Chapter 69: They Are All Correct

Yun Xiaowu clutched his face, whimpering tearlessly. "It wasn’t this swollen at first, but after you all beat me up, you just made it worse! It’s even more swollen and painful now!"

Shen Xiuyuan added, "You people are inhuman! We were already this injured, and you were still so ruthless. My face won’t heal for at least a year or two. I’m disfigured! Waaah..."

The other kids piped up, "Yeah, what they both said is right!"

’Anyway, even if it wasn’t Liu Tian and his group’s fault, the blame had to be pinned on them.’

Liu Tian roared, "I didn’t! It wasn’t me! I didn’t even get a chance to do anything before she smashed me to the ground with a wooden post!"

He pointed angrily at Yun Jiao.

Yun Jiao looked up with innocent eyes. "My arm hurts so much, I can’t even lift it."

Uncle Shen hugged Yun Jiao, his face a mask of distress. "You animals! Falsely accusing such a little girl, and even hitting her! We just got back from the barefoot doctor’s office! If anything happens to my niece, I’ll never let you hear the end of this!"

Yun Jiao nodded emphatically. "Right!"

"But she hit me with a wooden post..."

Yun Xiaowu interrupted, "Nonsense! My sister is tiny! Where would she get the strength to hit you with a wooden post? You’re slandering her!"

Shen Xiuyuan added, "I’ll testify! They’ve clearly done so many wicked things that karma caught up to them. He wasn’t looking where he was going while running and tripped over the post himself! So shameless."

The other kids chimed in, "Exactly, exactly!"

Yun Jiao continued to nod. "Right!"

’AAAAAH!!!’ Liu Tian screamed internally. ’Who are the shameless ones here?! I’ve been framed!’

Shen Xiuyuan gestured with his hands. "The wooden post was huge! A few of us couldn’t even lift it together. How could a little girl like Jiaojiao possibly move it?"

The other kids all nodded in agreement, lying through their teeth.

Liu Chunfeng yelled, "Bullshit! She’s clearly the one who hit him! You’re all a bunch of liars!"

Yun Xiaowu retorted, "We can’t believe a word you say. You’re in cahoots with your brother. And we can’t believe what your group says either, because they’re in cahoots with him too."

Liu Tian was so furious his face turned beet red, and he stomped his feet in frustration.

He wished he could just drop to his knees and scream to the heavens, ’Distinguish the loyal from the treacherous!’

But in the end, all he got were disdainful looks from the people of Shen Family Village.

"Such a grown man, picking on a little girl just because he thinks she’s an easy target."

"Hurry up and get lost! If you don’t, we’ll be the ones calling the police, not you!"

The Liu Family couldn’t win a war of words against so many people and finally ran off with their tails between their legs.

’Huh? What just happened?’ thought the ever-honest Yun Linhai.

’Didn’t my daughter’s arm give out from using too much strength?’

’Wasn’t my son stung by bees until he swelled up like this?’

After the Liu Family left, Grandma Shen and the others politely thanked their fellow villagers and saw them off.

Once they returned home, they shut the main gate.

Uncle Shen touched his own face and hissed in pain. "That son of a bitch Liu Dayong really hits hard. Dad, are you okay?"

Grandpa Shen clutched his back. "I’m not okay! My old back..."

Grandma Shen rubbed his back while muttering curses. "A bunch of shameless savages. They actually dared to bring the fight to our doorstep! They must really think our family is an easy target. It’s a good thing you and your family were here today, son-in-law. Otherwise, with just us few, we really couldn’t have beaten them."

Yun Linhai scratched his head. "Ah, well... it seems like this wouldn’t have happened if we hadn’t come."

Grandma Shen replied, "How could we blame you? The Liu family has always been a bunch of bullies. That Liu Tian is always bringing his friends to pick fights with the kids from our village. If it wasn’t this, it would have been something else."

"Quick, go get the medicinal liniment and put some on."

