"We’ll do as you suggest, Sister Qiubo."
Just as Lin Caisang was about to nod in agreement, she heard Clan Chief Lin’s voice resounding in her ear.
"Those brutes need to be taught a lesson. I’ll order them to apologize to Sangsang."
"No, no need, Grandpa Chief, just let them say it to my grandparents. There’s no need for me to get involved, right?" Lin Caisang hurriedly said upon hearing his words.
"That... that works too."
Clan Chief Lin looked at her, then at Lin Laogeng and Lu Qiubo, and nodded.
"What, we have to apologize to a young girl like her? On what grounds?"
When the two eavesdropping men reported back, a woman roared in disbelief upon hearing the news.
She was already a mother of several children, yet she was supposed to apologize to a girl the same age as her children. Is Lin Caisang not afraid of divine retribution? How outrageous!
"On what grounds? On the grounds of your foul mouths. Who told you to gossip?" The man who brought the news retorted annoyed.
Hearing that, the woman fell silent.
"So... if we really apologize to Lin Caisang, will the silver we pay every day remain the same?" another woman asked.
Whether or not to apologize, she didn’t feel too strongly about. However, paying an extra penny every day felt like slicing her own flesh. If an apology would save her that penny, she would go for sure.
"The Chief didn’t mention that, I guess we’ll still have to pay two pennies a day," another eavesdropping man replied.
Paying two pennies was Chief’s order, whereas the apology was Lu Qiubo’s idea. Surely, it was not possible to only go through with one?
Upon hearing this, everyone else was furious.
"They, the Lins, think they’re superior just because they have some water? When we asked them about how to grow two seasons of rice, they refused to tell and even denied that it was possible. But I clearly saw them growing it on Manghuang Mountain!" A woman voiced out indignantly.
"This entire Lin Laogeng family thinks they can bully us? I say, we pay them a visit directly, force Lin Caisang to reveal the method of growing two seasons of rice. Even if there’s no water, we could at least grow some rice and feed our families!"
"Right, we should have done that long ago. That Lin Laogeng, I bet he can’t stand to see others doing well. Anything beneficial and he would keep it for himself!"
"Just go directly to them. I don’t believe that Lin Laogeng, a crippled man, and his family could resist our entire village. Make them reveal how to grow two-season rice, and have them give up all the water on Manghuang Mountain."
In a short time, cries for action against the Lin family soared.
One woman, seeing the crowd growing more and more agitated, covertly stepped back and quietly left.
The woman who had slipped away from the crowd was now panting heavily as she ran up the courtyard.
"Yingzi, why are you running? What’s going on?"
She encountered Clan Chief Lin who was being escorted out by Lu Qiubo and Lin Caisang. Seeing her gasping for breath, he asked.
"Father, it’s not good. Those villagers, provoked by Ya Ji’s daughter-in-law, are planning to force their way into Sangsang’s home, force Sangsang to teach them how to grow two seasons of rice, and claim all the water from Manghuang Mountain."
This woman was Clan Chief Lin’s daughter-in-law. She was worried those villagers could stir up more trouble, so she had gone to listen in on them. She never expected that they would be so audacious.