茶杯狐 -CUPFOX

Soon, Xiang Kun identified them by the scent alone – they were the Liu brothers, Liu Zhengyi and Liu Gaoshang, who had intercepted them midway when they came to Chongyun village to find Liu Caifu a year ago.

Originally, the brothers intended to please Liu Feibao by “intercepting” Xiang Kun and his friends, but their plan did not materialize. Instead, they were taught a fierce lesson by Liu Feibao and later had to humbly apologize to Xiang Kun.

At l that instance, Liu Caifu mediated and gave assurance, thus Xiang Kun did not make things difficult for them.

This time, when he returned to Tongshi town, Xiang Kun learned from Liu Caifu that both brothers had been staying in Chongyun Village, working separately at two farms. They were reportedly well-behaved and hardworking, and had not stirred up any trouble.

The sound of knocking resounded. It was not loud, and Xiang Kun could sense that Liu Zhengyi, who was knocking, was quite cautious and even seemed nervous.

Xiang Kun walked over to open the gate and looked at the Liu brothers standing outside, asking, “What’s up?”

Perhaps because Xiang Kun didn’t make much noise when he came to open the door, the sudden opening of the door startled Liu Zhengyi. He instinctively stepped back before hurriedly saying, “Brother Xiang… er… Mr. Xiang, Uncle Liu told us that you have been staying in the village these days, so… we thought of coming over… umm… just to say hello…”

Hearing his brother stuttering, Liu Gaoshang, who was standing behind, couldn’t help but whisper, “Bro, the things.”

Only then did Liu Zhengyi remember, and he handed over the two bags he held in his hand, placing them at the door, saying, “Mr. Xiang, these are free-range chicken eggs and two pearl chickens from our village. My brother and I have cleaned them thoroughly. Also, this is the famous plum wine from our village that my relatives brewed. The taste is pretty good…”

Xiang Kun cut him off before he finished, saying: “Take it back, I won’t accept gifts without a good cause.”

“No, no, we accidentally offended Mr. Xiang and your friend previously, right? This is just a… just a… small token of our apology.” Liu Zhengyi hastily explained.

Seeing that Xiang Kun’s expression did not change much, Liu Zhengyi hesitated for a moment before adding, “Uncle Liu mentioned that Mr. Xiang was planning to set up a large-scale breeding base in the village… Both of us have been working in the local farms in the village recently, so… umm… just remember that when the time comes and you are short of hands, just let us know, we are okay with just food and accommodation…”

Xiang Kun knew that the “Uncle Liu” he mentioned was Liu Caifu. Although Liu Caifu was not exactly old, he held a high rank in Chongyun Village.

Previously, as a result of the “interception” incident involving the brothers, Chu Xiuwen and Liu Caifu mediated, inviting Xiang Kun to a meal and apologizing. The solution given by Liu Caifu was for the brother duo to work for a year at the breeding farm that Xiang Kun was planning to set up in the village.

Back then, there were no visible signs of the breeding farm or Research Base that Xiang Kun had mentioned, Liu Caifu’s words were essentially aimed at helping the brothers, who hadn’t caused much harm and were also from the same village, to save face.

However, Liu Caifu told Xiang Kun that after that day, the brothers did voluntarily come to him, expressing their commitment to the said agreement. Surprisingly, they did stay true to their word and had been working diligently at the farms for nearly a month, without creating any trouble.

Liu Caifu also mentioned that the brothers would often bring him some gifts and chat with him. They occasionally talked about Xiang Kun and appeared very curious about his background, showing considerable respect in their words.

Although he had not interacted much with them, Xiang Kun guessed their mindset based on his few observations and some information he had learned from Liu Caifu.

Simply put, their actions reflected a basic admiration and tendency to follow the powerful. Earlier, Liu Feibao was regarded as the “supreme” authority over Tongshi Town in their eyes, hence they wanted to please him, leading them to “intercept” Xiang Kun and his party.

And now, they were trying to curry favor with Xiang Kun because they believed that Xiang Kun held a higher status than Liu Feibao and was more powerful, feeling that following him could provide a promising future.