After a flurry of activity, everyone reeked of medicinal liniment. The entire courtyard was filled with the smell.

Grandpa Shen sighed, holding the bottle of liniment that had only a little bit left.

’Oh, my precious liniment,’ he thought. ’So much of it used up all at once.’

Yun Linhai then remembered the sea snakes they had caught earlier.

"Father-in-law, we caught some sea snakes a couple of days ago. My dad has probably finished steeping them in wine by now. You can come over to our house to get some another day, or we can bring it over."

Grandpa Shen shook his head. "No, you should keep it for yourselves."

Yun Linhai said, "We caught several of them, we can’t use them all. Jiaojiao was the one who found them, you know."

"Huh? Jiaojiao? Aren’t sea snakes venomous?"

Yun Linhai nodded. "Yes, but it was fine. When she was catching them, there was a sea eagle with her. The eagle isn’t afraid of the snake’s venom. It just took one peck and cracked the snake’s head right open."

Yun Xiaowu puffed up with pride. "That’s not all! We also have a pet sea turtle that listens to everything Jiaojiao says! And there are giant killer whales in the sea! Have you ever seen a killer whale bigger than a boat? Our eight-meter-long boat isn’t even as long as they are! And those killer whales really like my sister..."

The Shen Family’s eyes widened as they listened. Goodness, the fish in the ocean were that big!

The two young men, Shen Kuan and Shen Xiuyuan, listened with looks of pure fascination.

Yun Jiao noticed their expressions. Her little arm was still being massaged with liniment by Shen Yunlian.

"My older cousins can come play."

Yun Linhai nodded. "Once the new house is built and we have more rooms, you can all come for a visit."

Although a lot had happened, they hadn’t forgotten the real reason for their visit.

When Grandma Shen heard they wanted to raise chickens, she immediately said, "Come on, I’ll take you to the village head’s house to have a look."

Shen Yunlian asked, "It’s the village head’s youngest son who’s raising them, right? Didn’t I hear he went off to find a job?"

Grandma Shen replied, "I don’t know what got into him. He came back last year and insisted he was going to raise chickens and ducks. The village head and his wife couldn’t talk him out of it. I heard he used to work at a cannery—that’s an iron rice bowl, you know. To just give it up like that... his family was pretty angry. But after he’d been raising chickens for a year, it seems the village head and the others aren’t against it anymore."

Shen Yunlian nodded.

As they spoke, they arrived at the village head’s house.

After learning the purpose of their visit, they were led directly to the youngest son’s chicken farm.

The chicken farm didn’t smell very pleasant. The village head’s youngest son was wearing rubber boots and feeding the chickens.

"Sister Yunlian, you’re back! What brings you all here...?"

Grandma Shen explained, "Well, your Sister Yunlian’s in-laws want to buy some chickens to raise. We heard you started a chicken farm, so we made a special trip to see if you have any good chicks they can take back with them."

"Of course! Why don’t you come in and pick them out yourselves? All my chickens are local free-range breeds. I have two sizes. One is the newly hatched chicks—I have fewer of these, but a batch just hatched. The other kind has been raised for about twenty days. If you buy those, they’re practically guaranteed to survive. Why don’t you take a look?"

Shen Yunlian nodded. "Alright, we’ll take a look."

The newly hatched ones were fluffy little yellow chicks, round and plump like little Tang Yuan. They scurried about surprisingly fast on their tiny legs, cheeping nonstop.

The twenty-day-old ones were quite a bit bigger and were already starting to grow pinfeathers.

At that size, they were generally hardy enough that they wouldn’t die unless something unexpected happened.

Of course, the price was also higher.

Yun Jiao noticed another group of fluffy little creatures on the other side that didn’t look like chicks.

Chicks have pointy beaks, but these ones had flat bills.

They were ducklings.

There were goslings, too.

However, there weren’t as many of them as there were chicks.