Chapter 41 You reap what you sow
Sheng An was busy setting up a stall to make money, busy teaching three older "apprentices", and also had to cook at the Ding family's house every day. In short, his life was busy and fulfilling.
In contrast, Liu Huazhi's life was not easy.
Early that morning, before she even got out of bed, a group of people blocked her doorway and verbally abused her.
"Liu Huazhi, you shameless vixen! You knew my son was already engaged, yet you still dared to seduce him and encourage him to do things that offended people, causing him to become crippled! I'm going to fight you to the death!"
"Come out here, you better come out right now! Don't think that just because you're hiding inside and keeping quiet, I can't do anything to you! If you don't come out, I'll tear your house down, and then we'll see where you can hide!"
"That's right, get out here right now and give us an explanation, or don't blame us for ruining your reputation so you won't even be able to marry a beggar on the street!"
"..."
The door was pounded on loudly, and a dozen men and women blocked the entrance, all cursing Liu Huazhi with resentment.
They were all family members of Tong Baogen and his three companions.
Since the four cousins of Tong Baogen were crippled, with their limbs broken and their right leg unable to be reattached, leaving them completely disabled, the Tong family has been unable to accept this cruel reality.
The Tong family pressed the four Tong brothers for the reason for their injuries, but they couldn't get any answers. They could only guess from their fragmented words that it was related to the willow branches in Huai Shu Village.
Before the Tong family could cause trouble for Liu Huazhi, the family of Tong Baogen's fiancée came to break off the engagement and returned all the money the Tong family had spent on the engagement.
The Tong family was naturally unwilling, but the other party was not someone to be trifled with. If things escalated, no one would come out unscathed. They could only swallow their anger and resentment towards Liu Huazhi grew stronger.
Tong Baogen's three cousins were provoked, feeling that since they were crippled, no woman would ever want them again.
If no woman wants them, they will simply die out.
The more the three brothers thought about it, the more desperate they became, and the more desperate they became, the more they hated it.
I hate that Tong Baogen is so stupid, being bewitched by a woman.
They hated Tong Baogen for his lack of brotherhood, for dragging them down and ruining their lives.
So the three disabled but determined brothers took advantage of their family's inattention to struggle out of bed and ganged up on Tong Baogen, who was also bedridden, and beat him up.
Tong Baogen suffered new injuries before his old ones had healed. His two hands and one leg, which had just been set, were fractured again, and the doctor had to work very hard to set them back up.
The actions of the three cousins completely stirred up a hornet's nest. The once united Tong family was instantly torn apart, with each member determined to seek justice for their respective sons.
During those days, the four families engaged in a fierce melee, fighting so intensely that they practically blew each other's brains out.
Finally, the eldest member of the Tong family tearfully begged the village chief to intervene and stop the farce. Only then did the four families manage to calm down and sit down together to discuss how to resolve the situation.
After much discussion, everyone pointed the finger at Liu Huazhi, which led to this scene this morning.
Inside the room, Liu Huazhi was deathly pale, trembling as she hid under the covers, too afraid to go out and face the Tong family.
Hearing the increasingly vile insults hurled at her from outside, she gritted her teeth in hatred: "Bitch! They're all bitches!"
Those people got their hands and feet crippled because they were brainless and brought it on themselves. What does it have to do with her? Why did these people come to her door to cause trouble?
Despite feeling that she had done nothing wrong, Liu Huazhi was extremely flustered and had no idea what to do.
Seeing that the door remained closed, the Tong family's patience wore thin. Tong Baogen's mother waved her hand and ordered her husband, "Break the door down!"
No sooner had the words left his mouth than an angry voice rang out from outside: "Stop!"
Peng Chunlan rushed back and struggled to push through the crowd of onlookers.
Seeing more than a dozen people from the Tong family, her expression changed slightly, and she angrily questioned, "What do you want by coming to my house to cause trouble so early in the morning?"
She was pretty and ran back breathlessly, her high breasts heaving up and down, attracting the attention of all the men present.
The men from the Tong family, especially those who were closest to the camera, were instantly stunned, forgetting what they had come there for.
Baogen's mother saw this and, with her hands on her hips, spat at Peng Chunlan: "Like mother, like daughter! Your mother seduces men everywhere, and your daughter is a slut too!"
Being scolded for no reason, Peng Chunlan retorted angrily, "With such a foul mouth, did you crawl out of a cesspool?"
Baogen's mother had been holding back her anger for a long time. Seeing that Peng Chunlan still dared to scold her, she immediately pounced on her, grabbed Peng Chunlan's hair with one hand, and with the other hand, she clawed at Peng Chunlan's face and scratched her hard.
"You slut, you whore, I'll scratch your face until it's ripped off, then let's see how you seduce men then!"
Peng Chunlan screamed in agony, hurriedly raising her hand to cover her burning face: "Murder! Help! Someone's killing me—"
Under the guise of breaking up the fight, several men from the Tong family crowded around and took advantage of the chaos to harass Peng Chunlan, offering half-hearted advice: "Stop fighting, stop fighting, let's sit down and talk."
The villagers, witnessing this scene, could no longer stand it and rushed forward to push aside the shameless Tong family man and separate the women who were tearing at each other: "Stop, stop!"
Even though they disliked Peng Chunlan, she was still a person from Huai Shu Village. If word got out that she was being bullied by a group of outsiders, people would just say that the people of Huai Shu Village were spineless.
