When the gathered people heard Su Tang say this, they all turned to look at the iron pot that was currently laying in the snow. In fact, for farming families like theirs, the usual practice was to build the stove at the same time that you built the house and, normally, a durable iron pot like this one which could be expected to be used for many years would be fixed inside the stove at the same time when the stove was being built.
Because of that, when the pot broke or wore out it actually wasn't all that simple of a task to replace it. In order to get Su Tang's pot out of her stove, Madam Zhang and Chen Xiuxiu had worked together for a long time and really struggled before finally managing to dig it out of the stove. Of course, because they both had their own small ideas, as soon as the pot was removed they turned on each other and began to fight.
"So I would like to ask, Sanshou's wife, you said that you just wanted to watch the pot for me, right? If that was the case, why not just stand by and keep watch? Did the pot come out of the stove on its own?" Su Tang asked Madam Zhang sarcastically.
Madam Zhang desperately tried to explain, "The pot was taken out by Tiezhu's wife, and she is very strong so there was nothing I could do about it. Only after struggling with her for a long time was I able to finally snatched it back from her hands."
"Really?" Su Tang only said that single word as she let her piercing gaze rove over the two women in front of her.
In fact, all of the people gathered had just watched Madam Zhang beating Chen Xiuxiu up just now, and Chen Xiuxiu had just been getting one-sidedly beaten and not retaliating at all. So now when Madam Zhang said Chen Xiuxiu was 'too strong' and that she wasn't able to stop her from stealing the pot, her words didn't seem very convincing.
As she asked her question, Su Tang turned her eyes toward Chen Xiuxiu and, sensing the little girl's gaze, Chen Xiuxiu began defending herself, "Tang girl, you need to have evidence for the words that you say. Why did my family's food suddenly become yours? I know that it isn't easy for you, and that you and your brother are living a difficult life, but you can't just be greedy for other people's things because of that. I can give this food to you if you want, but you can't just go around telling other people that my things are yours. Do you think lying like that is the right thing to do?"
Actually, Chen Xiuxiu had carefully examined the sacks of grains in her hands just now in the midst of all the bustle, and she saw that the sacks were very plain and common, so was confident that there was no way to tell who the grain had originally belonged to. She felt that if she just insisted that the grain was hers from the beginning and never backed down no matter what, then there would be nothing anyone could do about it.
Su Tang smiled coldly, "Tiezhu's wife, you say that this grain is yours?"
"Of course it is. My family has always used these kinds of sacks to store our grain, so naturally, it belongs to us. But you're really 'good', aren't you? Even though I kindly came out to send you some grain, you want to turn around and accuse me of being a thief? I certainly won't ever dare to try to help you again in the future." Chen Xiuxiu launched another volley of words defending herself.
However, Su Tang still looked very at ease. She said, "Actually, earlier this fall, a wealthy man in town happened to take a fancy to my needlework and commissioned me to make him two sets of clothing. In the end, because of my excellent craftsmanship and my sparing use of the materials he provided, there ended up being a certain amount of fabric leftover after his order was completed, and he specially allowed me to keep the extra for my own use."
"In the end, I got a few taels of silver and the leftover fabric for doing the job. However, seeing that the fabric seemed very precious, it wasn't appropriate for me to make it into clothing for myself or my brother because we are still in mourning… "
Whether it was Chen Xiuxiu, Wang Changhe, or any of the onlookers, none of them expected Su Tang to suddenly bring up this seemingly irrelevant topic, and they all looked a bit confused. However, Madam Zhao picked out a few key words and looked at Su Tang with shock, "Wait, you were paid in taels of silver?!"
How could two little brats make so much money? Madam Zhao squinted at her suspiciously, "With just your skills?"
There was no way she could believe that Su Tang's craftsmanship was at a level where she should be paid in silver taels. Su Tang glanced at Madam Zhao and hooked her lips up into a sarcastic smile, "No way, how could my skills be so good? But who let that wealthy man take a fancy to my craftsmanship?"
Wang Changhe felt that Su Tang probably had some sort of reason to be bringing this all up now, so he asked, "Tang girl, where are you going with all this?"
"Hmph, what I'm trying to say is that my brother and I don't really need any help. Right now, I have money. In fact, I'm even considered pretty rich, and I'm planning to build a new house and also head out to bring back my brother and his family for a proper burial in the spring." Su Tang purposefully said her plans for the spring out for everyone to hear and, as expected, many of the onlookers looked at her with shock, and many of them quickly tried to suppress the jealousy in their eyes.
All of a sudden, Su Tang was at the center of a whirlpool of eyes that carried varying degrees of jealousy and resentment.
Su Tang raised an eyebrow and curled her lips into a wicked smile before saying, "And my other point was that, because of that rich man, I still had some of that satin left in my house after the job was done. As a material, satin is very good, it's smooth on the outside and also very thick. Of course, I couldn't use it to make clothes, so for a while, I was troubled with what to do with it…"
Su Tang purposefully let her voice trail off meaningfully, paused, and then turned to look at Chen Xiuxiu. "In the end, I happened to notice that the bottoms of the grain bags at home were all worn out. I thought that the satin looked strong, so I took it and used it to mend the insides of the bags. After being patched this way, the bags were much stronger than before."
