??Chapter 20: Chapter 020 Stirring Trouble_1
Chapter 20: Chapter 020 Stirring Trouble_1
Muniang’s tone was slightly cold, “I didn’t steal or rob, everything on the cart was bought with my own money, why should I explain to you how I earned it?”
Mrs. Liang was imdiately choked up, she had wanted to curse back but hadn’t forgotten yesterday’s lesson. If she hadn’t fallen out with Muniang yesterday, maybe she too could have gotten so good things from Muniang like Mr. Xue did, so she just smiled ingratiatingly, “I was just asking; if you don’t wish to tell, then forget it.”
The other curious won also didn’t know what to say at this point, they used to think this child was ek but had not anticipated that she now seed to have beco a completely different person. The icy glance Muniang gave just now frightened them so much that they shivered and prepared to disperse one by one.
Mrs. Liang did not want her relationship with Muniang to beco stiff because she wouldn’t get any benefits in the future, so she resentfully said, “It’s just that Mrs. Ji’s mouth is so an, yesterday when she saw two sacks on your cart, her eyes glead as if lit up, you think she wanted to look because she thought there were good things inside and wanted to take so advantage. After you left her there yesterday, she stood with her hips akimbo and cursed around the village for quite a while, your mother and your husband included, it was so unpleasant…”
“What did you say!?” A sharp voice interrupted Mrs. Liang’s words, and Muniang turned her head to look; it was the very person Mrs. Liang was cursing.
Mrs. Ji slamd the basin she was holding onto the ground with a “bang,” her face an ashen blue, pointing at Mrs. Liang’s nose she cursed loudly, “Look at you, you shaless thing, talking behind my back everywhere. Don’t think I can be easily bullied, allowing you to spout nonsense! You think you’re such a good person yourself, putting on such a pretentious act!”
Mrs. Liang, caught red-handed talking behind soone else’s back, looked sowhat embarrassed, but her expression instantly changed upon hearing Mrs. Ji’s harsh words, and she shot back without any courtesy, “I’m telling the blatant truth, don’t think others don’t know about the petty calculations in your heart, don’t take us for blind! You cursed around the village all day yesterday; everyone within ten miles must have heard it, so what if I ntion it to others? You dare to do but not to own up to it.”
“Pah! Don’t act like you’re completely clean yourself. Didn’t you curse yesterday? Now it’s your turn to play the victim, huh? Seeing this little wench co into so money, you imdiately cozy up to her? Look at your behavior, it disgusts !”
Mrs. Liang panicked a bit, thinking that Mrs. Ji had also cursed Muniang, so she assud Muniang would be on her side. But she saw that Muniang did not show any change in expression, just calmly washing her own clothes as if the quarrel had nothing to do with her.
Indeed, Muniang did not take this bickering between the two shrews to heart, although in the eyes of others, their squabble was entirely because of Muniang, but Muniang knew in her heart that it was because of their own greed.
Muniang was never soone who liked to ddle in others’ business, especially not when these two troublemakers were fighting among themselves; she would only care if she were fed up.
Mrs. Liang was extrely irritated and her face twisted violently, “Who knows who’s disgusting whom, just yesterday you were in front of everyone in the village insulting Muniang for being crazy with poverty, yet she turned around and brought back a cart of good things, whose face does that slap? Now you must be regretting so much your intestines are turning green, but unfortunately, now even if you shalessly stick onto her, she might not be willing to bother with you!”
Muniang curled her lips, as if I would bother with you.
Mrs. Ji sneered, her voice laden with disdain and triumph, “I would cling to her? I’m not as low as you.” She glanced sideways at Muniang, who was kneeling by the river washing clothes, then continued shrilly, “Although she was driven out of the Qiao family, she is still a Qiao by na, carrying the Qiao family’s blood and that’s an unchangeable fact. I’m her aunt by marriage, after all. Whatever I ask from her, it’s only right and proper. She dares not give it to ; that would be utterly filial!”
Muniang frowned slightly, where on earth did Mrs. Ji get that confidence from?
Mrs. Liang was so infuriated she nearly fell over backwards! Mrs. Ji’s words clearly indicated a shift of bla toward Muniang. Mrs. Liang just couldn’t stand to see her so unfazed, with everyone’s eyes now on Muniang, expecting her to react in so way. Yet Muniang acted as if she hadn’t heard Mrs. Ji at all and calmly continued washing her clothes.
She didn’t want to provoke trouble. If Mrs. Ji was pleased with herself, let her continue to delude herself. Mrs. Ji wanted to drag Muniang into this muddy affair, but Muniang simply couldn’t be bothered to pay attention, struggling to find peace even when washing clothes!
Muniang’s silence infuriated Mrs. Ji who imdiately erupted in a tirade of abuse at Muniang, “Don’t you pretend to be deaf with ! Your asly life is also given by our Qiao family, everything should rightly belong to our Qiao family, don’t think you can muddle through by turning a deaf ear…”
“Sothing terrible has happened, sothing terrible,” an anxious voice interrupted Mrs. Ji’s tirade. Li Qinghe, gasping for breath, ran toward them and said to Muniang, “Muniang, your husband has had an accident!”
Muniang, who had been swinging the wooden mallet to beat the clothes, suddenly froze and with a “whoosh,” dropped the mallet and stood up, “What happened?”
“Hmph, you can hear after all. I thought you were deaf,” Mrs. Ji muttered discontentedly. Muniang gave her a cold glance. The chill in Muniang’s eyes made Mrs. Ji shiver and imdiately shut her mouth.
Li Qinghe got her breath back and hurriedly explained, “Your husband… I don’t know how, but he got into a fight with Qiao Yuanzhen at the foot of the mountain, no, he injured Qiao Yuanzhen. They’re still causing a commotion over there! You better go take a look!”
Muniang felt a pang in her heart and rushed toward the mountain, with Li Qinghe quickly following.
When Mrs. Ji heard that Li Cheng had gotten into a fight with Qiao Yuanzhen, her heart leapt with joy. Qiao Yuanzhen was the patriarch’s treasured son. If Li Cheng dared to lay hands on Qiao Yuanzhen, he would surely face consequences, and wouldn’t Muniang also suffer for it? Mrs. Ji certainly didn’t want to miss out on such a spectacle and imdiately followed.
By the ti Muniang arrived, she saw the Qiao family’s eldest son, Qiao Yuanshan; second son, Qiao Yuanming; and the youngest son, Qiao Yuanzhen, all present. Qiao Yuanzhen was sitting on a stone stool to the side, with a sleeve of his right arm stained with eye-catching fresh blood. Li Cheng had torn a piece of cloth from his clothing and was making a simple bandage to stop Qiao Yuanzhen’s bleeding.
Li Cheng, with a carrying basket on his back, stood between Qiao Yuanshan and Qiao Yuanming, like a defiant child, with a scatter of hawthorns on the ground.
“How are you going to take responsibility for injuring my younger brother like this?!” said Qiao Yuanshan, his tone as sharp and acrid as his wife’s.
Li Cheng glanced at the large patch of blood on Qiao Yuanzhen’s arm and lowered his head, his voice tinged with guilt, “It wasn’t on purpose.”
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