head and others stepping in on his behalf, it was obvious that getting the rest of the things back would be much easier.
Xu Tongdao wasn't some reckless troublemaker who lived only to fight.
If he could save some effort, he was more than willing to do so.
…
His younger sister Ge Yuzhu wasn't very obedient.
When Xu Tongdao had just left the house, he had clearly told her to stay home and watch the place, not to follow him. Yet now, as he carried a sack of rice back, he saw her standing on the small bridge over the drainage ditch, frowning with worry as she looked at him.
Xu Tongdao felt a little helpless inside.
But he didn't scold her.
He knew she was worried—afraid he might get hurt.
"Go home."
As he passed her, Xu Tongdao said softly.
Ge Yuzhu responded quietly, hesitating as if she wanted to say something, then followed him back home.
At this moment, Xu Tongdao looked rather disheveled.
After pinning Xu Hengbing to the ground and beating him twice, Xu Hengbing had of course ended up filthy and miserable—but Xu Tongdao himself wasn't much cleaner. The ground was muddy from the recent rain, and his pant legs and jacket were splattered with mud.
Yet among the villagers who had gathered to watch—men and women, young and old—not a single gaze held ridicule.
They all looked at him as if seeing him for the first time, their expressions varied.
This greatly pleased Xu Tongdao.
This was exactly the effect he wanted.
Now that his useless father had disappeared, leaving behind only their small, vulnerable family, in a village full of people who bullied the weak and feared the strong, Xu Tongdao would rather be feared than pitied.
Because those who were pitied would inevitably be bullied by others.
After delivering the sack of rice home, Xu Tongdao went out again.
Accompanied by village head Xu Hengchun and the others, he went from place to place—White Bay Village, Tiger's Mouth, Wang Family Dam, and other nearby villages—recovering the items that had been taken from his home a few days earlier.
The gambling game his father had participated in that night hadn't involved only people from Xu Family Village. There had also been participants from White Bay Village, Tiger's Mouth, Wang Family Dam, and elsewhere.
And among those who had come to carry things away from his house a few days earlier, there had indeed been people from those villages.
It was impossible to get everything back.
That day, too many people had come, and everything had been chaotic. Not only could the freshly reborn Xu Tongdao not clearly remember who had taken what and how much—even his sister Ge Yuzhu couldn't recall it clearly.
What he did remember clearly was that the two black pigs his family had been raising and were nearly ready for market had been dragged away by Wang Zhengrong, a grain merchant from Tiger's Mouth, along with several others.
Wang Zhengrong was quite well-known in the surrounding ten-li radius.
Every harvest season, he would bring manpower and trucks to village after village to buy grain.
He had money, and when he wasn't busy, he also liked to gamble.
On top of that, when he had led people to drag those two pigs away from Xu Tongdao's house that day, the commotion had been huge.
So Xu Tongdao remembered him very clearly.
However…
Even with village head Xu Hengchun and the others accompanying him, they still couldn't get those two pigs back.
One had already been sold by Wang Zhengrong. The other had been slaughtered for meat, with some of the pork even sold off.
To prove that the pigs were really gone, Wang Zhengrong even took them to see a few clumps of pig hair in the corner of his courtyard.
At that moment, Xu Tongdao's expression turned extremely ugly.
He almost couldn't control his temper—his fist itching to smash straight into Wang Zhengrong's fat face.
He was stopped by the village accountant standing beside him.
Then village head Xu Hengchun pulled Wang Zhengrong inside to talk privately for a while. When they came back out, Wang Zhengrong, looking disgruntled, handed several hundred-yuan bills to Xu Tongdao.
"You're Xiao Dao, right? By rights, your dad lost money gambling to me. Now that I can't find him, going to your house and taking two pigs was reasonable enough. But since your village head and others are here, I'll give them face. The pigs—I can't return them. Here's seven hundred yuan. Take it, and let's consider this settled. But if your dad ever comes back, the money he owes me—I'll still come to collect it. I need to make that clear."
Xu Tongdao waited until he finished speaking, then calmly reached out and took the bills.
He counted them—seven hundred yuan, exactly.
At this time, pigs didn't sell for high prices. A fully grown pig raised for half a year selling for three to five hundred yuan was normal.
So he didn't argue further.
He nodded and turned to leave.
…
The pigs couldn't be recovered. As for the chickens and ducks, he also failed to get most of them back—they had already been slaughtered and eaten.
Out of consideration for village head Xu Hengchun and the others, those people converted them into cash and returned the money to him.
A chicken or duck was only valued at twenty or thirty yuan.
Only old laying hens that had been raised for several years were valued at fifty yuan each.
Even so, when everything was totaled up, the numbers still didn't match.
His sister had clearly told him that twenty-four chickens and eight ducks had been taken, but in the end, Xu Tongdao only got back three chickens, one duck, plus cash equivalent to five more chickens and ducks.
The rest?
He couldn't remember exactly who had taken how many, and they refused to admit it. What could he do?
Even the rice and grain—he only managed to recover three hundred jin of unhusked rice and fifty jin of white rice.
That was all.
No one admitted to taking the rest.
Xu Tongdao understood clearly that this was probably the best possible outcome. Pushing any further would have been meaningless.
And this was only because the village head and others had gone with him. If he'd gone door to door alone, he probably wouldn't have recovered even this much.
On the way back, Xu Tongdao walked in front carrying a large sack of rice, his head lowered as he thought about his family's future path, unusually quiet.
The village head and others followed behind, carrying the three chickens and one duck.
The other rice and grain had already been delivered to Xu Tongdao's house during earlier trips.
Seeing Xu Tongdao walking silently with his head down, Xu Hengchun sighed and said, "Xiao Dao, try to take it easy. Being able to get this much back is already pretty good. Let's just put this matter behind us, alright?"
The accountant and others chimed in with words of comfort as well.
Xu Tongdao responded with a simple "Mm."
The accountant glanced at the sack of rice on Xu Tongdao's shoulder and asked kindly, "Xiao Dao, can you still carry that? Why don't I help you? You're still just a kid, after all."
They'd made this offer several times along the way already.
This time, Xu Tongdao still shook his head. "No need. I can handle it. I'm fine."
After a pause, he let out a breath and said, "Uncles and aunts, thank you for today—for helping me get so many things back. As for those chickens and the duck, you can split them up and take them home to eat. Consider it my treat."
Village head Xu Hengchun coughed lightly. "What are you saying? We're village cadres and your elders. Helping you with something like this, how could we take your things? Don't be like that. We all know your family's having a hard time right now. We'll help you carry these chickens and ducks back to your place so you can keep them for eggs."
"That's right! Xiao Dao, we can't take your livestock."
"Exactly. We're village cadres—how could we take your things?"
"Xiao Dao, don't be so polite with us. If you have anything in the future, just come to the village office…"
The village cadres spoke one after another, none of them willing to take his chickens or duck.
TL: If you want to read ahead by at least ten chapters, patreon.com/EdibleMapleSyrup