Since he opened the door, Xiang Kun had been collecting a lot of sensory information. Although he could tell that Liu Zhengyi and Liu Gaoshang had taken a bath and changed their clothes before coming, they still smelled a bit like chicken and duck manure and feed. Based on Liu Zhengyi’s physiological state while speaking just now, they were nervous, but they did not harbor any ill intentions towards him.

After hearing him out, Xiang Kun picked up the items they brought and said, “Thank you for your gifts. I’ll let you know when needed.”

He did not explain to the Liu brothers that the area being built presently was no longer the breeding farm mentioned by Liu Caifu earlier, but a Research Base in the guise of a breeding research facility.

Anyway, there will be a need for necessary staff in the future. Based on his understanding of the Liu brothers, there wouldn’t be too much variability outside of his control. They were suited for some of the work.

Moreover, both of them were locals of Chongyun Village. In the future, many issues could be better dealt with. After all, Liu Caifu and Old Xia couldn’t handle everything. They had other things to do and couldn’t get distracted by too many trivial matters.

Watching as Xiang Kun took their offerings back into the yard and closed the courtyard door, Liu Zhengyi seemed taken aback. After a while, he let out a sigh of relief and smiled.

A short while after they started walking back, Liu Gaoshang couldn’t help but ask, “Bro, did Mr. Xiang agree when he said he would notify us later?”

“Nonsense, of course we agreed!” By now, Liu Zhengyi wasn’t nervous in front of Xiang Kun anymore. He spoke assuredly to his younger brother, “If he’s willing to accept our stuff, it’s a done deal.”

Before they approached Xiang Kun, they had visited Liu Caifu first. Initially, they planned to scrape together enough money, even borrowing some, to make the gifts they brought more presentable, a good wine or liquor at least. However, Liu Caifu ruthlessly shut down their plan, telling them it was better to show up with empty hands than bring those items. So, they decided to take Liu Caifu’s advice and brought local farm eggs and pearl chickens as gifts to see Xiang Kun.

Looking at how things have turned out, it’s clear that the advice given by their “Uncle Liu” was indeed useful.

Mr. Xiang obviously wouldn’t care for their local specialties, but his willingness to accept them signified his acceptance of the two brothers.

However, younger brother Liu Gaoshang didn’t seem thrilled upon hearing his brother’s words; his face was a little bitter: “Are we really going to work as laborers in Mr. Xiang’s farm?”

Over the past half month, he had worked on a farm in the village that Liu Caifu had introduced him to. He had had enough. If it weren’t for his brother’s strict command, he would have probably run away on his first day at the farm.

“Don’t worry, the farms run by Mr. Xiang and Brother Fu are definitely not like that run-down farm where the old black pig raised. The environment there is way better,” Liu Zhengyi comforted. When speaking privately between the two of them, they still preferred to call Liu Caifu “Brother Fu”.

Liu Gaoshang grimaced even harder: “Even if the environment is better, isn’t it still farming pigs, chickens, ducks, and geese? Isn’t it still feeding and cleaning their waste? How different could it be? Brother, should we really work for Mr. Xiang for a year for free like Brother Fu suggested? Brother, let’s… go to town to find work, okay? Even delivering food or parcels using electric tricycles would be better, right? Staying in the village all day long, now even the sight of a pig seems charming to me…”

Liu Zhengyi slapped his younger brother’s head in irritation, scolding him: “Why did Brother Fu suggest that to us? Haven’t I explained to you? Bearing Liu Feibao’s unpleasant character, we’ve got ourselves into a heap of trouble. Even if Mr. Xiang forgives us, Liu Feibao would definitely make us suffer in return. The amount Brother Fu mentioned was to protect us! Collectively, the wages of both of us working 365 days a year, how much could it be? The local specialties we gave, do you honestly think Mr. Xiang would care for them?”

