The Eldest Daughter of a Rural Family

Si Ya saw that Lady Zhu and Lady Chen indeed had come, and she was boiling with rage inside. Now, the secret of their stashed savings had been discovered by Grandmother and Madam Fang! Without handing over the silver, any chance for peace was out of the question.

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Lady Zhu’s face was gloomy, the corners of her mouth drooping down; she looked at Pei Qin and Lady Fang with malevolence.

Lady Chen also looked at them obliquely through narrowed eyes, but she didn’t speak first, leaving everything to her mother-in-law, Lady Zhu.

"No wonder you’ve been making a fuss about dividing the household. It turns out you had your own hidden stash of silver coins!" Lady Zhu had thought it was at most a few copper coins, with maybe a little supplement from Lady Fang’s family home. She hadn’t anticipated that the spent money was actually from a secretly stashed fund, not at all a relief from her parents’ home.

San Ya’s small face was scrunched up with worry, and her eyes began to redden.

Lady Fang herself didn’t know what to say, standing there with a bundle of firewood on her back.

Pei Qin, who hadn’t noticed Lady Zhu and Lady Chen, brought the firewood into the courtyard and laid it out under the wall to dry; she then came over to take the drier bundle from Lady Fang and carried it into the kitchen.

"Mother, sister-in-law," Lady Fang called out in greeting.

Lady Zhu snorted, "Mother? If you really saw me as your mother, would you have caused all this trouble!? And if you really saw your sister-in-law as such, would you have let that damn wench hit someone!? You even dared to secretly stash away the household’s silver coins!"

Pei Qin saw her pointing at them and walked over, "What’s the matter, you only remember that I hit someone, but not why I hit them? Shall I help you recall!?"

"You hit me for no reason at all, and you hit Er Lang. And now you want to hit again!?" Lady Chen said, her hostility belying an inner fragility.