Lunch had barely ended and the family had just set down their bowls when loud pounding shook the courtyard gate.
“Chen Ruolan, come out! Look what your son did to my boy—get out here and give me an explanation!” A shrill female voice screeched from outside.
Yu Chunmiao shot Qi Rong a questioning look. He replied quietly, “It’s my eldest aunt. She’s vicious.”
“What’s there to be afraid of? Let’s go meet her,” Yu Chunmiao said, grabbing a fire poker and heading for the door.
Chen Ruolan quickly yanked her back. “Little ancestor, what are you trying to do?”
“They’ve come knocking—I’m not about to hide like a turtle,” Yu Chunmiao said matter-of-factly, forgetting that she was no longer the tough, 1.7-meter-tall woman of her past life but a frail village girl.
Qi Rong: *Why does sister-in-law seem a little… fierce?*
Qi Chong: *Still feels right.*
Chen Ruolan’s eyes flicked sideways. “Did you forget what we agreed on this morning? In front of outsiders…”
“Ohhh!” Yu Chunmiao smacked her forehead. “Right, right—good thing you reminded me, Mom.” She put down the fire poker and gave up the idea of charging out to fight.
Qi Chong rose, leaning on his crutch. “I’ll go. You all stay inside.”
“Open the door! You dare hit someone but don’t dare come out and face it? You can hide today, but not forever. If I don’t get an explanation, I’ll camp right here!” the woman yelled again.
Qi Rong followed Qi Chong to open the gate. Outside stood Uncle Qi Changsheng and Aunt Zhang Guihua, flanking a battered, bruised Qi Ping. The whole family glared at them viciously.
The moment Qi Ping saw Qi Rong, he burst into tears again. “Dad, Mom, he pinned me to the ground and beat me! He even said Dad wet his pants when he saw the wild boar…”
Qi Changsheng slapped his fat son on the head. *Is that something you should say out loud?* “Why say that? Just tell me—why did he hit you?”
Qi Ping sniffled miserably. “He said Dad wet his pants… I couldn’t stand it…”
Qi Changsheng: *Why did I even ask? Always stuck on the pants-wetting part.*
Qi Rong shot back, “You brought Liu Big Dog and Liu Second Dog to block me for no reason. I didn’t strike first—you grabbed my hair. You wanted the fight, couldn’t win, then ran home to tattle. How spineless.”
Zhang Guihua pointed at Qi Rong and cursed, “You little bastard! Even if he couldn’t beat you, you should’ve stopped. How could you hit him so hard?”
As she spoke, she yanked open her son’s clothes, revealing a large patch of dark bruises across his chest.
Qi Chong glanced at his younger brother. *He didn’t say he beat him this badly—did he grind him into the dirt?* Still, his own brother was his responsibility.
He said coldly, “Are you people done yet? Let me ask you something. My brother didn’t provoke you—why did you bring people to block him?”
Zhang Guihua spat and snapped, “You cripple, did your family build the road? My son can’t walk it? Who are you to say he was blocking your brother?”
Qi Chong laughed in anger. “Then what gives you the right to say my brother beat your son?”
Qi Rong lifted his chin. “Yeah—any witnesses?”
Qi Ping hurriedly said, “Big Dog and Second Dog went with me—they saw everything!”
Qi Rong thought to himself: *Those two idiots were fooled off with just a few words. Fine—bring them here. I’ll make them switch sides.*
“Then go call them! Go on—call them!”
Zhang Guihua waved her hand arrogantly and said to her husband, “Stop wasting time talking. Our son was beaten—let’s just beat them back.”
Qi Changsheng rolled up his sleeves and stepped toward the courtyard. Qi Chong lifted his crutch; every time Changsheng took a step in, he got smacked once. After two or three hits, Qi Changsheng began to hesitate. He had seen with his own eyes how Qi Chong, lying on the ground, had forced open the jaws of a wild boar that had pinned him down.
Zhang Guihua cursed him in frustration, poking his forehead. “What are you afraid of? Their whole family is crippled, sick, or stupid. Let’s rush in—what can they do to us?”
Qi Changsheng thought she had a point. Looking at Qi Chong leaning on his crutch, his confidence surged.
He stepped into the courtyard again, grabbed the crutch as it swung toward him, and shoved forward hard. With only one good leg, Qi Chong couldn’t hold his balance for long and started to fall backward.
Just as he thought he was going down, a pair of hands pushed firmly against his back, steadying him. He turned his head and saw Yu Chunmiao bracing him, acting as his support.
Qi Chong’s heart tightened. *If even the women have stepped in, I can’t lose face now.* With her support behind him, he gathered his strength and shoved, forcing Qi Changsheng back out of the gate.
At that moment, Chen Ruolan also joined the fray. “At the end of the day, you’re elders. Storming over here to bully the younger ones—have you no shame at all?”
Zhang Guihua snorted. “Shame? When your branch took more of Father’s property, did you talk about shame then? Don’t lecture me now—it’s too late! Either hand over the gold bar Father gave you, or I’ll bully you however I please.”
Yu Chunmiao quietly studied the family. Qi Changsheng looked somewhat like Qi Chong—decent features. Zhang Guihua wasn’t pretty but passable. As for their son Qi Ping… that was hard to describe.
Hearing Zhang Guihua’s words, Yu Chunmiao realized this was an old feud between the previous generation, left unresolved and now poisoning the brothers’ relationship. *A gold bar? If there really were gold bars, Qi Chong’s leg would’ve been treated long ago—and Mother’s illness too.*
Chen Ruolan sighed. “I’ve said it countless times—there is no gold bar. Look at our household. Do we look like people who have gold?”
Zhang Guihua sneered. “No gold? Then how did Qi Yunzhen marry you right after the family split and build a house? No gold, yet you didn’t have to work the fields, always clean and tidy, dressed in fine cotton. One day a silver hairpin, the next a bracelet. Where did the money come from—fall from the sky?”
Chen Ruolan never imagined that her husband’s former affection would one day turn into baseless suspicion. He had been tall and strong, born with great strength, then trained in the army and skilled in martial arts.
After returning home, he hunted in the mountains—wild boars, muntjac, even tigers were no match for him. Life had been good back then. They hadn’t built a brick house only because they feared provoking jealousy, settling instead for a rammed-earth one. But her husband had one weakness: dressing her up.
He loved buying clothes and jewelry for her and showing her off. And now, that very indulgence had planted the seeds of disaster.
Chen Ruolan took a deep breath. “We didn’t take any gold from Father. During the years he was ill, Brother Zhen covered all the medicine costs. Even if Father favored us a little, it was deserved. Just go. Stop making a scene—it’s exhausting.”
Zhang Guihua jabbed a finger at her. “See? You admitted it—you admitted Father favored you! Hmph. Today, either hand Qi Rong over so we can teach him a lesson, or bring out the gold bar and split it.”
Qi Chong snapped, “In your dreams! Get out—now—or I’ll break your legs too.”
When Qi Changsheng heard his wife mention gold again, his anger flared. They were both sons—why had Father favored Qi Yunzhen? Always praising him, saying he was capable, just like Father.
“I’m going in today no matter what. Let’s see how a cripple like you stops me!”
Yu Chunmiao thought, how long is this nonsense over imaginary gold going to drag on? She glanced at the troublemaking family again—and a plan quietly formed in her mind.