Transmigration: A Farm Girl’s Brocade
Chapter 440 - 240: Turning the Tables_2

Chapter 440: Chapter 240: Turning the Tables_2

Qian Manhe and others entered the Li family home, to see Qian Mandua screaming on the ground with Li Laoer’s wife straddling her, yanking her hair and scratching her face, while Grandma Li intermittently whipped Qian Mandua with a stick she held in her hand. Li Laoer and the rest of the Li family stood aside, watching the commotion.

Qian Manhe bellowed and charged at Li Laoer, with Huang Tie and several others rushing up as well. Li Ahcai, Hua Niangzi, Lady He and others dashed towards Qian Mandua; Li Ahcai cried as he helped Qian Mandua up, Sister-in-law Li straightened her clothes and hair, while Madam Hua and Lady He started to beat up Li Laoer’s daughter-in-law.

After hitting Li Laoer a few times to vent his anger, Qian Manhe regained his sense. He approached Qian Mandua and asked, "Sister, why are they beating you like this?"

Qian Mandua’s face was scratched, her hair disheveled, and her clothing in disarray. Sobbing, she said, "Li Laoer tried to force himself on me, which I resisted, and we started fighting. His wife heard and came over, claiming I seduced her man, and then she hit me. Even my mother-in-law sided with them, saying that as soon as her third son left, I started seducing her second son..."

Qian Manhe’s eyes red with rage, he went to the courtyard entrance and shouted to the onlookers, "You all surely know what kind of trash the Li family is, lazy, gluttonous, gamblers, bad to the bone... and there’s even more you wouldn’t expect; this family has lost all humanity, they even sold Ah Cao to be a sacrifice to the River God..."

The villagers all knew that Shili Town required boys and girls for the River God sacrifice, and they were wondering where they would find two children to meet their deaths. They never expected the Li family would actually sell their own granddaughter, their niece, to die. The crowd erupted in a fury, cursing the Li family as worse than pigs and dogs.

Qian Manhe continued, "Ever since my brother-in-law left, that Li Laoer has been bullying my sister and her children time and again, finding excuses to beat Ah Cai every day." He lifted Li Ahcai’s jacket to show everyone his bruises.

Li Ahcai, wiping away tears, recounted how they’d been bullied after his father left.

People tend to sympathize with the underdog. First, they heard about the sale of Li Ahcao as a sacrifice to the River God, and now seeing Li Ahcai’s injuries, they started to feel pity for Qian Mandua and her children, loudly cursing the Li family as immoral, deserving hell after death...

Grandma Li loudly protested, "That’s not true; don’t listen to his nonsense..."

Qian Manhe responded, "Whether or not I’m spouting nonsense isn’t for you, the old pious woman, to decide. Master County Magistrate will make a fair judgment. Tomorrow I will go to the County Government Office to beat the drum and state my grievance; my brother-in-law is a soldier fighting on the front lines, battling to protect the Great Qian Kingdom. And what do you do? Sell his daughter to die, molest and beat his wife, abuse his son... Just for harassing the wife of a front-line soldier, Li Laoer could be jailed. And with the other things, hmm..."

Fearing the threat of a complaint to the County Government Office, Grandma Li dared not say much more.

Li Laoer, undaunted despite being beaten to a bruised and swollen face, insistently retorted, "I’m not afraid of going to the County Government Office. I’ve never hit Ah Cai, and I don’t know how he got those injuries. As for my brother’s wife, she truly couldn’t resist and seduced me first. This, my mother, my wife, and even my elder brother can testify for me. Who would believe a child’s words? And as for Ah Cao’s case, heh, what do you mean sending her to die? The River God blesses us with good weather along the banks of the Hong River. It’s us who haven’t served him well, provoking his anger and causing thunder. Thus, Landlord Ma paid silver to buy boys and girls for the River God sacrifice, which is for the good of thousands of people. How can you call it sending them to die?"

Just as Qian Manhe was about to speak, a gruff voice cut him off, "Nonsense! You dog/day of a man, trying to prettify your misdeeds!" Following the remark, a dark-skinned man in his fifties approached. He was Old man Li, the father of Green Willow Village’s Li Lizheng, who had handed over the position of village head to his eldest son the year before.

Not long ago, HEADS of Huaxi Village’s Wang Lizheng, Darong Village’s Wan Lizheng, two elderly men with graying hair, and Guiyuan’s Old man Cai had come to his home, discussing how worshipping the wrong deity would incur greater wrath from the Sky God, and that human sacrifices might provoke divine retribution. He listened with dread and quickly sent his son to stop Landlord Ma from making a mistake that could anger the Sky God.

He also heard from Old man Cai about a girl from their village being implicated, which infuriated him and led him straight to the Li household, only to be greeted by this scene.

The Li family were his kinfolk, albeit separated by five degrees of kinship, they were still related. Moreover, he was close friends with the three Li brothers’ father, Honest Li, since they were kids. It was just that Honest Li died early, and his undisciplined wife raised their sons to be even less disciplined.