Chapter 83 Mountain Home Hearth 83

Chapter 83: The Mountain Family's Hearth and Home 83

Liu Guyu’s words startled everyone, plunging them into thought.

Indeed!

The folks from Qiao Village didn’t even know Liu Ge’er. Why would they causelessly stir up trouble at his stall?

Puzzled, the crowd instinctively turned their gaze to Qiao Huilan.

Noticing everyone staring at her, especially with Liu Guyu also present, Qiao Huilan knew she was in trouble.

This young man, ever since that inexplicable change, had become incredibly sharp-tongued; she couldn't out-argue him! If he got involved again, she’d truly struggle to talk her way out of this mess.

Her eyes reddened as she spoke: “Guyu… you’re throwing a tantrum again! Just because she and I were once sisters-in-law, does that mean this matter has anything to do with me? It’s been ages since I had contact with my former husband’s family—how could this be my fault?”

“…If you ask me, she just wanted to extort money and didn’t even recognize you as my son. It’s all a coincidence. There’s no such thing as a baseless extortion; money is the ‘basis’! As long as she gets the money, that’s all that matters!”

First, she looked at Liu Guyu with a maternal gaze, her tone devoid of anger, shaking her head with the helpless air of someone dealing with a wayward child.

Then, pausing briefly, she continued: “It’s not my place to say this, and I’m not one to gossip… but since the blame has been shifted to me, I can’t keep silent any longer.”

“This former sister-in-law of mine has always been one to look for a freebie—this isn’t the first time she’s done something like this.”

“When I used to go to town with her to buy meat, she’d always complain that the meat wasn’t fresh and insist the butcher give her a discount. Or when buying fabric at a shop, she’d demand the shopkeeper throw in some thread and needles… I mean, thread is one thing, but embroidery needles aren’t cheap! What shopkeeper would agree? And once, when buying steamed buns, she claimed there was a hair in the filling halfway through eating and demanded a refund!”

“Oh, there are so many incidents like this! Just ask around in Qiao Village—everyone knows! She’s the biggest cheapskate in the whole village!”

Liu Guixian overheard these remarks, and the worst part was that what Qiao Huilan said was true, leaving her unable to refute or defend herself. She could only stomp her feet in fury.

She blew her top, stamping her feet angrily:

“You’re talking nonsense! It was you who sent me gifts and asked me to help you harm Liu Ge’er! And now you’re trying to wash your hands of it with a few words! Acting all innocent!”

“When buying meat, weren’t you the one always complaining that the shop’s meat wasn’t fresh and overpriced? When buying fabric, didn’t you say the day before that you were short an embroidery needle, whining in my ear? And the steamed buns—there really was a hair in the filling! You didn’t dare speak up, but when I did, you stopped me to play the good person! Fine, you get to be the saint, and I’m the villain—you’re so good at this!”

“You’re full of crap! You vile woman, not a single word you say is true! Only these fools believe you, letting you twist them around your little finger! If your mouth can’t speak properly, then shut it—I’ll tear your lips off!”

…

With that, she lunged forward furiously, raising her arms to grab Qiao Huilan’s clothes and hair.

Under the blazing sun, Liu Guixian’s sallow face was streaked with half-dried sweat, and with the bruised, swollen patches on her cheeks and her eyes bulging like a cow’s, she looked utterly ferocious.

Qiao Huilan was quick with words but no fighter. Caught off guard, she had her hair grabbed and was slapped repeatedly, screaming her head off.

“Ah! How… how dare you hit me! Zaiwen, Zaiwen! Save me!”

Liu Zaiwen, who had been hiding inside, could avoid it no longer. He stormed out of the schoolhouse with a dark expression. The young students inside, seeing their teacher leave, all left their seats and crowded by the window to watch.

Liu Zaiwen was a step too late—by the time he emerged, Qiao Huilan had already taken two hard slaps.

Liu Guixian, accustomed to manual labor, was strong, while Qiao Huilan was delicate. Two slaps on the same cheek quickly swelled it badly, with a bloody scratch from a fingernail on the side.

