After finishing what they wanted to do, Su Wei and Su Peng were both overjoyed.
On the way back, they couldn’t contain their excitement, occasionally glancing at each other and giggling, their eyes full of pride.
When they reached the front gate, Su Wei was the first to regain his composure. He put a finger to his lips, signaling his brother to be quiet, and then carefully pushed open the half-closed courtyard gate.
The yard was as dark and quiet as always.
The two little brothers held their breath and tiptoed inside.
Just as they were about to return to their rooms, a faint voice came from under the eaves: “Did their family wet the stove?”
“Ah!” Su Peng jumped back two steps in fright, bumping into his older brother.
Su Wei shivered in alarm as well.
“Big sister!”
Su Peng was the first to react, his voice carrying a hint of tears as he complained: “Sister, you scared us to death!”
He even patted his chest as he spoke.
Su Qiao ignored her little brother’s whining and said calmly, without hurry: “I thought you were brave, standing at the gate on watch in the middle of the night. Does that really scare you?”
Her words made both brothers jump in unison, their eyes widening in disbelief.
She knows everything?
She… followed us?!
Thinking this, Su Wei and Su Peng quickly exchanged a glance.
Su Peng wanted to sneak a peek at their sister’s expression.
But it was too dark outside, there wasn’t even a moon, and he couldn’t see anything clearly.
This made him even more scared; he didn’t dare make a sound.
Su Qiao had watched Su Peng grow up, she could read his thoughts just by the movement of his eyes.
Now she didn’t bother with him at all, instead turning to her brother and asking again: “Who did it?”
“I don’t know.”
Su Wei bit his lip, a frustrated expression on his face.
Then he said angrily, “But it has to be someone from their family. Who else could it be? I only went to gather firewood for a little while this morning, and when I came back, the stove was soaked. Who else but Aunt and Uncle could do something so despicable?
Besides, at that time, Su Peng and Su Lan were still sleeping at home. If an outsider had come in, there would’ve been some noise. It could only be her, she must have had a key to our house! That’s why when she came in, Su Peng and Su Lan didn’t notice a thing.”
Su Qiao had already thought of this.
When she returned earlier and went straight to the kitchen, she had just lit the oil lamp when she saw the stove in complete disarray.
The stove was damp, clearly doused with water, with blackened ash and baking marks underneath. No doubt, this was the result of the two brothers’ later desperate attempts to salvage it.
That was why yesterday they didn’t want her to go in, they had already planned to retaliate that night, afraid she would stop them if she knew.
They tried every trick to delay her, probably hoping to wait until morning so their “revenge plan” would be complete, and then she wouldn’t be able to stop them.
But they had underestimated her.
By now, she was no longer the hesitant, cautious sister she had once been.
If someone dared bully her at her own doorstep, Su Qiao would never let it go!
In the countryside, ruining someone’s stove was as vicious as smashing their rice bowls, it was the cruelest form of curse against a family.
In those times, when everyone was still struggling to make ends meet, a stove or cooking pots were essential for a household.
They represented whether a family could have food to eat, whether they could survive.
Even if neighbors quarreled, yelled, or even fought, no one would ever destroy someone else’s kitchen.
Anyone who did that was cursing the whole family, determined to create an unfixable grudge.
Su Qiao was certain it was Wang Lanxiang who poured the water. No one else could have done something so destructive and pointless.
But the person also had no guts, daring to do it but not to face the consequences.
At her age, sneaking into someone’s house early in the morning just to pour water… shameless, and the act itself was pathetic!
Su Qiao only dared think this to herself; she didn’t dare say it out loud.
She wasn’t afraid of Wang Lanxiang, she was worried about her two younger brothers.
They were too reckless, impulsive, and acted without thinking.
They were already so furious, if she so much as fanned the flames instead of holding them back, the two of them would go completely out of control.
The lesson from her previous life had been far too brutal. Even if she truly wanted to go all out against Wang Lanxiang, she could not let these two little brats sense it.
She stood up and said to the two of them, “Come in with me.”
Then she headed into the main room first.
The two boys followed right behind her.
Su Qiao didn’t turn on the light. The three of them sat together in the darkness.
With the cover of darkness, she finally dared to speak a little louder. “So you don’t actually have any evidence. It’s all just speculation.”
Hearing this, Su Wei thought his eldest sister was about to lecture him again. He craned his neck and shouted back angrily, “If I had evidence, would I still be waiting till now? If I’d caught her in the act, I’d have gone straight over and smashed their stove! Not just smashed their stove—I’d have set their whole house on fire!”
Just as expected!
Hearing this, Su Qiao was so angry her stomach ached.
Without holding back, she raised her hand and smacked Su Wei on the head.
She didn’t use much force, but it was enough to shut the kid up.
“Why don’t you just get yourself killed! You want to smash their stove, can you even do it? Can you beat Uncle? Or Su Xiaojun and Su Xiaowu? One slap from them and you’d be pinned to the ground!”
After scolding him, Su Qiao raised her hand again.
She was fully prepared to give him another smack if the little brat dared to talk back!
But to her surprise, after hearing her words, Su Wei scratched his head and suddenly lowered it, muttering something under his breath.
“What did you say? Speak up!” she snapped impatiently.
Su Wei glanced up at her and, sure enough, raised his voice, saying in a sulky tone, “I said, why are you and Brother Xiao so alike? You say the same things, even the way you smack me on the head is exactly the same!”