Soon, Peng Chunlan and Baogen's mother were separated.
Both of them had bruises on their faces, but Peng Chunlan's injuries were more serious, with several bleeding cuts.
As things quieted down outside, Liu Huazhi could no longer hide in the room. She got out of bed and secretly opened the door, only to be spotted by Baogen's mother, who immediately grabbed her hand and pulled her in front of everyone.
"It's her! It's this wicked woman who ruined my son! Today, no matter what, your Liu family will give us an explanation!"
Baogen's mother glared fiercely at Liu Huazhi, her eyes filled with undisguised malice as she looked at Liu's alluring face and figure, which were just as captivating as Peng Chunlan's.
Liu Huazhi was terrified and struggled to break free from her, hiding behind Peng Chunlan: "Mother, it's not like that. Tong Baogen being beaten has nothing to do with me. Mother, you must stand up for your daughter!"
Peng Chunlan naturally defended her daughter, glaring angrily at the Tong family members:
"You keep saying that my daughter ruined your son, but where's the evidence? If you can't produce any evidence, even if it goes to the authorities, I will still fight to clear my daughter's name!"
The Tong family members looked at each other in bewilderment.
Evidence? Where did they get their evidence?
When pressed repeatedly, Baogen always said that he liked the woman surnamed Liu and couldn't bear to see her suffer, which was why he offended people. He said it wasn't the woman surnamed Liu who instigated him.
It's a fact that Baogen offended people because of her. Now that Baogen and his four brothers are disabled, why should she, the culprit, remain uninvolved?
The Tong family was convinced that Liu Huazhi was at fault, and even if they couldn't produce any evidence, they were determined to pin the blame on her.
Baogen's mother's eyes darted around, and she stepped forward and grabbed Liu Huazhi:
"Because of her, my son lost his wife. She has to marry my son and give him a big, fat grandson, otherwise I'll come to his door every day to make a scene, and see who would dare to marry her!"
Baogen is already half a cripple, and he probably won't be able to marry a wife with all four limbs intact in this lifetime. It would be better to let this wretched woman marry Baogen, so that she can have a big, fat grandson in the future.
This bitch owes Baogen everything, and she has to pay it back!
"No, I don't want to! I'd rather die than!"
Liu Huazhi was both angry and anxious. She struggled to break free from Baogen's mother's grasp and glared warily at the Tong family: "You think you can force me to marry your family's cripple? There's no way you'll ever do that in this lifetime. Give up on that idea now!"
Having been given a second chance at life, she was determined to marry Xu Lang and become a high-ranking official's wife, completely crushing Sheng An, that jinx, under her feet. How could she be forced to marry a cripple?
She looked down on Tong Baogen even when he was healthy, and now he's not even worthy of carrying her shoes!
"You bitch, if you dare not marry me, I'll beat you to death!"
Seeing Liu Huazhi's obvious disdain, Baogen's mother was filled with rage and pounced on her, slapping her hard across the face.
"ah--"
Liu Huazhi lost her balance and fell to one side, her forehead slamming hard against the corner of the table.
In an instant, her eyes rolled back and she fainted.
Everything happened in the blink of an eye. Before those present could react, someone let out a piercing scream: "Someone's dead! Someone's been killed—"
Sheng An was completely unaware of the farce at the Liu family's house. He sold out of all the wontons again and happily pushed his cart home.
As I passed the small bridge, I caught a glimpse of a familiar figure on the riverbank not far away.
Sheng An's smile vanished as he pushed the cart slowly toward the riverbank. Before he even got close, he heard a woman's helpless sobs.
Her face darkened, and she immediately parked the car and strode towards Miao Ya'er, who was clearly in a bad mood and looked like she might jump off a cliff at any moment.
Miao Ya'er looked extremely disheveled at this moment. Her hair was messy, her clothes were rumpled, and her thin face was red and swollen with obvious handprints.
A trickle of blood seeped from the corner of his mouth, mingling with salty tears as it dripped onto the shoe's surface, wetting the light-colored shoe and leaving deep marks.
Seeing this, Sheng An was absolutely furious.
It's easy to guess without asking that Miao Ya'er was beaten by the Sun family mother and son again.
"Sister Miao, your face is badly injured. I'll take you to Rongchuntang to have it checked out."
Sheng An stepped forward, grabbed Miao Ya'er, and forcefully pulled her to a safe area. Without asking any questions, he immediately suggested taking her to the clinic.
Miao Ya'er didn't react at first, staring blankly at Sheng An for a long while before she seemed to finally recognize her. She then hurriedly pulled her hands and feet back and refused, "No, no need, Sister Sheng, I, I'll be fine by myself for a while."
Seeing that she refused to go to the clinic, Sheng An did not force her. He held her cold hand tightly to prevent her from suddenly jumping into the river.
Seeing the glaring bruises on Miao Ya'er's arm, she held back for a moment but finally couldn't help but say, "Sister Miao, you're only in your early twenties. You have decades ahead of you. Are you going to keep enduring this?"
Sheng An knew he was meddling, but the woman in front of him was just too pitiful.
She had discovered her grandmother's injury in time and found someone to carry her to the hospital for treatment, which made it difficult for her to ignore her grandmother's suffering.
What Sister Miao lacked was not a piece of fine cotton cloth to make clothes, but a lamp to light her way and help her escape suffering.
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