OBS Chapter 1251 Avengers?
Chapter 1251 Avengers?
Lu Zilin squatted on the doorstep of his house, puffing on the pipe in his hand, with sparks flickering in the pipe bowl.
"Da, what is the relationship between our family and Lu San's ancestors?" He suddenly turned his head and asked.
Lu Taiheng was sitting in the yard flipping through the account book. Hearing this, he paused and asked, "Why are you asking this?"
Lu Zilin rubbed his hands, his eyes showing calculation: "Isn't Heiwa in charge of the security team now? If we can win him over..."
"You'd better give up on this idea as soon as possible!" Lu Taiheng slammed the account book shut. "The farmers in the village suffered a disaster that year. Lu San Tada borrowed 30 kilograms of grain from your grandfather. Later, he couldn't pay it back, so he used his land to pay off the debt. Lu San Tada also came to our house as a long-term worker, but he died of illness within two years. Your grandfather was reluctant to order a coffin and wanted to send him away with a roll of mat. In the end, the Bai family spent money to buy a coffin and took Lu San in. Do they recognize you as a relative now?"
Lu Zilin secretly complained: How come I am even more cruel than me.
Seeing that his son was still unwilling to give up, Lu Taiheng simply said bluntly: "Heiwa's success today is all due to the support of the Bai family! Even his wife Tian Xiao'e was married to him by Bai Hao for 500 yuan! If it were you, would you be willing to pay that much money?"
"Five hundred dollars?!" Lu Zilin's eyes widened, and his pipe fell to the ground with a clang. "Where did this kid from the Bai family get so much money?!"
Lu Taiheng snorted, bent down to pick up his pipe, and knocked the ash off his shoe: "When he was in school, he published articles in newspapers to earn royalties, and now he has opened an ammunition factory and is making a fortune every day. What about you? You have been in prison for eight years, and when you got out, you couldn't even have a hot meal. What can you use to fight him?"
Lu Zilin was touched in the sore spot. He stood up suddenly and kicked over the bench next to him: "According to what you said, my eight years in prison were in vain?!"
Lu Taiheng wanted to persuade him again, but Lu Zilin had already walked out the door, his back revealing a fierce look.
On the village road, the autumn wind swirled the dead leaves. Lu Zilin was strolling with his hands behind his back when he ran into a few villagers carrying hoes.
"Hey, are you back, Lu Xiangyue?" Someone greeted with a dry laugh, but his eyes were wandering and he walked past hurriedly, as if he was avoiding the plague god.
The smile on Lu Zilin's face froze. He met seven or eight villagers in succession, and all of them had the same attitude - they were polite with words, but their eyes hid alienation and even fear.
"Damn Bai Hao!" Lu Zilin kicked the dirt on the roadside and gritted his teeth, "It must be this guy who is behind this!"
As he was stamping his feet and cursing, he suddenly heard a cautious call from behind: "Lu Xiangyue? You are finally back!"
Lu Zilin turned around and saw a middle-aged man in a ragged grey jacket standing not far away, with his back hunched. His cheeks were sunken and his eye sockets were blue, making him look like a consumptive who had been hungry for three days.
"Are you Sang Lao Ba?" Lu Zilin squinted his eyes and identified for a long time, finally digging out the face from his memory.
Sang Lao Ba seemed to be ignited by this greeting. He staggered over with tears and snot all over his face. "Lu Xiangyue! You don't know, I haven't had a good day since you went in! The Bai family is too bullying!"
Lu Zilin's eyes rolled, and he quickly supported his shaking body: "Come on, come on, tell me slowly - how does the Bai family bully others?"
Sang Laoba wiped his face with his sleeve, and said in a tearful voice: "Since the county banned the cultivation of poppies, we old tobacco farmers have suffered a lot!" He counted with his skinny fingers, "In the past, one acre of poppies was equivalent to ten acres of wheat, but now, growing wheat can't even fill our stomachs!"
"What does this have to do with the Bai family?" Lu Zilin rolled his eyes and deliberately guided.
"Why is it okay?" Sang Lao Ba suddenly became excited, spitting. "It was the eldest brother of the Bai family who talked nonsense in the newspaper that attracted the attention of the senior officials in Xi'an. Otherwise, who would know that we grow that kind of stuff in this remote area?"
"Since you were arrested, the county has sent people to supervise us to plow all the poppies in the field. That's all money!"
"The most hateful thing is that the Bai family not only tricked the strong laborers in the village into fighting bandits in the hail of bullets, but also tricked the young people in the village into working in his factory. That work is tiring and dangerous, and it takes four hours a day. Yet, those fools are still grateful to the Bai family."
Lu Zilin stroked the stubble on his chin, thinking. He patted Sang Lao Ba on the shoulder and said, "Lao Ba, how many people in our village have been harmed by the Bai family like you?"
