Chapter 7 Things Got Out of Hand

She flatly refused to admit anything—so what? This shameless tactic was something she’d learned from the old Zhang Chunyan herself.

After Wang Huimin finished speaking, she saw the two pages of the letter thrown to the ground. She even put on a show, picking them up and pretending to glance through them, then let her eyes flash with shock. Looking from Xu Xiaowei to Zhang Chunyan, she said apologetically,

“Chunyan, I’m so sorry—this is all my fault. I really didn’t know that’s what was in your letter. I must’ve delivered it to the wrong person.”

“And you too, if you had those feelings, you should’ve just gone to Song Fu yourself. Getting me involved like this—how awkward. I didn’t do it on purpose. Xiaowei, please don’t be mad anymore.”

Seeing Wang Huimin not only cause trouble but then twist everything around and slander her even more, Zhang Chunyan was so furious she was trembling.

“Wang Huimin! You’re truly vicious! Your parents sold you off to Song Fu for the bride price—that’s your family’s business, not mine! What did I ever do to you for you to frame me like this?”

“This letter was clearly written by you, mimicking my handwriting to frame me. What have I ever done to deserve this?”

Looking at Zhang Chunyan’s expression, as if she’d been terribly wronged, Wang Huimin sneered inwardly—You really don’t know what you did? Let’s see what else I’ve got in store for you.

Her face immediately changed into a righteous expression.

“Chunyan, you can’t say that. I was just trying to help you out, and now it’s my fault?”

“Now I get it—these past few days, I kept seeing you sneaking out at noon and coming back all secretive. Turns out you weren’t meeting Xiaowei—you were sneaking around with Song Fu!”

“If I’d known, I wouldn’t have gotten involved in your dirty business. And now you’re dragging my name into this?”

“You’re messing around with Song Fu and stringing along Xiaowei at the same time? Who does that?”

“And now that you’ve been caught, you want to pull me and Song Fu into it? Between the two of us, who’s really the one with a wicked heart?”

“I’m telling you, I’ve never had anything to do with Song Fu, and I never agreed to marry him. You can’t just spout nonsense in broad daylight like this! If you ruin my reputation, can you afford to take responsibility?”

Right then, the entrance of the Zhang household, which sat alongside the village’s main road, became the center of attention. Several large trees shaded the area, making it a popular spot for villagers to gather in the summer.

Their loud arguing had already drawn a crowd of curious neighbors. Just what Wang Huimin wanted—the louder the better. She’d be thrilled to have the entire village hear.

And in rural villages, there was never a shortage of gossip-hungry onlookers. People immediately started whispering:

“Who’d have thought? The Zhang girl’s not as innocent as she looks.”

“Wang Huimin and Zhang Chunyan grew up together—something serious must’ve happened between them.”

“Wait, when did the Song family get engaged to someone from the Wang family? We didn’t hear about that.”

“I haven’t heard either. Let’s just keep watching and see what unfolds…”

Seeing the growing crowd, Xu Xiaowei’s face turned darker. Zhang Chunyan’s parents were livid too, their faces pale with fury.

Zhang Yongfa stepped forward, ready to confront Wang Huimin.

“Girl from the Wang family, today you will clear this up. If you think you can ruin my daughter’s marriage just like that, you’ve got another thing coming!”

Wang Huimin wasn’t about to let herself take the fall. She quickly hid behind Xu Xiaowei.

“All I did was tell the truth—what, now you’re going to hit me in front of everyone?”

Since things had already blown up, Xu Xiaowei wanted to get to the bottom of it too. He raised a hand to stop Zhang Yongfa.

“Uncle Zhang, you can’t hit a girl, especially not with everyone here. Let’s just talk this through and clear it up.”

At this point, even closing the door and settling it privately wouldn’t salvage Zhang Chunyan’s reputation. Better to clarify everything openly—otherwise, it wouldn’t just ruin her marriage prospects, the whole family wouldn’t be able to show their faces in the village.

Zhang Yongfa had no choice but to suppress his anger.

