Lu Laosan was stunned by the beating, and when he came back to his senses, he exclaimed, "What are you saying, Second Brother? The plan failed? Lu Dezhu is missing? Wasn't he supposed to go to the county to handle the house and land deeds for those families? How could he just disappear?"
Lu Laoer bellowed, "Damn right he's gone missing. Early this morning, I sent our servant to wait for him at the tea house by the city gate. Waited till nearly dusk and still no sign of Lu Dezhu."
"Instead, the Qin, Gu, and Luotian families managed to get their house and land deeds dealt with, and even bought the last three old houses at the end of the village, along with the open spaces in front and behind them. You were the one who urged us to start making mud bricks, to find craftsmen to build houses right in front of their places, saying we should encircle those families and move Zhang Niu and the others into those houses, to daily disturb their peace."
