Zhou Si was startled, and whispered: "Xiao Shu is not that kind of person..."
"What did you say?" Uncle Tuesday's expression froze.
"No!" Zhou Si was taken aback and quickly said: "I, second uncle, I heard everything you said, and I will pay attention to it in the future! I... just don't provoke her!"
Uncle Tuesday's expression softened, and he said gently, "That's right! Our journey has not been easy, and small unbearables can lead to big plans. Don't lose big because of small things. You should understand this truth."
"I understand, Uncle Tuesday." Zhou Si's eyes darkened slightly, and his voice slowly dropped.
Uncle Tuesday also sighed softly, picked up the ax on the ground, cleaned up the branches and vines without a sound, and then carried the two trees down the mountain one after another.
Sure enough, Zhou Si never went to look for Lu Xiaoshu again, he borrowed and returned things from the Lu family, and the uncle of the Zhou family always came forward.
Lu Xiaoshu went back angrily for a while, then put it aside in a blink of an eye, and concentrated on painting the two paintings he owed for the Lin Family Jinshizhai. When I am free, I follow my mother and my aunt to prepare things for the New Year, and occasionally slip out to play with Lin Fang and Zhou Yuan.
In the twelfth lunar month, the weather is getting colder and the taste of the new year is getting stronger. Every family is busy preparing for the new year. Stockpile firewood and charcoal, clean the house and yard inside and out, go to the market once or twice to buy some new furniture, new clothes, shoes and socks, and delicious snacks, snacks and preserved fruits during the New Year. Everyone is beaming, and the whole village All filled with a strong flavor of the year.
But the villagers are celebrating the New Year, and many others are also celebrating the New Year.
Not to mention those who have nothing to do with the villagers, but there is a group of people who have a lot to do with it, and that is the catchers in the county government.
Seeing that the Chinese New Year is coming, as usual, the police officers of the county yamen go to the countryside and work diligently. One village makes things difficult and another village finds faults. Year. It's also a beautiful name, call this a routine security inspection!
The villagers are naturally disgusted and resentful of their behavior, but since ancient times, the people have not fought with the officials.
Dare to fight against them? Then wait for bad luck!
On this day, four police officers came to Maple Leaf Village wearing official uniforms, high official hats, and swords.
Someone saw it from far away, and they shouted "Come! Come!" and ran to the village. Everyone knew it well, and they were relieved at the same time as they cursed secretly.
Only after these people come here every year can everyone really relax and prepare for the New Year with peace of mind. Because this means that the last hurdle at the end of the year has finally passed.
In the past, the police officers would find excuses or something as a fig leaf, but now everyone is familiar with each other, and they are in a state of "you understand" with each other, and they simply don't even find excuses. The four police officers swaggered into the village and went straight to Lizheng's house.
Lizheng has been notified that he has prepared good tea and is waiting for reception. Seeing them coming, she hurriedly greeted them with a smile, exchanged pleasantries for a while, and then handed over the red envelopes that had been prepared with a smile.
This is also a new rule formed in the past two or three years. In the past, chicken, duck, fish, radish and cabbage, fine wine and food, etc. were collected at any rate, but now they are all discounted! I used to go door to door, but now I just come to Lizheng here, and I only charge money.
As for how Lizheng will share it afterwards, sorry, it has nothing to do with them!
However, this year has suffered from a severe drought, and life is difficult for everyone. In April and May of the coming year, when the crops are green and yellow, I don’t know how many people will live on wild vegetable porridge—maybe they don’t even have wild vegetable porridge!
Therefore, after discussing this matter this year, everyone unanimously decided to reduce the share, only half of last year!
Even my own family is going to be hungry, who cares about other things? Naturally, he became more courageous.
The leading policeman took the red envelope with a smile, and opened the red envelope on the pretext that it was convenient to go to the latrine. His face changed when he saw it. When I came back, it was not so easy to talk about.
The other three were also very unhappy when they saw the amount he made with gestures quietly.
In other words, their family also suffered from a severe drought, and they may not know how the prices will rise in the coming year, and they are waiting for the money to be used. Instead of picking it from the hands of the villagers, who can they ask them to take it from? So a little salary, is it enough
The four of them were familiar with each other for a long time in the public school, and they were perfect in their official accents. Under the offensive of both soft and hard, two-pronged tactics, and a rush of tongues, Lizheng was forced to be powerless by one person opening his mouth.
But although Li Zheng is a little bit greedy, he is not greedy at all in this matter-this year's situation is special!
He couldn't stand it anymore and didn't dare to agree for the villagers, so he begged the four police officers with all kinds of good words, saying that he could gather all the people in the village and ask them to tell the villagers by themselves.
How could the four police officers agree? But Lizheng has not been a fool for most of his life. He is slippery and sophisticated, and he has a bit of a two-pronged mouth. He beat around the bush and expressed his meaning skillfully: Could it be that you are afraid of the guilty conscience of the villagers, so you pushed me to come forward? Bar
As soon as the four police officers were subjected to his provocative method, they nodded in agreement on the spur of the moment.
Just as he was relieved, Li immediately jumped up like a spring under his buttocks, and said with a smile: "I don't dare to delay the affairs of the servants, so I will tell everyone!" After finishing speaking, he went away, He told his son to lead the four messengers.
