RUHIP Chapter 010

If Yun Jiu were to go in, he would have to push him with his hands. Given Yun Jiu’s personality, he definitely wouldn’t use his legs against his own A-mo.

Lin Ye had no choice but to step forward himself. When Lin Ye got close to Yun Xu-shi, he suddenly felt something strange. Perhaps because of his vigilance toward the Yun Dali family, Lin Ye rarely released a trace of his ability. So when Yun Xu-shi deliberately threw herself toward him, Lin Ye instantly pulled away from her with a speed that was too fast to react to.

So what everyone saw was Lin Ye just about to walk past, when Yun Xu-shi suddenly lunged forward on his own, and then very awkwardly fell backward by himself.

Lin Ye curved his lips in amusement—this Yun Xu-shi, at his age, was still rather spirited, wasn’t he? To extort him, he even resorted to such a clumsy trick.

Yun Xiaohua was the first to react. Laughing loudly, he pointed at Yun Xu-shi and said, “Haha! You were planning to blackmail Brother Lin Ye, weren’t you? Good thing Brother Lin Ye reacted fast. If it were someone else, seriously, they really might have fallen for that trick.”

Chen Yinling gave a cold sneer, thinking: This Yun Yushan’s A-mo is truly stupid to death. Most of the people present here are ge’ers who like Lin Ye. Whether he succeeds today or not, none of them would take his side. What he’s doing now is just like a clown jumping around—it only adds amusement for everyone else.

Yun Xiaoxiang hurriedly helped Yun Xu-shi up from the ground, and the people around burst into laughter.

“Yeah, that was fake, wasn’t it? If you want to scam someone, at least act a bit more convincing!”

The others chimed in one after another, endlessly. Lin Ye glanced at Yun Jiu, signaling for him to follow.

This time, the two finally entered Yun Dali’s house. But when Lin Ye followed Yun Jiu to where he lived, Lin Ye suddenly stopped walking.

Yun Jiu rubbed his hands a bit awkwardly. “Um… you’d better stay outside. It’s too dirty in there.”

Dirty was an understatement. Even from outside the door, Lin Ye could smell the stench coming from the granary. He never would’ve imagined that Yun Jiu actually slept in such a place.

Lin Ye shook his head at Yun Jiu but still insisted on walking inside. “It’s fine.”

But Yun Xiaoxiang came chasing after them. “All his junk’s already been thrown out by us.”

After saying that, Yun Xiaoxiang pointed toward a pile of clutter near the woodpile in the distance. There were only a few tattered, filthy clothes—one of which had even been shoved under the firewood.

Yun Jiu walked over wanting to pick them up, but Lin Ye stopped him.

“You only have these things?”

Yun Jiu looked over. “I still have a quilt, and one more piece of clothing that doesn’t seem to be here.”

Lin Ye nodded, then turned to look at Yun Xiaoxiang. “Where’s the quilt?”

Yun Xiaoxiang rolled his eyes, lifted his chin, and lazily pointed in a direction. “There, over there.”

Following his finger, Lin Ye saw a filthy dog nest. It seemed that the quilt was no longer salvageable.

Yun Jiu wanted to go over to the dog nest to retrieve the quilt—without it, he would freeze to death.

Lin Ye grabbed him. “Wait.”

Then he pulled Yun Jiu back to Yun Dali’s doorway again. If it were Lin Ye before the apocalypse, he definitely wouldn’t have bothered with such petty matters. But in the apocalypse, all the suffering he had endured had been because of his own concessions. The current Yun Jiu was actually very similar to him—always thinking that certain things weren’t worth fussing over. Yet it was precisely these seemingly unimportant things that allowed others to keep pushing the line.

Lin Ye helping Yun Jiu like this was, in fact, also a way to vent his own frustration—to ease the knot in his heart.

Lin Ye looked coldly at Yun Xu-shi and said, calm and unhurried, “The village chief said before that the consultation and medicine fees for Yun Jiu seeing the doctor would be covered by your family. Now you’ve destroyed Yun Jiu’s clothes and bedding—let’s properly settle this account.”

The moment money was mentioned, Yun Xu-shi started to play dumb. “What money? I don’t remember the village chief saying that.”

Chen Yinling stepped forward a few paces, tilting his head as he looked at Yun Xu-shi and said, “All of us can testify. You agreed to it yourselves. If you dare to deny it, then we’ll just have to invite the village chief over.”

Yun Xiaohua immediately chimed in, “Exactly! So many people here can vouch for it. How shameless can you be, trying to renege on your word? Looks like making your family kneel in the ancestral hall last time was too light a punishment.”

Seeing the others about to call for the village chief, Yun Xu-shi had no choice but to take out a few dozen copper coins and toss them at Lin Ye.

Lin Ye looked at the scattered coins on the ground. “Not enough.”

Hearing that, Yun Xu-shi immediately flared up, sat down on the ground, and started making a scene.

“You bunch of young folks, ganging up to bully an old ge’er like me—such black-hearted brats!!”

Yun Xiaoxiang quickly came out from inside and hurried to support Yun Xu-shi.

“You’ve already taken the money and still won’t leave! Just like a bunch of stinking beggars—you’re just trying to extort more money from us, aren’t you?”

Yun Xiaohua was so angry he laughed, pointing at Yun Xiaoxiang and saying, “Pah! You’re the ones who owe money and still have the nerve to act shameless!”

