Bai Lian and Li Xiaorou fanned the flames from the side.
“You dare hit my son? I’ll fight you to the death!”
“Elder sister, just compensate them a little and let this pass. You’re my sister, and they’re my in-laws. Both sides are dear to me—if not for yourself, think of me.”
Li Miaomiao let them argue. Out of the corner of her eye, she kept watching the main hall.
Amid the pushing and shouting, Xiao Xian leaned on his crutch and moved from the hall into the kitchen. He picked up a ladle and stirred the pot.
She had simmered it slowly over low heat. Judging from the color alone, the braised intestines couldn’t possibly taste bad.
After glancing around the kitchen, Xiao Xian picked up the basin of freshly fried meatballs and walked out. Seeing everyone still grappling with one another, he spoke calmly:
“Madam, with so many guests here, I’m afraid these fried meatballs you made won’t be enough.”
His cool voice was unhurried, just loud enough for everyone to hear.
That word—guests—was dripping with irony. Anyone could see this was a fight.
“What? Fried meatballs?”
Instantly, everyone’s attention shifted.
They saw Xiao Xian standing on the steps, one hand on his crutch, the other easily supporting a basin piled high with golden meatballs.
Though dressed in coarse cloth and physically impaired, his striking features and refined bearing made him look like a painting come to life.
And he was the elegant figure within it.
Li Miaomiao’s eyelid twitched. Who told him to bring the meatballs out?
She had only meant to hint through him that there was food in the pot, so the curious villagers would wander into the kitchen themselves.
Shaking off Bai Lian’s grip on her arm, she walked straight to the man and said with a stiff smile, “Thank you, husband, for bringing them out.”
She reached to take the basin.
How could Xiao Xian fail to notice her reluctance? He subtly raised the basin higher, and her hand grasped empty air.
“Husband, give it to me.”
“No hurry.” He lowered his gaze briefly to the crowd, then looked back at her. His eyes softened slightly as he spoke evenly, “Madam, we didn’t host a feast on our wedding day. Why not use these fried meatballs today to show our goodwill? What do you think?”
Hearing the deliberate lilt at the end of his sentence, Li Miaomiao recalled his earlier line about a red apricot branch leaning over the wall and strongly suspected he was doing this on purpose.
Biting the inside of her lip, she forced a painfully sweet smile.
“Everything is up to my husband.”
Seeing how harmoniously the two interacted, Li Xiaorou ground her teeth in anger.
Damn Li Miaomiao—without a dowry, she could still afford meat?
As Xiao Xian descended the steps, Li Miaomiao pretended to support him, but in truth leaned close and whispered so only he could hear:
“Husband, impressive acting.”
His thin lips curved faintly. “Madam isn’t bad either.”
Their gentle smiles and close whispers looked to the villagers like a perfectly harmonious couple.
“They seem to get along well.”
“Yeah. I thought after her dowry turned to nothing and she almost left him, Xiao Xian would beat her.”
Amid the murmurs, Xiao Xian carried the basin to the crowd and said mildly,
“Everyone, have a taste.”
The villagers looked at one another, but no one reached out.
Tie Zhu squeezed out from the crowd, grinned honestly at Xiao Xian, and took one.
“Thank you, Brother Xiao and Sister Miaomiao.”
He popped it into his mouth. At first he chewed hastily, but soon slowed down, his expression turning increasingly astonished.
After swallowing, he stared at Li Miaomiao in disbelief. “Sister, what did you add to the meat? It’s this good? Can I have another?”
“Go ahead.”
Li Miaomiao wasn’t stingy—she was simply poor. She needed to save money for Xiao Xian’s leg treatment and to repair the house.
After expenses, what little silver she earned was nowhere near enough.
When Tie Zhu grabbed another, the rest of the villagers followed.
As soon as they tasted the meatballs, their expressions mirrored his—leaving the four members of the Lin family standing awkwardly aside.
“Delicious! It’s so fragrant!”
“Li Miaomiao, what did you use? Teach us!”
Lin Youcai pulled Lin Dalang to the back and whispered, “Son, this isn’t going as you expected.”
