Chapter 50: Provocation

After handing over all the seeds to Liu Jianchang, Xiao Jie stayed for a short while before leaving.

Over the past few days, Jing Xi had been listening to village gossip and finally learned that Zhou Wenwu and Li Fenghua had a son named Zhou Shu, who was twenty-seven years old, and a daughter named Zhou Yu, who was twenty-four.

Zhou Shu’s wife was Chen Xiaowen. The two of them had married when they were still young, reportedly because Chen Xiaowen had gotten pregnant and had no choice but to marry.

However, after they got married, Chen Xiaowen lost the baby due to a fall while working in the fields. Since then, they had never had children.

Zhou Shu was rarely home, only returning once or twice a month.

Even Zhou Wenwu and Li Fenghua didn’t know what their son was doing outside. He never helped with any household chores and spent all his time in town, hanging around with all sorts of shady friends.

But in front of others, the couple always spoke highly of him, claiming that Zhou Shu was doing big things outside. What exactly those “big things” were, they refused to say—whenever anyone asked, they would simply reply that he was making big money.

Even Chen Xiaowen firmly believed this, despite the fact that her husband barely brought home ten yuan a month. She remained confident that Zhou Shu was working on something grand.

As for the younger daughter, Zhou Yu, she was only three years younger than Zhou Shu. Ever since she came of age and left home, she had never returned.

The villagers often whispered that Zhou Yu had been sold off by her parents to marry an old man in a faraway place. It was said that the Zhou family had always favored their son so much that they sold their daughter to collect a bride price—money that they then used to arrange Zhou Shu’s marriage.

Jing Xi thought back on her own memories. She had never really paid much attention to the Zhou family before. For one, they lived far away and in a different direction, and for another, the original owner of this body had been solely focused on earning money and filling her stomach. She had never been interested in other people’s business.

Days had passed without Li Fenghua causing any more trouble, so Jing Xi had started to relax a little.

However, she had underestimated Li Fenghua. The woman lived up to her infamous reputation in the village—not only was she unwilling to suffer any losses, but she was also exceptionally patient.

The only reason she hadn’t shown up at Jing Xi’s house again was that she was waiting for Zhou Shu to return home.

Zhou Wenwu had insisted that since their family’s elderly members were too old to fight and their daughter-in-law wasn’t capable of brawling, there was no way they could gain the upper hand by themselves. But once Zhou Shu was back, he could intimidate Jing Xi. Maybe then, she’d be scared enough to give up her place.

Conveniently, Zhou Wenwu made no mention of how Li Fenghua had once slashed someone’s face and broken another woman’s leg.

At that time, Liu Jianchang and Zhang Rui were in the middle of building a pigsty in their backyard, so Zhang Rui naturally came to ask Jing Xi for help.

Besides, Jing Xi had already promised to help with cooking when construction began.

Just as the Liu family’s pigsty was getting started, Li Fenghua and Zhou Wenwu arrived with Zhou Shu and his wife, looking for trouble.

The moment Jing Xi saw Zhou Shu, she instantly remembered why Li Fenghua had seemed so familiar to her. It was because Zhou Shu was the same man who had been at Wu Dazhuang’s house, the one who had advised Wu Dazhuang and Zhang Jianjun to gamble together.

Zhou Shu’s features were identical to Li Fenghua’s—it was as if they had been stamped from the same mold. Just by looking at him, one could tell that whatever “big money” he was making wasn’t coming from anything legitimate.

Simply put, he was hideous.

In comparison, his wife, Chen Xiaowen, wasn’t exactly beautiful, but she was definitely more than good enough for him.

Jing Xi was in the Liu family’s kitchen washing rice when Zhou Shu, along with his parents and wife, stormed into the Liu family’s courtyard. However, upon seeing that the yard was filled with village men helping with the construction, they didn’t dare enter further.

“Jing Xi! Get out here!”

Liu Jianchang, seeing that the Zhou family had come, immediately put down his work and approached them. “What’s going on, Brother Zhou? What do you need Jing Xi for?”

Zhou Wenwu gave Liu Jianchang a sidelong glance, clearly displeased with him over the whole situation. “What’s going on? You have the nerve to ask? Don’t you know that Jing Xi beat up my wife?”

Liu Jianchang frowned. “What? I haven’t heard anything about that. Besides, sister-in-law looks fine to me—not a single scratch on her.”

Li Fenghua became furious. “Nonsense! I had to rest at home for days just to recover! Now hurry up and call Jing Xi out! This is between us—it’s none of your business! Your Liu family better stay out of it!”

Liu Jianchang tried to mediate. “Sister-in-law, let’s talk things out calmly. Whatever the issue is, we can sit down and discuss it.”

“Talk? There’s nothing to talk about! Just call Jing Xi out here!”

