Song Jin had already anticipated from the moment Madam Yang came to steal food that the matter of the sweet potatoes would eventually be exposed.
She had also predicted that Madam Yang, being vicious by nature, would definitely try every possible way to destroy her.
And she had long expected the sight of sweet potatoes to awaken the refugees’ greed and expose their true nature.
But since Song Jin dared bring the sweet potatoes out from her space, she had never feared any of this.
Looking at Xiao Fugui’s greedy face as he crowded forward, she sneered inwardly.
Right in front of everyone, she pulled open the sack.
“Village Chief, this is the last food my family has left. There are sweet potatoes, wild vegetables, elm seeds, and four waterskins of water. But none of this was gathered by me. I walked nearly ten li and, by luck, encountered a caravan escort group. I traded my gold bridal headdress to them in exchange for these supplies!”
After a pause, she pointed directly at Madam Yang.
“And yet the moment she arrived, she still wasn’t satisfied after stealing six of my sweet potatoes. She even greedily tried to seize the last bit of life-saving food my family has left! Madam Qian even went so far as to try murdering Mumu. The two of them are vicious to the core!”
Weren’t Madam Yang and Madam Qian convinced she wouldn’t dare reveal the sweet potatoes publicly?
Didn’t Xiao Fugui want to know where they came from?
Well now she had opened the sack before everyone and explained their “origin.”
Surprised?
Shocked?
Song Jin dared expose the food and pin its source on a nonexistent caravan escort because she knew Xiao Fugui feared death, and she also understood the fear ordinary refugees held toward escort caravans.
Those who traveled the world protecting caravans—whose hands weren’t stained with blood?
Who among them hadn’t killed before?
Even bandits and roaming outlaws rarely dared provoke such people.
These refugees were nothing but penniless commoners.
Did anyone seriously expect them to rob armed caravan escorts over a few sweet potatoes?
That would just be courting death.
Regardless of whether Song Jin’s story was true or false—even if people suspected it was fabricated—the refugees from other villages no longer dared entertain thoughts of tracing the sweet potatoes’ origin.
As for robbing the sack?
They decided to wait and watch.
If someone else dared move first, they would join in afterward.
When Xiao Fugui heard the sweet potatoes had supposedly been traded from caravan escorts using Song Jin’s gold bridal headdress, his face instantly turned green.
“What did you say? These supplies were traded from caravan escorts? Using your bridal gold headdress? Ai-yo! What a terrible loss! A terrible loss!”
What a wasteful woman!
That gold headdress was worth at least twenty taels of silver!
He had coveted his daughter-in-law’s dowry for ages.
Now that he heard twenty taels had effectively vanished, his heart bled.
Especially when he thought about how the sweet potato field and water source no longer belonged to him—it felt like knives stabbing straight into his chest.
“Is now really the time to discuss whether it was a loss or not?”
The village chief glared at Xiao Fugui’s shameless, heartbroken expression until his own face darkened.
Then he barked furiously:
“Madam Yang! Madam Qian! With the evidence laid out in front of everyone, what else do you have to say?”
Damn it.
The old Xiao family clearly had able-bodied adults, yet instead of going out searching for food, they spent every day plotting how to torment their sons and daughters-in-law.
If he didn’t take this opportunity to deal with them properly, they would sooner or later cause even bigger trouble for the refugee group.
The village chief had clearly seen the greed on the faces of Xiao Family Village’s women, children, sick, and elderly the moment Song Jin opened the sack.
Especially the village troublemakers whispering among themselves.
Aside from Xiao Dalang and his wife, the rest of the old Xiao family were all troublemaking pests.
He couldn’t allow such people to bring disaster upon the refugee caravan.
The moment Madam Yang and Madam Qian saw Song Jin open the sack, they knew the situation had turned bad.
Even in their dreams, they had never imagined Song Jin would truly dare expose the sweet potatoes publicly—or stubbornly refuse to let go of the accusation that Madam Qian had shoved Mumu toward the fire.
