Cheng Yi trembled slightly. Ye Manshu walked outside to look and found the woman somewhat familiar.
“Who are you?”
The other woman was thin, in her thirties, standing with her hands on her hips.
“Well, well, isn’t this Wang Lin’s mother-in-law? What’s this? Here again to mooch off your daughter’s family?”
Ye Manshu searched through the original owner’s memories and quickly remembered who she was.
It was Wang Lin’s aunt by marriage—Madam Shen.
Ye Manshu looked toward Cheng Yi, who had followed her outside. “You owe her family money?”
Cheng Yi stammered softly, “Her chicken ran into our vegetable garden and ate the vegetables. Xiao Nian chased it out, and she said the chicken got frightened and stopped laying eggs, so she demanded compensation from us.”
Speechless. Absolutely outrageous.
Ye Manshu planted her hands on her hips, perfectly imitating the original owner’s shrewish attitude.
“Oh my, how terrible! You shouted so loudly just now that you frightened my precious daughter! Now she can’t have children anymore! How much are you going to compensate us?”
Madam Shen froze.
“How could shouting make her unable to have children?”
“How couldn’t it? Your hen got frightened and stopped laying eggs. My daughter got frightened and stopped having babies. A human life is worth more than livestock, isn’t it? Fine then, however much compensation your hen deserves, you pay us double. I’m only giving you a discount because you’re Wang Lin’s aunt. If it were anyone else, I’d demand ten times more!”
Someone nearby burst out laughing.
Sure enough, it took a true troublemaker to deal with another troublemaker.
Madam Shen was notoriously difficult herself.
“Y-you… you’re completely unreasonable!”
Ye Manshu deliberately acted weak and pitiful.
“Waaah! Your loud voice frightened this poor lady again! You’ve frightened two people in my family now! I may not have children anymore, but you scared my insides back up into my stomach. M-my stomach hurts. Xiao Yi, quickly fetch the physician! Oh, and let your aunt pay the medical fees since she caused this!”
Unable to outargue her, Madam Shen’s chest heaved with rage.
“You filthy— I’ll tear your mouth apart!”
She lunged forward to hit Ye Manshu.
But Ye Manshu hadn’t grown up getting beaten by others.
The moment Madam Shen charged over, Ye Manshu moved faster. She grabbed a fistful of the woman’s hair and yanked backward, then—careful to stay out of everyone’s direct line of sight—pinched painful spots on her body.
At the same time, she jabbed pressure points, poking wherever it hurt most.
Madam Shen flailed wildly, kicking and hitting Ye Manshu, but somehow had no strength behind her blows. It didn’t hurt at all. She only succeeded in dirtying Ye Manshu’s clothes.
Meanwhile Ye Manshu screamed dramatically while fighting back.
“Aaaah! Madam Shen can’t win an argument, so now she’s beating people!”
By the time Ye Manshu shoved her away, Madam Shen’s face had gone pale.
Meanwhile, Ye Manshu sat dramatically on the ground and wailed.
“Oh heavens! So this is how people from Wang Family Village bully outsiders! Not only do they refuse to compensate us for frightening me and Xiao Yi, they even beat me!”
Madam Shen nearly exploded with rage.
“You were obviously the one hitting me! How dare you say I hit you?!”
Ye Manshu deliberately dug at her ear. “What? Mingming hit you? Then go find this ‘Mingming’ person. Don’t come looking for me!”
The surrounding crowd burst into laughter.
Who knew Ye Manshu had comedic talent too?
Madam Shen was so furious she tried rushing over again.
“You filthy— it was obviously you who beat me! I barely touched you!”
“Stop!”
The village chief of Wang Family Village had arrived.
“What kind of spectacle is this?”
Village Chief Wang was Wang Lin’s uncle within five degrees of kinship.
He had come after hearing about Wang Lin’s injuries and was carrying a fish with him. Instead, he arrived to find this chaos.
Village Chief Wang looked at Ye Manshu with an ugly expression.
“Ye Manshu, what are you doing here? Causing trouble for Wang Lin’s wife again?”
Ye Manshu nearly spat blood.
Original owner, look at the mess you made—now she had to bear the blame for all of it.
“Fifth Uncle, my mother really didn’t come to cause trouble this time. She came to see me. She even gave me money,” Cheng Yi quickly defended Ye Manshu. “And Wang Lin’s injuries were treated by my mother too.”
Village Chief Wang looked doubtful. “She can treat illnesses?”
