It was Auntie Liu who reacted the fastest, her voice ringing out sharply:
“Ha! The ox cart is village property. I didn’t know it had become Gu Niancheng’s and the Young Widow’s!”
“And besides, what does the Young Widow’s difficult labor have to do with Qingyue? It’s not like Qingyue made her go into early labor.”
Hearing Auntie Liu’s words, the crowd nodded in deep agreement.
“But Auntie Liu is right—the ox cart is collective village property. When did it become Gu Niancheng’s?”
“Exactly. And what does the Young Widow’s early labor have to do with Niancheng’s wife? Just because she took the ox cart to town, they’re blaming her? Ha! If you ask me, Gu Niancheng and the Young Widow must be having an affair—that’s why he’s saying all this.”
“I’d say so too. Look, why doesn’t the Young Widow go to anyone else? She’s always finding excuses to go to Gu Niancheng.”
“‘Brother Niancheng, my stomach hurts, my hand hurts…'” A bachelor in his thirties from the village mimicked her in a vivid, exaggerated tone.
Many in the crowd couldn’t hold back their laughter!
Mother Gu’s face turned black as coal. She pushed her way forward, but at first the crowd refused to move aside.
“Move aside! I’m Gu Niancheng’s mother!”
The crowd turned, saw that it was indeed Mother Gu, and only then parted to let the two through. Gu Yunyun took the opportunity to slip in as well.
“Lin Qingyue, haven’t you made enough of a scene in front of all these people?”
Mother Gu’s expression was displeased, her eyes falling on Lin Qingyue like daggers:
“What good does slandering your husband’s reputation do for you?”
“Qingyue, ever since you married my Niancheng, I’ve always treated you like my own daughter. As for Hongyan… the Young Widow’s matter, Niancheng did do wrong. But even if you’re angry, you should at least think about the child in your belly, shouldn’t you?”
As she spoke, Mother Gu took an imperceptible step toward Lin Qingyue, leaned in close to her ear, and lowered her voice in persuasion, “You don’t want your child to have a father with a bad reputation, do you?”
So she was threatening her now?
“Reputation?” Lin Qingyue gave a bitter smile, her face looking even more helpless, her eyes pitifully scanning the onlookers. “What reputation does our family even have left?”
“My husband—ignoring his heavily pregnant wife—runs off to the Young Widow’s house all day long. Everything we have to eat and use at home, he carries over to the Young Widow’s house!”
“Mother, you tell me—what man in this world does such a thing? What reputation does the Gu family have left to speak of?”
Mother Gu’s face flushed red with shame. What her son had done wasn’t right, and she had scolded him about it before.
But her son simply wouldn’t listen—who could blame him for preferring the Young Widow over Lin Qingyue?
Still, before, she’d used Lin Qingyue as a fig leaf to cover things up. But today, Lin Qingyue had ripped away that last shred of cover entirely.
“Qingyue, what nonsense are you talking!”
“Everything Niancheng did was for your sake! If it weren’t for your friendship with the Young Widow, why would Niancheng bother taking care of her for you?”
Mother Gu’s strategy was to deny everything, especially in front of the whole village.
She didn’t want her family to be drowned in the spittle of the entire village.
“Heh…” Lin Qingyue gave another bitter smile. “But I already cut ties with her long ago!”
“I’m not stupid—why would I stay friends with a woman who’s been carrying on with my husband all along?”
“Mom, I’m just asking the village chief and the uncles, aunties, and elders here to judge fairly today—was her Yao Hongyan’s childbirth my fault?”
“If it was, then from now on, the village ox cart should just be reserved exclusively for her! After all, if anyone else uses the cart and delays her Yao Hongyan’s use, they’d have to bear the blame of harming her!”
“You…” Mother Gu was furious. “How can you be so unreasonable?”
“I’m just stating the facts!”
In her previous life, Lin Qingyue wouldn’t have dared defy Mother Gu, wasn’t it because she cared about Gu Niancheng? But having been reborn, Lin Qingyue wished she could skin and strip the tendons of every last person in the Gu family—how could she possibly care about their dignity now?
“Ahem… this has nothing to do with Niancheng’s wife!”
The old village chief understood clearly and couldn’t afford to favor Gu Niancheng at this moment.
“Then the difficult labor wasn’t my fault, so why did Gu Niancheng bring Yao Hongyan to his home for her confinement? Could it be he wants to take a concubine?”
These words made Father Gu and Mother Gu’s faces change drastically. The authorities were cracking down hard these days, and their Gu family was of poor peasant status—how would they dare take a concubine? That would be like practicing capitalism.
If someone reported this, the whole family would end up in jail!
“You… Lin Qingyue, what nonsense are you spouting?” Father Gu didn’t dare bear such a heavy accusation, his old face flushed red with rage.
“Dad, how is it nonsense? Could it be that the child Yao Hongyan gave birth to is Gu Niancheng’s?” Lin Qingyue pressed again.
Father Gu was so angry he nearly jumped up:
“Lin Qingyue, have you lost your mind? How dare you say something like that?”
He raised his arm to strike her, but Lin Qingyue quickly dodged behind the village chief: “Village Chief, is my father-in-law turning angry out of shame?”
The village chief… family disputes were the hardest to adjudicate.
“I think Sister Qingyue’s words make a lot of sense. Look at how Gu Niancheng treats that young widow—if that child had nothing to do with him, why would he care so much?”
“Could he really be an idiot? Not cherishing his own wife and child, but doting on someone else’s instead?”
“But there are plenty of pregnant women in the village too—why hasn’t he gone to dote on them?”
The pregnant women watching grew restless: “I don’t need his doting—I have my own man.”
“Exactly. Only those who don’t know their place would be so shameless.”
Father Gu’s face turned even darker, his eyes glaring coldly at Lin Qingyue. If looks could kill, Lin Qingyue would have died several times over by now.
“Lin Qingyue, you know perfectly well that my brother and Sister Hongyan have nothing going on…”
“I don’t know that.”
Lin Qingyue looked at Gu Yunyun with an innocent expression. This sister-in-law could never keep things hidden—she was foolish enough to think she was clever.
“Niancheng’s wife, at the end of the day, today’s matter is still a family affair. Why not go home and discuss it properly?”
The village chief’s head was throbbing. Even he felt embarrassed airing this out in front of so many people.
“Go home and discuss? So they can gang up on me, an outsider?”
“Village Chief, my demands are very simple right now. First, prove to me—does that young widow and her child have anything to do with me? Is it my fault?”
“No relation, and not your fault!”
The village chief didn’t hesitate, even shooting the Gu family a harsh glare.
“Second, who exactly is Gu Niancheng’s wife?”
“If I am, then I demand that the Young Widow move out of my house, return everything they took from us, and also replace the diapers and clothes I had prepared for the child with a new set.”
“That’s only fair!”
The Village Chief felt that Lin Qingyue’s words were not unreasonable.
“Furthermore, from now on, Gu Niancheng must cut ties with the Young Widow. He can’t keep running over to her place, and he certainly can’t be giving her things from our household. The same goes for my in-laws and my sister-in-law!”
“Lin Qingyue, how can you be so petty?”
Gu Yunyun shouted in indignation: “Sister Hongyan has lost her husband. If we don’t help her out, how is a frail woman like her supposed to survive on her own with a child?”
Seeing Gu Yunyun’s righteous indignation, Lin Qingyue couldn’t help but feel a pang of bitterness in her heart.