Chapter 15: Collecting a Debt from Aunt

The villagers took turns carrying the wild boar to the gate of the Ji family’s second household. Before they could enter, they heard Ji Jinglan crying and calling for her mother.

Chu Xiaoqi pushed open the door and went in, only to see Ji Father and Ji Jinglan holding Ji Mother, all of them sobbing uncontrollably.

“What happened?” she asked.

Ji Jinglan looked up toward the door and suddenly burst into loud wails.
“Big Sister-in-law, Mother… Mother tried to hang herself…”

Ji Jingxuan rushed to Ji Mother’s side and dropped to his knees, crying out, “Mother!”

The villagers who had been helping outside heard the cries and quickly crowded into the courtyard.

Chu Xiaoqi walked to the main hall and saw Ji Mother lying deathly pale in Ji Father’s arms, looking like a corpse.

She reached out to feel Ji Mother’s breath and then checked her wrist. Her face remained calm.
“She’s fine. Just passed out.

Put her on the bed and let her rest. She’ll wake up in less than half an hour.”

Ji Jingxuan finally remembered to check for breath himself. It was faint—but it was there.

He bent down, scooped Ji Mother into his arms, and carried her to the side room off the main hall.

“Dad, what happened? Everything was fine when we left. Why would Mom suddenly want to hang herself?”

Chu Xiaoqi looked down from above at Ji Father, who was crouched on the ground, clutching his head and crying in anguish.

“After you left, your aunt brought Ji Yanyang…”

Ji Father choked on his sobs as he haltingly recounted what had happened to Chu Xiaoqi.

Chu Xiaoqi clenched her teeth and gave a cold snort toward Ji Father. “Pathetic. You couldn’t even hold on to twenty copper coins.”

Ji Father already feared Chu Xiaoqi. He lowered his head even more, fully expecting a verbal beating.

But to his surprise, Chu Xiaoqi didn’t even glance at him again. She picked up her machete and said to Ji Jinglan,
“Come on, Xiaolan. Take me to our uncle’s house—we’re collecting that debt.”

Ji Jinglan scrambled to her feet and nodded, quickly leading the way.

If it had been before, she wouldn’t have dared step foot in the Ji family’s main house. But now, it was as if Chu Xiaoqi had given her courage—she wasn’t afraid of that aunt anymore.

When the village chief saw Chu Xiaoqi heading toward Ji Dabo’s house with a machete, he hobbled after her, shouting,
“Hey, hey, hey… Qi girl! Let’s talk this through calmly!”

He hadn’t gone far before Chu Xiaoqi was already out of sight.

He turned to the villagers who were still standing around gawking and yelled,
“What are you all staring at?
Go stop her before someone gets killed!”

“Oh, oh, right… okay!”

The gossiping villagers finally snapped out of it and rushed after Chu Xiaoqi toward Ji Laoda’s house.

Meanwhile, Ji Jingxuan had just settled Ji Mother onto the bed. When he came back out, the previously crowded courtyard was now empty.

“Dad, where is everyone?”

Ji Father stood up shakily and grabbed Ji Jingxuan’s arm.
“Xuan’er, your wife… she went to your uncle’s place with a machete.
You better go stop her before this turns into a murder scene!”

Ji Jingxuan immediately bolted out of the courtyard and ran toward the Ji family’s main house.

Chu Xiaoqi and Ji Jinglan had already arrived at the gate of the main house. Before they could step inside, they heard Aunt Ji and Ji Yanyang chatting and laughing in the courtyard.

“Son, big bones stewed with radish tastes the best. Just wait—I’ll go dig a couple up from the field.”

“Hurry up, Ma, I’m starving!”

BANG!

Aunt Ji was humming a tune as she walked toward the courtyard gate. Before she even reached it, the door was kicked open with a loud bang.

“I heard… you and Cousin came to my house today to collect a debt?”

Aunt Ji and Ji Yanyang had just opened their mouths to scold whoever dared kick their door—only to see Chu Xiaoqi standing there, covered in blood, machete in hand.

