Chapter 55: Unexpected Harvest

Sanbao easily shook off the people following behind.

They arrived at the designated location.

The men from the village began to return one after another.

A group of men looked at one another and burst into loud laughter.

"Er Lengzi, you're something else! You ran fast!"

"If you want to talk about fighting, you've gotta look at the Qi brothers. The way they swung those sticks was intense!"

"Haha, Brother Wang, where are your shoes? Did they fly off while you were running? Hahahaha!"

"Ouch! I was wondering why the soles of my feet felt like they were on fire..."

They were all roughly the same age. They had spent their childhoods causing trouble in the village, and they never expected that even as adults, they would still experience the treatment of naked toddlers—being chased down by animals.

Looking at the grain cart behind them, Yan Er'er asked with a headache, "Brothers, stop laughing for a second. What are we going to do with this grain? Are the people whose families were captured still there?"

They were high on the adrenaline of the raid, but once it was over, Qi Si and Qi Wu were left at a loss. They said blankly, "Brother Yan, those people vanished long ago."

Luo Laoda added, "They weren't stupid. We made such a huge commotion; why wouldn't they run?"

"We pulled away with a whole cart, and so many people were chasing us. We couldn't keep an eye on the elderly and the women. You saw how fast you guys ran, but when I looked back—good heavens! When those women went crazy, they were fierce. They were scratching the bastards' faces, and a few of them tackled a man, biting his arms and legs. It was terrifying!"

The rest of the group: *If we hadn't seen it, we would have felt quite lucky.*

"...Then some people started grabbing the remaining grain, probably fearing the people who fled earlier would come back for them. Before long, they had all vanished too."

Yan Er'er: Having done a good deed, he realized he was now stuck with the grain.

When in doubt, ask Old Yan.

"Big Brother, look, the brothers were too capable and snatched a cart of grain back. What should we do? Can we still find those people?"

Yan Huaiwen looked him up and down. Hmm, good, he wasn't injured.

"Leave it be."

Yan Er'er: *Huh?*

As a modern-minded middle-aged man accustomed to finding lost items and handing them to the police, he couldn't react immediately.

"Your intention to return it to its rightful owner is good." His younger brother had finally done something good and likely needed some validation.

But the reality was that they couldn't afford to delay their journey for these people.

"Even if we went back, we wouldn't find them. Even if we ran into them again, we wouldn't be able to identify them."

Yan Huaiwen said earnestly, "What we seized was ill-gotten wealth, not the people's grain. You must distinguish between the two, Tianyou. To not covet and to desire to return is the sincerity of a gentleman; to leave it behind with a clear conscience is to remain at peace. We have nothing to be ashamed of."

Village Chief Luo decided to distribute the grain among the households.

The villagers were overjoyed.

When they were rescuing people, they hadn't thought that much; they only thought about how those people could be so wicked and black-hearted. They just wanted to make enough noise so the poor souls could escape.

As for what happened after they escaped, they hadn't thought about it at all. What, did saving your life mean they had to look after you for a lifetime?

As for Qi Si and Qi Wu, the greatest contributors to reclaiming the cart of grain, they expressed: "At the time, we were just thinking that if we didn't take enough, people wouldn't chase us. If we took a whole cart, those bastards would definitely chase us for our lives..."

Village Chief Luo also stated that no one should throw away the sticks they used this time; they might come in handy in the future.

Besides, these had been unloaded from the Yan family's two-story cart; it wouldn't be easy to find wood this sturdy and of such perfect length again.

Qi Wu came over: "Brother Yan, if I encounter suitable wood on the road, I'll make you another identical frame. I have all my tools with me."

Yan Er'er looked around: "Brother Qi Wu, there's no rush for the frame. We're about to enter the mountains, and I think our cart isn't very convenient. It'll probably need some modifications. Let me think it over; once I have a plan, you'll have plenty to do."

Qi Wu grinned: "Alright, I'll do whatever you say, Brother Yan."

...

That night, Yan Er'er decided to treat everyone to meat.

Top-tier ingredients often don't require complex preparation.

Dried snake meat was exactly like that.

The cart of grain they had seized contained both brown rice and polished rice. Each household was given brown rice, while Village Chief Luo gave all the polished rice to the Yan family.

Village Chief Luo: *Yes, I am a biased village chief.*

Yan Er'er decided to be generous to celebrate the group's victory.

His family provided the polished rice, and every household contributed water, boiling three large pots of fragrant white rice porridge.

The dried snake meat was chopped finely and poured into the pots, stirred thoroughly.

It instantly transformed into snake meat white rice porridge.

It was so fragrant!

Even the newly weaned babies were crying from craving it.

The baby's mother carefully skimmed off a bowl of porridge oil, tirelessly blowing away the heat before feeding it into the little one's mouth.

Turning a cry into a laugh was that simple.

Everyone was given a bowl of hot meat porridge.

Whatever was left at the bottom of the pot was claimed by the village men.

One by one, they used steamed buns to wipe the pots clean.

Yan Yu looked at the bottom of her bowl, wondering what to do about how much she wanted to lick it.

She glanced at her mother and imitated the villagers by using a bun to wipe it.

Not a single bit could be wasted!

Today, that great snake was finally eaten by the entire village.

Whether it was because they were in a good mood from doing a good deed or because of the meat porridge, everyone felt exceptionally energetic.

They even fought over who would take the night watch.

Yan Er'er couldn't win the fight, so he just came back.

He ran straight into his brother's line of fire.

"Tianyou, what is this? Where did you get it?" The object in Yan Huaiwen's hand glinted with a cold metallic luster; if it wasn't his crossbow, what else could it be?

Yan Er'er: *Gasp?!*

Caught completely off guard, he froze on the spot.

"Uh, Brother, how did you find that? It's dangerous. Quick, give it to me, I'll put it away." He tried to play it off.

"Do you know what this is?" Yan Huaiwen asked with a dark face.

"Isn't it just something for hunting?" Yan Er'er tried to deflect.

Yan Huaiwen wanted to throw the crossbow in his face.

"This is a crossbow used by the military. Tell the truth, where did you get it?"

Yan Er'er helplessly began to make up another story: "It was from some family, they said it's been passed down for generations. The arrows came with it too. It's light, easy to carry, and shoots far. I haggled with them for a long time before they agreed to sell it to me."

"How could an ordinary person obtain such a military weapon?" Yan Huaiwen did not believe him.

"Maybe their ancestors weren't ordinary. Maybe they were generals or something," Yan Er'er said.

Anyway, he stuck to his story that he bought it.

Yan Huaiwen was so angry he nearly fell over; this unlearned man.

Smuggling military equipment was a serious crime.

"Eh? Isn't this the treasure Daddy won?" Yan Yu acted as if she had caught him red-handed. "And you wouldn't even let me look at it! Hmph! It's just black and dull, what's so special about it!"

Yan Huaiwen narrowed his eyes and beckoned to her: "Er'ya, come here."

Yan Yu approached.

"Do you know where this came from?"

"I know! Daddy won it..." She suddenly covered her mouth, looked at her father, and whispered to her uncle, "Uncle, Daddy told me not to tell anyone."

"Won it!" Yan Huaiwen said through gritted teeth.

He didn't know whether to be happy that the crossbow wasn't bought, or angry that his younger brother's gambling streak seemed to have deep roots.