This is terrible! My future prime minister keeps trying to kiss me forcibly.

Ye Xiaoxiao and He Jing exchanged a glance. This person looked familiar. Wasn't he the guy named Hu Zi whom they had seen at Grandpa Wang's place a while ago?

However, his appearance at this moment was truly a pitiful sight.

He Jing handed the candle to Ye Xiaoxiao: "I'll go call the village chief. If you're scared, wake Wuyou up to keep you company."

He had barely finished speaking when He Wuyou's voice rang out in the courtyard: "Big brother, what happened?"

Little Radish Head, with his messy, bird-nest-like hair, rubbed his sleepy eyes with one hand and held the incredibly well-behaved Little Black in the other.

“It’s nothing, come and keep your sister-in-law company.”

"Oh."

Seeing his younger brother approach, He Jing felt slightly relieved and turned to disappear into the night.

He Wuyou went outside and saw a person lying on their side on the ground, which really startled him.

"Sister-in-law, who is this person?"

Ye Xiaoxiao glanced at the disheveled Hu Zi, a hint of sarcasm flashing in her eyes: "A stupid thief trying to steal something!"

She turned her head to look at the little black dog in He Wuyou's arms, picked it up and examined it carefully. Fortunately, it wasn't injured.

"Thanks to our little black dog, he can guard the house at such a young age! I'll give you extra meat tomorrow."

Little Black's round eyes stared at Ye Xiaoxiao, as if revealing a hint of pride.

Finally, it barked a few more times at the person lying on the ground, sounding both cute and fierce.

As dawn broke, He Jing moved quickly, and soon Li Shanhai, who was yawning repeatedly, followed behind him.

When such a theft occurs in the village, the village chief is naturally the first person to handle it.

Li Shanhai had already heard about it from He Jing on the way here. Now, looking at the person lying on the ground groaning, his eyes flashed with displeasure, and he said earnestly, "Tiger, how could you be so foolish! Stealing chickens and dogs is not allowed!"

Stealing is one thing, but to be caught red-handed is quite another.

Ye Xiaoxiao overheard the village chief's inner thoughts and glanced in his direction. How did this person become the village chief?

When Li Shanhai saw Ye Xiaoxiao, his eyes lit up, a sly thought lurking in his murky eyes.

Upon seeing this, He Jing immediately stepped in front of Ye Xiaoxiao, his eyes narrowed, a chilling light emanating from his deep pupils.

When Li Shanhai met He Jing's gaze, which was like that of a vengeful ghost from the underworld, he was so frightened that he could only take a deep drag on his cigarette to cover up his panic.

"Xiao Xiao, this Tiger seems to be badly injured. I heard you know a bit about medicine, why don't you take a look at him?"

Ye Xiaoxiao squinted at Hu Zi, who was groaning on the ground, and sneered, "This cut won't kill him! How can we teach him a lesson without shedding some blood?"

Upon realizing there was no chance, Li Shanhai turned his attention to He Jing and quickly said, "He Jing, let's just forget about this little thing!"

He Jing's expression was deep and his voice was dark: "Village Chief, according to the laws of the Great Xia Dynasty, theft is punishable by fifty strokes of the cane."

"This...this...we're all from the same village, and Tiger was caught red-handed by you, but he didn't suffer any loss, so let's just let it go."

Adhering to the principle of "better to avoid trouble than to get involved," Li Shanhai acted as a peacemaker on the sidelines.

Ye Xiaoxiao glanced at Li Shanhai, who was trying to smooth things over, her face showing a nonchalant expression, but the sarcasm remained: "Does the village chief mean that if we don't catch Hu Zi stealing, then we can only accept our bad luck?"

"Xiao Xiao, it's better to avoid trouble. Don't you still have that smoked meat?" Li Shanhai walked to Hu Zi's side, bent down to pick up the piece of smoked meat, and came over to hand it to Ye Xiao Xiao himself.

He Wuyou stepped forward first and took the piece of meat.

Ye Xiaoxiao snorted coldly, as if she had heard an extremely ridiculous joke, and rolled her eyes with disdain.

As dawn broke, the villagers gradually rose to their feet, accompanied by the crowing of roosters in the village.

Some went into the mountains early in the morning to see if any prey had been caught, while others carried basins to the river to wash clothes.

From afar, several people could be seen standing in front of He Jing's house, one of whom was the village chief.

Driven by curiosity, everyone gathered over here.

"Isn't that Tiger? Why is he lying on the ground motionless? Is he...dead?"

"Where did he die? Your eyesight isn't good this morning, is it? Wasn't he panting?"

"What's going on here?"

“I was the first one here, I know! Tiger ran to He Jing’s house to steal smoked meat before dawn, but he got caught on the fence while running away.”

"Wow—this is really something, a real eye-opener."