Back to the Countryside

Chapter 68: 揪出

( Uncover) 

 

The rumours in the village did not fade away with time, as the Village Chief had initially thought, but instead the problems got more and more intense since people came to visit his house more frequently.

 

It was fine if people didn’t talk about it, but once they did, it was all over the place and irremediable. Everyone would blame their bad luck on He Ling, in order to find comfort in their own hearts.

 

Some people even blamed him for the poor harvest this year, rather than reflecting on their own failure whether they took good care of the crops or not.

 

“What the hell are these people thinking? They blame (label) you for everything1!” Xu Hua was extremely furious. Because he was good friends with He Ling, this matter was rarely mentioned in front of him. He too, had overheard the conversation today and just realized how serious this matter was. At that moment, he came to their house right away.

 

Qi Yue’s face was cold and he didn’t say a word. He had been with A Ling all these days and didn’t particularly care about the village affairs, yet someone was blackening his little Fu Lang’s reputation and scheming to drive them away!

 

“There, don’t get yourself pissed off!” On the contrary, the calmest of the three was He Ling. He poured a glass of water for Xu Hua and said: “I’ve been called a ‘star of calamity’2 since I was a kid, I’m used to it.”

 

 

Xu Hua took the cup of water he handed him, took a sip, and suppressed the anger in his heart, “Every single one of them doesn’t look for problems in themselves, but believes in those unreliable things. Some people even blamed you for the chickens in their homes not laying two eggs. It’s really ridiculous!”

 

He Ling couldn’t help but laugh at the way he slammed his cup down on the table and his ‘panting with rage’ appearance, “You’ve already said that it is ridiculous, so why get angry over it? You know it’s all nonsense.”

 

Seeing him laughing instead of getting angry, Xu Hua was a bit powerless. Those people, however, were scolding him and trying to drive him out of the village. Did he even take my words seriously?!

 

“I don’t think it’s a coincidence that this happened. ” Qi Yue, who hadn’t spoken for a long time, suddenly opened his mouth with an expressionless face, “Someone must be behind this, deliberately spreading the rumours.”

 

If it wasn’t so, everything was perfectly all right before, how could a rumour suddenly start to develop to this level? Now, just at the time of the autumn harvest, no one (should be) has the time to talk about such nonsense.

 

“Are you saying that someone is deliberately targeting Ling Ge’er?” Xu Hua immediately understood what he meant and felt that there was some truth to it.

 

He Ling was also stunned, he hadn’t thought about it. In the village, there were many people who hated him, but they were the only ones who wished and wanted to drive him away, “The He family?”

 

“No!” Qi Yue unexpectedly all of sudden refuted that idea. “The He family is old, weak, sick and disabled. They don’t have the guts to mess with us now!”

 

In fact, he had a candidate in mind. He was the only one who could have done it. If that person had done it, he wouldn’t even need to take revenge. Anyway, sooner or later he would also….

 

The three of them were talking when Feng Zheng came to their house, saying that several families in the village were blocking their house and demanded the Village Chief to make a decision to expel them from the village! The Village Chief was so annoyed that he couldn’t find a way out so he asked his son to come and get them there to talk about this matter.

 

He Ling was pregnant so Qi Yue didn’t want him to go to such a chaotic place. He let Xu Hua accompany He Ling while he himself followed after Feng Zheng.

 

When he arrived at the Village Chief’s house, the people in the house looked at him with different kinds of expressions, some were embarrassed, some were having a guilty conscience, and some clearly disliked him . Most of them were from the older generation, but there were also a few young men.

 

“Qi Xiao zi, you’ve come over!” The Village Chief greeted him when he saw him. He was also annoyed to the point that he couldn’t handle it anymore, only then he planned to bring him over so everybody would talk openly and honestly about what actually had happened.

 

Qi Yue gave him a nod, looked around at those people and curled the corner of his lips, smiling gracefully, “I have heard that everyone here has been very concerned about my Fu Lang in recent days, do you mind telling me about it?”

 

His kind of out of place aura in the crowd, momentarily made people subdued, the room was silent for a while before one of the old men coughed dryly, opened his mouth and said: “As the saying goes, ‘better to believe it, lest it be true’, those words may sound absurd but it was not entirely unreasonable.”