After being beaten, Lin Dalang had gone home intending to bring his parents to teach Li Miaomiao a lesson—and secretly check on Xiao Xian’s condition.
At the last minute, his parents had decided to bring a hoe to threaten her: either give them the back hill plot as compensation, pay silver, or they would smash up the house.
Now things had completely slipped beyond their control.
With the villagers happily eating her meatballs, if Lin Youcai tried to smash anything, many would step forward to stop him.
Lin Dalang could think of no solution and only warned his father quietly, “Dad, don’t use the hoe to break anything. Otherwise, even if we’re right, we’ll look wrong.”
Though events differed from her expectations, Li Miaomiao didn’t let it delay her purpose. Watching the Lin father and son whispering in the back, she sighed deeply and said with a bitter smile,
“Lin Dalang, you claimed I hit you because I resent you for insisting on marrying my stepsister on our wedding day and taking me as a concubine.”
Li Xiaorou sensed danger in what was coming and quickly spoke up, “Sister—”
But Li Miaomiao cut her off. How could she give that little green-tea schemer a chance?
She shook her head and continued, her speech slightly quicker.
“Everyone here—including my husband—can see that though we’re not wealthy, we’re not so poor that we eat dirt.”
“Besides, though my husband’s legs are inconvenient, his appearance far surpasses yours.”
“Why would I abandon such a handsome man to think about you, a faithless one? And to say I hit you out of hatred is even more absurd.”
Handsome man?
Xiao Xian’s gaze darkened.
Li Miaomiao suddenly felt a chill beside her but pretended not to notice.
She spread out her reddened hands for all to see, wearing a long-suffering expression.
“These past few days, to make our home look decent, I’ve risen early and worked late chopping wood and building things. My hands are swollen and red. It hurts just to hold a hatchet—how would I have the strength to beat a so-called seven-foot man?”
Xiao Xian glanced at her. He knew her hands were swollen from soaking, yet let her spin her tale.
“Even stepping back a thousand times,” she continued, “my husband and I live at the village’s edge. Not an inch of your family’s land is here. You ran all the way over, injured yourself on purpose, and then went home saying I beat you—what are you plotting?”
Her words subtly guided everyone’s suspicions elsewhere.
Seven-foot man again!
Lin Dalang felt the phrase branded onto his face. Watching her feign weakness, he gritted his teeth in fury.
This vicious woman was too good at acting.
“Don’t listen to her lies! She’s the one who hit me!”
But after eating her food, the villagers’ hearts softened. They looked at Li Miaomiao’s swollen hands, the stacked wood on the ground, the two new stools by the steps, and the fresh crutches Xiao Xian leaned on.
Who was lying was obvious at a glance.
Uncle Wang from the village stepped forward. “Lin Dalang, you’re a man. Act like one. You don’t know how you got injured and yet you run here to make trouble. Li Miaomiao’s dowry is gone—what more does your family want?”
Everyone knew the Lin family’s little schemes.
Only Li Miaomiao and Old Li had refused to believe the warnings before.
Lin Youcai and Bai Lian immediately rushed to defend their precious son.
“Wang Fugui, explain yourself! How is my son not a man?”
Wang Fugui was burly, having worked as a laborer in his youth, his muscles thick and solid.
He stepped forward, and Lin Youcai stumbled backward several paces.
“Eating from one bowl while eyeing another. Old Li had only one daughter—you nearly angered her to death. Aren’t you afraid Old Li will visit you in your dreams?”
In this superstitious age, such words carried weight.
Bai Lian collapsed to the ground in fright.
Aside from Lin Dalang, both Li Xiaorou and Lin Youcai’s faces turned dark.
Seeing this, Li Miaomiao quickly stepped forward to stop Wang Fugui, adopting a magnanimous tone.
“Uncle Fugui, they came to trouble me today. Don’t let my matter ruin your relationship.”
“My stepsister is right. I was foolish. I shouldn’t have asked for my dowry back after she stole my fiancé. I shouldn’t have demanded my land and household registration either.”
“It’s all my fault. I should have gone with my father.”
As she spoke of sorrow, tears squeezed from her reddened eyes.