Rebirth of a Farmer's Dad

After the steel mill business stabilized, Luo Feng earned over 200 yuan a day. Adding the 30-40 yuan he made at the market, his daily income consistently exceeded 230 yuan. His monthly net profit was over 2000 yuan, which greatly satisfied Luo Feng. It was only early autumn, not even October yet, and there were still more than three months until the end of the year. If everything went smoothly, he could not only pay off his debts by the end of the year but also live in a large brick house. However, working non-stop every day would eventually become unsustainable, and he needed to find two helpers.

Just as Luo Feng was making plans for the future, the village loudspeaker blared. The village chief announced that one person from each household should come to the ancestral hall for a meeting. Villagers headed towards the ancestral hall in small groups, and Luo Feng followed the crowd. Along the way, the villagers whispered amongst themselves, wondering what was happening.

When everyone arrived, they saw the village chief and the butcher sitting upright in the ancestral hall, with an unfamiliar young man standing beside them. The others could only surround them; there was nothing they could do, as one was rich and the other powerful, and naturally, their word was law in the eyes of the villagers.

Seeing that almost everyone had arrived, the village chief coughed lightly before speaking, "Folks, here's what happened. A couple of days ago, Erhuzi from our village got into a fight with someone in Xiaowangzhuang. In a fit of anger, he smashed a lot of their things and even beat someone up." After a pause, the village chief continued, "Now Erhuzi has been detained. They want two hundred yuan from us to ransom him, and that'll be the end of it." As he spoke, the village chief pointed to the young man standing to the side.

"What does it have to do with us? It was Erhuzi who caused this trouble."

"Exactly, we can't just sit back and watch the drama unfold."

"Go find whoever did it."

The villagers were immediately abuzz with discussion. The entire ancestral hall was bustling with activity, like a New Year's celebration.

After a while, the village chief impatiently shouted, "Enough! Stop arguing!"

After a pause, the village chief said, "Now that they've come to our door, we need to get an explanation for this today, no matter what. What do you think we should do?"

"Like I said, whoever did it, go find them. It's none of our business." After saying that, a villager turned and walked away.

"I haven't brought in my laundry yet."

"My millet needs to be dried in the sun."

"My child has probably woken up."

……

In the end, the villagers didn't even bother to make up an excuse and simply turned around and went home.

"What, what should we do?" the young man said to the village chief with a worried look on his face.

"Hey! You've seen it yourself, Erhuzi isn't a good person in the village, he's caused a lot of trouble for everyone. That's it for today. You can do whatever you want with him, you can go home now." With that, the village chief pushed the young man out. As for Butcher Liu, he had already gone home with everyone else.

"This, this, this is someone from your village, aren't you going to do anything about it?" The young man was still struggling.

"I really want to help you, but as you can see, the villagers won't care about this at all," the village chief said, feigning helplessness.

With no other option, the young man prepared to go back, but he kept turning back, seemingly wondering how he would explain things when he got back.

Seeing the young man's dejected figure, Luo Feng hesitated for a moment before calling out to him.

"Young man, wait for me, I'll go with you." After saying that, he went into the house, took out two hundred yuan from his savings box, and followed the young man toward Xiaowangzhuang.

It wasn't that Luo Feng was stupid, but he felt that he needed a helper in the village so that he could at least have someone to talk to in the future.

As for Luo Erhu, Luo Feng knew him well. His father died when he was young, and his mother remarried. He had always lived with his only grandmother. His grandmother was old and didn't know how to discipline him. Without his parents around, he suffered a lot of scorn from others, which led to his irritable and easily angered temperament. Actually, he wasn't a bad person and was very filial to his grandmother.

That makes sense. How bad could someone be who can support his grandmother in her old age and see her off in her final days? I believe his bad temper is just a form of self-protection.

After traveling and stopping frequently, they finally arrived at Xiaowangzhuang. The young man was very happy because he knew that as long as people from Luojia Village came, he wouldn't be blamed by the villagers.

They took Luo Feng directly to the village chief's house, where a large crowd had already gathered.

Without saying a word, Luo Feng counted out two hundred yuan and placed it on the table, then looked at the village chief and asked, "Where is he?"

The village chief counted the money, glanced at him, and then waved to the back. Two tall, burly rural men pulled Luo Erhu out of the backyard. Luo Erhu's face was bruised and swollen, and he was limping; clearly, he had already been "greeted." "Is this the end of it?" Luo Feng asked the village chief.

"With the money in hand, the matter is naturally settled," the village chief said with a smile, glancing at Luo Feng. He seemed quite satisfied with the money Luo Feng had brought.

After receiving the village chief's approval, Luo Feng and Erhuzi prepared to leave. The village chief even chuckled and asked the young man who had brought Luo Feng to give them a ride. The young man looked at Luo Feng with curiosity, because only he knew that the 200 yuan was all from Luo Feng. Most people might not even earn 200 yuan a month, but this kid pulled it out without batting an eye. Looking at Luo Feng's simple clothes, no one would believe that this poor boy had so much money.

Despite his curiosity, the young man didn't ask any questions. Instead, he followed the village chief's instructions and escorted Luo Feng and his companion to the village entrance.

Luo Feng took Erhuzi back to the village. Erhuzi didn't say a word the whole way, but when they reached the village entrance, he asked Luo Feng in confusion, "Why did you help me?"

Luo Feng smiled faintly and said nothing. He only asked Hu Zi to keep the matter a secret. He didn't want to be chased for debts so soon, since the time he promised the villagers hadn't arrived yet. He and Luo Erhu agreed to tell the outside world that they couldn't do anything to Hu Zi, so they beat him up and released him.

Afterwards, Luo Feng went home alone, leaving Luo Erhu standing alone at the village entrance, staring blankly at Luo Feng's back.

At this moment, Luo Erhu was filled with mixed emotions. Last time, when he went to Luo Feng's house to collect the debt, it was entirely at the village chief's behest. He thought that by helping the village chief, he would be looked after and have him put in a good word for him, so when he was detained, the village chief was his first thought. But he never expected that the one who would come to his rescue would be Luo Feng, whom he had always bullied and looked down upon.

Thinking of this, Luo Erhu couldn't help but shed tears. For some reason, he felt a feeling he had never experienced before.

Perhaps I really did make a mistake before.