Both of them were so terrified they collapsed on the ground.

Ji Yanyang…

Ji Yanyang had been lounging on a recliner. But the moment he saw Chu Xiaoqi step into the courtyard step by step, he rolled off in panic and hit the ground, trembling uncontrollably.

Chu Xiaoqi walked over to where Aunt Ji had collapsed on the ground. She lifted the woman’s chin with the back of her machete.

“Auntie, why don’t you tell me—how much money does my family owe you? And how exactly did we owe it?”

Seeing the polished, gleaming blade in front of her, Aunt Ji trembled from head to toe. “It… it was…”

“Looks like Auntie’s too old to speak clearly.” Chu Xiaoqi’s tone sharpened as she turned and moved the edge of the blade beneath Ji Yanyang’s neck—this time the sharp side.

A foul stench of urine wafted up, making Chu Xiaoqi gag. She smacked Ji Yanyang’s face twice with the flat of her blade and roared:

“Talk! If you can’t explain it, then someone’s bleeding today!”

Ji Yanyang trembled violently, his face covered in snot and tears. “We… we didn’t… your family didn’t owe us any money!”

Chu Xiaoqi looked down at him coldly. “Didn’t owe?”

Ji Yanyang’s head bobbed like a rattle-drum. “No debt! No debt at all!”

“No debt, yet you still came to my home to seize goods as payment? You even took twenty copper coins?

If we owe you nothing, then what do you call that?

Robbery? Thievery?

And what do people usually do when they catch a thief?”

The villagers gathered at the door, watching the scene unfold, quickly joined in with rowdy shouts:
“Turn them over to the authorities!” “Beat them to death!”

Ji Yanyang had always bullied others in the village, so now that Chu Xiaoqi had taken charge, the villagers couldn’t pass up the chance to jump on the bandwagon.

“Yeah! He deserves a beating!”

Without another word, Chu Xiaoqi began punching and kicking Ji Yanyang, who wailed in pain under the onslaught.

Aunt Ji was too scared to even breathe at first, watching Chu Xiaoqi like she was a grim reaper. But when she saw her son getting badly beaten, she finally plucked up her courage and tried to rush forward.

Chu Xiaoqi turned and pointed the machete at her, causing her to shrink back instantly.

“Whatever you took from my house, bring it out. Fast.
If not, I’ll chop off Ji Yanyang’s arm as payment.”

Aunt Ji scrambled into the kitchen and returned moments later with the still-uncooked pot of meat and bones and half a bag of rice, placing them at Chu Xiaoqi’s feet.

“That’s all?” Chu Xiaoqi raised the machete and rested it against Ji Yanyang’s neck. “So? Arm or leg?”

“Ma, give the money back!” Ji Yanyang screamed. Seeing Aunt Ji still pretending to be confused, he was furious. “This is not the time to be greedy over twenty copper coins!”

Aunt Ji reluctantly unfastened her money pouch and pulled out twenty copper coins, holding them out to Chu Xiaoqi.

Chu Xiaoqi shot Ji Jinglan a look. Ji Jinglan immediately stepped forward, snatched the coins out of Aunt Ji’s hand, and even made a cheeky face at her.

Aunt Ji was fuming, but didn’t dare say a word.

Chu Xiaoqi gave Ji Yanyang a final hard kick, then bent down to pick up the bag of rice.

“Xiaolan, grab the pot. Let’s go home and stew some radish.”

Ji Jinglan obediently picked up the basin and followed Chu Xiaoqi out of the courtyard.

After only a few steps, Chu Xiaoqi suddenly turned around and pointed the machete at Aunt Ji.

“Auntie, we’ll let the past go.

But if you or your son dare step foot in our second household again…

If you take even a single needle or thread…

If you bully even one member of our household…

Don’t blame me for treating you like thieves and beating you to death right on the spot.

The laws of Liguo are clear—anyone trespassing on private property without permission can be executed as a thief.

Don’t believe me? You mother and son are welcome to test it.”

With that, she strode out with her head high, just as—

Ji Jingxuan had just stepped inside when he bumped right into Chu Xiaoqi.