Liu Gaoshang, rubbing his head, sighed: “Brother, can we really succeed like this? They are running a farm, not a big hotel or company…”

“I made an oversight about ‘Pig Head Treasure’ last time, but this time I won’t!” Liu Zhengyi confidently said: “Last time, I saw how Liu Feibao, President Chu, and Brother Fu were adopting a grateful and perceptive stance towards Mr. Xiang. His background should be non-trivial. Recently, I’ve discovered that Brother Fu has been closely watching Mr. Xiang’s construction site, and President Chu visits our village frequently to meet Brother Fu. The road that is now under construction in our village is led by Haoguo Group from the provincial capital. Pig Head Treasure, President Chu, Brother Fu, and all the others from our village and town invested money, and so the previously intractable problem was swiftly resolved, and construction work began expeditiously. How long has it been? One lane has already nearly been completed. What does that indicate?”

Liu Gaoshang listened with a bewildered look: “Whh… What?”

“Do you remember why Pig Head Treasure wanted to check Mr. Xiang and his friend’s car?”

“It seemed like… there was a bit of a quarrel after the tailgating on the road?” Liu Gaoshang tried to recollect.

“At that time, there was a major businessman from the provincial capital in Pig Head Treasure’s car. Pig Head Treasure was eager to do big business with him. That businessman, allegedly, was severely reprimanded by Mr. Xiang after the tailgating and returned to the provincial capital in humiliation. A few days ago, I confirmed that this businessman is the boss of Haoguo Group, Qi Haoguo. Think about the attitude of Pig Head Treasure and think about why Qi, who was severely reprimanded by Mr. Xiang and lost face after the incident, rushed to fix the road when Mr. Xiang planned to establish a farm in Chongyun village?”

Seeing his younger brother looking puzzled, seemingly getting the idea but also having more questions, Liu Zhengyi thought for a while and said, “We got the day off today, so let’s have a good meal in town tonight. I’ll explain it to you in detail, so you won’t be confused in the future.”

The Liu brothers returned home, rode their motorcycles to Tongshi Town, and just one meal along with Liu Zhengyi’s incessant chatter, went straight from 5 p.m. to almost 9 p.m.

Because the rain was too heavy and they hadn’t brought raincoats, they played arcade games in the game room next to the restaurant they had dinner in to kill time. They didn’t ride their bikes back to the village until the rain subsided in the early morning.

The Liu Brothers’ house in the village hadn’t been renovated, and it was just a ground floor house that looked pretty run-down. They hadn’t bought any electronic equipment, not even a fridge or TV. After all, the two brothers used to live in town. When they returned to the village for the lunar new year, they only came back to sleep at night, often spending a lot of their time sleeping in the farm, so they didn’t mind their run-down house.

However, when they returned home that day, they were shocked to find that their house had been burglarized?!

Looking at the bedroom that had been rummaged through, Liu Zhengyi turned to his bewildered brother and asked, “Didn’t you lock the door when you left?”

Liu Gaoshang was perplexed: “We’ve never locked our decrepit house… who would come in? Besides, I think the lock on our house is broken anyway. Wouldn’t lock!”

Indeed, their house had no valuables, let alone money. Who would steal from it? All anyone had to do was see their house from the outside to know there was nothing worth stealing!

“Damn it! I’m missing some clothes. My favorite pair of pants, and my coat is gone too!” Since they didn’t have many belongings, Liu Zhengyi quickly realized what was missing after opening the cabinet.

Not only did he lose clothes, but his younger brother, Liu Gaoshang, had lost two jackets as well. The dried meat and snacks they got from their farm were gone, and even their only umbrella was missing.

Fury bubbled up in Liu Zhengyi’s stomach, his good mood from obtaining Xiang Kun’s “promise” entirely evaporated. He was suspicious of the villagers who didn’t like them and started to check around the house with his phone, believing that they were being purposefully targeted.

Although it had rained heavily before, he still saw footprints of two different men in the muddy ground outside their house.

“Brother, are those your clothes?” The voice of Liu Gaoshang came from afar.

The light of his mobile phone helped Liu Zhengyi find the way, and standing alongside his younger brother on the side of the muddy road overgrown with weeds, they squinted towards the slope beneath. In the faint light, they saw several pieces of clothing strewn about, which weren’t there when they had returned home earlier on the motorcycle.

