Traveling through ancient times: daily life on the run

Seeing the crowd outside gathering in circles, Master Xu turned to Aunt Tian and spoke slowly, "Shortly after dark yesterday, the aunt who feeds the chickens noticed a few chickens were missing from the backyard. Then, Dabao and Erbao came back from the fish pond and said that all the dozens of fish we'd raised a few days ago were gone. How could this be such a coincidence? The chickens and fish must have been stolen by the same person at the same time."

"Dad, can't you speak faster? This woman's sword is almost penetrating my neck."

"Okay, okay, so today we raided the village while they were preparing lunch, and finally caught Aunt Tian stewing fresh fish soup."

"My fish was caught in the creek by my third son. If you don't believe me, you can ask the people who were there at the time."

The third child of the Tian family was a boy who just happened to stick his head out from the crowd at this moment. He was about twelve years old.

"Yes, yes. Yesterday after lunch, I went to the creek and caught two palm-sized fish. However, everyone else hadn't caught anything and most people had left. I was the only one who caught one. I even called out to Brother Zhuzi a few times to tell him I had caught fish."

Luo Yu heard this and thought that when she was fishing, she accidentally let two fish slip away and were then caught by the boy from the Tian family!

"What does the Tian family eating fish have to do with us?" Chunhua finally dared to speak out. After all, there was really no evidence.

The Xu family's master acted like a judge handling a case. His brows relaxed, and he chuckled dryly as he said, "The Tian family's fish were definitely not stolen. After all, we only found two fish skulls. The thief must have been careless and let the two fish slip away."

Luo Yu's eyelids were twitching. Is this not allowing me to take a nap?

"Can you please speak faster?"

I really want to sew this man's slow-talking mouth shut with a needle.

"But Auntie Tian was afraid we would arrest her family, so she reported your family for eating the chicken. The chicken and fish were lost within a short time of each other, so whoever stole the chicken would have taken all the fish, not just two."

Uh, the latter part is a bit nonsense. Just now Luo Yu thought that the ancients seemed to have good brains and their analysis was very accurate, but he didn't expect that they would suddenly become so unreasonable. Who stipulated that a person who steals a chicken must steal a fish?

Who said that if you steal a chicken, you have to steal all the fish and not just two?

Besides, this guilty Aunt Tian reported them because she was afraid of implicating her own family, so she just picked someone else to take the blame. This simple and easy-to-understand moral issue was said to be reasonable and well-founded by Old Man Xu.

In one word, convinced.

Chunhua was also puzzled. Cousin Zhou had clearly returned the remaining fish. Why did they claim all the fish were stolen? That couldn't have been Cousin Zhou's doing. The chicken thief must have gone back to steal the fish, and done it in the middle of the night.

But she didn't dare say anything and was now in a dilemma.

Luo Yu's lips curled up. "If Aunt Tian's slander against us can be considered justified, then my punishment of those who trespass into people's homes according to the law is also justified, right?"

Just as he was about to draw his sword, he heard someone shouting from afar: "Master Xu, this is bad, this is bad! All the chickens have been stolen. Over thirty chickens have been stolen. The yard is a mess, everything is overturned, and the wooden door at the backyard has been smashed. I think it must be a wild animal."

"What? What did you say?" The master of the Xu family almost fainted.

Luo Yu's mouth finally opened up. Xia Liang was too slow, making it so difficult for her to lift the sword. If it were any later, she might really be so angry that she would raise and lower the sword, white in and red out.

The crowd was commanded by Yin with red eyes. Except for moving their hands, she did not move anything else.

"Quick, quick, what are you standing there for? Go catch the thief."

"Oh well."

The stubble servant and the two young men from the Xu family, who had been stunned outside, immediately ran out. Yin was worried about the two treasures, so she turned her eyes to the sword and shouted, "Xu Dabao, Erbao, don't fight too hard when you see a beast. Your lives are at stake."

Seeing that Luo Yu showed no intention of putting down his sword, he smiled hypocritically and said, "Excuse me, young lady, what is your name?"

"Is it your place to ask my name?" Luo Yu didn't want to tell her.

"Cousin Chunhua, you are too magnanimous to argue with your aunt. Look, since you didn't steal the chicken, and we now know it was someone else who did it, why don't you put down your sword?"

"If I stab you with a sword now, I have every reason to avoid responsibility. What do you think?"

"Well, what do you want?"

"It's not a big deal. You and your Master Xu will just have to apologize in front of all the villagers, Sister Chunhua, and Brother Liu. Otherwise, you will have to go to the government office today."

The onlookers were eager to make a move, but unexpectedly, things took a turn for the worse. What's even more interesting is that it turns out that the beast that bit people in the legend really exists?

Some brave men followed Xu Dabao and Erbao to watch the fun, while the old people and women took their children home and hid. All thirty chickens were gone. What a terrifying beast it must have been.

"Okay, okay, I apologize, I apologize!" More than an apology, Yin was most concerned about the thirty-odd chickens at home. Was there anything else that had been stolen? She felt choked up and didn't want to waste another moment here.

Xia Liang didn't expect things to go so smoothly. She led more than ten dogs to attack the Xu family's courtyard. The bolted wooden door in the backyard fell off by itself when she tapped it lightly.

She didn't have to catch the chickens. After all, there was no one guarding the yard. When the chickens saw the dogs rolling around in the yard, they were all scared and ran away.

Xia Liang took the dogs to chase the chickens. The chickens that ran away fell into the tiger's mouth, so this definitely didn't count as stealing.

After Yin sincerely apologized to Chunhua and Brother Liu, she grabbed Master Xu, who had fainted against the wall, and ran out, cursing as she ran: "I'll make you faint, I'll make you faint, and you'll be in trouble if you lose all your chickens later."

"Ma'am, what does it have to do with me if the chickens are gone?"

"I'm sorry to slow you down. If you hadn't insisted on talking so much nonsense, we would have retreated long ago."

It turns out that they are a family of losers who bully the weak and fear the strong.

Luo Yu put away his sword, and his entire right arm felt sore.

She looked up at Aunt Tian, who was so scared that she wanted to rush out immediately. However, Jing'er was quick-eyed and quick-handed, and she closed the door immediately.

Luo Yu snorted coldly and said to Aunt Tian: "What's the matter? You want to get away with slandering others?"

"Girl, spare me, spare me."

Aunt Tian is the wife of the younger brother of Liu's eldest brother's wife, so she is a relative of Liu's family.

Chunhua came over and told Luo Yan that if they made things difficult for Aunt Tian, the sister-in-law from the Liu family would come and make trouble in the future.

Luo Yu was curious and asked Chunhua, "Isn't the Liu family also in this village? Why didn't anyone come to join in the fun?"

Chunhua shook her head: "Maybe they're afraid of getting in trouble with them. They've long since stopped caring about us and think we're a burden."

Aunt Tian tried to take advantage of the opportunity to slip away again, but Luo Yu grabbed her by the collar and shouted, "Since we have nothing to do with the Liu family anymore, you must pay the price for your words and actions today, or I will arrest you and bring you before the authorities."

"What do you want?"

"Take your boy and help us cut bamboo."

"..."