October’s golden autumn passed day by day in tension.

Within Chen Family Village in Da Liang Mountain.

Because of what Qiu Mingyan said that day, the Mai Family for the first time realized the consequences of inadvertently offending the Feng Family...

About ten days later, Lin Cuixia was the first to angrily lose her temper at Mai Manxiang, who accidentally broke a bowl one day.

"Smack!" A slap landed hard, making Mai Manxiang’s cheeks red and swollen.

Lin Cuixia spat, "Can’t do anything right, huh? How many years did we teach you to cling tighter to Qiu Mingyan, to get him to marry you? And what did you achieve? You dragged it out until you turned twenty-five! Fine, twenty-five is twenty-five, but the whole family went to great lengths to secure this marriage for you. And what do you do? You can’t even keep Qiu Mingyan in check and let him donate all his money away, even the donation for the clinic meant for you!"

"You’re so generous, really generous! And then you dare say as long as he speaks, everything after marriage is yours! Don’t you know? You couldn’t say you wanted everything?" Another slap, not satiating her anger, Lin Cuixia continued, "Now look, no money to be had, and he’s just sitting in the village as an honest villager, causing all this trouble. If the Feng Family really comes after our village for lives, should I use you as a shield?"

Seemingly frustrated to the core, Lin Cuixia ended with a few more twists of Mai Manxiang’s body.

The pain made Mai Manxiang’s tears deepen momentarily.

In despair, Mai Manxiang cried painfully, "But Brother Mingyan agreed to the marriage, isn’t that the best?"

"Best, your grandpa’s best!" Enraged by Mai Manxiang’s words, Lin Cuixia dealt a larger slap, echoing throughout the courtyard.

Mai Manxiang stumbled, staggering a few steps left before steadying herself. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"I said the marriage was good because Qiu Mingyan was promising. But look at him now, is he promising? If he doesn’t bring trouble to our house, that’d be good already! I see you’ve been feeding pigs until you’ve fed yourself silly, deserving to feed pigs for life, huh!"

Lin Cuixia exploded, her words venomously hitting Mai Manxiang’s heart.

Mountain women—those who are gentle, really have no temper whatsoever.

Those who can throw a tantrum, can throw a massive one, especially Sister-in-law Yang Hua, the second most troublesome person in the village. After years of confrontation with Lin Cuixia, how could she possibly not have honed her tongue skills?

Thus, Mai Manxiang, whose face hurt from the slap, and heart hurt even more, covered her face and ran out in tears.

Mai Shilong watched the scene, his pipe halted mid-smoke, looking at Lin Cuixia in shock.

Lin Cuixia shouted, "Look, what are you looking for? Did I say anything wrong? Now Qiu Mingyan donated all the money, and we don’t have living expenses for the month. Buying a new bowl costs money! Broken like this, should I just scold her, or will you give me money to buy a new one?"

Mai Shilong stayed silent, paused, and dug out a fifty-dollar bill from his pants pocket, handing it over.

Lin Cuixia, full of simmering anger, remarked, "How much is that! How much do we need to spend over a lifetime! Is this what I meant?" and began to sweep the shards.

...

Mai Shilong’s household... was just like this.

Mai Shihong’s household... That most troublesome aunt Yang Hua, seeing Mai Manxiang run out of the yard, hurriedly followed.

"Hey, Manxiang, Manxiang, come here, I want to ask you something."

Having been hit, with a swollen face and grieved heart, Mai Manxiang didn’t want to go to her aunt’s house at all.

But she had no choice.

After a few sluggish steps, she reluctantly made her way to Mai Shihong’s house.

Yang Hua spotted the slap marks on Mai Manxiang’s face but showed no concern, given her own son was still lying in the hospital!

Straight to the point, Yang Hua asked, "Manxiang, I want to ask you about this matter. All your brother’s beatings were because you instigated him to help, leading to his being beaten. Qiu Mingyan’s family paid the medical bills, but everything is held up in the hospital, and besides medicine, nothing else is provided. Shouldn’t your brother’s health be supplemented? Do you not have any responsibility for this matter? Won’t chip in some money?"

Instantly understanding her aunt’s intention, Mai Manxiang felt even more wronged.

"Aunt, you know our family’s situation, we’re preparing for a wedding, where would we have extra money?"

Immediately, Yang Hua’s temper flared, "No money, then why get married? Moreover, your brother got hurt because of you, don’t you have any sense of gratitude?"

Provoked, Mai Manxiang, feeling already aggrieved, couldn’t help but retort, "But Brother Tuzi got hurt because he shamelessly wanted to do other things himself."

"..." A minute later, Yang Hua was volcanic with rage.