Rebirth of the pastoral landlady

Chapter 80
Chapter 79 The Tricky Dilemma
Just as Jin Xi ran to the door of the shop, she almost bumped into Sun Yubao who came out from inside, both of them were shocked.

Jin Xi stared at Sun Yubao's face in shock, one side of his face was swollen, and there was a bruise around his left eye, obviously, someone punched him with a fist.

"Uncle, what happened? Who beat you like this?" Jin Xi asked in surprise.

Panting, Qin Ya caught up with Jin Xi, saw those punctured lanterns above the lintel of Sun Ji's shop, and those blood-like things splashed on the freshly painted wall at the door, she couldn't help but hold her hand The nose, a little terrified, is next to Jin Xi.

"Xi'er... Our shop is probably being targeted by those rascals!" Sun Yubao said angrily and frustrated: "This matter cannot be explained clearly in a few sentences. The village went to discuss with you, and you just happened to come, what about them? You and Qinya won't be the only ones, right?"

"My father and Uncle Erhu have left the car and will be here in a while, let's go into the house and talk about it!" Jin Xi said, pulling Sun Yubao into the shop.

There wasn't a single customer in the shop, and shopkeeper Zhang sat listlessly behind the cash register with his hands folded, with a bitter look on his face.

Seeing Jinxi striding in hastily, shopkeeper Zhang cheered up a little and came out from behind the cash register.

"Miss Jinxi, you've come here. It's really a person sitting in the house, and the disaster is falling from the sky! I'm afraid we won't be able to keep this shop open any longer!"

Jin Xi was dissatisfied with shopkeeper Zhang's helpless and miserable look, frowned and said, "How can we go smoothly all the time when we come out to do things? When we encounter trouble, we have to find a way to solve the trouble. It's useless to say something depressing." What's the use!"

Shopkeeper Zhang understood that his attitude had offended the lady of the host family, so he shut up politely.At this time, hurried footsteps came from outside again, and it was Liang Yuzhong and Sun Erhu who had arrived.

"Who came here to make trouble?" The two of them were really surprised when they saw the scene at the door, and Sun Erhu asked angrily as soon as he entered the door.

"Yubao, did you fight with someone?" Liang Yuzhong stared wide-eyed, looking at Sun Yubao's distorted face in shock, with veins throbbing on his forehead, and Sun Erhu beside him was so angry that his eyes were bleeding.

"Father, Uncle Erhu, don't be impatient, first let uncle tell the whole story." Jin Xi said.

"Okay, Yubao, tell me quickly!" Liang Yuzhong said, the honest man clenched his iron fists tightly, and he wanted to know who it was who dared to spoil his daughter's efforts and beat his brother-in-law!
"Brother-in-law, Erhu, this is how it happened..." Sun Yubao took a breath and talked about the whole story.

Jin Xi learned the whole thing from Sun Yubao.

When she left yesterday morning, the shop was still in good condition, because of the signboards on the street and the residents coming and going in the alley, the business in the shop was very good all day yesterday.

Light the lanterns at night and go to business as usual. When Sun Yubao came back from carrying the billboard at the entrance of the alley when it was about to close, he found that billboard had been smashed into pieces from the middle at some point.

When Sun Yubao came back and told shopkeeper Zhang about this matter, both of them guessed whether it was a prank played by a half-grown child, but even though they guessed like this, they both had a bad feeling in their hearts.

Because of a bad premonition in his heart, Sun Yubao was worried, so he slept behind the counter with the quilt in his arms that night to watch over him.

The first half of the night was fine, but in the second half of the night, he heard movement outside the shop.Sun Yubao went to the attic and called shopkeeper Zhang. The two took a stick in their hands and opened the door to go out.

It was a moonlit day outside, and even though the fire in the lantern was extinguished, the surroundings were clearly illuminated.When Sun Yubao and the others came out, they happened to see two black shadows splashing something on the wall of the shop, and there was a foul smell.

When the two men saw someone coming out of the shop, they whistled and ran towards the other side of the alley. One of them kicked a protruding bluestone slab and fell to the ground.

When Sun Yubao was furious, he ran over and threw himself on the man, and the two of them fought together.Seeing that his accomplice was being caught, the man in front turned back and punched Sun Yubao in the face, and Sun Yubao immediately stared at him.

