The Evil Mother-in-law: Torment Children, Work Hard, Be Rich!-Chapter 233: Scrambling for Grain

"What should we do? It’s about to turn into chaos."

Liu Tieshan left the Xu Family’s granary and approached Tong Huaqiong for advice.

He was afraid that the crowd, agitated with righteous indignation, would lose control when they saw the Xu Family’s granary.

In fact, people were already arguing over who had taken more and who had taken less.

As things continued, a fierce battle over the grain was imminent.

Liu Tieshan was genuinely afraid of things getting out of hand.

Tong Huaqiong had a strategy and said to Liu Tieshan, "The worries you have, other village chiefs have too. You should go and discuss with the chiefs of other villages, like Guazhou Bay’s Village Chief Hu. He seems to have a high standing. Have the villagers not take the grain for now."

"First organize the people, and later distribute the grain according to the loss in the cornfields."

Liu Tieshan said, "But who will oversee this?"

He really didn’t want to get involved; allocating too much or too little would upset people.

Tong Huaqiong said, "I’ve already sent Dashi to bring County Magistrate Liu. Once he’s here, the matter can be resolved."

Liu Tieshan, having no better idea, went to discuss with Village Chief Hu and a few other chiefs.

Guazhou Bay and Moon Bay are two large villages that were heavily deceived by Xu Yong, and they had the most people present. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

As long as these two villages’ people could be controlled, the other villages would be easier to handle.

At that time, Village Chief Hu and Village Chief Zhang were also troubled as they came with their villagers to seek justice.

However, they underestimated people’s desire for grain.

With so much grain before their eyes, who wouldn’t be tempted?

They were both worried that the villagers might fight over the grain and that they wouldn’t get justice, but instead have internal disputes first.

After discussing, Village Chief Hu and Village Chief Zhang began to stop their villagers from grabbing the grain.

However, the crowd was frenzied at the sight of the grain and couldn’t hear any external voices.

At this moment, Gu Dahuan walked over to Liu Tieshan with a hunting rifle and fired two shots into the air.

A loud bang.

Instantly, the crowd stopped their looting.

"Anyone who dares to grab will face my gunfire," shouted Gu Dahuan.

Some recognized Gu Dahuan, knowing him as a fool who wouldn’t dare make a sound even when bullied by his stepmother, so they didn’t take him seriously and continued to load the grain.

Gu Dahuan fired another shot and said, "I’ll say it again; everyone, stop grabbing."

Seeing Gu Dahuan was serious, the crowd begrudgingly put down their grain-loading tools.

Xu Yong almost wanted to bow to Gu Dahuan.

His grain was saved.

He didn’t have time to ponder why Gu Dahuan helped him; he just thought it was natural for one villager to stand by another villager.

As the saying goes, brothers may quarrel among themselves, but they withstand external insults together.

If Xu Yong knew his grain would still not be safe, he’d definitely curse out loud.

Liu Tieshan turned, excitedly shaking Gu Dahuan’s hand, and said, "Da Han, thank goodness you’re smart enough to grab the gun."

Gu Dahuan smiled naively and said, "My mother told me to get it from your house."

Only then did Liu Tieshan realize the hunting rifle Gu Dahuan held was his. A pity, those precious fireworks rounds were from his son-in-law, meant for hunting beasts in the mountains during winter.

But a pity is better than a tragedy, better than people dying over grain in Qinghe Bay.

Village Chief Hu and Village Chief Zhang also expressed gratitude to Gu Dahuan.

Then, the village chiefs quietly began lecturing the villagers.

These chiefs were still quite authoritative in the village, and the villagers, having calmed from the food-grabbing frenzy, quieted down upon hearing their chiefs.

More importantly, the chiefs implied that County Magistrate Liu would come to ensure justice, and the grain would certainly be distributed to everyone.

Therefore, some villagers preferred it this way — rather than having the strong take it, it would be divided based on the cornfield’s loss.

