Chapter 148 Property Deed Land Deed

Gu Dewang pounced over to search He Sanlai’s body, rummaging and asking at the same time, "Where’s the candy? You bought a pack of candy with ten pieces in it, and I’ve only eaten three."

Hearing this, He Sanlai almost died of anger, enduring the pain of his dislocated arm and cursed, "You little bastard, you’re a ruthless killer, after swindling me, you still hanker for my candy. The candy is gone, don’t even think about eating it!"

Gu Dewang didn’t believe him; he searched him for a while, and after not finding anything, he continued along the path until he finally found the rest of the pack of caramel under a pit.

Gu Dewang squinted with a smile, took out a piece of caramel and stuffed it into his mouth, then mumbled to Qin San Lang, "Brother San Lang, I found the candy, here, you can have some."

Saying that, he grabbed a piece of dirty caramel and quickly ran over to Qin San Lang, extending the caramel to him.

Qin San Lang glanced at the caramel in his hand with an unchanged expression and said, "You eat it yourself."

"Eh, then I’ll just eat it myself." Gu Dewang was very happy, since Brother San Lang didn’t eat candy, he could eat one more piece himself.

Gu Dewang, eating candy, taunted He Sanlai, "Bad guy, you still want to use candy to trick me? How much does a pack of candy even cost? Sister Xiao Yu can help my family make more than a tael of silver a day."

His mom had said, no matter who instigated it, he and his brothers must not oppose Sister Xiao Yu. Sister Xiao Yu was like a gold ingot. If they offended her, their families wouldn’t make any money.

He Sanlai’s arm hurt tremendously, constantly drawing in cold breath, and cursed, "Who exactly is deceiving whom? It’s obviously you, kid, who deceived me!"

"Hey hey, gently, gently. Brother Qin, I really don’t have any ill intentions, I have something important to tell Sister Xiao Yu," He Sanlai inhaled sharply because of the pain, the dislocated hand aching unbearably every time it moved.

Qin San Lang couldn’t be bothered to listen to He Sanlai’s nonsense and pushed him towards his home.

The woods were about a fifteen-minute walk from the Qin family courtyard, and they quickly arrived.

When Qin San Lang returned to the Qin family house with He Sanlai, Gu Jinli was already waiting in the courtyard, holding a dagger in her hand, swinging it while smiling at He Sanlai.

He Sanlai remembered what Gu Jinli had said while beating him up that night, felt a chill, and uncontrollably started shaking, taking a while before he said, "Third Grandma, Third Grandma spare me, I really have something important, no other bad intentions."

"Something important?" Gu Jinli let out a cold laugh: "An important matter that needs you to run to the woods alone to say? You must be out of your mind."

He Sanlai was always sneaky, how could he think of doing something openly and aboveboard? He thought that passing secret messages and the like should naturally be done quietly.

He Sanlai wanted to explain, but before he could open his mouth, Gu Dewang ran over, offering a piece of candy to Gu Jinli: "Sister Xiao Yu, this is the candy that He Sanlai tried to deceive me with, do you want to eat it?"

Gu Jinli looked at the candy covered in black ash and saliva, declined politely: "I don’t want it, you eat."

"Eh!" Gu Dewang was over the moon, Brother San Lang and Sister Xiao Yu both didn’t eat this candy, so as long as he saved one piece for Brother Fa, Sister Yu Mei, and Brother Dexing each, he could gobble up seven pieces himself, just thinking about it made him happy.

Gu Dewang stood to the side, watching He Sanlai’s awkwardness, happily devouring his candy.

Gu Jinli looked at He Sanlai and said, "Speak if you have something to say, fart if you have to, don’t wait for us to interrogate you."

She smiled and warned He Sanlai, "Don’t give me any nonsense or lies; Granny doesn’t like to hear either, so speak quickly!"

"Eh eh, I’ll talk, I’ll talk right away." Having seen Gu Jinli’s ruthlessness, He Sanlai did not dare to hide anything as he angered her, saying immediately: "Lu Dezhu from the east of the village—that hunchbacked Lu Tuozhi—left the village early this morning, supposedly to handle housing and land deeds in the county. The very deeds he’s going to handle concern the old houses where your families live!"

Qin San Lang and Gu Jinli both shuddered upon hearing this.

Their families’ old houses had yet to have their housing and land deeds officially processed at the county government; all they had was a receipt from Village Chief He, proving their families had each spent five taels of silver to buy the mud-brick courtyards in the village.

If Lu Dezhu went to the county and processed the deeds for their homes, they would be driven out; the village’s receipt was no match for the county government’s housing and land deeds.

And earlier, their families had planned to find time to go to the county government to process the housing and land deeds, but they had been too busy lately to get away to the county, which had led to delay after delay until now.

Little did they expect that this delay would lead to such trouble.

Gu Jinli grabbed He Sanlai’s collar and asked, "Did Lu Dezhu go on foot or by cart? Did Lu Laosan provide the money for them to go and process the housing and land deeds at the county government?"

Processing the deeds for several houses would require a considerable amount of silver coins. Knowing that Lu Dezhu’s family was one of the poorest among the Lu Family Clan, it was clear where the money had come from.

Gu Jinli was furious; that despicable Lu Laosan, having not learned his lesson, was pestering their families again.

He Sanlai said, "He walked, he went on foot. Lu Dezhu has always been greedy and stingy; he wouldn’t want to spend money on a cart." Taking a cart to the county and back would cost twenty copper coins, after all.

Gu Jinli let go of He Sanlai and said to Qin San Lang, "Brother Qin, go borrow a cart from Village Chief He’s house. I’ll go find Third Grandpa and the others, tell them about this, and take the receipt Village Chief He gave us. Let’s hurry to the county and process the housing and land deeds before Lu Dezhu does."

"Alright, you go talk to Third Grandpa and the others quickly." Qin San Lang said, lifting He Sanlai’s arm and with a snap, setting He Sanlai’s dislocated arm back in place.

He Sanlai screamed in pain but after the pain subsided, his arm was better.

After setting He Sanlai’s arm, Qin San Lang darted out of the courtyard, running to Village Chief He’s house as swift as an arrow.

Village Chief He had been having good days lately, making a few hundred copper coins daily by selling tofu. At the moment, he was with his grandson in the courtyard, arranging farm tools in preparation for spring plowing. Seeing Qin San Lang rushing in, he asked, "Brother Qin, what’s wrong?"

Qin San Lang explained the situation with Lu Dezhu, and Village Chief He was quite angry: "That damned Lu Family, how can they stoop to such despicable tricks? They already sold the houses to you; how can they go process your families’ housing and land deeds at the county government?"

This was nothing short of seizing houses with the intention of driving the Qin, Gu, and Luotian families out.

And those old houses at the end of the village had nothing to do with the Lu Family; they belonged to the houses of He Family People. The Lu Family was far too greedy, even plotting to seize the old houses of He Family People.

While Village Chief He cursed, Mrs. Chen also lashed out against the Lu Family: "That damned Lu Family, cursed be they; they want to snatch our houses and leave us with nowhere to stay."

She then worriedly added, "What are we going to do? We’ve finally settled down, but without houses, where are we going to live?"

Having suffered through nearly half a year of famine and finally finding a place to settle, the thought of becoming homeless again caused Mrs. Chen to panic, and even the strong-willed woman could not help but cry.

Third Grandma said, "Stop crying now, who has your household registration and the receipt for buying the house? Was it Da Gui or Da Fu? Hurry and get the receipts and household registrations, let’s go to the county quickly, and process our families’ housing and land deeds before Lu Dezhu."

Now was not the time for tears; any further delay and it would be too late.