Chapter 168

The village head said, “Xu Cheng, follow us to Liu Village! Doctor Liu should go as well. Their village head has to make the decision, but no matter what, they have to give Xu Village an explanation.”

Xu Ran nodded. “Alright, I’ll go with you. Shall we take more people with us? I’m afraid that Liu Tiezhu will go back on his words when he gets back to Liu Village, which will put us at a disadvantage. ”

The village head thought for a moment before he said, “You’re right that we should take more people with us. Besides, we have to ask Liu Tiezhu to write down his confession and make his mark on it. When we get to Liu Village, we will give his confession to the village head.”

Xu Ran said, “We’d better have two copies. I’ll write them!”

Liu Tiezhu was at Xu Village with so many people watching him, and what he had done had been known, so he couldn’t make up any lies. Besides, he had been threatened by Xu Ran just now. Therefore, he honestly came clean with them.

Liu Tiezhu owed some gambling debt, and he was punished because of Liu Piao last time, so he thought of selling Liu Piao. He took Liu Piao to town. Just as he was about to send Liu Piao to Green Willow Alley, he bumped into Xu Cheng.

Xu Cheng knew Liu Tiezhu. He guessed Liu Tiezhu’s plan and told him that if he helped him do one thing, he would help him pay off the gambling debt.

Liu Tiezhu did not know the situation in Xu Cheng’s home. He thought that he and Xu Ran were brothers, so he must be rich. With that thought, he agreed.

No matter what, Liu Piao was his brother, so he’d better keep him if he could, or he would wait and see. Anyway, Liu Piao would not run away.

After Liu Tiezhu sent Liu Piao home that day, he followed Xu Cheng to Xu Village, and then they wandered around the village every day. Most of the time, they walked around Xu Ran’s house.

Xu Cheng told him that there were dogs in Xu Ran family, but the dogs would go out every day, so they could take actions when the dogs were out.

On Lantern Festival, Xu Ran and his family went to the town. There was no one at home except four dogs, so they climbed over the wall and sneaked in. They stayed in the sheep pen for the night and fed croton seeds to the ewe at dawn. Before the ewe ate any seeds, Shao Yu came to milk the ewe, so they hid for fear of being discovered.

After Shao Yu left, they killed the ewe. Afraid that Xu Ran and his family would find that the ewe had been fed croton seeds. They fled after they killed the ewe. Xu Cheng went to the mountain, but Liu Tiezhu stayed to watch the fun. That was why he was caught. He regretted it, thinking that he would be fine if he ran away with Xu Cheng.

To his surprise, Baozi got so sick that Xu Ran asked Doctor Liu to come, who discovered everything.

Liu Tiezhu knew that after he got back to Liu Village, he would be expelled out of the village and had nowhere to go just like Xu Cheng, if his village head was unwilling to fight with Xu Village.

But he couldn’t resist, and he had only himself to blame.

After Xu Ran and the others arrived at Liu Village, the village head was not home. The villagers got flustered at sight of so many people came escorting Liu Tiezhu, so they hurriedly went to look for the village head.

When Liu Youcai came back, his heart sank at sight of so many people at his door. When he saw Liu Tiezhu, he got furious. It was this brat again!

But no matter what, since so many people came to his door, he had to deal with it. Forcing a smile, Liu Youcai talked with the head of Xu Village, and then he knew what they had come for.

Xu Ran gave Liu Youcai the confession, which was written on the paper with Liu Tiezhu’s fingerprint. There was no way for him to deny it.

Liu Youcai knew that he had to come up with a solution. Liu Village and Xu Village were neighboring villages, and they had relatives in both villages. Usually, they were related by marriages. If this was not handled well, the two villages might become enemies in the future.

Liu Youcai hated Liu Tiezhu, who kept causing troubles during and after the Spring Festival. Liu Youcai wished to kick the whole of his family out of the village.

Liu Youcai smiled apologetically and said, “Village head Xu and everyone, please don’t worry. I will handle this well, I will handle this well. I’ll have the villagers informed to come here, and settle this in front of everyone.”

Village head was pleased when he saw that Liu Youcai intended to handle this sincerely. He guessed Liu Tiezhu had a bad reputation in the village.

However, it might be another farce when all the villagers arrived.

There were quite some people in Liu Village with a total of several villagers. Liu Youcai didn’t say anything, and instead he asked a literate villager to read out Liu Tiezhu’s confession.

Everyone sighed after they heard it.

Some villagers asked their village head to expel Liu Tiezhu or hand him to Yamen. They couldn’t keep him in the village.

They were being nice actually. Some other villagers even complained about trivial bad things that the Liu Dewang family had done, asking to kick the whole family out of the village. More villagers joined in and said the family was good for nothing.

Xu Ran and his village head exchanged a glance. It seemed that the reputation of this family was worse than that of Xu Cheng in Xu Village!