Su Qiao: “……”
She couldn’t be bothered to respond to that nonsense and took the initiative to change the subject. “That temporary stove behind the kitchen, who built it? You two?”
“No.”
Su Wei shook his head. “Brother Xiao helped us build it. He did most of it—Xiao Peng and I just helped him carry stones from the river.”
“And the one who had you go on a midnight ‘surprise attack’, that was him too?” Su Qiao suddenly steered the topic back again.
The two of them froze, then both shook their heads rapidly at the same time.
Su Wei, even more indignant, shouted, “Sister, don’t blame Brother Xiao! That idea was mine, if anyone’s to blame, it’s me. Brother Xiao just wouldn’t let me go fight at Uncle’s house. He said even in a fight, you need strategy. Before going, you have to make sure there’s solid evidence and that you’re safe, you can’t fight unprepared.”
“I thought about it, and Brother Xiao was right. We have no evidence. If we went straight up to her, she definitely wouldn’t admit anything. And I can’t beat Cousin and the others. Since Auntie tried to play a trick on us, we’ll play one back and see who gets the last laugh!”
Hearing her younger brother speak like this, Su Qiao couldn’t help but see him in a new light. A warm sense of satisfaction, like that of a proud mother, welled up in her chest.
If her two brothers could always think things through like this before acting, that would be amazing!
Thinking of this, her gratitude toward Xiao Qifeng grew even stronger.
At the same time, her curiosity about exactly what the two brothers had done grew even more intense.
“What exactly were you two up to just now?” she couldn’t help asking.
Su Wei and Su Peng now realized their sister wasn’t going to scold them, so their courage grew. They even dared to tease her a little.
Hearing her question, Su Wei grinned smugly and deliberately yawned a big, exaggerated yawn, patting his brother on the shoulder. “Xiao Peng, you sleepy?”
“Sleepy.” Su Peng imitated his brother with an equally over-the-top yawn, then turned his head in the dark, trying to sneak a look at their sister.
“Come on, I’ll take you back to the room to sleep.” Su Wei grabbed his brother’s shoulder.
Then he tugged him toward their room.
“Su Wei!” Su Qiao shouted, exasperated.
Su Wei laughed twice more and tossed out, “You’ll know tomorrow morning.”
……
And indeed, Su Wei was right—Su Qiao learned early the next morning exactly what her two little rascals had been up to.
Not only did she know, the whole village knew.
At five in the morning, when the sky was just starting to lighten and most people in the village were still asleep, a sharp scream rang out from Su Changfu’s house!
Immediately followed by chaos, chickens scattering, dogs barking, and then Wang Lanxiang’s anguished shouts and curses.
She swore in words too filthy to repeat, cursing and yelling while calling out her two sons’ names at the top of her lungs.
The village was still very quiet at that hour, so such a racket naturally woke a lot of people.
These past few days, the Su household had already been noisy enough, and people didn’t understand what they were up to this time.
One by one, villagers came out of their homes, wanting to go over and see what was happening at the Su house.
But before anyone even reached the front gate, the overwhelming stench stopped them in their tracks.
By now, the Su household was in complete chaos.
Su Xiaojun and Su Xiaowu, the two brothers, heard their mother’s screams and ran out of the house!
Still a little groggy, they were instantly awakened by the eye-watering stench as soon as they stepped outside.
Before they could even react, Wang Lanxiang began a new round of cursing from the outhouse, accompanied by uncontrollable yelps of pain.
The two brothers broke into a cold sweat, forgot everything else, and sprinted toward the outhouse.
As soon as they got inside, they were stunned by the scene before their eyes, their minds frozen!
At that time, rural outhouses were still pit toilets: a deep hole dug in the ground, with two wooden planks laid across the top. People would stand on the planks while using it.
That morning, when Wang Lanxiang went to the toilet, one of the planks suddenly broke for some reason. She had no warning and fell backwards, landing directly into the pit.
Since chemical fertilizers hadn’t become common yet, people still relied on farm manure, so the Su family’s pit was especially large and deep.
Wang Lanxiang, already in her forties, landed badly without any preparation, straining her back almost instantly.
Beyond the filth covering her, the main problem was the pain.
Her mouth could scream, but her hands, feet, and body dared not move; the waves of sharp pain were enough to make her nearly faint.
Humiliation, pain, and anger combined, her face could no longer maintain composure.
She descended into a state of near madness.
She cursed and screamed desperately, using the vilest language she could, as if this was the only way to release her fury.
What she didn’t realize was that her screaming would only attract more onlookers, turning her entire family into the village’s laughingstock once again.
Su Xiaojun and Su Xiaowu were sweating profusely, panicked.
They no longer cared about the filth and stench and crouched down to try to pull their mother out of the pit.
But before they could even get a good grip, Wang Lanxiang, wracked with pain, flailed and refused to let them touch her.
In the process, she splashed even more filth onto the two boys.
The farce finally ended only when the brothers, at their wit’s end, ran out embarrassed to seek help. With the neighbors’ assistance, they fetched Su Changfu, who had gone out to collect manure, borrowed a flat cart from the village committee, and together pulled Wang Lanxiang out and took her to the town clinic.
That morning in Xiaojin Village was extremely lively, everyone got to witness a truly stinky spectacle.