Shen Jialuo and Shen Jiaqing had already slipped out of the crowd during the chaos. As soon as Lili spoke, the two of them kept echoing her.
"That's right!"
"That's right! They're the ones who came and insulted my sister for no reason!"
Village Chief Ma looked at Little Li suspiciously again. Little Li panicked and said, "Village Chief, you can't favor the Shen family! My face is all swollen like this!"
Many villagers in the surrounding area had grudges against the Li family's mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, and they all stood up to speak out.
"Village Chief Ma, we all saw it clearly. It was these two, the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, who came here to annoy others first!"
"Yeah, yeah, they started by accusing the Shen family of raising a girl to be a child bride for a rich family. They were clearly the ones with foul mouths. In my opinion, a slap wouldn't have been enough!"
"Absolutely! He's always spouting nonsense; he should have been disciplined a long time ago!"
The overwhelming public opinion infuriated Madam Li, who blurted out, "Fine, you all say you saw it, then you all saw that carriage, right? That carriage, tsk tsk tsk, it's probably not even half as luxurious as the county magistrate's!"
The villagers fell silent.
The carriage drove so casually down the main road that everyone saw it.
Disliking the Li family's mother-in-law and daughter-in-law is one thing, but the carriage was real, and everyone saw it.
Could it be... that the Shen family has really climbed up to some wealthy family?
They knew exactly what kind of life the Shen family had lived in the past. There were many people in the family, but they were hardworking and their situation was average, neither good nor bad in the village.
But recently, the Shen family has been reaping great rewards every time they go into the mountains. They can catch fish on the next trip to the river, and I heard that they even dug up some Ganoderma lucidum and sold it for fifteen taels of silver.
If it's just good luck, then what's with the carriage?
Could it be that the Shen family has found a powerful backer?
The villagers fell silent. Although they had a good relationship with the Shen family, they also wanted to know what had happened.
Village Chief Ma pondered everyone's words and roughly formed his own judgment on the matter.
Before anyone could even speak to control the situation, one of the bolder people asked, "Aunt Chen, what's the deal with that carriage? Does your family really know some big shots?"
"Yes, there was a carriage a while ago, but it didn't look as luxurious as this one today. You could say it was a kind city person giving you a ride back, but this one today can't be, can it?"
"Tell me about it, everyone's curious."
The villagers then egged on Old Lady Shen to say something, and seeing this, Little Li and Aunt Li smugly straightened their clothes and looked at the Shen family with a defiant expression.
Yang and Liu stood behind Old Lady Shen, looking at her with some concern.
This is not a good thing to explain. What if it implicates Young Master Gu?
Fortunately, Old Lady Shen never intended to keep this a secret. It was common knowledge that Old Master Shen was traveling with his father-in-law as a镖师 (bodyguard/escort).
Furthermore, Boss Shen will be going on a long trip soon, and the fact that he's going to work as a镖师 (bodyguard/escort) will definitely not be kept secret.
She had just figured it out: since Young Master Gu was going to personally intervene, it meant he wasn't afraid of letting others know even a little bit about this.
But how much of what they said was true and how much was false is up to the Shen family to decide.
Old Mrs. Shen remained expressionless, pondering where to begin.
Lili bit her lip but spoke first: "Brother Ziyi is a good person. He was clearly helping my uncle. If Aunt Li dislikes Lili, she can scold Lili. Why drag Brother Ziyi into it? Although Lili is still young, she knows her own status. Brother Ziyi is a wealthy merchant in the city. Lili is absolutely not qualified to be Brother Ziyi's wife!"
Lili lowered her head, looking aggrieved. Her nostrils flared slightly, and her breathing became rapid. Her slightly trembling shoulders seemed to be silently crying out her grievances.
Seeing her daughter's aggrieved look, Yang couldn't stand it anymore and her anger flared up: "That's right, Li Bao is my daughter, how dare you say such things about her? Last time you called her a worthless piece of trash, this time you called her a child bride, what, are you going to say something even more vulgar next time?"
Little Li, with her neck stiff and eyes wide, wanted to retort, but was silenced by a single look from Village Chief Ma.
The villagers' attention was slightly diverted again, and they began to whisper about Little Li.
When Old Lady Shen thought about Lili's words more deeply, she realized that Lili's words, on the surface, were saying that she was not good enough for Young Master Gu and defending him, but in reality, she was subtly helping her write the script!
Suppressing her excitement, Old Mrs. Shen calmly followed Li Li's words: "Hmph, Sister Li has always been the most concerned about our Shen family. Whenever there's any trouble in our family, you're sure to be the first one to know."
Aunt Li was a little embarrassed, and her face showed anger: "What nonsense are you talking about!"
Old Mrs. Shen ignored them and instead addressed the villagers who had gathered around, saying, "To be honest, this young master Gu is no ordinary person. His family are wealthy merchants who have just settled down in Nanlin County and want to expand their business there. My eldest son had a brief encounter with him when he was out escorting goods. My eldest son was lucky; young master Gu had a very good impression of him, so the first person he thought of was my eldest son, and he entrusted my eldest son and his father-in-law to lead the escort of the goods."
Old Master Shen hurriedly replied, "Yes, yes, that's right. Young Master Gu came today specifically to discuss this matter with me."
The villagers were finally satisfied with their curiosity.
"So that's how it is."
"Shen Jia Dalang is really lucky. He might become rich in the future!"
"They have the ability themselves. I think the Shen family is finally about to have a turn of good fortune."
"That's right, Aunt Li and Old Lady Shen have been at odds for decades. No wonder she came over here out of jealousy!"
"You can't talk about children like that. Lili is so cute, her smile can melt your heart."
“That’s right, no matter what, the child is not wrong. How can you scold a child like that? They are women too.”
The situation quickly changed again. Seeing that the matter of Young Master Gu was over, the Shen family, who had been on tenterhooks, finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Village Chief Ma understood everything now. Aunt Li blushed and wanted to continue arguing for herself, but Village Chief Ma shouted to stop her: "That's enough!"
Aunt Li and Little Li immediately fell silent.
After a while, Aunt Li rolled her eyes and muttered under her breath, "All she does is talk."
"How many times have I told you? If you keep doing this every time, and can't control your mouth no matter what, then your Li family should get out of Xinghua Village!" This time, Village Chief Ma was really impatient. Ever since he became the village chief of Xinghua Village, he had been thoroughly fed up with dealing with this kind of thing.
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