Although Li Yao bought the mountain, her training grounds were still located in the more distant forest.
She didn’t want too many people to know about her business. After all, it would easily arouse people’s suspicions that a formerly petulant and unreasonable farmer’s wife suddenly became skilled with knives, guns, sticks and swords.
Even when training with Wang San’er, she had never revealed her true strength to him.
Wang San’er was 11 years old this year and his bones were still developing. However, after carrying the little pig up and down the mountain every day for this period of time, in addition to adequate nutrition, he had genuinely grown taller and stronger by a significant amount. His strength was far greater than the village boys of the same age.
Coupled with the scientific basic training she had devised, Wang San’er's growth was visible to the naked eye.
"Mother! Something happened in the village!"
Li Yao was just having Wang San’er practice the plum blossom stakes when she heard Xiao Si's voice.
When she heard that Zhu Yougui was stealing water to irrigate his land and was likely to be mobbed, Li Yao decided to go back and watch the fun.
Zhu Yougui was the kind of person who not only contributed money and effort when Village Head first gathered everyone to dig a well, but also sniped with cold words there. Now that the well was done, he wanted to come and use the water too. There was no such good thing in this world!
When she arrived at Gosling Well, dozens of villagers had already surrounded Zhu Yougui there.
Amidst the condemnation of the crowd, Zhu Yougui was like a dead pig not afraid of boiling water, with an unchanging expression, allowing everyone to criticize him in all sorts of ways, completely unmoved.
"Zhu Yougui, you didn't do anything at first, now you have the nerve to use the water?"
"Why wouldn't I dare?" Zhu Yougui said, "This is the village well, not yours. On what basis can you not let me use it?"
"Village Head said it very clearly at the beginning that whoever's family did not contribute work and funds, they would not be allowed to use water in the future!"
Zhu Yougui showed a contemptuous look and said, "So what if I use it now? What can you do about it? Ask me to pour the water back? I can go piss in the well if you want!"
"You dare!"
"Or should I just piss now?"
Seeing him so shameless, some of the young villagers really couldn't stand it anymore.
The hot-blooded Wang Yuanbang rushed to Zhu Yougui first.
"Go ahead and piss if you dare, let’s see if I don't beat you to a pulp!"
"Then I'll just piss."
As he spoke, Zhu Yougui actually walked to the well and started taking off his pants in front of dozens of people, frightening the women who had come to watch and quickly turned their heads.
Seeing him so shameless, Wang Yuanbang grabbed him by the collar and lifted him up in one go.
Having worked as a docker at the pier for two years, his strength was far beyond ordinary people. He slammed Zhu Yougui heavily to the ground.
Bang!
Slammed violently to the ground, Zhu Yougui saw stars and was beaten silly and stupid.
Knowing that he was no match for Wang Yuanbang, and there were so many people around, he simply started moaning on the ground.
"Ouch...you're beating me to death..."
"Village Head, come quick, someone wants to beat me to death..."
...
"Disgusting thing, you deserve to be beaten to death!"
"Scum like him remaining in the village will only bring disaster, let's drive him out!"
"Right, drive him out of He Wan Village!"
"Drive him out!"
No one would sympathize with this kind of person, they all looked at him with disgust.
This guy was used to being lazy and making trouble, occasionally stealing chickens and dogs, and everyone was already fed up with him.
But Zhu Yougui was a villager of He Wan Village, registered on the roster, so Village Head would have to be involved to drive him out of the village.
Unfortunately, Village Head was with the county magistrate digging wells in other villages these days.
At this moment someone saw Li Yao coming over and suddenly felt hopeful: "Sister-in-law Li is here!"
"Auntie Li, this Zhu Yougui is really hateful. We all want to drive him out of He Wan Village. Can it be done?"
"Sister Li, this guy often opposed you in the past, you can't be soft-hearted!"
Li Yao was a little confused.
Whether to drive someone out of the village was up to her to decide?
Let alone whether it was legal, wasn't Village Head still in the village?
It seemed that her status in the village had reached the point where it could pose a threat to Village Head, which was not a good thing at all.
"Talk to Village Head about this matter. I'm just here to watch the excitement."
