Chapter 25: Contract Cancellation

Wu Chunhe didn’t expect that the Zhang family’s reaction would truly confirm what Li Sumei had predicted the night before.

For a moment, she felt a chill as if the wind had leaked out of her heart. She pointed angrily at Qian Cuimiao, “Big cousin, how can you say such nonsense? I came to ask you to cancel the contract. Who came to your house to cheat money? The house you sold to us has a problem. We only lived there for one night, and our third and fourth sons fell seriously ill. The fifth son is missing, and several of the boys are terrified. If we stay any longer, I fear we’ll all die in this house! I don’t care, we want to cancel the contract, and you must refund the money!”

With that, she slammed the property deed and land contract on Qian Cuimiao’s body.

Zhang Lishi, seeing the villagers gathering around, gave Qian Cuimiao a look.

“Ah!”

Qian Cuimiao nodded secretly, suddenly letting out a miserable scream, falling to the ground with a pained expression. Zhang Lishi immediately squeezed out two drops of tears, hurriedly kneeling and helping her, “Eldest daughter-in-law!”

Wu Chunhe was stunned, hurriedly explaining, “I didn’t push her! She fell on her own!”

Li Sumei looked at the dramatic display from the mother-in-law and daughter-in-law, a cold glint flashing in her eyes, but still urgently went to help them up. “Big cousin, Aunt, the ground is cold. Let’s talk after we get up.”

“Get away! We don’t need your fake kindness here!”

Zhang Lishi pushed Li Sumei away, her old face full of anger as she glared at them, “My daughter-in-law was standing here just fine. If you didn’t push her, would she have fallen on her own? It’s bad enough that I kindly sold you a house to live in, and now you’re here making a scene at my house, trying to get back the two hundred taels of silver you paid for the house. This is simply outrageous! How could I have such vicious relatives? Wuwu!”

As she spoke, she hugged Qian Cuimiao and cried sorrowfully, both the old and the weak looking pitiful.

“Mom, save me, I don’t want to die! Wuwu!”

The ground had frozen with frost in the morning, and after Qian Cuimiao had lain on the ground for a short while, her face turned pale, making it seem like she might really be in trouble. But she still cooperated energetically with Zhang Lishi’s performance.

The villagers who had rushed over, upon seeing this scene, became filled with righteous indignation and glared at Wu Chunhe and Li Sumei, saying, “Sister-in-law from the Su family, we told you when you were cutting trees yesterday that this house was a haunted house, not fit for living. Your old lady insisted that it was fine, and brought your whole family to live in it. Now something’s happened, and you’re here causing trouble with Zhang Laopo and Zhang Qian. Isn’t that unreasonable? Our villagers may be poor, but we’re not pushovers!”

“Hey! It’s clearly Zhang Qian who fell herself! You guys…” Are you even going to make sense?

Before Wu Chunhe could finish her words, Li Sumei pulled her aside and shook her head. She then walked up, picked up the deed and land contract, and said to Zhang Lishi, “So, Aunt, are you determined not to cancel this contract? And no matter what happens in the future, this house is ours, and has nothing to do with you?”

A house where people have died—only fools or ignorant people like the Su family would choose to live in it.

Zhang Lishi thought she was being threatened and sneered, “The house has already been sold, so of course it has nothing to do with us!”

“Now that Aunt has said this, I can rest assured.”

Li Sumei smiled slightly, turned to Wu Chunhe, and said, “Alright, second sister-in-law, since Aunt won’t cancel the contract, let’s move our sick mother and the third and fourth brothers to Aunt’s house for now.”

Anyone with clear eyes could see that the Su family had caused trouble at the Zhang family because of the haunted house. Now, these two sisters-in-law wanted to move the Su family members into Zhang’s house—who knew if that bad luck would spread to the Zhang family?

“Stop!”

Qian Cuimiao, no longer able to keep up the act, immediately scrambled to her feet and blocked Wu Chunhe and Li Sumei’s way, “You can’t send anyone to our house!”

