The group was led by a plump, white-skinned woman dressed in patched clothes. She was accompanied by several women and daughters-in-law, and behind her were several young men.
The important thing is that those people were carrying thick wooden sticks and hemp ropes, and they looked like they were there to help.
In fact, anyone with eyes to see who was there knew they were there to cause trouble.
The plump woman started wailing as soon as she arrived at the Xie family's door: "My dear sister! Why didn't anyone tell your brother and sister-in-law before you left? Our daughter doesn't even have any family to see her off on her final journey!"
"Go to hell with your sister! Your sister died more than 30 years ago. If you want to come to my doorstep to wail, you'd better kneel down and kowtow to us ten times first."
Xie Liushan squeezed through the crowd and started cursing. It turned out that the group of people were Xie Ming's wife's original family members.
They lost him back then, and now they shamelessly come back to cause trouble and extort more than ten taels of silver from his family. Later, they even emptied his brother's family's coffers, and now they still want to blackmail him.
"You bunch of bastards! You caused my sister-in-law's death, and now you want to give her a hasty burial? Let me tell you, it's not that simple!"
“Your husband’s sister? Where did you get your husband’s sister? The severance document is still enshrined in the clan. If you want to make an entanglement, go to the court and get 20 lashes first.”
The current dynasty has regulations stipulating that anyone who falsely claims to have adopted a descendant will be punished with 20 strokes of the cane and a fine of 50 taels of silver. This was a considerable deterrent to ordinary people from humble backgrounds.
"Oh dear, this is outrageous! My poor sister-in-law, she's dead and we can't even get justice! Heaven, why don't you show some mercy and let your sister-in-law open her eyes and see these heartless people? Heaven! Please send down some lightning!"
Upon hearing that they were to go to court, the woman simply sat down on the ground and started acting like a spoiled brat. The women who had come with her also started crying and making a scene!
A man dressed in coarse linen clothes with a hemp rope tied around his waist stepped forward and said loudly, "Mother! My aunt isn't without relatives either. Today, I'll bring my brothers to take her home!"
After saying that, he pretended to go into the yard to snatch his "aunt".
"You can take her away, but once you take her away, this woman can forget about any incense offerings or sacrifices."
Xie Ming stepped forward; he knew all too well the newcomers' purpose. They were thinking he would be concerned about the reputation of the woman's children, so they could extort money from him.
"You said it, haha! Just you wait!"
The man seemed to have received some good news, and he called to his brothers to come inside and carry the coffin. The younger generation of Xie's siblings naturally refused.
Ultimately, it's the older generation in the family who are responsible. Even if they did something wrong, their debts are forgiven once they die.
"Don't stop her. She's already secretly established connections and probably already dislikes the Xie family. Now let her get her wish and go home."
With a sorrowful look in his eyes and a trembling body, Xie Ming roared loudly. Several children and nephews knelt down in front of him and begged him to relent.
The newcomer was surprised by Xie Ming's reaction. The woman on the ground quickly guessed that her sister-in-law's act of sending money to her family had been exposed.
But it's no use saying anything now. Once the money is in her pocket, do you expect them to spit it out?
What sweet dreams are you having!
Besides, who even saw those things? There wasn't even a written agreement, so they weren't afraid at all.
Now that her sister-in-law is gone, if she doesn't seize this opportunity to take advantage of the Xie family, she'll never have another chance.
Don't say the Xie family is broke; they still have two well-bred, fair-skinned young ladies standing there.
The landlords in town spend tens or hundreds of taels of silver a year to find concubines. Once the two girls are sent over and the marriage is successful, the money will be there.
Having made up her mind, the woman stood up, patted the mud off her clothes, and said, "Lift it! My sister-in-law has suffered for decades; she must be able to leave this final stretch of the road in peace!"
At her shout, all the people who had come rushed into the Xie family's courtyard. They untied the hemp ropes from their shoulders and tied rings and wooden sticks to the coffin. All their movements were so fluid and seamless, as if they had practiced it several times.
Well, everyone understood. No wonder no one came yesterday; they must have practiced dozens of times in the village.
The Xie clan refused. They had heard of kidnapping brides, but never of kidnapping corpses. This was putting their faces on the ground and trampling on them!
Immediately, dozens of young men tried to surround and stop him.
Xie Ming knew that things would get out of hand if he continued to make trouble, so he simply rolled his eyes back and fainted, instantly turning the scene into chaos once again.
Xie Liushan was the smartest in the family. He quickly figured out Xie Ming's tricks and stood up angrily, saying, "You all know what you've done. Now you've made my brother faint. What are you trying to do?"
The woman was terrified as she watched Xie Ming fall, but she quickly noticed that Xie Ming's fingers twitched slightly.
She immediately guessed that he was trying to use illness as an excuse to leave the coffin behind, haha! Luckily, she had good eyesight, otherwise she would have slept with his son's balls.
So the woman jumped in front of Xie Liushan, put her hands on her hips, and said, "What do you want? I just want you to give me justice!"
"Fine! Since you're convinced she died unjustly, then take her to court to seek justice. The Xie family must have had eight lifetimes of bad luck to have raised your daughter."
"Shanzi, you're being foolish! We can't let them take the coffin away!"
An uncle from the clan anxiously intervened to stop it.
“Uncles, the Xie family has no debt to the person lying inside! But the wife’s family has come to make trouble. If we spend money to settle things, we’ll never be able to get rid of the accusation that Xie abused his wife to death. I’d rather my brother bear the name of injustice than have a fabricated charge fall on the heads of our clan.”
The uncle squinted and thought for a moment. The newcomers were indeed shameless and scoundrels. No matter what choices they made, people would still criticize them.
Even if a letter of severance from the clan is presented to the magistrate, it still has its consequences when it comes to matters of life and death.
So the best solution is to have someone carry the coffin away first. If they really carry it out of the village, it won't be so easy for them to come back.
If Xie Ming is ruthless enough, it's not certain who will suffer in the end.
The uncle instantly understood the intentions of the people from Pianshan Village. It turned out that the Xie family had become arrogant after enduring the humiliation they had suffered in previous years, and now they were bullying people like cowards.
"Everyone, disperse and let them go!"
When the uncle spoke up, the young men surrounding them all made way.
The woman was still hesitating when she instinctively looked at Xie Ming, who was being helped to the side and whose eyelids were starting to twitch, and immediately shouted, "Let's go!"
The men quickly carried the coffin and swayed as they left the Xie family home, heading straight for Pianshan Village, 20 miles away.
Xie Xing woke up in a daze and felt someone shaking her. She tried to raise her hand but it was too weak to move, and her legs were too weak to lift at all.
She tried to call for her eldest daughter-in-law to help her up, but no sound came out.
Fear welled up inside her, and she strained to open her eyes, but found herself surrounded by darkness with only a few glimmers of light. In her dazed state, she couldn't see her surroundings at all.
What's wrong with her?
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