When the pears are green

With the help of the moonlight shining into the house, Song Li bent over and walked to the window. She secretly peeked into the yard through the gap in the rain curtain and vaguely saw two figures rummaging around in the yard.

Song Li didn't dare to act rashly. She returned to the bedside and woke Jiang Qingzhou up. She first made a gesture to him to keep quiet, then stretched out two fingers.

Jiang Qingzhou came to his senses instantly and nodded to Song Li to show that he understood.

Jiang Qingzhou had been sleeping with his clothes on these past few nights. He signaled Song Li to stay in the east room first, while he picked up the prepared wooden stick, quietly pushed open the door and walked to the door of the main room, ready to open it.

Song Li was worried, so she also walked over with a stick in her hand. She stopped Jiang Qingzhou from opening the door, and whispered in Jiang Qingzhou's ear, "Don't be impatient, don't alert the enemy, wait until they come in, then you'll have a better chance of winning."

Jiang Qingzhou nodded, and the two of them stood on the left and right sides of the main room door respectively.

At this time, the door of the west room opened, and Song Xing and Jiang Qingye poked their heads out from inside.

Song Li waved at the two of them, signaling them to go back to the room and not come out.

Ever since the theft occurred in the Li family, Song Li and Jiang Qingzhou were afraid of encountering vicious criminals, so they asked Song Xing to move to the west room and live with Jiang Qingye temporarily.

In the yard, two masked men were standing by the kitchen and whispering.

"Tsk tsk, their family is so poor. Apart from a skinny dog, there is not even a pot or chopsticks in the kitchen." It was the voice of a young man.

"It's probably hidden. Open the door and have a look." The owner of the voice was older. He pointed at the door of the main room and said to the young man.

"Boss, we haven't entered the house before. At most we went into the kitchen. Will we wake anyone up?" the young man asked hesitantly.

"Just knock him out, hurry up and don't waste time." The older man urged.

Song Li and Jiang Qingzhou held their breath, listening to the footsteps getting closer and closer, and their hands involuntarily clenched the wooden sticks.

Song Li knew very well that her physical strength was not as good as that of an adult man, so she hid the dagger at her waist for use.

Song Li and Jiang Qingzhou stared at the wooden bolt on the door. The moment the bolt was opened with a knife, the door was slowly pushed open, and moonlight filled the room.

The two thieves looked around in the moonlight and slowly stepped over the threshold.

The young thief kicked the door sill in his panic, causing a clear "dong" sound, which caused several hens in the backpack in the main room to crow "cuckoo cuckoo", and the cat in the yard also meowed even louder.

"What are you doing? Move quickly and pretend to be a chicken." The older thief took the long knife and slapped the young thief on the head.

The young thief picked up the cloth bag in his hand and hurriedly ran to the backpack to catch the chicken, while the older thief stood aside and watched.

Jiang Qingzhou signaled Song Li to join in the action. The two of them walked out from behind the door quietly and slowly raised the wooden sticks in their hands.

The young thief pretending to be a chicken caught a glimpse of Jiang Qingzhou's shadow holding a wooden stick. He stopped pretending to be a chicken and looked back in panic, only to see the wooden stick had already fallen heavily on his body.

Song Li stared at the long knife in the older thief's hand. She took advantage of the thief's unpreparedness and hit the thief's left arm heavily with a stick. The thief cried out in pain and rubbed his arm reflexively, and the long knife in his right hand fell to the ground.

The older thief wanted to bend down to pick up the knife, and Song Li took the opportunity to sweep the older thief's legs with a wooden stick. Before the older thief knelt, she quickly used the wooden stick to sweep the long knife over and kicked it out of the door.

The older thief looked at Song Li angrily and reached out to grab the wooden stick from Song Li's hand.

Song Li dodged nimbly. She held the wooden stick in her left hand and hid it behind her back. She took out a dagger from her waist with her right hand, ready to stab the older thief at any time.

Song Li gradually became exhausted. The older thief grabbed the wooden stick behind her and pushed her to the ground angrily. Song Li couldn't help but cry out in pain.

When Jiang Qingzhou heard Song Li's cry of pain, he didn't care about the half-tied young thief, and hurriedly picked up the stick to help Song Li.

