Chapter Sixteen: Stealing Chickens at Midnight

  Li Guoting and Zhao Erhu crawled out of the drainage pipes under the city wall and arrived outside the city.

  Outside the city, there was a moat. As soon as the two of them came out of the water pipe, they fell into the moat. Fortunately, the water was not deep. Both of them knew how to swim, so they swam along the moat to the other side. They climbed up onto the shore. The two of them were soaked from head to toe. The chilly morning air was biting. Zhao Erhu and Li Guoting shivered with cold.

  "Big brother, where are we going now?" Zhao Er's teeth chattered with a "ge ge" sound. His body was cold like a sieve.

  Li Guoting raised his head to gaze at the sky where dawn was breaking, then looked ahead at a small road along the moat leading south and said: "Let's follow this road southward, it's warmer in the south, wherever we go is fine."

  Then the two of them walked forward along the road ahead.

  On the road, Zhao Erhu took out the silver dollar from his pocket and handed it to Li Guoting: "Brother, here's a silver dollar for you."

  "Good boy, you really have it." Li Guoting happily picked up the silver dollar again, treasured it for a moment, and then wrapped it in the embroidered cloth with a pair of birds that Yan Hong's daughter had given him. He tucked it into his own bosom.

  "I know you're being generous, so I won't spend your money."

  "Alright, brother, if I make a good life for myself in the future, I'll let you enjoy it too." Li Guoting said with a smile.

  After passing through a village, the sun also revealed its red face from the lead-gray cloud layer. In the distance, fields, villages, bamboo forests, and suddenly rose up a layer of white mist. The white mist was like a piece of pure white silk, wrapped around the sky above the earth. It lightly surrounded those scattered gray villages, bamboo forests, small bridges, flowing water, and distant dark green mountain peaks on the north bank of the river. Just like a traditional Chinese painting with splashed ink.

  Li Guoting and Zhao Erhu walked in this ink-washed landscape painting, following the rural path southward. At noon, they arrived at a small town.

  The small town was scattered along the village road, with about a few dozen households. The streets in the town were sparse with pedestrians. Occasionally, passersby would glance at them with suspicious eyes as they walked by. Some curious onlookers would stare at them, probably thinking they were strange. Anyway, those cold and suspicious gazes fixed on Li Guoting's face made him feel uncomfortable, like a thorn in his side, making him feel uneasy all over.

  "Second Tiger, those people are looking at us again." Li Guoting said, pulling Zhao Erhu.

  "Never mind. Let them look. We might as well be beggars. Anyway, we didn't steal their stuff."

  Li Guoting didn't make a sound and continued walking forward with Zhao Erhu.

  "Oh no, my mom, I'm starving!" Zhao Erhu shouted as he walked.

  "Is your stomach growling? Are you hungry?" Li Guoting asked.

  "I'm starving. It would be great if we could get something to eat." Zhao Erhu stood by the side of the road, his eyes fixed on a small restaurant in front of him.

  "I'm also hungry. It would be great if this belly only had to eat one meal a day," said Li Guoting.

  As soon as two of them mentioned the word "hunger", no one wanted to move forward anymore. Four hungry eyes began to search around like wolves.

  "Two tigers. There's a restaurant in front, and it's still flying a wine flag. What's written on the flag?" Li Guoting also saw the restaurant, but he just didn't recognize the words on it.

  The two tigers looked at each other and said: "That's a wine character."

  "It's no use selling wine. We can't even get food, let alone wine." Li Guoting lost his spirit.

  "We'll go in and take a look, see if we can steal some food. If there's nothing to steal, then we'll ask him for some." Erhu gained spirit and said to Li Guoting.

  "Alright, brother, I'll listen to you." Li Guoting said.

  The two of them walked towards a simple small restaurant by the side of the road.

  This is a very ordinary roadside restaurant in the northern part of Sichuan. Like most restaurants, it hangs a triangular wine flag under the eaves. There is no name on it, only a big "wine" character. People who often pass by know that it's a rural restaurant.

  The restaurant is located under the road base of a small town, on an old wooden wall with some years, two windows are open, next to the window is the door of the restaurant, the door is open inward. The light inside is still quite bright. You can see that there are several old wooden tables inside. Next to the wooden table are several long benches. There are guests eating and drinking, and the sound of playing cards.

  Zhao Erhu and Li Guoting took a deep breath and walked into the restaurant, where the waiter was busy serving customers. Seeing them come in, he came forward to greet them: "Two young brothers, what would you like to eat?"

  Zhao Erhu glanced at the people inside the restaurant and said, "What's good to eat?"

  "Dumplings, buns. Rice, dishes." The waiter said.

  "Boss, we don't have any money, can you give us some food?" Zhao Erhu said.

  The waiter immediately pulled down the smile on his face: "Go beg for food elsewhere, we haven't got enough to eat ourselves. Get out." As he spoke, he stretched out his hand and drove them away.

  The people who were eating in the restaurant also looked up and burst out laughing.

  "Boss, give us a mouthful of food to eat, we've been hungry for half the morning. Later, when we have money, we'll pay you back." Li Guoting said, stepping forward and saying to the waiter.

  Just then, a short and stout man came out from behind the counter, holding a long tobacco pipe in his hand. He swung the pipe at Li Guoting's head, shouting: "You beggar, you dare to come to my place? Get out of here quickly! If you don't get out, I'll smash your skull!"