Since so many people complained about the family, no one objected to Liu Youcai’s suggestion of expelling Liu Tiezhu.

In fact, a few villagers stood up for the Liu Dewang family, but it didn’t work. A village head could do nothing but threaten people.

Obviously, Liu Youcai was the same as the village head of Xu Village.

Xu Ran coldly looked at Liu Tiezhu who was forced to kneel on the ground. Evildoers were bound to be punished in the end. A man who schemed against his brother should be punished.

Xu Ran thought that maybe he could help Liu Tiezhu reflect on his mistakes.

However, the result was that the two of them were kicked out of their villages. Of course, the Liu Dewang family would hold more grudges against Xu Ran from now on.

He would help his dad and daddy occasionally. As long as his daddy didn’t cause him any trouble, he wouldn’t leave them alone.

Xu Ran was not going to let off the two people who were expelled. After he got home and disposed of the dead ewe, Xu Ran went to Gao Quan.

Xu Ran said, “It looks that things are settled, but the two of them have not suffered any substantial damage, and they will be a threat to my family in the future, so I like to ask you for a favor.”

Gao Quan asked, “What do you want me to do?”

Xu Ran said, “It’s nothing big. You take Liu Tiezhu to his debtors and tell him that Liu Tiezhu has been kicked out of the village. He won’t be able to pay off the debt.”

Gao Quan nodded and asked Xu Ran, “What about Xu Cheng?”

“Isn’t Xu Cheng’s foot injured? He will lose his foot if the big wound is not healed.”

After Xu Ran spoke, he stopped talking, and Gao Quan naturally understood Xu Ran’s intention. He said, “I got it. I will take care of this.”

“Okay.” Clasping his hands behind himself, Xu Ran turned his back to Gao Quan, his hands trembling. This was the first time that he had someone harmed. Even if he didn’t do it himself, he couldn’t accept it, but he couldn’t think of any other ways to protect his family from any harm.

Coincidentally, Gao Quan saw his subtle movements.

Gao Quan said, “Xu Ran, you’re not wrong about this. Don’t think too much.”

Xu Ran clenched his fists and tried hard not to tremble. After a long time, he turned to Gao Quan. “I know, but I still can’t accept it. Don’t worry! I’ll get over it.”

Looking at Xu Ran, Gao Quan thought for a moment and decided to tell him everything. “I have something to tell you. It’s more serious than this. I think you will stop thinking about it once you know what I’m going to tell you.”

Xu Ran quickly asked, “What is it?”

Gao Quan replied, “Something related to Liu Tong’s identity.”

Xu Ran felt a little nervous when he heard this. “Tell me now. Who is he?”

“He is King Yan’s twin brother.”

“Who is King Yan?” Xu Ran was confused. Although he knew that he was a prince, he had never paid any attention to the royal family. It was natural that he didn’t know King Yan.

Gao Quan guessed that Xu Ran probably didn’t know who King Yan was, so he briefed King Yan’s identity. The final summary was that Liu Tong’s identity was noble and honorable. If not for the Emperor’s suspicion in the past, Liu Tong would not live a hard life like that.

Xu Ran was shocked. He had never imagined such a thing would happen! Suddenly, Tongtong was the younger sibling of King Yan. He instantly felt himself much inferior.

Xu Ran said coldly, “How do you know? Did you scheme to make me buy you and Shao Yu? ”

Gao Quan explained, “Only today did I find out that Liu Tong is the Second Young Master.”

“How do you know? Who did you meet today? What were you told to do? Tell me everything.”

Gao Quan said, “I met King Yan’s subordinate when I went to chase Xu Cheng today. He deliberately led me up the mountain and told me to take Second Young Master to Yanzhou, but I didn’t agree. I told him to ask King Yan to make a decision. He said that he wouldn’t appear again in the near future. You don’t have to worry. I tell you this to prepare you for that.”

Xu Ran laughed sarcastically. How absurd! His family loved each other deeply, and suddenly he was told that Liu Tong was the brother of King Yan. Why couldn’t they leave his family alone?

Xu Ran said, “I won’t allow anyone to take Tongtong away, even if King Yan comes personally. You say that King Yan’s subordinate won’t appear in the near future. Is he someone I know?”

Gao Quan shook his head. “I only know that he is Lu Yuan’s son, called Lu Qi.”

“Lu Qi! That makes perfect sense.” Xu Ran instantly understood why Du Xin insisted on coming to his house. It seemed that Du Xin also worked for King Yan. When they were in the county, Du Xin deliberately led him to see Lu Qi. What a scheme!

Xu Ran said, “You should forget about this. I will pretend that I don’t know about it. If one day someone shows up, we will make our plans then. We will continue our life before anyone comes up. Don’t tell Tongtong about it.” After Xu Ran spoke, he quickly left the room as he needed a quiet place to calm down.