If the accusation of intentionally trying to murder Mumu became established as fact, the village chief would never let them off lightly.
The village chief had the authority to punish them directly.
Although they couldn’t formally convene the ancestral hall during the refugee journey, the village chief could still expel them from the clan and cast them out of the refugee group.
Neither woman dared imagine how miserable their fate would become if that happened.
Madam Qian’s eyes spun quickly as she suddenly grabbed hold of Xiao Jinlian—who had been lying on the ground pretending to be dead—and immediately shifted the blame.
“It was Little Sister-in-law! She’s the one who called me over! If she hadn’t encouraged me, how would I have lost my senses like this?”
“Third Sister-in-law?!”
Even while playing dead, Xiao Jinlian ended up getting shot by friendly fire.
She was completely dumbfounded.
Was this woman seriously bullying the weakest target she could find?
Furiously, she shouted:
“Third Sister-in-law, you’ve gone too far! You and Dabao each ate a sweet potato, and you still stuffed another one into your—”
Before she could finish—
Smack!
Madam Yang viciously slapped her across the face.
“Shut up!”
Madam Yang was practically dying from anger.
How had she given birth to such an idiot?!
Wasn’t Xiao Jinlian basically admitting outright that the three of them came to rob food?
At that point, Madam Yang could no longer deny anything even if she wanted to.
And the village chief clearly wasn’t about to give her the chance.
He casually pointed at two notorious village shrews standing among the crowd.
“Madam Fan, Madam Lin, go search them! Not just Madam Qian—search Dabao and Madam Yang too! If you can’t find the sweet potatoes, pry open their mouths and check their teeth!”
There was no one more suitable for the task than village shrews.
They weren’t afraid of offending anyone.
“Alright, Village Chief!”
The two women responded eagerly, practically delighted.
They were searching for stolen sweet potatoes!
Maybe they could even pocket some benefits themselves.
The reputation of these two village shrews truly wasn’t undeserved.
Both women slyly chose to search Dabao first.
They suspected Madam Qian would hide the stolen goods on the child, where people were least likely to notice.
And even if nothing was hidden on him, anyone who had eaten sweet potatoes would still have traces left between their teeth.
“Ah! Let go of my son! Husband! Aren’t you going to come out and help?!”
The moment Song Jin opened the sack earlier, Madam Qian had indeed secretly stuffed the flattened sweet potato from her pocket onto Dabao while no one was paying attention.
She had even tried to get him to run away.
Unfortunately, Dabao seemed somewhat slow-witted.
Not only did he fail to flee, he simply stood there stupidly grinning at his mother’s swollen pig-head face.
Madam Qian tried rushing over to protect him, but Song Jin suddenly stepped in front of her.
Terrified, Madam Qian could only turn toward Xiao Yongtai for help.
But when Xiao Yongtai and Xiao Yongkang met the icy, deathly stare of Xiao Yanzhi, both brothers instantly lost their courage.
Xiao Yanzhi had accidentally discovered that the two brothers had secretly slept with Widow Wang from the village.
Both men feared Xiao Yanzhi might suddenly expose their scandal in public.
So from beginning to end, aside from feeling greedy toward the sweet potatoes, the two had behaved themselves obediently and barely dared breathe loudly.
Faced with Madam Qian’s cries for help, Xiao Yongtai simply pretended to be deaf.
Xiao Yongkang cowardly took another step backward.
And asking Xiao Fugui for help?
What a joke.
Just moments ago, Xiao Fugui had nearly wanted to strangle Madam Yang and Madam Qian for their stupidity.
Now he had directly blamed the “loss” of twenty taels of silver on the two women.
He practically welcomed the village chief punishing them on his behalf.
After all, the village chief would never truly expel the old Xiao family from the clan or refugee group.
He, Xiao Fugui, was still the father of a xiucai scholar.
Surely the village chief wouldn’t dare go too far against him because of that status alone.