Seeing that her most beloved grandson, Li Shiniu, had remained silent while Li Tieniu spoke, Granny Cao perked up and said with squinting eyes:
"Tie Niu! I'm not trying to be mean, but we're family, how can you side with outsiders?"
They can even cheat people out of medicinal herbs, so they might even renege on your wages. Don't you have a brain?
You and your father are just too honest; you can't tell the difference between good and bad people. How could you take their side?
She just didn't like the eldest son's family. They earned their wages and became arrogant, not handing them all over to the public treasury, but secretly pocketing some of it.
Unlike the second son's family, who are obedient and sweet-talking, they never make her angry.
"I can tell right from wrong!" Li Tieniu retorted without hesitation, then turned to Chen An and Cheng Yue, his face filled with shame and indignation, "Brother Chen An, I trust your character! It's just that things have come to this, I'm too ashamed to continue working here..."
Cheng Yue raised her hand to interrupt, "We'll talk about this later, you guys go get to work!"
She wasn't stupid; she could see what Li Shiniu and Granny Cao were up to, and she wasn't about to implicate Li Tieniu because of this.
Seeing that Cheng Yue and Chen An had no expression, Li Tieniu could only nod and nervously follow the others to the new house.
We need to resolve the issue of medicinal herbs first, and then deal with the rest!
Granny Sun sneered with a crooked mouth, "If you're not going to talk about that, then you two should tell me how you're going to compensate everyone!"
Before Cheng Yue could speak, Aunt Li stepped forward, pointed at Granny Sun's nose, and began to berate her:
"Damn it! Granny Sun, you have no humanity! If you think medicinal herbs can't be sold for money, then don't go picking them! Why did you knock down the unripe goji berries!"
You shameless old bastard, you only do despicable and shameless things! What right do you have to ask for compensation? If you're going to compensate us, it'll be you giving us back the goji berries!
Cheng Yue and Chen An exchanged a glance. If she wasn't going to pick them, she wasn't going to; instead, she was going to ruin the goji berries. This was a serious matter, and even the village head and the villagers wouldn't forgive her. This person was truly incredibly stupid...
Granny Sun's eyes darted around, but she still stubbornly insisted, "Bullshit! Which eye of yours saw me do it?"
"You selfish and harmful old beast, do you think everyone is blind! You came to cause trouble yesterday, and before you got anything, you went to show off to Shuanzi. Did you go up the mountain near dusk?"
Xiao Bai and the others are right up on the mountain, don't try to deny it! A whole bunch of kids saw it!
Xiao Bai and the others didn't come up to do woodwork yesterday; they all went up the mountain to collect medicinal herbs. They happened to see Granny Sun using a stick to knock down goji berries.
However, being a group of children on a mountain, they dared not make a sound, fearing that Granny Sun would go mad and hurt them. They had no choice but to run home and tell the adults.
The village headman found out that night, but it was already late, and Cheng Yue and the others hadn't gone home yet. Knowing that Granny Sun and her gang would definitely cause trouble again, he decided to deal with it together.
Granny Sun stammered in rebuttal, "I didn't! What truth could a bunch of brats possibly have? Everyone knows you're learning carpentry from Chen An, and we can't afford to offend you. No wonder we're siding with them!"
"It was you! We saw it with our own eyes! You're supposed to be an elder, yet you have less shame than us kids!"
"You brat who hasn't even grown his first hair yet! Who taught you to talk to your elders like that? I'll smash your mouth in!"
Grandma Sun didn't think much of what Aunt Li said, but being scolded by the children was a disgrace. So she immediately raised her arm to call for help.
"Stop!" the village headman shouted sternly. Granny Sun immediately froze, then awkwardly lowered her arm, which had been raised in mid-air, and stammered, "Village headman, I..."
The village head frowned impatiently. "Shut up! You're not allowed to go up the mountain again, and your family isn't allowed to take a single blade of grass or tree from it!"
He didn't want to talk to her about compensation or anything like that. There was no need to say too much to this kind of unreasonable and wicked woman who was harming everyone's interests. It would only make things worse and prevent her from nagging on and on!
He had previously told everyone that anyone who damaged the medicinal herbs would not be allowed to go up the mountain again, but Granny Sun only knew how to make mistakes!
If that's the case, then let's not go up the mountain!
Granny Sun trembled. "Village head, how can this be? Where will we get firewood if we don't go up the mountain? How are we supposed to cook without firewood?"
The village head glanced at her sideways and said, "You have so many ideas, you've got plenty of ways to solve them."
"When you were damaging the goji berries, you didn't consider your firewood, but now that you're not allowed to go up the mountain, you suddenly think about firewood?"
"Serves you right! You shouldn't have been allowed to go up the mountain. Who knows what kind of wicked things you'll do next!"
"You were the most enthusiastic about selling medicinal herbs back then, but now that you think you can't make money, you've harvested all the goji berries on the mountain? What kind of nonsense is that!"
Granny Sun was on the verge of tears. "Village head, you're favoring that couple! And you're all blind!"
They were the ones lying, and I didn't want anyone to be deceived, so I removed the goji berries. I was doing it for everyone's benefit!
The village headman closed his eyes in anger, wishing he could pinch her philtrum. If it weren't for his position as village headman, he would have liked to smash Granny Sun's head open with a stone to see if it was filled with excrement!
"What did they lie about? What did everyone lose? What did you lose? All they say is that they lied!"
When you were told that selling medicinal herbs would be profitable, you were all very enthusiastic and rushed in thinking it was a good thing. Now that you feel you can't make money, you say that people are lying to you.
"You're never satisfied with just taking advantage! Do you think you're not being cheated unless every good thing falls into your lap? Do you really think people owe you anything?!"
Granny Sun opened her mouth but couldn't speak, and Granny Cao and the others also fell silent. The village head was so biased towards Cheng Yue, they wondered what benefits he had gained!
Feng patted the village head's back to calm her down, and glared angrily at Granny Sun. She was a real scoundrel!
Seeing that everyone remained silent like quails, Cheng Yue continued, "Do you still want compensation?"
The village head and the others were puzzled. This matter had already passed, so why was Cheng Yue bringing up the issue of compensation again?
Granny Sun and Granny Cao's eyes lit up. "Why shouldn't we want it?"
Cheng Yue then asked the villagers who came up with Granny Sun, "And you?"
The group looked at each other and said, "We don't want compensation, but we'll stop harvesting the medicinal herbs for now."
The matter has been made clear; what right do they have to demand compensation? Cheng Yue doesn't owe them anything.
Besides, they didn't come here to ask for compensation; they just wanted a definite answer. If Cheng Yue didn't say anything, they would simply stop the investigation for now!
Why don't they just continue harvesting once the villagers have actually made money from selling their produce?
Cheng Yue sneered inwardly, as if they didn't know what they were up to; it was like they were throwing abacus beads at her face.
"Since you don't trust me, there's really no need to gather herbs anymore. Even if you do gather herbs in the future, I will never help you sell them again! Not just selling herbs, I will never help you with anything in the future!"
Then he added, "Xiao Tong, write these people down."
Everyone was dumbfounded. They only said they didn't want to collect medicinal herbs for the time being, they didn't say they wouldn't collect them in the future, so what could possibly be good news?
Does Cheng Yue mean she'll never talk to them again? She'll cut off all contact with them?
The village head nodded almost imperceptibly. He understood what Cheng Yue meant; that was exactly how it should be done!
Helping someone who's a fence-sitter and has no brains is a waste of time!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com