The village idiot, who had been all smiles, suddenly froze upon hearing these words, then his face filled with terror as he backed away, waving his hands and shouting:
"Big Fish, can't eat, Big Fish, can't eat!"
"What can't be eaten? Don't you like drinking fish soup?"
"Fish soup, dirty! The soup, dirty! Fish, dirty!"
The neighbor boy got angry and retorted, "You're talking nonsense, that's the fresh fish I caught this morning!"
Slipping as he backed away, the idiot fell to the ground, yet he kept on shouting:
"The Zheng family ate dirty, the Zeng family ate dirty, the Xue family's going to be dirty too!"
"What Zheng family, Zeng family?" The neighbor boy was confused. "What on earth are you babbling about?"
Li Zhiyuan asked a woman who had come to eat, "Auntie, are there any families with the surname Zheng or Zeng in this town?"
The woman shook her head: "No, there aren't."
A few elderly people nearby also shook their heads:
"Never heard of it."
