next morning

Jiang Yuwei thought that sending Ning Zhao to the town to study today was an important matter. She would go to the head of the village to discuss what happened last night when she came back in the afternoon, so she called Ning Zhao first:

"Zhao'er, get up quickly. Today, I will send you to the academy to study. When you get there, you must listen to the teacher and study hard. I will pick you up during the holidays."

When Ning Zhao heard Jiang Yuwei say that she would send him to school, he thought he was still dreaming, so he pinched himself fiercely:

"Oh, mother, it hurts. Am I dreaming? Mother is really going to send me to school?"

Jiang Yuwei patted Ning Zhao's head and said with a smile:

"Don't just stand there like an idiot. Hurry up and get dressed and come out. Let's go to Uncle Ning's house and take a bullock cart to town."

After hearing what Jiang Yuwei said, Ning Zhao happily got up and put on his clothes.

After they had packed up, they went to look for Uncle Ning. When Uncle Ning heard that Ning Zhao was going to be sent to school, he was very happy and hurriedly drove the ox cart out.

After arriving in the town, Jiang Yuwei first went to the bedding store to choose a set of single bedding for Ning Zhao, and then bought four sets of bedding for the family to change. If they were not enough for the winter, she could buy more then.

Jiang Yuwei thought that this was the only set of clothes Ning Zhao could wear when going out, so she took him directly to the clothing store and picked out two more sets of clothes for changing. Then she turned around and saw a light green jacket, and thinking that she didn't have any good clothes to wear when going out, she bought this set of clothes as well, so that she could wear it when she went out for business in the future.

After buying the clothes, Jiang Yuwei took Ning Zhao to the snack shop on the corner and bought some food for Ning Zhao.

Only then did he let Uncle Ning drive the ox cart to North Street. Jiang Yuwei first went to buy the pens, ink, paper, and inkstones and necessary books before sending Ning Zhao into the academy. Jiang Yuwei gave Ning Zhao some instructions before she left the academy with peace of mind and sat in Uncle Ning's ox cart to Ningjia Village.

In the car, Jiang Yuwei calculated that she had spent twenty-five taels of silver to send Ning Zhao to study, plus she had spent another five taels on buying some miscellaneous food and daily necessities for the family. Now she only had thirty taels of money left. In a few days, when the house was finished, she would have to pay the villagers for their work, which would cost almost ten taels of silver.

Jiang Yuwei calculated that the money she had on hand was getting less and less, and she felt that the speed at which she made money could not keep up with the speed at which she spent money. Now that the family had just separated, all the food and daily necessities at home had to cost money. In the future, when Ning Zhao started to study, there would be more places to spend money, so she had to speed up the pace at which she made money.

Jiang Yuwei was just daydreaming when she saw Uncle Ning Wu driving the ox cart to the village entrance, so she said to Uncle Ning Wu:

"Uncle Wu, please take me to the village head's house first. I'll have to trouble you to take the things in the car back to my house."

Uncle Ning nodded and smiled:

"It's okay. You have hired a car today anyway, so I'll take it to you."

Uncle Ning sent Jiang Yuwei to the door of the village head's house and left. Jiang Yuwei picked up some snacks bought from the town and went into the yard. Aunt Ning was feeding the pigs in the yard. When she saw Jiang Yuwei coming, she hurried forward and greeted her:

"Yuwei, you're here, are you here to look for Ning Qiu?"

Jiang Yuwei handed the snack in her hand to Aunt Ning and said with a smile:

"Aunt, I came here today to talk to the head of the village. Is he home?"

Aunt Ning took what Jiang Yuwei handed over and said with a smile:

"Come if you want to. It's really a waste of money to bring anything with you. Come in quickly. Your uncle is inside."

Jiang Yuwei followed Aunt Ning into the house and saw Li drinking tea in the house, so she walked up to him and said with a smile:

"Li Zheng, I came here today because I want to trouble you for help with something."

The village head smiled and handed Jiang Yuwei a cup of tea:

"What is it? Is it about the house?"

Jiang Yuwei sat down, took the tea and shook her head:

"No, I came back a little late last night. When I passed the west end of the village, I met a bad guy, probably a man from our village. He dragged me into the grove at the west end of the village. Fortunately, I ran out and met Tiezhu who was returning home, who saved my life. Otherwise..."

Aunt Ning, who was standing by, was so frightened by what she heard that the snacks in her hands fell to the ground:

"There are actually such evil people in our village, Yuwei, you must be frightened."

Ning Qiu, who came out from the inner room, also heard what Jiang Yuwei had just said. She hurried forward and took Jiang Yuwei's hand and said with concern:

"Sister Yuwei, how are you? Are you injured? Are you okay?"

Jiang Yuwei smiled and patted Ning Qiu's hand and said:

"Sister Qiu, I'm fine now. I hit him with a stone last night. If we go looking for him now, we might be able to find out who he is."

After hearing this, Ning Qiu turned to look at the head of the village:

"Dad, hurry up and find someone in the village to investigate. We can't delay this. If we don't find out who that person is, there will probably be a big mess in our village in the future."

The village head frowned and said:

"We really can't delay any longer. Ning Qiu, go and ask the village chief to come to the west end of the village. Old woman, go and ask our relatives to come to the west end of the village. We will start the investigation from the west. If he is someone from our own village, we will find him even if we have to dig deep into the ground."

Aunt Ning and Ning Qiu got the order and ran out to call people.

Li Zhen looked at Jiang Yuwei and said:

"Yuwei, you are an eyewitness to this incident. I would like to trouble you to accompany me to identify the criminal. Are you willing to go?"

Jiang Yuwei knew that Li was worried that she couldn't bear it, so she smiled faintly and said:

"Of course I will go. I won't feel relieved until I catch him with my own hands."

The head of the village nodded and took Jiang Yuwei to the west end of the village.

Arriving at the west end of the village, Jiang Yuwei first took the head of the village to the place where she was killed, and then went into the woods to check. Jiang Yuwei found the footprints left by the thief last night in the woods and remembered them in her mind.

The village head took Jiang Yuwei to visit every household, knocking on doors. When they entered a house, he asked the men in the family to come out and talk to Jiang Yuwei, because Jiang Yuwei still clearly remembered the man's shrill voice.

When they reached the fourth house, the village head and Jiang Yuwei knocked on the door but no one opened it. The village head wondered:

"This lairy guy is a lazy man. He doesn't have any land at home. He just eats and waits for death all day. He is probably sleeping at home. Why didn't he come out to open the door after I knocked on his door for so long? Did something happen?"

It happened that Zhang Laizi's neighbor Aunt Hua ran into him when she went out, and she said with a smile:

"Li Zheng, what do you want to do with Zhang Yizi?"

The governor frowned and asked:

"Isn't this bald guy at home? Why is there no one answering my knocks?"

Aunt Hua smiled and said:

"How could he not be at home? He didn't go out all day today. Maybe he fell asleep at home."

Aunt Hua came up and kicked the door:

"Look, the gate is locked from the inside. He must be hiding at home. Head of the village, what has he done wrong? He doesn't dare to go out."

After hearing what Aunt Hua said, Jiang Yuwei suddenly thought of something and said to the head of the village:

"This door must be opened today. I want to see Zhang Laizi!"

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