Unfortunately, Chen Xiaobei's happiness was too short-lived.
While he was drifting off to sleep, he heard movement at the door.
When he opened his eyes, he saw it was Chen Xiaowen, a member of the village protection team. He seemed a little cramped standing there, unable to move forward or retreat.
Seeing him open his eyes, Chen Xiaowen said with a smile, "Brother Xiaobei, you're awake."
"Xiaowen, what's the matter? Come in and talk."
"Brother Xiaobei, Butler Liu from the county town came just now. He said he wanted to find Yang Zhi, so I asked him to go across the village. He also asked me to tell you, and he called Yang Zhi to come find you again."
Chen Xiaobei was very excited when he heard that Liu Ce had arrived. The three tigers had basically recovered and could be exchanged for money.
Thinking of this, he no longer felt sleepy, so he quickly got dressed and followed Chen Xiaowen out of the yard.
When he came to the big locust tree, Chen Xiaobei took a special look at the three tigers.
The three tigers are usually quite docile. Apart from standing up and walking around, they just lie down and sleep. But no one is allowed to get close. Once they get close, they will arch their bodies and let out a low roar.
Even Chen Xiaobei was no exception. When he was still more than ten feet away from the tigers, the three tigers opened their eyes warily and stood up one after another.
Yes, seeing this scene, Chen Xiaobei felt happy, which proved that the three tigers had recovered.
He seemed to see a thousand taels of silver waving to him.
After waiting under the big locust tree for a while, Liu Ce and Yang Zhi both arrived. Yang Zhi still had that bright smile on his face, but Liu Ce looked frowning.
This is a bit strange, what happened to Liu Ce.
Arriving under the big locust tree, Liu Ce just nodded to Chen Xiaobei.
Seeing how serious Chen Xiaobei was, he didn't take the initiative to mention the tiger.
Sure enough, Yang Zhi spoke first, "Brother Xiaobei has good news."
"All of Sun Jian's men have been captured and will be sent over to our custody tonight."
"What?" Chen Xiaobei was stunned for a moment.
"Sent here for custody?"
He looked at Liu Ce with doubtful eyes.
Liu Ce nodded slightly, "Brother Xiaobei, I know this incident is sudden and may be difficult for you, but there is no other way."
As he spoke, Liu Ce took out a banknote from his sleeve.
"You take these three thousand taels of silver first, and I will send you more later."
But Chen Xiaobei waved his hands and shook his head, "Brother Liu, this is not about money. I don't have a place to live here at all. Where can I be detained? There is no spare house."
Yang Zhi next to him smiled and said, "Hey, what kind of house should a person like that be given? Just go to a random cave in the mountains and keep them in check."
Liu Ce finally showed a smile, "Yeah, just find a cave. Anyway, these people will inevitably be stabbed in the end. We just let them survive for a few days."
If that's the case, Chen Xiaobei doesn't have to worry. There are indeed several caves on Qingniu Mountain, and he knows this.
After saying this, Liu Ce's expression remained serious.
"Brother Xiaobei, can you help us find a few vacant houses in the village? We are willing to buy them."
There are some vacant houses, but there are only two ready-made ones.
One is Chen Yutian's home. Chen Yutian's family was sent to the frontier. Before leaving, he asked Da Laohei to bring news that the house would be given to him.
The second one is Chen Ping's home.
There is no one left in Chen Ping's home.
So his house can also be vacant.
But you can't sell these. If you sell them, it won't end well if someone comes looking for them.
Thinking of this, Chen Xiaobei slowly said, "Steward Liu, people value the house very much. It is unrealistic for you to buy one from here. But if you are staying for a short time, I can rent two for you."
Liu Ce was very happy, "If it's easy to rent, rent it. By the way, can you clean it up a little bit? After all, it's my lady who is coming to live here."
who?
Chen Xiaobei was stunned for a moment, "Who are you talking about?"
"My Miss Liu Rumei, she is coming to Hetou Village for a temporary stay. By the way, there are still dozens of us, so we will go to Four Acres to squeeze in with Brother Yang Zhi first."
What does this mean? Why did Liu Rumei come to Hetou Village?
Seeing that Chen Xiaobei was confused, Liu Ce hurriedly spoke again, "By the way, you must not tell anyone about my lady's visit to Qingniu Mountain."
From this, Chen Xiaobei could probably know that Liu Rumei must have encountered something extremely difficult. She had no choice, so she could only hide in Qingniu Mountain.
"Good Butler Liu, I've written it down. By the way, what do you think about these three tigers? They've almost recovered."
Looking at these three tigers, Liu Ce complained secretly. He had personally promised Chen Xiaobei back then that he would give one thousand taels of silver to the tigers after they were healed and sent to Qingniu County.
But now I can no longer fulfill this promise. After all, I am homeless. Even if you have money, where can you put the tiger?
But Liu Ce, this kid, has a lot of clever ideas, and he will come up with ideas in a flash of his mind.
He took out a silver note from his sleeve again.
"If you hadn't told me, I would have forgotten about it. I agreed on a thousand taels of silver, here you go."
Liu Ce stuffed the banknote into Chen Xiaobei's hand, and then said, "Where's this tiger? Help me raise it for a few more days. When I go back and make arrangements, I'll pick it up."
This cleverly solves two problems. The first is not buying the tiger, which leads to the problem of breaking one's word. The second is that temporarily existing here can cover up the dilemma of having nowhere to put it.
Of course Chen Xiaobei didn't know this. So he took the banknote and readily agreed to Liu Ce's request, "Okay, then I will take care of you for a few more days."
After Liu Ce left, Chen Xiaobei started to get busy. He was not at home in Lidong, so he had to arrange many things by himself.
The first thing was to arrange where Liu Rumei would live. After thinking about it, he decided to let Liu Rumei live in Chen Ping's house.
After all, Chen Anbang had been the head of the neighborhood, and his house was relatively better. It's also a bit more spacious.
Moreover, he has a donkey shed at home, which used to raise donkeys in the village. If Liu Rumei raised horses, it could hold two or three even if it was squeezed.
Chen Xiaowen was arranged to take people to pry open the door of Chen Ping's house and clean up briefly. The first problem was solved. The second problem was naturally to find a cave to imprison Sun Jian's men.
He had already made this choice in his mind.
With several village protection team members, Chen Xiaobei entered the woods to the west of the village.
Entering the woods, Chen Xiaobei saw bursts of green smoke in the distance and suddenly slapped his head.
Oops, didn't I have to burn lime? I had been burning for so many days, and I had already forgotten about it.
Seeing Chen Xiaobei coming, the village guard who was loading firewood stood up and waved to Chen Xiaobei.
"Chief Xiaobei, don't worry, this fire can't be extinguished."
Chen Xiaobei was still very touched that the village protection team members were able to carry out his requests to the letter.