Jing Xi wiped her hands dry. She didn’t want to delay the pigsty construction—after all, every extra day meant paying more for labor.

“Auntie, I’ll go see what they want.”

Zhang Rui grabbed her hand, worried. “Don’t go out! There are so many of them—what if they gang up on you? I’ll ask your uncle to chase them off.”

Jing Xi shook her head. “It’s fine, Auntie, don’t worry. They won’t dare lay a hand on me.”

Zhang Rui refused to listen. Only after Jing Xi repeatedly assured her that everything was fine did she finally allow her to go out.

As soon as Jing Xi stepped outside, the four members of the Zhou family glared at her viciously.

Jing Xi removed her apron and said, “If you have something to say, do it outside. Don’t interrupt other people’s work.”

Zhou Shu snorted coldly, and the four of them followed Jing Xi to the entrance of her house.

Jing Xi asked, “What do you want?”

Zhou Shu said angrily, “You hit my mother. You need to give me an explanation! She hasn’t been able to eat or sleep well these past few days. You have to compensate us, step down from the temporary accountant position, and hand over the deposit given by the Long family!”

Zhou Wenwu added, “That’s right! You need to pay for the medical expenses and any other losses as well!”

Li Fenghua clutched her waist and whined, “Oh, my waist hurts, my legs hurt, my stomach hurts! I need to go to the hospital for a check-up!”

Chen Xiaowen chimed in, “That’s right! I’m a witness!”

The four of them coordinated their accusations seamlessly.

After hearing them out, Jing Xi asked, “Medical expenses? Did you report it to the police? Did you go to the hospital for an examination? What’s the diagnosis? Where’s the medical report? Where’s the receipt for the medical expenses?”

Li Fenghua glanced at Zhou Shu. Seeing that he remained silent, she hesitated for a moment before saying, “No… We were waiting for you to give us money first, then we’d go to the hospital for a check-up.”

Jing Xi smirked. “Then you should report it to the police first. I’ll only listen to what the police have to say.”

The four of them had come here intending to extort some money and force Jing Xi to give up the accountant position, but they hadn’t expected her to insist on calling the police.

Li Fenghua didn’t actually have any injuries, just a torn pair of pants. How could she dare report it to the police?

Zhou Shu’s expression darkened. “I told you to give us the money first! Did you not hear me? Do you not understand Chinese? Hurry up and hand over the money! Once we get the money, we’ll go for a check-up!”

Jing Xi sneered. “Hah! I think you’re just trying to scam me! You don’t even dare to go to the hospital!”

Zhou Shu snapped back, “Fine! We’ll go! But if they find anything wrong, you’ll be fully responsible. Got it?”

Jing Xi retorted, “Why should I be responsible? If your mother has some kind of terminal illness, are you going to blame that on me too? If she has cancer, kidney failure, diabetes, or heart disease, is that also my fault?”

Li Fenghua shrieked, “Watch your mouth! You’re the one with a terminal illness! Your whole family has one!”

But then, she suddenly realized something was off. Jing Xi had no family—her parents and aunt had all passed away.

“Hmph! Now that I think about it, you’re a curse! You doomed your parents, then your aunt, and who knows, maybe you’ll even doom yourself next! If anything happens to me, it’s all because of you! It must be your bad luck rubbing off on me!”

Li Fenghua thought she had landed a solid blow. She stood there looking smug, but to her surprise, Jing Xi remained completely unfazed.

“I don’t know about that. You look perfectly fine to me, shouting at the top of your lungs like that. Seems like you’re just here to extort money. All I did was tear your pants, and you want me to give up my temporary accountant position? You’re just a toad trying to eat swan meat, a nosy dog meddling in things that don’t concern you!”

Sometimes, it didn’t matter whether the words made complete sense—what mattered was just saying them.

Because the other party’s level of education might not even allow them to understand.

Just like now, the four members of the Zhou family combined hadn’t had ten years of schooling. They couldn’t comprehend Jing Xi’s words.

They only felt like she had spoken a long, complicated sentence.

Zhou Wenwu scowled. “What’s all this arguing for? What’s the point of a shouting match? Listen up, Jing Xi! If you don’t give up the accountant position, we won’t plant our 20 acres of land this year! When the Long family doesn’t get enough crops, we’ll see how you deal with that!”

Jing Xi didn’t care whether the Zhou family planted their crops or not. However—

“You said your family has 20 acres of land?”

Zhou Wenwu’s eyes flickered nervously.

Jing Xi scrutinized his reaction, and a thought flashed through her mind.

20 acres?

That didn’t add up.

The Zhou family, including Zhou Yu, only had four members. Normally, they should have no more than 12 acres of land.

Zhou Yu wasn’t even registered in the village anymore, so how could the Zhou family have 20 acres?