Ch 78: The Farmer Ger in the Apocalypse

That remark was like a drop of water falling into hot oil—the onlookers instantly exploded in an uproar.

If it were about catching a thief from another village, the whole village would stand united against the outsider. But if it involved a personal scandal, suddenly, everyone was wide awake. Especially the young men who had past grudges with Shen Qing—they knew deep down that the guy was probably just making things up. After all, if he were really looking for someone, why not come in broad daylight? Who sneaks into someone’s home in the middle of the night for a legitimate reason?

But what if Shen Qing and that family’s third son really had something going on? Even though none of them had ever seen this third son before, nor had any idea about his connection with Shen Qing, in their minds, what man would be interested in someone like Shen Qing? If she found one, wouldn’t she cling to him desperately?

Any rumor that could tarnish Shen Qing’s reputation excited these guys!

And there were others who, even though they knew a thief would say anything to avoid punishment, couldn’t resist the thrill of gossip due to their lack of daily entertainment.

What a juicy scandal!

Even if it involved Shen Qing, whom they somewhat feared, the little hint of danger in the rumor only made it more enticing. In an instant, all kinds of gazes fell on Shen Qing—some curious and probing, some mocking and ridiculing, some eager for gossip. Some even wished they could shake Wang Laoda and get him to spill more details!

Shen Qing frowned slightly, a fleeting thought crossing her mind—Wang San ran away?

That wouldn’t be surprising. Though Shen Qing never liked Wang San, she had always felt that his life in that household was stifling and pitiful. Now that he had escaped, she actually respected him a little more—at least he no longer pinned his hopes on others, trying to shift conflicts and have someone else stand up to his mother for him. Instead, he had finally taken a step to free himself, even if he still didn’t dare to confront his mother directly and had chosen to sneak away instead.

Although Shen Qing was somewhat happy for Wang San, that didn’t mean she was willing to bear the burden of a scandalous rumor involving him. Before she could speak, Miao Shi could no longer sit still.

She had been terrified all night, her body still trembling slightly. But as soon as she heard Wang Laoda’s words, she grabbed the long wooden bench she had been sitting on and charged forward, swinging it wildly at Wang Laoda’s head. “How dare you slander my son! Talking nonsense! Does your Wang family have no shame at all? The whole lot of you must be out of your minds!”

Extreme fear turns into rage, and Miao Shi was the embodiment of that at this moment. The terror of the night had transformed into violent fury, all of which she unleashed on Wang Da, who had ignited her wrath.

Wang Da, tied up like a dumpling, had no way to dodge. A couple of blows landed right on his face, and blood started pouring from his nose. Zhao Youdang and the others only stepped in to stop Miao Shi after she had beaten him for a while—if he dared to break into someone’s house to steal, he should be ready to face the consequences. In times like these, as long as the beating wasn’t too severe, even if the authorities got involved, they would just let it slide. “Alright, alright, don’t wear yourself out. You’ve been scared and angry all night—if you keep sweating and catch a chill, it won’t be worth it!”

Madam Guixiang also rushed up to pull Miao Shi away before giving Wang Da two harsh kicks. “You really think making up a story like this will fool us? You came to our village to steal, and now you want to ruin our village’s ger’s reputation? Your family was the one who begged Qing Ge’er to let your third son marry in, but our Qing Ge’er didn’t even want him! Who in this village doesn’t know that? Now that your man’s missing, you dare to blame it on Qing Ge’er? Do you people from Xiaoji Village have no shame at all?!”

Zhao Youdang didn’t give them a chance to say more, knowing that some onlookers might get even more riled up if the drama continued. Since the identities of the four intruders were now clear, Zhao Youdang immediately ordered a few men to drag them to the village workshop and keep them under watch until they could be taken to Xiaoji Village the next day to have a word with their village chief.

Shen Qing and the others thought these people were just making things up to escape punishment, but they had no idea that Old Lady Wang actually meant every word!

Ever since she had taken Wang San to Shen Qing’s house, only to have Shen Qing publicly expose her and Wang San talk back to her, Wang San had changed completely after returning home.

He no longer worked as diligently around the house but still demanded the same food and clothing as his brothers. If she gave an extra bite of egg to her eldest or youngest son, Wang San would throw down his chopsticks and pull a long face like a stubborn mule.

After playing favorites for so many years, how could Old Lady Wang suddenly start treating her children equally? She couldn’t bear it! So she constantly cursed Wang San at home and, deep in her heart, resented Shen Qing. If it weren’t for him exposing everything that day, Wang San would still be the obedient child he used to be—where would he have gotten all these troublesome thoughts?!

But time could not turn back.

For Wang San, ever since Shen Qing rejected him and painstakingly laid out the truth before him, a seed named “rebellion” had been planted in his heart. That seed grew day by day, and the urge to resist became stronger with each passing moment. Wang San also began to see his family’s situation more clearly.

His mother never truly cared for him, and his hardships weren’t something that could be improved just by fighting his brothers for a bite of food or an extra piece of clothing. In fact, even if he had been the most favored child in the family, as long as he had a mother like that, his predicament would never change—hadn’t his supposedly favored eldest brother still failed to find a wife?

It took Wang San a long time to fully grasp this, and only then did he truly understand why Shen Qing had refused him.

He had to rely entirely on himself. Only by completely cutting ties with this family and his mother could he break free from his predicament and move forward with his life, instead of wasting away in that household.

So, on a dark and windy night, Wang San took half of the family’s money and left. It wasn’t much—just two taels of silver. But Wang San believed that since he had always done the most work and suffered the most unfair treatment in the household, the money was rightfully his.