 

[Better to believe the worst, and be pleasantly surprised, than to be optimistic and learn the worst : 宁可信其有不可信其无]

 

“That’s right! Many disasters that happened to the He family in recent days are indeed inexplicable. We’ve all seen it!” Another man joined in, with a dignified expression as if the evidence was certain.

 

“And that Xiaohu of the Lin family too. He’s such a good boy! Usually, he is always called Uncle and Auntie, he is such a sweet talker. Why did he suddenly get into a fight? He even got hurt so badly!”

 

“That’s right! These are all people who are related to him (refer to He Ling)!”

 

Once someone had started, those people were becoming less scruple.They were all talking at once and as if they were telling the truth and not just some hearsay rumour.

 

Qi Yue listened to them and kept a smiling expression on his face. It was only when the room had gradually fallen silent then he said : ” All of these that have been said by everyone sounds like it has nothing to do with my Fu Lang, so it is too far-fetched (implausible) to put the blame on him.”

 

“Hmph! He is your Fu Lang, so you naturally speak for him!” A middle-aged man snorted and opened his mouth, “Our harvest has been good in previous years. This year, when he had a good year, our harvest was much worse. Surely, he has sucked the luck from us!”

 

His family had lost a lot of harvest this year that made him feel extremely suffocated. It just so happens that the rumour spread in the village, he immediately thought it must be the fault of the other party, otherwise, how could it be so coincidental?

 

Qi Yue turned his gaze to him, seeing the resentment on his face, raised his eyebrow and said : “This big brother must be joking. It’s all a matter of tending the crops, whether they grow well or not. There is no point in blaming others for such things.”

 

After he said this, as if he himself was being deliberately provocative or unreasonable, the man said angrily: “Don’t try to say as if this matter has no relationship with you here (to emphasise one is innocent)! You’ve never grown a crop before, but the grain in your field is growing well!”

 

He had seen the crops in the other party’s field, the ears of wheat were so dense and full. He looked at them and his eyes were filled with jealousy. How could a first-time farmer grow such good grain?

 

“I have never farmed before but I am a doctor. I’ve been tending herbs for many years, so I still have a few tips on tending plants.” In contrast to his excitement, Qi Yue was very calm.

 

The man was speechless and felt so stifled or suffocated by his words. He only felt that he had lost face. He got even more furious, “I can’t win in debating with a scholar like you. But these things must have something to do with He Ling. For the sake of everyone, you should move out of the village as soon as possible!

Also compensate us for the damage!”

 

The moment he said this, Qi Yue smiled coldly. He had said it in such a dignified manner, but actually he was only trying to take advantage of the situation, “You guys have put a baseless accusation on my Fu Lang. I have not yet settled the score with you, and you are now asking for compensation!”

 

He suddenly changed his face, causing everyone present to be stunned. They were used to seeing his gentle and reasonable manner, but when they saw him like this, they were indeed a little shocked.

 

The Village Chief sighed, they were the ones who had been unreasonable and insisted on blaming others for the incident.

This time, if there was really no way to end this. It was their own fault, too.

 

“I am here today not to listen to you throwing dirty water on my Fu Lang, but to tell you that I am the type of person who doesn’t like to create trouble, but if someone puts trouble on my head, I also won’t leave the matter unsettled!” Qi Yue put his hands on the back and swept his eyes over each of their faces.

 

Everyone’s expression turned unpleasant. No matter what, where should they put their seniority? Being lectured by a junior like this, they could not afford to lose face. The very first old man who spoke previously, said: “Qi Yue, don’t go too far in what you say! All those sitting here are older than you!”

 

“I always and only respect sensible elders, like the village chief.” Qi Yue said this while giving him a salute by cupping both of his hands and the other party nodded toward him, “As for, those who take advantage of one’s seniority, it’s better to just forget about it.”

 

“You ….” That old man was so angry with him that he choked, covered his own chest and smoothed his breath.

 

He said this, but he included all the people here. In other words, wasn’t he meant that they were bullying the younger generation depending on their age? He didn’t attach importance to the elders at all.

 

“Our village does not welcome you, especially a person like you who does not respect their elders!” The man from before pointed at him and shouted, “Hurry up and get out of Gu Shui Village!”

 

Qi Yue narrowed his eyes and suddenly said, “I wonder if you know anyone from Shang Zhuang Village?”

 

His words were so inexplicable that no one there understood what he meant. However, that man suddenly changed his face and mumbled as if he was hiding something, “I… don’t know what you are talking about, I’ve always lived in Gu Shui Village. How could I know the people from Shang Zhuang Village?”

