Chapter 102: Trouble Begins

The teacher’s lecture was as profound as ever, and Pear Blossom listened intently, utterly absorbed. By the time she closed her book, the night had grown late.

When she returned home, Fubao was already asleep with Mrs. Xiong. Not wanting to disturb them, Pear Blossom quietly made her way up the mountain alone.

Inside the cave, a small lamp was lit, and Dong Yun was fast asleep. The moment Pear Blossom lay down, she reached out to touch Dong Yun’s hands and feet, which were still ice-cold.

Carefully, she placed Dong Yun’s hands against her chest and used her own feet to warm Dong Yun’s.

Half-asleep, Dong Yun felt the warmth and instinctively snuggled closer to her.

Pear Blossom, now taller and stronger, easily wrapped Dong Yun in her arms. She kissed the top of Dong Yun’s head before falling asleep.

By the time she woke, daylight had broken.

Dong Yun was reading a book, and the aroma of porridge wafted from the stove.

After having some porridge, Pear Blossom noticed freshly washed clothes dripping with water on the bamboo pole. She frowned slightly but said nothing, picking up a bamboo basket and heading out.

Before long, she returned with the basket full of charcoal.

She made several trips, quickly piling up the area near the stove until it was completely filled.

As she prepared to make another trip, an urgent clanging sound echoed from the base of the mountain a warning signal, louder and more frantic than ever before. Startled, Pear Blossom froze, then quickly turned to run outside.

After taking two steps, she stopped and called back to Dong Yun, “Stay inside the cave and don’t come out. I’ll go down to check. Don’t worry about Fubao—I’ll protect her.”

Dong Yun quickly replied, “Go now. I’ll seal the cave entrance myself.”

Pear Blossom nodded and, in a flash, had disappeared several meters away. In the blink of an eye, she was out of sight.

Dong Yun moved to the entrance, sealed it with stones, camouflaged the opening, and peered through the cracks to observe the situation below. She couldn’t see much movement yet, but the sound of the alarm grew increasingly urgent. Her tension began to rise.

Pear Blossom reached the base of the mountain, grabbed her blade, mounted her horse, and rushed toward the village entrance.

When she arrived, the wooden gate at the village entrance had already been smashed to pieces. Around twenty burly men, all fierce and intimidating, were facing off with the villagers of Daliushu Village.

“Bring Liu Mingchang out here! Stop hiding like a coward!”

Amid the commotion, the village head stepped forward and asked, “What is the meaning of this?”

The leader of the group glared and said, “What do you think? Where’s Liu Mingchang? The irrigation channel is supposed to be shared by both villages, but he went and blocked our He Village’s sluice gate, redirecting all the water to your fields. What kind of nonsense is that?”

The village head frowned in displeasure. “This is an issue between your village and the Liu family. By rights, it’s not our concern. But coming here with so many people, smashing our fences and gate—what do you mean by that?”

The leader snorted. “We don’t care about that. If we don’t get a resolution today, don’t blame us for what happens next. We’ll turn this village upside down!”

Zhang Laowu sneered at this and retorted, “Who do you think you are, talking so big? You want to destroy our village? Why don’t you weigh your own worth first?”

The leader, enraged by Zhang Laowu’s taunt, waved his hand. “Two of you, teach this skinny monkey a lesson!”

Two men immediately stepped forward to grab Zhang Laowu’s arm but were shoved back by Daniu.

“Damn you! How dare you push me? Do you have a death wish?”

Seeing his son threatened, Dagen shoved his way forward. “You’re the ones who started this! What more do you want? Don’t think Daliushu Village is without men!”

The leader, infuriated by their defiance, shouted, “You dare fight back? Do you know who I am? I’m Wei Hu of He Village (Hecun)! The infamous ‘Ghost Dread’ of Eagle’s Nest Ridge is my relative! If you know what’s good for you, kneel and apologize, or I’ll bring people tomorrow to raze this miserable village to the ground!”

The mention of Eagle’s Nest Ridge’s ‘Ghost Dread’ sent a chill through the crowd. Recently, his name had spread to Daliushu Village. It was said that Ghost Dread, whose real name was Li Chou, was a cousin of Bai Choushen from Baihu Villa. After Bai Choushen’s defeat and flight, Ghost Dread had gathered the scattered bandits and set up camp in a valley called Eagle’s Nest Ridge, continuing to plague the surrounding villages.

The imperial army had attacked Baihu Villa but withdrew after its capture, leaving the bandit problem unresolved. With Jin County’s magistrate fleeing and the deputy magistrate defecting, only a registrar remained in office. Recently, a new magistrate had arrived, reportedly someone who purchased his position and knew nothing of governance. As a result, the scattered bandits had regrouped and were wreaking havoc once again.

