As soon as Liu Guiyun finished her meal, she set down her bowl and chopsticks, and stormed off with Xie Qingtao to the Liu family’s house to settle the score.
The moment Xie Qingtao and Liu Guiyun arrived at the Liu residence, they heard a commotion of chickens flying and dogs barking inside. Xie Qingtao grabbed Liu Guiyun’s hand and raised an eyebrow, signaling her to listen.
“Ahh… Mom, Dad, stop hitting me, please stop…”
Liu Yunyun’s wailing was not noise to Xie Qingtao’s ears but heavenly music.
Mother Liu’s slightly aged yet harsh voice echoed alongside the sound of bamboo strips striking flesh.
“I told you not to stir up trouble! I told you! Letting you study through high school was already an act of mercy from me, and yet you still cause trouble at school!”
“Wife, tomorrow morning, go and make arrangements…”
Father Liu waited until Mother Liu had finished beating Liu Yunyun, then looked at the bruised and battered girl on the floor and spoke in a low, cold voice.
After gulping down the thick porridge from his bowl, Liu Yaozu urged anxiously:
“Dad, hurry up! My girlfriend said she wants three hundred yuan in betrothal gifts and the ‘three turns and one sound.’”
Mother Liu clapped her hands and decisively sealed Liu Yunyun’s fate.
“Fine! She can’t get into university anyway.”
Upon hearing this, Liu Yunyun’s face turned ashen.
Liu Guiyun felt it was about time. Placing her hands on her hips, she shouted loudly:
“Xiao Lianhua, come out right now! Don’t hide in your turtle shell! Your daughter bullied my Taotao. Come out and apologize and compensate us!”
Hearing this, Mother Liu was terrified, pacing back and forth inside the house like an ant on a hot pan.
Father Liu frowned deeply, even stopping his meal, his gaze fixed on Liu Yunyun with a sinister glare.
Upon hearing Liu Guiyun’s voice, Liu Yunyun trembled slightly. A line of blood-red text appeared on the System interface in her mind:
〈Mission failed. Electric shock for ten minutes.〉
Liu Yaozu was the first to react, rushing into his room and hiding like an ostrich.
Liu Guiyun deliberately kept her voice loud, ensuring that not only the Liu family but also others nearby could hear her clearly.
Sure enough, before long, people began gathering in the courtyard next to the Liu residence.
Xie Qingtao tightly clutched a handkerchief and held it under her eyes, immediately causing tears to stream down her face from the irritation.
Her eyes were red, her face bore the fragile look of someone who had been bullied, and her tear-streaked appearance was heartbreaking.
Some busybodies craned their necks and shouted:
“Liu family, hurry up and come out! Don’t hide! Look how pitiful this young girl is!”
Father Liu gave Mother Liu a meaningful look.
Mother Liu had no choice but to brace herself and go outside.
Seeing Mother Liu dawdling out, Liu Guiyun raised an eyebrow and sneered sarcastically:
“Oh! The noble lady of our courtyard has finally deigned to come out! I was wondering if I’d have to go in and bow to you before you’d show your face!”
Liu Guiyun’s words pinned Mother Liu to the pillar of shame as a feudalistic remnant of the aristocracy.
In this era, that was a taboo.
The expressions of the onlookers gradually turned hostile.
It was as if Mother Liu were a lingering evil that New China had yet to eradicate.
Mother Liu’s face changed drastically, and she quickly waved her hands, saying:
“I’m not! My ancestors for three generations were poor peasants! Liu Guiyun, don’t you frame me!
And my daughter never bullied your daughter! You’ve got the wrong person!”
After speaking, Mother Liu put on a helpless and innocent expression, on the verge of tears.
It made Liu Guiyun seem like an utterly wicked villain.
Some who were inclined to sympathize with the “weaker sex” couldn’t stand it anymore and stepped forward, saying:
“Xie family, let’s talk this out properly. Why pin such a big label on someone?”
