The next day, Jiang Shi woke up just as the sky was getting bright.

He rolled over, got up, washed his face, and ran towards Cheng Ye’s house, not forgetting to call Gao Xinhe on the way.

The two of them arrived at Cheng Ye’s door but didn’t rush in. Instead, they crouched by the door and waited.

The wooden house wasn’t soundproof. They could hear Gao Lan making breakfast and the sound of Cheng Jianbin’s grumpy voice as he got up. After a while, they heard the sound of footsteps. Someone ran to the kitchen, followed by Cheng Zong’s voice.

“Mom, my brother broke the thing Jiang Shi gave him yesterday.”

Ptooey! Jiang Shi cursed in his heart. Cheng Zong is a little bastard.

He gestured to Gao Xinhe, telling him to act according to yesterday’s plan, to make a commotion, and preferably to call all the adults in the village over.

Gao Xinhe obediently ran off.

Jiang Shi gripped the sword Cheng Ye had carved for him, listening to the sounds of Cheng Jianbin’s scolding coming from inside.

He suppressed his wildly beating heart, constantly telling himself not to rush. He Shuba had taught him that haste makes waste. He had to be patient so that he could expose Cheng Zong’s true colors in one fell swoop.

After a while, the sound of Cheng Jianbin hitting someone came from inside.

From beginning to end, Cheng Ye didn’t make a sound.

Finally, Jiang Shi saw figures appearing at the end of the road in the distance. He grabbed his sword and shot out, running into the yard and standing still before shouting loudly, “Cheng Ye!”

After waiting for a few minutes, Cheng Jianbin opened the door.

His face was very dark, and he didn’t look at Jiang Shi with much kindness either. “What are you doing here?”

Jiang Shi tilted his head up, his face full of innocence. “I lent my thing to Cheng Ye to play with yesterday. I’m here to get it back today.”

After he said that, Cheng Jianbin’s face became even uglier. After a moment, he said, “Cheng Ye is not here. I’ll have him give you the thing back when he returns.”

Just as he finished speaking, Cheng Ye, who had been silent all along, stood by the door and opened it himself. “I’m here.”

He said to Jiang Shi, “Your thing is broken.”

Jiang Shi looked as if the sky was falling. “How could this happen? Who broke it?”

As he was speaking, several adults arrived one after another. Just as they were about to speak, Jiang Shi, who was next to them, suddenly started crying, drawing everyone’s attention.

He wailed very loudly, covering his eyes with his hands. He didn’t shed many tears, but his voice was loud enough to attract everyone nearby.

“My treasure is broken, broken by Cheng Ye.”

He emphasized, “My dad bought it for me. He said it cost five hundred yuan!”

As soon as these words were spoken, the surrounding people were all shocked. They even forgot why Jiang Shi had called them here, their attention focused on the treasure he was talking about.

“How did it break just like that?”

“It’s not that Auntie is criticizing you, but why would you let Cheng Ye play with such an expensive thing? Now look, he’s lost it for you.”

“Aiyo! What kind of thing is it, to be worth five hundred…”

Cheng Ye pursed his lips. “I didn’t break it.”

More and more people gathered. Cheng Jianbin didn’t know why there were suddenly so many people. Seeing that almost the entire village was about to arrive, he couldn’t help but pick up a rope and want to whip Cheng Ye with it, cursing, “You take someone else’s things and don’t watch them properly. Now it’s gone. I’ll beat you to death…”

Jiang Shi took two steps forward, shielding Cheng Ye behind him, and glared at Cheng Jianbin. “It’s broken, so it’s broken. Why are you hitting him?”

Cheng Jianbin’s hand almost hit Jiang Shi. Being contradicted, he was a little embarrassed, but he didn’t dare to get angry at Jiang Shi, so he could only withdraw his hand sheepishly.

“He broke your thing, I definitely have to teach him a lesson.”

Jiang Shi said, “Cheng Ye just said he didn’t break it.”

Cheng Jianbin: “He says it’s not him, so it’s not him? I know him, he’s full of lies all the time…”

Jiang Shi frowned and turned to ask Cheng Ye, “Did you do it?”

There were too many people. The gazes of those people were like thorns on Cheng Ye’s back. He met Jiang Shi’s eyes, straightened his back, and his voice was not loud, but it was clear enough for everyone present to hear.

“It wasn’t me. I put it on the cabinet yesterday when I took it back, and it was on the floor this morning when I woke up.”

Jiang Shi turned to ask Cheng Jianbin again, “He said the thing fell on its own. How are you so sure he broke it?”

Being questioned by a child, Cheng Jianbin’s face was a little flushed. “He doesn’t want to pay, so of course he won’t admit it. Cheng Zong told me this morning that he saw with his own eyes Cheng Ye break your thing.”

So Jiang Shi’s gaze fell on Cheng Zong.

Cheng Zong looked more like his mother, with delicate features and a gentle temperament like a little girl.