At this time, the four police officers realized Li was cunning belatedly, but it was just that the words were out of their mouths, so they had no choice but to grunt twice to express that they had no objection.
When the villagers heard that the iron bell hanging from the big locust tree in the center of the village was rang hastily, and they saw four arresters entering the village with their own eyes today, they immediately thought of this incident.
This matter is closely related to everyone's vital interests, and everyone is naturally concerned. When they heard the "clang, clang, clang" of the bell ringing like a shower, everyone's heart jumped wildly. When they arrived, they all ran under the big locust tree.
The Lu family is no exception.
Many children also ran to watch the excitement, and Lu Xiaoshu was also among them.
Although Zhou Si and the others lived a little far away from the center of the village, they couldn't help but have good ears, so the ringing of the bell was naturally heard in their ears.
Zhou Sisi didn't even think about it, and immediately stepped out the door.
Just as Uncle Zhou called him, he interrupted involuntarily: "Second Uncle, since we live in the village now, we should also care about the affairs in the village. It's not bad for us! I'll go and see return!"
After finishing speaking, without waiting for his objection, he performed his lightness kung fu in a hurry and went away.
Uncle Zhou couldn't help being annoyed when he couldn't call out, and murmured angrily: "This kid, really—"
"Forget it and let him go!" Boss Zhou smiled slightly and said, "He's right. Since we live here, it doesn't hurt to know what's going on in the village. He's not a child anymore. It's going to be messy."
Uncle Tuesday glanced at him and said nothing, thinking that if you knew what his kid was thinking, you wouldn't say that!
"However," Boss Zhou tilted his head and thought, "I'm quite surprised. When did he like to watch the excitement so much?"
This is still a bit decent!
Uncle Zhou didn't explain, but said lightly: "Who says it's not!"
Zhou Si came under the big locust tree, but he saw a crowd of people stirring and noisy, the villagers were discussing with each other, their expressions were both nervous and angry.
Zhou Si only glanced briefly and didn't take it seriously, his eyes kept searching for Lu Xiaoshu's figure in the crowd, and finally saw the figure in the water-red jacket and skirt with braids, his eyes widened. Liang, his heart seemed to light up all of a sudden, he waved his hands and called out "Xiaoshu" several times, but he didn't see her hear, so he hurriedly squeezed over there.
"Xiao Shu!"
Only then did Lu Xiaoshu hear it, and when he turned his head and saw him, he nodded with a faint "hmm" and said, "You're here too!" Then he turned his head and continued talking to others.
Zhou Si smiled slightly, separated the people next to him calmly, and asked Lu Xiaoshu, "What happened, why did you ring the bell? Is it because the village is going to give out annual gifts during the Chinese New Year?"
Lu Xiaoshu didn't want to talk to him at first, but when he heard him say that, he couldn't help but chuckled. He gave him a bad look and said, "You're thinking nicely! You even gave out a New Year's gift! Someone came into the village to ask for a New Year's gift." Come!"
"Is there such a thing?" Zhou Si froze slightly.
Lu Xiaoshu was about to speak, but suddenly the crowd became noisy, and everyone said: "Come, come!" She stopped her mouth and looked over with Daliu.
Zhou Si's eyes dimmed when he saw the four police officers walking forward.
Li Zheng raised his hand to signal everyone to be quiet, said a few opening remarks, and then threw the conversation to the four policemen.
But before the four police officers could open their mouths, some impatient villagers yelled and said, "We're going to be hungry next year, so how can we have extra money to hand in? The ones we handed in this year are all our belongings." , the next year’s livelihood has not yet been settled, isn’t this going to kill people! It’s not fair, it’s not fair!”
"That's it! That's it!"
"unacceptable!"
"It's really unreasonable!"
The crowd started clamoring, and the four police officers couldn't help becoming angry from embarrassment. One of them shouted "Silence" several times to the crowd, but was drowned out by the menacing voice, which didn't work at all and couldn't help but secretly angry.
Seeing that it was not a matter, the leader took off the saber at his waist and strode forward to knock the big bell vigorously "Dang Dang Dang" a few times. Everyone was startled, remembering the identities of the four people in front of them, and immediately fell silent.
"What are you arguing about, what are you arguing about? Do you want to rebel?" The leader glanced over the crowd with eagle-like eyes, and said with a sneer, "You know how much money you have handed in this year, so what is enough for you? I don’t even think about it. This year, the migrants are running around, and the post-disaster reconstruction is still going on. What do you know about how busy we are all day long? Huh, I took so little money, I thought it was all collected in Are we in the bag? In the end, it’s not all used for business, and you are the ones who benefit, understand! The money in the yamen is not enough for running errands and drinking a bowl of tea. If you don’t go with you, who will you go with? This place Do you want to take care of law and order? If some thieves and robbers come and do some illegal activities, you will have no loss? I'm afraid the loss will be even greater! Let me hear it clearly, and each family will pay an extra tael of silver. No discussion! Don’t make many excuses with me. I don’t have any cash at home. You can borrow or sell things. In short, you can make up enough for me! This is collected once a year. If it’s not for local inspections and security management, we I’m too lazy to come, what do you think you can really do with such a small amount of money!”