Earlier, the group of prisoners captured by the pacification office were sent to repair the river embankment. Taking advantage of the opportunity, the bandits staged a rebellion and took away half of them. As a result, the power of the Eagle Nest Ridge grew stronger, now numbering five to six hundred people.

The surrounding villages could no longer resist, and the government office was unable to muster enough manpower to eliminate the bandits. The people were suffering greatly.

At this time, the people of He Village took the name “Ghost Seeing Worries” out, and unsurprisingly, this village had already sided with Eagle Nest Ridge.

As soon as the leader finished speaking, the sound of hooves approaching grew louder, followed by a young woman’s voice: “Flattening the Daliushu Village? Such big words! But that also depends on whether I agree!”

Everyone turned around to see a young girl in yellow riding a fast steed, a long sword reflecting blinding light in the sunlight, sending chills down their spines.

The dozen or so burly men, seeing someone riding toward them, were first shocked, but when they saw the person clearly, they burst into loud laughter. “Does Daliushu Village have no men left? They sent a little girl to face us? How embarrassing!”

Pear Blossom’s eyes flashed with a cold gleam as she immediately slung her sword and drew her bow, aiming at the man who spoke. In the blink of an eye, an arrow shot out like lightning, speeding toward him.

Before the man could react, his hat was pierced by the arrow and nailed to a tree behind him.

Not only was this the first time this group of people had witnessed such a scene, but even the people from Daliushu Village, most of whom had never seen Pear Blossom shoot in public, were stunned. When the people from the casino came earlier, they saw her move quickly but didn’t get a clear view. They only knew that she could easily manipulate the starving wolves on Misty Mountain. A scene like this, however, was extremely rare.

Now, seeing her shoot an arrow and knock the hat off that man’s head, the villagers’ morale soared, and they cheered.

The people from He Village exchanged glances, unsure of how to respond. After all, someone had just shot an arrow with such precision if she wanted to take their lives, it would be as easy as flipping a hand.

Looking at the tall, burly figures of the leaders, the one in charge suppressed his rising anger and stared at the villagers, saying, “What do you think you’re doing? Are you trying to kill someone? What, is your village now justified in forcibly taking water sources? We agreed to release water every ten days, and now it’s been five days, but Liu Mingchang is still watering his fields. Do the people of our village not need to farm or eat?”

Zhang Laowu retorted without hesitation, “If you’re looking for Liu Mingchang, go find him. Why come here and talk nonsense about flattening our Daliushu Village?”

“We made it clear when we arrived tell Liu Mingchang to come out. You’re the ones blocking us, can we be blamed for that?” the leader snapped angrily.

The village head said, “That’s not possible. The world is in chaos, and outsiders cannot enter the village at will. It’s fine for one or two of you to come in to find someone, but twenty of you coming in like this, how can we know your intentions?”

The leader sneered and mocked, “Still saying you’re not protecting Liu Mingchang? What, is he your godfather or something? Why are you all protecting him like he’s your real father? Did he give you money or food?”

Hearing this, Pear Blossom grew displeased and said to Zhang Laowu, “Uncle Wu, please ride over to find Liu Mingchang and bring him here. Grievances have a source, and debts have a creditor. Let them solve it themselves.”

Zhang Laowu immediately followed Pear Blossom’s instructions, grabbing a horse and riding off toward Liu’s family.

Pear Blossom turned to the people from He Village and said, “You can find Liu Mingchang to solve your problem, that’s none of my business. But if you’ve broken our village’s wooden door, then that’s your fault, and you need to fix it!”

The people from He Village looked at each other, and then bursts of laughter erupted. “Haha! You want us to fix the door? What a joke! Little girl, don’t think you’re so impressive just because of that arrow. Do the people of Daliushu Village listen to a girl’s orders? We don’t buy that!”

Ignoring the surrounding chatter, Pear Blossom walked straight ahead, approaching the man who had spoken. She asked coldly, “Did you break the door?”

The man snorted arrogantly, “So what if I did?”

“Fix the door!” Pear Blossom said coldly. “If you don’t, then pay silver. Ten taels for a door. If you don’t fix it, you won’t leave here today.”

The man scoffed, “Oh, I don’t want to leave! What if I don’t fix it? You must have slept with the men in your village to get them to listen to you. How about you sleep with me for one night, and I’ll have someone fix the door for you—”

Before he could finish, he received a resounding slap across the face! The force was so strong that his jaw dislocated, and he couldn’t get it back into place. This showed just how powerful Pear Blossom’s slap was!

