Chapter 809 - 416: Cows Have Tempers Too

Chapter 809: Chapter 416: Cows Have Tempers Too

Zheng Changhe was also left speechless. Should he tell him to leave the man be? He couldn’t even bring himself to do that.

Liu Heizi stepped forward and rolled the man over. His eyes were squeezed shut, and one hand clutched his side. The area was heavily stained with blood, which had already soaked through his clothes.

He checked the man’s breathing. Finding he still had breath, he pinched the man’s philtrum hard.

Zhang Dashuan said, "Let’s carry him out first. It’s pitch black in this Lin Zi, and it’s not a good idea to light torches here. Changhe, you lead the way and light the path. Heizi, carry him in the middle. I’ll bring up the rear."

After a flurry of activity, the group emerged from the woods.

Although the ropes on the two cows’ noses had come loose, they automatically followed behind Zhang Dashuan after he called out to them, heading toward home.

By the river, He and Aunt Liu were waiting anxiously. Seeing two clusters of firelight approaching from the hillside, He was overjoyed and smiled at Aunt Liu. "They’re back. They found the cows too, I can see them."

The two women went up to meet them happily. Just as they were about to ask how the cows were found, they saw Liu Heizi carrying a man on his back, the man’s arms dangling. Startled, He asked, "Husband, who is this?"

Zhang Dashuan waved his hand in frustration. "We’ll talk about it when we get home." With his hands clasped behind his back, he kept his head down and kept walking.

He looked at the men suspiciously, but she couldn’t bring herself to ask again, so she just followed them back.

Upon returning home, Zhang Dashuan first instructed He to soak some beans to feed the cows later that night, saying that the black ox’s nose had been torn and it needed some nourishment. Then, he asked Juhua to find some medicine for injuries and applied a layer to the black ox’s nose. He took the rest of the medicine and headed to the west wing to check on the cow thief.

Liu Heizi had placed the man in the main room of the west wing. Just as he was about to step forward and pinch his philtrum again, the man rolled over and knelt before him—he had actually been awake for a while—without saying a word, he just kept kowtowing repeatedly.

Zheng Changhe stood to the side, furious. "So you’re perfectly fine? Why didn’t you say anything? You made Heizi carry you all the way back!"

The man panicked, hastily waving his hands before pulling open his shirt to reveal a bloody mess on his side. Zhang Dashuan walked in right at that moment. Startled by the sight, he immediately grew angry. "What are you doing? Flashing that wound to scare people? Let me tell you, you brought this on yourself. Don’t tell me you expect me to treat it for you?"

Though the wound on the man’s side looked frightening, seeing him kneeling there looking somewhat energetic made Zhang Dashuan immediately drop his worries. He was no longer depressed and suddenly had the mood to scold the man. To be honest, he had been genuinely afraid the thief was gravely injured. He would much rather the man be perfectly fine, allowing Zhang Dashuan to give him a good scolding before letting him go.

The man, already knowing Zhang Dashuan was the master of the house, turned and began kowtowing to him.

Liu Heizi suddenly spoke up. "You’re from Yu Tree Village! I’ve seen you before. You’re that... that..." He couldn’t recall the man’s surname, frowning in deep thought.

The man replied in a hoarse voice, "My surname is Jia. My father is Jia Quan. I’m the second son of the Jia family."

He continued speaking as he kowtowed, stopping just short of confessing his entire eight generations of ancestry.

Juhua was in the room taking care of Banli and Cong, while also telling Hulu a story. It wasn’t until a good while later that she heard He come in to call them for dinner.

She picked up Cong and asked, "Is everything fine now? What about the cow thief? Did you let him go?"

He picked up Banli and walked out of the room with her, only to hear Zhang Dashuan saying loudly, "If we didn’t let him go, were you expecting to keep him here for the night? Talk about bad luck! He clearly stole our cows, yet I couldn’t wait to send him on his way. Now that he’s gone, I feel much better. Earlier, I thought a cow’s horn had gouged a hole in his stomach. I figured we’d definitely have to send him to Xiatang Market to see a doctor. I couldn’t just leave him to die, and let me tell you, I felt absolutely miserable."

Juhua quickly asked what happened. After listening to Zhang Dashuan’s explanation, she couldn’t help but laugh.

As it turned out, the cow thief hadn’t initially come to steal cows at all. He had just wanted to snatch a couple of chickens or ducks. After pacing around without finding a good opportunity, he happened to spot the Zhang family’s cows grazing on the hillside, completely unattended. Greed got the better of him, and he figured that stealing a cow to sell would fetch quite a bit of silver—wasn’t that much better than stealing a duck? Either way, stealing was stealing. He might as well go for the big prize, buy more grain, and make life a little easier for his family.

However, the cows stubbornly refused to move.

Later, he broke off a tree branch and finally managed to drive the two cows into the woods. He planned to detour over the mountain and sell them cheap at the market the next morning for a few taels of silver. Who could have known that the moment Zhang Dashuan yelled "Black Ox," the two cows would turn around and bolt back? They were completely unstoppable. Unwilling to let the silver slip through his fingers, the thief grabbed the ropes tightly and refused to let go.

The black ox, furious, broke free from the rope—tearing its own nose in the process—and ran toward Zhang Dashuan along with the other black cow.

The man had gone mad from poverty. Zhang Dashuan had clearly tracked them down and was calling for the cows just outside Lin Zi. Instead of fleeing immediately to avoid capture, the thief, after the black ox broke free, clung desperately to the second cow. He figured that if he couldn’t steal both, he should at least take one back.

The cows were actually very smart; they were just docile from being domesticated, which was why they wouldn’t attack people casually. Today, upon hearing their master calling them home, they were incredibly anxious, yet this man refused to let go. Even a saint has a breaking point, let alone a cow! So, the black cow twisted its head and violently rammed him with its horn. Fortunately, it only grazed his ribs, causing superficial wounds. Had it been a fraction of an inch closer, the horn would have surely pierced a massive hole in his stomach.

Even so, the sheer terror had caused the man to faint.

After hearing the story, Juhua let out a huge sigh of relief. With lingering fear, she said, "Dad, this is a case of good deeds being rewarded. You’re right, letting him go brings peace of mind. If that man had been severely injured, our family definitely couldn’t have just watched him die. But saving someone who tried to steal our cows would have been incredibly frustrating."

He chuckled. "Isn’t that the truth? When I heard his reasons, knowing he was from the neighboring village, and seeing him cry about how his family couldn’t survive—that his children were so hungry they were scrounging for wild food every day, and that he wouldn’t have resorted to stealing otherwise—I couldn’t bear it. Seeing his injuries weren’t serious, I told him to leave. If he really had a hole in his stomach, he’d be suffering, and we wouldn’t have any peace either. We wouldn’t be able to rest tonight, and we’d probably have to take him to the market to see a doctor."

Zhang Dashuan nodded repeatedly, saying that he felt much more at ease now that the man was gone. He had felt terrible earlier.

The family sat down at the table for dinner. Meanwhile, Zheng Changhe took Hulu and headed back, mentioning that he was afraid his mother would be worried about them.