 

Qi Yue completely did not care about his arguments and questioned him again: “How much did he pay you to spread bad words about my Fu Lang?”

 

The man’s expression became even more flustered. His eyes dodged as he dared not look directly at him. After a while, sweat broke out on his forehead and he didn’t speak for a long time.

 

His guilty reaction surprised everyone in the room.

 

What does this mean? Is there something else going on here?

 

However, the Village Chief understood that this man had been targeting Qi Yue because he had received the benefits from others. When he thought about Shang Zhuang village, he also thought of a person, ” Is it true what Qi Xiaozi said?”

 

“Non…nonsense, I did not!” The man had obviously panicked, but he was still reluctant to admit a mistake and refused to admit it.

 

But after this, whatever he said, no one would believe him anymore.The look on his face was reveal that many people couldn’t help but recall that this man had indeed kept talking and whispered in their ears several times that his family’s farm poor harvest happened because his family’s good fortune had been robbed by He Ling. He also said that their family’s recent bad luck might also be related to He Ling!

 

Seeing that everyone was looking at him in an unkind way, the man was also a bit scared and hurriedly said, “I’m not the only one who received the benefits, I was just helping out, I didn’t spread the word!”

 

When he admitted this, everyone’s faces changed again. They all looked at Qi Yue with some embarrassment. Obviously someone was targeting He Ling. They were all being used!

 

“Who is the person who gave you the money?” The Village Chief was definitely more concerned about this issue and asked first.

 

But the man shook his head and said, “It’s a boy I don’t know who he is, I only know that he’s from Shang Zhuang village.”

 

His answer was expected by Qi Yue, the other party (refer to He Zhen) had learned to be much wiser now. Naturally he (refer to He Zhen) would not come to do such things personally so it would be strange if he (the man) knew!

 

But it didn’t matter, anyway, he knew clearly in his heart that all he needed to do was to let them know that someone was behind it, and nothing else mattered.

 

Looking at their super awkward and embarrassed expressions, Qi Yue smiled and arched his hand at them, saying : “Just now, in order to find out the messenger, I have offended you all with my words. This junior here apologize to all of you, I hope you guys will forgive me.”

 

He took the initiative to offer a way out of an embarrassing situation, so there was no reason for them not to accept it, so they all hurriedly waved their hands and said that it was pardonable (of misunderstanding). They could also understand and told him not to take it into the heart.

 

After exchanging a few polite words to each other, Qi Yue’s expression changed into a bit sentimental again and said : “In the past few days , because of these rumours, Ah Ling has been in a very bad mood and cannot even eat. He is now pregnant and I am truly worried about him. If it’s possible, all of you please help explain a few things to him, so that he doesn’t get so depressed like this!”

 

When they saw him like this, they felt even more guilty, because it was unreasonable of them to make such a fuss about a pregnant ger. They also wondered who was so wicked and cruel,to go as far as to scheme on people in this way.

 

For him to ask this kind of request, it was also something that he deserved.Everyone agreed to his request. Thus, this matter was considered to be finished. They were also too ashamed to stay any longer, so all of them said goodbye and left. That man also slipped away and left. However, Qi Yue didn’t care. Anyway, in the future he would not be comfortable or at ease living in the village.

 

“What a mess! This is really ridiculous!” The house was finally peaceful and quiet again. The village chief was relieved too. He sounded Qi Yue out and said, “Then the person who let that man spread the rumours….”

 

Seeing him mention this, Qi Yue knew that he had a guess in his mind, too, “Village chief, need not to worry! I have it in mind and I will take care of it.”

 

It was just some dirty tricks! Did he seriously think that he could ‘cross the sea by a trick’3? Truly, so naive. Moreover, he dared to treat him like those fools from the He Family. 

 

 

 

1

(even on chicken feathers, garlic skin (idiom); trivial matter)

2

[灾星 ( 災星): The ancients used celestial phenomena to attach to human affairs. It is believed that when a star is abnormal, there will be a corresponding disaster on earth, so the star causing the disaster is called the star of calamity. It’s a metaphor for a person or thing that causes great disasters.]

3

[瞒天过海 mán tiān guò hǎi : to cross the sea by a trick (idiom) / to achieve one’s aim by underhanded means. ]