Unlimited Resources: Raising a Minister with a Space Supermarket-Chapter 529 - 466: The Bandit’s Wife

"Sir, I’ve exterminated the bandits. I’m not seeking rewards, but at least I shouldn’t be blamed, right? Please be lenient," Zhao Pingting pleaded, kowtowing to Su Jingchen.

Before interrogating Zhao Pingting, Su Jingchen had already discussed with Li Wenyuan how to sentence Zhao Pingting. Though bandits are detestable, some of them were defenseless elderly, women, and children left on the mountain by force, guilty of conspiracy but not deserving of death. If Zhao Pingting hadn’t set fire to everything, after interrogation and investigation, at least some of them would have been sentenced to exile.

However, considering Zhao Pingting gathered all the valuable items in one place, allowing Su Jingchen to conveniently collect them, it somewhat counted as ’merit,’ so Su Jingchen waived the death penalty and sentenced her to exile.

Upon hearing the sentence of exile, Zhao Pingting fainted straightaway. Though exile isn’t the same as beheading, it’s hardly any better than a death sentence.

After Zhao Pingting was taken away, Su Jingchen instructed Li Wenyuan to tally all the gold and silver jewelry seized from the bandit hideout. A total of three thousand taels were collected.

Besides the silver coin, several carts’ worth of medicinal herbs, fabrics, grains, oil, bottles, jars, and miscellaneous items that hadn’t been burnt in the hideout were brought back.

The grains had been mixed with a knockout drug by Yu Xiaolian, but given the grain shortage at the time, they couldn’t be discarded.

Su Jingchen ordered the grains to be cleaned, dried, sieved, and then distributed evenly to the villagers of several villages often ravaged by bandits at the foot of Wuyuan Mountain. Every household received some.

The wife of the eldest brother Gu accepted the grain handed over by the government officer with trembling hands. Before she could thank them, a villager shouted loudly, "She’s a bandit woman! When the bandits came down the mountain to rob each household, everyone suffered except her family. Her husband and son are bandits! Officer, anyone but her shouldn’t receive this grain!"

Previously, everyone feared bandit retaliation and dared not provoke or speak out. Now that the bandits of Wuyuan Mountain had been almost entirely slaughtered, what was there to fear?

The eldest brother Gu’s wife shook in fear, causing half a bag of grain to fall to the ground.

"Look! She’s feeling guilty!" someone shouted loudly.

The eldest brother Gu’s wife indeed felt guilty. Ever since she saw heavy smoke rising from the mountain fortress days ago, she knew something might have happened there. Later, when someone returned from investigating the village, they brought back news of the band’s extermination by the government, and she realized it was over.

Her husband and eldest son were gone, leaving only her and her youngest son. How were they supposed to survive?

Since they couldn’t stay atop the mountain any longer, her husband had taken her to rely on the Wuyuan Mountain’s leader, Master Pan, where his wife was always making things difficult for her. Left with no choice, she brought her youngest son down the mountain to live.

After concealing her identity down the mountain and living like an ordinary villager, she found that life to be truly good—it didn’t involve constant fear and anxiety, allowing her heart to settle.

She had often urged her husband and eldest son to wash their hands and stop being bandits, but her husband Old Gu always said he just needed one more big raid to secure enough retirement money before coming down the mountain to live a stable life with her.

Indeed, the villagers were robbed once, and she couldn’t stop it at the time. However, she believed no one had seen her connect with the bandits, unexpectedly, the villagers knew and saw her husband and son were bandits, apparently because they hadn’t dared to speak up before. They remembered everything, waiting for the right moment to settle accounts with her!

"Officer, I really don’t know any bandits. My husband died long ago, and we’re just a widowed mother and an orphan being bullied in this village. I never imagined they would slander me like this just to get more grain," Ma Shi said, appearing utterly aggrieved.

The government officer frowned and carefully scrutinized Ma Shi.

Ma Shi looked noticeably different from the other villagers, dressed differently, and probably ate differently. She seemed to have a better complexion than the dry, sallow-looking villagers.

"Bring out your household registration documents!" the officer asked suddenly, feeling skeptical.

Ma Shi sighed in relief. Previously, her husband set up his base in Wuyuan Mountain Town. Since he was quite famous there, the village chief, Cao Dewang, had also paid a secret visit to the mountain. Household registration documents, just pieces of paper with seals, had countless fake copies.

Previously the bandits would rob passing merchants’ goods. To fence them in surrounding cities, almost every bandit had several assumed identities.

Ma Shi showed the fake documents to the officer, saying, "Officer, my husband was named Wang Dahe, and he died in the year of the drought, leaving us orphaned and widowed. See... it’s clearly written on these documents."

"What’s your name?" the officer, after inspecting the household documents, suddenly questioned the younger son of the eldest brother Gu.

Ma Shi was startled, fearing her son might say something wrong.

Her five-year-old son replied in a childish voice, "My name is Xiaobao, Wang Xiaobao."

The officer trusted that such a young child wouldn’t lie and returned the household documents to Ma Shi, warning the nearby villagers not to bully the orphaned mother.

Once the officer left, Ma Shi picked up the spilled grain from the ground grain by grain while glaring at the woman who had made accusations earlier.

The woman felt unnerved under her gaze, regretting her earlier impulse.

Nobody else had spoken up, and she regretted being the one to stick her neck out.

Now that the officer had left, wasn’t she afraid the bandit’s wife would retaliate?

The woman, gathering courage, spoke quickly before the crowd dispersed, "Last time our village was attacked by mountain thieves, it was because of you! I heard that young bandit call you mother. You even used fake documents to deceive the officer. Let me tell you, if you’re wise, leave our village immediately, or else if anything goes missing, we’ll all go to your house to take our things."

The speaking woman was named Yu Shi, and she lived next to Ma Shi’s house. She could smell whatever Ma Shi was cooking every day.

Not only could she smell it, but her youngest son could too. Every time Ma Shi’s family cooked chicken or meat, it made her youngest son cry in hunger.

Previously, her family raised several chickens, laying eggs that she never sold, only feeding them to her youngest son to satisfy his craving. But last time the bandits stole all her chickens, leaving none, while her neighbor was eating chicken the next day. How could she not be angry?

This bandit didn’t rob her neighbor, only her home!

Since then, Yu Shi paid particular attention to the comings and goings of this neighbor. Whether someone visited Ma Shi’s home, or the color of the chicken feathers after she cooked chicken, Yu Shi would rummage through Ma Shi’s garbage.

There’s nothing in the world that can’t be done if one is determined. Yu Shi didn’t watch in vain. She heard that young knife-wielding boy calling Ma Shi his mother, then saw from afar as the boy followed her up the mountain.