“Grave Robbers’ Chronicles”

Chapter 10: Li Jing

Chapter 10: Li Jing

"Mom! I'm back," Li Jing dragged me to her home as if I were a little puppy.

Although Li Jing's mother was only in her forties, her hair had turned quite a lot gray, and there were many wrinkles on her forehead. She looked as if she had endured a lot of hardships.

"Xiaojing... Who is this? Is he your classmate?"

"No, Mom," Li Jing grabbed my arm and said, "Mom, I caught this kid by the moat just now. He looked sneaky and didn't seem like a good person at all. I suspect he was electro-fishing."

"Electro-fishing?" Li Jing's mother asked me in confusion, "Young man, were you electro-fishing?"

I quickly explained that it was all a misunderstanding and that I wasn't electro-fishing at all.

Li Jing's mother looked at me kindly, shook her head with a smile, and said, "I don't think you look like someone who would electro-fish, young man. Xiaojing, you made a mistake this time. You silly girl even brought him here. Hurry up and apologize to him."

Later, I figured out the situation and understood why Li Jing was so eager to catch those who electro-fished.

It was because the Forestry Bureau of Shunde had offered a reward. At that time, the ecological environment of the Yangtze River was severely damaged, and the Chinese sturgeon and the Yangtze finless porpoise were on the verge of extinction. The higher authorities had made a big decision to protect the inland water environment, and this campaign also affected Shunde.

Whoever caught someone electro-fishing or using explosives to fish could go to the Forestry Bureau to claim the reward money. If you caught one person, you would be rewarded with 500 yuan!

So that's why the girl Li Jing had been so insistent on holding onto me. She thought I was electro-fishing and wanted to send me to the Forestry Bureau to exchange for the reward money...

Because her family was short of money.

Under the coercion of her mother, Li Jing reluctantly apologized to me. She said, "Classmate, I'm sorry."

Li Jing's mother was warm and hospitable. To express her apology, she invited me to stay and have lunch together.

It was almost two o'clock by then, and I happened to be starving, so I agreed.

We had rice for lunch. Li Jing's mother cooked three dishes, one was scrambled eggs with leeks, one was zucchini and green beans, and the other was sliced lotus root in dressing. The home-cooked dishes were cooked deliciously.

I was eating with my head down, concentrating on the food. Li Jing looked at me coldly. From time to time, she would knock hard on the porcelain bowl with her chopsticks, deliberately making a lot of noise, which made Li Jing's mother frown frequently.

She was unhappy that I was eating the eggs from her family.

Li Jing's mother scolded her, "Xiaojing, why are you so ill-mannered? What has this young classmate done to offend you?"

Li Jing bit the tip of her chopsticks and curled her lips, saying, "He didn't offend me, but I just don't like the look of him."

I got angry at that time too.

Although I had no parents and came from a humble background, and my family was a down-and-out one with no one to take care of me, there was one thing about me - I had a strong sense of self-esteem.

I immediately put down my chopsticks and got up to say goodbye to Li Jing's mother.

"You girl, who cares about eating your family's eggs," I thought angrily in my heart.

However, just as I reached the door, I was pushed back by a large group of people.

There were six or seven people, all young adults in their twenties or thirties. They were carrying paint buckets in their hands, and some of them were also holding sticks.

"Li Dequan! Li Dequan, come out!"

"If you don't come out, I'll beat your wife and kid to death!"

They all looked fierce. I had never seen such a scene before and was immediately scared silly. Li Jing and her mother were not much better either, their faces turning pale.

One of the men walked into the house with the paint bucket. When he saw the food on the table, he sneered coldly.

"Damn it, you still have money to eat eggs! You have money to eat eggs but don't pay me back?"

"I'll make you eat!" This man directly picked up the paint bucket and poured red paint all over the table.

The smell of the paint was pungent and unpleasant. The dishes on the table were immediately smeared with red paint. Li Jing's mother's eyes were filled with fear, and Li Jing lowered her head without saying a word.

"Hehe..." The man laughed and said, "Eating eggs, huh? No money, huh?"

