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Aunt Song saw her son awake and, delighted, cried and laughed simultaneously. However, when she heard his question, she didn’t know how to answer. She had heard about her son’s incident and almost fainted at the time, thinking this was a major issue. Although she, as a mother, didn’t believe her honest son would do anything improper, everyone else thought so. She wanted to ask for details but hesitated, fearing it might upset her son.
Song Dashan looked around the crowded room, puzzled. He wondered what had happened to him and why he was lying on the kang. He tried to recall but could only remember visiting Liu Shugen’s house that day. After that, his memory was hazy. What exactly happened?
Similarly, Xiao Ping’er found herself in a similar situation. She saw her mother crying with red eyes, her father and brother looking at her with concern. She tried to sit up but couldn’t, feeling weak all over.
“Mother, what happened to me?”
Xiao Ping’er asked, noticing the Shen family members in the room and realizing she was at the Shen house. With the lights on, it was obviously dark outside. She wondered why she was sleeping at the Shen house and why her parents and brother looked so anxious. She couldn’t remember what had happened, her mind completely blank.
Seeing her daughter recovering, Aunt Xiao felt some relief. But hearing her question, she realized that her daughter’s marriage prospects were probably ruined, and dealing with the in-laws would be difficult in the future. Overcome with sorrow, she hugged her daughter and started crying.
Uncle Xiao pulled his family together, with Xiao Dalu supporting them, and went over to question Xiao Ping’er. Now that his daughter was fine, his worry turned into anger. He was determined to get to the bottom of what had happened. If his daughter had indeed met with Song Dashan inappropriately, he would teach her a lesson. But if that wasn’t the case, he would stand up for his daughter. The reputation of the Xiao family couldn’t be ruined like this!
“Ping’er! Tell me, how did you end up in that grove with Song Dashan today?”
Uncle Xiao stared at his daughter intently. He couldn’t believe that his usually obedient and sensible daughter would do something so thoughtless, but with the situation as it was, he started to doubt.
Xiao Ping’er widened her eyes in confusion and said, “Father, what are you talking about? When did I go anywhere with Brother Song? I haven’t even seen Brother Song!”
The Shen family members’ faces darkened upon hearing this.
Sun Shi, who had just entered the room with Shen Ziping, laughed mockingly upon hearing this. “Oh! You’re lying with your eyes wide open! You say you haven’t seen him, yet you ended up in a pit in that grove with him? If you had said you coincidentally met him there, I might have believed you. But claiming you haven’t seen him at all? Do you think we’re all fools?”
Shen Ziping chimed in from the side, “Exactly! Do you really think we’re fools? Father, Mother, a woman like this shouldn’t be brought into the family. Not only did she meet a man before marriage, but now she’s lying too? Is this acceptable?”
“My sister wouldn’t lie!”
Xiao Dalu glared at Sun Shi and Shen Ziping, saying, “Maybe it was my sister who fell into the pit first, then got bitten by a snake and doesn’t remember anything, not even that Dashan went to rescue her! It must be like this!”
Xiao Dalu’s reasoning was quite sensible.
Aunt Xiao hurriedly added from the side, “It must be like that, it must be!”
Sun Shi snorted and said, “Then why did she go to the grove if nothing happened? A young girl, going to the grove, and near the cemetery? Isn’t she afraid of encountering ghosts? I bet she went to meet a man!”
“Shut your mouth!”
Xiao Dalu was furious and shouted at Sun Shi. Despite his young age, he was of the same generation as Sun Shi and had a strained relationship with the third branch of the family. He didn’t bother with politeness at all.
Sun Shi snorted again and said, “She dares to do it but doesn’t dare to let me say it? She’s claiming to have forgotten everything, can’t I just give her a reminder?”
Shen Zhang shi interjected from the side, “Third’s wife, please stop.”
Upon hearing her mother-in-law speak up, Sun Shi stood aside without another word, silently watching the scene unfold.
Xiao Ping’er was now completely bewildered. Her face had turned even paler than before as she exclaimed, “What are you all talking about? What grove? What pit? I really didn’t see Dashan today.”
Xiao Ping’er’s mind had been blank moments ago, but now it was chaotic. Upon waking up, nothing made sense. She saw so many people surrounding her, all looking at her with strange eyes, saying she didn’t deserve to marry Shen Ziju anymore. She trembled in fear, feeling like she was trapped in a nightmare. She wondered what had happened; just earlier, she had been sitting comfortably in the Shen household, where everyone had treated her kindly. Why were they now looking at her with such disgust?
Xiao Ping’er felt like she must be dreaming; how else could things have turned out like this? She found the dream terrifying and tried to wake herself up by pinching her arm, only to feel a sharp pain. She realized she wasn’t dreaming, which frightened her even more.
“Mother, what’s happening here?!”
