“Auntie, you know how I usually treat you. How could I possibly cheat Guoheng Ge out of his money?”
Liu Qingying wore a deeply wronged expression, tears streaming continuously down her face, looking utterly pitiful.
Zhou Yufen spat directly on the ground.
“Bah! Spouting lies without batting an eye, aren’t you afraid of being struck by lightning!”
Liu Qingying shook her head in denial between sobs: “Auntie, I’m really not lying. If you don’t believe me, you can go back and ask Guoheng Ge…”
Her figure appeared frail, and her tone sounded equally pathetic.
But given Zhou Yufen’s temperament, how could she possibly fall for such tactics.
She quickly scrambled up from the ground, impatiently cutting off Liu Qingying’s words.
“Is this pitiful act how you usually deceive my Guoheng?”
“Save it! My son might be completely bewitched by you, willing to help you with anything, but this old woman isn’t so easily fooled!”
“All these years you’ve cheated Guoheng out of so much money – if you don’t return it today, I’ll make sure you and your daughter never live in peace again!”
Zhou Yufen was single-minded about getting the money back, her attitude unyielding.
She completely disregarded how others might react to her words.
Auntie Yang was the quickest to respond, standing among the crowd and speaking with sarcastic loudness.
“From the sound of it, the Lu Family’s son has been carrying on with Liu Qingying.”
“If Sister Zhou says so herself, it’s probably true.”
When Zhou Yufen heard this, she immediately realized she had misspoken, her face flushing with anxiety.
Her Guoheng was the most promising young man in all of Da Shan Village – his reputation must not be tarnished!
Zhou Yufen glanced at the equally flustered Liu Qingying, then pointed at her while gnashing her teeth in anger.
“Don’t misunderstand, everyone! My Guoheng has nothing to do with this vixen!”
“It’s this vixen who doesn’t know gratitude, taking advantage of my Guoheng’s kindness to cheat him out of his wages!”
Liu Qingying gritted her teeth under the verbal assault, mentally cursing the old hag countless times.
What did she mean by “cheating”?
That was clearly money she had legitimately borrowed through her own means.
Unable to control her own son, she comes to cause trouble for me instead.
Liu Qingying could bear it no longer, secretly giving her daughter a look.
The next moment, Ya Ya walked crying up to Zhou Yufen.
“Grandma Zhou, please stop scolding my mom. It’s my fault.”
“If I hadn’t been sickly since childhood and frequently ill, Mom wouldn’t have had to borrow money from Uncle Lu.”
“Don’t worry, Grandma Zhou, Ya Ya will eat less from now on and will definitely find a way to pay you back.”
Ya Ya was frail and sickly. Now six years old, she still looked thin and small, evoking unwarranted pity.
Some couldn’t stand to watch any longer and tried to reason with Zhou Yufen.
“Auntie Zhou, look, Qingying only borrowed money from your Guoheng to pay for Ya Ya’s medical treatment. How can that be considered cheating?”
“That’s right, they’re just a widow and orphan. Of course they can’t come up with that much money to repay you right away.”
“Why don’t you give them some extra time to figure out how to gather the money?”
Zhou Yufen nearly jumped with rage when she heard this.
“What do any of you know?!”
The villagers all thought that since Liu Qingying had been widowed so young, she must be having a hard time raising her child alone.
But she had long known from Guoheng that Lin Zi had left a considerable sum of money to Liu Qingying and her daughter.
This was also why Zhou Yufen hadn’t stopped her son from getting too close to this vixen.
Over the years, Liu Qingying had frequently brought her jing mi xi mian, oil, and pork under the pretext of repaying Guoheng.
Zhou Yufen was overjoyed at that moment, holding Liu Qingying’s hand and praising her for knowing how to repay kindness.
She thought her family had gained a great advantage, never realizing that all these years, Liu Qingying had been spending her son Guoheng’s money.
Whenever Zhou Yufen thought about all the jing mi xi mian and pork they had consumed over the years, her heart ached with pain.
She raised her eyes and glared fiercely at Liu Qingying: “Don’t think I don’t know your husband left you money! No matter what, you must return the money to me today!”
Liu Qingying momentarily panicked, unsure what to do, when Lu Guoheng pushed through the crowd and approached.
“Mom, what are you doing?”
