PCJ – Chapter 240 Capturing Three Laborers

When Zhang Jiaohua came back from school, he saw three sneaky figures at the village entrance. As soon as they saw Zhang Jiaohua, they quickly ducked into a nearby small forest and hid among the rose thorns.

“Damned troublemakers! Hanggou, Wenrong, Jiagen, if you dare hide, I’ll set the dogs on you!” Zhang Jiaohua had already seen these troublemakers. After returning, he had been occupied with issues related to black tea and hadn’t had a chance to deal with them. These troublemakers were afraid of Zhang Jiaohua. Although he was just a kid, no one in the village dared to offend him. So, they had always avoided him and tried not to cross paths. Unexpectedly, their luck ran out today, and Zhang Jiaohua caught them at the village entrance.

Realizing they were trapped, Zhang Hanggou and the others had no choice but to come out from the thorns.

“Jiaohua, don’t listen to the village gossip. We were just wandering around that night and saw your door was open. We were worried that a thief might have broken in, so we took these two with me to check it out. Who knew the thief had run away and framed us,” Zhang Wenrong immediately began to make excuses.

“Grandpa Dechun said that by the time you were caught, it was already late at night. What were you doing out wandering at that hour? You guys often do shady things in the village; don’t think I don’t know,” Zhang Jiaohua was not going to be fooled by them.

“Hey, Jiaohua, you shouldn’t say things like that recklessly. Although we don’t like to work, we’re still honest. Don’t wrong good people without evidence,” Zhang Hanggou said hurriedly.

“I’m not a policeman; why do I need evidence? Everyone in the village knows you three are up to no good. You went to my house to steal, and got caught red-handed by the villagers. Now you want me to provide evidence? I know people in the county police station, and right now there’s a crackdown on crimes. Breaking and entering can get you at least ten or eight years in prison. Considering we’re from the same village, I’m not making a fuss about it. Do you really think I’m afraid of you?” Zhang Jiaohua was getting angry and shouted at the three adults, who were much taller than him.

At this point, Zhang Wenrong and the others were too scared to reply and just lowered their heads, letting Zhang Jiaohua yell at them.

Villagers who heard the commotion didn’t come over but watched from a distance. These troublemakers had a bad reputation in the village, and everyone was glad to see Zhang Jiaohua teaching them a lesson.

“These scoundrels need someone like Jiaohua to keep them in check. Look, Jiaohua just said a few words and they don’t dare to argue back.”

“Jiaohua is really something. He’s much shorter than those guys, yet he dares to scold them to their faces.”

“I hope Jiaohua can control them. Maybe the village will be peaceful after this.”

“Old habits die hard. Even if Jiaohua controls them for now, it won’t change them for a lifetime.”

…

The villagers chatted among themselves.

“Jiaohua, we promise we won’t cause trouble again. We were just bored and didn’t do anything truly heinous. We just made a few small mistakes. We guarantee we won’t do it again, please don’t turn us over to the police,” Zhang Wenrong and the others pleaded, knowing that Zhang Jiaohua’s connections with the police were real.

“You really have too much free time. Let me find something for you to do,” Zhang Jiaohua said with a smile.

“Do what?” Zhang Wenrong asked nervously.

“Wenrong, if you dare to run, do you believe I’ll have ghosts press you every day?” Zhang Jiaohua said with a wicked smile.

Zhang Wenrong, who was thinking of escaping, could only stand there with a long face, unable to run. With Zhang Wenrong staying put, Zhang Hanggou and Zhang Jiagen didn’t dare to run either.

“I have a pig farm where no one is cutting pigweed, and a garden where no one is pulling weeds. You’re always idle, so go help me with these tasks from now on,” Zhang Jiaohua said after thinking for a moment.

“How much will you pay us for doing these tasks?” Zhang Wenrong asked timidly.

“For such little work, you still want wages? I’ll provide food, but as for wages, it depends on your performance. I’ll tell you, some very valuable items were stolen from my house that night. They were gifts from Grandpa Luo in town,” Zhang Jiaohua seemed to suddenly remember something.

“We didn’t steal anything. You can ask Secretary Dechun if you don’t believe us,” Zhang Wenrong had a very bad feeling.

“Whether you stole anything or not isn’t up to you to decide. I’ll tell you, if I report this to the police station, you’ll definitely end up in jail,” Zhang Jiaohua sneered and looked at Zhang Wenrong and the others with contempt.

“Can we still go? When should we start helping you?” Zhang Wenrong asked.

Zhang Jiaohua thought for a moment and said, “Since you’re so eager, go now. While it’s still light, hurry up and go to the garden to pull some pigweed to feed the wild pigs. Let’s go, I’ll take you there. Otherwise, if you go in by yourselves, you might get bitten by the mountain dogs I keep.”

Zhang Wenrong and the others knew Zhang Jiaohua’s dogs were kept in packs. It was hard to say if they would make it out of the pig farm alive.

Zhang Wenrong wished he could slap himself. If he had kept his mouth shut, he could have sneaked away while Zhang Jiaohua wasn’t paying attention, found a place to hide, and avoided Zhang Jiaohua in the future. But now, Zhang Jiaohua was directly sending them to the pig farm, making escape impossible. Even though they regretted it, they didn’t dare to run and could only follow Zhang Jiaohua to the pig farm.

As soon as Zhang Jiaohua entered, a large group of puppies immediately surrounded him, each one trying to get close to him.

Zhang Jiagen thought the puppies were cute and tried to pet one, but the puppy bit his hand sharply. If Zhang Jiagen hadn’t been on guard, his hand would have been bitten.

“Don’t blame me for not warning you. These puppies only recognize me. If you try to touch them, you’ll definitely get bitten,” Zhang Jiaohua warned.

Zhang Jiagen rolled his eyes and thought to himself, “Is this really a warning? I almost got bitten just now!”

But he could only keep these thoughts to himself, or Zhang Jiaohua would deal with him.

Zhang Jiaohua pointed to several bamboo baskets in the pigpen and said, “See those? Each of you carry a pig basket and hurry to cut pigweed. If you slack off, you won’t have dinner tonight! I don’t keep idle people here.”