Who Kept Peeping on Feng Widow Bathing Again and Again and Again?

Suddenly, a shout came from outside. "Li Lao'er, you shameless bastard, get the hell out here!"

Second Uncle whipped around, somewhat startled.

Lin Xiaosu was a little startled too...

The newcomer was Feng Widow's son. Lin Xiaosu had forgotten his proper name; everyone called him Three-Fool. His defining trait was foolish stubbornness. What did that mean? At the slightest disagreement, he would grab a stick. If he could throw hands, he would never waste breath...

Second Uncle was a Daoist, after all. The village elders all respected him greatly. No one had ever called him shameless to his face, much less strutted before him calling himself "your daddy."

Second Uncle's face darkened. "What kind of nonsense are you pulling, boy?"

Three-Fool shouted, "I'm pulling nonsense? Could I possibly be more foolish than you? You filthy pervert, you peeped at my mom bathing again last night! Have you got no shame? I'm breaking your legs today!"

"Bullshit!" Second Uncle finally snapped and cursed outright.

"You watched my mom bathe before, and after you came back to the village last night, you watched her bathe again! You shameless bastard, already past fifty and still not doing human things..." Three-Fool raised the stick in his hand, lunged onto the platform, and smashed it at Second Uncle.

Second Uncle's face went green, then white. He was visibly agitated...

Just as the stick was about to come down, Lin Xiaosu stepped forward and grabbed its end. "Three-Fool, you're acting up again!"

"Stay out of it! Today, I'm getting justice for my mom! Let go! If you don't, I'll beat you too!"

"You dare!" A voice rang out from behind the willow tree!

With a whoosh, a beautiful girl appeared. Bang!

One kick sent Three-Fool flying sideways, nearly rolling straight off the cliff.

Hu Ya appeared, hands on her hips as she stood before Three-Fool. "I can't be bothered when you act up in front of other people, but you dare hit my dad?"

Three-Fool's boundless momentum suddenly vanished into thin air. Sitting on the ground, his face went pale. "You... your dad... your dad doesn't do human things..."

His voice had weakened considerably, and his eyes were darting about.

"My dad came down the mountain last night to treat my mom's illness. How could he possibly have gone to watch your mom bathe?"

"Before... he watched before. And last night, he happened to come down the mountain... if it wasn't him, who was it?"

"I don't know about before, but he definitely didn't watch last night!" Hu Ya said with a stern face. "Say one more word of crap, and I'll throw you straight down there!"

Three-Fool was frightened.

He twisted his butt, scrambled to his feet, and bolted. When he reached the mountain path, he turned back. "Li Diandian, you're tough. I can't beat you, but your dad won't get off easy! I'm going down the mountain right now, going door to door through the whole village, and telling everyone Li Lao'er is no good..."

"You're asking for a beating!" Hu Ya sprang into the air and gave chase!

"Don't chase each other on the mountain path, you two really are..." Lin Xiaosu chased after them as well.

Behind them, at Willow Grove Temple, Second Uncle slapped his forehead, his face tangled with conflict.

It would not have been difficult for Hu Ya to catch Three-Fool, but Lin Xiaosu had chased after them too. Seeing him run along the mountain path in such perilous fashion, Hu Ya could only stop and wait for him.

By the time they came down the mountain, the little mountain village had already exploded into an uproar.

Three-Fool came down from the mountain and bellowed at the top of his lungs, "Li Lao'er from Willow Grove Temple doesn't do human things! He watched my mom bathe last night..."

For a time, the little mountain village was thrown into utter chaos, chickens flying and dogs leaping.

Feng Widow was so furious that she wanted nothing more than to pick up a hoe handle and knock her own bastard son unconscious with a few blows.

Second Aunt was anxious too. She climbed out of bed and ran outside the courtyard in disheveled clothes. "Three-Fool, you idiot! My Lao'er never went out after coming down from the mountain last night..."

The villagers nearby had found themselves some early-morning entertainment, and every last one was delighted beyond measure.