One of the ge’ers who had come with Lin Ye—and who had a bad relationship with Yun Xiaoxiang—sharply shouted, “Exactly! Yun Xiaoxiang, with your family like this, are your two ge’ers still thinking of getting married? I bet no one would dare to marry ge’er from a family like yours. They’re only fit to end up as servants!”

Could it be that only the Yun Dali family knew how to strike back with a false accusation? These ge’ers were not fools like Yun Jiu—they definitely wouldn’t let themselves be bullied by them.

Yun Xiaoxiang was instantly so angry that he could hardly breathe. That ge’er’s words had hit right at his sore spot.

The most favored one in the Yun Dali family was Yun Yushan, and next was Yun Xiaoshu, the youngest. Before, when Yun Jiu, the eldest, was at home, the one being bullied was Yun Jiu. Now that Yun Jiu was no longer at home, the one who did the most work had become Yun Xiaoxiang. His once fine and delicate fingers had recently grown rough from labor.

A few days ago, Yun Xu-shi and Yun Dali had even secretly discussed marrying Yun Xiaoxiang off as a servant to a wealthy household in the town.

To farming families, becoming a servants was always shameful. Moreover, most of those rich people tended to have strange quirks.

While everyone was still quarreling endlessly, Yun Xiaoshu and Yun Dali returned from outside.

Yun Xiaoshu couldn’t help but ask, “What are you all doing?”

Yun Xiaohua turned to look at him and said with a smile, “What do you think we’re doing? Of course we’re here to collect a debt.”

Yun Xiaoshu frowned slightly, looking at Lin Ye with some confusion. “Collect a debt? What debt?”

Yun Xiaohua continued, “Naturally, Yun Jiu’s debt. When you people injured Yun Jiu, the money for seeing the doctor was all fronted by Lin Ye. So of course we’re here to get the money back. What, did you think we just came to visit?”

Originally, the Yun Dali family had planned to renege on this debt—especially after hearing that the money was fronted by Lin Ye. In their eyes, Lin Ye’s family was so wealthy; how could he possibly care about such a small sum? But unexpectedly, the always generous and easygoing Lin Ye suddenly got serious today.

Yun Dali forced a smile that didn’t reach his eyes as he looked at Lin Ye. “Ah, Lin Ye, these days Yushan’s going to the town to buy books, so the family’s a bit short on money. Could you perhaps give us a few more days?”

Lin Ye frowned, stepped on the copper coins scattered on the ground, and looked at Yun Dali with an unfriendly expression.

“Do you think I look like an easy mark? If it were helping someone else, I wouldn’t care about this money. But your family has gone too far. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes today, I wouldn’t have believed that you could all be from the same family. Today, I’m not only taking back my money, but you’re also going to compensate for Yun Jiu’s clothes and bedding.”

“Why should we? He’s already married out; why should we support him?” Yun Xiaoxiang shouted excitedly, his delicate face flushed bright red.

Lin Ye’s pair of eyes, darker than most people’s, suddenly turned toward Yun Xiaoxiang.

Yun Xiaoxiang only felt a terrifying aura of killing intent rush straight at him, making him tremble and involuntarily take a step back.

“Because for over ten years, he’s worked like an ox and a horse for your family; because you people, out of nothing, without any humanity, wanted to harm your own kin and beat him half to death. If you insist on being stubborn, then we’ll meet at the yamen. The village chief spared you for the sake of your family’s face before, but now that you’ve offended us again, this matter won’t be let go easily.”

Each word Lin Ye spoke made Yun Xiaoshu’s heart ache sharply.

Yun Xiaoshu truly couldn’t understand—how did things come to this? Before, Lin Ye would still smile when he saw him, but now it seemed that Lin Ye already deeply hated their family, even willing to send them to the authorities for that ugly freak.

Yun Xiaoshu shook his head. He didn’t want things to be like this. He liked Lin Ye so much—he didn’t want Lin Ye to treat him this way.

Yun Dali was clearly frightened by Lin Ye’s words. The matter with Yun Jiu had indeed been their family’s fault. If it were brought to the yamen, they might actually end up in jail. And since Lin Ye’s family was wealthier than theirs, if they truly angered Lin Ye, he could just bribe the officials and have them all thrown in.

Yun Xu-shi was also terrified. Usually, his only skill was quarreling—he had no other ability, just short-sightedness. Now, intimidated by Lin Ye’s imposing manner, he hurriedly pulled Yun Xiaoxiang up to his feet. Yun Dali gave him a meaningful glance, then quickly said to Lin Ye, “Ah, Lin Ye, let’s talk things through. Young people are hot-tempered. I’ll have your Uncle go fetch the money right away.”

Yun Jiu had been standing behind Lin Ye the whole time—not because he didn’t want to speak, but because when Lin Ye brought him out, he told him not to talk. He really hadn’t expected Lin Ye to be so formidable—just a few words, and he’d completely subdued them.

“The consultation and medicine fees total seven hundred coins. Yun Jiu will still need to continue his medicine, which will probably cost another two hundred. As for Yun Jiu’s clothes and bedding, you’ll pay another hundred coins. All together, that’s one tael of silver.”

Although it hurt to part with it, compared with going to the yamen, one tael of silver was still worth it.