Liu Chunse retorted, "Then when you arrived at the Xu family home in the middle of the night, my fiancé saw that you hadn't come in and chased after you. You two are clearly having an affair."
Xiaoyue was speechless. "I was building a house and wanted him to find me someone who could build it."
“Old Master Xu is getting old, so Xu Fanyuan takes the lead in many things. There’s no man in my family. If I don’t go out and find someone, will the house be built?” Xiaoyue shouted angrily.
Liu Chunse said angrily, "Did you mean to come find Old Man Xu today? Why don't you come yourself? Why do you have to make Xu Fan go all the way to find you? And you still say there's no affair."
Xiaoyue glanced at the county magistrate sitting in the hall, then turned to look at the bailiffs on both sides, thinking to herself, "How can there be such unreasonable people?" She sighed and said:
“He never goes to my house alone; he always takes Gao Lei with him. When we go inside to check on the house, Gao Lei always comes with me. He knows how to avoid suspicion in this regard.”
Liu Chunse was speechless, and then she heard the county magistrate begin to pronounce the sentence:
Hu Da, Daoba Er, Sanyu, and Sihu were each sentenced to four years in prison and ordered to pay compensation to their employer for the losses. Liu Chunse was sentenced to eight years.
...
Liang Qi had been waiting for Xiaoyue outside the county magistrate's mansion. When he saw Xiaoyue come out, he went to greet her. Finding that Xiaoyue hadn't changed, he was relieved. So the two of them took a carriage back to Niukou Village.
Meanwhile, Lu Xiaomei has fully recovered and is harvesting hemp leaves by herself in the hemp field. She has to harvest all the leaves of the hemp, then peel off the outer leaves, and then remove the outer green skin from each hemp stalk one by one.
Lu Xiaomei simply knocked off the leaves of the ramie plants in the wasteland.
Xiaoyue rode the oxcart to the village entrance, and Liang Qi returned home. Xiaoyue went straight to her house, and at the door, she spotted a person whose figure looked a lot like Ge Sanlin.
Xiaoyue took a few more steps and realized that it really was Ge Sanlin.
Xiaoyue sighed, "Give me back my indenture." Ge Sanlin said, "I've heard about your situation."
Xiaoyue rolled her eyes. "I heard about it? Heard about what? Didn't I tell you what despicable things they did to harm me?"
Ge Sanlin raised his hand as if to pat Xiaoyue on the shoulder, but Xiaoyue took a step back and said, "Give me back my indenture."
“One hundred taels of silver,” Ge Sanlin said.
Xiaoyue pulled out an IOU from her bosom. "Take a look at this. Shouldn't we deduct this amount from the total?"
Ge Sanlin snatched the IOU from Xiaoyue's hand, tore it up without even looking at it, and said, "Now there's nothing left."
Xiaoyue glared at Ge Sanlin and chuckled twice. "Just as I expected. Alright, let's go to Village Chief Xu's house together. He happens to have the IOU that I signed with Aunt Ge there."
After saying that, Xiaoyue led the way to Village Chief Xu's house. Xiaoyue knocked on the door of the village chief's house. The village chief looked very unwell, and Xu Fanyuan had also lost a lot of weight. He hung his head and received the two of them in a lifeless manner.
Xiaoyue deliberately walked behind and softly said to Xu Fanyuan, "I'm sorry."
Xu Fanyuan shook his head and said with a wry smile, "Fortunately, I found out early. I was at the county government office that day and heard what she said. Luckily, I found out early, otherwise, if she hadn't been at my house, she probably would have been a troublemaker too."
Xiaoyue and Ge Sanlin went into Village Chief Xu's house. Village Chief Xu took out both IOUs. When Ge Sanlin saw that Village Chief Xu really had the IOUs, he gave a sly smile.
He said, seemingly understanding, "Then give me another eighty-six taels of silver, as it says above."
Xiaoyue looked at Ge Sanlin and said, "Let's hand over all the things to the village chief together. Once we've handed them over, we'll be even."
Then they counted out the silver and handed it to Village Chief Xu.
Having no other choice, Ge Sanlin also took out his indenture and handed it to the village chief.
After checking the money, Village Chief Xu returned the indenture to Xiaoyue. Xiaoyue took the indenture and asked, "Did you write a divorce agreement for Third Sister-in-law?"
Ge Sanlin glanced awkwardly at Village Chief Xu and Xu Fanyuan, "Not yet."
Xiaoyue continued, "Since we haven't left the village chief's house yet, let's calculate Third Sister-in-law's medical expenses, food expenses, and Little Bean's expenses."
Ge Sanlin smiled and said, "We'll talk about this later. How can you, a girl, let your third sister-in-law and I get a divorce?"
"If I hadn't brought Third Sister-in-law home, she might have already died in your Ge family. You gave all the money to Old Madam Ge, and Third Sister-in-law still didn't have money to hire a doctor. Fine, don't bother hiring a doctor for her."
They won't even feed my third sister-in-law. She's starved for two days out of three. How can she get better?"
Ge Sanlin glanced at Village Chief Xu and said with a forced smile, "No, no, my mother is very good to my wife."
Seeing that this wouldn't work, and having already taken her indenture, Xiaoyue simply went home.
When they arrived home, Lu Xiaomei was cooking. Xiaoyue told her about Ge Sanlin's return, but he hadn't brought her the divorce papers.
After finishing her meal, Lu Xiaomei took Xiaodouding back to Old Man Ge's house to see Ge Sanlin.
Xiaoyue went to find Liang Qi and took out the indenture in her hand.
Liang Qi was also very happy. The two went up the mountain together. Lu Xiaomei had already threshed all the ramie stalks, and Xiaoyue was peeling the bark off the ramie stalks one by one.
The peeled skins were piled up.
As darkness fell, Xiaoyue carried a shoulder full of ramie bark back home. After eating some leftovers, she made a clamp, put the ramie bark inside, and pulled hard to remove the outer outer layer.
While waiting for Lu Xiaomei, Xiaoyue peeled ramie, hung the peeled ramie on the clothesline in the yard, and then put the peeled ramie into the goose pen, spreading a thin layer of it.
The cold moon had risen high in the sky, and seeing that Lu Xiaomei and her mother had not yet returned, Xiaoyue went to sleep.
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