“You can’t spit out anything good from a dog’s mouth!” Pear Blossom said as she raised her hand again, slapping him on the other side. His jaw was dislocated once more, and his entire head twisted sideways!

Everyone gasped in shock!

A man nearby, seeing his comrade being beaten, rushed forward, shaking his fist and charging at Pear Blossom.

When Dagen saw this, he quickly stepped forward, blocking the punch. His solid shoulder knocked the man back a full yard.

Pear Blossom said coldly, “Don’t drink the wine of the wrong kind. You’re looking for Liu Mingchang? Go ahead, we won’t interfere. But if you make trouble for others, we won’t be polite. Got it?”

The other villagers, hearing this, raised their wooden sticks and shouted, striking an imposing stance.

This was the result of several months of training in the village, and with the shout, they looked quite formidable. The twenty or so people on the other side took a few steps back, intimidated by their display.

“Fix the door—fix the door!” the villagers shouted in unison!

At this moment, Zhang Laowu returned on horseback, with Liu Laoye and his three sons following closely behind in another carriage.

The leader, seeing the situation, snorted and said, “I’ll deal with the main person first, then take care of you all!”

With that, he strode forward, grabbing Old man Liu from the cart and dragging him to the front of the crowd.

“Liu Mingchang, explain this—how was the water usage agreement between the two villages made?” The leader glared and loudly questioned. “One village takes turns every ten days, and now it’s been fifteen days. Why are you still monopolizing the water channel? Have you no shame?”

Old man Liu’s face turned pale. He knew he had taken advantage, but the other side hadn’t sent anyone to take over when it was their turn. He didn’t want to waste the water flowing into the empty creek, so he just kept diverting it to his own fields.

Annoyed, he replied, “In the past, your village would always come on time to open the gate. There was never any reason for me to open it. When it was our turn every ten days, we always opened it ourselves. If you didn’t open it, how is that my fault?”

The leader sneered and said, “Whether we open it or not is our business, but the gate on your side is lower. If you don’t close your gate, the water won’t flow to us. If you close your gate, even if we don’t open ours, the water will still flow over here!”

Liu Youyin angrily retorted, “That’s nonsense! The pond can’t even hold the water! If you don’t open it, the water will just waste away in the dry riverbed.”

Someone from He Village spoke up, asserting, “We went to open the gate on the tenth, but because you didn’t close your gate, the water couldn’t flow over here.”

Liu Youyin fired back, “You say you opened it? Who knows when you actually did? When we went yesterday, the gate was still closed!”

“So you admit you went to check the gate yesterday?” The He Village person grinned, “Isn’t that knowingly breaking the rules?”

Old man Liu was left speechless, only able to say, “What do you want?”

“Compensation!” The leader said bluntly. “Our crops have all withered because we couldn’t irrigate. You must compensate us with a year’s worth of grain!”

Upon hearing this, everyone gasped. This was clearly extortion! The people from He Village must have come up with this idea because they couldn’t afford grain due to the skyrocketing prices. Everyone knew that the Liu family from Daliushu Village was wealthy. They had already extorted two other villages and now, tasting the rewards, they were causing trouble here.

Old man Liu trembled with rage. “Five days without irrigation and the crops wouldn’t die. If you want a year’s worth of grain, forget it! I can only pay for the water for these five days, at most one or two silver coins.”

The He Village people laughed at the mention of one or two silver coins, as if hearing the biggest joke.

“Liu Mingchang, you think you’re dealing with beggars? Our crops are all dead, and you offer us a mere one or two silver coins? Dream on! Let me tell you, a village’s yearly grain supply is two thousand stones of grain. If you don’t come up with two thousand stones, get ready to pay with the lives of your thirty family members!”

The leader added, “By the way, this door was broken. You can use it to offset five stones of rice, not counting the current grain prices. That should be fair enough!”

Old man Liu was nearly stunned into unconsciousness. Pointing at them, he said, “The water gate issue is your problem for not opening the gate! What does it have to do with me? Even if you want to argue, I’m willing to pay for the water, but two thousand stones of grain is impossible!”

Several of his sons also angrily shouted, and the two sides exchanged insults.

The leader responded, “I’ve said my piece. If you don’t prepare the grain within three days, I’ll send people to collect. You know the people from Eagle’s Nest Ridge, right? Don’t blame us if this turns into a deadly affair.”

He waved his hand at his men. “Brothers, let’s go!”

Old man Liu’s legs buckled, and he collapsed to the ground.