Chapter 20 This family will be broken apart by your tears sooner or later

“It can’t be, right? Old Xu and his wife are usually very kind, always greeting people with smiles.”

“Exactly! Yesterday I saw Xiuying bringing chicken soup to her daughter-in-law—an entire chicken! She killed it herself and delivered it to the Tang family.”

“It’s only because old Xu and his wife have such good tempers. If it were my daughter-in-law coming in and killing my son right away, forget chicken soup, I wouldn’t even give her rice porridge!”

“That’s why old Xu and his wife are such decent people.”

Hearing the villagers’ comments, Zhang Chunhua just pursed her lips and said nothing. She knew that even if she spoke, no one would believe her. Old Xu and his wife were so good at pretending that they had even fooled her before. If she hadn’t accidentally overheard their conversation previously, she probably would have been deceived too.

As the women’s chatter grew more outrageous, the village chief arrived, his face stern. He scolded the crowd, “Don’t you have anything better to do than gossip here? Disperse immediately and go do what you’re supposed to do!”

Once the village chief spoke, the crowd dispersed obediently and went home.

After the villagers left, the chief turned to Xu Dingbang. “Old Xu, I’ve already sent my eldest to report this to the police. You two don’t need to worry. Wait until the police arrive and handle everything properly.”

Xu Dingbang, of course, was anxious. Dawn was breaking, and if they didn’t leave for the county soon, they’d miss the morning train. But now, with all the household money gone, they were penniless—not even enough for travel expenses. Perhaps they could borrow a little from neighbors to get by. Once they saw their son in the city, maybe the police would have already recovered the stolen money.

But how could he explain to his son? His son had repeatedly reminded him to bring all the family money for his marriage, and they were already short. Without the money, what if his son couldn’t marry, especially since the daughter-in-law was already pregnant with their child?

The more Xu Dingbang thought, the more his mind raced. Meanwhile, his wife was still wailing loudly, making his head nearly explode.

“Shut up! Crying all the time won’t solve anything! Do you even think about what to do now, or are you just going to cry? You’ll break this family apart if you keep it up!”

Hearing her husband’s scolding, Bai Xiuying immediately stopped crying, terrified by the dark expression on Xu Dingbang’s face.

The village chief also disliked Bai Xiuying’s wailing. Old Xu was right—crying solved nothing and only annoyed others. But given that the Xu family had just been robbed, Bai Xiuying’s sadness was understandable. She shouldn’t be forbidden from crying over the theft.

Once the crying stopped, the village chief felt a sense of relief and comfort.

After shouting at Bai Xiuying, Xu Dingbang smiled faintly. “Thank you, village chief. Otherwise, we wouldn’t know what to do.”

“That’s what I’m here for,” the chief replied.

Xu Dingbang wanted to offer the village chief a chair, but thinking about their empty house, his expression darkened further.

“Village chief, our house has been emptied by thieves. We don’t even have a single chair left…”

The chief waved dismissively. “It’s fine, it’s fine. I’ll head back for now. Wait until the police arrive, and have your eldest call me.”

“Thank you, village chief,” Xu Dingbang said.

After the chief left, Xu Dingbang was once again torn in thought, but finally, the decision to go see their son won out. He leaned toward Bai Xiuying and whispered, “Go to the Tang family and borrow some money—borrow as much as you can. At least make sure we can get to the provincial city. Once we’re there, we can see our son. Hurry, or we’ll miss the morning train. As for the house, explain it to your mother-in-law and see if she can help. Let’s also see what the police do.”

Thinking of the promise they had made to their son, Bai Xiuying immediately brightened. She wiped her nose with her sleeve and quickly stood up.

“All right, I’ll go now.”

—At the Tang household—

Su Meijuan had just gotten up when she saw her daughter already preparing breakfast. “Ningning, why did you get up so early today?”

Although Tang Wanning rarely slept in, she hadn’t gotten up this early before.

Smiling, Tang Wanning replied, “Mom, I’m just too excited. I couldn’t sleep, so I got up to make breakfast.”

“You’re such a child. Eat breakfast, then go back and rest, or you won’t have energy this afternoon.”

“Okay, I’ll listen to you…”

Before Tang Wanning could finish speaking, there was a knock at the front door, followed by Bai Xiuying’s urgent voice.

“Mother-in-law, are you awake?”

Hearing Bai Xiuying, Su Meijuan rolled her eyes—coming to knock this early in the morning was really annoying. And hadn’t everything been agreed upon yesterday? Why was she here so early? What a nuisance!

Worried her daughter might see Bai Xiuying’s pitiful state and laugh, Su Meijuan lowered her voice. “Ningning, go back to your room. I’ll deal with this old shrew.”

Tang Wanning, not wanting to laugh at Bai Xiuying’s miserable situation, nodded in agreement. After all, her mother now knew the Xu family’s true colors and wouldn’t go easy on them.

“All right, if anything happens, just call out.”

“I know, Mom. Go back to your room.”

Watching her daughter return inside, Su Meijuan calmly walked to the door.

“Coming… coming.”

After the door opened, Bai Xiuying didn’t bother with any small talk—she didn’t want to waste time and risk missing the morning train. Besides, in her eyes, Tang Wanning was, for life, one of the Xu family’s people. So now that the Xu family was in trouble, it was only natural for the Tang family to lend a hand!

With that in mind, she got straight to the point. “Mother-in-law, I came over so early because there’s an urgent matter I need your help with. This morning, just after waking up, I found our house had been completely emptied overnight. Even the money that Old Xu and I had saved over the years is gone, not a single cent left. I don’t even know which wretched creature did this—they clearly don’t fear retribution! If I ever find out who it is, I swear I’ll tear them apart myself…”

As she spoke, Bai Xiuying’s story became more and more exaggerated, and the insults she hurled grew increasingly vulgar.

Inside the bedroom, Tang Wanning listened to Bai Xiuying’s tirade, and instead of getting angry, she laughed happily. She knew that this hit Bai Xiuying right where it hurt—the more vicious her words, the angrier she was. Isn’t that something worth celebrating?

At first, Su Meijuan didn’t believe Bai Xiuying either—after all, a house being emptied overnight sounded too bizarre to be true. But seeing how furious she was and how foul-mouthed her rant had become, Su Meijuan no longer doubted it.

“Good,” she thought. “If they were robbed, fine. If their house was completely emptied, even better. That’s karma. Those wicked Xu family people will get their comeuppance sooner or later!”

Thinking this, Su Meijuan almost couldn’t help but laugh.