“Ah!”
Ye Qisheng, who was still mid-sweet dream, was suddenly startled awake. Thinking an earthquake or a flood had struck, she hastily bounced up from her straw mat.
Looking closely, however, there was no earthquake. There was only herself, drenched like a drowned rat, and Liu Yuexia standing before her with her chin tilted up, wearing a look of gloating delight.
Ye Qisheng had never suffered such an insult in her entire life. A surge of anger instantly flared up inside her as she snapped, “Liu Yuexia, are you out of your mind?! I was sleeping just fine—why did you splash water on me?!”
“Who said I splashed you?”
Having finally provoked Ye Qisheng, Liu Yuexia felt a wave of satisfaction in her heart. She let out a cold snort and said sarcastically, “I was merely passing by you to fetch water to wash my face, and I accidentally spilled a little bit, that’s all! You really take the cake—the roosters outside are already crowing, yet you were still sleeping like a pig. I don’t have eyes on my feet, so if you tripped me, you can only blame your own bad luck!”
Ye Qisheng was genuinely laughed out of anger. She tugged at her sleeve, which had enough water to wring out, and barked, “You call this ‘a little bit’?! If you splashed any more, I’d be drowned by you! Liu Yuexia, is it really that hard to admit you did it on purpose? You dare to do it, but don’t dare to own up to it—are you really that spineless?!”
“Who says I don’t dare to own up to it?!”
Liu Yuexia looked at her disdainfully and sneered, “So what if I did it on purpose?! Ye Qisheng, haven’t you taken enough free rides in my home?! If you had any backbone, then don’t live in my house! Why are you clinging to our place for dear life?!”
These final words rendered Ye Qisheng momentarily speechless.
She didn’t want to live under someone else’s roof either, but wasn’t it because she had nowhere else to go?
If she had even a second choice, she wouldn’t want to endure the sour faces of the Liu family mother and daughter!
Seeing that Ye Qisheng was at a loss for words, Liu Yuexia became increasingly triumphant. She declared haughtily, “Ye Qisheng, when you live under someone else’s roof, you need to have the self-awareness of a guest! Stop acting like some rich young lady, expecting our whole family to serve and accommodate you!”
Ye Qisheng pressed her lips tightly, remaining silent.
However, Liu Yuexia did not stop simply because of her silence. She ridiculed her to the absolute limit, saying, “If I were you, I’d just jump into a river and be reincarnated! Your face is disfigured anyway, and you can’t find your home either. Staying alive is just a waste of my family’s rations!”
Ye Qisheng furrowed her brow and finally spoke up, “I don’t want to trouble you either, but I had no choice…”
“If you don’t want to trouble us, then back it up with actions! What’s the point of just running your mouth?!”
Liu Yuexia interrupted her, her vicious words whipping toward Ye Qisheng like a lash as she pressed aggressively, “We are neither kin nor friends with you. Hosting you for two days is already an immense favor! It’s already the third day, and you still have no intention of leaving. I truly don’t know how your skin got to be so thick!”
These words were thoroughly unpleasant. Ye Qisheng’s expression went cold. Just as she was about to snap back, a chaotic set of footsteps sounded from outside. Before long, Aunt Fan was the first to appear at the doorway.
Seeing Ye Qisheng standing wet on the straw mat—looking so disheveled she seemed as though she had just been hauled out of the water—Aunt Fan froze for a moment. But as soon as her eyes fell upon the wooden basin in her daughter’s hand, she quickly understood the situation.
So, her daughter couldn’t swallow her anger and doused Ye Qisheng with water?
She sneered inwardly, yet feigned surprise as she exclaimed, “Oh my, Miss Ye, what happened to you?! How did you end up looking so wretched?”
Before Ye Qisheng could reply, Liu Yuexia shoved her aside and immediately filed a false complaint first, “Mother! I wanted to fetch water to wash my face so I could head out to the fields to work quickly. But on my way back, I accidentally got tripped up by Miss Ye’s outstretched foot, and the water in the basin splashed all over her!
I didn’t mean to do it, but Miss Ye insists that I did it on purpose, and she just flew into a massive rage at me!”
Toward the end of her words, she even wiped her eyes aggrievedly, pretending to wipe away non-existent tears.
Ye Qisheng was genuinely amused by this complete inversion of right and wrong.
If she had previously thought Liu Yuexia was merely a small-minded village girl—arrogant, perhaps, but not inherently evil—then now, she admitted she had been blind. This was a black lotus through and through, and a laughably amateur one at that!
