When Chen Xuan arrived at the main room,
he immediately saw the padded jacket on the table.
His gaze shifted to the tightly closed door of Su Wanqiu's room.
He thought to himself, this sister-in-law is really attentive.
However,
she didn't come out despite the loud noise.
Looks like she worked hard all night.
No time to think too much, he quickly put on the padded jacket and went out.
Last night, a fire burned down Li Tie's house,
it was dark,
and he left in a hurry,
he needed to check if anything was left behind.
Also to be mentally prepared.
"Help! Something happened, come quickly."
At this moment,
not far away, a man wearing a yellow jacket, thin-faced, less than five feet three inches tall,
was shouting loudly at every household.
That's Huang Tong!
The Village Guardian of Shuanggang Village.
A bit slow-witted, but a good person.
Whenever there's trouble in someone's house, he would proactively help without asking for money, just a bit of food would suffice.
He usually watches over the entrance of the village or patrols around.
Because there were no other families near Li Tie's house, he was the first to discover it during his patrol early this morning.
"What's going on, Xiaohuang, what happened so early in the morning?"
Uncle Liu, Chen Xuan's neighbor, also came out at this time.
Woken up so early, the wrinkles between his eyebrows deepened.
"Uncle Liu, it's that... that Li Tie's house has been... burned down, everything... is... gone."
Huang Tong stammered as he spoke.
"What? That rascal from the Li Family?"
Uncle Liu's old eyes widened with shock, quickly asking, "Is that rascal alright?"
"Don't... know! But... everything is... gone."
Huang Tong scratched his head.
He had just seen a pile of ashes, didn't check carefully, and came to inform every household.
"Oh dear, I saw Li Jin's brat return yesterday, could it be that both brothers are gone? Then the Li Family will be completely extinct..."
"What will we do?"
Uncle Liu stomped, anxious and worried.
Though Li Tie the rascal wasn't any good, Old Li was a good man during his lifetime.
If something happened to both brothers, the Li Family truly would be extinct.
Seeing this, Chen Xuan subtly curled his lips.
Such scoundrels ought to die early!
Alive they only waste air and food.
"Kid from the Chen Family, don't just stand there like a fool, come help me take a look together. What is this, oh heavens, are you really not letting our village have peace!"
"Alright, I'm coming!"
Chen Xuan felt displeased.
Being called a fool early in the morning, who could argue with that.
However,
Uncle Liu was also a good person, well respected in the village.
Though he felt unhappy, he still scampered over to support the old man.
The two headed towards Li Tie's house.
....
When they arrived at Li Tie's house,
it was already surrounded by villagers.
Upon seeing Uncle Liu, everyone turned to make way automatically.
At this time,
Chen Xuan let go of the old man's hand.
However,
even with his support, Uncle Liu was bent over breathing heavily.
While Chen Xuan scanned the ruins in front of him,
when he confirmed nothing was left,
he also felt somewhat relieved.
At this time,
Uncle Liu had regained his breath.
He immediately asked, "How's it going, are they alright?"
"Uncle Liu, nothing's alright, take a look there, those two lumps of charcoal on the ground, probably Li Tie brothers! They say troublemakers live a thousand years, but apparently that saying isn't accurate!"
The speaker was the wife of the village liquor seller, Auntie Niu, wearing a floral cotton coat.
At such an occurrence of a fatality, her face didn't show shock, rather a gloating expression.
"Child, how can you talk like this, we're all part of one village, someone died, that's a major event!"
Uncle Liu was quite displeased with her reaction and immediately reprimanded her.
"What's wrong, am I not right! Li Tie the rascal caused trouble in the village, didn't you know?"
"Bullying neighbors, stealing and sneaking about, didn't he often do these things?"
"He ran up debts at our place for liquor, owed so much money and didn't pay back!"
"Asking him for it, he threatened our family!"
"Such a person deserves to die!"
Auntie Niu grew more and more agitated as she spoke.
With such demeanor, someone unaware might think she had a deep vendetta against the rascal Li Tie!
"You..... you....!"
Uncle Liu was rendered speechless with anger.
"Sorry, sorry, my wife didn't mean it like that."
At this time, Uncle Niu had also rushed over, looking honest and sincere.
He grabbed his wife wanting to head home.
However,
Auntie Niu, already worked up, wouldn't comply.
"Why? Did I say anything wrong?"
"It's true!"
"The rascal and scoundrel, times are tough now, that brute died, and what about our money?"
"Scoundrel! Rascal! Rogue! Damn it! Bastard!"
Auntie Niu cursed with increasing vigor.
Uncle Niu beside her couldn't hold her back.
In the end with no solution, he had to forcefully carry her away.
"You Niu, you're just a coward, got bullied, lost the money, yet can't even speak back, I must've been blind to follow you back then..."
"Let go of me..."
"Let go....."
.....
"Sigh! It's really.... a shrew!"
After Uncle Niu took away Auntie Niu, Uncle Liu shook his head and sighed helplessly.
"Uncle Liu, don't say that, Auntie Niu is really nice usually!"
"Yeah, Auntie Niu treats us well."
"Right, you can't blame Auntie Niu for this!"
"Indeed!"
...
Uncle Liu didn't expect his statement to immediately provoke public anger.
Everyone began speaking up for Auntie Niu.
Seeing this, Chen Xuan internally laughed.
After all, who Li Tie was and who Auntie Niu was, the villagers knew best.
In his eyes,
Uncle Liu was really an old fool.
Maybe he was being a little self-important as well.
Seeing the rising anger, Uncle Liu could only change his tone: "The old man is just distressed about the Li Family's extinction, not siding with Li Tie the rascal."
After all, he was an elder in the village, quite old.
With such words,
the other onlookers didn't say much more.
"Looks like Old Liu isn't really senile, knows to explain himself!"
Chen Xuan admired this old man a bit.
So old, yet can walk steadily, and still thinks quickly.
"Has the government office been informed?"
At this time,
Uncle Liu once again asked.
But this time no one answered him.
If it were someone else,
they'd surely report to the government office, matters of death ought to be handled by them.
But,
Li Tie?
Then forget it!
Dead means dead!
No point in troubling oneself unnecessarily.
Uncle Liu shook his head repeatedly, looking at the two charred corpses on the ground, he cursed harshly: "Rascal, you really deserve to die!"
But then he remembered Old Li,
the two grew up wearing crotchless pants, so he could only instruct the not-so-smart Huang Tong: "Xiaohuang, you better head over to the government office!"