When Old Lady Wang woke up, she was furious. She hated that Wang San had taken the family’s money, hated that he had dared to defy her, but most of all, she hated Shen Qing—the one who had started all of this, the one who had turned her son disobedient!

That damned ger—if he had just obediently handed over the money, that would have been one thing. But no, he had stirred up trouble, encouraged Wang San to take the money and run. That’s it, Old Lady Wang thought, a ger who looks like that—what man would want him? How could he possibly not be interested in my son? It must be that he didn’t want to pay the ten-tael bride price, so he tricked Wang San into taking the family’s money and running to him! How else could Wang San have gone anywhere else? There’s no way he had the guts to run off on his own!

Coincidentally, those few days, Shen Qing had gone to Yucai Academy to look for books and wasn’t in the village. Old Lady Wang asked around and became even more convinced that Shen Qing and Wang San were hiding somewhere together in secret.

She couldn’t accept it. Raising such a big son for so many years, and now she wasn’t even getting a single coin in return! Then she heard that Shen Qing had invested money into a tofu workshop—what if all the cash was spent? How would her remaining sons afford to marry wives?

Panicked, she gathered her remaining four sons and schemed this theft.

Even though she truly believed Wang San had run away with Shen Qing, her past experience taught her that she was no match for Shen Qing. Her later confrontation with Matchmaker Wei had further proven that going to Lantang Village to make trouble would only end badly for them.

If they couldn’t get it openly, they would take it in secret!

Old Lady Wang’s idea of “taking back her family’s money” wasn’t just about the two taels Wang San had taken. It also included the ten-tael bride price that she believed Shen Qing was obligated to pay!

Fortunately for Shen Qing, the four Wang brothers weren’t professional thieves. It was their first time attempting something like this, and they were so inexperienced that it took them half the night just to climb a wall—making it easy for Shen Qing to deal with them.

Old Lady Wang waited anxiously at home all night, but when her sons still hadn’t returned by dawn, she knew something was wrong. Hadn’t they said Shen Qing wasn’t home, leaving only Miao Shi, a lone woman? Even if Shen Qing had returned, how could her four sons not handle a single ger?

She waited until the sun was high in the sky, and then her last shred of hope was crushed when an old woman who had always been at odds with her arrived at her house with a gloating smile.

“Oh my, Old Wang! How do you still have the face to show yourself? Your four sons went to another village to steal and got caught red-handed! They’ve been taken to our village chief’s house, and their victims are making a fuss about reporting them to the authorities! Our village chief is utterly humiliated—he’s talking about driving your whole family out of the village!”

No one in the village got along with Old Lady Wang! She had always flaunted the fact that she had five sons, strutting around as if she owned the place. Dirt poor, yet still looking down on others, always paranoid that the whole village was against her. Just recently, she had even set her sights on matchmaking her niece from her maternal family—ha! She should take a good look in the mirror and see if her family was even worthy!

Now, the Wang brothers had gone off to steal—stealing from an outside village, no less—dragging down the entire reputation of Xiaoji Village. But despite the anger, this old woman felt a sense of satisfaction. If Old Lady Wang could get kicked out of the village and become a disgrace elsewhere, it would be well worth it!

Under normal circumstances, Old Lady Wang would have fought this woman to the death. But now, upon hearing that the village chief was considering expelling her family, she panicked and couldn’t even spare the energy to argue.

“The village chief must be out of his mind! It was that ger’s shamelessness that led my son away, how can my family be blamed for that? He’s the village chief of Xiaoji Village—how can he not protect us?”

The old woman rolled her eyes. Now she’s scared? Where was all that nerve when she was plotting a theft?

Xiaoji Village’s chief felt like he had the worst luck imaginable. With the new year approaching, he had been relaxing indoors, playing with his grandson, only to be dragged out at the crack of dawn when Lantang Village’s chief stormed in, demanding an explanation. His old face was about to be completely disgraced!

The Wang brothers still wouldn’t admit their crime. But they had been caught in the act—what was there to argue? It wasn’t like Lantang Village had snuck into Xiaoji Village, kidnapped them, and framed them!

Truth be told, Xiaoji Village’s chief wasn’t too keen on keeping Old Lady Wang’s family in the village either. They were like a stick stirring up a pot of shit, constantly causing trouble. Most of the village disputes were instigated by Old Lady Wang, yet she always played the victim, claiming people were bullying a widow and her orphaned sons. Sure, she was a widow with sons, but what kind of widow spends all her time picking fights, using her sons as her weapons?

So when Zhou Youdang suggested either giving each of them eighty lashes or kicking them out of the village, the chief was very tempted. However, after living in the same village for so many years, he still had a bit of sympathy left and hesitated.

Before he could make up his mind, Old Lady Wang came wailing to his doorstep.

“Village chief, you have to stand up for me! How can we let those Lantang Village people bully us? Their ger is shameless! He seduced my son and won’t even pay the bride price! How does that make any sense? My sons were only taking what rightfully belongs to us! If he ran off with my third son, then they’re family! How is that stealing?”

Shen Qing was so furious he almost laughed. “Are you mentally ill? Did you personally see him come to my house?”

Old Lady Wang stood with her hands on her hips, her tone righteous. “If not you, then who else? Last time, it was you who filled my son’s head with nonsense, making him talk back to me! After that, he was willing to stay at your house as a live-in son-in-law, even without a bride price—don’t think I don’t know!”

“If you know that much, then you should also know that I never agreed to it,” Shen Qing said, exasperated. “I told Wang San very clearly that I didn’t want anything to do with you. So even if Wang San himself was decent, I wouldn’t take him.”

“Village chief, did you hear that? He admitted that he thought my third son was decent!” Old Lady Wang only heard what she wanted to hear. “So he took my son away, and now my son has cut ties with me—this is exactly what he wanted!”

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