Chapter 122: Chapter 121 Morning Gossip

The guard was quite clever. There were many piles of straw by the wall of the family’s house, and they brought some out, fashioning a straw man’s cloak, which they draped over themselves. Thus adorned, they felt warm even in the cold winds of the night.

As dawn slowly broke, the early risers began to get up, and more households started opening their doors. However, just then, two households discovered that someone had dumped feces and urine at their front doors and began to curse loudly.

“Who’s the dead plague doing such despicable acts, daring to dump shit and piss at my doorstep? If I find out who did it, I’ll wipe them out.”

Suddenly, cursing voices erupted in the village. Neighbors or those further away, upon hearing the noises, ran out to see, and found the man’s doorstep smeared with feces and urine.

Many were dumbfounded, then covered their mouths and snickered: “Ew, it stinks so bad!”

Another household encountered the same situation, and the family members weren’t even aware yet; passersby covered their mouths and detoured around.

Someone got up to cook in the kitchen, and while cooking, they constantly smelled something foul, a stench of feces and urine. Even though the latrines were further away in the farmer family’s homes and the urine buckets were usually kept inside, they generally wouldn’t go outside at night.

She could bear it, as her husband, who was still sound asleep in the room, and their children, could also bear it.

But inevitably, people passing by their house couldn’t help but loudly say,

“Uncle, auntie, haven’t you gotten up yet? Your doorway reeks to high heaven, haven’t you smelled it? Tsk, tsk, who have you offended?”

After blurting this out loudly, the woman hurriedly covered her nose and ran off!

Actually, she had already guessed that it was more common to have someone pour feces and urine at someone’s doorstep, and even more malicious acts could include pouring dog blood.

The two households who suffered this were not far from each other and both situated by the village entrance along a main road. In the morning, people going out to work passed by their doorsteps and were met with the foul scene.

In the entire village, only their two households had been subjected to having feces and urine poured on their property, so surely their refusal to sell their land yesterday had offended the whole village.

The person who hated them the most, perhaps was the one who needed the job the most. This time it was just everyone’s guess, without any solid evidence. No one pointed fingers; there was only mutual suspicion.

The woman, who was cooking in the kitchen and heard the shouting outside, walked out to the yard and opened the main gate, only to be confronted with a nauseating scene.

“Whoever did this, is committing a sin, dumping shit and piss at my doorstep, are they blind? Mixing up where to dump the manure, damn bad luck!”

The woman cursed loudly at the doorstep, and her still-sleeping husband and children inside were woken up by her shouts.

The men in other households had already gone to work, but Uncle at Aunty’s house was still sleeping in. There was a reason for that, today the Tang Family members were coming to the village again.

Having proudly refused to sell their land last night, if everyone else sold their land for a good price, they might be forced to reluctantly sell that mere two points of land.

“What’s going on, Mom? Why are you cursing people out here so early in the morning?”

“Dad, don’t you smell that stench? I don’t know who the hell dumped feces and urine at our doorstep.”

Uncle took one look and saw it was true, covered his nose and was furious, yet he had to contain his anger while his wife was cursing, and he also wanted to curse.

But he was well aware that by rejecting Matti yesterday, they had definitely offended everyone in the village, and now, even if they yelled, they couldn’t catch the person who did the misdeed.

He had no choice but to carry two water buckets to the nearby stream to fetch water and clean the stinking area at the doorstep, flushing all the foul material into the sewer, washing it away into the distance.

Uncle and Auntie had no appetite for breakfast that morning, having seen such disgusting things, even the thought of eating made them feel nauseous.

Their children just continued eating, ignoring everything, because even if they were woken up by the noise, they didn’t come out to look.

In less than fifteen minutes, the entire village knew about the mishap with the two families.

As the saying goes, good news stays within the walls, while bad news travels a thousand miles. Many people were gleeful upon hearing this news. They dared not discuss it openly, but who could stop them from talking behind their backs?

Eventually, everyone said the misfortune that befell these two families who wanted to harm the interests of the entire village was well-deserved.

The gloating expressions of these people were not seen by the members of the two families; who would dare mock them to their faces?

People did not want to be accused by the affected families of being the culprits, risking being blamed for something they didn’t do. It was possible to do such things secretly, but admitting to them openly could invite retribution.

Hongji went out to fetch water early in the morning and heard about the incident, but he didn’t mention it when he got home.

His father, his mother, and his two sisters still hadn’t gotten up at this point and didn’t know about the incident.

The whole village was abuzz with gossip, except for his family, which remained relatively quiet. Daya was making breakfast in the kitchen with her two sisters. After putting rice and water on the stove, the sisters watched over the fire, and, as usual, went down to the river to wash clothes.

Gradually, it had turned into winter, and the weather was getting colder, making the river water increasingly icy for washing clothes.

Today, while washing clothes by the river, the women discussed yesterday’s village chief meeting, focusing more on the morning’s incident with the two families who disagreed on selling their land and had found excrement at their front door.

In the group of gossipers, there were old ladies, young wives, and young girls like Daya, who just listened curiously, unable to join the adults’ conversation.

The women and girls seemed excited discussing these two matters.

The first matter provided families a chance to work and thus a source of income, which would lead to more prosperous lives.

The second matter involved discussing the misfortune of the two families with schadenfreude, smiling as they spoke about it.

They weren’t afraid that the members of the two families would overhear their conversation and start a quarrel.

Women from those two families didn’t come here to wash clothes. The village had two rivers along both sides of the main roads, and they washed upstream, knowing the dirty water might flow downstream right to those families’ doorstep.

Some people prefer to wash clothes using the well water in the village, but near the wells with drinkable water, they dare not waste water resources.

Daya silently washed the clothes, listening to their gossip. The icy water reddened her hands, and her small body, inadequately protected by thin clothing, shivered slightly in the cold breeze.

“Daya, your father has become the small boss now. Do you still need to wash clothes here?”

Just as Daya was about to finish washing, a girl about her age, not exactly a close friend but a fellow villager living nearby, asked her this question.

“Mmm,” Daya responded with a hum, not even lifting her head.

Hearing this girl’s question, the adults, who had been enthusiastically discussing other matters, shifted their attention to Daya.

The women bombarded Daya with various questions, to which she responded only with vague hums.

The gossip-loving women encountered a tough nut to crack with such a taciturn girl, so they could only return to gossiping among themselves.