Just as she was about to leave the courtyard, Cheng Siwen grabbed her arm.
“Su Qingli, you’re not allowed to say anything reckless! Otherwise, I’ll tell everyone that you borrowed money from loan sharks! Let’s see who will dare marry you after that!”
“Go ahead.”
Su Qingli pushed him away without the slightest fear.
“Then I’ll tell everyone that you were the one who persuaded me to borrow from loan sharks. I’m illiterate and was deceived by you. You took all the money I borrowed and squandered it. Let’s see which academy will still dare accept you after that!”
Fire flashed in Cheng Siwen’s eyes.
“What good will it do you if we both go down together? Do you really want us both to die?”
Su Qingli gave him a mocking smile.
“I’m a woman. Even if my reputation is ruined, so what? I won’t die from it. But you’re a talented scholar. Surely your reputation is much more valuable than mine?”
With that, she ran off.
Cheng Siwen’s expression instantly fell apart. He gritted his teeth and chased after her.
Su Qingli had no time to pay attention to him. She was only worried that Su Changle might actually hurt someone.
Little Stone Village was situated in a basin, and most of the village’s farmland was concentrated in the same area.
As soon as Su Qingli left the village entrance, she could already see a large crowd gathered around her family’s field in the distance.
Before she even had time to shout, the sound of Mengmeng charging forward had already startled everyone.
After all, no one dared to stand in the way of a two-thousand-pound adult bull!
“The old Su family’s bull has gone crazy! Move!”
“Get out of the way! If it hits someone, they could die!”
Everyone looked terrified and automatically made way.
This allowed Su Qingli to see Su Changle, who was surrounded by the crowd.
His face was smeared with mud, and he was gripping a sickle while waving it wildly and roaring,
“Get lost! This is my family’s land! I planted this rice with my own hands! Whoever dares to take it, I’ll cut them down!”
“You little bastard, this land doesn’t belong to your family anymore! And you still dare to hurt people with a knife!”
“You’re a bastard born without a father to raise you!”
Everyone in Little Stone Village knew that Old Su had died in battle many years ago, leaving Jiang Susu to raise her three children alone.
Those words struck directly at the most painful place in the Su family’s hearts.
Su Qingli’s expression instantly turned cold.
Without saying a word, she flew forward and kicked the man who had been running his mouth, sending him straight into the muddy field.
“With a mouth as filthy as yours, what kind of beast raised you?”
The man struggled through the mud and got back on his feet. He looked up and cursed furiously.
“Which blind bastard dared to kick me?!”
Su Qingli recognized him.
He was a lame widower named Li Fugui.
The two families lived very close to each other, separated only by a vegetable plot.
“You foul-mouthed girl! Who are you cursing?”
“You, of course!”
Su Qingli shot back.
“Mr. Li, before you insult people, why don’t you use your brain for once? If my brothers and I were born with a father but had no father to raise us, then doesn’t that mean your daughter Chunhua was born with a mother but had no mother to raise her?”
“You!”
Li Fugui’s face immediately turned ugly. Unfortunately, he had no way to refute her.
Chunhua was Li Fugui’s only daughter. When they were young, she often played with the original owner.
But Chunhua had developed sores on her face, and after the original owner mocked her, the two families stopped associating with each other.
In order to save enough money to treat his daughter, Li Fugui was willing to do any dirty or exhausting work as long as he was paid.
This time, Cheng Siwen had paid him to harvest the rice from the Su family’s field.
Su Changle stared blankly at Su Qingli.
His sister had actually stood up for him.
In the past, that would have been impossible.
Su Qingli had always ignored the trivial matters at home. Her eyes had been filled with nothing but that man surnamed Cheng.
But now, she had actually defended him in front of everyone and even said, “my brothers and I”…
He had never thought those four words could sound so beautiful.
“You people surnamed Su really are unreasonable! This land hasn’t belonged to your family for a long time. What right do you have to stop us from harvesting it?”
Li Fugui held it in for a long time before finally managing to say this.
