Lin Jiabao saw it too, but quickly steadied himself. He secretly pinched Madam Li.
“Mother, how can you talk about Cousin like that? She must have been staying at the Li family estate for Father’s sake! She’s so close to Miss Xu. All she needs to do is say a word, and she can have Manager Feng return those seventy taels!”
“Right, right! Hurry and ask Miss Xu to speak to Manager Feng!”
Madam Li came back to her senses and hurriedly said,
“As long as Manager Feng stops pursuing your father’s responsibility and returns the money to us, we can repay Lord Xiong. You wouldn’t refuse to help your aunt and uncle, right?”
With just a few sentences, they had backed Su Wan’ning into a corner.
“You… how could you…”
Su Wan’ning didn’t need to say much. She simply put on an expression of shock.
Behind her, Qingfang stepped around her, raised her arm, and slapped Lin Jiabao hard across the face.
“Pa!”
Her voice was cold and stern.
“What do you think you are?”
“Pfft!”
Lin Jiabao had been watching Su Wan’ning closely. Suddenly, his cheek exploded with pain, and half his body was knocked onto the bed. A mouthful of blood spurted out.
Madam Li was so frightened that her lips trembled.
“How dare you hit someone?”
“You… you dare hit me?”
Lin Jiabao was completely stunned.
“Getting hit by me is already giving you face!”
Qingfang shot him a cold look and raised her voice.
“Your father made a mistake, so he deserves to be punished. Your family has houses and farmland, yet you refuse to sell even a little of it. Instead, you borrowed money from Lord Xiong. So it turns out you’ve been plotting against Miss Su and our young lady all along. How greedy can you be?”
Xu Lingxi added,
“What happened to all the money Miss Su sent home over the years?”
The Lin family’s courtyard gate was wide open.
Many villagers had gathered to watch the commotion.
Su Wan’ning caught sight of Wang Chunxiu from the corner of her eye and immediately spoke gently.
“Lingxi, forget it. That money was simply my way of showing filial respect.”
Her willingness to back down only made Wang Chunxiu angrier.
“The child worked so hard in the palace! She saved every bit of that money and sent it all to you, yet you spent it recklessly. Now that something happened, you still expect the child to clean up your mess? Where do you get the nerve?”
Within a day, the whole village had already heard the story of what happened to Lin Mao.
Someone who had always coveted the Lin family’s farmland immediately chimed in with a grin.
“Exactly! You have so much land. Are you selling any of it cheaply? I’d be happy to help you out.”
Madam Li hugged Lin Jiabao and wailed.
“Son! They’re bullying us because they have power! They’re trying to force us to our deaths!”
“Aunt, that’s not right.”
Su Wan’ning immediately refuted her.
“You casually asked Miss Xu to bend the rules for you. Isn’t that damaging Miss Xu’s reputation? If the Old Ancestor finds out, even knowing she wouldn’t actually do such a thing, she might blame her for poor judgment and wonder why she became entangled with a family that’s greedy enough to scheme for money.”
“Not only would Miss Xu be reprimanded, but our whole family might not even be able to live here anymore. It could even affect the entire village. What if they stop hiring people from Shili Village in the future?”
Her words turned one family’s mistake into a matter that could implicate the entire village.
Lin Jiabao hurriedly explained,
“Cousin, that’s not what I meant! I just spoke carelessly.”
Then he repeatedly apologized to Xu Lingxi.
“Miss Xu, I was foolish. Please be magnanimous and don’t hold it against me!”
Xu Lingxi couldn’t be bothered to respond to him.
She only looked at Su Wan’ning.
“You kindly came back to see your uncle, but they clearly don’t appreciate you. They’re always trying to suck everything they can out of you. What’s the point of keeping ties with relatives like this? Come back to the estate and stay with me.”
Su Wan’ning smiled at her.
Just as she was about to speak, several people arrived outside.
Leading them was a tall woman.
It was Wan Fang, one of the escorts from Zhao Escort Leader’s team.
She walked straight toward Su Wan’ning.
“Miss Su, I’d like to ask you something. Is this a good time?”
“Escort Master Wan, go ahead.”
Su Wan’ning glanced at Lin Jiabao before walking outside.
Lin Jiabao hurriedly lowered his head, his body visibly tense.
“Would it be better if we talked inside?” Wan Fang looked at the surrounding villagers and asked again.
“It’s fine.”
Su Wan’ning didn’t mind.
Zhao Escort Leader’s disappearance would have to be dealt with sooner or later. Putting everything in the open would actually be more advantageous to her.
“Zhao Escort Leader has disappeared.”
Wan Fang carefully observed Su Wan’ning’s expression. Seeing genuine surprise on her face, she continued,
“After you stayed at the courier station that day, did you see him again?”
Su Wan’ning nodded and carefully recounted how Zhao Escort Leader had come to see her that evening.
She also explained that she had spent the entire night preparing food for the station and hadn’t heard anything unusual.
Wan Fang couldn’t help feeling disappointed.
She had already learned all of this by questioning the people at the station.
There were no new clues.
Where had that man gone?
She couldn’t help asking again,
“What happened afterward? You left early. Did you see him anywhere along the road?”
“No.”
Su Wan’ning pretended to think for a moment before answering,
“Our carriage barely stopped. You should ask around along the road.”
Wan Fang had no choice but to leave.
After seeing her off, Su Wan’ning turned around and immediately saw Madam Li staring at her.
“Aunt, what’s wrong?”
“What exactly happened? You and Zhao Escort Leader, and your arm…”
Madam Li had learned her lesson and only asked half the question.
Wang Chunxiu also came closer.
Su Wan’ning raised her arm.
“I actually want to ask you something, Aunt. Why did you immediately assume that my arm was broken the moment you saw me?”
“How could you even ask that? I’ve seen far too many schemes like this!”
Xu Lingxi couldn’t reveal that she had learned this by eavesdropping, so she presented it as a guess and threw everything out at once.
“Tell me! Did you order Zhao Escort Leader to break Miss Su’s arm? You didn’t expect him to disappear, so when you saw the medicine on Miss Su’s arm, you mistook it for blood? Why did you want to ruin Miss Su?”
The surrounding villagers were stunned.
What kind of people would do something like that? And why?
“Oh my goodness!”
Wang Chunxiu immediately connected all the pieces.
No wonder when they had eaten wontons that night, Su Wan’ning had cried as soon as she was asked about her arm.
She must have already guessed what had happened and been heartbroken.
Wang Chunxiu was furious.
“What a bunch of animals! No wonder Zhao Escort Leader disappeared. Heaven must have eyes. He was clearly planning to do something evil, so maybe the wolves got him!”
Madam Li’s face turned pale, then red.
Her lips trembled for a long time.
Everyone was staring at her.
Especially Su Wan’ning.
Those eyes were like those of a vengeful ghost, almost as if they would devour her alive.
Yet Madam Li herself couldn’t understand how everything had suddenly turned into this situation.
She simply covered her face and began crying.
“I’ve never even met Zhao Escort Leader. How could I have ordered him around? I was only worried about Wan’ning. Sob, sob…”
“Mother!”
Lin Jiabao stepped in front of Madam Li.
“If you keep making false accusations, I’ll report you to the authorities!”
He looked as though he had suffered an enormous injustice.
“Cousin, how can you just let them slander my mother? Mother even said that we should have the village doctor examine your arm that day. You were the one who refused to see him. Why are you deliberately making her misunderstand?”
He had actually seized the key point and thrown the question right back at her.