Compared to Cheng Ye, everyone liked Cheng Zong more.

At this moment, he was timidly hiding behind Gao Lan. Seeing everyone looking at him, he timidly opened his mouth, “I… I saw it. It was my brother who broke it.”

Jiang Shi snorted coldly and walked up to Cheng Zong with his wooden sword. “You said you saw it. When did you see it, and how did you see Cheng Ye break it?”

Cheng Zong blinked and said slowly, “Last night, my brother thought I was asleep, so he secretly got up to play with your treasure, but he didn’t hold it steady and dropped it.”

Jiang Shi asked him again, “Then did you play with it secretly?”

“I’ll ask you one more time.”

“I didn’t!” He clutched Gao Lan’s clothes, avoiding Jiang Shi’s gaze. “I wanted my brother to let me play, but he wouldn’t.”

Jiang Shi looked at Cheng Ye again.

Cheng Ye said honestly, “You said not to let anyone else play with it, so I didn’t give it to him.”

After going back and forth, Cheng Jianbin was a little impatient. “What’s there to ask? Isn’t it just that Cheng Ye broke it?”

His gaze went straight to Cheng Zong. “You mean, you saw with your own eyes Cheng Ye break my glass ball, and you from beginning to end…”

“Of… of course,” he said, “I saw it with my own eyes. He broke it.”

“But…” Jiang Shi said slowly, “my glass ball was already broken…”

Cheng Zong froze.

Jiang Shi approached him. “I told Cheng Ye quietly when I gave it to him that the glass ball was broken and to leave it alone. How could he have dropped it? Or are you lying? You played with my thing secretly, causing the glass ball to fall again, and then framed Cheng Ye?”

“I didn’t!”

“You didn’t?” Jiang Shi got closer to him. “Do you know why that glass ball is worth five hundred yuan? My dad told me it’s a lie detector. Anyone who touches the glass ball, if they lie, their fingers will turn black. If you keep lying, the black will spread more and more, then it will spread to your whole body, and finally eat you…”

Cheng Zong held out his hand and saw that his five fingers were indeed a dark black.

Jiang Shi immediately pointed his sword at him. “Your hand has turned black, you lied! You broke my thing, and then you framed Cheng Ye!”

“I didn’t…” Cheng Zong tried to rub his hand, but found that the more he rubbed, the blacker it got. He immediately burst into tears.

Gao Xinhe squeezed through the crowd and said, “He’s lying again. The black is spreading. He’s going to be eaten!”

Cheng Zong burst into tears with a “wah.” “I didn’t mean to, I don’t want to be eaten!”

Jiang Shi asked him, “Then who broke my ball?”

His palm was black and sticky, and the marks wouldn’t rub off. Cheng Zong felt his hand start to hurt. He was so scared that he hurriedly told the truth.

“It was me, it was me… My brother wouldn’t let me play, so I waited until he was asleep and wanted to secretly take it out to play, but it accidentally broke. I was afraid of having to pay you back, so I said he broke it.”

“Aha!” Jiang Shi trembled with anger. “So it was you!”

“I didn’t expect you to look so decent, but you’re actually a black-hearted, evil thing. You don’t admit to stealing things yourself, and you even frame others. If I hadn’t found out today, wouldn’t Cheng Ye have been beaten to death by his dad?”

The crowd of onlookers also started talking among themselves.

“I didn’t expect Cheng Zong to be so young and already know how to lie.”

“Isn’t that too mean? If Jiang Shi hadn’t found out, wouldn’t Cheng Ye have been wrongly accused?”

“Look at him, his face doesn’t turn red and his heart doesn’t beat fast when he lies. It’s probably not the first time he’s done this.”

Cheng Jianbin’s face turned from green to red. Being watched by so many people, he rushed over and pulled Cheng Zong out from behind Gao Lan. “Did you do it?”

Cheng Zong cried while rubbing the black marks on his hand. “I didn’t mean to. I just touched it and it broke… No, that’s not right…” He looked at Jiang Shi. “It was already broken, I didn’t break it. I don’t have to pay you back…”

Jiang Shi tilted his head and smiled. “But you told me it was Cheng Ye who broke it. If it was fine, wouldn’t Cheng Ye have had to take the blame for you?”

“You’re too mean. Cheng Ye is clearly your brother, but you treat him like this.”

The black mud on his hands wouldn’t rub off. Cheng Zong completely broke down. He cried, “So what? He’s my brother, he’s supposed to let me have my way. Besides, this isn’t the first time. It won’t kill him to get beaten a few more times.”

Jiang Shi angrily struck him with his sword.

Cheng Zong stumbled and rolled on the ground, wailing. Cheng Jianbin, who was next to him, let go of his hand and looked at him with some disbelief, as if he couldn’t believe these were words his nearly six-year-old son could say.

Cheng Zong didn’t seem to realize the severity of the problem and was still crying and talking.

