Wang Li tried to dissuade her, saying, "Lu family daughter-in-law, how can your uncles and elders treat human life so lightly? You can't say such things. Da Yun, take your wife back quickly. What kind of behavior is it for a woman to cause trouble in the ancestral hall?"
"Women are not worthy to come to the ancestral hall, but you were born of a woman, aren't you? Which of those memorial tablets in the ancestral hall didn't crawl out of a woman's womb? And now they're being held high on the altar by you. You look down on women so much, but you have half the blood of women in your veins, so why don't you look down on yourself?"
Qin Xiaozhou was furious. "If you don't want to be associated with women, then why don't you come out of your father's skin? If you're so capable, then you men should have your own children."
You were born of women and yet you look down on them? What kind of good people do you think you are? A bunch of ungrateful scoundrels. You were raised with great difficulty by women, and now that you've grown up, you turn around and oppress women, slandering them without any regard for right or wrong.
In this village, if any woman has a bad reputation, everyone's making accusations, and you've driven her to her death like this. Isn't that just treating human life like dirt?
"Just because you have a penis doesn't mean you're superior. When you're in the womb, you're just a bloodsucker. After you're born, you drink milk and grow up, but the woman who gave birth to you becomes an inferior person."
Qin Xiaozhou pointed at those people, her eyes sharp, "A bunch of ingrates."
"Go, go now!" Wang Li's face flushed red. How could there be such a shameless woman? "Get out of our Wang family ancestral hall."
Qin Xiaozhou raised her chin high and looked at these people with disdain. "Do you think your ancestral hall is some kind of palace or skyscraper? I don't even want to be here. It'll just drain my yang energy."
"Let me make this clear: if my mother-in-law doesn't wake up safely, Wang Shugen can forget about living."
Lu Yunfeng bent down and carried her on his back, and the couple walked towards the Lu family's residence to the west.
The sky was pitch black, and Lu Yunfeng's steps were steady. "You've worked hard today."
Women always suffer when they're with men. If Qin Xiaozhou hadn't implied the robbery with the hairband, people would have subconsciously assumed that Zhao Fang was the one who was promiscuous, regardless of whether she had seduced anyone or not.
Qin Xiaozhou patted his shoulder, "Do you think I would let outsiders bully my own family? If Wang Shugen really gets the upper hand, the Lu family will be crippled by him in the future. I don't want the empire I built to fall into the hands of others."
The two had barely entered the house when Zhao's two uncles rushed over overnight.
Before the eldest uncle could even sit down after entering the room, he asked, "The second brother came back and said that our third sister was injured? How is she now?"
Wang Lan couldn't help but wipe away her tears again, "She's still not awake, and she's lost a lot of blood. My son-in-law stitched up her wounds, and we'll see if she can make it through tonight."
The second uncle looked worried. He had finally started to live a good life, so how could this happen? "I'll go take a look, but I don't know if it's convenient?"
Wang Dahe's mother also arrived just in time, and everyone went to Zhao Fang's room in the backyard for a quick look.
Zhao Fang lay unconscious on the bed, with what looked like a giant centipede crawling on her head, which terrified everyone.
Wang Dahe's mother put down half a basket of eggs, unable to say anything more to plead for her son. She pulled Wang Lan aside, said a few words, and then hurriedly went home.
Both uncles had mud spots on their shoes and trouser legs, probably because they came as soon as they got home after hearing about what happened.
Qin Xiaozhou spoke first, "Let's go eat first. We need someone to keep watch over us tonight; we can't afford to collapse."
The eldest uncle was a little embarrassed. He had rushed over without realizing he was empty-handed, and only now, as it was time to eat, did he realize his mistake. He clutched the hem of his clothes and said, "We ate before we came."
The second uncle quickly chimed in, "Yes, yes, we ate before we came. You guys go and eat."
A meal for two strong men could feed a child for several days. Everyone in the village was struggling financially, so they wouldn't just eat at someone else's house.
