Chapter 63: Uproar

Steward Luo coldly snorted and said, “Just because my young miss is a girl, does she have to play with your granddaughter? What a joke! You call yourself the child’s grandmother, is this how an elder behaves? You are ruining his family in front of the child.” He really didn’t want to engage in conversation with this village woman, so he waved to Dabao and said, “Dabao, hurry up, young miss is getting impatient.”

Dabao replied with an “Oh” and looked at Mrs. Hu and Dahua, then led Qiqi, Gray, and Zhui Feng to follow Steward Luo.

In an instant, only Mrs. Hu, Dahua, and the crying Daya were left in the courtyard.

Mrs. Hu didn’t expect things to turn out this way. She felt both ashamed and angry. She grabbed Daya and began to hit her on the backside, scolding as she did, “You useless girl, always noisy and boisterous, but when it’s critical, you’re useless.”

Daya was both frightened and hurt, causing her screams to grow louder.

Mrs. Hu was furious, angrily berating Chen Ming and Mrs. Wang in the courtyard, accusing them of ingratitude, overindulgence, and hiding the satin. She even attracted a few villagers to watch the commotion.

As Chen Ming heard Mrs. Hu’s scolding and the laughter of the villagers from inside the house, he was infuriated, but as a younger brother, he couldn’t go out to reason with his sister-in-law.

Chen Lu hobbled out of the east room, but Chen Ming stopped him, saying, “You’re a boy, don’t argue with a shrew. If she pushes you and you break your leg, what will we do?”

Mrs. Wang was also furious, but Dabao had already said she was out doing work, so she couldn’t go out either.

Unable to bear Mrs. Hu’s distortion of the truth, Chen Feng stood up and set aside her work. She didn’t want to argue with a shrew, but she also didn’t want Mrs. Hu to spread lies in the courtyard and disparage Chen Ming and Mrs. Wang. She planned to go outside despite her reluctance.

Seeing Chen Feng about to go out, Mrs. Wang quickly held her back, saying, “A’Feng, don’t go. You’re a girl, it’s not good to argue with your uncle’s wife. When Mrs. Hu is done yelling, she’ll leave on her own.”

Mrs. Wang didn’t want her daughter to go. She herself could argue, and even A’Lu could argue, but A’Feng definitely couldn’t. A’Feng wasn’t of the Chen bloodline, if the Chen family lost face, the old lady and Chen Ye would only hate A’Feng. They could reprimand Mrs. Hu, but they couldn’t allow A’Feng to disrespect her.

And then there was Hu Laowu, they couldn’t afford to offend him. A few days ago, someone in the village offended him, and in the middle of the night, their courtyard was doused in excrement. When the child stepped out, a flying stone cracked his head. That person had no choice but to offer a sum of money and apologize before Hu Laowu finally let him go. Think about Dabao, if he wasn’t of the Chen bloodline and the old lady and Chen Ye didn’t protect him, offending Hu Laowu would be disastrous. And as for A’Feng, who had just been registered as a female with her own household, and looked so delicate…

Thinking of Dabao, Chen Feng had no choice but to sit down sulkily. She was too weak now, unable to even protect herself. Why should she go and argue with the woman, with that evil Mrs. Hu?

It was a pity that the Golden Swallow wasn’t around…

As Mrs. Hu became more vocal, more and more onlookers gathered.

Chen Ming couldn’t bear to listen any longer and walked out with a stern face. Suppressing his anger, he said, “Sister-in-law, please leave. If there’s anything, let my brother come and talk to me. Your loud argument here has attracted the attention of others, and they have taken away all the excitement of the Chen family.”

Mrs. Hu retorted, “Am I afraid? Let them look, it’s not like I’ll forget…”

“A’Gui’s mother, you have no shame, but my Chen family has dignity, my son and my grandchildren have dignity.” A loud voice rang out, it was Grandma Chen. She saw Daya and Dahua crying in the courtyard, with Mrs. Hu still loudly boasting about her hard work and contributions.

As soon as the old lady scolded, Mrs. Hu became somewhat fearful. But then she thought she was in the right, so what was there to fear? She quickly said, “Mother-in-law, I’m angry for you and our head of the family. You don’t know, yesterday, Steward Luo sent a lot of beautiful satin to the second branch’s house. They hid it and only gave you a few pieces of candy, some snacks, and a few feet of cloth…”

Upon seeing the old lady arrive, Chen Feng hurried over. She explained, “Aunt-in-law, you’ve misunderstood. The satin was for my mother to make things for their young miss, how could we dare to keep it for ourselves and not mention it when you visited?”

Chen Lu also hopped out with his crutch and probably explained how Mrs. Hu wanted Dahua and Daya to go to Tangyuan, Steward Luo refused, and Mrs. Hu, embarrassed and angry, started to scold people. Towards the end, he started crying, “Grandma, aunt Hu scolds my father and says he doesn’t know how to save money to honor her. She’s really fierce, if you don’t come, my sister and I won’t dare to come out.”

Grandma Chen was infuriated upon hearing this. Mrs. Hu was too greedy and shameless. Without understanding the situation, she caused a scene in the second brach.

She asked Chen Feng, “Since your aunt has misunderstood, why didn’t you come out and explain it to her?”

Chen Feng said, feeling wronged, “Aunt was angry, I was afraid she wouldn’t believe me, and it’d be even more embarrassing if we argued.”

Mrs. Hu sharply exclaimed, “Of course I don’t believe your nonsense. You think I’m as gullible as mother-in-law. If it was just for you to make things, why didn’t you mention it when we visited your house? You must have not wanted to tell us, but today I found out, so that’s your excuse.”

Chen Feng sighed, “If Aunt doesn’t believe me, let’s go to Tangyuan and ask Steward Luo, to see if I’m lying.” She then said to the old lady, “Grandma, we are just ordinary villagers, insignificant. Why would the master of Tangyuan reward us with so much beautiful satin? It’s true that Steward Luo asked us to make something for their young miss. He didn’t give us much, we only got three pieces.”

Of course, she wouldn’t mention that they received five pieces, fearing that Mrs. Hu would ask for even more.

Chen Ming, out of breath, said to the old lady, “Mother, why didn’t we dare say? You should be able to guess.”

When the old lady looked at Chen Ming, his face was ashen, and his lips were somewhat purple, which frightened her. She hurriedly helped him, saying, “Second son, are you feeling unwell again? Quick, go back inside and rest.”

The few of them went into the west room, and Mrs. Hu became somewhat fearful. If Chen Ming was made ill because of her, she wouldn’t fare well. She quickly took Dahua and Daya and left. The people outside the Chen household gradually dispersed.

Upon hearing that her husband was unwell, Mrs. Wang was also frightened and quickly ran over.

Chen Ming lay on the bed groaning, and the old lady held his hand and advised, “You’re well aware of Mrs. Hu’s character, why do you lower yourself to her level? Don’t be angry, wait for your brother to handle her.”

Mrs. Wang couldn’t hold back and privately mentioned how Mrs. Hu had secretly begged Chen Shi for a house. She didn’t just beg for a house but also asked for Zhang’s clothes, silver hairpins, and gold hairpins…