Everything had happened too suddenly yesterday. Aside from the nearby neighbors, most villagers still didn’t know Wang Lin had been injured. The news had only spread today.
And because Physician Li had been present yesterday, everyone assumed he had treated Wang Lin. Only Wang Lin’s family knew that Ye Manshu was the one responsible.
Cheng Yi nodded eagerly. “Yes, Fifth Uncle. My mother studied medicine under Physician Li. Physician Li himself said she has talent for medicine. My husband was saved by her.”
The village chief didn’t dwell on that point. Whoever had treated Wang Lin didn’t matter—what mattered was that Wang Lin had survived.
That was good. Otherwise, with only orphans, a widow, and two underage siblings left behind, that family would truly have been ruined.
“Fine then. What’s this fight with Madam Shen about? This is Wang Family Village, not your Backing Mountain Village.”
Ye Manshu pointed at her filthy clothes and the shoe prints on them.
“I don’t care what village this is. This old hag beat me! What are you going to do about it?”
Madam Shen cried out angrily, “She—she was the one who hit me!”
“But your body is perfectly clean. I only pulled your hair once. Where did I hit you? Tell everyone exactly where I hit you.”
Madam Shen instantly went silent.
How could she expose those private places in public? Ye Manshu’s pinches hurt terribly, but she couldn’t exactly reveal those areas for inspection.
Ye Manshu, on the other hand, absolutely dared to show her own injuries.
There was already a bruise on her wrist. In truth, it wasn’t caused by Madam Shen at all—it came from accidentally hitting the table corner while beating Cheng Kang earlier.
Now the bruise had turned dark purple. Even Ye Manshu hadn’t expected it to become such perfect evidence.
“Everyone look! Look at this! Madam Shen really hit me! This is only the visible injury—there are injuries in places I can’t even show. My whole body hurts. And all of you saw her kicking and hitting me nonstop. I never kicked her at all!”
Village Chief Wang’s face darkened.
Too many people had witnessed everything.
Even with his authority as village chief, he couldn’t openly bully Ye Manshu.
After all, in the past, when Ye Manshu came to Wang Lin’s home causing trouble, he had once presided over things and had people drive her out of the village. But then Backing Mountain Village’s chief Li Daoshun and Ye clan leader Ye Wu had both brought people over, and the villages had fought several times.
Most importantly—
His side had lost.
They simply couldn’t beat the people from Backing Mountain Village.
Ye Manshu could behave outrageously in her home village because she truly had powerful backing there.
So Village Chief Wang remained extremely wary of her.
Finally, he glared at Madam Shen instead. She wasn’t any good either.
“That’s enough. Madam Shen, give Wang Lin’s wife ten eggs. Stop causing trouble and get back home.”
Madam Shen still feared the village chief. Grumbling furiously, she fetched ten eggs and shoved them at Cheng Yi.
“Eat yourselves to death, you little bitch!”
Ye Manshu instantly fired back with vocabulary from the original owner’s memories.
“Mad enough to die, old bitch!”
Sure enough, Madam Shen nearly choked from rage.
Then Ye Manshu turned toward Cheng Yi.
“Stand up straight for once. You’re always shrinking into yourself. No wonder people bully you.”
Village Chief Wang: “…”
“Ye Manshu, don’t you feel guilty saying that? You were the one who bullied Wang Lin’s wife the most.”
Ye Manshu rolled her eyes.
“Was I bullying my Xiao Yi? That was Xiao Yi being filial to me. And this fish you brought—isn’t it for Wang Lin? Wang Lin can’t eat it, but my daughter needs nourishment.”
As she spoke, she gestured for Cheng Yi to take the fish.
Village Chief Wang hesitated. He feared Ye Manshu would simply keep it for herself.
But Cheng Yi obediently stepped forward to accept it, so he could only sigh and warn her:
“It’s fine if you and the children eat it. Just don’t let outsiders eat it.”
Cheng Yi nodded, accepted the fish—
Then immediately handed it to Ye Manshu without hesitation.
“Mother, here.”
Village Chief Wang shook his head helplessly.
Even the cleanest official couldn’t settle family affairs.
He pitied her misfortune and hated her weakness.
Madam Shen spat on the ground. “Dog-bitch thing!”
Ye Manshu shot back instantly, refusing to lose.
“Who are you calling a dog-bitch thing?”
Madam Shen answered automatically, “Dog-bitch thing means you!”
The moment she realized what she’d said, everyone around her—including Ye Manshu—burst into uncontrollable laughter.