Su Wan’ning certainly had no intention of paying for the meat herself.
She pulled Madam Li’s purse off her and counted out thirty copper coins for Little Radish.
“Twenty coins for the meat. And help your sister find someone who has spring bamboo shoots. Bring back two stalks. Thank you, Little Radish.”
“Don’t worry, Sister!”
Little Radish happily skipped away.
Su Wan’ning ignored Madam Li and found a large rock to sit on. Only when someone came over did she start crying.
“Auntie, wake up! I can’t carry you by myself!”
“Can someone please help me find my uncle and little brother? Sob…”
Several people quickly carried Madam Li back inside, while others split up to find Lin Mao and Lin Jiabao.
Madam Li lay on her side on the bed, blood still seeping from the back of her head.
“Auntie, let me put some more medicine on you.”
Su Wan’ning gently removed the bandage the village doctor had just applied.
In her previous life, after she was injured and returned home, Madam Li had hired a doctor and bought medicine for her.
She claimed it was a secret family remedy.
It hurt more than ordinary medicine, but it worked better.
Su Wan’ning had been deeply touched. Every time, she would grit her teeth and endure the pain, while Madam Li would supposedly become so “heartbroken” that she would cry herself into a faint.
Su Wan’ning could only force herself to change the dressings, which made her believe even more that Madam Li truly cared about her.
It was not until more than ten days later, when the wounds that had already scabbed over suddenly became infected and began to rot, that she rushed to the county to see a doctor.
Only then did she learn that the powder was actually poisonous.
It contained aconite and langdu, and the poison had already seeped deep into the flesh.
The only way to save her hands was to cut away the flesh and scrape the bones.
Otherwise, she would lose both hands.
The pain had felt like dying all over again.
Madam Li had been furious, but when they went back to find that doctor, he had already fled.
Madam Li had cried, made a scene, and even threatened to kill herself, saying that she was sorry and that she was such an idiot for being deceived.
Su Wan’ning had even had to comfort her in return.
She had never realized that the person being deceived from beginning to end had been herself.
Fortunately, she had found the same medicine in the county today.
Madam Li had actually woken up long ago.
She simply did not want to open her eyes.
If she woke up, she’d have to make wontons.
She wasn’t that desperate to work herself to death!
But in the next instant—
The wound that had already stopped hurting suddenly erupted in excruciating pain!
She shuddered violently and pushed herself upright against the edge of the bed.
“What did you put on me?!”
The pain spread through her entire head, coming in sharp, needle-like pulses.
“Auntie, this is good medicine. It hurts, but it works much better than ordinary medicine.”
Su Wan’ning gave Madam Li the exact same words she had once used to persuade her.
She put away the medicine bottle and handed over the bandage.
“Quickly wrap your wound back up. We’ll apply another dose before bed tonight.”
“No! I don’t need it!”
Madam Li repeatedly refused.
Before she could say anything else, an anxious shout came from the courtyard.
“This is bad! Second Brother Lin has gotten himself into serious trouble! The Li family has detained him!”
Madam Li’s face instantly went pale.
The people who had gone out to find Lin Mao soon returned, surrounding a man.
He was Cui Niu, who worked alongside Lin Mao.
The Li family had sent him to deliver the message.
Apparently, Lin Mao had failed to properly guard the storage room.
The hams prepared for the birthday banquet had all gotten damp and moldy and could no longer be used.
Each ham was worth five taels of silver.
There were thirty of them.
Just the hams alone amounted to one hundred and fifty taels in damages.
If he couldn’t pay, they would sell him to the mines!
Cui Niu anxiously explained,
“Those hams were cured a year and a half in advance. You can’t even buy them outside anymore… And they haven’t even held him responsible for delaying the banquet preparations yet.”
“Anyway, bring whatever silver you have. Come with me quickly.”
He looked at Madam Li.
Madam Li was stunned for a moment before suddenly turning toward Su Wan’ning.
Her voice was urgent.
“Wan’ning! Hurry! How much silver do you have left? Take it out and save your uncle!”
“Auntie~”
Su Wan’ning raised her injured right arm and sighed.
“Auntie, I’m lucky just to have made it back alive. How could I still have any silver?”
