Chapter 438 - Catching a Thief
Chapter 438: Catching a Thief
Translator: Lonelytree
When the three of them heard this, their faces turned even paler. They widened their eyes and looked at the big tiger in front of them in horror. Their bodies trembled, and they were on high alert.
Lin Yuelan didn’t care about them. She just lowered her head and played with little white.
After a while, the sound of footsteps could be heard. Everyone was holding a torch and rushing over.
The person in the lead was Lin Yiwei, and behind him was Little Twelve. He was the one who went to get Lin Yiwei. Behind him were the villagers.
When they walked forward, the first thing they saw was the mighty and strong white tiger. It was so fierce that it made people stop in their tracks and not dare to move forward. Some of the more courageous ones continued to follow Lin Yiwei.
Lin Yiwei saw Lin Yuelan on the tiger’s back and immediately asked loudly, “Lan ‘Er, you said you caught the thief. Where is he?”
Lin Yuelan jumped down from the tiger’s back, then pointed to the people they had surrounded and said, “there, these people are thieves. They stole all the rice and meat from my house.”
Lin Yiwei immediately recognized them and was furious. He yelled at Lin Youcai, “Lin Youcai, I have just rejected you in the day and you’re here to steal at night. Don’t you have any sense of shame?”
Lin Youcai lowered his head and did not speak, allowing Lin Yiwei to continue cursing him.
In fact, he was secretly happy. It was good that Lin Yiwei was here. The village chief definitely wouldn’t punish him too severely. After all, situations like this had happened in the past. He would only give him two smacks and a warning before letting him go.
Lin Yiwei looked at the others. When he saw the two ruffians, he became even angrier.
He pointed at the two of them and scolded, “Zhou Lin, Li Erlai, how dare you steal from the Lin family Village! Do you think Lin family Village won’t do anything to you? I’m telling you, on behalf of the Lin family Village, I’m going to punish you today.”
As he spoke, Lin Yiwei looked at Lin Yuelan and asked, “Lan ‘Er, what do you want to do with them now?”
Lin Yuelan sneered and said, “The evidence of them being thieves is irrefutable, so the best punishment is naturally to send them to the authorities for punishment. After three to five years in prison, they’ll completely turn over a new leaf.”
When the three of them heard that they were going to be sent to the authorities, they ignored their fear and hurriedly got up from the ground. Then, they immediately knelt down and kowtowed, saying, “No, no. Don’t send us to the authorities.”
If they were sent to prison, their lives would be ruined.
Lin Yuelan said sternly, “when anyone makes a mistake, doesn’t it mean that they can be forgiven if they apologize? Then, what’s the point of having the law? In the past, it was none of my business whether you stole or robbed. However, now that you’ve stolen from me, I’m sorry. You must pay the price for your mistakes. Sending you to the authorities is the lightest punishment, otherwise…”
Lin Yuelan gently stroked little White’s fur and said sternly, “if you want me to mete out the punishment, don’t blame me for being ruthless!”
She had never been a good person.
Hearing this, Lin Yiwei could only sigh and say, “alright.” He then instructed the young man. “Tie the three of them up and bring them to the ancestral hall. We’ll send them to court tomorrow.”
However, when the others heard that Lin Yiwei was really going to send the thieves to court, they had some opinions.
With Lin Changzhi as the representative, he stood up and said, “Village chief, one of our villagers has already been sent to prison. Are we going to send another one in? How will others look at our Lin family Village in the future? How will this reflect on our village?
“You can’t just blindly follow someone’s instruction and allow her to ruin the Lin Family Village. She doesn’t care about the Lin family Village’s reputation, but we do. Therefore, we can’t send these people to court.”
When he was talking about some people, his eyes swept over Lin Yuelan, his eyes containing some hatred.
As soon as Lin Changzhi’s words came out, many people immediately echoed him. They nodded and said, “that’s right, that’s right. They have only stolen a few things. It’s not even gold, silver, or jewelry. Why should we involve the authority? At most, we can tie them up and lock them up for a few days to teach them a lesson.”
Lin Yuelan coldly looked at them as they defended the thieves. Then, she sneered and said, “Right. So no harm is done. Fine. I’ll have them steal all your food tomorrow. After all, no harm is done, right? Don’t think that they wouldn’t dare to steal it. Don’t you know the character of these three people?
“Or perhaps, some of you are thinking of using them as precedent? In the future, all of you can come steal from me without punishment. After all, in your eyes, I’m very rich, right?”
Some of the villagers immediately shut up. They felt like this because it was not their things that were stolen. The things stolen were not even money. However, if this happened to them, they would kill the thieves.
This was the selfishness of human nature.
Early the next morning, everyone in the village knew that Lin Youcai had stolen something from Lin Yuelan. Now, he had been sent to the authorities by Lin Yuelan without mercy.
When the villagers heard that, they cursed Lin Yuelan for being so heartless. As long as she was around, the Lin family Village’s reputation would be ruined.
The jinx was too cruel, and lost her conscience. She didn’t even consider that these men had families to take care of.
In short, all kinds of curses were hurled at Lin Yuelan.
However, Lin Yuelan didn’t care about these people at all. For her, catching the thieves was just a small interlude. The purpose of sending the thieves to the government was to deter others.
She was very busy now. She was busy preparing to officially take over Lin’s medicine Hall from Lin Deshan. Most importantly, she had to recruit a shopkeeper. She wanted Lin Deshan to retire so he could rest.