She looked up, saw it was him, and clutched her forehead with annoyance.
“Are our heads fated to collide today or what? How many times have you slammed your chest into me already?”

Ji Jingxuan ignored her sarcasm and anxiously grabbed her, inspecting her head to toe.
“Did Ji Yanyang hurt you?”

Chu Xiaoqi slapped his hand away.
“Him? That coward?
Even if you gave him ten more years of training, he wouldn’t even be able to touch a single strand of my hair.”

She shoved the bag of rice into his arms and brushed past him.
“Let’s go, let’s go. Time to go home and divide up the pork.”

Ji Jingxuan stood there holding the rice bag, lips pressed together, watching her back as she walked away.
For some reason… he really liked this cocky version of Chu Xiaoqi.

The village chief emerged from some obscure corner and shuffled over to Ji Jingxuan’s side.
“Jingxuan, your wife’s really changed a lot, huh?
You sure she hasn’t remembered anything?”

Ji Jingxuan shook his head.
At this point, he kind of hoped she never remembered anything… and just stayed like this forever.

—

Back home, Chu Xiaoqi saw that Ji Mother had already woken up and was sitting on a small stool in front of the main hall. Without saying anything, she called out to the villagers to help hoist the wild boar onto the chopping board to gut and clean.

Several strong men from the village helped butcher and weigh the meat.

Ji Jingxuan oversaw the repayment process, having each villager who received meat press their handprint into the debt ledger to mark their balance as settled.

Chu Xiaoqi didn’t concern herself with the front yard commotion. She cleaned the intestines for braising, set the big bones to stew, and stir-fried two vegetable dishes.

It wasn’t a lavish spread, but the portions were hearty.

Once the villagers had taken their meat and gone, Chu Xiaoqi personally carved two strips of pork to give as thanks to two who had helped most, and handed another pound to Ji Jinglan to bring to Granny San.

After all this, the once-infamous Chu Xiaoqi’s reputation skyrocketed in Jijiacun Village.

The boar weighed nearly 400 jin (≈200 kg), and they’d only used about a third of it to repay debts—less than half. The pig’s head was untouched too.

Chu Xiaoqi cut a bowl of intestines and another piece of meat, handing them to Ji Jingxuan.
“Take this to the village chief, and tell him the meat is a gift of respect.
As for that one and a half dou of rice we borrowed, we’ll return it in a few days.”

When the village chief received the meat and message, he couldn’t stop grinning. The corners of his mouth practically reached his ears as he reassured Ji Jingxuan,
“Tell your wife not to worry about it! Really, it’s no problem!”

Ji Jingxuan returned home just in time to see Ji Jingze arriving with the butcher shop owner, who had driven up in an ox cart.

The butcher instantly recognized Chu Xiaoqi—it was the same girl from earlier today who’d haggled over pork prices at his stall and ended up buying three jin of bones and a basket of intestines.

Now, seeing her still in her blood-soaked clothes, and the dilapidated state of their home, he spoke plainly:

“Girl, excluding the organs, how about I buy the meat at 60 wen per jin?”

Chu Xiaoqi didn’t haggle. She nodded just as directly,
“Deal. Thank you, big brother.

As for the innards—let me offer those as a gesture of goodwill.”

The butcher had been ready to offer 15 wen per jin for the offal, but was pleasantly surprised she was giving them away. He responded just as forthrightly,
“You’re a good one. Then I won’t be shy!
Next time you come to my stall, I’ll pick out the best meat for you.”

“Great, it’s a deal!”
Chu Xiaoqi’s beautiful face lit up like a blooming chrysanthemum.

With the help of his workers, the butcher weighed the remaining meat—285 jin in total. Chu Xiaoqi even rounded the price down slightly. Altogether, she made 18 taels and 5 qian of silver.

Once the meat was loaded onto the cart and the butcher left, Ji Jingze finally asked what the whole family had been wondering.

“Big Sister-in-law… why’d you sell all the pork?
Couldn’t we keep a little for ourselves to eat?”