Seeing that Li Yao didn't want to get involved in this trivial matter, Zhu Yougui, who was lying on the ground, suddenly became delighted in his heart.
In the past, he was not afraid of anyone in the village, but now he was afraid of Li Yao, and it was a fear mixed with hatred. This woman really dared to beat him violently, and even the county magistrate had asked to see her by name, so he didn't dare provoke her.
As long as Li Yao didn't intervene, then no one could do anything to him!
Seeing that Li Yao was unwilling to intervene, people were somewhat discouraged. Then Li Yao suddenly asked, "Who hit him?"
"It was... it was me."
Although he had just returned home for a few days, Wang Yuanbang knew about his capable sister-in-law Li Yao, who was formidable beyond measure.
Seeing Li Yao frowning slightly, he thought he had done something wrong, so he felt a little uneasy in his heart.
Unexpectedly, Li Yao asked again: "Why did you hit him so lightly?"
"Huh?"
Wang Yuanbang was stunned.
Did sister-in-law mean for him to hit harder?
Worthy of being my sister-in-law!
"Then I'll beat him up some more!"
Wang Yuanbang said as he pulled Zhu Yougui up again and punched him in the face several times.
This time Zhu Yougui was really beaten up badly, with fists the size of sandbags hitting him like iron, beating him silly and dizzy, with blood streaming from his nose.
Finally he simply closed his eyes and lay still on the ground pretending to be dead.
"What are you doing?"
Suddenly a shriek, as Zhu Yougui's old mother pushed through the crowd and saw Zhu Yougui beaten half to death, she immediately tore open her throat and began wailing loudly.
"Oh heavens! What has the world come to?"
"Robbery and murder in broad daylight!"
"I only have this one son, now he's been beaten like this, how are we supposed to live?"
"We might as well take a rope and hang ourselves by this well!"
...
Weeping, making a scene and threatening suicide, this old lady was quite skilled at it.
In the past, because of her age, the villagers basically would not continue to hold it against her under these circumstances, so they were all prepared to go home and make lunch.
As for how to deal with Zhu Yougui, they still had to wait for Village Head to come back.
Just as people were about to disperse, Li Yao took the rope handed over by Wang Xiao Si and slapped it in front of Zhu Yougui and his mother.
"Weren't you going to hang yourselves? It just so happens I have a rope here, let me lend it to you."
Zhu Yougui's old mother was stunned. What was going on?
In the past, she only needed this trick and no one would dare continue to persecute her. But today, Li Yao was lending her a rope?
"You...you have such a vicious heart, how can you be so cruel?"
"How am I vicious?" Li Yao laughed. "I'm being kind, afraid your rope at home is not sturdy enough and would snap halfway through. Then you'd be dead without succeeding, and still suffer miserably alive."
"You...you..."
Zhu Yougui's old mother was so angry her face turned pale. The other villagers cheered in their hearts.
It was time someone dealt with this mother and son, and the most suitable person was naturally Li Yao.
"What, don't want to die anymore?" Li Yao asked.
"Humph, what does it matter to you whether I live or die?"
"It doesn't matter to me," said Li Yao. "But you stealing the water from this well does matter to me."
"This well doesn't belong to you..."
Li Yao stepped forward and said coldly, "I had this well dug, I paid for the digging, I paid for the well lining too. Now if I say this well is mine, who would object?"
"That's right, this well belongs to Sister-in-law Li!"
"It was even named after Auntie initially, she just didn't want to take credit for it!"
"Did you hear that?" Li Yao's words were ruthless. "This is my well, so without my approval, you won't get a single drop of water! If you dare to steal again next time, don't blame me for being impolite!"
Zhu Yougui's old mother had nothing to say.
In front of others she could play the elderly card, throw tantrums and make trouble, but this Li Yao was ten times more powerful when she wanted to make trouble!
But if they didn't use water, what would they eat next year?
So she came up with an idea, and two streams of tears instantly flowed down her face.
"How can you bear to watch this old mother and son starve to death? How can you be so heartless?"
Li Yao coldly laughed and retorted, "What were you doing when we were digging the well? Did I not let you come? Did the village head not let you come? Or did other villagers not let you come? You don't want to do anything yet expect good fortune. Tell me, where in this world can you find such good things? I too wish I could go."