The three of them chimed in one after another, dead-set on pinning the stigma of a thief onto Ye Qisheng.
Yet Ye Qisheng had a stubborn streak of her own; since she hadn’t done it, she wouldn’t admit to it even if it killed her!
Facing these three ill-intentioned women, she steadied her emotions and stated firmly, “I didn’t steal it, and that’s that! Since you don’t have solid evidence, stop splashing dirty water on my head!”
“It’s as clear as day, what kind of evidence could you possibly need?”
Mother Fan let out a heavy snort, her tone dripping with sarcasm, “No wonder I saw you wandering all around the courtyard this morning. Turns out you were scouting out our family’s eggs!”
“Miss Ye, you really didn’t handle this right. Granted, our family’s meals aren’t the best, but you shouldn’t resort to thievery. For a young lady to be so gluttonous—if word gets out, what decent family would ever want you?” Zhou Fenling wore an amiable smile, yet not a single human word came out of her mouth, every single syllable pushing someone to the brink of ruin.
Backed by her mother and sister-in-law, Liu Yuexia grew even more arrogant and smugly declared, “Ye Qisheng, you might as well just confess honestly! After all, it’s just a single egg. Our Liu family is kind and generous; we aren’t about to drag you off to face the authorities over this bit of food.”
Ye Qisheng could finally see it clearly: these three had no intention of listening to her defense whatsoever. Their sole objective was to gang up and squeeze her out until she was forced to leave the Liu household.
As for the egg, it was merely a pretext!
At this moment, Liu Shiting walked out of the inner room upon hearing the commotion and asked with a frown, “Yuexia, you claim Miss Ye stole the egg, but do you have any proof?”
Liu Shiting possessed an imposing presence that commanded respect without anger, and especially after serving as village chief for a few years, his aura had grown even more formidable, exuding a sense of unquestionable dignity from head to toe.
Having feared this older brother since childhood, Liu Yuexia immediately felt somewhat guilty. She lowered her head, stammered for a moment, and pressed on stubbornly, “I do! I noticed the number of eggs today was one short, and just now I happened to catch her sneaking off to the backyard. Finding it suspicious, I followed her and unexpectedly caught her in the act, stealing food!”
After listening to her statement, Ye Qisheng let out a cold laugh, “Is that your proof?”
Liu Yuexia puffed out her chest and said loudly, “Isn’t that enough?!”
“Of course not! Did you actually see me eating an egg with your own eyes?!”
“I…” Liu Yuexia stammered, struck speechless. She *had* indeed seen Ye Qisheng eating something in the backyard just now, but because of the deep evening shadows and the angle, she hadn’t seen clearly what exactly Ye Qisheng was eating and had simply assumed it must have been an egg.
Seeing that she couldn’t answer, Ye Qisheng continued, “Since you didn’t see it, you can’t prove I ate your family’s egg!”
Crushed down a notch by Ye Qisheng’s momentum, Liu Yuexia retorted unhappily, “But that still doesn’t prove you didn’t steal it! You say I don’t have proof to show you stole the egg, but what proof do you have to show you *didn’t* steal it?!”
Suppressing the urge to tear her apart, Ye Qisheng stepped forward and said, “You want proof? Fine, I’ll give you proof!”
Not expecting her to suddenly lurch closer, Liu Yuexia jumped in fright, quickly retreating two steps while glaring at her with suspicion. “Fine then, let’s see you produce it!”
Ye Qisheng pressed forward another three steps and sneered, “Didn’t you say you saw me sneaking food? If I really ate an egg, there would definitely be residue stuck between my teeth! Come check my mouth—if you can find even a speck of egg residue, I’ll pack up and clear out of your house right this instant, no questions asked!”
Liu Yuexia was completely dumbfounded. *Wait, you can actually do that kind of thing?!*
“Inspect me right now. If you find even a hint of an egg, I’ll kowtow and apologize to you! But if you don’t find anything, it means you were making false accusations and malicious rumors, and *you* will have to kowtow and beg my forgiveness!”
As she spoke, Ye Qisheng took two more steps forward, towering over Liu Yuexia and looking down into her eyes by virtue of her height advantage.
Being towered over and oppressed like this by Ye Qisheng caused Liu Yuexia’s aggressiveness to plummet instantly. Filled with a mixture of hatred and panic, she was momentarily at a loss for how to respond.
When she had first seen Ye Qisheng hiding in the backyard eating, she immediately connected it to the missing egg and impulsively wanted to give Ye Qisheng a hard time while seizing the opportunity to drive her away.