“No, my clothes weren’t that color.” Liu Zhengyi shook his head but as he was about to walk away, he seemed to think of something. He returned, used a flashlight on his phone and examined the clothes carefully, then told his younger brother, “Go pick it up and take a look.”

“If it’s not yours and it’s not mine, why should I pick it up? It’s slippery after the rain. I’ll be covered in mud if I go down, I’m not going…”

“Damn it! These weren’t here when we passed this afternoon but they are now, implying that likely the thief who stole our clothes dumped them! Come on, fair play. Rock-Paper-Scissors. The loser goes to pick it up. You can’t complain that I’m taking advantage as your older brother!”

Few minutes later, mud-covered Liu Gaoshang dragged back a few soggy pieces of clothing and threw them in front of his brother, complaining, “What the hell is the use of picking up these? Do you think we can find the thief by these clothes?”

Liu Zhengyi crouched down, used his phone to carefully examine these clothes, and even washed a pair of pants splattered with mud in the nearby water to verify the color.

“Don’t tell me… Brother, you’re not thinking about washing these clothes and wearing them? Brother… We’re not that desperate…” Seeing Liu Zhengyi’s actions, Liu Gaoshang didn’t care about the mud on him and tried to pull his brother up.

Liu Zhengyi brushed Liu Gaoshang’s hand away, with a solemn and slightly excited expression on his face, “You idiot, think! These clothes were left by the thieves who stole our clothes! Think about what was reported on the news when we were eating in the town… the escaped convicts! The escapees from Wushu Mountain Prison! After their escape, they’re stealing laundry hung out by the nearby villagers! The police report said they targeted blue cotton pants, the uniforms of a nearby factory! Look at these pants, are they not blue cotton? Don’t they look like factory uniforms?”

“They… fuck, they really are… How did these two fugitives end up here?” Liu Gaoshang also crouched down to inspect the clothes while voicing his doubts, “How did they manage to evade capture on their way here?”

Liu Zhengyi looked back at the deep mountains and the pitch-black sky devoid of moon and stars where another heavy rain seemed to be brewing, and murmured, “I guess they didn’t take the main road, they must’ve taken detours through the mountains. Look at this torn pair of pants. No wonder they needed to steal clothes and food from our village. By now… they must’ve gone back into the mountains.”

Liu Gaoshang paused for a moment and then took out his phone to check something. Suddenly he exclaimed with excitement, “Brother! These two fugitives are worth a fortune, 100,000, the reward is 100,000! Damn, this is awesome! Brother, they must have entered the mountains from the ditch. Should we grab some tools and go after them? That’s 100,000!”

“Are you out of your mind?!” Liu Zhengyi glared at him and scolded, “They’re jailbreakers, real desperados. It’ll be two against two, who knows who would get who! Besides, the mountains are so big, who knows where they are by now, how would we find them with just two people? Look it up online, the reward offered by the police should be for providing clues to assist in their capture, just give them the lead we found, and as long as it leads to their capture, there will be a reward.”

So Liu Zhengyi thought for a moment, organized his language, and then dialed the police to report their observations after returning home, the clothes they found, and their deductions.

After reporting and providing the lead, Liu Zhengyi said to his younger brother, “We should go to Brother Fu’s house and inform him.”

“Why?” Liu Gaoshang was taken aback, instinctively saying, “The police haven’t come to verify our information yet. If too many people get involved and everyone calls the police, wouldn’t it dilute our reward?”

“We suspect that those two fugitives have gone into the mountains, but what if they haven’t? What if they’re still in the village? Brother Fu is the deputy village head, we should inform him. We can also go to Mr. Xiang’s place on the way. Their courtyard is rather isolated, they should be on guard.”

“Oh…” Liu Gaoshang understood his brother’s intention.

When the two brothers arrived at Liu Caifu’s house on their motorbike, they were surprised to find that President Chu Xiuwen was also there, and despite the late hour, the two were still drinking and chatting.

