Chapter 8 Different Appearances
The young man nodded and said, "Yes, yes, that's it," while shaking his leg and adjusting his posture, intending to climb down the ladder the way he came.
Jiang Yuan snatched the ladder away, saying, "The village head will be here soon. You can talk to him about what you have to say."
These past few days, household expenses have been high. He planned to take advantage of Xie Wanniang's recovery and the fact that he had finished the chores at home to go out and hunt some small prey. However, he did not expect that this spur-of-the-moment decision would almost put Xie Wanniang in danger.
It was his carelessness that led him to not check with Chen Lizheng's second son next door before leaving to see if his second daughter-in-law was home.
If it weren't for a village child who heard the commotion, ran over to take a look, and then cleverly ran to the field to call for the village head, which happened to be overheard by him, he wouldn't dare imagine what Xie Wanniang would have encountered next.
He had originally instructed Xie Wanniang not to open the door, just in case, but little did he know that this was no "just in case" at all; it was clearly a crisis that was bound to happen due to the greed and scheming of certain people.
As Jiang Yuan said, the village head arrived quickly.
He was weeding in the field with his sons when he heard Xiaotong say that Han's pillar was climbing Jiang Yuan's courtyard wall and that his mother was standing at the door keeping watch for him. The village head immediately rushed back as fast as he could.
In front of and behind him were other villagers who had even abandoned their work in the fields and eagerly followed to watch the spectacle.
The younger and stronger among them ran over at a speed only slightly slower than Jiang Yuan.
Just as Jiang Yuan grabbed the ladder, all those strong young men rushed over.
The mother and son, who were already panicked because the incident had alarmed Chen Lizheng, were terrified when they suddenly saw so many people.
When Chen Lizheng arrived, panting, his face dark with anger, the mother and son were immediately rendered speechless.
Under the watchful eyes of everyone, Jiang Yuan set up the ladder, and the young man, his legs trembling, climbed down with difficulty.
Under the intense gazes of the onlookers, the woman stammered and repeated the same story she had told Jiang Yuan to Chen Lizheng, making Chen Lizheng so angry that he almost fainted.
He pointed at the woman and her son, shouting and cursing loudly with spittle flying.
“You went to someone’s house and knocked on the door, and when they didn’t answer, you took a ladder, climbed over the wall, and went in to open the door. Listen to yourselves, is this the kind of thing you did?”
"You still have the nerve to say you're worried something happened to Jiang Yuan's family? So, if they don't open the door and won't let you in, it means something happened at home? Couldn't it just be that they don't want to talk to you? Couldn't it just be that no one's home?"
“During the busy farming season in our village, there are many families who don’t have anyone at home! According to your logic, does that mean that when the time comes, you can just knock on the doors of these families and, if no one answers, you can use the excuse of being worried about them to barge into their homes?”
"Do you still have any respect for the law? You've had enough of the good life and now you want to go to the county government office to get a beating and go to jail, huh? Fine, I'll grant your wish!"
Chen Lizheng unleashed a torrent of criticism, leaving the mother and child speechless. Other villagers, their own interests at stake, abandoned their initial intention of simply joining in the fun and began criticizing the mother and child.
They felt that Chen Lizheng was absolutely right. If they let the mother and son get away with it so easily this time, they would definitely continue to use this pretext to sneak into people's homes and steal things while everyone was busy with farming.
After all, when it comes to "stealing," it's fine if you haven't started yet, but once you start, no matter if the thief stole a person or an item the first time, he/she will definitely fall in love with the joy of "getting something for nothing" in the future.
The villagers didn't want their homes to be burgled, nor did they want to be on guard against thieves for days on end, and besides, they weren't like Chen Lizheng.
Chen Lizheng had to speak with evidence. Even if he knew that the mother and son climbed Jiang Yuan's courtyard wall for Xie Wanniang, he couldn't just say something without evidence in public.
However, the villagers had no such scruples. They surrounded the mother and child, condemning them and tearing away their already shaky fig leaf.
During this time, Jiang Yuan didn't say a word, and Xie Wanniang didn't even show her face. After all, it was just a failed attempt to climb over the wall, so they could only be scolded by Chen Lizheng and other villagers. There was no other way.
After the villagers finished criticizing the mother and son with a mix of insults and threats, Chen Lizheng waved them away.
Jiang Yuan first thanked Chen Lizheng and the villagers who spoke up for him, and then stood there watching them leave in twos and threes.
After the crowd dispersed, Xie Wanniang opened the courtyard gate and stood smiling by the gate waiting for Jiang Yuan to come in.
Their eyes met, and Jiang Yuan suddenly felt a strange sensation. It was warm, itchy, a mix of happiness and unease.
He walked into the yard. "You must have been terrified!"
Xie Wanniang smiled and shook her head, then handed her hands, which were behind her back, to Jiang Yuan. "I took a wooden stick and a kitchen knife as weapons."
Jiang Yuan: ? ? ?
Jiang Yuan: !!!
Seeing Xie Wanniang's other side besides her gentle and graceful demeanor for the first time, Jiang Yuan said he was deeply shocked.
That evening, Jiang Yuan made vegetable and minced meat porridge and pickled chicken scraps for Xie Wanniang. The minced meat and chicken scraps were made from leftover chicken from lunch, and the pickled vegetables were mustard tubers that Hao Yu had asked the village women to pickle for them last year.
The minced chicken and diced pickled vegetables are stewed together until tender and flavorful, making it a delicious accompaniment to porridge.
Xie Wanniang ate with relish, but Jiang Yuan felt a strange sense of guilt because he only knew how to cook these simple foods. He didn't remember that he mainly ate cornbread and various vegetables. If anyone was being neglected, it was him who was neglecting himself more.
After the two finished dinner, Jiang Yuan quickly cleared away the dishes and said to Xie Wanniang in a low voice, "I'll go to town tomorrow to buy some steamed buns and pastries."
The three rabbits he hunted were still alive. He planned to take them to town to sell tomorrow, and then buy some flour, rice, cloth, needles and thread, bath powder, toilet paper, and other things from town.
As for the two dead chickens, Jiang Yuan planned to stew one for dinner tomorrow, and have his sister take the other home to avoid her constantly coming here and upsetting her sisters-in-law.
Jiang Yuan was making plans when he heard Xie Wanniang, who had followed him out of the main room, say, "I know how to steam buns. I'll steam a batch tomorrow. As for pastries, I can make most of them without needing an oven. Just tell me which kind you want."
It wasn't that she didn't know how to use a kiln, but rather that Jiang Yuan's family didn't have one.
Jiang Yuan was surprised to hear this. He hadn't expected that Xie Wanniang, who looked like she had been pampered since childhood, would be so good at cooking.
Shouldn't daughters from wealthy families be pampered and never lift a finger?
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