Aunt Fan swept a cold, dark gaze over Ye Qisheng and said chillingly, “Since she didn’t do it on purpose, you naturally can’t blame her. If you want to blame something, blame our family for being too poor to afford a delicate, noble lady like Miss Ye! If we had provided her with a jade tower to live in and assigned ten servant girls to wait on her, would she still have the nerve to vent her temper at us?”
The mother and daughter sang in perfect harmony. Although Aunt Fan didn’t state it outright, her sarcastic rhetoric was fully on display, every sentence accusing Ye Qisheng of throwing an unreasonable tantrum.
Liu Shiting looked at the three people inside, his hardened expression pulled tight.
He had thought that after warning his mother and sister last night, things would remain peaceful for at least a few days. Yet after just one night, the two of them were already pushing Ye Qisheng out again.
Noticing the straw mat beneath Ye Qisheng’s feet, his thick eyebrows knit tightly together. Stepping past Aunt Fan who stood in front, he walked into the room and asked in a deep voice, “Yuexia, didn’t I tell you to temporarily share room with Miss Ye? How could you make her sleep on the floor?!”
Meeting her eldest brother’s piercing gaze, Liu Yuexia turned her face away with a slight sense of guilt, stammering, “I didn’t stop her from sleeping on the bed! She was the one who said she wasn’t used to squeezing into one bed with someone else and insisted on sleeping on the floor. I couldn’t convince her otherwise, so I could only let her be!”
Hearing this, Ye Qisheng burst into laughter.
Flustered and embarrassed, Liu Yuexia immediately glared at her and demanded, “What are you laughing at?!”
“I’m laughing because you don’t even bother drafting a script for your lies!”
Ye Qisheng maintained an unhurried demeanor as she exposed her lies without haste, “Liu Yuexia, why would I leave a perfectly good bed untouched just to sleep on a cold straw mat—am I out of my mind?! Last night you falsely accused me of stealing your family’s eggs, and for your brother’s sake, I chose not to hold it against you. Now you’re shifting the blame onto me again… Do you really think I’m a soft soft plum that you can just pick and squeeze as you please?”
“I…!” Liu Yuexia wanted to retort, but the moment she met Ye Qisheng’s sharp, blade-like gaze, an indescribable sense of dread welled up in her heart, making her suddenly unable to speak.
Seeing her daughter lose the upper hand, Aunt Fan’s aged face darkened. She strode over and firmly shielded Liu Yuexia behind herself, saying, “Miss Ye, what do you mean by those words? If the neighbors were to hear this and ruin my daughter’s reputation, how is my daughter supposed to marry in the future?!
Our family kindly took you in out of the goodness of our hearts. Even if you aren’t grateful, how can you repay kindness with enmity instead?!
It seems our home is far too small to accommodate a grand deity like you. You had better find someone else willing to harbor you, so as not to stir up trouble under our roof!”
With her mother backing her up, Liu Yuexia’s confidence surged. She immediately poked her head out and sneered at Ye Qisheng, “Exactly! If you know what’s good for you, pack up and leave quickly—we certainly can’t afford to keep a rich young lady like you!”
Liu Shiting’s eyes turned cold. He opened his mouth to say something, but Aunt Fan promptly cut him off, “Shiting, I know what you want to say. I also know that Physician Xu is our family’s benefactor, but one thing is separate from another! We truly cannot afford to serve this Miss Ye. For the peace of our household, we can only apologize to Physician Xu!”
Liu Chengzhi and Zhou Fenling stood outside the room, hearing every word clearly. Liu Chengzhi looked toward his mother with disapproval; although he inwardly disagreed with her words, she was his biological mother after all, so he had to spare her some face and refrained from speaking out.
Since her husband said nothing, Zhou Fenling, as a daughter-in-law, was even less likely to court hatred. She was more than happy to watch the drama unfold from the side, wishing they would just start fighting outright.
To her, none of the three women in the room were any good.
Her mother-in-law was a harsh and mean old hag; her sister-in-law was a lazy, arrogant, and spoiled mama’s girl; as for this Ye Qisheng of unknown origin, she was merely an outsider who came to snatch away their rations. The sooner she left, the better!
With the atmosphere pushed to this point, Ye Qisheng knew it was impossible for her not to leave. She nodded and said crisp and directly, “Fine. Since you’ve put it so plainly, I’m not the type to cling on pestering either. I’ll leave then!”