Old Man Tang gave Tang Suxiang a wink, and Tang Suxiang immediately explained, "My maternal grandfather's house didn't have any extra rooms, so they temporarily made do in the pigsty. The pigsty is very clean. In the past, when we were poor, we couldn't even afford to live in a pigsty."
Song Yinhua: "Yes, my great-uncle's house had more than 20 rooms, but when my parents went there, there weren't any extra rooms."
"Yinhua, it's all in the past, why are you bringing it up?" Tang Suxiang scolded her displeasedly.
The daughter, Song Erniu, chimed in, "Yinhua, it's been years since we last met, how come you've become so petty!"
"You're so magnanimous. Even if I beat your son into a vegetable like Dafei and your brother did, you won't hold it against me!"
"Why are you talking about my son?" Song Erniu exclaimed, agitated. "What has my son done to offend you?"
She angrily shouted at the people present, "Listen to what she's saying! She's trying to harm my son! If anything happens to my son, I'll never forgive her!"
Ignoring Song Erniu, Song Yinhua continued to speak to Song Xuewen: "Baogen found Qiuxue's whereabouts and took my parents there. My father wanted to take Qiuxue home, but Tang Dafei rushed into the ward and smashed a chair on the back of my father's head. Your older brother has also attacked my father more than once, seriously injuring him, and he still refuses to pay for his medical expenses."
Old Tang was furious. "It was you who stole Erbao's amulet. Dafei and Hanwen were so angry that they did that. It's all your fault."
“Uncle, I’d forgotten all about this if you hadn’t brought it up.” Song Yinhua was determined to make things clear today. “Xuewen, do you remember when you were little, you tricked Caixing and took her to a cave in the back of the mountain? When I was rescuing Caixing, you mischievously broke the vines at the cave’s exit, causing me to fall into the cave.”
Song Xuewen had an impression of this shop.
When Song Yinhua fell into the cave and became motionless, they called out to her but she didn't respond. They thought she had died and ran home in fear.
That night, my grandfather asked him to lead the way to the cave to find Song Yinhua.
He was young, so his grandfather carried him the whole way. When they were almost at the cave, he was so tired that he fell asleep.
“I spent the night in the cave and found a jade pendant, which your maternal grandfather kept for himself. He and your mother went around slandering me, accusing me of being a jinx. Your mother later admitted to this and even went to the village office to apologize to me over the loudspeaker for three days.”
Song Xuewen glanced at his parents, then at his older brother who hadn't uttered a word, and guessed that Song Yinhua was telling the truth.
"The amulet on my sixth cousin's grandson has always been there. Your maternal grandfather and your mother framed me, saying that I was dishonest and stole the jade pendant. They even had Xiaowei hire an old scoundrel to impersonate a fortune teller to harm our family in the village. As a result, many people in the village were defiled by the old swindler, which is why some villagers were so angry that they threw excrement at your house in the middle of the night."
Song Xuewen looked shocked.
"My sixth cousin's second son, Xiaowei, was arrested because of this. In order to appease the old swindler, they even got Chen Wanping drunk and slept with the old scoundrel in place of Wang Yunyun. This was later found out. In order to protect Wang Yunyun, they deliberately lured the Chen family to make trouble at our door, beat Uncle Youliang half to death, and even pulled down Dafei's pants in public. Dafei held a grudge against my family because of this and set fire to our house. Out of consideration for our kinship, my family only made Uncle Youliang compensate for the damage to the house and did not pursue Dafei any further."
Song Yinhua looked at Tang Youliang, who knew he was in the wrong and kept his head down: "Uncle Youliang, is what I said true?"
Tang Youliang's silence was tantamount to acquiescence.
"My great-uncle has been stirring up trouble behind the scenes, inciting Tang Dafei's emotions. Tang Dafei hates my family even more because of the compensation money for burning down the house. Listening to my great-uncle, he hired a group of thugs to take advantage of me on the night of Baogen's wedding. They didn't inform Qiuxue beforehand that there was danger in the new house. That night, my great-uncle and the others and Qiuxue deliberately got me drunk, so I stayed overnight at my parents' house. Qiuxue took the opportunity to go to the new house to look for the jade pendant, but was bullied by the thugs that Tang Dafei hired. The next morning, my great-uncle, my sixth cousin, your parents, and your older brother and his wife went to catch them in the act. Many people in the village know about this."
Song Yinhua asked Song Xuewen, "What else do you still have grievances about? You can continue to speak!"
Song Xuewen's momentum waned.
"I suddenly remembered something else. Your mother switched my third sister with yours, drowned her in a chamber pot, and made my parents raise your seventh uncle's daughter for eighteen years. Your father even stirred up trouble for my father behind my back, making him support Qiuxue's education alone, causing Caixing to drop out of school, and burning Baogen's college admission notice. In addition, your father borrowed money and didn't pay it back. When your eldest brother's daughter got sick, he couldn't borrow a penny from your maternal grandfather. My father secretly sent money over so that your eldest brother could take the child to see a doctor as soon as possible. But when my family needed help, your father and your eldest brother turned their backs on us. What do you think of this ungrateful behavior, Xuewen?"
Song Xuewen's momentum weakened further, and he simply stopped talking.
“Your sister-in-law is pregnant now. If someone were to switch the baby in her belly and make them raise someone else’s daughter for free for more than ten years, would they just let it go?” Song Yinhua asked.
Song Hanwen's wife, Ding Xiaofen, nervously protected her still-unshowing belly, glancing nervously at her husband with a hint of dissatisfaction in her expression.
What does the mother-in-law's framing of her second uncle's family have to do with her and the baby in her womb? The fortune teller said this baby is a son.
Upon hearing that something was about to happen to his wife and children, Song Hanwen jumped out and shouted, "Song Yinhua, if you dare to switch my baby, I'll kill you!"
Song Yinhua is now all alone, with a mentally ill mother-in-law to take care of. Her husband isn't home either. It would be difficult for him to deal with her all by himself.
Song Yinhua asked Song Xuewen, "Xuewen, why have you stopped yelling? Do I still need to apologize to your mother and your brother?"
No matter what Song Yinhua said, Song Xuewen remained silent.
He neither shouted nor demanded that Song Yinhua apologize to his mother.
At this moment, Song Yinhua helped Song Erzhuang up and left with her own mother.
After taking two steps, she suddenly stopped and turned to look at Song Xuewen: "Your mother switched my third sister with someone else and then drowned her in a chamber pot. This is murder. I reported it to the authorities before. Your eldest brother used his connections to get your mother out, but I will continue to report it to the authorities. If the officials in the town don't care, I will go to the county. If the county doesn't care, I will go to the provincial capital. I will definitely seek justice for my parents!"
After Song Yinhua and Qiao Guilan helped Song Erzhuang leave, Song Hanwen advised his younger brother, "Xuewen, ignore her. Let her sue. I have many connections outside. It won't matter where she sue. Besides, who saw Mom switch her third sister? What good are her words?"
Seeing his elder brother's ugly face, Song Xuewen sat there without saying a word.
Old Tang, as if nothing had happened, boasted to his relatives and friends who came to the banquet about how his granddaughter was kind and destined to marry a rich man in the city; that she was a college student who went to the provincial capital, one of only two college students in the entire town, and that her boyfriend was someone with a very powerful background in the provincial capital; and that his grandson Hanwen had become a big boss by opening a factory, and that he would become a high-ranking official after graduating from university, according to the fortune tellers.
Relatives and friends toasted and congratulated him, trying to curry favor as if nothing had happened.
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