“Cut the bullshit! That wild boar was clearly hunted by my son!”
Auntie Zhao stormed in, looking furious.
Earlier, when Old Madam Wang had said that her son had hunted a huge wild boar, she had waited and waited at home, but her son never came back.
Thinking he had taken the boar to the mess hall to have it butchered, she went there too, only to find no sign of either her son or the boar.
Later, she heard on the way that her son had carried the wild boar to Regiment Commander Huo’s house. She rushed over without stopping—and ended up hearing Zhou Yunjing say that Jiang Yan had hunted it.
“Young man Zhou, if you’re going to lie, at least put some thought into it, will you? Just look at Jiang Yan’s skinny arms and legs. You seriously expect us to believe she could kill a wild boar? Who are you trying to fool?”
Zhao Dahu was helping remove the boar’s hair in the backyard. Hearing his mother’s voice, he hurried outside.
“Mom, what are you making a fuss about?”
Hearing her son criticize her, Auntie Zhao became even angrier. She grabbed him by the ear.
“*I’m* making a fuss? I think you’ve been bewitched by that slut Jiang Yan and can’t tell right from wrong anymore! You killed a wild boar and instead of bringing it home, you brought it to her house? What, did she let you crawl into her bed last night?”
Auntie Zhao had already been furious with Jiang Yan for exposing the fact that she had pocketed Huo Zhanting’s food and allowances while refusing to feed the two little boys properly.
Now old grudges and new grievances had all come together, and she hurled the most vicious insults she could at Jiang Yan.
Even her own son, Zhao Dahu, couldn’t stand listening to it anymore. He shoved his mother away.
“Mom, what nonsense are you talking about? How can you make up things like that about your own son?”
Auntie Zhao absolutely could not accept being pushed by her own son. Her legs gave way, and she plopped down onto the ground, wailing.
“Oh, woe is me! How could I have such a miserable life? My own son would actually push his own mother because of some slut!”
“Someone, come judge this for me! Did I say anything wrong? How could that enormous wild boar possibly have been hunted by Jiang Yan? Obviously, these young men worked together to hunt it and gave it to Jiang Yan.”
“Meat is so precious these days! Who would be willing to give an entire pig to a complete stranger unless there was something shady going on?”
“Regiment Commander Huo, hurry back! Your loose woman of a wife is about to put a green hat on you! Regiment Commander Huo…”
Zhao Dahu was most afraid of his mother throwing a tantrum. He was so frightened that he didn’t dare step forward to stop her.
Zhou Yunjing was stunned by the scene and forgot to intervene, allowing Auntie Zhao to carry on unchecked.
The main reason was that everyone thought it was impossible for Jiang Yan to have hunted such a huge wild boar. They were gradually starting to believe Auntie Zhao’s accusations.
At that moment, several military wives arrived as well. They were the wives of the men who had carried the wild boar over.
When they heard that their own husbands had given the boar they had supposedly hunted to another woman, they all exploded in anger and joined Auntie Zhao in cursing Jiang Yan.
Some of the more hot-tempered military wives even rushed into the backyard to drag their husbands out.
Once the men were hauled out, they kept explaining that Jiang Yan had hunted the wild boar, not them. They simply didn’t have the ability to kill something that large.
But the military wives refused to believe them. They thought their husbands were covering for Jiang Yan, and the commotion only grew louder.
Meanwhile, the woman at the center of all the accusations, Jiang Yan, was inside the house having dinner with the two little ones.
The moment the two children heard the shouting outside, they wanted to rush out and explain things for Jiang Yan, but she stopped them.
Nothing was more important than eating!
Besides, she had expended far too much energy that day. She had run deep into the mountains and even hunted a wild boar. She needed to replenish her strength.
But the shouting outside grew increasingly vile, and Jiang Yan finally couldn’t stand it anymore.
*Slap!*
Jiang Yan suddenly turned cold and slammed her chopsticks onto the table.
The two little ones both trembled in fright.
“Stepmom…” Xiao Xi swallowed nervously.
*Whoosh!*
Jiang Yan suddenly sprang to her feet and strode outside.
The courtyard had already descended into chaos. Some people were fighting with their own husbands, while others were cursing Jiang Yan.
Auntie Zhao was shouting the loudest. When Zhou Yunjing tried to pull her away, she scratched his face bloody.