Of course, these conversations were kept away from Xu Yong.

They feared Xu Yong might block the grain distribution if he found out.

The villagers were thus led by the chiefs to Qinghe Bay’s ancestral hall, all awaiting County Magistrate Liu to ensure justice.

Xu Yong sighed in relief, thinking his grain was safe.

The former Village Chief’s wife, Mrs. Tian, seeing the crisis over grain theft had subsided, began a new round of antics.

She hated her sister-in-law, Mrs. Yu.

If it weren’t for Mrs. Yu’s big mouth, how would the granary hidden in her backyard be known?

Now, not only the outsiders but also the villagers knew, which invited jealousy, and if there were another famine, even without outsiders, Qinghe Bay’s people might target her backyard.

Before, when Xu Yong was the village chief, people were wary. Now that the chief was Liu Tieshan, who’d heed Xu Yong?

Thinking this, Mrs. Tian’s eyes turned to Mrs. Yu.

Mrs. Yu shared the same thought; her family had a lot of grain too, now exposed to the villagers’ eyes.

Mrs. Yu was furious at Mrs. Tian.

After securing her own grain, Mrs. Yu locked her doors and went to Xu Yong’s house to watch the situation.

Mrs. Tian pointed at Mrs. Yu’s nose, hurling insults, calling her a scourge like Xu Zaohua.

Fueled by her sister-in-law’s curses, Mrs. Yu quickly retaliated. The two sisters-in-law began a loud exchange of insults.

It escalated into hair-pulling.

Though Mrs. Yu didn’t usually match Mrs. Tian in strength, this time she gained the upper hand, holding onto Mrs. Tian’s hair without letting go.

"Murder! Murder!" Mrs. Tian’s shrill cries pierced the air.

The Xu family’s daughters-in-law initially tried to intervene, but since Mrs. Yu and Mrs. Tian always looked down on others in the clan, they decided it wasn’t worth the effort.

If the Xu family didn’t care, the rest of the villagers only watched the drama unfold.

Mrs. Yu and Mrs. Tian, usually one an elegant landlord’s wife, the other a proud village chief’s wife, were now pulling each other’s hair much to the other village women’s secret delight.

They weren’t much different from anyone else in the village.

Mrs. Yu wouldn’t let go of Mrs. Tian’s hair, and in desperation, Mrs. Tian scratched Mrs. Yu’s face.

Mrs. Yu, the beauty of Qinghe Bay, couldn’t bear having her face scratched.

In anger, she bit Mrs. Tian’s ear.

Although they enjoyed the drama, the villagers, seeing the fight going too far, hurried to separate them.

Mrs. Yu bit into a mouthful of blood, and Mrs. Tian’s ear was bitten off, making her cry in pain.

"Xu Yong, are you a man? You let your sister-in-law bully me?" Mrs. Tian yelled at Xu Yong, who was sitting on the ground, pointing at him.

"Her daughter ruined you with fake pesticides, she ruined my ear, and now our grain..." Mrs. Tian sobbed.

Xu Yong had been humiliated all day, feeling like a humiliated loser.

Mrs. Tian’s words ignited his anger towards Xu Zaohua, whom he blamed for his current plight.

Unable to stop the outsiders from taking grain and mad with rage, he aimed his fury at Mrs. Yu, mother of Xu Zaohua.

Xu Yong stood up and slapped Mrs. Yu in front of everyone.

The slap was hard and harsh.

Mrs. Yu staggered and fell.

A sense of satisfaction rose in Mrs. Tian’s heart.

Tong Huaqiong was dumbfounded, not expecting Xu Yong to stoop so low as to vent his anger on his sister-in-law.

Tong Huaqiong, influenced by modern thoughts, couldn’t tolerate men hitting women.

Though she knew many men treated women harshly in those times, she still couldn’t accept it.

Even though she disliked Mrs. Yu, she couldn’t accept Mrs. Yu being beaten by a man.