  Li Guoting was caught off guard and hit on the head by that pipe, hurting him so much that he gritted his teeth and shouted: "Ah! Why are you hitting people?"

  "I'm going to beat you up, what can you do? Get out of here. Watch me kill you." As he spoke, he swung the long pipe in his hand at him again.

  Li Guoting stretched out his hand and grabbed the long tobacco pipe that Fat Boss was swinging at him, pulled it towards himself, then immediately let go. Fat Boss didn't expect Li Guoting to counterattack, and before he knew it, he was being pulled by the tobacco pipe towards Li Guoting's body. Before he could even lean on Li Guoting, Li Guoting pushed the pipe away again. With a quick sidestep, Fat Boss lost his footing, leaned forward, and with a "thud", he fell to the ground in a dog-eats-shit motion.

  The shop assistant saw the boss fall and hurriedly called for help, came over, picked up a wooden stool and hit Li Guoting. Li Guoting saw this and grabbed Zhao Erhu's hand to run away. They ran very far before they could no longer hear the shouting of people chasing after them from behind.

  The two of them spread their legs and ran out of the small town with their lives, all the way to a hill in front, before stopping.

  Zhao Erhu panted, covering his chest which was jumping wildly, and said to Li Guoting: "Big brother, you're also too impatient, why hit him? I haven't figured out how to steal from him yet. Now it's all over, we won't have anything to eat, let's just starve."

  "He hit me on the head!" As soon as he said that, Li Guoting felt a severe pain on his head, just like it was on fire. He reached out to touch it and found a big bump had formed on top of his head.

  "The damned boss hit me on the head and I got a bump." Li Guoting cursed.

  Zhao Erhu walked over, reached out and patted Li Guoting's head, saying: "Forget it, just run then."

  That afternoon, the two of them walked through several more villages until nightfall, but still couldn't get a single meal.

  "They don't believe we're here for food, they think we're thieves." Li Guoting said dejectedly.

  "Big brother, don't worry about it," Zhao Erhu thought for a moment and said. "Tonight, we'll go to the village ahead and steal a chicken to eat."

  The sky darkened, and in the eastern sky, a bright moon rose. The clear and cold moonlight shone with a silver glow, casting a layer of silver gauze over the quiet earth.

  The village road, bamboo forest, rice fields and distant villages are all shrouded in this bright moonlight.

  Zhao Erhu and Li Guoting walked along the village road all the way to the front of a large village. The two of them did not dare to enter the village along the main road, but instead went around to the back of the village. They hid and sought their target.

  In front of a solitary farmhouse near Banpo, Zhao Erhu stopped. His two cunning eyes searched around the yard without walls of this household, and suddenly, his eyes lit up, finding a chicken coop next to the house. Just as he was about to steal the chickens, he heard someone coughing inside the house, and hastily turned around, pulling Li Guoting into a nearby haystack.

  The door of the farmhouse creaked open, and an old man with a hunched back walked out. He was wearing a padded jacket and seemed to be holding something in his hand. He walked under the window, bent down, and fiddled with something while muttering: "What kind of world is this? Today they want grain, tomorrow they want rice. They're all bandits. Bandits!"

  "Old man, don't forget to take a look at those chicks and secure the chicken coop door tightly, or weasels will snatch them away." A woman's voice came from inside the house.

  "I know. Alas, it's either a thief or a weasel, people can't rest easy, and the chickens can't rest easy either." The old man cursed as he came to the front of the chicken coop, reached out and pulled on the door of the chicken coop, which was secured with a wooden bolt.

  "Cock-a-doodle-doo!" A few loud rooster calls came from the chicken coop.

  The old man was busy outside the house for a while before going in.

  Zhao Erhu and Li Guoting hid in a haystack, not daring to move for a long time.

  It wasn't until everything was thoroughly quiet that the two of them crawled out from the haystack.

  Zhao Erhu stood in the yard, which was piled with hay and farm tools, looking around. Finally, he picked up a piece of hemp rope from one corner of the yard and walked to the door of that room. He stretched out his hand and tied the iron ring on the door together with the rope, trying it out. Feeling that it was tied very securely, he boldly walked under the wooden lattice window pasted with white paper, stretched out his hand and knocked on the window, saying: "Master, we are travelers, our stomachs are hungry, catch a chicken for us to eat, no money to give you, owe it to you, next time will pay you back."

  Li Guoting, who was following Zhao Erhu, jumped in fright and whispered: "Erhu, stealing someone's chicken and then reporting it to their family, do you want to get us caught?"

  Zhao Erhu ignored Li Guoting and walked towards the chicken coop.

  "Ah, you little thief, come to steal from me? Watch me break your legs!" Immediately, there was a commotion in the house, and then the lights came on.

  "You damned little thief. You're too bold. We've caught you and we'll take you to the village office." Another voice, that of an old woman, came from inside.

  A sound of putting on shoes and going downstairs came from the house, followed by a string of curses and the sound of shaking door panels. Unfortunately, the two doors were tightly tied with hemp ropes from the outside, and no matter how hard the people inside tried, they couldn't open them.

  "Oh dear, you'd better be good, that's our old couple's life savings. If you're going to steal, don't steal my hen that lays eggs, I beg of you." The desperate pleading voices came from the tied-up door panel.

  "Alright, old man, we're taking one of your roosters. Don't be heartbroken. We'll return it to you later." Zhao Erhu said with a mischievous grin to the person behind the door, then dragged Li Guoting towards the chicken coop.