Sun Yubao's writing is weak, so he is not that good in a one-on-one sparring match, let alone a [-]v[-]?

Fortunately, shopkeeper Zhang rushed up brandishing a stick, yelling to catch the thief, and the lights of the steamed stuffed bun shop came on immediately. Seeing that the situation was not good, the two men pushed Sun Yubao away and disappeared in a hurry.

"It's unreasonable!" Sun Erhu was so angry that he punched the wall beside him.

"Damn it, it's so hateful!" Liang Yuzhong's face turned livid with anger.

"Xi'er, you guys didn't offend anyone in the town, did you?" Qin Ya whispered to Jin Xi.

Sitting there, Jin Xi quickly calmed herself down after experiencing Duan Chang's shock and anger.His brows were slightly frowned, looking thoughtful.

"Qin Ya is right. I'm just confused. Logically speaking, our shop has only been open for a few days. It's a small business with a remote location and no grudges with anyone. How could such a disaster happen?" Sun Yubao was excited and puzzled: "Since they poured dog blood and poked lanterns last night, they haven't made a deal this morning! If things continue like this, our shop will soon be closed!"

"Yubao, don't worry, from now on, I will stay and guard the shop with you, if they dare to make trouble again, don't blame me for serving with bows and arrows!" Sun Erhu said bitterly.

"I'll stay too, I want to see if it's really lawless!" Liang Yuzhong said in a deep voice.

Shopkeeper Zhang stood aside with his hands in his sleeves, with a sad face, and sighed one after another. When Sun Erhu and Liang Yuzhong said these words, he opened his mouth twice, but finally gave up the idea of ​​speaking.

"Father and Uncle Erhu stay temporarily, and I agree. However, only a thousand days of being a thief, there is no one who can guard against a thief for a thousand days. The enemy is in the dark, and we are in the light. In this matter, we have to change our passiveness into the initiative. Really eliminate the chaos!" Jin Xi, who had been silent all this time, suddenly spoke.

Shopkeeper Zhang couldn't help raising his eyes to glance at Jin Xi, and something lit up in his eyes.

"What Xi'er said is reasonable, but those people are like mice hiding in a corner. We are not familiar with this area, and we don't have the slightest clue. It's hard to catch!" Sun Erhu said.

"So, we have to ask shopkeeper Zhang for advice on this matter!" Jin Xi said, looking straight at shopkeeper Zhang who stood silently at the side.

When Liang Yuzhong and the others heard the words, they also heard some meaning from Jinxi's words, and the three of them locked on the shopkeeper Zhang with sharp eyes.

As a man matures, his intuition tells Jin Xi that shopkeeper Zhang, an old fox, has always kept some things in mind since he started the shop until now.Jin Xi didn't intend to pry his mouth at first, but now that the shop has encountered such a thing, whether it can continue to open is in doubt, and Jin Xi has no choice but to take the shopkeeper out and torture him.

"Third Brother Liang, Miss Jinxi, Master Yubao, and Master Erhu, I am just an elderly person. Thanks to your care, you gave me the pawn of the shopkeeper so that I can live for the rest of my life. But this time, I I’m also at a loss! But I really can’t think of a good way, if I can think of a good way to deal with those people who are making trouble secretly, my diary won’t be shut down!”

"Brother Zhang, we are all honest people. According to what you said, we have given you a lot of preferential treatment. It's all at this critical point. If you still hide it and don't tell us what you know, you are too dishonest Already!" Liang Yuzhong stepped forward and said.

"Shopkeeper Zhang, if my guess is correct, you rushed to sell the shop in a hurry, not because you lost your son, your daughter-in-law took away the grandson, and you didn't care about running the shop alone, as you cried, but because there were other unknown things. The reason?" Jin Xi looked at shopkeeper Zhang and asked with a half smile.

"Miss Jinxi, you..." Shopkeeper Zhang was stunned by Jinxi's words, and his face immediately became flustered.

"Heh, looking at Zhang's appearance, my guess is right. You really are an old fox. You threw this hot potato to us honest people. That's all. Now the old things are repeating themselves. The person who remembers the trouble is eyeing our Sun Ji again, you are still pretending to be innocent here, and you keep telling the truth again and again, you really let me down!" Jin Xi's voice cooled down, with a questioning tone: "I am here Think, maybe, you are with those bad guys, I want to report to the police to arrest you!"

