Although the group ahead had spread out, the pig-like howls and curses of the Zhou family elders were so loud and piercing that they carried far across the open wilderness, causing many people to turn around and look.
"What happened next? Why were they screaming so pitifully?"
"It looks like the Jiang family girl overturned the car!"
"My God! That girl Jiang Chan really overturned the car? And knocked Old Lady Zhou down?"
"Tsk tsk... That's too ruthless... He's an old man, after all..."
"Exactly! They're so heartless!"
"What's wrong with pushing a cart? Is it really that big of a deal?"
Whispers spread like a plague through the weary ranks, filled with shock, bewilderment, and, more often, accusations and moral judgments from those who felt it was none of their business.
Jiang Fu, the original owner of Jiang Chan's uncle, was the first to jump out, seemingly eager to stir up trouble, and shouted at the top of his lungs to those behind him:
"Jiang Chan! Stop right there! Are you even human? Grandpa Zhou and Grandma Zhou are so old, and you just leave them on the street like that? Have you lost your conscience? Go back and help them up and move them away!"
"Exactly! This is outrageous!" His wife, Liu, immediately chimed in, hands on her hips, her face full of indignation.
"Jiang Chan! Hurry up and go! Go and bring Grandpa Zhou and the others along!" The person speaking looked righteous, as if they occupied the absolute moral high ground.
“That’s right! It’s no trouble at all to take it with you! It’s just a small favor!” someone chimed in from the crowd. “How can you bear to see an elderly person suffer?”
A cacophony of accusations, urging, and moral blackmail rose and fell, forming a surging wave that crashed against Jiang Chan and Xiao Tao as they drew closer.
Jiang Chan pushed the cart, and Xiao Tao clung tightly to her clothes. Amidst countless accusatory or spectator gazes, the two silently walked to the edge of the line, the shrill shouts still ringing in their ears.
Jiang Chan finally stopped walking.
She slowly raised her head, her face, covered in dust yet still cold and expressionless, except for her eyes, like icy blades, which slowly swept over the loudest faces—
Jiang Fu, Liu Shi, that middle-aged man, and a few others hiding behind the scenes fanning the flames—wherever her gaze fell, the cacophony of noise involuntarily subsided.
“Conscience?” Jiang Chan’s voice was not loud, but it was extremely penetrating. “My conscience tells me that I found this cart, and I can give it to whomever I want! I can overturn it if I want!”
She paused, her gaze fixed on Jiang Fu's face, "...Have you forgotten that we're no longer related? Former uncle...Mind your own business! If you have a conscience, go help him up, go push him!"
She then looked at the middle-aged man who had shouted, "You're righteous and kind, then you go!"
Her gaze swept across the crowd. "Anyone else who feels sorry for them, or thinks I should push them? Step forward! The cart is right here. Who will push the Zhou family couple? I'll lend it to you for free, but you can only use it to push their things, not your own. Who's going?!"
The crowd, which had been so vehement and seemed to be the embodiment of justice, fell completely silent in an instant!
Jiang Fu's indignant expression froze instantly, as if he had been choked. His mouth opened, his Adam's apple bobbed a few times, but he couldn't utter a single word. Ask him to push those two old coffins? What a joke! He'd work himself to death pushing others? He wanted to put his own belongings on that cart!
Like a cat whose tail has been stepped on, Liu shrank back instantly, her eyes darting away, no longer daring to look at Jiang Chan.
The middle-aged man's face flushed red, and he lowered his head awkwardly, pretending to cough.
The others also glanced away, looking elsewhere or down at their worn-out shoe tips. The earlier morally manipulative atmosphere of "united will" vanished instantly, leaving only awkward silence and their own private calculations.
Free car rental sounds great, but you can only push those two old idiots... You can't put your own things in there, and you have to use your own strength... Only a fool would do that!
Jiang Chan's icy gaze was like a searchlight, illuminating the hypocrisy and scheming on everyone's faces. She stopped speaking, only letting out a very slight but sarcastic sneer, a laugh like an invisible slap across the face of everyone who had just been shouting.
She stopped looking at the group, pulled Xiao Tao up, pushed the cart, and rejoined the silent procession.
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