Qin shouted into the courtyard, startling the gatekeeper, who quickly waved his hands to stop them: "Where did you shrewish women come from, running around causing trouble in my Du family?"
His words were of no use; Jiang Zhi had already led her people past him and forced their way in.
Moreover, as they passed by, one person pushed and shoved the old man with the bulging eyes, squeezing him into a corner where he couldn't get out.
Wang Xiaoju laughed and said, "Grandpa, you should go somewhere cool and stay there!"
Upon entering, one finds the front yard. Several servants of the Du family, hearing the shouts, hurriedly came out of their rooms.
Jiang Zhi didn't even glance at them, and was about to step through the carved second gate, but was stopped by a servant who rushed out from inside: "Hey, what are you doing? You're not allowed in!"
This was a man, who looked like a handyman for the Du family. Jiang Zhi glanced at the stick in his hand and snorted coldly, "I'm here to find Xu Xiaolan!"
The man shook his head: "I don't know him, there's no such person in my family!"
Jiang Zhi gestured to Qin Shi with her chin: "Go inside and call someone. We must get Xu Xiaolan out today!"
Qin rushed aggressively to the man, drawing out her voice as she shouted inside, "Xiao Lan, your sisters-in-law are here! Are you hiding and putting on makeup? Come out now!"
The sound continued incessantly.
They were calling for help from the front, while Pi Shi and Wang Xiaoju were already confronting the two maids from the Du family from the back.
The two women looked like they did rough laundry work, and they were holding washing sticks in their hands.
Before the two maids could speak, Pi became anxious: the other party had weapons, while she was empty-handed; she couldn't afford to suffer this loss.
She reached out to pull a bamboo pole from the flower stand next to her.
The flower stand was sturdy; before the poles could be pulled down, the stand was torn over, and jars and pots tumbled and rolled all over the ground, along with the flowers and plants inside.
When the servants of the Du family realized that this group was serious, they immediately surrounded Pi Shi and Wang Xiaoju and started pulling at them.
The number of people on both sides was about the same, and the Du family also had to work all year round, but they were no match for the peasant woman.
Pi used her "disarming" technique, grabbing the clothes-beating stick and pulling and pushing it, causing the two laundry women to wrestle with her. Wang Xiaoju took the opportunity to pick up a flowerpot and smash it against the tables and chairs in the front yard, immediately eliciting screams and shouts of fighting.
At the second gate, the male servant grabbed Qin Shi, who was trying to barge in, and wouldn't let go: "Who are you people? If you barge in again, I'll take action!"
The group of women who suddenly appeared kept calling him "Xu Xiaolan" and "sister-in-law from my maternal family," so he dared not hurt them.
Everyone knows that the lady's surname is Xu, and she used to be from Pingchuan County. If she really is her sister-in-law from her maternal family, that would be bad. They couldn't do anything about it, so they could only block the door tightly.
One after another, the Du family's cooks and grooms arrived, arguing and making a ruckus around Jiang Zhi and the others.
There was already a commotion inside and outside the second gate, but Jiang Zhi ignored it and just kept an eye on the courtyard, waiting for Xu Xiaolan to come out.
In the backyard, Xu Yuxian, who was checking the dowry list in the side room, heard the shouts from the front. She was about to come out to check when Qin Shi's calls of "Xu Xiaolan and her sister-in-law" startled her so much that her face turned ashen: "Why is my sister-in-law here?"
How could it be so fast?
Only three or four days had passed since she found the cotton ginner and tried to get information out of him, and now her sister-in-law from her maternal family had come knocking on her door, leaving Xu Yuxian completely flustered.
She wanted her family to know about her, but she wasn't going to do it now.
Xu Yuxian thought that it would be at least several months before her family heard the news about her and found her again.
By then, their daughter had already married and left Pingchuan County. Her family knew that she was living a good life as a lady in the city, so her parents no longer had to worry about her.
But now, facing her sister-in-law, she suddenly felt flustered.
In the side room, Madam Ma and Miss Du also put down their embroidery and came out.
Hearing the commotion outside, Du Yunyan angrily said, "These servants are such lazybones, fighting and arguing over work. I'll go and scold them until they behave."
