The tranquility of the early morning was abruptly shattered by Li Guixiang's raspy voice.
"Zhou Shuhua! Come out here!"
The people inside who were drinking porridge all paused.
Lei Yuhua tapped her chopsticks on the rim of her bowl, a cold smile appearing on her face:
"Ha, that old hag, we haven't even had a chance to deal with her yet, and she's already come knocking on our door? I'll go see what she's up to!"
Before the words were even finished, the person had already swept out of the main room like a gust of wind.
In the courtyard, Li Guixiang and Xu Laonian stood there, completely different from their dejected, homeless appearance yesterday.
Li Guixiang wore a blue cloth jacket that was neither new nor old, and Xu Laonian also wore a faded khaki jacket. Although the material was ordinary, it was obviously a good piece of clothing that had been stored away in the trunk, and he managed to make himself look somewhat presentable.
The two men stood ramrod straight, and the bluffing on their faces could be smelled from a distance.
Lei Yuhua crossed her arms and leaned against the threshold, glancing at them sideways with a mocking smile:
"Hey, Li Guixiang, what's with the wailing so early in the morning? What, did you go home and think about it all night, had a change of heart, and come here to kowtow and admit your mistakes?"
"Admit your mistake? That's a load of bull!"
Li Guixiang's triangular eyes narrowed, and she nearly spat on Lei Yuhua's face; her voice was shrill and sharp.
"I'm here to collect a debt!"
"Collecting debts?"
Lei Yuhua was truly stunned, thinking she had misheard.
"You're here to collect a debt from us?"
She nearly poked her own nose with her finger, looking utterly bewildered.
"That's right! It's about collecting debts!"
Li Guixiang stiffened her neck, full of confidence, as if she had won the most important right.
“Zhou Shuisheng, oh no, Zhou Jianbang, is Zhou Shuhua’s younger brother! Zhou Qiqi is her niece! Right? This score needs to be settled today!”
Yesterday morning, after Zhou Shuhua fainted, everyone was busy with other things, and she and Xu Laonian took advantage of the chaos to sneak home.
But in the afternoon, the village chief called so many villagers to the village committee. Many villagers gathered outside to watch the excitement. Li Guixiang also changed her clothes, put on a hat, and eavesdropped outside the crowd.
From the villagers' conversations, she pieced together the truth.
It turns out that this group of people didn't come to stand up for Zhou Qiqi, but to find Zhou Shuhua's relatives!
Zhou Qiqi's father, Zhou Shuisheng, is someone of great importance!
He is not an orphan, but Zhou Shuhua's younger brother, and Zhou Qiqi is Zhou Shuhua's niece!
After learning all this, he thought about it all night and felt increasingly cheated.
The reason why the Xu family raised Zhou Qiqi for so long was because they considered her as their daughter-in-law.
As a result, their son Xu Shu didn't marry Zhou Qiqi; instead, Zhou Qiqi married a military officer.
And yesterday I heard from those girls in the village that Zhou Qiqi is still doing something now, fashion design, and I heard it's quite lucrative.
But they weren't given a single penny of the money!
Then didn't the Xu family raise her for nothing?
I didn't get any benefits and even lost my son!
This is absolutely unacceptable! They must get this debt back!
At this moment, Zhou Shuhua also came out with a sullen face.
Her face was still somewhat pale, but her eyes burned with intensity as she stared intently at Li Guixiang:
"Fine! We haven't even settled the score with you for my niece's blood and tears over the past ten years, and you have the nerve to come to our door demanding payment? Li Guixiang, is your skin made of city wall bricks?"
Li Guixiang felt a little uneasy under her gaze, but remembering the money they had calculated the night before, she regained her courage and took a step forward, hands on her hips:
"How can I be ashamed? Zhou Shuhua, listen to me! That little brat Zhou Qiqi entered my Xu family when she was seven! We raised her from infancy to twenty, a full thirteen years! Thirteen years! She ate our food, drank our water, wore our clothes! Are we, the Xu family, reincarnated bodhisattvas? Did we raise her all these years for nothing?"
She got more and more excited as she spoke, spitting as she spoke:
“We used to think she was just an orphan, a weed, and that we were kind-hearted and doing her a favor! But who knew she had a golden phoenix hidden in her life? Having a high-ranking official as her aunt! Now look at her, she's returned to her family, climbed the social ladder, and I heard she's working as a designer, living a very glamorous life! Even the candy she gives to the village kids is a rare treat! What? Did our Xu family's rice, flour, and cooking oil for over ten years just go to waste? If Zhou Qiqi doesn't repay the kindness of raising us, then you, as her aunt, have to repay it for her!”
She stretched out her rough fingers and gestured:
“We won’t ask for more! Thirteen years, one hundred yuan a year, that’s thirteen hundred yuan! Not a penny less! This money is our due!”
Lei Yuhua had never seen such a shameless person before. Her chest heaved with anger, and she was about to unleash a torrent of abuse when Li Guixiang's shrill voice boomed down, her finger nearly jabbing Lei Yuhua's face.
"Get out of here, you little brat! You have no right to interrupt! I haven't finished speaking yet!"
She took a breath, her eyes greedily scanning Zhou Shuhua and the room, as if the money was already piled up before her eyes:
"And another thing! That girl Zhou Qiqi was the wife we were prepared for our Shu'er since she was little! A child bride! The whole village knew it! And what happened? Nobody introduced her, no proper marriage ceremony, and she just ran off with... with Shen Huaichuan! What's going on? Does she think our Xu family is dead?"
Li Guixiang straightened her back even more, as if she were the one who had suffered the most:
“Shen Huaichuan married the woman our family had arranged, so the bride price must be paid! In the city, people value ‘three turns and one sound,’ but we country folk are honest and don’t fuss over such things! A sewing machine, a bicycle, a watch, and a radio—all converted into cash! I’ll give you seven hundred yuan! That’s two thousand yuan in total! Not a penny less!”
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