Chapter 78: A Man Even the County Magistrate Doesn’t Dare to Cross
At this moment, the Li family had tightly shut their main gate, as if afraid that the people outside would break in.
“Li family! Get out here right now!” Wen Xiuyi shouted angrily from the front door.
There was no response from within. Wen Xiuyi shouted again, but the gate remained shut.
He glanced around, picked up a stone from the ground, and hurled it inside.
The onlookers: “……” The style of this father and daughter really was exactly the same.
The stone was thrown, the gate was called upon—yet it still didn’t open.
Now Wen Xiuyi was truly enraged. He waved his hand. “Smash it.” As soon as he finished speaking, he was the first to charge forward, pushing and kicking at the Li family’s gate. Wen Xiuzhu and Wen Xiuqing followed close behind, and the three brothers nearly tore the Li family’s gate down.
“Stop! Stop smashing!” Finally, someone inside responded.
The three brothers stepped back, waiting for the Li family to open the door.
When Li San opened the door, he still had a fierce look on his face, but upon seeing the furious expressions of the Wen family, his courage faltered.
“What do you people want?” Though flustered, Li San still tried to look tough.
Wen Xiuyi rolled up his sleeves. “What do I want? You tell me what I want. Hand over your son Li Erhu. If I don’t throw him into the river today, I’m not surnamed Wen.”
His son, Wen Nong, was still so small, like a little radish—he could be held with one arm. And yet Li Erhu, a boy over ten years old, had bullied such a small child.
Wen Xiuyi didn’t even want to imagine—what if no one had been across the river at that time? What would’ve happened to Wen Nong? Would he have just been swept away by the current? And Wen Fa—just a ten-year-old—had jumped in after him without hesitation. One was four, one was ten. A child saving another child?
If anything had happened, the entire Wen family would’ve collapsed.
Li San hadn’t expected that a scholar like Wen Xiuyi would be threatening to throw his son into the river.
Would Li San allow it? Of course not.
“What are you trying to do? You want to kill my son?” Li San glared furiously.
Wen Xiuyi sneered coldly. “He had the guts to push my son into the river. Why wouldn’t I dare throw him in? Li San, I’m telling you—if you don’t hand over Li Erhu today, I’ll burn your whole house to the ground.”
Those with nothing left to lose fear nothing. Wen Xiuyi’s reputation was already in tatters—what did he care anymore?
His three children were his bottom line. No one was allowed to cross it.
Even the Wen family members were shocked at his words.
“Big Brother, that’s too far,” Wen Xiuzhu tugged at his sleeve. If he really set fire to someone’s house, he’d be arrested and executed.
Even Old Man Wen and Granny Luo frowned, thinking that if their eldest truly acted on this, they’d have to hold him back.
They didn’t know that Wen Xiuyi was just making a threat. As a modern, law-abiding citizen, he naturally wouldn’t actually break the law.
But sometimes, a harsh threat could have the right effect.
Li San hadn’t expected Wen Xiuyi to be so aggressive. He pointed at him, mouth opening and closing, but no words came out.
Just then, the village chief arrived and happened to hear the part about setting the Li house on fire. His face turned pale, and he hurried forward.
“Xiuyi! That’s going too far—don’t do anything rash. I’m here now, I’ll make sure your family gets justice for Wen Nong,” the village chief said quickly.
Wen Xiuyi looked at the village chief, and though he didn’t say anything else harsh, the fury on his face didn’t fade.
The village chief felt a headache coming on and glared fiercely at Li San. “What are you waiting for? Everyone saw Li Erhu push Wen Nong into the river. If you don’t give the Wen family a proper apology, what do you want instead? For your son to be beaten to death?”
Li San knew he was in the wrong, but he still didn’t want the Wen family to walk all over them.
“They say my son pushed him, so that makes it true? My son said he didn’t even touch Wen Nong,” Li San argued.
The Wen family nearly exploded from anger.
“Then bring Li Erhu out. Let him say it to our faces,” Granny Luo said. She motioned for her two sons to hold back Wen Xiuyi and stepped forward herself.
Li San’s eyes darted, clearly trying to figure out how to deflect the situation.
The village chief saw this and instantly knew what Li San was up to. He shouted, “Bring out Erhu. Say what you have to say in front of everyone. You think hiding in your house is going to work forever?”
Li San hesitated.
“What’s wrong? Afraid now? Didn’t you just say Li Erhu didn’t push my son? Then bring him out and have him say it himself!” Wen Xiuyi shouted. If that little punk dared to come out, he’d beat him into next week.
With the village chief staring him down, Li San had no choice but to bring Li Erhu out.
Erhu’s mother came with him. Li Erhu’s face was covered in bruises—clearly Wen Fa had given him a proper beating. The moment he saw the Wen family, he instinctively tried to run.
Li San grabbed him and said, “Son, say it—did you push Wen Nong?”
Li Erhu trembled all over but still shouted, “No, I didn’t push him! He fell in by himself!”
Li San immediately shouted with confidence, “Hear that? Erhu said he didn’t push him! Your kid fell in himself and now you want to blame my family? Hah! Dream on.”
Wen Ying’s face turned red with anger. She pointed at Li Erhu and yelled, “You’re full of crap! If you hadn’t tried to steal our eggs and chased us to the riverbank, then pushed Jin Xiuyi, would Wen Nong have jumped in to save him and fallen in himself? Li Erhu, we all saw it—don’t think you can lie your way out of this.”
“That’s right, we saw it too!” Wen Ying’s little friends from the crowd shouted indignantly.
With so many people pointing fingers at him, and still shaken from the Wen family’s earlier threats, Li Erhu started crying.
“I didn’t push him! I just told that city kid to give me his egg. That mute kid shoved him away himself—it wasn’t me! I didn’t push him—he fell in on his own!”
At those words, the previously silent Doctor Jin finally spoke. “So, you admit you caused him to fall in? Do you know who it was that you pushed?”
Although he was angry, Doctor Jin’s voice remained calm and steady.
Li Erhu didn’t recognize the elderly man and, as someone used to being a bully, shot back, “How should I know who he is? I don’t know him!”
“Doctor Jin, you’re here too?” the village chief quickly greeted him.
As the village chief, he often dealt with the yamen, and while people didn’t say it out loud, everyone knew privately that the doctor from Jishi Hall had once served as an imperial physician and treated the emperor himself. He even had a son who was a high-ranking official in the capital.
Doctor Jin didn’t flaunt his past and rarely mentioned it, so most people treated him as an ordinary country doctor.
But the village chief knew very well—this man was someone even the county magistrate didn’t dare provoke.
