His face fell as if he had lost his father.
The meaning of this statement is easy to understand: losing face is as serious as losing one's father.
This is enough to show how serious it is for the people of Chaozhou to lose face.
Instead of causing trouble, he was pushed by a mentally challenged idiot. Isn't that humiliating enough?
The troublemaker immediately grabbed his briefcase from under his arm and tried to smash it at Chen Manyu.
Chen Manyu dared to fight back simply because the man was about to harm Li Xunli, and in a moment of impulse, all he could think about was protecting Li Xunli.
But when he became the one to be beaten, all he could think of was his grandmother's admonition not to cause trouble. He quickly put his hands on his head and squatted down.
Li Xunli quickly bent down and pulled the person up, holding them tightly in her arms, her face tense as she glared at the troublemaking man.
When the villagers who had come to watch the commotion saw that the man really wanted to fight, those who were nearby immediately rushed forward and grabbed his arm, shouting, "Li Bo! Let's talk this out! Why are you fighting with your fellow villagers!"
Those who lived far away immediately went to the ancestral hall to invite the elders over upon receiving the news.
Those who can live in the same village are basically relatives from the same ancestral hall. Even if the blood ties are very distant, they still have roots in the ancestral hall.
Li Xunjin also stepped forward, joining Wu Jingyuan in blocking Li Xunli and the others.
Shen Qingqing arrived at this time and mingled in the crowd to hear most of what had happened.
After examining her mother and finding no signs of injury, she felt a slight sense of relief.
The troublemaker, named Li Bo, was stopped by villagers a few times and then let go, but he still wouldn't let it go, shouting, "You're making money off my mother without paying compensation, aren't you ashamed?"
"Are you so protective of this orphan boy, practically begging to be his mother?"
"Knowing you'd protect someone else's mother, how could you have the nerve to hurt her!"
Li Xunli originally didn't want to reveal what the old lady had said that day. But she remembered that the old lady had choked up at the end of the conversation, begging her to keep it a secret and saying she didn't want her family's dirty laundry to be aired in public. Li Xunli was always soft-hearted and couldn't bear to see the elderly and children suffer.
But now that Li Bo is making such a shameless scene, why should she, an unrelated person, give face to such a scoundrel?
Seeing that the elders had all arrived, Li Xunli opened her mouth wide and began to speak.
"Feeling guilty? Why don't you say you felt guilty when your mother was so angered by your new mistress that she left home and cried while hugging your father's portrait in the old house?"
"You still have the nerve to ask me why I'm protecting Manyu? Because I'm a person! I'm a member of the Li Clan Ancestral Hall! Manyu's mother is also a member of the Li Clan Ancestral Hall! We're all from the same clan. The child lost his parents when he was young. Is it wrong for me to take care of him? He calls me 'Auntie,' so why doesn't he call you 'Uncle'?"
"You think I harmed your mother? Don't you know who harmed your mother? Do you really think nobody knows about your family's mess? Your first wife served you hand and foot, and after making a little money, you brought home a mistress and kicked her out. Now that mistress has driven your mother away and caused her to be hospitalized, you're acting like a dutiful son again?"
"How dare you act like a filial son? You irresponsible good-for-nothing! Your mother raised you all these years, and now that she's old, she's still being driven to despair by your mistress, with no one left to talk to but cry while holding your father's portrait. I don't believe your father won't come looking for you when you go to bed tonight!"
Li Bo made his fortune in his early years by reselling mobile phones. Later, he moved out of Lijia Village and bought an apartment in a neighboring town. Now, many people in the village know that his business has expanded to Southeast Asia.
However, not everyone can afford to buy an apartment in a residential complex in the next town, so naturally, people don't know much about what happened to their family afterward.
It wasn't until the beginning of last year when Li Bo's wife suddenly came back and said they were getting a divorce that everyone learned about some things in their family, but not much.
After all, these days, divorce is still a pretty shameful thing for women, especially women in Chaozhou.
Li Bo's wife, or rather his ex-wife now, is not willing to say much. She didn't stay at home for long before going out to work.
With the person in the spotlight gone, the gossip naturally fades away.
No one expected to uncover such a huge scandal from Li Xunli.
But no one said that Li Bo was wrong to marry a mistress.
"Li Bo, this is wrong of you. Everyone has seen how hard your mother has worked all these years. How can you treat her like this after you marry a wife?"
"Yeah, Huili was so good to your mother before, if you're going to marry a mistress, you should at least marry someone similar to Huili!"
“Your parents are from the same clan as us. The elders from the same clan hall are here now. What were you thinking, letting your mother come to the old house crying while holding your father’s portrait? How could you face your father?”
"And Xunli is right! They're all from the same clan, what's wrong with her taking care of Xiaofen's child? When Liqun and Xiaofen were together, everyone treated each other like brothers. Now that they've left behind only Manyu, you've gone and started hitting someone else's child?"
"..."
The criticism and disapproval from those around him made Li Bo feel even more ashamed, and his face turned bright red.
“That’s my family’s business! It’s none of her business to interfere! She keeps talking about the Li family ancestral hall, but she’s already married out of the family! If it weren’t for the dust from your porcelain firing that gave my mother lung disease, she could have lived in the old house her whole life and she would have been fine!”
As soon as he said this, the faces of the elders darkened.
It's not that Li Bo's accusation that Li Xunli is no longer a member of the Li clan ancestral hall because she got married is wrong, but rather that Li Bo said he would let his mother live in the old house for the rest of her life.
It's one thing if the elderly don't want to leave, but as a younger generation, it's your duty to support your elders. Now, marrying a shady mistress and making your mother angry so much that she went back to her old home is a way of ruining your own karma!
"Is that human language you're talking about! What do you mean by 'it's okay for your mother to live in the old house for the rest of her life'?!" The elder Zong, who was in charge, walked out from behind Li Bo and loudly reprimanded him.
"Without your mother, would you exist? Would you be making so much money and living in this neighborhood now?"
"You speak without thinking! You were born with a brain just to be kicked around like a ball!"
People in Chaozhou value the inheritance of ancestral halls, believing that one should return to one's roots. The elders who are in charge of the ancestral halls are respected by the entire ancestral hall community.
Even those ignorant and unruly fools would have to greet the elders who came out of the ancestral hall respectfully.
Li Bo, who had initially dared to be arrogant, was scolded like a quail as soon as Elder Zong arrived.
Seeing his expression, Li Xunli sneered, "I think you have money to marry a mistress but not money to support your mother. You can't be a good person, you have to be a ghost!"
"I'll pay you back, but you have to produce the diagnosis report. We'll go to the doctor to get a certificate proving that it was the dust from firing porcelain that caused your mother's illness, and then I'll pay you back in full!"
"If that's not the case, then bring your mistress to your mother and apologize to us!"
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