He used the stick to push the scrambled eggs with leeks covered in paint in front of Li Jing.

"Eat it. The eggs are delicious, right? Today, as long as you eat this whole plate, we'll leave. Hahaha." The other people also laughed along.

"What are you doing!" I couldn't stand it anymore. This was clearly bullying people!

"Yoho," the man looked at me and laughed, "Brother, who the hell are you?"

I took a deep breath and said, "I'm Li Jing's classmate. If you dare to mess around, I'll call the police!"

"Ah? Call the police?"

Suddenly, everyone around burst out laughing.

"It's only right and proper to pay back debts! You little brat, how dare you call the police!"

He swung the stick in his hand and smashed it hard at my head.

I subconsciously raised my arm to block it, but I was too slow and couldn't block it in time. The stick hit my head firmly, and my head was broken and bleeding.

I just felt dizzy and everything was spinning in front of my eyes.

"Stop it!"

"I'll eat! I'll eat!" Li Jing, who had been keeping her head down all the time, suddenly raised her head. She shouted loudly with her eyes red.

Li Jing's mother kept wiping her tears.

Li Jing grabbed the eggs on the plate with her hands and stuffed them into her mouth...

The eggs were covered with paint everywhere, and the smell was so pungent that Li Jing vomited after taking just one bite.

"Haha, you're not good enough. Eat them all! I said eat them all! Are you deaf?"

Li Jing grabbed the eggs and stuffed them into her mouth again.

Five minutes later, the plate of eggs was gone.

"Hehe, interesting. It's not a wasted trip today. Brothers, we've watched a good show. Also, remember to tell Li Dequan that when we come back next time, if he still doesn't have the money, it won't be this simple."

After leaving these words, this group of people left, cursing and swearing.

My head was broken and bleeding a lot. I was lying on the ground feeling extremely uncomfortable at that time.

"How are you?" Li Jing wiped the paint from the corner of her mouth and carefully helped me up.

Li Jing's mother found some gauze and simply wrapped my head. I lay on their bed and rested for over an hour before I felt better.

"Young man, I'm... I'm sorry that you got hurt," Li Jing's mother said to me with a guilty look on her face.

"Auntie, who were those people?" My head was still hurting a bit, but I endured the pain and asked her.

"My dad's business failed, and he owes them a large sum of money," Li Jing said.

"His business failed? How much does he owe?"

"Alas..." Li Jing's mother couldn't help shaking her head and said, "Fifty thousand yuan..."

"Fifty thousand yuan! That's so much!" I was shocked when I heard this amount. It was such a large sum of money that it would take two or three years to pay it back even if one didn't eat or drink.

"Young man, do you live in the school or should we take you to the hospital? Let us take you back. We're really sorry," Li Jing's mother apologized to me again.

"No, no, I don't need to go to the school. I can walk by myself. I'm able to walk on my own now."

After going out the door, Li Jing came out to see me off.

"Hey, I'm sorry about just now," walking beside me, she lowered her head and apologized to me.

"It's okay. It's all in the past," I waved my hand generously and smiled.

"You're not from our school, right? Which middle school do you go to? I'll come to find you to play later," Li Jing suddenly asked me.

"Ah? This, this..."

I lied and said, "I'm a sophomore in No. 1 Middle School."

"No. 1 Middle School. Then you should be doing very well in your studies," Li Jing said with a smile.

I blushed and didn't dare to reply. My academic performance had always been among the bottom three in my class, and it was quite stable in that regard.

At that time, PHS phones had just become popular. Ordinary students couldn't afford mobile phones at all, so naturally we didn't exchange phone numbers. However, Li Jing said that I should come to find her to play when I was free and also asked me to tutor her in her studies.

When I returned to the inn, Boss Wang was drinking tea.

When he saw that my head was wrapped in gauze, he almost spat out the tea in his mouth.

Boss Wang asked me loudly, "Yunfeng, what happened to you? Did you fall into a pit while disposing of the soil?"

I said a bit embarrassedly, "Boss, I got beaten up."