Second Aunt sighed, "He fell into the river and drowned. He probably drank at your place and wasn't paying attention."
"Dead..."
Su Man's eyes were blank.
Second Aunt looked at Su Man and said, "Now that he's dead, don't tell anyone about this. Otherwise, the women in the village will drown you with their spit."
Of course, she also had her own selfish motives. She was the one who gave the key. If Li Zhuang and Zhao Chunhua knew about it, who knows what would happen.
In order to shut Su Man up, Second Aunt comforted her, "Don't be too sad, just think of it as a dog bite. He's gone now anyway, so it's retribution in this life."
"But I, I... wuwu..."
Su Man covered her face and cried, and Second Aunt also felt guilty when she saw it. "Oh, come to think of it, this is my fault. Xiao Feng didn't come to get the key yesterday, and the fourth child happened to be at my place, so he asked to help me go, but I didn't expect... It's all fate."
"Wuwu..."
Su Man pretended to cry, thinking in her heart, no wonder Xiaofeng didn't come yesterday.
I didn’t go to get the key. Could it be that I was tripped?
Perhaps out of guilt, Second Aunt did not leave immediately after delivering the meal, but stayed to talk to Su Man.
It wasn't until the afternoon that Second Aunt's son Shuanzhu came over and said, "Mom, Fourth Uncle has been fished out. Dad told you to go back and make some preparations. He's inviting the villagers to a feast tomorrow."
Seeing that Shuanzhu did not mention the cause of Li Laosi's death, Su Man finally felt relieved.
Being behind also has its advantages. For example, if this happened in the city and an autopsy was performed to determine the cause of death, she would definitely be implicated. But in Tieshan Village, because people had drowned in that river before, they assumed that Li Laosi had drowned as well.
After all, every household in the village knows each other, and no one would have thought that someone would kill someone.
Second Aunt didn't notice Su Man's expression and cursed, "Your father only knows how to find work for me. Okay, I'm going back now."
As soon as she stood up, she remembered something and asked Shuanzhu to go to next door to borrow a padlock to lock the door.
"Well, Auntie is leaving. I'll come to see you tomorrow."
"Second Aunt, please wait."
Su Man called her second aunt to the kitchen and brought out two barrels of wine. "This is the wine I brewed. You are going to have a banquet, so you can buy it with the money you saved."
Second Aunt took it, opened the lid, smelled it, and smiled. "I've heard your mother-in-law say you have this skill before. I didn't expect that even we can borrow it. Then Second Aunt will not be polite to you."
"Why are you being so polite to me?"
Su Man forced a smile. "There are quite a few people in the village. I'm afraid you can't handle it all by yourself. I'll go cook with you tomorrow."
"That would be great."
Second Aunt agreed without hesitation. Firstly, Su Man had gained their trust during this period of time. Secondly, there were so many people at the banquet tomorrow that even if Su Man wanted to run away, she wouldn't be able to.
Su Man raised the corners of her lips slightly, "Then come and open the door for me tomorrow morning. I have a jar of wine here. I'll fill it up and bring it over."
"Okay, okay, take a good rest. I'll come and call you tomorrow."
After Third Aunt left, Su Man's shoulders softened and she breathed a long sigh of relief.
She looked up and squinted at the glaring sunlight, already having a plan in mind.
-
There was no restaurant in the village, so everyone had to prepare the meal themselves. Second Aunt was too busy, so she asked Shuanzhu to open the door for Suman.
Seeing Su Man holding the wine barrel, Shuanzhu took it and said, "Let me take it."
"OK."
Shuanzhu picked them up and looked at them. One barrel contained clear white wine, while the other had a hint of red. He asked curiously, "Why aren't they the same color?"
"Oh, the other barrel is the fruit wine I brewed. We didn't have enough white wine, so I took this one along."
Shuanzhu didn't think much about it and put down his hand, saying, "It's not that great. I can't usually get any wine to drink. Every time I hold a banquet, I need dozens of kilograms of wine. What you brought can save a lot of money."
Su Man smiled meaningfully. "I'm glad you can help. But there's only one barrel of fruit wine. Let's give it to them at the end. Otherwise, people will accuse us of using our own wine to fool people."
"Yeah, my mom also said, don't tell them we use homemade wine, so they won't gossip."
"That's exactly the point."
As we were talking, we arrived at Second Aunt's house. As soon as we entered the yard, we smelled the fragrance of food.
Second Aunt had two pots set up, one for stewing and the other for frying. Seeing Su Man, she hurriedly called out, "Quick, Xiao Man, turn the pot over for me, don't let it get burnt."
"Why."
Suman took the spatula and quickly got busy.
The two of them worked for a whole morning and packed all the vegetables into buckets.
Second Uncle and Shuanzhu set up the tables and borrowed stools from the neighbors, and they barely made up the number.
There was a reason why Second Uncle worked so hard. The old man of the Li family had passed away long ago, and the eldest brother's family had been taken away by their children. He was the remaining pillar of the family. Fourth Uncle had no children, so once he received the gift money, it would all be his.
Because of this, Second Uncle worked very hard to entertain the guests. Soon the yard was full, with young women sitting on benches eating with their bowls in hand, and the gentlemen drinking at the table.
"Come, eat and drink more."
Li Laoer walked among the crowd with a bowl of wine in his hand, and soon the barrel of wine was empty.
Su Man, who was helping to add rice and serve dishes, swept her eyes around the crowd and fixed her gaze on Xiao Feng, who was standing alone in the corner.
Unlike those women, she did not fill her bag with melon seeds and candies, nor did she rush to eat the food. She stared straight in her direction, as if she seemed to be hesitant to speak.
Su Man knew that she had something to say to her, so after she finished adding food to the last person's meal, she walked over with her bowl.
"Sister-in-law Xiaofeng, please eat."
"I'm not hungry, I..."
Xiao Feng was about to say something, but Su Man stopped her with a look, "Eat quickly."
The people around them glanced at them and then turned back to chat.
Xiaofeng could only take the bowl first. When she raised her hand, Su Man saw the large bruises on the back of her hand and arm, as well as scabby bloodstains. Su Man's pupils shrank slightly.
Suddenly, Second Aunt's voice rang out, "Xiao Man, go to the kitchen and take out the rice from the pot."
"Hey, here I come."
Su Man agreed and said to Xiao Feng with a smile, "That rice bucket is heavy, sister-in-law Xiao Feng, please help me."
Xiao Feng reacted, put down the bowl and said hurriedly, "Okay, okay."
Just like that, the two of them entered the kitchen one after the other.
As soon as the door was closed, Xiao Feng grabbed Su Man's arm and said, "A Di is going to be sold somewhere else. I'm going to save A Di today."
Su Man frowned. "Didn't you say that A-Di had been sent to Liujia Village?"
Xiao Feng's eyes were red. "The family who bought A-Di came yesterday and said she was refusing to eat or drink and was making a fuss. She was also trying to run away. They wanted us to return the money. That bastard Zhao Laoliu refused to give in. The family threatened to sell A-Di to human traffickers."
This is also the reason why Xiaofeng couldn't come yesterday. She was beaten by Zhao Laoliu and couldn't get up because she held that family back and wouldn't let them leave.
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