At this moment, more villagers rushed over. Village Chief Li Daoshun and Clan Elder Ye Wu had also arrived.
News of the incident had spread quickly.
The moment they saw Ye Manshu forcefully breathing air into Madam Sun’s mouth while Cheng Kang pressed hard on her chest—
everyone froze.
This… this…
In their simple village mindset, such behavior was scandalous.
In broad daylight, in front of so many people—even if it was woman to woman…
But more than anything, their first thought was that Ye Manshu had gone mad again.
That crazy woman had always done outrageous things.
Back then, she had practically gone insane chasing after Cheng Zaixu, demanding he marry her.
When Cheng Zaixu refused, she schemed until she managed to sleep with him first. Under pressure from Ye Manshu’s parents, the Ye clan elder, and the village chief, Cheng Zaixu had eventually married her.
Even after marriage, Ye Manshu never stopped causing trouble. While her parents were alive things had still been manageable, but after their deaths she became even more unbearable.
She offended both the Ye clan and the village leadership, and after Cheng Zaixu died, she sold off her two daughters for high bride prices—practically the same as selling them outright.
Not because the family couldn’t survive, but because she wanted her youngest son to study, and not just study, but receive expensive tutoring.
What kind of mother did such things?
People had even heard she later tried to sell her granddaughter too, only failing because the deal fell through.
If not for the Ye clan and village chief protecting her, she would have long since been cursed to death by the entire village.
Everyone had thought she’d finally changed her crazy ways.
But now she looked even crazier than before.
Li Daoshun stepped forward and yanked Ye Manshu away.
“Manshu, what are you doing?!”
Ye Wu also moved to pull Cheng Kang aside.
Ye Manshu hurriedly shouted:
“Second Son, don’t stop! Keep going!”
Then she turned toward Cheng Yuan.
“Eldest Son, get over here and stop your great-uncle and elder uncle!”
Then she added fiercely:
“If you don’t obey, I’ll stop feeding you and beat you to death!”
That sentence carried terrifying authority.
This time, not only did Cheng Yuan block Li Daoshun and Ye Wu, but Madam Yang—who had just arrived—also stepped forward to stop them.
Ye Yuze, Eldest Girl, and Second Girl blocked them too.
Especially Second Girl, who directly hugged Li Daoshun’s leg while sobbing.
“Great-Grandpa! Wuwuwu! Grandma is saving my mother!”
Ye Manshu shook free from everyone’s restraints.
Sweat drenched her face, but she didn’t even bother wiping it away.
She bent down again to perform mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
Suddenly Madam Sun twitched and let out a faint groan.
Then breathing returned.
Ye Manshu immediately checked her pulse and felt the artery at her neck.
Good.
Her heartbeat had returned.
“Stop pressing. She’s alive.”
Cheng Kang froze.
He had personally witnessed his wife without breath or heartbeat.
How had she suddenly come back to life just from pressing on her chest?!
He collapsed onto the ground with a thud. He had used tremendous force.
Meanwhile, Ye Manshu fell limply onto the sand beside them.
She was so exhausted that all she could do was gasp for air with her mouth open.
She felt as if her arms, waist, and legs no longer belonged to her body.
Like a boneless creature, she sprawled weakly across the ground.
Doctor Li was deeply shaken.
He had clearly confirmed earlier that Madam Sun had no pulse and no breath.
She had obviously been dead.
So how could she possibly come back to life?
He simply couldn’t believe it.
He quickly went over to examine her personally.
Sure enough, she now had breathing and a heartbeat. Though her face remained pale and pained, she was undeniably alive.
Ye Manshu weakly muttered:
“Cousin… her rib cartilage is probably broken from the compressions. Give her one of those pills first to ease the pain.”
She didn’t even have strength left to sit up.
It felt as if every part of her body had declared independence and refused to obey her anymore.
Doctor Li took out the medicine pills from her pouch and, following her instructions, selected one for Madam Sun to swallow.
Madam Sun felt intense pain in her ribs but obediently took the medicine.
At this point nobody had the energy to discuss anything else.
The villagers were astonished, but now that the person was alive again, the priority became carrying her home.
Several people helped transport both Madam Sun and the utterly exhausted Ye Manshu back to the Cheng household.
Doctor Li couldn’t properly examine Madam Sun’s chest and ribs because of propriety, but after checking her pulse he discovered the fetus showed no signs of miscarriage.
The child was surprisingly resilient.
He still prescribed some pregnancy-protecting medicine just in case.
Meanwhile, Ye Yuze rushed into the kitchen and quickly made a bowl of egg dumpling soup for Ye Manshu, serving it to her steaming hot.
Only after drinking it did she regain a little strength.
She lifted her fingers weakly to take Madam Sun’s pulse again and check the ribs before applying a medicinal plaster over the injured area.
“You need complete rest,” Ye Manshu said. “At least one week without moving around. Now tell me exactly what happened. Why did you fall into the river?”
Outside the room, Li Daoshun, Ye Wu, and the others all stood listening carefully with their ears practically pressed toward the doorway.
Madam Sun finally hurt a little less and could speak.
She slowly explained what had happened.
It turned out Auntie Wang from next door had taken one of the fish traps. Madam Sun happened to see her while checking the traps.