Even Anna, the village's foreign daughter-in-law, was curious. In her clumsy Chinese, she asked her husband Lin Ji'an, "Honey, do you people here have a custom of peeping at widows bathing?"

Lin Ji'an was rendered speechless. "Ahem... you're not allowed to bathe in the river anymore."

"Why? The river water isn't cold. We even bathe in icy rivers... Besides, I'm not a widow. Aren't you still here?"

"This isn't about whether it's cold, and it's even less about whether you're a widow..." Lin Ji'an clawed desperately at his head.

That was the difference in culture. She was from the northern Black Orchid Kingdom. In her country, it was no big deal for women to let men look at their bodies. On a certain festival, they could even openly take the stage and perform nude.

When Lin Xiaosu and Hu Ya returned to the village, this ridiculous business had already spread far and wide.

Lin Xiaosu's first thought was that Three-Fool was truly foolish. He really could do something as stupid as killing ten thousand enemies while losing eleven thousand of his own.

Hu Ya ground her teeth, determined to beat Three-Fool until he shit himself!

But Lin Xiaosu held her back. "Now we really need to find the person who peeped at Feng Widow bathing. Otherwise, your dad's reputation will truly stink."

"That person must have run off long ago. How are we supposed to find him?" Hu Ya scratched her head.

"Even if he ran, he would have left traces behind!" Lin Xiaosu said.

"That's true. Feng Widow bathes in the room at the back, and the only place someone could peek from is the ditch behind it. Let's follow the footprints and see which way he went. I absolutely don't believe my dad had the spare time to do something like that last night..."

"I believe him too. It wasn't just that he lacked the spare time—he probably didn't have the time at all."

Lin Xiaosu truly saw it that way in his heart. Her dad had come down the mountain last night to "give her mom an injection." One injection when he came down the mountain, then another around midnight. Feng Widow must have bathed in the interval between those two injections. Second Uncle should not have had time for this.

"Let's go! Investigate the case! If we prove it wasn't my dad, just watch me tear that filthy mouth of his apart..."

Feng Widow's house stood at the eastern end of the village, backed against the mountain.

When Lin Xiaosu and Hu Ya arrived behind her courtyard wall, Feng Widow was clearly still there. Yet the moment she saw them, she immediately picked up a hoe, slung it over her shoulder, and went out. Her expression was terrible. It was hard to say whether she was going to work the fields or beat up her foolish son.

From behind, her figure really was quite good. That was probably the fundamental reason why the joke about "Feng Widow bathing" had endured in the little mountain village for so long.

The moment Lin Xiaosu and Hu Ya reached the ditch behind her house, they heard Three-Fool's booming voice. "Mom, you don't need to go looking for that old pervert. I already found him... Ah, Mom, why are you hitting me? You're so angry you've lost your mind..."

Amid the shouting, villagers gathered all over the place. Feng Widow was so furious she nearly jumped into the pond...

In the back ditch, Lin Xiaosu had already seen last night's scene through Temporal Reversal.

"There really are footprints! Look!" Hu Ya pointed at a clear footprint on the ground.

It was dark and damp behind the house, so the traces left by anyone walking through were very obvious.

Others might not have been able to distinguish them, but who was Hu Ya?

She was someone who could chase wild boars through the forest until they had no road to heaven and no gate to earth. Naturally, her eyesight was excellent—honed in the forests.

"What are you doing?" Three-Fool strode over, and the moment he saw Hu Ya, the anger in his heart erupted again.

"We're investigating the case, finding out who exactly peeped at your mom bathing last night," Lin Xiaosu said.

"Investigate my ass. It was Li Lao'er. He's got a record, and..." His voice came to an abrupt halt, because Hu Ya had stepped right in front of him, her teeth grinding with a creak.

"Hu Ya, don't disturb the scene!"

Hu Ya grabbed Three-Fool by the shoulder and stared coldly at him. "Can you shut your filthy mouth?"

Three-Fool's face turned pale. "...Yes!"

Lin Xiaosu smiled. His gaze shifted to the windowsill. He reached through the Window, lifted the curtain inside, and saw a bathroom. This was clearly where Feng Widow bathed.

