This is a quick article

Something happened on the 20th. Someone in the village was thieved.

The thief stole the chickens from Aunt Li's house next door, and also stole a duck from the village chief's house.

In the middle of the night, chickens and ducks clucked, and dogs followed suit.

Aunt Li was woken up and went to the yard to see that the chicken was gone. She burst into tears and Zhou Chunfang also woke up.

The village chief's wife was even more violent. Her cursing voice was sharp and loud. She was at the entrance of the village, and Chen, who lived in the middle of the village, could hear it.

"You unlucky bastard, you have the guts to sneak into my house. I'm going to tear your crotch apart!"

"Son of a bitch, return the duck to me, or else you'll be in trouble!"

……

His ears were surrounded by swear words, and for a moment the only things in his mind were his genitals and his mother. Chen also couldn't understand why people had to use the word "mom" when insulting others.

Qi He covered Chen Ye's ears and said, "Don't listen."

The lights in the living room were turned on, and Xiao De put on his military coat and went to the yard to check if his belongings were still there.

After a while of arguing, the world became quiet and even the dogs stopped barking.

The next day, Zhang Lan urged Xiao De to reinforce the chicken coop and rabbit cage. They didn't have a dog at home, so if a thief came to visit, there would be no warning.

Most thieves commit crimes during festivals, but this time the thief was quite strange. He started stealing things even during the New Year, which was not a festival.

Not long after, Chen also heard the news that the thief was caught.

The village chief and several villagers tied up the thief and made him kneel in the village square as a warning to others.

Zhang Lan brought her whole family to watch the fun. Chen also saw the thief kneeling on the ground. He was not very old and looked to be only in his teens.

He was pale and sallow, with a dry and pale mouth, and his eyes were dull and lifeless.

There were many bruises on his face, and he hardly looked like a human. There was a faint trace of blood at the corners of his mouth. It was unclear whether it was from a beating or if his internal organs were injured.

The villagers looked at each other with hatred and disgust, because their homes had been robbed. Some villagers looked like they were watching the fun, holding peanuts and sunflower seeds in their hands and gossiping nearby.

The thief lowered his head in shame. At this moment, he felt like someone was stripped naked and thrown here, and anyone could scold him and step on him.

Chen also saw blood on his clothes. There wasn't much blood, but it didn't look like the blood from the wound on his face.

"Where did the blood on his clothes come from?"

Zhang Lan replied, "He was stabbed in the stomach. The village chief and his men caught him while guarding the chicken coop last night and taught him a lesson."

Chen Ye didn't react for a moment, "Stab? What thorn?"

"It's just a thorn on the orange tree." Zhang Lan's tone was nonchalant, as if lynching was a very common thing.

"As a human being, you must be honest and not steal. You've gotten your comeuppance, haven't you?" Zhang Lan looked at Chen Ye and Xiao Tianci. "Remember, you two boys, no matter how poor you are, you must not steal. Be good people, or this will be your fate."

The people around praised Zhang Lan for being good at educating children, and Zhang Lan's eyes were filled with pride.

Chen Ye suddenly thought of the five or six centimeter long thorns in the orange grove on the back mountain, and he felt inexplicably cold in his heart.

He thought of the usually amiable wife of the village head, and a sense of disharmony came over him. They were simple, but sometimes this simplicity was accompanied by cruelty and ignorance.

In the past, legal education in rural areas was not adequate, so when faced with people who made mistakes, they would not send them to the police station, but punish them in their own way.

Many times their punishment is greater than the crime committed by the other party, such as an unfaithful woman being drowned in a pig cage, or a disobedient child being seriously injured by his parents' accidental beating.

There was an old cripple in the village. When he was a child, he was disobedient and his father accidentally broke his leg with a bench.

Soon, the boy's parents from the next village heard the news. Feeling ashamed, they hurriedly took the boy away.

On the way back, Chen Ye's hand was held by Qi He. Qi He saw Chen Ye's pale face and frowned, "Are you scared?"

Chen Ye: “It’s a bit uncomfortable.”

Before traveling through time, Chen Ye had always lived in a society with sound laws. Suddenly seeing such a bloody situation, he felt depressed for a moment.

Qi He didn't know what he was thinking of, his eyes became firm, "Don't be afraid, big brother will protect you."

If their relationship was discovered in the village, their fate would be worse than that of a thief, which made Qi He more determined to take Chen Ye away.

Chen also smiled and said, "I believe in big brother."