At this moment, a maidservant raised her voice and cursed, "Listen up, everyone! Don't think we're bullying you. Who doesn't want a peaceful life? We have our reasons for causing this trouble! These prostitutes, riddled with venereal diseases, come here pretending to be chaste and virtuous women, trying to trick our young masters into coming to our door to extort money!"
Logically speaking, our family isn't short of money. If they sell their bodies to please their masters, it's a reward for them. But they can't cheat people like this! That venereal disease—whoever gets it is doomed! Heartless prostitutes need to be taught a lesson like this. Do they really think we people of Xindu are fools, easily fooled?
The onlookers suddenly realized what had happened, and they had even felt some sympathy for the man.
Everyone loves beauty. Seeing such a beautiful and elegant woman being bullied, everyone would want to lend a helping hand, hoping to win her favor and have a fleeting romance.
But upon hearing the words "venereal disease," they wished they could retreat several feet further, and when they looked at Hua Ruyue and the others, their eyes were filled with utter contempt.
"Good job! That's how they should be dealt with!"
"He has a sexually transmitted disease and still comes out to flaunt it. Does he think everyone else is a fool?"
"A pink skull! A femme fatale!"
"Throwing excrement at them is too kind; they should really be stripped naked and hung up!"
Hua Ruyue and the others were so disgusted by the stench that they kept vomiting and wished they could immediately plunge into the water to wash away the filth.
But they were tied up and unable to move, and hearing everyone's contempt and insults made them so angry that they almost bit off their back teeth.
"You! You just wait, we will definitely avenge this!"
"Ugh! You're framing us! We're innocent women, we... ugh!"
Hua Ruyue opened her mouth to scold, to explain, to ask for help, but she was afraid that excrement and urine would flow in, so she could only vomit continuously until she vomited bile.
But everyone was just watching the spectacle, and no one stepped forward to help. She was truly desperate.
So she shouted with all her might, "I am the woman of the Marquis of Xinting! The Marquis will be back soon! You wait!"
Those old women weren't pushovers either. Hearing her say that, they weren't afraid at all. Instead, they picked up the wooden bucket and pounded it on them several more times.
"Shut your dog mouth! Do you think our family is so stupid that we wouldn't even bother to find out your background before we're going to deal with you?" The leading old woman spat fiercely.
"You only met the Marquis once at the dock, and didn't even exchange a word with him. You went to the Marquis's estate before, but were chased away. Now you're trying to intimidate us by using the Marquis's name! A man like the Marquis, what woman wouldn't he have? Would he take a fancy to a prostitute like you? Hmph, keep dreaming!"
But despite saying that, the old women didn't actually do anything more, perhaps because they thought it was dirty.
They quickly tidied themselves up, then ignored Hua Ruyue and the others, and left triumphantly.
Hua Ruyue and a few others were left behind, struggling to stand up, but their hands and feet were bound, so they could only cry for help.
Unfortunately, everyone was covering their noses and wished they could retreat ten miles away; no one was willing to help.
Fortunately, when the old woman rushed in earlier, the two little girls were too timid to move and hid.
At this moment, they ran out crying and enduring the stench to help untie the ropes.
Hua Ruyue and the others stumbled and ran into the courtyard like madmen, grabbing lotus pots and scooping water onto themselves.
They had already been stripped down to only their bodices and underpants, and now that they were soaking wet, the "scenery" was even better, attracting men who were watching the spectacle to peek in from the doorway.
Others joked, "What are you all still looking at? Aren't you afraid of the stench?"
The men then reluctantly left, saying, "What a pity, such fine skin."
"No matter how good it is, it's still not enough; my life is more important!"
"Yes, there are beautiful women everywhere."
The crowd dispersed, joking around, leaving behind a mess in front of the courtyard gate, with neighbors on both sides yelling and cursing.
More than a dozen buckets of excrement and urine were flowing everywhere, and the front yards of the houses on both sides were also affected!
Soon, the owner of the courtyard also came looking for them.
He had initially thought he had found good tenants because the rent he asked for was high and the tenants were all women.
Little did he expect that in just a few days, the courtyard would become a latrine, and he was filled with deep regret.
At that moment, he wanted to kick them out.
Hua Ruyue was so angry that she argued with the landlord through the screen. In the end, she brought up the Marquis and managed to scare the landlord away.
In this world, good news doesn't travel far, but bad news always seems to have wings and can fly as far as it wants.
Within a day, almost everyone in Xindu knew about it.
With so many people talking, the story gets distorted as it's passed around.
Perhaps because Hua Ruyue and others kept mentioning the Marquis of Xinting, even outsiders who didn't believe it couldn't help but have some doubts.
Some daring storytellers have already fabricated a tale of love and hate between a nobleman and a courtesan.
The story of how the Marquis hastily went to war to protect his country, leaving behind the courtesan he loved, who was misunderstood and harassed, and how the courtesan endured humiliation and waited for the Marquis's return, almost made everyone believe it.
Whether Hua Ruyue and the Marquis had a romantic relationship is anyone's guess, since the Marquis is not in Xindu.
However, it is a well-known fact that Hua Ruyue and others had previously engaged in prostitution and contracted venereal diseases.
Those men who had harbored such thoughts, such as those who had previously tried to invite Hua Ruyue and others to perform songs and dances in the hot spring valley, were now both relieved and fearful.
Fortunately, the people of Broken Gold Beach did their best to stop them, otherwise they would have been caught in the trap.
Their wives were also afraid, after all, they were in the valley at the time, and although they couldn't show themselves, they knew everything clearly.
So they went directly to their mother-in-law and gave her a proper complaint.
The old lady felt sorry for her son, and even more afraid that his lustful nature would cause him a real disaster in the future, so she hardened her heart and resorted to family discipline, beating her son, who was in his thirties, until he cried and howled like a banshee...
Leaving aside the upheavals stirred up by women like Hua Ruyue in Xinduli, life returned to peace after the female demon was driven away from Suijintan.
Everyone went back to farming or to the valley, and the melon garden had long since closed down.
Occasionally, a few half-ripe winter melons and cantaloupes would be given to the village children to eat fresh.
So, the children's favorite game was to run to the melon patch to hunt for treasure.
Occasionally, when they find a winter melon or a fragrant melon under a half-withered melon vine, they cheer loudly, making as if they have discovered a gold mine.
Jiayin rarely comes to play with her brothers, and now she is sitting in the melon shed, waiting for her brothers to bring their babies back.
But the melon patch is only so big, and the cold melons and cantaloupes are ridiculously expensive, so how could there be too many left unpicked?
So the boys searched for a long time, their heads slick with oil from the sun, but they found nothing.
So Jiayin took a cold melon and a fragrant melon from her spatial storage and put them under the wooden couch she was sitting on.
"Brother, there's a cold melon here!"
Jiayin waved, and Jiaxi and Jia'an were the first to run back. Sure enough, they found the treasure under the wooden bed.
The boys were ecstatic, running around everywhere with the good news in their hands.
"I always said my sister is a lucky star, bringing her here was bound to bring good things!"
Jia'an and Jiaxi were overjoyed. They quickly washed the cantaloupe for their younger sister, while the others smashed open the winter melon and ate it, each of them enjoying the juice.
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