Inside the house, Su Xingran clenched her fists and endured it all. She couldn't go out yet; she had to wait until all those shameless people had arrived before she could tear off Su Wenli's mask.
The noise outside grew louder and louder; someone had gone to the fields to call Su's father back. "Second brother, your family has gone too far! If you don't hand over that hundred yuan today, your eldest brother won't let you off the hook!" Su's sister-in-law said fiercely to Su's father.
Su's father tried to reason with his sister-in-law, saying, "Sister-in-law, where would we get a hundred yuan? The little money we have left has all been used to treat Ranran's injury. We're all family, why make things difficult for us? The most people in the village give to those who help are eggs and brown sugar."
When Sister-in-law Su heard what her father said, she exploded. "Hmph, Second Brother, let me tell you, I don't care how other families behave, but this is how things are in my family. Don't even think about giving me less than one hundred yuan. Otherwise, if your Su Xingran had died from the fall and my Wenli hadn't saved her, you wouldn't have had to pay this one hundred yuan."
Hearing his sister-in-law speak of his daughter like that, Mr. Su clenched his fists, his face turning red with anger. "Sister-in-law, you've gone too far! You're Ranran's aunt, how can you speak of Ranran like that?" Mrs. Su also blushed with anger and glared at her sister-in-law.
Sister-in-law Su shouted at the top of her lungs, "Brother Su, your wife is about to be beaten! Aren't you coming out?" "Who dares to hit my wife?" Brother Su, arriving late, shouted as he walked. "His father is your second brother, and he and his wife want to beat me!" "Second brother, you're wrong! As the saying goes, an elder sister-in-law is like a mother. How dare you and your sister-in-law treat your elder sister-in-law like this?" Brother Su feigned a righteous indignation.
"Big brother, we didn't mean to hit sister-in-law. It was she who insisted we give her 100 yuan as a thank-you gift for Wenli saving Ranran. We don't have any money; we can't afford 100 yuan. Second brother, you should have a conscience. Wenli saved your Xingran, which is like giving her a life. 100 yuan is not enough to buy a life; you shouldn't pay that. It's already too little." The eldest brother, Su, said these hypocritically, his eyes narrowed.
Su Xingran felt like vomiting. No wonder he was Su Wenli's father; Su Wenli probably learned from her shamelessness, surpassing even her father. Soon, those two old geezers would be on stage. Just then, a shout came from outside.
"Second brother, what are you doing making a fool of yourself here? You've made such a big fuss over such a small matter," said Su Xingran's grandfather, Old Man Su. This is the difference: he didn't even ask what happened before labeling Su's father. "Second brother, you ungrateful wretch, hurry up and do what your eldest brother says! Honestly, Wenli saved your family's good-for-nothing; that's a huge favor!" Old Woman Su's shrill, grating voice stood out in this farce.
"Second Uncle and Second Aunt, Xingran has woken up, hasn't she? When I found her that day, she was lying there bleeding a lot. I was so scared. There was no one else around. I couldn't just watch Xingran get hurt, so I carried her on my back and slowly walked to a safe place. Then I found someone to help. That day was really scary and tiring, but thankfully I managed to save Xingran." This innocent and naive statement came from my cousin, Su Wenli.
"Heh," Su Xingran sneered. Everyone's here; how could this show be without her, the main character? It all boils down to her being saved by Su Wenli, right? It's time for her to take the stage. Su Xingran pressed her hand against the wound on her head, letting the blood flow and soak into the gauze she'd changed that morning. She took a pill from her spatial storage and swallowed it. This pill was from a mission she did in the small world. Back then, she had to play a princess on the verge of death—in reality, the princess wasn't sick but feigning illness. A highly skilled physician had concocted a pill to weaken her. She'd packed a few boxes into her spatial storage then, just in case she needed it for a mission.
Outside, Mr. and Mrs. Su were cornered by their parents and their eldest brother's family, with some gossipy and sarcastic old women joining in the commotion. Mr. Su felt a pang of sorrow. His parents, elder brother, and sister-in-law were pushing him to his death. He felt he had done his best as a son and brother, only to find himself nothing more than a slave to be endlessly exploited. Thinking of this, the once-straight-backed man's eyes instantly reddened, and his back bent.
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