A rainy night.
In the deep night sky, thunder rumbled loudly.
From time to time, accompanied by a thunderbolt, like a golden dragon sweeping across the firmament, illuminating the human world brightly.
Over a dozen crows squatted on the tree branches, tilting their heads, occasionally blinking their eyes.
Watching two sneaky figures walking from afar in the rain.
"Brother, can just the two of us do it? We can't do much in one night, right?" The slightly shorter figure shook off the rainwater seeping down from his coir raincoat.
The bamboo hat couldn't completely block the rainwater, which flowed all over his face.
The figure beside him, half a head taller, snorted, "It only counts if the reclamation rate is over eighty percent. Ruining twenty percent of an acre for him is enough."
"That's true."
These two people were naturally Li Tianjian's two sons.
As early as when Chu Xun was going to reclaim thirty acres of wasteland, the two bad boys had set their minds on an idea.
No matter what, they couldn't let Chu Xun finish it!
Why should he live better than our old Li family? Back then, he even ate the food our Li family gave out in charity!
There was no other reason, just purely seeing you live well made them unhappy in their hearts.
Most importantly, Li Tianjian's wife had secretly told them.
If Chu Xun's wasteland reclamation went poorly, when the land surveying clerk came down to inspect, Li Shoutian would also be punished along with him.
If they could get his Village Chief position revoked, no matter what, Li Tianjian would have to take the position, right?
Hearing these words, the two bad brats had long been unable to hold back.
Taking advantage of the heavy rain late at night, the day before the land surveying clerk came to inspect, they came to deliberately cause trouble.
As they walked, they picked up stones and tree branches by the roadside and continuously threw them into the fields.
Wherever they walked, they poked around randomly with tree branches.
Making a mess of the fields that had already been sown.
Although the rain was so heavy it seemed like there was a hole in the sky, the two of them enjoyed it tirelessly.
The dozen or so crows on the tree tilted their heads and stared at the two for a long time. One of them suddenly cawed out loud.
The other dozen or so immediately responded, and then flapped their wings and flew up one after another.
In the rainy night, like black lightning, they pounced straight at the two bad boys.
The two were still immersed in the joy of destroying the results of Chu Xun's wasteland reclamation and their dad being about to become the Village Chief.
Caught off guard, they were pounced on by the crows, who pecked fiercely at their heads and bodies.
There were also crows that picked up stones and tree branches from the ground, swooped down from high in the sky, and smashed the things down hard.
Their size wasn't large, but when they pecked people, it also hurt.
Coupled with the falling stones and tree branches, before the two could react, their bamboo hats had already been knocked off, and their heads were smashed until they rang with a bang.
"Damn beasts, get lost!"
The two fought back in a flurry, but to no avail.
The crows dodged very smartly. When the two lowered their hands to pick up their bamboo hats, they immediately started attacking again.
After doing this two or three times, they made them ache all over.
How could they still care about causing trouble? While cursing loudly, they fled towards the direction of the village.
The crows pursued relentlessly behind them until the two panicked and ran back into the house and closed the door, then they landed one after another on the eaves.
Cawing, they looked down from above.
It seemed that if anyone wanted to go out, they would immediately teach them another lesson.
Li Tianjian's wife came out from the inner room. Seeing that both her sons had wounds on their heads, continuously bleeding mixed with rainwater, she immediately panicked.
"What happened? Did you fall?"
The eldest son, Li Sanjing, had one eye pecked so badly he couldn't open it. His face was also torn with several wounds by crow claws, and a large chunk of his hair was pulled out.
It hurt so much he kept crying out, "I don't know where these crows came from, acting like they're crazy, it hurts to death!"
The younger son, Li Mangu, wasn't much better off. His face was covered in blood, the back of his hand was scratched raw, and he cried with a handful of tears and snot from the pain.
Li Tianjian's wife watched with a face full of heartache and cursed, "My poor sons, where did these beasts come from! It's all Chu Xun's fault!"
