Since Qiao Wan returned to her maiden home early, the two of them had breakfast at the Qiao residence.
After the meal, Qiao Wan pulled Qiao Qing along to check on the June Frost drying in the courtyard, which was almost ready.
Qiao Qing glanced at the four men in the main hall staring each other down, then leaned closer to her younger sister and said with heartache:
“Little sister, you’ve suffered.”
“Huh?” Qiao Wan thought her sister was referring to Huo Yan’s aunt from the Huo family.
Qiao Wan felt she hadn’t been much affected. If anyone had suffered, it should be Huo Yan.
“Little sister, no need to hide it. I already know everything.” Qiao Qing’s eyes reddened. Her younger sister had become much more sensible after marriage, even keeping things from them to avoid worrying them. But this only made Qiao Qing’s heart ache more.
“On your wedding night, I should have gone to fight that Huo Yan to the death!”
“You came to my house on my wedding night?” Qiao Wan snapped her head toward Qiao Qing, disbelief flooding her eyes.
Qiao Qing nodded emphatically. “Not just me. Big brother went too, and he even smashed the door.”
“So that noise at the door that night was big brother breaking it?” Qiao Wan was screaming internally, but struggled to maintain composure on the surface.
Her big brother usually seemed so steady and reliable—who would have thought he could be so… so reckless when provoked! And her sister, who appeared so petite, actually contemplated “fighting to the death” with Huo Yan?
Huo Yan’s stern, cold face instantly surfaced in her mind. If he learned that not only was his door smashed on his wedding night, but his wife’s family had come shouting about “fighting to the death”… Qiao Wan couldn’t help shivering.
“Sis!” She grabbed Qiao Qing’s hand, both anxious and exasperated, lowering her voice. “You… you really… Huo Yan didn’t do anything to me! That night was just a misunderstanding, really!”
Afraid Qiao Qing wouldn’t believe her, Qiao Wan pointed toward the rabbits in the kitchen. “Those return gifts were specially caught by Huo Yan. If he treated me poorly, why would he bring gifts back?”
Qiao Qing thought her younger sister’s words made sense, but pressed again: “Are you telling the truth?”
“True, absolutely true.” To stop Qiao Qing from overthinking, Qiao Wan decided to give her something else to focus on:
“Sis, I found a way to make money. How about we do it together?”
“What way?” Qiao Qing’s eyes immediately lit up.
Just as Qiao Wan was about to speak, the front door was kicked open with a “bang.”
Zheng Shi stood in the doorway, screeching with her raspy voice: “Qiao Wan, get out here and face me!”
Zheng Shi stood with hands on her hips like a dark tower blocking the entrance, her spittle nearly spraying into the courtyard. Her beady eyes glared venomously at the sisters, especially when she spotted the bamboo trays of drying vegetables behind them, fueling her rage.
“Well, well! Married to Huo Yan for just two days, and you’ve already emptied his house to supply your family’s poor den.”
Zheng Shi’s voice was so loud she seemed determined to let all the neighbors hear:
“I knew you little slut was up to no good! Yesterday you dragged Huo Yan to town, and today you move all the good stuff to your maternal home. Everyone, come judge for yourselves—how thick must their savings be to keep filling the Qiao family’s bottomless pit!”
“Oh my, early in the morning I wondered whose dog got loose, barking wildly at my door. So it’s Auntie Huo!” Hearing someone insulting her younger sister at the door, Qiao Qing shot over like a firecracker and glared fiercely. “You elders act without any dignity, shouting nonsense at our doorstep!”
Qiao Wan quickly followed, angrily demanding, “Aunt, the homecoming gifts were four rabbits prepared by Huo Yan. You’re falsely accusing me of subsidizing my family without any evidence. I want to ask you properly—what exactly am I subsidizing? Have you ever seen a married woman subsidize her family with rabbits instead of gold or silver?”
Seeing how confidently Qiao Wan spoke, completely disregarding her as an elder, Zheng Shi slapped her thigh and resorted to making a scene. She plopped down on the ground and began wailing loudly:
“Oh my! This is outrageous! Everyone, come and see! This is the fine daughter the Qiao family raised—she just got married and already disrespects her elders, ordering me around and not showing any regard for her aunt!”
Her wails were deafening, but not a single tear fell. Her eyes darted around sneakily, clearly trying to draw more onlookers.
“Huo family, you should speak with a clear conscience. How is our Qiao family’s daughter disrespecting you as an elder?” The four men in the main room heard the commotion and came out, with Qiao Fugeng speaking first.
“Qiao Fugeng, this is the fine daughter you raised! She stole all my vegetables, and now she wants me to produce evidence? The empty vegetable patch without a single melon is the best evidence!”
Qiao Wan was so angered by Zheng Shi’s words that she laughed. Zheng Shi was speaking so ambiguously, making it sound as if she had stolen vegetables from her family.
“What nonsense are you talking, Aunt? Who stole your vegetables? All the neighbors are here watching—I didn’t bring any of your vegetables back with me this morning when I returned home.”
“That’s right, Qiao Qing even came to my yard to pull some green onions this morning,” a middle-aged woman holding a rice bowl explained.
A younger woman chimed in, “She borrowed potatoes from my house.”
“Exactly! Zheng Shi, you can’t just falsely accuse people without any evidence!” Another neighbor, unable to stand it any longer, spoke up in support.
Although the original host had been a troublemaker, the rest of the Qiao family were honest and decent people who got along very well with their neighbors.
Seeing that no one believed her and instead everyone was siding with Qiao Wan, Zheng Shi flew into a rage out of humiliation.
She scrambled up from the ground, planted her hands on her hips, and pointed a finger almost directly at Qiao Wan’s nose, her voice shrill:
“You say you didn’t steal, so you didn’t? Did all the vegetables in the garden grow legs and run away on their own?”
Just as Qiao Wan was about to retort, a calm, cold voice cut through the noise from behind her.
“Aunt.”
Huo Yan stepped forward from the crowd, subtly positioning himself in front of Qiao Wan.
His gaze was steady yet penetrating as it settled on Zheng Shi, and the surrounding chatter gradually quieted.
He asked calmly, “You keep insisting Qiao Wan stole vegetables. So, whose vegetables did she steal?”
Zheng Shi, still fuming, blurted out without thinking, her voice still raised: “Naturally, the vegetables from the plot behind your house! Why even ask?”
This was exactly what Huo Yan had been waiting for.
The corners of his lips tightened almost imperceptibly, his voice remaining steady but cutting through the air like ice dropped into boiling oil, ensuring everyone nearby heard him clearly:
“In that case—if Qiao Wan picked vegetables from her own garden, how can it be called ‘stealing’?”
His words silenced the entire crowd.
The neighbors, who had been murmuring moments before, suddenly looked as if they had just realized the truth.
“That’s right! The land behind Huo Yan’s house belongs to the young couple, doesn’t it?”
“Oh my, exactly! Qiao Wan picking vegetables from her own garden—how could that be called stealing?”
“This Zheng Shi… after all this fuss, it turns out to be like this! What sheer nonsense!”
“You gave me such a fright—I really thought the Wan girl had done something wrong again, but it was just her own property…”
The crowd’s gazes toward Zheng Shi instantly filled with contempt and mockery. Huo Yan’s single sentence had laid bare the absurdity of this farce.
Only then did Zheng Shi realize she had misspoken in her panic. Her face flushed crimson in an instant, and she stammered, “I… I…” for a long while, unable to utter a single word in her own defense. Under the crowd’s jeering stares, she wished she could vanish into a crack in the ground.