“Sister-in-law, I’m sorry. I…”
Zhou Yunjing felt guilty because he hadn’t managed to explain things clearly to everyone. But just as he was about to say something to Jiang Yan, she raised a hand and stopped him.
Jiang Yan didn’t bother explaining herself either.
She simply strode over and grabbed the spittle-flying Auntie Zhao with one hand, lifting her clean off the ground.
“Ah!”
Everyone around them gasped in shock.
“You little bitch! What are you doing?” Auntie Zhao screamed in terror as well.
Jiang Yan gave her a cold smile and simply threw her away.
*Bam!*
Auntie Zhao flew through the air in an arc before crashing heavily onto the ground.
Then Jiang Yan grabbed several of the military wives who had been cursing the loudest and tossed them aside one after another.
She did it so effortlessly that it looked as though she were throwing sacks of grain rather than people weighing over a hundred pounds.
Jiang Yan looked down at them from above.
“Do you think someone with my level of strength could kill a wild boar?”
“I only used half my strength just now. But if you still don’t believe me, I can also throw you against a wall and make sure you’re stuck there so firmly no one can pry you off.”
“So? Anyone want to try?”
Jiang Yan’s gaze swept across the people lying on the ground.
Whenever her eyes landed on Auntie Zhao and the others, they stiffened from head to toe.
“No, no, there’s no need! We believe you! We believe you hunted the wild boar!”
Auntie Zhao had made the biggest fuss, and she was also the quickest to surrender.
The other military wives hurriedly followed suit.
“Yes, yes, we believe you! We all believe you hunted the wild boar!”
Jiang Yan turned to Zhou Yunjing.
“Wasn’t that easy enough to explain?”
Zhou Yunjing: “…”
She had a point!
“I hate being disturbed while I’m eating. If I hear another sound…”
Jiang Yan hadn’t even finished speaking when—
“Oh! I suddenly remembered I still have clothes to hang out. I’ll go home first!”
“I still have hot water heating on the stove. I need to hurry back!”
“Ah, I need to use the bathroom!”
The neighbors who had come to watch the spectacle immediately found excuses to leave.
They weren’t stupid. There was no way they could withstand being tossed around like sacks by Jiang Yan.
Auntie Zhao and the others couldn’t find excuses to leave because their husbands were still there.
But the moment Jiang Yan’s gaze swept over them, they all eagerly promised:
“We won’t say anything! We promise we won’t say anything!”
Only then was Jiang Yan satisfied.
She snorted and went back inside to continue eating.
After all this commotion, the men no longer had the nerve to ask Jiang Yan for any of the meat. They helped finish dressing the wild boar, then quietly left.
When the women learned that they could originally have received ten pounds of wild-boar meat, they regretted it so badly they nearly beat their chests in frustration.
Jiang Yan went to the backyard after finishing dinner and saw the meat neatly arranged in rows.
Not a single one of them had taken their ten pounds!
Jiang Yan wasn’t some saint.
They had cursed her, and she was still supposed to give them meat?
However, since neither Zhou Yunjing nor Zhong Kui had any family members come over to point fingers at her and curse her, Jiang Yan decided to give the ten pounds of meat to the two of them.
When the military wives saw Jiang Yan giving meat only to Zhou Yunjing and Zhong Kui, with nothing left for them, they were even more regretful.
It was all Old Madam Zhao’s fault!
If she hadn’t stirred things up, they wouldn’t have refused to believe their own husbands!
One by one, they began to resent Old Madam Zhao.
Jiang Yan knew nothing about their thoughts.
After delivering the meat, she went to the compound store to buy salt.
In this weather, wild-boar meat wouldn’t keep for long. Jiang Yan planned to salt and preserve all of it.
After working all afternoon, Jiang Yan looked at the meat hanging all over the kitchen rafters and felt extremely pleased.
That evening, Jiang Yan made another sumptuous feast.
Xiao Jin and Xiao Xi ate until their mouths were slick with grease.
“Big Brother, having a stepmom is really great,” Xiao Xi sighed before going to bed.
Huo Wenjin felt the same.
“That’s why we have to be obedient. We can’t make Stepmom angry!”
“Mm-hmm. We promise we won’t make Stepmom angry… I hope Stepmom never leaves…”
The two little ones chatted until they drifted off to sleep.
After the children were sound asleep, Jiang Yan took a flashlight and quietly slipped into the mountains.
Her plan to hunt wild boars and sell them for money couldn’t be put on hold!