Rebirth Counterattack with Space
Chapter 165 - 159: Return Defeated

Chapter 165: Chapter 159: Return Defeated

""Huzi, what on earth is going on? Come on, let’s walk and talk." Shitou had already stepped outside, walking with a twelve or thirteen-year-old boy who’d come running to deliver the message.

"Some old man and woman turned up out of nowhere. As soon as they entered our village, they started to wail and cry at the entrance, claiming to be Brother Aiguo’s uncle and aunt. More and more people gathered around, and Brother Aiguo was fetched too. When those two saw Brother Aiguo, they went up to him and their crying was just heartbreaking... they even accused him of being ungrateful..."

The boy known as Huzi spoke with righteous indignation, while Lu Yun glanced at the two figures walking away, hurriedly shut the door, and chased after them, catching just in time Shitou saying to Huzi, "You run and notify Uncle Lu Er as well, I’ll go and have a look."

"Alright." The boy was about to run off.

"Wait a moment." Lu Yun quickly called out to him, handed over a bag of pork jerky, and said, "Come over to play another day."

Hearing the call, Huzi instinctively stopped, and his eyes lit up at the sight of the full bag of pork jerky, involuntarily looking at Shitou.

"Take it. Bring those guys with you tomorrow afternoon, and let your sister-in-law cook something delicious for you." Shitou nodded.

"Sure thing." Huzi happily took the bag of pork jerky, flashed a bright smile at Lu Yun, then sprinted away.

"How many boys are there in total?" Lu Yun asked Shitou curiously as they made their way to the village entrance.

"Four." Shitou thought of those "eyes" and "ears" he and Lu Aiguo had intentionally recruited and couldn’t help but smile, "When they’re a bit older, they’ll be able to help us too."

"Still young, eh? Then let’s start by supporting a bunch of kids in the village to go to school. It’s only with education that they can be truly useful. Who can’t hire manual labor?"

Lu Yun was struck by a thought. Though tuition fees for school weren’t expensive these days, when you added in the cost of books and various other things, it amounted to quite a bit each year. Especially for children from farming households that lacked labor and were in difficulty, it was a substantial expense.

If someone could sponsor the children’s education, it would be their hope for changing their circumstances, a deed of great kindness indeed.

"Hmm, we’ll discuss the details and plan it carefully the four of us later on." Shitou realized quickly that this was a multi-benefit, win-win proposition.

Since they themselves had made money, more people in the village had become envious. That envy wasn’t obvious in everyday life and probably didn’t have much effect, but it could be problematic in critical moments.

If they could take out a little money at this time and benefit everyone, it would show they hadn’t forgotten their roots. However, initially, the number of people they supported shouldn’t be too large. They also had to consider the choice of beneficiaries and the method—it couldn’t seem like they were easy targets just because they had money. Even if they invested a lot, people might never be satisfied and might even feel they were not doing enough. They had to proceed step by step, helping those who were genuinely deserving and had the desire to progress...

Shitou contemplated a lot on the way, and soon the two of them reached the village entrance. Shitou made his way through the crowd, protecting her to the innermost part of the circle.

The situation was under control. Lu Yun looked around and saw only the parents, the uncle, grandfather, and grandmother from the two Lu family households had arrived.

Without asking, she knew the two strangers in their fifties inside the circle were the so-called "uncle and aunt" her father had referred to. One of them looked sleazy, and the other had a face full of bitterness—they matched well in that regard.

At that moment, they appeared as docile as lambs, nothing like the unruly behavior Huzi had described.

Uncle Lu Er’s voice carried over, "... All right, since you don’t wish to go inside and have a private discussion, we might as well talk it out in front of everyone. What things were like when my younger brother’s wife passed away—I suppose everyone saw clearly enough without me having to tell.

You chose to make a commotion during my sister-in-law’s funeral. Back then, who didn’t know that the third room, your sister and her husband, had nothing of value left?

Aiguo and his sister depended on each other for survival, relying on the help and charity of the two Lu Family households and the villagers, as well as Aiguo dropping out of school early to risk his life in the mountains, scraping together what little food could, just to survive.

In the end, to ensure my sister-in-law’s last journey was peaceful, my older brother and I decided to let you take away everything the third room had that could be worth some money. You should consider whether you took those items with or without a guilty conscience. What did you say back then—that from then on, ties were cut, and the two families would have nothing to do with each