“That’s… That’s not what I meant!”
After being yelled at by Patriarch Liu, An Hung naing was less of a shrew, but that still wasn’t enough to shut her up, “Patriarch, what I meant to say was, after the incident at the Cheng’s a while back, now only were there scary animals like snakes and tigers and wolves outside and it was a hassle for us to leave town also. Isn’t it only fair for us to ask for compensation from the Cheng’s? We need our livelihood too, right, everyone?”
Toward the end, An Hung niang turned and asked the villagers. Her purpose was, naturally, to stir up discontent and hoping there she was able to get more villagers to stand on her side.
Sure enough, her instigating words made a few villagers stir afterward. A 40-something villager stood up, looked at everyone and said, “Patriarch, we are all aware that Mr. Cheng is a nice man and he has always been nice to us. We all remember that, but the wife of Sanzhen made a good point. My livelihood is to drive ox-drawn carriages for others but now I can’t even leave the village. I am going to starve to death in two days! I still have a wife to feed. Something has got to be done!”
“Liu Daming, sit down first!” Patriarch took a look at him and said.
Liu Daming did not cause any further trouble. An Hung niang saw that nobody else had raised a fuss and sat down disgruntledly.
Cheng Xiao Xiao has remained silent this entire time. With the exception of the trouble-causing An Hung niang, she has to consider other issues.
For the safety of the villagers, she had essentially put these villagers under house arrest. They were right that this had caused great inconvenience for every one. Perhaps she needed to give them back their freedom.
As for the other issues…
Cheng Xiao Xiao look at her father, curious how he would address this.
It was true that Cheng Biyuan was thinking about this. He looked at the villagers somewhat apologetically, “We are truly sorry. We had, indeed, overlooked that. Rest be assured, the villagers will be able to leave the village starting tomorrow. We won’t be stopping anyone anymore!
“That being said…” Cheng Biyuan paused and frowned, “I believe that there will be dangers outside. Old Patriarch, I want to say this upfront, if anyone ran into any kind of dangerous outside of the village, we will not be liable for that. Of course, if anyone brought trouble into the village. Those are not on us either. I hope Old Patriarch will look into issues like that when they arise!”
“Mr. Cheng, you mean there will still be those who’d harm our villagers?” asked Old Patriarch with uneasiness.
Cheng Biyuan shook his head, “Old Patriarch, I can’t say for sure. Maybe, maybe not. We’ve all heard of self-fulfilling prophecy. I certainly wish for everybody’s safety!”
“Old Patriarch, Mr. Cheng. Don’t overthink this. What could possibly happen? As long as we leave everybody else alone. I have been wanting to leave the village for a while now. Let’s go and get some supplies from the town tomorrow!”
“Yeah, we can’t be kept here indefinitely. How’s that different than being in jail? Even thought Mr. Cheng said this was for our safety, but we can’t stay here forever, am I right?”
“What trouble could there be? We don’t have any treasures. It’s not like anyone want to rob us for our possessions. We have been needed to refill our supplies for a while now!”
“…….”