Chapter 626 - 620_1
Lin Yue knew the scene must be chaotic, so she had brought most of the family’s servants and guards with her. Seeing Liu Aniu overwhelmed, she quickly ordered the servants and guards to step in and separate the two groups of people.
"Stop fighting, all of you! Anyone who causes further trouble won’t work for me any longer!" Lin Yue commanded coldly, which proved to be much more effective than Liu Aniu’s words. Lin Yue had long established her authority in Zhao Family Village, and most of the villagers respected her. Those refugees had been well-fed and well-treated in recent days and felt grateful to Lin Yue. Now that Lin Yue was in charge of the Zhao Family, her words brought most of the conflict to a halt. Only a few continued to scuffle and cause trouble, but they were not a serious threat. Lin Yue directed the servants and guards to separate the individuals involved and stared coldly at those who refused to listen to her.
"Have you all forgotten the rules I set? If you want to work here, you must follow my rules: keep the peace, and don’t create trouble. Look at what you’ve caused now! Do you think my family has mistreated you? If that’s the case, those unwilling to stay may stand up now. I will immediately settle your wages for these past days and you can find better employment elsewhere."
"Madam, we hold no such thoughts. We’re still not over our gratitude that you took us in, gave us a place to stay, and treated us so well. It’s just that some people were pushing us too far. We kept retreating, but they kept on bullying us, beating Xiaosan to this state. If we hadn’t stepped in, Xiaosan might have been beaten to death," said a young man who was about the same age as Xiaosan, angrily. His words suggested that he was either a fellow villager or friend of the beaten Xiaosan, and indeed he was as loyal as they come, having taken many punches himself in his defense.
"What exactly happened?" Although Lin Yue had heard a general account from the reporting servant, she still inquired at this moment.
It turned out that the villagers bore a grudge against the refugees working for Lin Yue because of past events, leading them to make life difficult at every turn. Seeing the refugees consistently yielding, the villagers grew more and more audacious and excessive in their actions. Today, when Xiaosan was returning from the restroom, he was accosted by some villagers of Zhao Family Village. They not only mocked him with cold and heated taunts but also insulted his parents. In a moment of anger, Xiaosan couldn’t hold back, and a fight broke out, with the villagers initiating the physical altercation. It then escalated to the state witnessed by Lin Yue.
Hearing this, Lin Yue turned to the man who had beaten Xiaosan. "What’s this about, then? Is everything he said true? I know that you all have grievances towards the refugees because of past incidents, but when you joined my household, I made it very clear that personal grudges must not be brought here. Why would you still act this way? Are you deliberately trying to stir up trouble by causing a commotion on my property?"
"I, I just couldn’t hold back. Those bastards caused such a disaster in the village before, and my mother’s still bedridden because of them. I couldn’t swallow the indignity without getting back at them," the man admitted boldly, without making excuses. It was clear he had a hot temper, but not a bad heart.