Xia Jinxiu looked angrily at Li Chunfen.
The crowd also found her words strange.
Li Chunfen hurried to smooth things over.
“No, I… your aunt is just worried about you.”
Li Chunfen had married Xia Jinxiu’s father, but Xia Jinxiu had never changed the way she addressed her. However, Li Chunfen’s three children all called him Dad.
Xia Jinxiu’s father had been a gentle and scholarly man. When villagers mentioned it, he would simply say the children could call him however they wished.
So when the villagers heard Li Chunfen refer to herself as “aunt,” they didn’t think much of it.
Usually, when Li Chunfen called herself that, she would also put on a pitiful expression.
But now she couldn’t afford to pretend to be pitiful—she came here to catch her cheating, and she hadn’t even seen the shadow of a man.
Refusing to believe it, she stepped forward.
She looked around the room up and down, left and right, not intending to let go of a single corner.
She even stuck her hand into the water bucket and stirred it a few times to make sure no one was hiding inside.
Watching Li Chunfen behave like this, Xia Jinxiu was so angry that her eyes turned red.
“Aunt Li, my grandfather and father are both gone. I have no relatives left. Don’t tell me you’re ruining my reputation on purpose!”
“I’m bathing here alone, and you barge in with a group of people.”
“And then you question me about whether I’m alone?”
“I know you want me married off as soon as possible, and once I’m gone, this house becomes yours—but you can’t slander me like this.”
Li Chunfen did have such thoughts, but she never showed them. Suddenly hearing Xia Jinxiu say it aloud gave her heart a fierce jolt.
Sensing the surrounding onlookers, she became irritated.
These women were the most notorious gossips in the village.
If what Xia Jinxiu said today spread, what kind of person would she become in their eyes?
A woman whose husband had just died and already wanted to sell off her stepdaughter and seize the family property?
If she dared to do that, the village chief would be the first to kick her out.
She was a refugee who fled to this village; she wasn’t a native. If Xia Haisheng hadn’t taken her in back then, the villagers would never have allowed her to stay.
Now that Xia Haisheng was dead, she relied entirely on her years of portraying herself as a kind and loving mother to remain here.
If that image collapsed and she was driven out, she wouldn’t be able to bear it.
Li Chunfen quickly spoke to defend herself.
“Jinxiu, how could you think that of me? I was just worried something might’ve happened to you. You hadn’t come out for so long, so I was testing the water for you.”
“It’s already cold, don’t keep washing in it. I’ll boil some more hot water for you.”
Xia Jinxiu didn’t continue pressing her.
Slow and steady—when the truth revealed itself on its own, the effect would be far better than anything she said.
As for bathing—she still needed to bathe, but she would not wash in the firewood shed anymore; it was far too unsafe.
Knowing Li Chunfen must preserve her “kind stepmother” image, Xia Jinxiu spoke bluntly:
“Then once you’ve boiled water, bring it to my room. This shed is too cold.”
Li Chunfen gritted her teeth—she was truly being treated like a servant.
But with so many people still around, she couldn’t let her kind-mother persona crumble.
She forced herself to respond, through clenched teeth:
“Don’t worry, I’ll bring you the hot water later.”
Xia Jinxiu nodded with satisfaction and returned indoors.
Inside the room, Xia Lao’er—her second brother—fidgeted anxiously. Why was it so quiet outside? Why hadn’t an uproar broken out?
Seeing Xia Jinxiu return to her room unharmed, he couldn’t help rushing out.
“Ma, why is nothing wrong with her at all?”
An aunt in the crowd looked puzzled.
“You and your mother are strange. You say you’re worried about Jinxiu, yet your expressions look like you think she’s been sneaking around with a man.”
“That kind of concern looks more like searching for a lover.”
It wasn’t a problem—until she said it.
Once spoken aloud, Li Chunfen’s actions really did seem like she was hunting for a secret lover.
Li Chunfen’s expression changed drastically, and she slapped Xia Lao’er across the face.
“You’re a grown man and still don’t know how to talk. Your sister is fine and you’re not happy?”
Xia Lao’er didn’t dare argue. He also realized his reaction had been too obvious, so he quickly tried to fix it.
“I just said it wrong. I’m clumsy with words—how could my sister be with a man?”
Although the crowd remained suspicious, they didn’t question further.
These people only followed her because Li Chunfen promised each of them a bar of soap bought from the city.
It was something Xia Yashu had brought back, and they were all curious about it. They urged impatiently:
“Chunfen, where’s the soap?”
Being reminded, Li Chunfen suddenly froze—she hadn’t prepared any soap.
She had only used it as an excuse to bring them along to catch an affair.
If everything had gone according to plan, everyone would be too excited watching the spectacle to remember the soap at all.
That was what she thought, and that was how she planned it.
But who could’ve guessed Xia Jinxiu would be perfectly fine?
She had no choice but to tell them to wait while she retrieved it.
She only had one bar, and she hadn’t even used it yet.
To gather enough witnesses, she had invited ten or more people.
Now, with a single palm-sized bar of soap—how was it supposed to be enough to share?
In her panic, Li Chunfen cut it into small pieces, and the last person received a piece the size of a thumb.
Looking at the tiny fragment, everyone frowned at Li Chunfen.
She had promised each of them a large piece.
Was this her idea of a large piece?
Li Chunfen’s heart was bleeding.
Two yuan for a bar of soap—she had only smelled it once before giving it away, and these women were still dissatisfied. That made her upset too.
“This is hand-made soap that people in the city use. They don’t sell this here. If my daughter hadn’t gone for that radio station interview, she wouldn’t have been able to buy it at all.”
The women sniffed it—it did smell quite good.
They clicked their tongues and left with the soap.
After they left, Xia Lao’er and the others rushed into the firewood shed and searched inside and out several times, finding nothing.
It was strange—how could a living person simply disappear?
Li Chunfen walked in and asked Xia Lao’er,
“What’s going on? Where is the person you arranged?”
Xia Lao’er shook his head.
“I clearly heard movement—how could no one be here?”
“You saw him enter yourself?”
He shook his head again.
“It was dark outside; I didn’t see clearly.”
Li Chunfen let out a long breath.
“Maybe you misheard. Maybe the person you hired never came.”
They gained nothing from this, and worse, they had aroused Xia Jinxiu’s suspicion—especially because of the questions she asked earlier.
Those words still made Li Chunfen tremble inside.
“Forget it—for now, don’t act.”
She had brought so many people, and they all heard what Xia Jinxiu said.
If anything happened to her now, everyone would suspect her.
Mother and son said nothing more, assuming the man they bribed simply didn’t show up.
After all, the firewood shed was tiny, with no place to hide someone. They had checked five or six times and still found nothing.
Inside the house—
Xia Jinxiu ignored the two who kept searching the shed. Instead, she looked around the room, a faint sense of emotion passing through her eyes.
This house was built by her grandfather. Her father once worked in the city, and she lived there with him.
Later, when times became difficult, they returned to the countryside, and she lived here for ten years.
Everywhere she looked held memories.
If only she had returned two years earlier—she might have been able to see her father one more time.