Auntie Wang insisted it belonged to her family. The two argued on the riverbank, and during the argument Auntie Wang shoved Madam Sun hard, pushing her into the water.
Madam Sun didn’t know how to swim.
Even though the water there was shallow—only waist deep, shallow enough that standing up would keep a person from drowning—
Madam Sun still panicked and failed to stand.
Yet Auntie Wang merely mocked her, accusing her of pretending and trying to extort sympathy.
At that moment Doctor Li happened to be returning from gathering herbs. He dragged Madam Sun out of the water only to discover she already seemed dead.
After examining her, he found no breathing.
That day Eldest Girl and Second Girl had been gathering herbs with Doctor Li.
Since Eldest Girl had trouble walking, she stayed beside Madam Sun while Second Girl ran home for help.
Ye Manshu’s brows shot upward violently.
“Wang Zhaodi!”
She practically spat the name through clenched teeth.
Meanwhile, back at home, Wang Zhaodi sneezed loudly.
“Which bastard is cursing me now?”
“Bring Yongtian’s wife here!”
At Li Daoshun’s command, someone immediately went to summon Wang Zhaodi.
Wang Zhaodi felt somewhat nervous.
Her husband had long since died. One son had gone away for forced labor while the other, only fifteen, worked in town.
At home she had only a grandson and granddaughter, both still young.
Her eldest daughter-in-law had died from postpartum illness after childbirth.
She didn’t even have anyone to stand beside her for support.
Still, she gritted her teeth.
No matter what happened, as long as she stubbornly denied everything, she would be fine.
After all, nobody had directly witnessed her shove Madam Sun.
“Yongtian’s wife,” Li Daoshun said sternly, “Madam Sun claims you stole the Cheng family’s fish trap, pushed her into the river, and left her to die. Is this true?”
The tone of his questioning clearly favored the Cheng family.
Though Wang Zhaodi technically belonged to the Li family through marriage, closeness mattered more. Ye Manshu was his actual niece. Li Yongtian’s branch was already several generations removed.
“Injustice!” Wang Zhaodi naturally denied it immediately. “Madam Sun fell into the river herself! And I never stole the Cheng family’s fish trap!”
Doctor Li’s face darkened.
“You were standing right there. Why didn’t you save her? If you had helped earlier, she wouldn’t have nearly died.”
“Doctor Li, the water was only waist deep! Who would’ve thought she couldn’t get back up?”
What she said technically wasn’t wrong.
No one expected someone to drown in waist-deep water.
At that moment Ye Yuze returned carrying the fish trap from Wang Zhaodi’s home.
“Auntie, isn’t this your family’s trap?”
Ye Manshu glanced at it.
“That’s right. It’s ours.”
Wang Zhaodi immediately lunged forward to snatch it.
“It’s mine!”
Li Daoshun barked sharply:
“Enough! Explain how we can determine whose it is.”
Ye Manshu sneered at Wang Zhaodi.
“Wang Zhaodi, since you claim it’s yours, what identifying mark does it have?”
Wang Zhaodi suddenly felt uneasy seeing Ye Manshu smile like that.
But she stubbornly insisted:
“All fish traps look the same! They’re all woven from thorn branches. What markings could there possibly be?”
Ye Manshu snorted coldly.
“Second Son, let them see whether there’s a mark or not.”
Cheng Kang lifted the trap for everyone to inspect.
“Great-Uncle, look carefully. At the bottom inside the trap there’s the character ‘Cheng.’ My mother specifically had me weave it in using finer branches so nobody could casually steal our traps.”
Sure enough, woven into the bottom interior was the character — Cheng.
The Cheng family were outsiders in this village. There was only one Cheng household in the entire village: Cheng Zaixu’s family.
“Well?” Ye Manshu asked coldly. “Do you still have anything to argue?”
Wang Zhaodi nearly coughed blood from frustration.
How could she possibly have known that?!
“Even if the trap belongs to your family, you still can’t falsely accuse me of pushing Madam Sun into the water!”
Ye Manshu spoke sharply:
“You already started by lying. Why would anyone believe the rest of your story? You stole our fish trap, my second daughter-in-law tried to stop you, and you pushed her into the river. That’s the most logical explanation.
“You say waist-deep water can’t drown people, but haven’t we always said in the village that even wagon-rut puddles can drown someone? If you weren’t deliberately leaving her to die, then what was it? My second daughter-in-law can’t swim. Of course she panicked and couldn’t stand up!”
Hearing Ye Manshu’s analysis laid out so clearly, the villagers all nodded in agreement.
“That’s true.”
“Madam Sun really can’t swim.”
“Wang, surely you knew that? How could you just stand there and watch? She almost died!”
“I didn’t! I didn’t do it! You’re all making things up!” Wang Zhaodi wailed dramatically. “Heavens above! Everyone’s bullying me just because I’m a lonely widow raising children alone—”
Ye Manshu suddenly said to Cheng Yuan and Cheng Kang:
“Help me up.”
The two hurried over and carefully supported her to her feet.
They helped her walk over to Wang Zhaodi.
Then suddenly—
Ye Manshu raised her hand and slapped her viciously across the face.
Smack!