“Are you really going to stand by and watch your uncle die?”
Resentment and malice gradually filled Madam Li’s eyes.
Su Wan’ning stared straight at her.
Only then did she change her tone.
“But I can go over and see what happened.”
“Exactly! You saw so much in the Imperial Food Bureau. You must have a way!”
“If you can salvage the hams, we won’t have to pay the compensation, will we? We have to save your uncle!”
“I’ll go find Jiabao right now.”
Madam Li hastily wrapped a cloth around her head and got out of bed.
As soon as Cui Niu heard this, he immediately led Su Wan’ning back toward Xiushui Village.
Su Wan’ning took the opportunity to ask him more questions along the way.
It turned out that the two men were merely temporary laborers, helping the Li family build the shed for the birthday banquet.
A few days earlier, Lin Mao had suddenly been called away and told to guard the storeroom.
No one had expected such a serious mistake to happen.
Su Wan’ning repeatedly confirmed that the birthday banquet was being held by the Li family’s Old Ancestor.
Could she have misunderstood Xu Lingxi?
Could the people who had tortured her to death in her previous life actually have been the Li family rather than the Xu family?
In her previous life, Lin Mao had also gotten into trouble.
But by then, Zhao Escort Leader had already taken her bundle, so they must have used her silver notes to ransom Lin Mao.
After she returned home, those beasts had acted as though nothing had happened.
They had hidden everything from her while pretending to care for her and making her feel endlessly grateful to them.
What a complete reversal of right and wrong!
Perhaps it was precisely because of this incident that Lin Mao later became entangled with those people, eventually helping them take her away and torture her to death.
For someone capable of such despicable acts, simply being sold to the mines would be far too easy a punishment.
How could she not add a little fuel to the fire?
How could she possibly let all the suffering she had endured go to waste?
Xiushui Village was not far from Shili Village.
Yet the difference between the two villages was obvious.
Shili Village was bleak and barren.
But the closer they got to Xiushui Village, the more greenery they saw.
As soon as they reached the village entrance, they saw many people working enthusiastically.
A large stretch of bamboo-and-wood shelters had already been built.
At the far end were eight huge cooking stoves, with tables and chairs filling the space beneath the shelter. Oil paper covered the roof.
There was also a stone-paved road stretching into the distance, all the way to the outskirts of the estate.
A dozen or so men were busy building another covered walkway over it.
Around the outer perimeter grew thorny jujube trees and brambles.
Farther inside were pale pink and white crabapple blossoms, with farm women watering them one by one.
The entire place was bursting with life.
There was not the slightest sign of the drought.
Su Wan’ning’s heart sank.
Such extravagant arrangements made it clear that the Li family was no ordinary wealthy household or local landowning family.
To people like them, whether it was Lin Mao after making a mistake or Su Wan’ning herself in her previous life, they were nothing more than ants.
If they wanted to crush them, they could do so without a second thought.
But now that she had been reborn, Su Wan’ning would never again allow herself to be at anyone’s mercy.
She would personally uncover the truth behind her murder and make them pay for it a hundred or a thousand times over.
And not only that.
She needed connections.
She needed money.
She needed to build a foundation of her own so that no one could ever look down on her again!
Suppressing the turbulent thoughts in her mind, Su Wan’ning quickened her pace.
She had just passed through the sea of flowers when Lin Mao’s pleading cries reached her.
“I really didn’t do it on purpose! I-I was framed! Don’t hit me!”
“I can’t afford that much silver! Give me two more days. I’ll definitely find a way! Please, I’m begging you!”
Two days?
Wasn’t that exactly when she should have returned?
Su Wan’ning’s eyes turned cold, but her voice was filled with concern.
“Uncle! Are you all right, Uncle?”
Everyone turned at the sound of her voice.
A young woman was striding toward them.
She looked anxious, yet her steps were quick and steady, and she carried herself with an imposing air.
Only her right arm appeared to be injured, which immediately drew everyone’s curiosity.
Lin Mao was kneeling on the ground.
His face had been covered in tears and mucus just moments ago, but now he froze completely.
This young woman…
Was she calling him?
Uncle?