“Fine. I’m the elder—I won’t stoop to your level. But girl, you better explain this clearly today.”

“You’ve been friends with Chunyan since you were little. What kind of deep hatred do you have to do something like this to her?”

Sensing the stage was hers, Wang Huimin threw herself into the act—she looked even more wronged than the Zhang family and began to cry.

“I didn’t do anything! I only told the truth. Me, Chunyan, Xiaowei, and Song Fu—we all grew up together. Everyone knows Chunyan and Xiaowei were discussing marriage. I was happy for her!”

“She often wrote letters to Xiaowei—I knew that too, but I never told anyone. Xiaowei, didn’t you receive a lot of letters from her?”

Xu Xiaowei nodded. “Yes. I’ve still got a dozen or so letters she sent me at home.”

This was all part of Wang Huimin’s plan. It was true that Chunyan often went to her house—publicly to visit her, but she spent more time hanging out with Wang Huishu.

Zhang Chunyan had dropped out of school early due to poor grades, and she envied Wang Huishu’s smarts, education, and the nice things she had. She latched on, hoping for some hand-me-downs.

More importantly, she wanted to win over Xu Xiaowei but didn’t have the literary skill herself—Wang Huishu had helped her come up with those poetic love letters. Otherwise, how could she have written something like that?

That gave Wang Huimin the perfect opening to frame her. Zhang Chunyan was so furious she couldn’t even get a word out.

Wang Huimin didn’t even look at her and kept going, wiping her tears.

“She came to my house yesterday saying she wanted to send a letter to Xiaowei. She said Uncle Xu and Auntie Xu didn’t approve of their relationship, and she’d already tried visiting twice and got turned away.”

“I didn’t want to see her upset, so I delivered the letter for her. How is that my fault?”

“Who knew you’d written such shameless things in that letter—and it wasn’t even for Xu Xiaowei but for Song Fu! If you really had those feelings, why didn’t you just go to him yourself? Why leave the letter at my house? If not for that, would any of this have happened?”

Watching Wang Huimin lie so smoothly without even needing a script, Zhang Chunyan finally couldn’t take it anymore. Enraged, she lunged forward to hit her.

“Wang Huimin, you shameless b*tch! You’ve completely ruined me! Either you die today, or I do!”

Wang Huimin had expected her to explode and had been hiding behind Xu Xiaowei the entire time. She knew that as long as Xu Xiaowei hadn’t heard the full story yet, he wouldn’t let Chunyan hit her.

Sure enough, Xu Xiaowei grabbed Zhang Chunyan and shoved her aside.

“She hasn’t finished talking yet—what are you trying to do hitting people now?”

Zhang Chunyan burst into tears, truly furious this time.

“Xu Xiaowei, why are you holding me back? You’d rather let her keep throwing dirt on me and destroying my reputation?!”

Li Guiqin came over to support her daughter and shot Wang Huimin a fierce glare.

“Yanzi, calm down. Let her finish talking. I want to see what else she can come up with.”

“Anyway, if you didn’t do anything wrong, your dad and I will get to the bottom of it. We won’t let you be falsely accused like this. A letter doesn’t prove anything.”

Zhang Chunyan wiped her tears, realizing she had just lost control. But since she hadn’t done it, she wasn’t going to admit to anything. She had to find a way to turn things around.

“Wang Huimin, your story doesn’t even make sense. You can deny all you want, but it doesn’t hold up. Your family already took a thousand yuan bride price from the Song family, agreeing to marry you off to Song Fu.”

“Everyone knows what kind of family you come from—they’d sell their own daughter for money. Once the cash is in your parents’ hands, it’s like a lamb falling into a tiger’s mouth. Do you really think you can avoid marrying into the Song family now?”

“Anything you say at this point is totally untrustworthy. If I really was fooling around with Song Fu, you’d hate me—why would you help me deliver a letter to him? Doesn’t that completely contradict itself?”

“You clearly just used the excuse of delivering a letter to deliberately drive a wedge between me and Xiaowei!”