Meanwhile, Song Dashan wore a look of shock. He had heard what everyone was saying and felt like he must be dreaming too. He understood their implications—that he and Xiao Ping’er had fallen into a pit in the grove—but he had no memory of any such thing happening!
“I didn’t go to the grove at all today! I went to my uncle’s house! Then I came out, and then… then I don’t remember, and ended up here.”
Song Dashan was an honest man and immediately recounted what he remembered. Even he felt something wasn’t right; what had he been doing during that missing time?
“Another liar!” Sun Shi added fuel to the fire from the sidelines.
Su Zhi glanced at Sun Shi and thought to herself how easily agitated the woman was. Honestly, from what she observed, Song Dashan and Xiao Ping’er didn’t seem to be lying. Both of them woke up confused, showing genuine signs of bewilderment rather than playacting. From initial confusion to subsequent surprise, fear, and anxiety, their reactions seemed entirely genuine.
Though Su Zhi hadn’t interacted much with either of them before, she knew them to be straightforward people. She couldn’t imagine them putting on such a convincing act.
“Uncle Huang, do you think they might have been bitten by a snake and now their minds are unclear?” Su Zhi asked, considering that forgetting such a terrifying event could be due to snake venom. Xiao Ping’er might have been so frightened that she blocked out the memory, but Song Dashan, being a grown man, wouldn’t likely react like this unless it was due to snake venom.
Physician Huang had been standing on the sidelines, feeling uneasy about the whole situation as an outsider, but Su Zhi’s question about snake bites prompted him to respond. He acknowledged that Su Zhi’s speculation had some merit.
Physician Huang nodded. “There’s a possibility. Even though the snake venom has been treated, it could have affected their minds.”
Song Dashan’s mother and Xiao Ping’er’s mother started crying again, worried that their children might have been mentally affected by the snake bite.
Shen Youfu interjected from the side, “Don’t cry, they’re both fine now. They just forgot what happened for a while.”
Shen Ziping chuckled and said, “They really forgot, conveniently forgetting everything after going to the woods. It’s like they suddenly became clueless!”
Sun Shi also laughed, remarking, “Are they planning to plead ignorance now? You think this will make everything okay? You two should stop pretending! If you’re going to pretend, at least do it convincingly. Forgetting half a day’s events but not forgetting what you had for lunch? That’s really strange!”
Su Zhi couldn’t help but sympathize with the distress of both Song Dashan’s and Xiao Ping’er’s families. Even they seemed to think that this explanation made sense, and both Song Dashan and Xiao Ping’er themselves felt misunderstood. However, they genuinely couldn’t recall that period of time.
Physician Huang nodded thoughtfully. “It could be due to the venomous snake bite, causing them to only forget that particular time period.”
As everyone discussed, some believed the explanation while others suspected the two were feigning ignorance.
Song Dashan and Xiao Ping’er were stunned as others recounted what had allegedly happened during the time they couldn’t remember. Xiao Ping’er involuntarily touched her shoulder and felt a pang of pain, causing her head to start spinning. It all seemed too real. During that blank period in her memory, something had happened that could ruin her reputation completely!
“My daughter! How could this happen? Why can’t you remember?!” cried Xiao Ping’er’s mother in anguish.
Aunt Xiao struck her daughter several times in frustration before embracing her and weeping.
Xiao Ping’er also cried beside her.
Su Zhi watched Xiao Ping’er cry like a wooden doll, her brow furrowing slightly. She thought, “These are also pitiful people. If neither of them can remember what happened, they’re really in trouble.” She didn’t despise them because she didn’t think they were the type to have secret rendezvous.
Although few people were walking outside Riverside Village due to the hot weather, not even many in the fields, someone still saw Song Dashan and Xiao Ping’er walking one after the other toward the direction of the woods. At the time, no one thought they were going to the woods; they thought they were visiting someone in that direction. Now, this incident has come to light, and those who saw it can attest.
“Do you have anything else to say? You walked over there yourselves; no one knocked you out and took you there!”
Shen Ziping spoke up.
Su Zhi looked at Shen Ziping and thought to herself, “The couple from the third household seems unusually active today. I’ve never seen them express any dissatisfaction towards Song Dashan and Xiao Ping’er before. Why do they now seem so eager to prove their wrongdoing?”
Shen Youfu then spoke.
“Now that this matter has come out, we can’t just pretend it didn’t happen. Let’s talk about the children’s marriage!”
Shen Zhang shi, seeing Shen Youfu speak up, felt relieved. She thought, “Once this matter is brought up, regardless of the opposition from the Xiao and Song families, it can only be resolved this way.”
Su Zhi thought to herself, “Heaven is really favoring the Shen family. Shen Zhu doesn’t want to marry Song Dashan, and Song Ziju has recently passed the imperial examination. Xiao Ping’er is clearly not suitable for him. Now with this incident involving Song Dashan and Xiao Ping’er, they both have no way to explain themselves. Isn’t this heaven helping them? What else could it be?”