“It’s true. It was like this when I broke the bowl before, and it was like this when I stole other people’s things. He won’t say anything, at most he’ll just get beaten by my dad. It’s fine to have my dad beat him one more time.”

He was clearly just a six-year-old child, his voice still tinged with childishness, but the words he spoke were so vicious that even the adults found them evil.

Even Cheng Jianbin was shocked by his statement. He picked up the rope from the ground. “I’ll beat you to death, you inhuman thing…”

At the critical moment, He Shuba arrived, with several police officers behind him.

Cheng Jianbin and Gao Lan were taken away by the police. The onlookers saw Cheng Ye and wanted to go up and talk to him, but Jiang Shi pulled him away and ran off in a flash.

Jiang Shi led the way with his precious sword. They walked through a small path overgrown with weeds and climbed up a mountain before stopping.

Gao Xinhe followed behind. He stood at the bottom of a rock and reached out to Jiang Shi. “King Jiang Shi, give me a hand.”

Jiang Shi used his sword to pull him up.

The three of them sat on a large rock. The weather was still cold, the wind biting on their faces. There was no sun, but Cheng Ye felt the sunlight shining on his face.

He let out a cheerful laugh. “Thank you.”

Jiang Shi also laughed. “He got what he deserved.”

Gao Xinhe asked, “Why were his hands black?”

Hearing this, King Jiang Shi grunted smugly. “Of course, it was all thanks to my brilliant intelligence.”

“I had Cheng Ye secretly put some glue on the base of the glass ball while he was sleeping. When Cheng Zong reached out to touch it, he would definitely get some on him. Later, he broke the glass ball and was already feeling guilty. Plus, it was pitch black, so he was even more afraid to go out and wash his hands. You see how dirty he is all the time. With glue on his hands, after rolling around all night, they would definitely be pitch black…”

Gao Xinhe was stunned. “You’re so smart…”

“Of course…”

In the evening, He Shuba returned. He called Cheng Ye to his house, took the clothes that had been stepped on by Jiang Shi several times yesterday, patted them clean, put them in a bag, and handed it to him.

“Alright, your dad won’t hit you anymore. Study hard, try to get into a university in the future, and leave the mountains.”

Cheng Ye was stunned, holding the bag. “Why…”

“Don’t ask so many whys…” He Shuba ruffled his head. “Adults solve adult problems, and children solve children’s problems. You did a great job this time, but remember not to use this method to harm people.”

Jiang Shi was sitting on a small chair, gnawing on an apple and swinging his legs. “We wouldn’t.”

“Alright, it’s late. Go back to sleep.”

Cheng Ye looked at Jiang Shi, hesitating. He Shuba said, “If you’re really worried, you can stay here for one night and go back tomorrow. If your dad and brother bully you in the future, just come and tell me. I’ll stand up for you.”

After feeding the cows, Jiang Xue boiled water to wash the two children’s faces and feet. After putting them to bed, she asked He Shuba, “The police have come before when Cheng Jianbin hit his wife, but in the end, nothing ever came of it. How did you manage it?”

He Shuba turned on the desk lamp and began to study. “He wasn’t willing to change because it didn’t hurt him enough. I asked Gao Lan before if she wanted a divorce, but she wasn’t willing. One is willing to hit, and the other is willing to be hit. We outsiders can’t say much, but for him to not even spare the child is a bit too much.”

“Cheng Jianbin was originally a homeless man. He only survived because we gave him land. If you want him to be honest, just take the land back.”

Jiang Xue gave him a thumbs up. “That Cheng Ye kid seems like a good one. He’s been made miserable enough by his dad and brother all these years. I see he plays well with our Shishi. We should help him if we can.”

While there was murmuring outside, there was also murmuring inside.

Jiang Shi had no intention of sleeping. He stuck his butt up, propping up the quilt. “Am I amazing? Am I amazing?”

Cheng Ye lay there properly, turning his face to look at Jiang Shi. “Yes, very amazing.”

Jiang Shi turned over and grabbed his own foot with his hand. “Just this morning, with so many of you, your dad was there, your brother was there, and Uncle Zhang, Auntie Wang…”

He recounted vividly, “They were all looking at me like this, and then they asked me, ‘Jiang Shi, what’s wrong? What happened?’… And then I said you broke my thing, hahaha… At that time, Cheng Zong’s expression was so funny. He must have thought his plan had succeeded, but it was all my trap…”

Cheng Ye’s eyes curved. “Yes, very amazing.”

Jiang Shi switched feet to grab. “Then do you still recognize me as your boss?”

“I do.”

“Then you have to call me King Jiang Shi.”

“King Jiang Shi.”

Jiang Shi was satisfied. He turned over, hugged the quilt, and fell fast asleep.

Cheng Ye stared at his back in the darkness for a long time, then slowly moved closer, reached out, and, just like the first night, grabbed the long corner of Jiang Shi’s clothes.

His voice was soft…

“Big Brother Jiang Shi…”