“Yes! This land was indeed bought by the Cheng family,” Su Qingli admitted without denying it. “But what everyone doesn’t know is that I was deceived by Cheng Siwen…”
Before she could finish, Cheng Siwen, who was standing behind her, rushed forward with bloodshot eyes.
“Su Qingli, shut up!”
Su Qingli impatiently kicked Cheng Siwen aside and continued,
“I was deceived by Cheng Siwen. I borrowed money from loan sharks and couldn’t repay it, so I had no choice but to sell my family’s land…”
The moment she said this, the crowd erupted in an uproar.
Li Fugui sneered mockingly.
“A young woman actually dared to borrow from loan sharks! Aren’t you afraid Old Su’s coffin will pop open from anger?”
“You crippled bastard! What nonsense are you talking about?”
Su Changle roared and charged at him, raising his fist to punch him.
Li Fugui had difficulty moving because of his bad leg. After only a few blows, he was shoved to the ground and lay in the mud, cursing angrily.
“The daughter borrows from loan sharks, the son beats people up! All of you surnamed Su are crazy!”
“No! That’s not true! My sister was wrong!”
Su Changle desperately shouted.
“I’m the one who went to the gambling house and lost money! I was the one who borrowed from loan sharks! It has nothing to do with her!”
He turned around and shouted at Su Qingli,
“Su Qingli, are you crazy? Stop talking nonsense! I’m the one who borrowed the money!”
Just then, Su Changqing suddenly pushed through the crowd. He was panting heavily as he shouted,
“No! I’m the one who borrowed from loan sharks! Not Second Brother and not our sister! It was me!”
As he spoke, he rushed over and grabbed Su Changle.
“Second Brother, you idiot! You’re still so young. If you say you borrowed from loan sharks, how are you ever going to find a wife?”
Then he turned toward Su Qingli, his voice filled with urgency.
“Ah Li, go home quickly. Stop causing trouble here. I was the one who borrowed the money in the first place. I’ll take responsibility for it myself.”
“Big Brother!”
Su Changle’s eyes reddened with anxiety. He lowered his voice.
“Don’t say that! Sister-in-law will blame you! I’m younger, so let me take the blame!”
“No!”
Su Qingli stood on the ridge between the fields, looking at her two brothers fighting to take responsibility for something that wasn’t theirs.
Her eyes suddenly grew hot.
Her heart felt sour and bitter, yet at the same time, an unfamiliar warmth surged through her.
In her previous life, she had been completely alone.
In this life, she had unexpectedly gained the love of a family.
“Big Brother, Second Brother, stop.”
Standing on the field ridge, Su Qingli explained everything from beginning to end, making every detail completely clear.
“I, Su Qingli, will admit to everything I have done. But this land was deliberately schemed away from us by the Cheng family. I must make him return it!”
Cheng Siwen had fallen to the ground, but he still refused to give up.
He struggled to defend himself.
“Everyone, don’t believe her nonsense! Su Qingli has already gone crazy!”
He suddenly struggled to his feet. His expression became vicious as he pointed at her and shouted,
“Su Qingli was kidnapped by human traffickers and sold into a bandit’s hideout! She lost her innocence a long time ago! She’s only deliberately twisting the truth and framing me because she’s angry that I refused to marry her!”
His words were like thunder exploding from a clear sky, completely throwing the crowd into chaos.
“What? Su Qingli encountered human traffickers? And she was sold into a bandits’ hideout?”
“My goodness! If she was abused by bandits, how will she ever get married in the future?”
“Human traffickers actually made their way into Little Stone Village? Is that true?”
“Is this man surnamed Cheng telling the truth?”
Several older women whispered among themselves, looking Su Qingli up and down with a mixture of fear and disgust.
Many of the men also looked at her strangely and began whispering among themselves.
But some people suspiciously looked at Cheng Siwen.
“Scholar Cheng, how do you know all this so clearly? Did you see it yourself?”
Cheng Siwen was momentarily speechless.
“Of course it’s true!”
He stubbornly raised his voice.
“Ask her two brothers where she went yesterday and when she came back!”