“Qingying and Ya Ya have no one to rely on. I lent them money out of consideration for Lin Zi’s sake.”
“When Ya Ya gets a bit older, Qingying will find work and gradually repay us.”
Lu Guoheng spoke with a frown, hoping his mother would stop making a scene.
Seeing Lu Guoheng arrive, Liu Qingying finally felt relieved.
She stepped forward, her eyes reddening as she nodded in agreement: “Auntie, I’ll repay the money to Guoheng Ge in the future.”
Hearing her son’s words, Zhou Yufen nearly fainted from anger.
“My son, if you’ve given all the money to them, what will our family do? What about Xiao Ran’s future education?”
Seeing his mother’s eyes gradually redden, Lu Guoheng felt uncomfortable.
He softened his tone and assured her:
“Mom, don’t worry, we’ll have money. It definitely won’t affect Xiao Ran’s schooling.”
No matter how he phrased it, he never actually asked Liu Qingying to repay the money.
Song Jinhe stood in the crowd holding Lu Xiaoran’s hand, smiling scornfully.
Looking at Zhou Yufen who was so angry she could barely breathe, she only thought she deserved it.
Zhou Yufen had always indulged Lu Guoheng’s closeness with Liu Qingying. Whenever Song Jinhe argued with Lu Guoheng over Liu Qingying and trembled with anger, Zhou Yufen would blame her for making a big deal out of nothing.
Zhou Yufen said her son was busy with work and told Song Jinhe not to nitpick over trivial matters.
When receiving jing mi xi mian from Liu Qingying, Zhou Yufen often made sarcastic remarks about how much more considerate Liu Qingying was compared to Song Jinhe.
Song Jinhe had contributed her dowry yet suffered grievances from all sides. Now seeing Zhou Yufen so angry she might have a heart attack, she couldn’t feel more satisfied.
Seeing her son determined to protect Liu Qingying, Zhou Yufen across from them could no longer contain herself.
She suddenly rushed at Liu Qingying, raising her hand to strike her while cursing loudly.
“I’ll beat you to death, you homewrecker!”
“Tell me, what kind of love potion have you given my son!”
Lu Guoheng hurriedly stopped her, shouting: “Mom, don’t do this!”
But Zhou Yufen wouldn’t listen, struggling to hit Liu Qingying even while being restrained.
Liu Qingying stood pale-faced, fearfully holding Ya Ya in her arms.
Lu Guoheng struggled to hold back his mother, sweat beading on his forehead from anxiety.
Catching sight of Song Jinhe watching from the crowd, his anger flared.
“Song Jinhe, Mom is like this, aren’t you going to come help stop her?”
The crowd had been too engrossed in the spectacle, only noticing Song Jinhe’s presence when Lu Guoheng called out.
People blocking Song Jinhe’s path quickly made way, and seeing this, she simply walked out pulling Lu Xiaoran along.
“I can’t stop her. I came to demand something too.”
Liu Qingying had spent so much of Lu Guoheng’s money, and Zhou Yufen had been kept in the dark all along.
Now that she knew, it was perfectly understandable that he was furious and wanted to teach Liu Qingying a lesson.
If it weren’t for the fact that Song Jinhe needed to retrieve her own pendant, she would definitely have pulled up a chair and watched this entire spectacle unfold.
Lu Guoheng was so enraged by her words that his face flushed crimson, his tone brimming with anger.
“What kind of time is this? Do you think there isn’t enough chaos already?”
Even if she was jealous and wanted to make a scene, she should at least pick the right moment!
Song Jinhe ignored him and reached out to pat Lu Xiaoran’s back.
“Say what we discussed on the way here, just as we planned.”
Lu Xiaoran looked up, cautiously glancing at her, then turned his gaze toward Ya Ya, who was hiding in Liu Qingying’s arms, a slight hesitation showing on his face.
Liu Qingying’s heart had sunk the moment she heard Song Jinhe mention coming to collect a debt.
Lu Xiaoran’s gaze toward Ya Ya only confirmed her suspicions.
Instinctively, Liu Qingying reached for the pocket where she kept the jade pendant.
While speaking to Lu Xiaoran, Song Jinhe had been closely watching Liu Qingying’s movements.
When she saw Liu Qingying instinctively reach toward her pocket, she breathed a heavy sigh of relief.