So it was all about her “bride price.”
Li Qiuyue gripped the handle of her shovel, resting her chin on it.
Her voice was cold: “Mother, Qin Huai and I have already held a wedding.”
“The wedding was organized by you yourself back then have you forgotten?” she sneered, reminding her.
“That doesn’t count! Only fifty yuan what can you even do with that?” Liu Jinhua protested.
Then she tried to justify herself: “A woman can’t marry just anyone lightly, otherwise men won’t know how to treasure her!”
Li Qiuyue looked at Liu Jinhua thoughtfully but said nothing.
She could see that Liu Jinhua was really trying to package her intentions as “well-meaning.”
But her intentions were far too obvious.
It was as if she were a fox in human skin, but the disguise didn’t fit her tail couldn’t be hidden.
This made Li Qiuyue somewhat curious.
Back then, they took her fifty yuan and kicked her out of the house.
Now, after so much scheming to patch things up with her, how much were they really hoping to get?
Li Xiulian, standing beside them, saw Li Qiuyue remain silent and grew anxious. “Your parents raised you all this time just so you’d grovel to a man?”
Li Qiuyue’s expression immediately darkened.
Without a word, she swung her shovel toward Li Xiulian.
The two women scrambled back in fear, worried this madwoman might actually hit them.
The spectators couldn’t help but laugh.
Ever since Liu Jinhua brought them over, many people had come out to watch the commotion.
Now with all the shouting and movement, the crowd grew larger.
But when they thought of the fat aunt who had been taken away by the police earlier that day, they all kept their mouths shut.
When familiar people tried to comment, they nudged each other with elbows to warn against speaking recklessly.
Only when they saw Liu Jinhua and Li Xiulian look dumbfounded did they dare make a sound.
After all, Li Qiuyue had someone backing her up.
Liu Jinhua and Li Xiulian did not.
Hearing the laughter, Li Xiulian, feeling embarrassed, spat.
“Pah! No wonder people call you shameless! You really disgrace the daughters of the Old Li family!” She glared with her small eyes, hands on her hips, acting unreasonably.
She looked at the crowd: “I’ll tell you, my niece is a traitor who can’t go a minute without a man!”
Liu Jinhua said nothing, watching her sister-in-law charge forward.
“She had a child with some wild man before, now she’s living with men inappropriately, throwing herself at them…oh!”
Before she could finish, a block of wood struck her forehead.
It was one of Zhaozhao’s beloved building blocks.
Li Xiulian’s fat face twitched. “You little brat! How dare you throw that at me?”
Zhaozhao was a bit scared.
But he still held his head high and shouted, “You’re not allowed to insult my mom!”
“I’m not only going to insult your mother today, I’ll also deal with you properly!” Li Xiulian rolled up her sleeves and charged forward.
Li Qiuyue had been surprised that Zhaozhao would throw a block, not because he was weak, but because she knew how much he loved the little horse she had built he didn’t even let her touch it.
Now he had thrown it outright!
After the shock passed, she felt a surge of calm resolve.
Seeing Li Xiulian rush forward, she immediately blocked the doorway. “Li Xiulian, I’m giving you face by letting you dare to stir trouble, is that it?”
She mocked, “I am not part of the Li family, and secondly, what face do Li family daughters have?”
“Is it Li Xiulian running off with a man for two months and returning to dump him on a farmer? Or Li Erni stealing her sister’s fiancé? That has face?” She had been too lazy to argue with them before.
Now that they came to sully her reputation, they shouldn’t expect cleanliness.
“Li Qiuyue! Speak for yourself, don’t drag Erni into this!” Liu Jinhua instinctively stepped forward.
Li Qiuyue was taken aback she hadn’t expected her mother to defend someone else’s reputation.
Li Xiulian’s face turned red as she lunged at Li Qiuyue. “Li Qiuyue, I’ll tear that lying mouth of yours apart!”
The crowd let out low gasps; some instinctively stepped back, while others craned their necks to watch more eagerly.
Li Xiulian was tall and strong, but lazy at home, so she wasn’t very powerful.
Li Qiuyue, though slender, worked early and late every day, pushing a heavy tricycle and often lifting things she was trained.
In just a few moves, Li Qiuyue pinned Li Xiulian to the ground and slapped her fat face.
Li Xiulian’s head spun, stars in her eyes.
Zhaozhao clenched his little fists, holding his breath, watching Li Qiuyue on top of Li Xiulian, finally relieved.
Li Qiuyue only stopped when she felt satisfied.
Li Xiulian, with her swollen pig-like face, gasped, “Li Qiuyue, wait I won’t let you get away, you shameless…”
Before she could finish, two more slaps landed.
“Still want to talk?” Li Qiuyue asked coldly, her face unmoved.
This time, Li Xiulian stayed silent, shrinking down, not daring to shed even a tear.
The arrogance in her eyes turned into fear.
“If you dare come to my house looking for trouble again, I’ll beat you to death,” Li Qiuyue spat at Li Xiulian.
Then she looked at Liu Jinhua.
“When you kicked me out, didn’t even let me take a single chopstick? Didn’t care whether I lived or died outside? And now you come asking for what bride price?” Li Qiuyue mocked.
In truth, she rarely thought of the past anymore.
But every time she did, her heart still felt a little bitter.
She couldn’t understand why, if both were parents, they treated her that way.
Was Li Erni truly a blood child of the Li family, and she not even a piece of flesh from her mother’s womb?
Was she inferior to Li Erni somehow?
But life went on day by day, and she simply stopped thinking about what she couldn’t figure out.
During the fight, Liu Jinhua had already taken several steps back.
Now, being directly addressed, she stepped back another half-step. “Qiuyue, I’m your mother. If you hit me, people will poke you in the spine.”
Li Qiuyue seemed to hear a funny joke. “I chased you with a knife back then and didn’t care what people said what’s there to fear now?”
Liu Jinhua’s face went pale with fright.
Just as she was about to retreat, Zhaozhao shouted to the crowd: “Uncle!”
Then he ran on his little legs to a man standing there.
The man had changed into civilian clothes, his meticulous attire making it easy for Li Qiuyue to recognize him.
Li Qiuyue rolled her eyes, annoyed that he chose this exact moment just as she was about to finish dealing with things to appear.
Adding only trouble.
Qin Huai was also speechless.
Whenever he saw Li Qiuyue, she was either in a fight or on the way to one.
Only Liu Jinhua, remembering what the police had said that day, straightened her back immediately.