“Pah! How am I not accumulating virtue? I’ve spent three whole years raising her at my age. That’s the greatest virtue I could possibly have accumulated!”
By now, Tang Yuan had recovered somewhat and could hear everything outside loud and clear.
She reached up and touched the bandaged wound on the right side of her head.
This wicked old hag. She got the benefit and is still acting like the victim.
Just you wait. Once I’m completely recovered, I’ll find a way to deal with your entire family.
“You call that accumulating virtue? Stop talking nonsense! Where’s Wufeng? Get Wufeng out here. I want to ask her whether she was the one who pushed Yuanya down.”
“Oh, heavens! We’re being accused unjustly!”
“First Sister-in-law, my Wufeng respectfully calls you First Auntie! That Tang Yuan girl obviously fell down the slope herself because she wasn’t careful. How can you accuse my Wufeng like this?”
“My girls are all grown up now and are of marriageable age. If word gets out that they harmed a fellow clan member, how are they supposed to find husbands?”
Tang Yuan recognized this voice.
It belonged to the wife of the third son of Great-Granduncle Ba’s family.
She was Wufeng’s biological mother.
Normally, she loved taking shortcuts and avoiding work. She was even more fond of ordering the original owner around than she was of ordering her own daughter.
She was definitely not a good person.
“If she didn’t push her, then I still have to ask her something!”
“Why did she come rushing down the mountain right after she had just gone up there?”
“And if she didn’t push Yuanya, when she saw Yuanya fall into the ditch, why didn’t she come back and call for help?”
“She didn’t call anyone!”
“That cold-hearted girl simply ran down the mountain without looking back!”
“My goodness! There was such a huge wound on the girl’s head. Thank goodness Er Zhuzi discovered her in time. Otherwise, we’d be dealing with a dead child!”
“You’ve moved into someone else’s large brick house, eaten their grain, and mistreated the only child their family has left.”
“Yes, Yuanya is a girl, but she was still the apple of my Second Great-Uncle and Second Great-Aunt’s eyes.”
“As the old saying goes, people may do things in secret, but Heaven is watching.”
“You’d better be careful when you sleep at night.”
“Who knows? Maybe Yuanya’s grandparents, father, and mother will come stand beside your beds in the middle of the night and strangle you!”
Tang Yuan heard every word from inside the room.
Suddenly, an idea flashed through her mind.
There it is!
This is exactly how I’m going to deal with this family.
Today, the original owner had gone up the mountain with Wufeng to gather wild vegetables.
While they were there, the two had gotten into an argument over the eight mu of farmland.
The eldest daughter of Great-Granduncle Ba’s family, Dafeng, had found a husband from the city through the introduction of her aunt who lived there.
Since she wanted to look respectable when meeting the man’s family and make them think highly of her, she had set her sights on Tang Yuan’s eight mu of farmland.
They wanted to give two mu of it to Dafeng as part of her dowry.
That way, the family in the city would look more favorably upon her.
Naturally, the other brothers in the family weren’t willing to agree.
Those were eight mu of fertile farmland!
Ever since Emperor Wu ascended the throne, he had reduced many of the taxes imposed on ordinary people.
The harvest from eight mu of land was therefore quite substantial.
It was a huge piece of fat meat, and everyone wanted a bite.
The little girl Tang Yuan wasn’t even dead yet.
The land clearly belonged to her.
Yet nobody had bothered to ask what the original owner herself wanted.
It was as though those eight mu of farmland already belonged to them.
Today, while they were on the mountain, Wufeng had brought up the subject of the farmland.
She had spoken indignantly.
They were both daughters, so why did Tang Dafeng get to have farmland as her dowry?
Just because she was marrying into a city family?
Even someone as timid and weak as Tang Yuan could understand what was going on.
Great-Granduncle Ba’s entire family was plotting to take her eight mu of land.
That absolutely couldn’t happen.
Before her mother died, she had specifically told her that this land was what she would rely on to survive in the future.
She couldn’t sell it.
And she couldn’t let anyone deceive her into giving it away.
So she had argued with Wufeng.
And that’s when Wufeng, already furious, had pushed her down the slope.
