Chapter 10: Two chapters merged

Chapter 10

"Liu Xi, come out here, captain, village chief, you have to give me some justice." A woman's roar attracted everyone's attention.

Jiang He raised his eyes and saw a woman with short hair, pulling a disheveled woman towards him on the ridge of a field not far away. Behind them was a girl in a ragged skirt, but the girl's face did not look good.

"What's going on here?" Gao Youhui stopped what he was doing and looked over.

"Hey? Isn't this the daughter of Liu Xi? Why was she dragged here by Auntie? Did she get into trouble again?" A villager from the No. 1 field next to Jiang He took out the towel draped over his shoulder and wiped his face, muttering as he squeezed out the water.

"Why do you care about her?" The woman standing next to the villagers said unhappily, "Whenever she got into trouble, didn't everyone just accept it as their bad luck? I think Auntie will have to bear the consequences this time."

When Gao Youhui heard the gossip, he quickly planted the seedlings in his hand, washed his hands, came to the edge of the field, picked up the kettle next to him, and walked a few steps to Jiang He, pretending to drink water. "Is that Liu Xi's daughter?"

Jiang He took a quick glance, then glanced at Liu Xi's direction and said, "It should be her, but I'm not sure. After all, the weather was not very good that day, and I only had a rough look." He was telling the truth. That day, although he could vaguely see the other person's general shape through the palm-sized crack in the door.

"Aunt Xi, what's your reply? How did Alan offend you again?" At this time, recorder Xia, who was in charge of recording, put down the record in his hand and ran over to ask.

"What else is there? Let Liu Xi come out and talk about how to compensate." Auntie was still dragging the disheveled woman in her hand, but she kept struggling and muttering something like "bad guy".

"What's going on?" The team leader, who was still discussing something with Uncle Liu, saw Auntie's appearance and hurried over. Then he glanced at the girl coming from behind and said, "Xiumei? What happened to you guys?"

Xiumei could no longer hold back her grievances when she saw the captain whom she respected so much was questioning her. She pointed at the disheveled woman being held by Auntie Xi and said, "It's all her fault. She cut my nice skirt. I only wore it once and she cut it like this."

Recorder Xia saw that the embroidery of the peony flower on the silk was cut out of shape, and he dared not speak. "What?"

"What's wrong? Wow——" Gossip is a talent of the Chinese nation. At this moment, some people in the fields had put down their tools and gathered around. They soon saw that the skirt Xiumei was wearing had a big gap cut on the lower right corner, and they were all shocked.

"Aunt Xi, this skirt is the one that your...relative sent back from Hong Kong Island. It costs 100...Hong Kong dollars?" At this time, a woman who squeezed in from the side stammered.

Everyone took a breath when she said this. One of the relatives of this aunt Xiumei's husband's family was persecuted during the war, so they went into hiding and the families dispersed. But some time ago, she said that after getting in touch with her, the relatives there sent back money and clothes. The clothes Xiumei was wearing at that time were envied by many girls in the village.

"This woman really knows how to pick the right spot. There's such a big hole, and it's on the embroidered surface. Unless she's a master of Suzhou embroidery, this skirt is ruined." At this time, Zhao Xiaoxue also squeezed over, and looked like she was chatting about gossip.

"Is this true?" Gao Youhui didn't believe it.

Zhao Xiaoxue quickly retorted, "Why would I lie to you? When my cousin got married, my cousin's husband asked a friend to help him buy a skirt from Hong Kong Island. It's similar to the one she's wearing. They're both Suzhou embroidery. I even went there to learn how to do it."

"Xiaoxue, how do you know so much?" Qin Xiao, who followed over, had a gleam in his eyes.

"Well, I just figured it out at the moment. If you want to learn it in the future, I can teach you." Zhao Xiaoxue felt a little embarrassed by the praise.

"Okay, okay!" Qin Xiao nodded repeatedly. Lin Ran, who came along with them, looked at the intimacy between the two and felt a little angry.

"Liu Xi, what do you think we should do?" Aunt Xi was heartbroken when she saw the huge tear on her daughter's skirt.

The girl thought that she would wear this dress to meet people, and if she was married, she would wear it when her daughter got married. But she didn't know what happened to the girl in the Liu family. She just took a pair of scissors and cut the skirt.

"Aunt Xi...this..." Liu Xi looked embarrassed.

"I have to say that the daughter of Liu Xi's family is quite capable. She specializes in getting expensive things from other people. Remember Yu Jie from the Yu family at the entrance of the village last year? She rushed to buy a watch that someone had just bought and threw it into the pond. I heard that the watch cost more than 100 yuan. If you want to buy it now, you need a watch ticket, and you may not even be able to buy it." At this moment, someone sighed.

"And last time, the red leather shoes that Xi Que'er from Sanyuzi's family brought back were also cut, right?"

Now everyone's eyes were on Liu Xi again, waiting for his reply. "Liu Xi, I'm not saying anything bad about you, but you clearly knew that your daughter was crazy, yet you let her go out and get into trouble. In the past, since they were all from the same village, it was hard to say anything. Although I know your family is not easy, you can't afford to be treated like this, can you?"

"I won't bargain with you. 80 yuan will do for today." Auntie said with a cold face.

"Aunt Xi, you know our family. My daughter is crazy and I am sick. Basically, all the money Liu Xi earns from working is used to buy medicine for me. Please have pity on me. You can't force me and the head of the family to die... cough cough." Before Liu Xi could move, a woman knelt down in front of Aunt Xi and cried bitterly. However, she didn't cry for a few times before she started coughing violently. She looked as pitiful as she could be.

Auntie Xi's heart was almost choked by the woman's words. According to the other party, if she asked them for money, she would be the executioner who forced them to death. "You..."

"I told you, this is definitely not right." A woman whispered softly next to Jiang He.

"Hey, stop talking. If that woman hears it, she might blame you."

The woman was very disdainful when she heard this. "I just can't stand her being like that. Others are doing well, but her family is not. Sigou's family has seven or eight people, plus a sickly man, and they still manage to support themselves."

"Shh! Stop talking and keep watching."