Her neatly wrapped blue headscarf was torn off and trampled into the dirt, and a clump of her hair was yanked out, leaving her scalp throbbing. She looked nothing like her usual composed self.

In front of the villagers, Liu Zaiwen couldn’t stand by while his mother was beaten. He quickly pulled Qiao Huilan behind him, taking a slap himself in the process. Furious, veins bulging on his forehead, he yelled, “You shrew! Shrew!”

In Shanghe Village, people might have showed Scholar Liu Zaiwen some respect, but Liu Guixian…

She planted her hands on her hips, glared at him, and spat: “Pah! Who do you think you are? Just trash that crawled out of our Qiao family! You got cocky because your mother married a scholar—you’re getting too big for your britches! Pah! What lousy scholar! What’s so great? Still stuck in the village as a poor teacher!”

Her stance suggested she’d gladly charge forward and slap Liu Zaiwen a few more times.

Qiao Huilan, badly beaten, hid behind Liu Zaiwen, tidying her hair and clothes. The swelling on her face wouldn’t fade anytime soon. Ashamed, she covered her face, not daring to look up, sobbing as if utterly wronged.

While Liu Guixian charged at Qiao Huilan, Liu Guyu quickly pulled Qin Rongshi and Banban aside to avoid being caught in the crossfire.

Now, after watching the spectacle, he said leisurely, “But there’s one thing I still don’t understand. If Third Auntie was trying to extort money, why not pick a stall with poor business and no customers? With no one to back the stall owner, it’d be easier to bully!”

“But everyone in the East Market knows my stall is popular—there was a long queue even when she came. With many customers, especially regulars who know me, they’d naturally side with me. Causing trouble at my stall wouldn’t necessarily benefit her! And sure enough, yesterday she tried to steal a chicken only to end up losing the rice!”

Unlike Qiao Huilan, Liu Guixian wasn’t quick with words—she preferred action over talk.

Hearing Liu Guyu’s words, she found them reasonable and nodded in agreement.

“Exactly! What a coincidence that I just happened to pick Liu Ge’er’s stall? And speaking of ‘stealing a chicken’—it was the chicken you gave me! That old hen with a white tuft on its tail—you gave it to me!”

Qiao Huilan had indeed given her a chicken—the oldest hen at home that no longer laid eggs.

A neighbor who heard this exclaimed, “Scholar's Wife, didn’t you have one less hen? The one with the white tail—did you really give it away?”

In a small village, everyone knows each other’s business. Most hens in the village had yellow tails, but that one was distinctive with its white-tipped tail.

The neighbor hadn’t seen it lately and assumed Qiao Huilan had cooked it for soup, as she often made tonics for her precious son.

But lately, she hadn’t smelled any chicken soup!

Qiao Huilan panicked and said, “As I said, I went back to my parents’ place last month. I couldn’t go empty-handed, so I took a chicken with me.”

“I brought it to honor my parents—when did I give it to you? Stop lying! I haven’t seen you in months!”

Liu Guixian, suddenly quick on the uptake, retorted, “If you didn’t give it to me, how would I know your hen had a white tail? Did I sneak into your coop at night to look?”

Qiao Huilan: “…”

Stammering, Qiao Huilan added, “Well… maybe you saw me when I went back to my parents’ last time! You must have seen the chicken in my basket!”

Liu Guixian laughed angrily. “Qiao Huilan, are you even thinking? You just said you hadn’t seen me last month! What, do I have extra eyes? I can see you, but you can’t see me?”

Qiao Huilan: “…”

One lie required five, ten, or even more lies to cover.

Qiao Huilan was clearly struggling, at a loss for words, frozen as she desperately tried to think of an excuse.

Liu Guyu didn’t give her the chance. Seizing the moment as the crowd grew suspicious, he pressed on:

“Auntie Lan, I recall you had a disagreement with my second aunt a few years back, right?”

