The person shouting spoke in an incredibly stiff tone, carrying the full air of "Heaven is first, Earth is second, and I am third."
As soon as Wang An heard it, he knew exactly who was shouting.
It was the deputy squad leader of the militia—Comrade Niu Daming—the same man who, during the wolf hunt last year, had been an arrogant, shameless show-off who ended up getting a thorough beating from Sun Dabala.
In truth, the act of "claiming the mill with a broom" was inherently unreasonable.
If someone had come to the milling path, realized they forgot something, and spent a few minutes going home to get it, claiming the mill would be acceptable; after all, that was normal, and no one would say anything.
But who on earth decides that just by placing a raggedy broom on the millstone, the right to use the mill belongs to them? What kind of nonsense is that?
The key was that the person who left the broom was taking forever to arrive, leaving the mill idle while a whole group of people stood around like idiots waiting. Was that fucking appropriate?
If that broom stayed there for a year, would the milling path be off-limits to everyone else for a year?
Wang An wasn't angered by the shouting; instead, he said with a chuckle
"If you know how to speak properly, say a few words; if you don't, shut your damn ass-hole."
After saying this, Wang An ignored Niu Daming and continued pouring corn kernels onto the millstone.
However, Wang An's words made the people currently queuing to use the mill burst out laughing.
At this moment, besides Wang An and Niu Daming, there were three old women and two men in the milling path.
To be honest, Wang An had actually forgotten the specific names of these people—mostly because it had been so long that he truly couldn't recall—but he still knew their surnames.
The previous greetings and pleasantries had actually just been simple small talk.
When Wang An first entered the milling path, he had chatted with the crowd like this
"Have you eaten, Big Brother?"
"Yep. You've come to the mill too?"
"Yeah. Ran out of livestock feed at home. What are you milling?"
"I'm thinking of milling some sorghum."
"Auntie, what are you milling?"
"Oh, I'm milling some sorghum too."
It was that simple; one could say these words contained absolutely no nutritional value.
But communication between people is often nothing more than this.
Whether the laughter of the five people in the milling path was intended to incite conflict, no one knew, but it made Niu Daming unable to take it.
Niu Daming's face turned red and his neck veins bulged as he shouted, "You fucking steal my mill, and you dare curse at me?"
Most people are like this: if no one is around, it's not a big deal, but humans have dignity—commonly known as "face." In the Northeast, losing face is called "unable to take the strain."
While Wang An's reputation wasn't exactly great, his name was well-known. But in truth, whether in his past life or this one, Wang An had never actually bullied people using his influence in the village, nor had he done anything to provoke public outrage.
Therefore, the people in the village had never personally witnessed Wang An's brutality and ruthlessness.
This resulted in a situation where outsiders generally didn't dare to provoke Wang An, but the villagers did.
Wang An didn't want to bother with Niu Daming's clamoring, so he said impatiently
"What do you mean 'your' mill? You throw a clump of broom here and it becomes yours? Enough, enough, get the hell out of the way, and then stay far away from here. I'm busy."
As Wang An finished speaking, he finished pouring the corn kernels onto the millstone and set the mule moving again.
Though he said "running," he was simply making the mule walk quickly; when pulling a mill, you cannot let the livestock actually run.
Because as the animal pulls the mill in a circle, the person must follow behind the animal's rear, using a short-handled broom to constantly push the grain that has been pressed flat back toward the center of the millstone.
Otherwise, once the grain is pressed flat into thin sheets, the mill loses its effectiveness.
Thus, when milling grain, the central axle rotates, the mill rotates, the rolling pin rotates, the animal rotates, and the person rotates as well.
And just as Wang An was holding the short-handled broom, following the mule's rear for the second lap...
Niu Daming actually made a move.
Niu Daming raised the small scoop in his hand and suddenly slammed it down toward Wang An's head.
As he swung the scoop, Niu Daming cursed, "Fuck your mother, who the fuck do you think you're showing off to?"
To be honest, Wang An didn't expect Niu Daming to strike; he had underestimated the hot-blooded nature of Niu Daming, a fellow Northeastern man.
Because Wang An wasn't paying attention at all, his large head took a solid hit from the scoop.
The scoop used in the milling path was essentially a smaller version of a dustpan, woven from tree twigs.
This kind of small scoop could be used one-handed as a scoop or two-handed as a dustpan; it was one of the essential tools in the milling path.
The weight of such a scoop was not light. While hitting someone's head with it might not cause excruciating pain, it would leave the person feeling dazed.
Mainly, although it was cold in the milling path, there was no wind, and the work was hot, so Wang An had taken off his hat.
Consequently, this sudden blow with the scoop left Wang An momentarily stunned.
Fortunately, after the mule completed a lap, its head bumped into Wang An, causing it to stop, and Wang An recovered his senses.
But Niu Daming actually swung the scoop in his hand and struck the mule.
He continued to curse as he hit, "Your mother's a whore, take that for showing off."
Generally, when using livestock for work, if one wants to hit the animal to make it go faster, they must first shout "Yah!" once or twice to give the animal a warning.
Only then, when hitting the animal, will it not freak out.
At this moment, the mule's eyes were covered, so it couldn't see anything. Being hit by a scoop without any warning inevitably caused it to panic.
The mule suddenly jerked its head up, accelerated violently, and pushed Wang An forward.
In this situation, if Wang An had been knocked over by the mule, he would have been trampled several times by the blind animal.
Being trampled by a mule inevitably ends badly—at best, flesh wounds; at worst, broken bones.
Fortunately, Wang An frequently fought with people and mountain beasts, so his reactions were agile. He used the momentum of the mule's head to spring forward.
He immediately escaped the circle the mule was pulling the mill in.
The frightened mule began to run wildly around the millstone.
At this moment, Wang An's rage instantly ignited to its peak. Clutching the broom clump, he turned and charged toward Niu Daming.
Seeing Wang An coming his way, Niu Daming immediately swung the scoop again, aiming to smash it down on Wang An's head.
Seeing Niu Daming's movement, Wang An instinctively used his left arm to block the scoop. With a "bang," the scoop slammed into Wang An's elbow.
This time, Wang An took the hit head-on with his arm. Fortunately, he was wearing a padded cotton jacket, and the bottom of the scoop wasn't particularly hard, so Wang An didn't feel any pain in his arm.
Of course, the scoop didn't break either.
But Wang An became even more enraged, and he launched a flying kick straight at Niu Daming.
(End of Chapter)