RUHIP Chapter 016

Lin Ye did not pay any attention to him. Instead, he looked toward the other people nearby. Among them were several people who had a good relationship with Lin Ye. Looking at them, Lin Ye said, “Please, could a few of you go to the Dong family and invite Dong Suisui here?”

San Zi and the others glanced at Lin Ye. They all knew what kind of person Lin Ye was, so they immediately turned around and headed toward the Dong family.

Everyone was confused about how this matter had become connected to the Dong family. Although they were full of questions, they still looked as though they were waiting to see what kind of drama would unfold.

Because an incident like this could damage the village’s reputation, the village chief and the old village chief had both come. Even several highly respected elders had come as well.

The village chief looked at Lin Ye and said, “Our Yunjia Village is not unreasonable. If you can properly explain what happened today, we are not people who refuse to listen to reason.”

Lin Ye bowed respectfully toward the village chief. “I am an outsider who came here as a refugee. Even if you gave me ten times the courage, I would never dare cause trouble in Yunjia Village. I was drugged with a knockout drug and an aphrodisiac. Village Chief, you can ask the old doctor to come and examine me.”

Drugged?

The previously quiet crowd became restless again.

Even the old village chief and the old patriarch’s expressions changed.

If this were simply a case of being caught having an affair, the matter would be relatively easy to deal with. But if someone had framed him or deliberately plotted against him, then the nature of the matter would be completely different.

It had not been long since the previous incident in which Yun Dali’s family had framed Yun Jiu. And now something like this had happened again. This year, Yunjia Village really seemed to be plagued by one disaster after another—and all of them were caused by people.

Everyone looked at Lin Ye’s exceptionally handsome face and suddenly had the feeling that he was a source of trouble simply because of his beauty.

In fact, their intuition was correct. However, this incident was not merely because Lin Ye was handsome. The main reason was that Lin Ye’s family had too much money. Because of that, certain people became envious and greedy, which eventually led to the whole farce.

As for most of the ge’ers in Yunjia Village, many of them were actually interested in Lin Ye because of his family’s wealth. It was not necessarily because of Lin Ye himself that they kept pestering him. This was also why Lin Ye disliked them.

In fact, the feeling they gave Lin Ye was exactly the same as the feeling he had gotten from his relatives and friends in the apocalypse. They all looked at him with eyes that saw something to be gained from him, treating him well with ulterior motives.

Lin Ye was truly sick of all of this. He wished he could tear away the false faces they wore one by one.

Only Yun Jiu was different. His eyes were clear and pure, containing nothing but the simplest and most sincere affection for Lin Ye.

After the old doctor was brought over, he checked Lin Ye’s pulse.

The diagnosis confirmed what Lin Ye had said: he had indeed been drugged.

Lin Ye’s supernatural ability had never been particularly stable. After being forcibly given two different drugs one after another, he had then used his ability to protect Yun Jiu. As a result, before he had time to completely clear the drugs from his body, his ability had gone out of control again. Therefore, some of the drug’s effects still remained in his body, which actually helped him quite a bit.

Someone could not help asking, “Then why are you so certain that Dong Suisui did it? Clearly, you were the one who had a relationship with Yun Jiu.”

Lin Ye suddenly turned his eyes toward the person who had spoken.

That person was startled by his gaze.

His name was Yun Erzhuang, a member of the Yun clan and a man in his thirties.

After looking at him, Lin Ye calmly said, “I happened to walk onto a small path nearby and encountered a man I had never seen before. That man suddenly called out to me. Because I was caught off guard, I was drugged with a knockout drug.

“Fortunately, I didn’t inhale much of the drug at the time. It only made my body temporarily weak. That man carried me to the small, run-down hut near Yun Jiu’s house, and Yun Jiu happened to see us. Yun Jiu followed him and then happened to witness Dong Suisui giving me medicine. After Dong Suisui realized that someone had discovered what they were doing, he fled with that man. And then… then the effects of the medicine took hold of me, and I… I…”

Speaking of it, Lin Ye felt truly ashamed.

“But because of what happened, I was the one who caused Yun Jiu to lose his chastity. In order to protect the reputation of Yunjia Village and Yun Jiu’s reputation, I am willing to marry Yun Jiu and bring him into the Lin family.”

Most of what Lin Ye said was true. To avoid unnecessary trouble afterwards, he did not go into detail about what had happened.

However, everyone’s attention was focused on his final sentence. Regardless of whether what Lin Ye had said was true or not, the matter of him marrying Yun Jiu was now, no matter what, a settled fact.

Yun Jiu was such an ugly ge’er who had also lost his husband. He could not possibly be considered a match for Lin Ye. Even if he were merely to become Lin Ye’s concubine, he would still be considered unworthy. Yet Lin Ye was now actually going to marry him.

How could the ge’ers of Yunjia Village not be heartbroken?

When San Zi and the others returned, they told everyone a shocking piece of news:

Dong Suisui had disappeared together with Dong Erzhuang.

According to Lin Ye’s account, the unfamiliar man he had mentioned was very likely Dong Erzhuang. There were originally still some people who did not believe Lin Ye, but now the two members of the Dong family had suddenly fled because they felt guilty. This completely showed that they had a guilty conscience.

At the same time, it also proved that Lin Ye and Yun Jiu had been wrongfully accused.

After hearing this, the old village chief’s expression softened somewhat. He had never believed that Yun Jiu, that child, would do such a thing.

Now that everything had become clear, Yun Jiu had merely been an innocent person caught up in the situation.