“Didn’t she just cry a bit, and then the whole village took her side, telling you not to bully a poor widow? Remember? The fault wasn’t yours to begin with!”

Auntie Lan was the neighbor who had spoken earlier. She’d been Qiao Huilan’s neighbor for years and maintained a civil relationship.

That incident happened when Qiao Huilan’s chickens got loose, wandered into her yard, pecked at the grain she’d laid out, and dirtied the place with droppings.

Returning to the mess, Auntie Lan was furious and confronted Qiao Huilan.

But before she could even state her case, Qiao Huilan started crying and apologizing, making Auntie Lan wonder if she’d been too harsh. Passersby saw it and urged her not to pick on the widow.

But what did she end up getting? After all that fuss, she never even paid for the damaged grain!

It was originally just a minor issue. Aunt Lan just wanted to talk things out with Qiao Huilan, hoping she would keep her chickens from causing trouble. She didn’t want to make a big scene, since they still had to live as neighbors.

But she ended up having to suck it up and felt resentful for days.

At the time, Aunt Lan hadn’t put two and two together. It was only after Liu Guyu’s reminder that it all came back to her!

It was Qiao Huilan’s fault to begin with, yet she got off scot-free by crying, making Aunt Lan the one who ended up with a reputation for being unreasonable!

Aunt Lan’s expression instantly changed, and she stared at Qiao Huilan with a completely different look.

Without giving anyone a chance to retort, Liu Guyu immediately turned to the crowd, spotted a familiar face, and continued:

"Uncle He, our families used to get along well when buying and selling sugarcane. I suppose it was my stepmother gossiping in your ear, wasn’t it? She must have gossiped, saying the sugarcane was going for too low a price, and urged you to raise the price!"

He was calling out He Fulang, the sugarcane seller.

This matter was something Liu Guyu had accidentally overheard on the day of the sugarcane transaction—He Fulang had argued with his husband and inadvertently let it slip, just as Liu Guyu happened to be nearby.

Though it happened a long time ago, He Fulang still felt a pang of regret whenever he remembered it. After all, his sugarcane ended up stuck in his hands and had to be sold at a low price, causing a significant loss.

Slow on the uptake, He Fulang finally caught on and immediately shot back, hands on his hips, exclaiming:

"So that’s why! It was her who kept urging me! One moment she said I was selling the sugarcane too cheaply and felt sorry for me; the next, she talked about how much sugarcane cost in town! I raised the price because of her! And what happened? Once the price went up, Liu Ge’er stopped buying, and all the sugarcane ended up not selling!"

In truth, the decision to raise the price was ultimately He Fulang’s own, and it couldn’t be entirely blamed on Qiao Huilan. But since he had been steamed about the loss for so long, he now jumped at the chance to blame someone.

With Aunt Lan and He Fulang both speaking out, the crowd’s perception of Qiao Huilan began to shift noticeably.

Even an elderly woman piped up quietly, "I remember it was Scholar's Wife who initially complained about Liu Ge’er, saying he was no good here and there. She even cried and said she failed Scholar Liu by not raising the child properly! She looked so pitiful—I even comforted her, saying the child was young and would understand when he grew up!"

After the old woman spoke, another woman nodded in agreement and added, "When Scholar Liu was alive, nobody had a bad word to say about Liu Ge’er! As if Scholar's Wife could teach better than Scholar Liu!"

Someone else chimed in, "What’s so bad about him? It’s just that she complained he couldn’t cook or do laundry! But let’s be fair—how old was Liu Ge’er back then? Twelve or thirteen? When Scholar Liu was around, he was the family’s precious darling—when would he ever need to wash clothes or cook?"

In just a few sentences, it was starting to feel like everyone was piling on.

Even Liu Guyu found it astonishing.

Incredible—even someone like the original host could be whitewashed!

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Author's note: Sorry for the late update, just finished writing.

It’s so hot—I took a break due to heatstroke before starting. Everyone, remember to beat the heat.

(...And I’ll take a day off tomorrow.)