Chapter 317

In the curious gazes of everyone, Ding Heli looked first at Fan Jin and his two brothers, and asked firmly, “You say this matter has nothing to do with you, is that right?”

Fan Jin and his brothers were puzzled for a moment, unable to understand what Ding Heli meant. After a brief hesitation, they nodded.

Ding Heli relaxed a bit and walked towards Fan Xiaoliu and the others, saying, “You were just passing by together. The injuries to the villagers have nothing to do with you, nor do the bandits or the money for the medicine. Alright, then the silver on these bandits has nothing to do with you either.”

“Silver?”

“What silver?”

Not only were Fan Jin and his brothers confused, but the others were too. However, the latter quickly caught on and cheered with joy, “That’s great!”

“How much silver?”

Ding Heli held out their palms, which were filled with numerous small silver ingots and a few beautifully embroidered purses.

The embroidery on those purses was exquisite, clearly not belonging to these people!

“Xiaoliu, take these silver coins and go buy the medicine. Pick the best ones. Xu Laosan, you and Li Wu hurry to the yamen and get the officials to come and take these people to the prefectural yamen!” Li Wen gestured towards them, giving instructions.

A quick glance revealed several tens of taels of silver, far more than enough to buy the medicine. They had no intention of returning it to the bandits, nor were they planning to hand it over to the yamen. Buying medicine seemed like the best solution.

As for what might be left after buying the medicine, they would decide later.

Fan Xiaoliu, known as Wu Gousheng among the younger group, was sharp and capable, especially after several trips outside this year which had increased his courage and alertness. Seeing Li Wen’s signal, he immediately understood and replied with a smile, “Alright, Brother Li, we got it!”

“Don’t worry, we’ll make sure to buy the best medicine and use up all this silver!” No matter how much medicine they bought or what they did with it, in the end, this silver would be “used up.”

Fan Jin swallowed and couldn’t help but say, looking at the gleaming silver, “Oh no, with this much silver, there will surely be some left over.”

Ding Heli cut him off, “You said it’s not your concern. Even if there’s some left, you won’t get a share. Why bother?”

Fan Erzhu hurriedly tugged at his father’s sleeve and muttered softly, “Dad, don’t worry about it. Since we don’t have a share, let them buy as they please. It’s best if they spend it all.”

“Medicine can’t be eaten.” Fan Sanzhu laughed heartily at the idea of them buying all the medicine.

Initially, others wondered if buying so much medicine was excessive. However, upon reflection, this money came from the bandits. If they didn’t buy medicine, they’d still have to turn it over to the yamen.

During the gap when the men went back and forth to the prefectural city, Hu Wenhua and Ding Heli stood talking together.

“Wenhua, how did you realize we were being watched?” Ding Heli, relieved that the bandits were tied up and their men were safe, asked curiously.

Hu Wenhua’s face was somewhat pale. He replied respectfully, “There were a lot of people leaving the city, just like the villagers. However, when we went around to buy lime, I noticed someone followed us in and out. It felt suspicious.”

“He didn’t know we were going in to buy lime and followed us in. But that dirt road only leads to a lime kiln, so why wouldn’t he go in to buy lime?”

“Even when we returned to the main road, he still followed us at a distance, occasionally glancing at our group.”

Ding Heli were taken aback!

Just as he was about to praise Hu Wenhua, Ding Heli noticed his unusually pale face, startled. “You, you…”

Hu Wenhua immediately shook his head to indicate, “Uncle Ding, I have a wound on my back, but it’s not serious. You don’t need to tell my brother-in-law, just help me stop the bleeding when the medicine arrives.”

Ding Heli then recalled that Hu Wenhua hadn’t been involved in tying up the bandits or running errands to the prefectural city.

In the past, he had always been the most active in these situations. It turned out he was injured too!

“Alright, you kid, why didn’t you say so? Sit down over there!”

The other unhurt men didn’t stand idly by either. After gathering and counting the bandits’ large knives, they convened for a discussion.

“We’ve got fourteen of them, not as good as ours, but still, they’re knives.”

“A single knife is worth a fair bit of money.”

“If we distribute these, along with what Aunt Shuiqing gave us before, every household except those two will have at least two large knives.”

The difference between having knives and not having them was substantial.

If they hadn’t had knives, or if they hadn’t had so many, it could have been them lying defeated on the ground just now. With more knives in the village, people would be safer.

Wang Laoba gritted his teeth and looked up at Li Wen, saying, “We should keep these fourteen knives to fill our village’s needs.”

Li Wen had the same idea, but he asked, “How can we keep them?”

The yamen officers were coming soon; they could still say they were going to buy medicine to treat the injured with the silver, but there was no reason to keep these knives.

Hong Mancang had an idea. He looked at the group of men and hesitantly asked, “Should I give it a try?”

Li Wen and the others had a particularly good impression of the few men brought by Fan Jin, especially since they hadn’t flinched during the fight just now. The few men cooperated well!

And Feng Da was injured.

They had fought together and fought against the enemy, and their relationships were intense. They were definitely their own people. So they immediately said, “Okay, you go try!”

After hearing this, Hong Mancang went up to the leaders of the bandits and pulled out the hemp cloth from the mouth of one of them. He squatted down and asked, “We have nearly fifty people, and you have only over thirty. How dare you take the initiative against us?”

The thin man had been kicked several times before and did not dare not answer: “We heard that you have a lot of silver on your body and a lot of rabbit meat on your car. We have more than a dozen knives, so we are not afraid of you being empty-handed.”

Where did they think this group of people would have so many knives?

It was more than they had, and longer!

There were even lime, sprinkled in their eyes, very uncomfortable, and they couldn’t even open their eyes. How can I fight?

“Hearing is saying?”

“I don’t know the man. He came over with his head and face covered, and his accent and you don’t like it, like those guys over there.”

Hong Mancang remembered it in his mind. He was ready to go back to the village and then say it out loud. Then he pretended to be angry and said: “You are doing evil with a knife!

Okay, I’ll throw all these knives into the river and see if you can still rely on what you can!”

After that, he grabbed a dozen knives and went to the river ahead.

Wang Laoba’s eyes were bright and praised: “High ah high!”

Far away, Fan Erzhu had a heartache.

Fourteen knives, how much money would they cost to buy? It would be great to secretly bring them back to the village, and Hong Mancang wanted to throw them all into the river!