He let go, and the curtain fell back into place. Turning around, he stared at the slope above.

Following the slope upward, there were traces of someone having walked there. As they proceeded along the path, Three-Fool's eyes widened further and further. "How did you know about this path? Were you the one who watched my mom bathe yesterday?"

Hu Ya flew into a rage. "Bullshit! He slept at Willow Grove Temple last night. What, did he watch with binoculars?"

Lin Xiaosu did not know whether to laugh or cry. Ignoring them, he quickly passed through the woods ahead and arrived at the Gate of a household.

This household lay beneath the slope. It belonged to Lin Fugui, a villager.

Lin Fugui's only value in this world was probably proving that a person's name had nothing to do with who they were.

His name was Lin Fugui, but he was the poorest person in the whole village.

Others lived in multistory houses. Even Feng Widow lived in one, while he still lived in the old house his parents had left behind after they died.

These days, as long as someone had working hands and feet, they could always add something to their home. Only Lin Fugui used his feet for wandering around and his hands for stealing chickens and dogs. Oh, right—his hands were also used for reaching upward.

National policies had improved, and poverty alleviation left no one behind. Although everyone was deeply dissatisfied with his behavior, the man truly was poor. So he had been included among the poverty-relief households, receiving guaranteed assistance every year, with someone bringing him oil and rice every few days. He had become the absolute ceiling of the "lying flat" world...

"Him?" Hu Ya asked.

"Judging by the footprints, it's him!"

Three-Fool charged out in a few great strides and kicked open the half-closed broken Gate. Inside, a man around forty was cooking meat, holding up a piece of cured pork to test whether it was done.

When all three burst inside at once, the cured pork nearly fell from his hand.

This man was Lin Fugui.

Lin Fugui was astonished. "I only took a piece of meat from your house. You tore down my door boards at dawn over that? Was that necessary?"

"Who cares about you stealing meat? Tell me, were you the one peeping at my mom bathing?" Three-Fool's voice nearly pierced the roof, perfectly embodying what it meant to be menacing.

A huge crowd of villagers outside looked at one another.

"When I took the meat, I heard movement inside, so I lifted the curtain to see if anyone was there. Who knew your mom was bathing inside?"

"So it really was you, you pervert!" Three-Fool raged.

Lin Fugui became furious too. "Pervert? Pervert your damn head! If I wanted to watch a woman bathe, couldn't I just go to the river and watch Anna bathe? Her chest, her waist—aren't they better looking than your mom's? Your mom's over fifty. You're insulting my taste..."

Boom!

Three-Fool threw a punch. The pot overturned, and Lin Fugui let out a long, miserable scream...

The villagers rushed over, some pulling and some dragging, creating a scene of tremendous excitement...

Outside, Anna stood on tiptoe, very excited. "Honey, they're fighting..."

Lin Ji'an gritted his teeth. "Let Three-Fool beat him up first. If he doesn't beat him to death, I'll give him another round..."

Lin Xiaosu and Hu Ya slipped out of the room and ran off in a flash.

They stopped outside Lin Xiaosu's courtyard wall, and both of them laughed.

"Hey, I never expected your tracking skills to be this impressive. How about we team up from now on? We'll go up the mountain together. You track the wild boars, I kill them, and we split the meat evenly." Hu Ya had spotted a business opportunity.

She was a mountain girl and had always found following traces as easy as driving a familiar road. Yet today, she suddenly realized that compared to Lin Xiaosu, her skills were not worth mentioning. Lin Xiaosu was far better at observing traces than she was. If it had been her, she absolutely could not have crossed an entire slope and found last night's peeper with such precision. No, in essence, it had not been peeping at all—he had merely been stealing cured pork...

"Kill it? How?" Lin Xiaosu glanced at her. "If you're still going to jab its ass with a stick, I'm definitely not working with you..."

A cellphone suddenly rang in Hu Ya's pocket. "Who in this world is most hateful? Those who don't understand romance are fools..."

Dear old and new friends, if you like it, please save it. Give me one encounter of Insight Eye, and I'll give you a follow-up you'll never regret!