“Mother-in-law, have you forgotten? I wasn’t the one causing trouble at the wedding today—I’m the victim!”
Lin Qiao’s voice trembled slightly with hurt, tugging the onlookers’ attention back to her.
That’s right! The huge fiasco at the Liu family wedding originally started because Liu Meili publicly clung to the man! This new bride didn’t really do anything wrong.
Wang Shufeng fumed—Lin Qiao was full of smooth talk and clever words.
“How dare you accuse your little sister-in-law! I think you came to my house to scam a marriage! Our family just stepped out, and money’s gone missing from the house! The home-woven cloth I’d been saving for years disappeared! And the two old hens in the house—you ate them too! My granddaughter can testify!”
Wang Shufeng felt she wasn’t exaggerating. Now, let’s see how Lin Qiao could weasel out of this!
A murmur ran through the crowd. If this were just a mother-in-law versus daughter-in-law dispute, people might step in to mediate. But Lin Qiao had allegedly stolen things, stolen money? This was no trivial matter!
Some of the women already showed anger on their faces. A thief in the village—who would dare leave their home unguarded after that?
Lin Qiao’s eyes reddened. Her shoulders trembled, and her voice carried hurt mixed with anger.
“I respect you as an elder, but you can’t falsely accuse me like this! You say I slandered my little sister-in-law—but everyone here saw everything! From start to finish, did I even mention Liu Meili once?
You say I ate the hens. I ate chicken, sure, but bones remain, right? Dare you open the door so everyone can see where I threw the bones?”
She pressed her hand to her flat stomach for emphasis. “I ate two old hens myself—would my stomach still look like this? Today, marrying into your Liu family, I barely had a bite to eat, only water.
And the cloth you mentioned? I never saw any. When I left the Liu household, I was hurried, yes, but plenty of villagers saw me—I carried nothing!”
A woman in the crowd spoke hesitantly, “I saw Lin Qiao leave. She left empty-handed, nothing at all.”
The onlookers erupted into chaos—some claimed Lin Qiao wasn’t guilty, others said Wang Shufeng wasn’t.
Wang Shufeng refused to believe it. She shouted hysterically, “You’re lying! My granddaughter can testify! You killed the chickens and ate them! And my money—you stole it too!”
Lin Qiao’s eyes glistened with unshed tears, but she lifted her chin stubbornly, refusing to let them fall.
She turned toward the courtyard, spotting Liu Xiaomei peeking from the doorway.
“Xiaomei, did you tell your grandmother you saw me kill the chicken and eat the meat?”
Her gaze at Liu Xiaomei carried a sharp threat, though her back was to the crowd.
Liu Xiaomei shivered. She wasn’t one of those gullible children outside who took every rumor at face value. Lin Qiao was far from weak.
Earlier that day, Lin Qiao had personally thrown her into adult conflicts.
After weighing the risks, Liu Xiaomei decided to protect her grandmother. She feared Lin Qiao, but she feared Wang Shufeng even more.
In her mind, truth didn’t matter as much as survival. Growing up under Wang Shufeng’s authority, obedience was ingrained.
Moreover, this time, Liu Xiaomei wasn’t lying—she had indeed seen it herself.
She nodded timidly. “I saw my stepmother kill the chicken in the yard, then go to the kitchen to cook it.”
The crowd erupted again.
“Xiaomei admits she saw Lin Qiao eating the chicken! Could Lin Qiao really have fooled Shufeng and been a thief?”
“Children can’t lie; it must be true! Lin Qiao really isn’t a good person!”
“Our village can’t have thieves like this!”
Amid the chatter, Lin Qiao kept her gaze on Liu Xiaomei, a slight curve forming on her lips.
A sense of unease rose in Liu Xiaomei, but before she could think further, Lin Qiao spun back to face the crowd. Tears finally spilled freely from her eyes.
Her delicate, pitiful face looked even more endearing.
She raised an arm, wiping her tears with her sleeve. Her voice choked, but her expression remained stubborn and unyielding.
“I never expected the Liu family to team up to falsely accuse me.
If the Liu household cannot accept me, then I’ll leave!”
Before Wang Shufeng could respond, Lin Qiao spoke again: “I may leave, but before I go, I must prove my innocence!”
She led the crowd of onlookers into the Liu family courtyard.
Lin Qiao opened all the house doors one by one, letting the outsiders clearly see the rooms.
When Wang Shufeng’s door was opened, the mess inside caused several women to shout.
“Shufeng loves cleanliness! How did her room get like this? A thief must have ransacked it!”
“The Liu family’s new daughter-in-law is a thief! She even wants to prove her innocence! It’s obvious—Xiaomei testified, she ate the chicken and definitely stole Xiangyang’s mother’s money!”
“Better chase her away! Our village can’t have troublemakers like this!”
Wang Shufeng glared at Lin Qiao, refusing to intervene. She wanted to see what this little brat would do next.
Ignoring the chatter, Lin Qiao continued opening the remaining doors, until Liu Xiaomei’s room was revealed.
Dozens of flashlights shone into the small room, illuminating it fully.
A few chicken bones tucked in a corner caught the crowd’s attention.
Several women leaned in. “This is Xiaomei’s room? Why are there leftover chicken bones here?”
Liu Xiaomei hurriedly explained, “No! It was my stepmother killing the chicken. She forced me to eat it with her, so no one would blame her.”
The excuse was flimsy, but barely believable.
Lin Qiao snorted coldly. “Still trying to lie!”
She entered Liu Xiaomei’s room, crouched, and dug out a pile of leftover chicken bones from under the worn little bed.
The moment the crowd saw the bones, their eyes turned toward Liu Xiaomei.
The murmurs erupted again:
“This… Xiaomei ate the chicken!”
“Why would she falsely accuse Lin Qiao?”
“Why else? She’s just bad! Too young to behave!”
“This child is naturally mischievous. She ate it herself but blamed her stepmother!”
Liu Xiaomei’s eyes widened in disbelief at the bones pulled from under her bed. “What… how did these get here? It’s not me! I didn’t eat the chicken! Lin Qiao ate it—she’s framing me!”
The hesitant women watching now looked disgusted.
“This child is hopeless. First, she said she saw Lin Qiao eat the chicken. Then she said her stepmother forced her. Now the bones were found under her bed, and she claims she didn’t eat it at all—Lin Qiao did. She’s just compulsively lying!”