A Good Country Wife

Lin Yue, observing the situation, realized everyone must believe Chunxi was responsible. Yet when she looked at Chunxi, it appeared there was some injustice in her case. She couldn’t simply let the true malefactor behind the scenes go unpunished, so Lin Yue had to speak up, "Chunxi, no one is going to believe what you’re saying. If you didn’t mean to harm me, why did you lure me to the back mountain? You couldn’t possibly be saying it was just for fun, could you? Who would believe such a thing?"

Chunxi shook her head. Considering her situation couldn’t get any worse, she figured she might as well tell the truth. She could differentiate between contemplating harm and actually doing harm, "Yueyue, I’m sorry. I was blinded by lard, that’s why I impulsively tried to harm you. It was Sister Guihua who tricked you into going to the back mountain, but then I came to my senses and realized it was wrong, so I gave up on the idea. Whatever happened afterwards really wasn’t my doing."

Lin Yue could tell Chunxi was still holding onto a sliver of hope, mixing truth with lies, "Chunxi, there’s no need to feign innocence. Everyone knows how malicious you can be, and this isn’t the first time you’ve done something evil. Just tell the truth, otherwise no one will believe you, and you’ll end up taking the fall for someone else."

With Lin Yue’s words, Chunxi’s last bit of hope faded away. Her face turned pale as she admitted, "I, I really did want to harm you, but then Zhao Jingui called me back. I had no time, so I really couldn’t have done it, truly."

Though Chunxi was now telling the truth, the unfortunate fact was that the time frame for the harm to be done was less than half an hour, and she had dawdled on her way back, leaving no room for an alibi. Even Zhao Jingui and the You Family believed she was responsible because the timing was just too coincidental; the event had occurred just before Chunxi’s return.

"Besides you, who else knew about this? Whoever committed the crime and put the blame on you must be quite familiar with your plan. Think carefully."

Chunxi thought long and hard but still shook her head, clueless. She didn’t understand; she had been so secretive, how could anyone have known and taken advantage of her plan, framing her? "I really don’t know. Aside from Sister Guihua, there was no one else—wait, there was also Zhang Liu’s family." Chunxi couldn’t think of anyone else beyond these two.

"Chunxi, don’t slander people out of spite. We have no grudges against Erhu’s wife; why would we harm her? Not everyone is as cruel-hearted as you. If you dare to falsely accuse us again, I swear I’ll tear your mouth!" Liu Cuicui from the Zhang family reacted fiercely, pointing and cursing at Chunxi. Being a widow already made her a target for gossip, and she certainly wasn’t about to let Chunxi dump this scandal on her. Moreover, she had her own designs on Zhao Erhu and hadn’t given up on him yet; it’s not as if she lacked motive. If someone started connecting the dots, she’d be beyond vindication, no matter how much she tried to explain.