…

At the moment, the two men wearing Liu Zhengyi’s and Liu Gaoshang’s clothes were struggling through the mountains.

The weather was terrible and there was no moonlight. The two men dared not use flashlights in the forest and faced great difficulties in moving forward, the ground slippery from rain, nearly causing them to fall down the mountain several times.

Boom! A bolt of lightning tore through the sky followed by a deafening thunderclap that echoed through the mountains.

It seemed another storm was about to hit.

“Damn it! This fucking shitty weather!” After nearly slipping and falling again, the man leading the way began to curse.

The other man behind him, however, sounded much calmer, “Old Ding, you should be grateful for this weather. If not for this thunderstorm, and the heavy rain affecting the police drones, we might not have managed to get this far.”

“…it’s so hard to move through… After such a heavy rain… the people chasing us… they should have stopped too, right?” The man in front known as ‘Old Ding’ stopped to catch his breath.

The voice from behind scoffed, “Do you really think a heavy rain could stop the people chasing us?”

Old Ding knew the answer, and helplessly shook his head as he trudged on. “Old Tofu, do you think… we can get away with this?”

The one called “Old Tofu” coldly replied, “It was always a one in a thousand chance, just taking a gamble. Hold on…there seems to be someone up ahead.”

Old Ding had also noticed it: less than ten meters from them, a figure in a raincoat stood next to a tripod, looking back at them.

Clearly, they had been seen.

Old Ding seized the opportunity to smile and say, “My friend and I were hiking in the mountains with some others. The rainstorm separated us. Do you have a signal on your phone? Can we borrow it to make a call?” As he spoke, he slowly closed the distance, his right hand reaching into his pocket.

“Old Tofu”, closely trailing him, discreetly drew a small knife and hid it behind his back.

For these two desperate men, no matter whether this person they had bumped into recognized or guessed their identities, they wouldn’t let them go.

As they got closer and the faint glow from the electronic devices under the rain cover next to the figure lit up, they were stunned to realize that the tall figure in the raincoat was a pretty young woman!

And this woman seemed incredibly calm, just looking at them placidly. There was no fear, terror, surprise or confusion in her eyes. It was as if the appearance of these two men was just as expected?

The moment “Old Tofu” revealed the knife from his back, a thought suddenly sprang to his mind: in the dead of night, under such terrible weather, appearing in these deep mountains with so many pieces of equipment, she couldn’t be alone, could she?

Just then, his partner in front gave a scream, teetering and almost stumbling.

“There’s something, something suddenly appeared in front of me! A big lump!” Old Ding, panicking, pulled out his flashlight and shone it in front of him without wasting any time.

“Old Tofu” noticed that when Old Ding was startled by something, the pretty girl in the raincoat swiftly raised her right hand and leaned forward, seemingly preparing to pounce at him.

But for some reason, she changed her mind and stayed where she was.

Soon, under the illumination of Old Ding’s flashlight, “Old Tofu” also realized what had made her hold back — several coins had levitated in front of her.

What was happening?

Seeing this, “Old Tofu” paused and gripped the knife even tighter.

The sight before them was extremely eerie.

What was even stranger was that Old Ding, using the flashlight, bent down and picked up that big thing that had scared him — it was… a pig’s foot?

But both men knew it wasn’t tossed by this woman in the raincoat. It had appeared out of nowhere!

The coins floating in the air surrounded her, almost like a group of personal bodyguards.

After glancing at the night sky, the woman in the raincoat did something even more peculiar.

She quickly took off the camera from the tripod that was pointed off into the distance and tucked it against her chest, and then…

She crouched down, head covered with her arms?!

While the two men were still stunned, they seemed to sense something and instinctively looked up at the sky.

Amidst the dark sky, several flashes of light shimmered and the sound of thunder rolled faintly in the distance. Then all the lights disappeared and everything around seemed to fall silent until suddenly, a spread of cracks, lightning shot up from the horizon, tearing the sky apart.

Then, the two men had a strange feeling that the lightning had touched the ground directly?

It was as if the earth and the sky had been connected by this bolt of lightning.