Sang Laoba counted on his fingers: "There are at least a dozen! Wang Ergou sold all his land, Li Sanmazi's wife ran away with someone..."
"Well," Lu Zilin rolled his eyes and came up with a plan, "go and call them all to my house, I'll treat you to a drink!"
When Sang Laoba heard that there was wine to drink, his eyes suddenly lit up and he nodded hurriedly: "Okay! Okay! I'll go call someone right away!"
In the evening, the Lu family courtyard was filled with the smell of alcohol.
The dozen or so men that Sang Laoba brought sat around a makeshift table. They were all skinny and pale, but their faces were red from drinking. Among them were gamblers who had sold all their land, drunkards who had been abandoned by their wives, and second-rate guys who had been beaten by the security team for stealing.
Lu Taiheng stood at the entrance of the main hall, looking at this group of filthy guys, his beard trembling with anger. He pulled his son's sleeve and cursed in a low voice: "Why did you invite these prodigals here? Do you think our family is not unlucky enough?"
Lu Zilin shook off his father's hand nonchalantly: "Da, please don't worry about it. I have my own plans."
"You!" Lu Taiheng stamped his feet in anger, but saw Zaohua coming from the backyard holding his grandson Lu Zhaohai. He waved his hand and said, "Let's go, let's go to the ancestral hall. Don't let the child learn bad things!"
In the yard, after three rounds of drinking, Sang Lao Ba's tongue was already tied. He stood up shakily, holding up his wine bowl and shouting: "Brothers! If the Bai family hadn't cut off our source of income, would we have fallen to this point?"
"That's right!" A pockmarked man slammed the table and said, "It was so much fun growing poppies back then! The money flowed into my pocket! Now, even a glass of wine has to be bought on credit!"
Seeing that the situation was getting tense, Lu Zilin pretended to be sad and said, "Alas, I heard in prison that in order to curry favor with the county magistrate, Bai Hao forced the young and old men in our village to death!"
"Lu Xiangyue is right!" Sang Laoba shouted with red eyes, "There is no good person in the Bai family! Bai Jiaxuan has been the patriarch for many years, and all he knows is to collect rent! Bai Hao is even more cruel, building a shabby factory and tricking all the young people into working as laborers!"
Lu Zilin sat in the main seat, smiling and pouring wine for everyone. He was delighted to hear these complaints - these were the people who held grudges against the Bai family!
"Brothers!" He suddenly stood up and knocked his wine bowl heavily: "From now on, if I, Lu Zilin, eat a bite, you will have one too!"
"Lu Xiangyue is a righteous man!" Sang Laoba took the lead in shouting, and everyone in the yard raised their wine bowls, like a group of demons dancing wildly.
At this moment, Lu Zilin seemed to have found back the joy of planting poppies when he could command the support of hundreds of people and suppress the Bai family. He squinted his cloudy eyes and looked at the dozen men stumbling around in the yard. Those faces reddened by alcohol turned into sharp knives in his eyes. He touched the uneven stubble on his chin and suddenly coughed heavily, and the yard suddenly became quiet.
"Who among you has a better relationship with Lu San?"
Everyone looked at each other, their wine bowls hanging in the air. Under the moonlight, they exchanged confused looks - Lu San was a well-known honest camel in the village. On weekdays, he either worked in the fields or fed livestock at the Bai family. He could never get along with people like them who were not doing their jobs.
Seeing this, Lu Zilin's face gradually darkened, and the wine bowl in his hand creaked. Seeing this, Sang Laoba quickly put down the half-eaten chicken leg and rubbed his greasy hands on his pants: "Lu Xiangyue, I have some friendship with Lu San."
Lu Zilin finally smiled on his sallow face. He stood up and walked around the table, hugged Sang Lao Ba's bony shoulders affectionately, and the strong smell of alcohol sprayed in his ears: "Lao Ba, tomorrow you find a way to invite him to the county town, remember, don't mention me to him."
Sang Laoba's green bean-sized eyes rolled around twice, and he suddenly grinned, revealing his uneven yellow teeth: "Don't worry, Lu Xiangyue! I'll take care of it!" He rubbed his fingers and added, "It's just the travel expenses."
"Pah!" Three silver dollars slapped on the greasy table, startling a few flies. Lu Zilin knocked the silver dollars with his pipe and said, "After the matter is done, we will go to Zuixianlou in the county, order whatever you want!"
The others looked at the three silver dollars in Sang Laoba's hand and immediately felt regretful.
The moonlight shines through the branches of the jujube tree, casting mottled shadows in the yard.
Sang Laoba walked towards the west end of the village, stepping on these spots of light, with two silver dollars he had just obtained in his arms - another one was secretly hidden under his insole.
Hearing a few dog barks in the distance, he shrank his neck and quickened his pace.