"Brother Zhang, you're not that kind of person, are you?" Liang Yuzhong asked him loudly.

Sun Erhu was even more impatient to say more, so he went up and grabbed shopkeeper Zhang by the collar, and shook his bowl-sized iron fist: "Don't waste your time talking with this old fox, even if you want to send him to the yamen, let me beat him well." One meal, let him know the end of eating inside and outside!"

"Er Hu, don't be impulsive!" Sun Yubao stopped Sun Erhu's fist. Shopkeeper Zhang really had never been better than Sun Erhu, so he couldn't bear it now, and his face turned pale.

"We mountain people hate this kind of cunning people the most. They are full of thoughts, thinking that they will not suffer! Brother Erhu is so powerful, he beat this old fox with one punch!" Two black lines are exposed.

"Miss Jin Xi, if you have something to say, let's talk it out. I'm really not the one who picks me up. Let Young Master Erhu put me down first. I'll tell you everything I know, okay?"

Since she begged for mercy so much, Jin Xi gave Sun Erhu a look, and Sun Erhu understood, and let go of shopkeeper Zhang.

"Shopkeeper Zhang, let me ask, tell me, if you continue to hide anything, we will really tear our face apart!" Jin Xi said flatly, squinting at Zhang, who was holding the counter panting for breath.

Zhang looked at Jin Xi who was sitting firmly behind the cash register, and then at Liang Yuzhong and Sun Erhu who were standing beside her, Zhang Zhang became more and more sure that the real core figure in this big family was actually this person. Ten-year-old girl Jinxi.

Moreover, judging from her courage in doing business and her reaction just now, this little girl's city is far beyond her age.What's more, what she said was able to read other people's thoughts very well, piercing through with a word, hitting the nail on the head.

"Let me ask you, did Zhang Ji suffer from things like last night before?" Jin Xi asked.

"Yes..." Shopkeeper Zhang whispered.

"Is it the same group of people who did those things?"

"Hmm!" Shopkeeper Zhang said in a lower voice.

"Old fox, you really have inside information, and you still pretend to be shocked like us!" Sun Erhu became angry again, Jin Xi glanced at him, and he turned his face away to hold back.

"What were the names of those two people last night? What did they do? Where do they live?" Jin Xi continued to ask. Shopkeeper Zhang has lived in this town for most of his life, so he should know these things very well.

"I really don't know what it's called, where it's called, but it looks familiar. I only know that the east of the town, including our Qingqiao Alley, is their territory, and they bring a group of people to the shops in this area from time to time. Here, ask for protection money, unless the owner of the shop has a backer, otherwise, if anyone doesn’t pay the money, they will come and make trouble, making it impossible for you to do business safely! Zhang remembers that moment, my son is gone , I was depressed, and these people were like vampires, making it impossible to drive any further, so I was in a hurry to sell it! This is all my truth, I dare not hide it!"

Jin Xi squinted her eyes, subconsciously stroking the hair beside her ear with her delicate fingers. She guessed at first that it was a colleague who ordered people to come here to make trouble. Judging from Zhang Zhang's words, it should be the underworld to collect protection fees. Some confusion created in advance?
Now that the matter has come to an end, Jin Xi hopes that the situation that Sun Ji encountered last night should be one of them, even if it is one of them, it is already a headache enough, if it is a mixture of the two, it will be even more troublesome up.

"I've heard it said a long time ago that there are quite a few hooligans in our Changqiao town, who just idle around all day long, specializing in sneaking around and robbing houses!" Sun Erhu said with some seriousness.

"Now we get into trouble with such local hooligans, I'm afraid it will be really tricky!" Liang Yuzhong also thought about it.

"Since they live by collecting these protection money, those local hooligans should all have their own gangs. Shopkeeper Zhang, do you know what kind of gang we belong to in this area of ​​Qingqiao Town? Who is their gang leader?" Jin Xi asked.

Shopkeeper Zhang was taken aback, and Miss Jinxi asked what is this for?Seeing her calm and composed appearance, is it possible that she still wants to meet the gang leader?It's incredible.There were a hundred doubts about Jin Xi's question in his heart, but he quickly gave the answer: "The Ax Gang, their boss, everyone calls him Chen Pi Asan!"