She wouldn't think that it was because she encouraged her sons to do bad things that they got hurt.
She only thought that if it weren't for Chu Xun, this wouldn't have happened.
Li Tianjian also came out from the inner room. Seeing his two sons injured like this, he was immediately somewhat dumbfounded.
Of course he knew what his two sons went out to do in the middle of the night. He had kept quiet all along, treating it as tacit consent.
Who could have imagined that the job wasn't finished, yet they were injured like thisβa standard case of trying to steal a chicken only to end up losing the rice used to lure it.
At this time, a crackling sound came from the roof.
The crows didn't wait for anyone to come out, so they brought stones from outside the courtyard and smashed them down.
Thanks to the family property accumulated by the old father back then, the old Li family's house was one of the rare brick and tile houses in the village.
Being smashed by stones like this, it immediately made a banging sound, and soon the tiles were smashed to pieces.
The pattering rainwater flowed down along the cracks.
Li Tianjian's wife was so angry she picked up a broom, jumped up, and waved it to drive them away, but it had no effect at all.
The crows ran away after smashing, not landing at all.
Making her so angry her lungs were about to explode!
"Damn beasts!"
The rumbling thunder covered up her cursing.
The crows circled and hovered in mid-air, their cawing sounds endless.
The next day.
Chu Xun was woken up early in the morning by Zhang Anxiu. Today the land surveying clerk was coming to inspect, and she couldn't wait any longer.
Chu Xun couldn't help but laugh. Although the rain had stopped now, it rained so heavily last night that the land surveying clerk probably wouldn't come too early.
But Zhang Anxiu couldn't hold her patience and insisted on calling him to go wait in the fields first.
What if the land surveying clerk came early?
Li Shoutian also came early in the morning. Today was very important; it concerned whether the year's wasteland reclamation was smooth.
If completed well, he would have an account to give to the county office.
If completed poorly, and the lords blamed him, he wouldn't be able to bear the consequences.
Entering the courtyard, Li Shoutian first cheerfully congratulated Chu Xun that he was about to get thirty acres of farmland.
At the same time, he mentioned a strange matter, "I don't know what happened at my eldest brother's house, but they provoked a flock of crows. They carried stones all night and smashed the tiles on the roof to pieces."
"The couple plus the two children were drenched in rain all night. Right now, they're busy repairing the roof while cursing."
Chu Xun's heart stirred upon hearing this. That flock of crows outside the village were old acquaintances; they wouldn't attack people for no reason.
Li Shoutian's family must have done something to make the crows unhappy.
What could they have done?
Chu Xun's mind turned, and he thought of the thirty acres of land he had reclaimed.
Recently, the crows had been roosting near those thirty acres of land. Could it be that they saw something last night?
Thinking of this, Chu Xun waited until he finished breakfast, then took Zhang Sanchun and Zhang Anxiu, and went to the fields together with Li Shoutian.
Arriving there, Zhang Anxiu saw the fields ruined into a mess and immediately got angry.
"Who is so wicked, throwing so many stones into the field and messing around!"
Li Shoutian also frowned as he watched, gritting his teeth and cursing, "Which heartless beast played such a dirty trick, aren't they afraid of being struck by lightning!"
Whether the wasteland reclamation went smoothly had a great impact on him.
If the lords really blamed him, not being able to be the Village Chief was secondary; holding him accountable for incompetence would be terrible.
Only Chu Xun understood in his heart. No wonder the crows went to smash the tiles of Li Tianjian's house overnight.
If he guessed correctly, it should be that their family came to cause trouble in the middle of the night and was discovered by the crows, right?
Perhaps in the eyes of Li Tianjian's family, it was already a very suffering matter.
But they didn't know that they should actually feel lucky.
If those two large snakes had also come, it wouldn't just be as simple as having their tiles smashed; maybe the white-haired would have to send off the black-haired.
(End of Chapter)