Although it seemed pitiful that Yun Jiu had lost his chastity, for Yun Jiu himself, this was actually a good thing. Since this was not a case of the two of them having an affair, the punishment could be made lighter. Moreover, Lin Ye had now said that he was willing to take responsibility for Yun Jiu, which made the matter even easier to resolve.

To reassure Lin Ye, the village chief said angrily, “The people from the Dong family will all be taken to the ancestral hall later. Raising two children like this—they have become completely lawless.”

The old patriarch nodded.

“The Dong family has done something like this. They cannot be treated leniently. It would be best to drive the entire family out of Yunjia Village. People like this cannot remain in Yunjia Village.”

This answer did not reassure the ge’ers of Yunjia Village at all.

Yun Mengyang worriedly patted Yun Xiaohua on the shoulder, only to see a fierce hatred flash across Yun Xiaohua’s pale face, which startled Yun Mengyang badly.

Yun Xiaohua thought to himself: I knew that Dong Suisui wasn’t up to anything good. He actually wanted to obtain Lin Ye through such a despicable method? But the most hateful one is Yun Jiu.

In Yun Xiaohua’s eyes, Yun Jiu was the most scheming person of all.

“It must have been Yun Jiu taking advantage of the situation. He saw that Brother Lin Ye had been drugged, so he took advantage of the opportunity to… Anyway, he’s just a shameless person.”

Yun Xiaohua was extremely angry. Once he said this, the others immediately felt that it was very possible. As if they had suddenly been incited, several ge’ers could no longer hold themselves back. They surrounded the elders and began crying and complaining.

“That’s right, that’s right. Village Chief Grandpa, it must have been Yun Jiu who saw that Lin Ye had been drugged and took the opportunity to take advantage of him. Otherwise… otherwise Lin Ye wouldn’t have to marry him.”

“Exactly. He usually looks like such an honest person, but who would have thought he was actually so scheming?”

Compared with those heartbroken ge’ers, the hanzi were actually quite happy inside. Now that Lin Ye was going to marry that ugly ge’er, no one would compete with them for the other ge’ers anymore.

A baby-faced ge’er moved close to the village chief and complained tearfully, “Village Chief, someone like Yun Jiu cannot be allowed to stay here. He is taking advantage of Lin Ye’s kindness.”

That ge’er’s A-mo immediately agreed with him. As his mother, she naturally knew what his son was thinking. “Exactly, Village Chief. If Yun Jiu’s behavior is copied by the other ge’ers, then won’t our Yunjia Village lose its reputation?”

Seeing that the mother was trying to make the matter more serious, Lin Ye was just about to speak up for Yun Jiu when Lin A-mo stopped him with a slightly stern look.

Given the current situation, if Lin Ye spoke up for Yun Jiu, he would only make matters worse. It would also cause Yun Jiu to attract even more hatred.

Actually, this was just like a modern couple having a quarrel. If a boyfriend cheated on his girlfriend and had an affair with another woman, the girlfriend would usually hate the other woman to death. The more the boyfriend tried to protect the other woman, the more the girlfriend would want to tear her apart.

These ge’ers all wanted to marry Lin Ye. Although Lin Ye had rejected them before, at that time he did not have anyone he liked. So they felt that they still had a chance.

But now that something like this had suddenly happened, the more Lin Ye spoke up for Yun Jiu, the more intense their hatred toward Yun Jiu would become.

Lin A-mo glanced at the person who had spoken and then said, “What this A-mo said is reasonable. After all, this matter has damaged the reputation of our village. Although it is not serious enough to deserve death, punishment is still unavoidable. How about giving each of them twenty strokes of the cane? I have heard other A-mos say that our Yunjia Village had such a precedent before.”

In the past, there had also been a young couple in Yunjia Village whose fathers and A-mos did not agree to them being together. The two of them therefore went ahead and slept together before marriage. After the matter became known, everyone felt that punishing them would be too cruel, but if they were not punished, they were afraid that other hanzi and ge’ers might imitate them in the future. Therefore, each of them was given twenty strokes of the cane as a warning to others.

Lin A-mo was using this as a strategy of retreat in order to advance.

Since those ge’ers wanted to make the matter bigger, he would suggest that Lin Ye be severely beaten instead. Based on Lin A-mo’s understanding of Lin Ye, Lin Ye would certainly take all the punishment of the caning upon himself. Once those ge’ers who still wanted to cause trouble saw that it was Lin Ye who would suffer, they would more or less restrain themselves. Although this method would make Lin Ye suffer, it was indeed very effective.

After hearing Lin A-m0’s suggestion, the ge’ers who had originally wanted to say more suddenly fell silent.

Yun Xu-Shi, however, still looked unwilling to let the matter go. “Hmph. Even if it was an accident, wasn’t it still an affair? Oh my, men and ge’ers these days really have no shame. If it were me, I would have been so ashamed and humiliated that I would have already smashed my head against a wall and died.”

Yun Xiaohua had a lot of anger bottled up inside with nowhere to vent it. Upon hearing this, he could not help but mock him sarcastically, “Even Yun Jiu is better than you. Who would ever take a liking to someone as vicious and cold-hearted as you?”

Yun Xu-shi, being ridiculed by someone younger than him, widened his eyes and was about to get into a physical fight with Yun Xiaohua.

Yun Xiaohua’s A-mo pulled him behind him and fearlessly stared Yun Xu-shi down. “Look, look, look? What are you staring at? You really should be so ashamed and humiliated that you bang your head against a wall and die. After all, not just anyone can raise a ge’er like that!”

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