The older thief's stick rained down on Song Li, who kept rolling until he was forced to stop at the door of the west room. The older thief snorted with satisfaction and swung the stick down on Song Li.

Song Li instinctively held her head back, the images of her relatives and friends flashing through her mind like a kaleidoscope.

With a "click", the door of the west room opened, followed by the sound of "bang bang bang" of wooden sticks colliding with each other in the air.

Song Li, who fell down, looked up and saw that it was Song Xing and Jiang Qingye.

There was another "bang" and the older thief fell to the ground with a groan.

The young thief who was biting the cloth on his hand saw the boss fall down, he hurriedly opened his mouth and lay on the ground motionless.

Jiang Qingzhou put down the stick in his hand, hurriedly helped Song Li up, and asked with concern: "Xiao Li, are you okay?"

Song Li took a deep breath, shook her head and said, "It's okay, tie his hands and feet quickly. Let Xiaoxing and Qingye keep an eye on them, you go call Uncle Ping for help, and Uncle Ping and I will go to the headman's house and hand them over to him."

Jiang Qingzhou nodded. He took out a piece of cloth from Song Li's arms and tied the older thief's hands and feet. Then he returned to the east room, took out a tinderbox, and lit the oil lamp.

Jiang Qingye took out the oil lamp from the west room, lit it, and handed it to Jiang Qingzhou, asking him to carry it.

After explaining things to Song Xing and Jiang Qingye, Jiang Qingzhou walked out of the house carrying a wooden stick and an oil lamp.

Jiang Qingzhou saw the black dog lying motionless on the ground in the yard. He bent down to touch it, then quickly opened the gate.

After a while, there was an urgent knock on the door of Jiang Qian's house.

Song Li recovered and asked Song Xing and Jiang Qingye, "Why did you two come out?"

Song Xing and Jiang Qingye looked at each other, and Song Xing explained to Song Li: "Qingye and I heard the eldest sister's voice, and guessed that the eldest sister must be injured. The two of us couldn't stay in the house, so we came out."

"Thank you Xiaoxing and thank you Qingye. If it weren't for you, I probably wouldn't be able to sit here." Song Li said to the two of them with a smile.

Jiang Qingye hurriedly said: "Sister-in-law, we are all family. I am very happy to be able to help you."

"Sister, me too." Song Xing nodded.

Here, Jiang Ping heard a hasty knock on the door. He put on his clothes and stood at the door, shouting, "Who is it?"

"I am Qingzhou, Uncle Ping." Jiang Qingzhou answered quickly and loudly.

Jiang Ping hurried to open the door. He saw Jiang Qingzhou holding a wooden stick in his hand and asked quickly, "Qingzhou, what happened?"

Jiang Qingzhou picked up the oil lamp and answered, "Uncle Ping, a thief broke into my house and was caught. I would like to ask you to go to the headman's house with me."

After hearing this, Jiang Ping hurried back to the yard and woke up Jiang Qian and Zhang Ying, asking them to go to Jiang Qingzhou's house to help guard it. Then he and Jiang Qingzhou hurried to the headman's house.

After hearing Jiang Ping's words, Jiang Qian and Zhang Ying hurriedly got up, took the oil lamp, locked the gate and went to Jiang Qingzhou's house.

Zhang Ying and Jiang Qian walked into the main hall of Jiang Qingzhou's house and looked at the two thieves lying on the ground in surprise.

"Sister-in-law, take off their masks and see who was struck by lightning?" Zhang Ying said angrily.

Song Li hurriedly stopped them: "Second sister-in-law, these two thieves have not spoken, they are probably from the village. We don't need to know who they are, just hand them over to the head of the village."

Jiang Qian nodded quickly and said to Zhang Ying, "Yes, Yingniang, just let the head of the village deal with them."

About a quarter of an hour later, the village head led a group of people to Jiang Qingzhou's house.

The head of the village looked at the ladder beside the wall of the Jiang family's courtyard, walked into the main room angrily, and kicked the two thieves hard several times.

"Second brother, lock them up in the ancestral hall first, and then go to the government office to report the case at dawn. No matter who they are, hand them over to the government for punishment." The head of the village said angrily to a young man beside him.

The young man nodded quickly: "Okay, Dad." Then he worked together with a few young men to take the two thieves out.