The Country Maiden: Fields and Leisure
Chapter 528 - 526: A Thief Enters?

Chapter 528: Chapter 526: A Thief Enters?

Sun Shitou’s Wife hurriedly withdrew her hand and, seeing that everyone in the courtyard was looking at her, she forced a smile and said, "I haven’t been to grandfather’s place before, just wanted to have a look around..."

Old Granny Zhang paused with the bowl in her hand and directly said to Wang Yongzhen, "Eldest girl, things are pretty chaotic at home now. Shitou’s Wife is pregnant, and it’s inconvenient for her in many ways. If she unintentionally offends someone, that would be terrible. You’ve had your meal, and it’s getting late, plus the road is long. If we delay further, I’m afraid it will be dark soon. All the empty rooms in our house are now occupied by the craftsmen, so we won’t be able to keep you. Go back!"

Isn’t it just about wanting to eat meat? The meat has been eaten, so why haven’t you scrammed?

Wang Yongzhen didn’t dare decide on her own; she looked first at Wang Laozhu, then at Old Lady Sun, feeling conflicted.

Upon hearing this, Old Lady Sun realized that the Wang Family was trying to send them away. Anyway, they had their fill of food and drink; it would be good to go back earlier.

She snorted coldly, "Fine, we’ll leave! But let me say this upfront, everyone from our family came here to help out today, three men and three women. You can’t shortchange us even a penny of our wages!"

The other women who came to help were astonished; they had never seen someone so shameless. The Wang Family really had bad luck to have such relatives!

Old Granny Zhang slammed down her chopsticks. Providing food and drink was already generous, and they still wanted money?

Wang Laozhu pulled her aside and said, "Old woman, just give it to them! Let’s send this whole family off quickly. If they stay here, who knows what kind of trouble they’ll cause tonight!"

This was spending money to avert disaster.

Hearing Wang Laozhu’s tone, as if he was rushing to send off a disaster, Wang Yongzhen’s expression darkened, and she shed tears.

At this moment, nobody cared about her.

Taking a deep breath, Old Granny Zhang knew that with a shrewish and unreasonable person like Old Lady Sun, there really was no arguing. Before, when Zhuzhu was mistreated at the Sun Family, her sons had stormed over and made a scene, even smashing their table, and had declared a break in relations.

But later, wasn’t it Wang Yongzhen who shamelessly made up with them?

Seeing Old Lady Sun swallow such a big loss today and still endure, it seemed that she wouldn’t leave without some money.

There’s a saying, the barefoot are not afraid of the shod! Now, the Sun Family was barefoot while the Wang Family was shod.

The Sun Family could afford to be shameless, but the Wang Family needed to save face!

It was also the first time for Wang Yongzhu to encounter such brazen people. If she had no ties to the Wang Family, it would have been easy to handle.

But there was the complication of Wang Yongzhen in the middle. Without giving any face at all, she feared others would say that the Wang Family was cold-hearted.

There are some people in the world who, no matter what the truth is, would only need to see the Wang Family actually sending away Wang Yongzhen and the Sun Family, and by tomorrow the whole village and the neighboring regions might be talking about how Old Granny Zhang, the stepmother, was terrible, dominating the Wang Family, and driving out the Wang Family’s eldest daughter.

But if she really paid, she wouldn’t feel good about it, as if she had swallowed a fly—simply disgusting.

However, at this moment, Wang Laozhu was right; they had to get the Sun Family out first before dealing with anything else.

Being a decisive person, once Wang Yongzhu had a clear thought, she immediately said, "Okay, we’ll settle your wages now, but once they’re paid, you must leave."

Saying so, she went inside to count out sixty Large Coins, then listed the Sun Family’s headcount in the ledger, noting an expenditure of sixty coins for wages.

She had the Sun Family members press their fingerprints to receive the money.

Old Lady Sun was eager to take the money, but when it came to pressing her fingerprint, she declined, "Let Eldest Brother’s Wife do it. I’m too old and clueless about these things."

Wang Yongzhen, with a face turning purple, stepped forward and pressed her fingerprint, whispering, "Thank you, little sister!"

She had barely touched the money when Old Lady Sun snatched it from her, "I’ll look after the money!" Stuffing the coins into her bosom, she dragged Sun Shitou’s Wife towards the exit of the courtyard.

While walking, she continued to say, "Quickly call your dad and the others to come home, The money’s been collected, why waste any more effort?"

Sun Shitou’s Wife still had some dissatisfaction, "Granny, is this all? What about the first meeting gift for when I first visited the Shitou’s?"

Nobody knew what Old Lady Sun murmured, but faintly, the word "meat" could be heard, and suddenly Sun Shitou’s Wife fell silent.

Wang Yongzhen followed behind with her head down and also left the Wang Family Courtyard.

As soon as the three of them left, everyone breathed a sigh of relief, Lady Lin stepped forward in a few strides and shut the courtyard door, "Finally, they’re gone!"

Wang Laozhu went back to his room with a stern face, no longer in the mood to work on the furniture.

Old Granny Zhang also perked up, "Alright, the plague is finally sent off! Let’s tidy up and get ready for dinner, see what’s missing and replenish it."

The helping women quickly started to clean up, when suddenly one of them exclaimed, "Where did the meat in this basin go? It was still here before lunch, could a thief have gotten in?"

Upon hearing this, everyone rushed over to look, at the doorway of the cooking room, the meat that had been cut and left over from lunch, had been lightly salted and was intended to be eaten that evening, had now vanished without a trace, leaving only an empty basin.

"How could a thief get in when everyone’s here in this yard? Perhaps a cat took it away?" suggested a woman.

With just these people in the courtyard, everyone understood each other’s integrity to some extent, unlikely to do such a shameful act over a piece of meat.

Everyone started to speculate with all sorts of guesses.

"This is really strange, so many people in the courtyard and no outsiders coming and going, how could the meat just disappear?"

"Exactly, if a wild cat had taken it, wouldn’t we have heard it meow?"

"Could it be that some child mischievously took it away?"

...

The comments were diverse and numerous.

Wang Yongzhu furrowed her brow; she suddenly remembered the vague word "meat" she had heard from Old Lady Sun earlier, could it have been her?

Once suspicion arose, many inconsistencies came to mind.

Back then, Sun Shitou’s Wife was loitering around, trying to get inside the house, drawing everyone’s attention, indeed, no one was noticing what Old Lady Sun was doing at the time?

Moreover, Old Lady Sun settled the wages and left so quickly, not even letting Sun Shitou’s Wife stay despite her talk of a first meeting gift, but instead hurried her away...

All these clues put together, who else could it be but Old Lady Sun?

Old Granny Zhang suddenly slapped the table, "No need to guess anymore, I know who took it."

"Who?" Everyone turned back to look at Old Granny Zhang.

"Who else but Old Lady Sun and Sun Shitou’s Wife, who else would be so shameless as to come into their relatives’ house and steal meat!" Old Granny Zhang felt indignant and got up, intending to run outside.

"Such a large piece of meat, we can’t let their family benefit for nothing, I have to chase it down and get it back!"

Wang Yongzhu hurriedly held Old Granny Zhang back, "Mom, let it go! Given Old Lady Sun’s character, even if you catch up to her, they probably won’t admit it. Besides, Shitou’s Wife is pregnant, can we really lay a hand on her? If she clutches her belly and screams something’s wrong with the baby, we might even be wrongly accused of causing harm."

Old Granny Zhang was not willing to give up, with the Sun Family shamelessly taking the wages and on top of that, stealing such a large piece of meat, their loss was great today.