Chapter 25

Chen Meiling whimpered, “Mother, even if I’m the one to send her, I don’t have any money.”

Ma Yueying rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t the one who pushed her. Why should I be the one to pay?”

Chen Meiling looked troubled. “But Mother, our household hasn’t split yet. All the money is with you. How am I supposed to pay?”

Ma Yueying’s eyes bulged. “What, are you saying you want to split the family?”

“I don’t, Mother. I’m just saying the money is in your hands—what can I use to pay her back?”

“I don’t care what you use. I’ve got no money.”

But Chen Meiling knew full well that the old crone was hiding quite a stash, so she wasn’t about to spend her own.

Her eyes flickered, and in a voice low enough for only her and Ma Yueying to hear, she said, “Mother… who do you think it was that really poisoned Third Brother’s wife?”

Ma Yueying glared at her viciously, then unwillingly pulled a few scattered bills—barely a yuan—from her pocket.

“That’s all there is.”

Lin Jingguo’s face hardened. “Xie family, hurry and take out more. This is nowhere near enough. Jiang Zhiqing still hasn’t come to, and if treatment is delayed, you can expect a firing squad.”

Grudgingly, Ma Yueying dug out four more yuan. Chen Meiling counted it, thinking to herself: a doctor’s visit costs at most two yuan. She’d pocket the extra three as her own private stash—maybe even put it toward her younger brother’s future wedding.

As Chen Meiling stooped to help Jiang Ying up, Ma Yueying caught sight of her blood-covered face. Shivering in fright, she suddenly reeked of urine.

Both Lin Jingguo and the onlookers stepped back in disgust. What on earth…

Her face stiff with shame, Ma Yueying quickly called to Chen Meiling for help.

But Chen Meiling was busy holding up Jiang Ying. “I don’t have time right now.”

“Then drop her! With the money I just gave you, can’t you fix her up anyway?”

Thud.

Everyone watched, wide-eyed, as Jiang Ying was dumped back onto the ground so the “dutiful daughter-in-law” could rush to help her mother-in-law instead.

Lifting her up only made the acrid stench worse.

The bystanders couldn’t hold back any longer. “Ugh, she stinks! Must’ve been eating plenty of good food, huh?”

Ma Yueying opened her mouth to retort, but Chen Meiling yanked her away toward the courtyard—she was in a hurry to get Jiang Ying to the hospital.

Lin Jingguo sucked in a sharp breath at the sheer stupidity of the mother-and-daughter-in-law pair. He motioned for two women to carry Jiang Ying onto the donkey cart while he waited for Chen Meiling to come back out.

But when no one emerged after a long while, Lin went inside to call them—only to hear shouting.

Ma Yueying sat on the kang, wailing, “I must have accumulated eight lifetimes of bad luck to end up with a murderer for a daughter-in-law!”

Hearing the noise, Xie’s second and eldest sons rushed over.

“Mother, what happened?”

Second Son saw his mother crying bitterly on the kang, with his wife standing nearby. He immediately slapped Chen Meiling across the face.

“What did you do to upset Mother again?”

After returning from the broken family ties incident, he’d learned that his wife had been egged on by Jiang Zhiqing. Lately he’d also heard that his third brother’s wife’s relatives had quite a bit of influence—if not for Chen Meiling, their family might’ve gotten their hands on plastic sheeting too.

Clutching her cheek, Chen Meiling protested, “I didn’t do it on purpose! I was thinking of Mother! Jiang Zhiqing said she was moving out and wanted her money back. Mother refused, so Jiang said she’d go to the village head. I panicked, tripped, and accidentally pushed her down.”

Ma Yueying shot her a fierce glare. “For me? You’re a murderer, that’s what you are! Second Son, throw this woman out of the house right now. If we have a killer in the family, how will my four grandsons ever find wives?”

Chen Meiling stared in disbelief. “Mother, I bore you two grandsons, and you’d still drive me out?”

Second Son disliked her, yes, but she was still the mother of his two children.

He sighed and tried to reason with his mother. “Mother, the children are still small—they need their mother. If you throw my wife out now, what will the village say about my sons?”