The speaker was Zhao Dazhu, a worker at the machinery factory in his thirties, extremely ugly in appearance and still unable to find a wife.
Liu Guiyun raised her eyebrows fiercely and said:
“What? So protective of the fairer sex, could it be that you and her…”
Liu Guiyun’s eyes darted back and forth between Mother Liu and Zhao Dazhu.
Anyone with eyes could guess the unspoken meaning in Liu Guiyun’s words.
The crowd looked at the two with teasing eyes.
Those who had just been about to speak up silently took a step back, lowering their heads.
Mother Liu exploded, sitting on the ground wailing and crying:
“Liu Guiyun, you have such a cruel heart, throwing dirty water on me! Oh heavens! Is there no justice left? I can’t live with this! Being wronged like this.”
“Oh my! Now you know the bitterness of being wronged! Why didn’t you say a word when your daughter wronged my Taotao?”
Liu Guiyun stood there, looking down with contempt, her tone sarcastic.
Mother Liu’s eyes shifted, and she continued crying and shouting:
“Liu Guiyun, how can you wrong my Yunyun without any evidence? You should know my Yunyun is the kindest person, how could she bully your daughter?”
Mother Liu stubbornly refused to admit what Liu Yunyun had done at school.
Once Liu Yunyun’s actions spread throughout the compound, their family’s reputation would be ruined.
Xie Qingtao timidly tugged at Liu Guiyun’s sleeve, excitement hidden in her eyes, and whispered:
“Mom, I know Yunyun is a good person, but… how could she forge my handwriting to cheat?
Should I just let her bully me, deserve to be enslaved by her…”
Xie Qingtao looked deeply wronged on the surface, but her mind was filled with a different scene.
[Host, that Zhao Dazhu just now has some thoughts about Mother Liu!]
[What? Tell me more.]
[Zhao Dazhu has childhood trauma because his mother abandoned him when he was young, giving him a mother complex.
And Mother Liu appears to be a virtuous housewife on the surface, but she’s actually a white lotus sea queen.
By chance, Mother Liu encountered Zhao Dazhu after a failed blind date. Out of her habit of casting a wide net, she comforted Zhao Dazhu a few words, and ever since then, Zhao Dazhu has been obsessively infatuated with her.]
[What?]
Xie Qingtao couldn’t help but widen her eyes, the sadness on her face completely vanishing.
Then, realizing her reaction, she wiped under her eyes with a handkerchief, and tears began flowing down her oval face as if a faucet had been turned on.
Liu Guiyun seized on Xie Qingtao’s words to bombard Mother Liu.
“Xiao Lianhua, I’m telling you, this isn’t over. The school has already punished Liu Yunyun, yet you still refuse to admit it.
Make Liu Yunyun come out and apologize, and compensate our Taotao. Our Taotao was frightened today and needs money to buy meat to calm her nerves.
If you don’t do this, we’ll go to the police station to settle this.”
Liu Guiyun spoke with conviction.
Seeing her demeanor, she didn’t seem like someone who would lie, and many people trusted her more.
With her lies exposed, Mother Liu’s crying gradually subsided.
Her face was a spectacle, turning red then green, finally settling into a livid expression.
“You… you…”
Mother Liu couldn’t utter a complete sentence for a long time.
The eyes of the people around her scrutinized Mother Liu openly, their disdain and contempt undisguised.
Liu Guiyun didn’t let her off, raising her eyes to look at the closed door of the Liu family’s house. With a contemptuous gaze and a cold smile curling at the corner of her mouth, she shouted:
“Don’t hide inside pretending to be a turtle! Come out quickly and apologize to my Taotao. Don’t think hiding inside will make this go away.”
“If you don’t come out, I’ll flip your turtle shell over.”
What a joke! If they wanted to ruin her daughter’s reputation, she’d make sure Liu Yunyun’s name was dragged through the mud first.
No sooner had the words been spoken than a clattering noise came from inside the Liu family’s room.
Immediately afterward, the tightly shut door of the Liu house slowly opened from within.