"Brother Zhang, since you know so many things, why don't you tell us earlier? If something like this hadn't happened and Xi'er asked like this, you would have kept it a secret? You are really dishonest!" Liang Yuzhong ruthlessly Count Zhang shopkeeper hard, they have already opened a shop here, and sooner or later they will face the rascals here, it's better to be prepared!

"Xi'er, since that's the case, let's report to the officials at the gate of the yamen!" Sun Yubao suggested, and the others agreed, but the shopkeeper Du Zhang kept silent.

Jin Xi thought for a while, shook her head, and said, "No, I can't report to the officials!"

"Why?" Others were surprised and puzzled, but shopkeeper Zhang looked at Jin Xi in shock again.

"Think about it calmly, guys. Since Chen Pi Asan has been running rampant in the town for so many years without being caught, what does it mean?" Jin Xi patiently analyzed with them: "It means that Chen Pi Asan must be with the government The people in the yamen colluded, or there was a bigger force behind him to support him, otherwise, those shopkeepers who have been squeezed by him all these years have already sued him in the yamen!"

After Jin Xi's analysis, everyone in the room calmed down, but their faces became more solemn. If you go in, you can't seek the protection of the government, and if you go back, you don't want to be squeezed out.This matter is really a dilemma, very tricky!

"But Xi'er, we can't just give away the hard-earned money to those ruffians like this? Those people are vampires, bottomless pits!" Sun Erhu said.

"Miss Jinxi, you are really my bosom friend..." Shopkeeper Zhang burst into tears suddenly: "I thought about this a few years ago, and I really went to sue, who knows that those in the yamen The errands, not only did not go to Naihe Chen Pi Asan and his gang, but also beat me up, which is how I got offended. Chen Pi Asan and his gang specifically focused on me. My son went to other places to buy goods, Mi Ming Qi Ke died in a foreign land, and the extortion of my shop has intensified! I thought that Zhang Ji would be replaced by Sun Ji, and they would let this place go, but I didn’t expect that you would be implicated! I’m sorry, big guy, I give everyone Kneel down!"

After tossing for a while, Liang Yuzhong helped the shopkeeper Zhang: "This matter can't be entirely dependent on you, the most important thing is to work together to overcome this difficulty now!"

Shopkeeper Zhang wiped his tears: "Yes, yes, there is no need for the little old man, just ask. If Chen Pi Asan is after me, then I will pack up and leave Sun Ji grocery store!"

"Brother Zhang, you... oh!" Liang Yuzhong didn't know what to say, he was upset and troubled!
In the chaos, Jin Xi's face is calm and unruffled, but her heart and mind are running at the highest speed.Suddenly, her eyes lit up.

"Shopkeeper Zhang, you have been in Changqiao Town for a long time. Since you said that the area south of Changqiao Town belongs to Chen Pi Asan's territory of the Axe Gang. Are there any other people in Changqiao Town who are similar to the Axe Gang?" What about the gang?" Jin Xi asked.

"Ah? Miss Jin Xi asked this?" Shopkeeper Zhang was stunned, tried to think for a while, and said, "I'm in a serious business, and I don't ask much about gang affairs, but I've heard people say It seems that there is another gang in Changqiao Town, what is it called... Qinglong Gang."

"The Azure Dragon Gang..." Jin Xi narrowed her eyes slightly, and a flash of thought flashed in her eyes.

Anyway, Sun Ji followed Zhang Ji's misfortune, and was regarded as a thorn in the side of Chen Pi Asan and others, Jin Xi didn't want to be eaten to death by this greedy hungry wolf like this!The most urgent task is to find a protective umbrella and borrow external force to restrain Chen Pi Asan.

But where does this external force come from?Qinglong Gang?

"Xi'er, why are you inquiring about these? Whether it's the Axe Gang or the Qinglong Gang, they are not good birds!" Liang Yuzhong interrupted the shopkeeper Zhang and stood up. At this time, as a father, he should stand up. Come to the front.

"Xi'er, you're a girl, don't worry about these things, you'll go back to the village later in the afternoon, and leave this place to father and your uncle. I really don't believe it, those people dare to come here to kill people and steal money!"

(End of this chapter)