Xu Yuxian was shocked: "Yunyan, don't go!"
She couldn't let her daughter get involved with those shrewish women, and she certainly couldn't let her daughter know about her background.
But Du Yunyan, hearing the repeated calls of "Xu Xiaolan" outside, asked in confusion, "Second Aunt, who is Xu Xiaolan? Is she a member of your Xu family?"
When Xu Yuxian heard her daughter's question, she was at a loss for words when Ma Gan Niang said, "Madam, let me go and see!" With that, she gave Xu Yuxian a wink and went out with a sullen face.
When Ma's godmother went out for social engagements, Xu Yuxian quickly calmed down: "Let my sister-in-law come if she wants. Just give her some money to send her away."
The duel between the Du family servant and Wang Xiaoju at the second gate has ended.
The place was a mess. The two women washing clothes dropped their washing sticks, rubbed their arms, and stepped aside. They were just servants hired by the Du family, not slaves bought by the Du family. There was no need for them to fight.
Only the male servant at the second gate remained loyal, blocking the way, his face bearing several bloody claw marks.
When the two sides were struggling and neither could drive the other away, Ma Gan Niang finally came out in a hurry.
Upon seeing the scene in the courtyard, she nearly fainted: "Stop! Stop! You shrewish women... how could you destroy all the flowers and plants!"
In fact, less than a quarter of an hour had passed since Jiang Zhi and the others stormed into the Du family's house, yet the flowers and plants planted in the front yard had been completely destroyed by Wang Xiaoju.
Ma Gan Niang was burning with anger; this courtyard had been rented at a high price.
The Du family left Pingchuan County more than a decade ago, but in order to marry their eldest daughter off to a good family, they pretended that their family had deep roots and an old house in Pingchuan County.
The three-courtyard house, including the carefully cultivated flowers and plants, which we rented, will all need to be returned.
If it gets destroyed, they won't stand for it.
She stood with her hands on her hips on the second gate, pointing at Jiang Zhi and the others and cursing, "Where did you shrewish women come from? You were born of mothers but not raised by them, you don't know any manners at all."
There's no one in our family with the surname Xu, and no one named Xiaolan. If you don't leave, I'm going to report you to the authorities!
Wang Xiaoju pointed at the old woman and shouted, "Auntie, it's this old hag who stopped us on the road and asked us to fluff cotton, and she even brought that lady here to ask all sorts of questions!"
Ma Gan Niang rolled her eyes: "I've never seen you before, you little whore!"
As long as you don't admit it, no one can do anything about it.
However, to her surprise, Jiang Zhi slapped her hard across the face: "You should speak properly, don't yell at me!"
With Peppa Pig's thick skin as practice, Jiang Zhi's slapping skills have become superb.
The slap, accompanied by the sound of wind, was loud and crisp, landing squarely on Ma Gan Niang's face.
Ma Gan Niang was whipped so hard she spun halfway around on the spot, but she didn't fall over.
It felt like a swarm of wasps had exploded in my head, buzzing and bumping around me. I saw stars, my ears were ringing, and half of my face swelled up like an inflated pig's bladder.
Jiang Zhi was furious and had no mood to argue with anyone.
Since you've stepped forward to issue this challenge, then let's have a proper showdown on "cheapness" at Mount Hua, instead of playing the ghost and performing some kind of ghost story.
Jiang Zhi's slap brought Ma Gan Niang back to her senses. Covering her face and baring her teeth, she shouted to the servants, "They've broken into a private residence! Report them to the authorities!"
Jiang Zhi didn't care at all. As she rolled up her sleeves and walked inside, she said, "What's the use of reporting to the authorities? Go and find out the truth. It's not illegal to kill someone in a family dispute!"
Besides, as her own sister-in-law meeting her own sister-in-law, all she did was get a little excited and break a few potted plants.
Ma Gan Niang gritted her teeth in anger.
Only then did she realize that the lady had offended someone she shouldn't have!
Although this village woman in front of me is a shrew as the lady said, how come she is so bold and not afraid of reporting me to the authorities?
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