CHAPTER 415: CHAPTER 408: GAO YUZHU ACTS LIKE A RASCAL

After a while, Qinghua, who was cleaning the pigsty with Hetian Man Yin in the backyard, also furiously picked up a pole and left. Tian Sisi, who had been stunned for a moment, slapped her thigh and hurriedly rode the tricycle to catch up. On the road, she ran into Tian Jinhua and his wife returning home with their load. They asked Tian Sisi what was going on.

Tian Sisi briefly explained the situation. Tian Jinhua handed his load to Zhu Qingping and also stormed off angrily. Like this, as Tian Sisi walked and talked, she managed to persuade Tian Mantu to go to the field as well.

By the time Tian Sisi finally ran to her own family’s contracted field, a crowd had already gathered. She just happened to hear Zhu Aiqing’s loud cursing: "Gao Yuzhu, did my crabs offend you? Why did you have to spray that pesticide into my field? Have you been eating with your ass all these years?"

"Which eye of yours saw me spraying the pesticide into your field?" Gao Yuzhu still refused to admit it.

"Pah! Gao Yuzhu, you scoundrel. Ah Nan and Donghua saw you do it with their own eyes, and you still deny it. I reckon for the past few decades you have been eating grass?"

"Just because your son and daughter said they saw it, does that make it true? There’s an old saying, ’To catch a thief, you need to show the goods they stole.’ Do you have any evidence? Without evidence, don’t slander people. Don’t think that just because your family has members in public service, we don’t too. My daughter and son-in-law are also in public service, and my son-in-law even works at the Police Station!"

Gao Yuzhu wasn’t the least bit guilty, insisting that the Tian Family had no evidence and were framing him on purpose, his shamelessness plain to see. Tian Sisi couldn’t help feeling an urge to punch him.

Seeing Zhu Aiqing at a loss for words, Gao Yuzhu was extremely pleased with himself. So what about the high and mighty Tian Family? Don’t they get pushed around by him just the same? Heh-heh, tomorrow he would try another pesticide and spray it in their fish ponds.

Gao Yuzhu did it deliberately. Although his eldest daughter and son-in-law had become public servants, which made him feel proud, he knew that it was all just a facade.

His eldest daughter was somewhat indifferent by nature. She never had a deep bond with her family and, since she went to college, hardly ever came home or took money from the family. It was almost as if she had cut ties with her natal family.

If it hadn’t been for her need for her parents to be present at her wedding, Gao Yuzhu knew that Qiao Mei would have never returned. Thus, his eldest daughter could only bring some superficial glamour to him, and the hardship was something only he himself knew.

As he got older, and without any other skills besides farming, he couldn’t think of where else to find money. His two sons were growing up, and it was about time to find wives for them. There were so many expenses at home, and life was getting tighter and tighter by the day.

But other families had been gradually getting better over these years, especially the once-poorest wealthy farmer, Zhong Shigen’s family. With the father and son’s carpentry skills, they had now become one of the wealthiest families in the village.

And then there was the Tian Family. Although the Tian Family had always been one of the top families in the village, that was because of Mr. Tian. Tian Manjin himself wasn’t much to speak of, and Gao Yuzhu always thought himself many times better than Tian Manjin.

But now Tian Manjin had contracted that fish pond. At first, people in the village laughed at him for taking on something beyond his means, including Gao Yuzhu, who laughed the hardest. But now everyone could only be envious of Tian Manjin’s family behind their backs.

Every day people came to buy fish, sometimes dozens or hundreds of pounds at a time. Even if they sold for just one yuan per pound, that was still several hundred yuan. His own family wouldn’t earn a few hundred yuan in a month, and even with Qiao Mei teaching in the city, her monthly salary was only 38 yuan.

Qiao Mei explained it was because she had a junior college degree; if she had a bachelor’s degree, it would be 46 yuan. When he first heard about these salaries, he was shocked, thinking it was quite easy money. But now, looking at the Tian Family, it seemed that their earnings were truly easy money!

Gao Yuzhu, already consumed by envy and hatred for the Tian Family’s prosperity, felt his jealousy sprout up rapidly like bamboo shoots after spring rain, unstoppable, upon seeing Tian Manjin coin money day after day.

Consequently, he came up with the idea of poisoning the crabs with some kind of liquid solution. At first, he was quite afraid while doing it, but after a few times, seeing that the Tian Family had no reaction, his courage grew steadily.

Previously, he only dared to stealthily add the liquid at night, but now, emboldened, he even dared to do it in broad daylight. To his surprise, he was caught red-handed by Tian Donghua and Sisi mere moments after he started.

But Gao Yuzhu was not the least bit scared; without evidence, what did it matter if Tian Donghua and Tian Sisi witnessed it? No one else had seen it after all, and all he needed to do was to deny it to death.

This idea of demanding evidence was something his son-in-law had mentioned upon returning home. At the time, he took it to heart, feeling that this was a good rule by the state, wasn’t everything about having evidence?

"Gao Yuzhu, you really have become utterly shameless with age. All my family’s crabs have died, and you still lie through your teeth, pah, I’ve never seen anyone as shameless as you."

Zhu Aiqing was so furious that her whole body trembled. She couldn’t bother arguing with Gao Yuzhu anymore, snatched a sickle, and swung it towards him.

Gao Yuzhu was startled and hurriedly ran off barefoot with his heavy pesticide kit. But the kit weighed over a dozen pounds and holding the spray nozzle made running inconvenient, so it wasn’t long before Zhu Aiqing almost caught up to him.

"The Tian Family is committing murder! There’s no justice! No law!"

Gao Yuzhu was genuinely panicked now, fleeing for his life while shouting loudly. His cries were somewhat comic, provoking laughter from the villagers watching the scene.

Tian Manjin and Tian Mantu had also arrived and, seeing that Zhu Aiqing had the upper hand, they relaxed and watched the scene calmly.

In the end, Zhu Aiqing managed to catch up with Gao Yuzhu, hitting him several times with the back of the sickle. His cries for his mother made him seem nothing like a man.

After venting her anger, Zhu Aiqing spat at Gao Yuzhu and walked back with her sickle, while Gao Yuzhu followed, wailing.

"Oh no, I’m done for, my bones are broken, I can’t work anymore, Tian Manjin, your wife injured me, you have to compensate me."

Seeing Tian Manjin and the others, Gao Yuzhu quickly sat on the ground and began to act shamelessly, insisting that Zhu Aiqing had injured him and that the Tian Family owed him medical expenses.

"Gao Yuzhu, you still want medical expenses? Then how do you plan to compensate for our family’s crabs?"

Tian Manjin stood over Gao Yuzhu, looking down at him with disdain. This Gao Yuzhu really had no shame, a grown man like a woman, always thinking of taking advantage.

"Your crabs dying has nothing to do with me. Listen here, Tian Manjin, don’t think that just because your family has money and power, you can disregard us common folk. Hmph, I’m not afraid of the Tian Family!" Gao Yuzhu yelled, neck stiff, in a defiant Never Surrender stance.