Wu Chunhe sneered, “Oh, Big cousin wasn’t just about to die a second ago? How come she’s fine now, and her legs are faster than mine?”

Qian Cuimiao’s face turned red with shame. Regret filled her, and she didn’t speak anymore, quickly going to help Zhang Lishi.

The villagers finally realized they had been used by the Zhang mother-in-law duo. Their faces turned ugly, and they stopped paying attention to the bickering between the Zhang and Su families. One by one, they dispersed, but a few elderly women and daughters-in-law still stood in place, watching the drama.

Zhang Lishi saw the crowd leaving, and no longer bothered to pretend. She wiped away the sorrow and anger from her face, sneering at the two women, “If you want to live in our house, seeing as we’re relatives, it’ll be fifty taels of silver per person.”

It was better for them to move to Zhang’s house; with the loss of Old Su as the main backbone, it would be easy to get money from the Su family.

Bang!

Suddenly, the sound of a heavy object hitting the ground was heard.

Zhang Lishi was startled and frowned, looking up to see Zhang Hongzhuang, who had gone out early to collect firewood, returning.

She looked at Zhang Hongzhuang as he threw a large bundle of firewood on the ground and impatiently said, “What are you doing?”

Zhang Hongzhuang was full of rage as he walked over and questioned, “What are you doing? I’ve suspected for a long time that you purposely sold that haunted house to my sister’s family to live in. Now, my third and fourth nephews have had an accident, and not only are you refusing to cancel the contract, but you want to charge fifty taels per person to let them live in our house. Zhang Lishi, are you out of your mind for money?”

Zhang Hongzhuang was really angry, especially after hearing that his sister’s family had encountered problems in the haunted house. He hurried back, only to find his wife causing trouble for his two nephews-in-law.

Zhang Lishi was startled by his sudden outburst.

In the past, Zhang Hongzhuang would never have dared to speak to her like this.

Immediately, her face darkened. “This is none of your business. Go back to your room!”

With that, Zhang Laoda, who had been listening from inside the house, came out and took Zhang Hongzhuang inside.

Zhang Hongzhuang struggled but couldn’t break free. Unable to hold back, he slapped Zhang Laoda across the face. “You go away! This is my house! You’re the one I married, so you should listen to me!”

Li Sumei saw her uncle trembling after this exchange, probably because it was his first time arguing with Zhang Lishi, and felt a little sorry.

But remembering what Old Su had told her, she lowered her head, pretending she didn’t see the scene.

“Oldest!”

Zhang Lishi was also enraged. After seeing her eldest son being slapped, she slapped Zhang Hongzhuang across the face, pointing at Li Sumei and Wu Chunhe, “You actually hit our son for two outsiders! It’s you who’s gone mad! Since you care so much for them, why don’t you go live in the haunted house and take care of them yourselves!”

Li Sumei saw the timing was right and immediately stepped forward to support Zhang Hongzhuang, fanning the flames, “Aunt, how can you say that about Uncle? He’s also a member of the Zhang family. Doesn’t the Zhang family’s affairs fall under his authority?”

Zhang Hongzhuang, after being slapped, also became angry. He pulled Li Sumei back, trembling, and said to Zhang Lishi, “I know you’ve never taken me seriously. Since you’ve treated my sister’s family like this, fine, today we’ll divide the family! From now on, don’t count on me for anything! I’m not supporting this family anymore!”

Zhang Lishi was furious too, laughing angrily. “Good! Zhang Hongzhuang, you’ve grown a backbone! If you have the guts, don’t ever come back again!”

“Oldest, eldest daughter-in-law, let’s go home!”

With that, Zhang Lishi led her son and daughter-in-law into the house and slammed the door shut with a bang.

“Uncle.”

Li Sumei walked up to Zhang Hongzhuang, “To be honest, today’s drama was set up by Mom on purpose. Mom, third uncle, and fourth uncle are fine. Don’t worry. Our house really doesn’t have any problems. Since you’ve separated from them, why don’t you come live with us?”