"Knock, knock, knock" - the old wooden door of Lu San's house made a dull sound. Tian Xiao'e opened the door holding an oil lamp, and the orange flame reflected her alert face: "Uncle, it's so late, what can I do for you?"
"Xiao E." Sang Lao Ba smiled with wrinkles all over his face: "Are you asleep? I have something to discuss with him..."
The oil lamp crackled. Lu San squatted on the threshold, smoking a pipe, his eyebrows knitted into knots: "Are we going to transport grain to the county town tomorrow morning?"
"That's right!" Sang Lao Ba patted his chest and promised: "I'll pay for the shipping fee and provide lunch, how about that?"
Lu San didn't think much about it and agreed directly.
"Da," Tian Xiao'e said after seeing off Sang Lao Ba and gently closed the gate, "Sang Lao Ba's land was sold out last year. Where does he get the food?"
Lu San was filling his pipe with new tobacco. Hearing this, he said without even raising his head: "Maybe several families pooled together."
He blew up the paper and lit it. The red light reflected on his wrinkled face. “Isn’t it always like this when the harvest was bad in previous years?”
Tian Xiao'e thought so too and no longer doubted it.
The darkness before dawn is the thickest. The sound of the deer troika woke up the hens in the nest, and they clucked in protest. Tian Xiao'e, wrapped in a padded jacket, chased to the gate of the courtyard and stuffed a blue cloth bundle into her father-in-law's hand: "Pancakes with spicy sauce, eat on the way."
The carriage creaked as it rolled over the dew-soaked dirt road. Lu San cracked the whip, wondering if Sang Lao Ba would default on his debt.
The agreed location was the threshing ground at the east end of the village. As the sky gradually brightened, Lu San squinted his presbyopic eyes and counted the sacks on the truck - only half of them were loaded. Sang Lao Ba hurried over and stuffed ten copper coins into his hand without saying anything: "Third brother, you have worked hard. This is the deposit. The rest will be given to you after we sell the grain."
Lu San touched the warm copper plate and completely lost his guard.
When the sun climbed to the treetops, the blue-gray county town wall finally came into view.
The strange thing was that Sang Laoba was not in a hurry to go to the grain store. Instead, he ordered him to drive the car to Zuixianlou - the gilded sign on the vermilion lacquered gate was dazzling.
"What are we doing here?" Lu San asked stutteringly, his hands unconsciously clenching the corners of his patched clothes.
Sang Laoba dragged him inside without saying anything: "The boss said that meals are provided!"
When walking through the lobby, Lu San's worn-out straw sandals left mud marks on the shiny blue brick floor, causing the waiter to roll his eyes.
Lu San was wondering when Sang Lao Ba had become so wealthy when he was dragged to a private room. Lu San had never been to such a grand restaurant in his life and was so scared that he didn't dare to sit down. Just when he was at a loss as to what to do, Lu Zilin pushed the door open.
"Third brother, my grandfather was wrong in the past." He picked up the wine glass and drank it all: "I will apologize to you on his behalf!"
Lu San's mind buzzed. The most complicated thing he had ever dealt with in his life was delivering a cow with a difficult birth. How could he have ever experienced such a scene?
Just as he was about to refuse, Sang Lao Ba had already held his wrist and poured the wine into his mouth. The burning sensation burned from his throat to his stomach, choking him and making him cough.
"Eat! Eat!" Lu Zilin served the dishes attentively. Crystal pork elbow, sea cucumber with scallions, steamed sea bass.
He had only had such a feast once, at the wedding banquet of the eldest son of the Bai family. What he was thinking was why Lu Zilin would invite him to such an expensive banquet, but his mouth was honestly secreting a lot of saliva.
In the end, he couldn't resist Lu Zilin and Sang Laoba's constant urging to drink, and drank several cups, which made his mind even more confused.
After three rounds of drinking, Lu San's dark face turned liver-colored. When Lu Zilin hooked his arm around his shoulder and called him brother, he could no longer tell east from west.
The sun was setting outside the window, and the shadows in the private room were getting longer and longer. Lu Zilin slapped his thigh and said, "Let's go! Take the third brother to sober up!"
The drunken Lu San was carried through three streets and alleys. When he turned into a dark alley, the strong smell of powder and urine hit him in the face. Before he could react, he was pulled into the house by two heavily made-up women. Lu Zilin was still shouting at the door: "You two, serve my third brother well. If you serve well, you will be rewarded. If you don't, I will smash your signboard."
Soon, Lu San's heavy breathing was heard in the room.
A smug smile appeared on Lu Zilin's lips. Even if you have a vajra, it can't resist such a soft finger.
Sang Laoba, who was standing by, was jealous: "Lu Xiangyue, can I also..."
Lu Zilin's eyes flashed with disgust, but on the surface he still said to Sang Lao Ba: "Let's keep this to ourselves."
"Understood, Lu Xiangyue, don't worry, I didn't see anything else today except selling grain." (End of this chapter)