Lu Yunfeng could easily see through his two uncles' intentions, and pulled them into the kitchen to eat.
There wasn't enough rice, so Granny Guo quickly scooped out a large bowl of flour, kneaded it, and steamed buns. Halfway through the meal, the buns were just cooked, and Lu Yunfeng gave each of his two uncles two buns.
The eldest uncle repeatedly declined, but Lu Yunfeng insisted that they finish eating.
After dinner, the two uncles chopped firewood in the yard, chopping half of the firewood in the woodshed, enough for the Lu family to last three months.
Li Changpu was brewing medicine in the courtyard.
Qin Jinxiu took Lu Xiaosi to bed, and Wang Lan only came to see Zhao Fang after coaxing Shi Tou to sleep. She pulled Li Changpu aside and asked her all sorts of questions, "Why isn't she awake yet? She lost too much blood, what should she eat to replenish it? Oh, she has a fever, what should we do?"
The medicine had just cooled to a warm temperature, and Li Changpu was also anxious. "Give the medicine first and see if the fever will go down."
Zhao Fang showed no signs of waking up, and she couldn't get the medicine down her throat. Wang Lan was so anxious that she paced around in circles, leaning on her cane. "Dayun, go and cut a bamboo pole."
Lu Yunfeng quickly cut a bamboo stalk about the thickness of a thumb, smoothed one end, inserted it into the base of Zhao Fang's tongue, and slowly poured the medicine in using a funnel.
Most of the medicine spilled out of the bowl, and Li Changpu continued to brew more.
Wang Lan sat on the edge of the bed, wiped Zhao Fang's neck and face clean, held her hand and chattered on and on, talking about Xiao Si and Brother Lu Yunxing, and finally started wiping away tears. After talking about everyone in the family, she talked about the chickens, ducks and rabbits in the backyard.
“Daughter-in-law, we’ve finally gotten back to a good life. Little Si is still so young, you can’t just abandon him. And your two older brothers are here too. Your father is waiting at home for them to come back and tell us.”
Your father is old and can't take this shock. You should wake up soon. That bastard Wang Shugen is locked up in the ancestral hall right now.
Don't worry, Da Yun and Xiao Zhou aren't pushovers. They'll fight for you. Just focus on waking up. Leave the rest to the children. If all else fails, I'll risk my old bones to stand up for you and make sure you don't suffer any injustice.
Lu Yunfeng brought in water. "Grandma, have some water. Don't worry, I won't let you suffer any injustice."
By the time midnight approached, Wang Lan couldn't stay awake any longer, and Qin Xiaozhou told her to go to sleep.
She protested, "Grandson, how can Grandma sleep? I won't feel at ease until my daughter-in-law wakes up."
Unable to dissuade her, he could only let her yawn as she stood guard.
The fever that Zhao Fang had just felt subside returned in the middle of the night, this time even more fiercely. After another bowl of herbal medicine, the fever still did not subside.
Wang Lan was so anxious she couldn't sit still. Qin Xiaozhou asked Lu Yunfeng to get some wine, saying, "You guys go outside and wait first."
After everyone left and the door was closed, Qin Xiaozhou pulled open Zhao Fang's clothes and wiped her body with alcohol. The room was filled with the smell of alcohol, and she was worried that the candlelight would burn the room down.
Quickly finish wiping it off, and once the fever has subsided a bit, button up your clothes, cover yourself with the blanket, and open the door to let the alcohol evaporate.
She was so exhausted she was almost fainting. "The fever has subsided. Uncle, why don't you go in and take your mother-in-law's pulse?"
As soon as Li Changpu entered the room, he sneezed. After quickly taking his pulse, Li Changpu said that if he didn't have a fever, he could pull through.
After saying that, he collapsed to the ground, and before falling into a deep sleep, he said, "I'm drunk, I'm going to sleep..."
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