That was how the original Tang Yuan had lost her life.
The words Madam Ma had just spoken gave Tang Yuan an idea.
If she wanted to drive this rotten family out of her house and reclaim her farmland, it would probably take quite some effort.
Even after something this serious had happened and she was lying in bed unable to move, there was still Zhao Shi, Great-Grandmother Ba.
That old woman was extremely difficult to deal with.
She was stubborn, shameless, and greedy.
Getting her to spit out such a huge piece of fat meat would certainly not be easy.
Tang Yuan’s plan was simple.
What were ancient people most afraid of?
Ghosts and gods!
Otherwise, why did people in modern times always describe ancient people as “superstitious”?
They firmly believed that there were gods watching over them three feet above their heads.
Since they feared ghosts and spirits, Tang Yuan would simply use a method that connected directly to the underworld to deal with them.
Just wait and see.
I refuse to believe I can’t scare the hell out of you.
Tang Yuan went over the plan in her head and considered whether it was feasible.
At that moment, the medicine began taking effect.
Combined with the fact that she had cracked her head open and lost quite a bit of blood, Tang Yuan stopped paying attention to the noisy arguments outside and gradually fell into a deep sleep.
When Tang Yuan woke up again in a daze, the pain in her head had already eased considerably.
However, she was still very weak, so she kept her eyes closed.
Even without opening them, she could tell that there were other people in the room.
Just then, Tang Yuan heard an elderly woman’s voice.
The voice was dry and hoarse.
She immediately recognized it.
It belonged to the clan leader’s mother—the woman whom the original owner called Great-Grandmother.
The old woman was already in her eighties, yet she was remarkably healthy.
Her hearing was excellent, and her eyesight was still sharp.
She also held tremendous prestige within the Tang clan.
“Old Eighth, what you’ve done isn’t right.”
“Three years ago, when Yuanya’s mother passed away, I said that we should bring the girl to live with us.”
“Raise her for a few years, and when she reached marriageable age, we could have her uncles and aunts find a decent young man to marry into her household.”
“That way, at least the family line of Second Brother’s branch could continue.”
When Great-Grandmother reached this point, she tapped the tobacco pipe in her hand several times.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
The sound was particularly distinct in the quiet room.
Then she continued.
“But what did you people do?”
“You moved into her house without saying a word.”
“If Yuanya had been living well, this old woman wouldn’t have interfered.”
“But everyone with eyes can see what kind of life that girl has lived these past three years.”
“Old Eighth, you and your wife have no conscience!”
“You’ve wronged Second Brother!”
As soon as she finished speaking, Great-Grandmother Zhao seemed ready to start making a scene.
But before she could say anything, Great-Grandmother silenced her.
“Shut that foul mouth of yours!”
“If you want to make a scene, go home and do it there!”
“Look at all the people in this room.”
“You’re already this old, yet you still don’t know how embarrassing you’re being.”
“Old Eighth, if you can’t control your wife, I’ll have my eldest son open the ancestral hall.”
“And in front of the ancestors’ tablets, I’ll teach her a proper lesson myself.”
The moment she mentioned opening the ancestral hall, the situation became serious.
Great-Grandmother Zhao immediately fell silent and sat back down.
After listening for so long, Tang Yuan finally figured out where she was.
She was no longer in her original home.
She was probably at the clan leader’s house now.
This room was Great-Grandmother’s main bedroom.
She had probably been carried here while she was sleeping.
Judging from the overlapping voices of people talking and trying to mediate the dispute, there were quite a few people in the room.
That was good.
Very good.
Her plan needed to be carried out in front of as many people as possible.
Especially in front of Great-Granduncle Ba’s family—the very people trying to seize her property.
So Tang Yuan first gave a soft cough.
She deliberately made the sound to let everyone know that she was about to wake up.
Sure enough, the moment they heard her cough, everyone reacted.
The first voice she heard was an anxious woman’s voice.
Then she felt someone quickly move to her side.
It was Madam Ma.
“Oh my goodness! This girl is waking up!”
“Yuanya, are you awake?”
“Can you hear your First Auntie’s voice?”