Farm Tough Girl
Chapter 281 - 281 282 Teaching Dad a Lesson_1

Chapter 281: Chapter 282 Teaching Dad a Lesson_1 Chapter 281: Chapter 282 Teaching Dad a Lesson_1 The rumors in the village had spread fiercely. Old Madam Qiao finally came to her senses, but when she heard these rumors, she was so angry that she nearly fainted again.

As for Qiao Yuanzhen, even though he lay in bed, unable to get up, he could only pound the bed board incessantly, all the silver he had acquired had flown away! In a fit of rage, he abandoned all semblance of a scholar and burst out cursing, “Are you two dead at home? How could you let someone turn the house upside down so blatantly? What good are you? Now all the good silver is gone without a trace!”

Madam Zhao and Qiao Dazhi didn’t dare to speak at this moment, hanging their heads while Qiao Yuanzhen scolded them.

The Village Head happened to come in just then and saw this scene, which startled him. He had never seen a son reprimand his father like this before! And this son was a scholar, no less. The Village Head frowned immediately. He had thought highly of Qiao Yuanzhen as the pride of Tupo Village and had a very good impression of him, considering him a genteel child. But now, it seemed that appearances were deceiving, and he was no more than a rogue in scholar’s clothing.

The ancients always emphasized filial piety. Even though the Village Head had his biases against the Qiao family, he could not stand to see parents ridden roughshod over by their son and immediately chastised, “How can you speak so carelessly, saying your parents are dead? Is this how you speak to your parents?”

Qiao Yuanzhen was taken aback, not noticing the Village Head’s arrival. Now that he had lost face in his anger and someone had seen him, his resentment toward the elders grew, and with clenched teeth, he glared at them before shutting his mouth and saying no more.

Qiao Dazhi didn’t want his son’s reputation tarnished either and quickly spoke up for Qiao Yuanzhen, “Village Head, Yuanzhen is indeed muddled with rage, which is why he spoke those words. Our Yuanzhen is usually very filial and would never utter a harsh word to us; it’s just that today’s events have been too infuriating!”

Madam Zhao quickly chimed in, “Yes, yes, the people in the village are disheartening indeed! Watching our family suffer such a catastrophe, losing hundreds of taels of silver, they actually gloat and say we deserve it. Is this something a person would do? Village Head, you must stand up for us!”

The Village Head slammed his hand on the table, his beard quivering with rage, “You still have the nerve to ask me to stand up for you? The villagers are not acting like humans, but are you any better? Don’t think I don’t know where those hundreds of taels of silver came from. How dare you go to the Li Family and extort them using a child, are you even human?”

Madam Zhao was taken aback and then retorted, “What do you mean ‘extort’? Why do you have to say it in such an ugly way? We were merely planning to take the child back. It was the Li Family that refused, and they volunteered to compensate with silver; we were just going with the flow.”

The Village Head snorted, “Going with the flow? You divorced Qinghe while she was pregnant, and for almost a year, you ignored her completely. Now as soon as the child is born, you come to snatch it, and when you intimidate the family enough, they have to pacify you with silver. I’m shocked that Tupo Village has such cold-hearted people like you. Don’t complain about the villagers talking behind your back. Not just them, I can’t stand to watch the terrible things you’re doing either!”

Madam Zhao hastily grabbed the Village Head’s sleeve, “Village Head, no matter what, you must help us catch the thief. This might have been done by someone in the village, surely out of envy that our family made a fortune! You must help us investigate! We can’t just let those hundreds of taels of silver be lost for nothing, right?”

“I can’t be certain who stole your silver coins, but those two young men who just brought Qiao Yuanzhen back said that although the robbers were masked, their accents were not local. Moreover, Lord Lu immediately sent government officers to pursue them, and they ran straight to the docks at Jinyang Town and took a boat down south. Do you think a villager did this?”

At that, Madam Zhao was dumbfounded, “What do we do now?”

“I may have limited ability, but I believe that the people in our village wouldn’t stoop to sneaking around and thieving chickens and dogs. Besides, for so many years, everyone’s been sleeping with doors unlocked, without any issues. At most, a cucumber might go missing in the field, a chicken might disappear from its coop, but that’s just the mischief of children playing around. Who would be so malicious as to specifically come to steal money? I’m afraid it’s because you all showed off too much yesterday. It just so happened that a professional thief set his sights on you and ransacked your home overnight. Otherwise, why would everyone else’s home be fine?”

Since it wasn’t someone from our village who did it, I don’t have a constable or anything to help you catch the thief. Otherwise, you could go directly to the County Government Office and ask the County Chief to take charge,” the Village Head said, though in truth, he had little hope of the money being recovered. After all, in this day and age, was solving cases really that easy?

Madam Zhao immediately burst into tears, “What are we going to do now? My good silver! Oh, I can’t go on!”

The Village Head couldn’t stand the woman’s clamoring and simply walked away with a swish of his sleeves.

While Muniang was enjoying her afternoon tea, she listened leisurely to Qingya relaying the Qiao family’s troubles with great interest, smacking her lips, “Why do I feel so happy seeing them in trouble?”

Qingya held back a laugh and said, “It’s not like Lady caused their misfortune. Honestly, they’re so foolish. They’ve never gained any advantage from Lady before, yet this time, they naively thought they could blackmail us into granting them favors with just that little trick. They didn’t consider our current situation at all. After all, our master is quite formidable now.”

Muniang glared at her, “What benefits has he given you that you’re always speaking up for him?” She finally realized that this girl would praise Yu Ze every chance she got, as if she was afraid Muniang wouldn’t see his good qualities.

Qingya hastily replied, “Master hasn’t given this servant any benefits, this servant is just considering Lady’s well-being. A good man like Master is hard to find in a lifetime, and this servant worries that Lady might hold a grudge against Master because of some previous unhappy incidents.”

“Don’t worry, I have a good sense of judgment and I’m clear about everything.”

Qingya silently thought, That sense of judgment tends to fail when it comes to matters concerning Master. But she didn’t dare to say that out loud, for Lady would definitely glare at her.

When Muniang entered the eastern wing of the backyard to see Qinghe, she saw her half-reclining on the bed, holding the baby in her arms.

Muniang scolded her, “You’ve just given birth, you’re still weak, and yet you’re holding such a big, chubby baby, aren’t you tired?”

Qinghe’s face was full of happiness, “The moment I wake up, I want to look at the child, I just can’t help it. But my arms are getting pretty sore now.”

Muniang then took the baby from her, “Xi’er was born plump and fair, and that’s all thanks to the nourishment I provided for you. Otherwise, could you have given birth to such a beautiful daughter?”