The group arrived at the Li family's door and banged on it repeatedly.
There was no response from inside the door.
"Is he not home?" the young woman asked suspiciously.
“Impossible. I asked Niu Dajiao at the alley entrance, and she said Ye Yunniang is at home.” The old woman was very certain that someone was home.
"Ye Yunniang, come out! What are you hiding for?" The young girl stepped forward, patted and shouted. When no one in the courtyard responded, she kicked them a few times.
"Who are you?" Ye Yunniang looked at the group of people; she didn't recognize them.
"Are you Ye Yunniang?" the old woman asked.
"I am."
"You wretch, let my brother go!" Upon hearing this, the girl rushed towards Ye Yunniang and reached out to grab her.
The young woman quickly pulled her back, saying, "Cui Cui, we agreed on this before we came, don't be impulsive."
Cuicui, being held captive, glared fiercely at Ye Yunniang a few times in resentment.
An elderly woman, looking haggard, approached and said, "Young lady, I apologize to you on behalf of my son. He was just momentarily blinded by greed and confused, and did something wrong. Please, for the sake of this old woman, forgive him this time. I promise he won't do it again."
"Your son was the thief that night." Ye Yunniang's eyes changed. Thinking of the wound on her son's neck, she wished she could kill the thief.
“No, my son is not a thief. He, he,” the old woman couldn’t say.
"So you're the thief's family. Well, you dare to cause trouble here." Liang Maimiao, who came out after hearing the noise, looked at the group with disgust.
“I’ve already told you, my brother isn’t. He’s here to see his lover.” Cui Cui spoke loudly, attracting many people to come over.
"Isn't this the Wang Daxing family's house in the alley ahead?"
"Wang Daxing is the thief?"
"That's not surprising. Wang Daxing has been a petty thief since he was a child."
"He stole the salted fish that my family was drying."
"My family's cured pork is the same."
"You're talking nonsense! My brother wouldn't do that. It's all because of this widow, who wants to marry my brother. She's been deliberately clinging to him. My brother was fooled by her."
"Bullshit. Who would want your brother with his sleazy looks?" Liang Maimiao had met Wang Daxing before and knew his appearance very well.
“Sister, I didn’t want to say this.” The young woman, Huan Di, Wang Daxing’s wife, took out a handkerchief from her bosom. “If there’s nothing between you two, why did you give him a handkerchief you embroidered yourself?”
All eyes turned to Ye Yunniang.
"I embroidered the handkerchief," Ye Yunniang admitted.
"Yunniang," Liang Maimiao said anxiously.
"She admitted it!" Cui Cui shouted triumphantly. "My brother isn't a thief."
"At the Baise Embroidery Shop, a handkerchief costs 12 coins," Ye Yunniang said unhurriedly.
"Why are you saying all this?" Cuicui asked, puzzled.
"Sister," Huan Di said anxiously, wanting to interrupt Ye Yunniang before she could tell him everything.
"I understand," Liang Maimiao said loudly, realizing what was happening. "Yunniang has been taking on embroidery work at the Baise Embroidery Shop." Liang Maimiao knew this and went along because she wanted to take on work herself.
The shopkeeper in Baise looked down on Liang Maimiao's needlework skills, but for Ye Yunniang's sake, he agreed to let Liang Maimiao consign the handkerchiefs she embroidered to the embroidery shop.
“I take on embroidery jobs for the Baise Embroidery Shop. Over the past four years, I’ve embroidered at least 800, if not 1000. To show that all the handkerchiefs are from the Baise Embroidery Shop, the shopkeeper requires the embroiderers who take on the jobs to embroider a cypress leaf along the edge and seam of every handkerchief.” As Ye Yunniang spoke, she snatched the handkerchief that Huan Di was trying to hide and spread it out for everyone to see.
“There really is a cypress leaf.”
“I also have this handkerchief that I bought at the Baise Embroidery Shop the day before yesterday.”
"I bought it there too."
Many women who were not good at embroidery checked the handkerchiefs they bought from the Baise embroidery shop and found cypress leaves on them.
The way he looked at Huan Di changed. This woman was slandering someone else's innocence in order to save her own man.
"I only embroidered one of these twin lotus handkerchiefs. It was for the shopkeeper in Baise to use himself. How did you get it?" Ye Yunniang stared at Huan Di and asked, word by word.
"You stole the only handkerchief?"
At Cui Cui's shout, Huan Di's face turned pale, and he shook his head vigorously, "I didn't steal it. Da Xing brought it back. He said it was my sister."
"Try calling me 'sister' again!" Ye Yunniang's eyes revealed undisguised murderous intent.
Huan Di shrank back, looking aggrieved. "I'm telling the truth."
"Bad people are not allowed to bully my mother." Wang Damei stood in front of Huandi, glaring fiercely at Ye Yunniang.
“You’re the bad guys! You bullied my mother! You’ve slandered her! I’m going to the authorities to sue you! I’ll make sure your whole family goes to jail!” Li An rushed out to protect Ye Yunniang.
Ye Yunniang hugged Li An, afraid that he would get hurt if he rushed forward.
"Old Mrs. Wang, I'll only say this once. I will not forgive your son, Wang Daxing. If you continue to cause trouble in front of my house, don't blame me for being impolite."
"You?" Wang Cuicui didn't believe it.
Old Mrs. Wang took out her money bag from her bosom, opened it shakily, revealing three silver ingots inside.
"I know this isn't enough, but I hope you'll accept it. I'll do my best to compensate you." Old Mrs. Wang bent down and handed the silver to Ye Yunniang.
Ye Yunniang ignored him, her gaze fixed on Old Lady Wang. "You really have a clever plan. You put the silver out so openly. I was just thinking of taking it and attracting other thieves and hooligans to come knocking."
"I'd rather I, a widow and orphan, be dead. Then no one will have any grievances to hold your son accountable."
Ye Yunniang directly exposed Old Lady Wang's plan.
"I didn't. This old woman genuinely wants to apologize."
"I will not accept a single penny from the Wang family. I want Wang Daxing to pay the price he deserves," Ye Yunniang reiterated her stance.
"Yes, don't want dirty money. It's filthy."
"Who knows where you got your son from?"
"That old woman is really wicked."
...Some people in the crowd who didn't understand at first got it after hearing the explanation.
“You’re talking nonsense. We didn’t do that.” Wang Cuicui’s anxious rebuttal only confirmed Old Lady Wang’s suspicions.
"Instead of shouting and yelling here, you should think about how to protect your family's money." Ye Yunniang noticed that some of the onlookers in the crowd had their eyes shining as they stared at the silver.
"You want to steal my money? Bah, you don't even deserve it. This house of yours will be mine sooner or later."
"Wang Cuicui." Old Mrs. Wang regretted bringing such a useless teammate along.
"So, you're not here to apologize. You're here to steal the house." Liang Maimiao was shocked by the shamelessness of the Wang family.
“Ye Yunniang took off her clothes in front of my brother. She is my brother’s woman. This house will belong to our family sooner or later.” Wang Cuicui’s words reminded Ye Yunniang of the humiliation that night.
"Don't you dare insult my mother. She did all this to save me!" Li Pan rushed out with red eyes and rammed her head hard against Wang Cuicui.
Wang Cuicui was knocked back several steps.
"You little bastard, how dare you hit me?"
Wang Cuicui was furious with Li Pan and raised her hand to hit him.
Ye Yunniang grabbed her hand and raised it.
Snap snap snap...
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