Never in her wildest dreams had she expected Ye Qisheng to be so difficult to deal with!
An ordinary young woman surrounded and attacked like this would have long since lost her wits and burst into tears, yet Ye Qisheng hadn’t shown a shred of cowardice from start to finish. She had refuted them logically and calmly without a hint of panic, completely backing Liu Yuexia into a corner.
Silently observing the reactions of the two, Liu Shiting figured the time was right and timely chimed in, “Alright, let’s put an end to this matter here and now! Yuexia, you are not allowed to make a scene anymore!”
Although he didn’t issue an explicit verdict, his attitude had already made it abundantly clear: he had concluded that Liu Yuexia was simply making a groundless fuss.
Catching her older brother’s meaning, Liu Yuexia stamped her feet in frustration, “Brother…”
“Shut up and go back to your room!” Liu Shiting cut his sister off, speaking with stern severity, “Tomorrow, wake up early and chop all the firewood we chopped back over the past two days.”
Hearing that, Liu Yuexia’s expression soured instantly, and she protested rebelliously, “Why should I?! That’s second sister-in-law’s chore, I’m not doing it!”
“Do wrong, take your punishment! If you keep acting up, you’ll be assigned to chop all the firewood from now on!”
“I…!” Finding her older brother’s tone devoid of any room for negotiation, Liu Yuexia had no choice but to change targets. She grabbed Mother Fan’s arm and whined petulantly, “Mom, look at big brother! I don’t want to chop wood! If my hands get all rough from this, how am I supposed to find a husband later?!”
In ordinary minor matters, Mother Fan could still call the shots with her eldest son. However, seeing that her son was currently in a foul mood, she knew better than to push it. Wisely, she shot her daughter a glance, signaling her to exercise patience for now.
As for Zhou Fenling, she was unquestionably the biggest beneficiary of this farce.
Although she had joined in by casting mud on Ye Qisheng, the eldest brother had only punished the ringleader, Liu Yuexia. Not only did the blame miss her entirely, but her own chores were even shifted over to Liu Yuexia. Secretly thrilled to pieces, she found an excuse and slipped back into her room.
Liu Yuexia was also hauled away by Mother Fan, leaving only Ye Qisheng and the Liu brothers behind at the scene.
Liu Shiting cupped his fists toward Ye Qisheng and apologized, “Miss Ye, it was all a misunderstanding. Please don’t hold it against my sister.”
Since this man had taken her in, Ye Qisheng still needed to give him some face. With a calm expression, she gave a slight nod and headed straight for the kitchen.
Once she had walked far enough away, Liu Chengshi, who had remained silent the entire time, suddenly spoke up in a low voice, “Brother, do you really think Miss Ye is the kind of person who would pull a stunt like that?”
Liu Shiting glanced at Ye Qisheng’s retreating figure, shook his head, and said, “This young lady has clear, upright eyes and carries herself with poise and grace. I don’t take her for someone of crooked character.”
Liu Chengshi felt the same way and agreed, “I think she’s no petty scoundrel either. When she was standing her ground against our little sister just now, her demeanor was entirely open and aboveboard—there’s no way that was put on.”
Listening to his words in silence, Liu Shiting made no further sound.
As for this egg theft case, he had known from the very beginning that Ye Qisheng had been wrongly accused.
That missing egg had long since been secretly added to his own lunch today by his mother.
The eggs laid by the family’s two laying hens were usually collected by Liu Yuexia and handed over to their mother for safekeeping. Because today’s farm work was heavy, his mother had acted on a whim, taken a newly laid egg from the chicken coop, and mixed it into his vegetable bun.
He hadn’t thought much of it when he tasted the egg flavor, assuming everyone had one. But after he finished eating, before leaving, his old mother had quietly told him that only his vegetable bun had contained an egg—and a fresh one laid just today at that.
Liu Shiting silently mused that his mother had probably forgotten to mention the reassigned egg to Liu Yuexia beforehand, which indirectly caused this misunderstanding. Otherwise, given Liu Yuexia’s transparent personality where everything showed on her face, she couldn’t possibly have accused Ye Qisheng with such unyielding self-righteousness just now.
Thinking that they would still be living under the same roof going forward, Liu Shiting took the initiative to knock on his mother’s door to prevent similar incidents from happening again. Hearing a response from inside, he pushed the door open and went in.
Inside the room, Liu Yuexia was still tugging at Mother Fan, complaining and airing her grievances. Catching sight of her older brother walking in, she immediately redirected her pent-up fury his way and fumed, “Brother, you went way too far just now! How can you be like this? Instead of helping your own sister, you went and helped an outsider!”