Now the onlookers all understood why Su Tang had suddenly brought up that strange story. She had actually used the satin to mend her grain bags! When they realized, they all sucked in a breath of cold air and looked over at the grain bags that Chen Xiuxiu had tossed aside with speculative eyes. Could it be…
At the same time, Chen Xiuxiu started to panic. "No way, that's impossible. What kind of noblewoman do you think you are? What kind of material is satin? How many taels of silver does each yard cost? You…"
Before she could even articulate her arguments, Su Tang smiled at her 'kindly' and cut in: "Why are you so eager to spout denials? Isn't it very easy to check and see if I'm talking nonsense?"
Then she looked at Wang Changhe, "Uncle Wang, you're the village head, and everyone knows that you are very fair. I think everyone should have seen that my brother and I haven't been close to those two bags of grain that Chen Xiuxiu threw down since we all gathered here, right?"
Su Tang appealed to the crowd around her, trying to establish that there was no lie in her words. And, everyone really had seen Su Tang and Su Nuo had arrived at the scene a little late with Su Yongqiang where, after they arrived, they both just stood around and didn't move very much. Of course, neither of them had touched the grain bags in Chen Xiuxiu's hands, so the onlookers quickly gave some words of agreement.
"Yes!"
"That's right."
"They never touched them."
After allowing the crowd to speak, Su Tang nodded and continued. "Then I would please ask the village head to go and open those two bags of grain and see if they have been patched with satin."
As she spoke, Su Tang sent a wink at the orange cat, who had been lolling around on one side. Seeing her wink, he gave a faint meow and then quickly moved over to the side of the grain bags, where he made some strange furtive movements
After a moment, he was done and, seeing that the orange cat was finished working, Su Tang smiled and urged Wang Changhe to open the bags again.
Of course, because there was still some grain in the bags, Wang Changhe had some other bags prepared and then carefully picked up the first bag and transferred all the brown rice inside into the new bag. Then he opened the rice bag and turned it out, revealing to everyone that there really was a piece of white material patched to the bottom of the bag. After snowing so heavily the night before, the sky was now very clear, and the white patch of satin shone and glistened in the sun.
Most of the villagers had never even seen such an expensive fabric before, so the crowd just gawped at it and made foolish remarks.
"Huh, so this is satin."
"It's really beautiful!"
Chen Xiuxiu was struck dumb and didn't know what to say.
Wang Changhe quickly moved on to the next bag and turned it out as well and, sure enough, there was another nearly identical patch of the same satin inside.
"The facts speak for themselves." Su Tang turned her piercing gaze on Chen Xiuxiu and smiled coldly. "So why don't you explain this to me, Madam Chen, why do your family's bags have the same satin patches in them as mine?"
"I…" Chen Xiuxiu was about to argue that, while it was true that satin was expensive, it wasn't as if she couldn't afford it.
However, she then heard Su Tang add another line that instantly destroyed that desperate thought, "By the way, back when I was patching those bags, in order to amuse myself and pass the time I actually especially embroidered my own name, Tang, on the back side of the satin. I wonder if Madam Chen's bags also have characters written inside the way mine do? I wonder whose name is written? Will it say 'Sun'?"
Chen Xiuxiu finally realized that it was useless to argue any further at this point. And, as if to cement her crimes, Wang Changhe carefully tore out the stitches of a small corner of the satin patch to reveal the writing inside. Even though some of the villagers couldn't read or recognize the 'Tang' character on the satin, by now there was no doubt in anyone's minds.
Wang Changhe secretly breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed that Chen Xiuxiu wouldn't be able to escape the reputation of a thief this time. He really wanted to see if she would still let her daughter pester his son now that she had such a reputation. Even if she did, it would be fine to just let that girl enter the side door as a concubine now. After all, with such a mother, she would only ever be a concubine.
"Madam Chen, do you have anything to say?" Wang Changhe looked up and asked solemnly.
Although Chen Xiuxiu was a greedy woman, she still had a bit of brains in her head. By this point, it seemed that the evidence was conclusive and she realized that she wouldn't be able to escape. As soon as she had this realization, she directly knelt down in front of Su Tang and slapped herself across the mouth while saying woefully, "It was all because I was blinded by my greed for a moment Tang girl. I know I was wrong, and I will never dare to do such a thing again. You should know that I have my old parents and my young daughter to take care of, so please forgive me this once."
"And what about Sanshou's wife?" Su Tang narrowed her eyes and looked down at the kneeling woman before asking with a cold smile.
Without even taking a second for breath, Chen Xiuxiu immediately pointed at Madam Zhang and shouted, "Don't be deceived by that woman. It's true that I was too greedy, but I only wanted food to lighten the burden of surviving through the winter for my family. But that woman is different. As soon as she heard that you two siblings had been crushed to death, she only thought of coming to take away your iron pot, chopsticks, bowls, so she could bring them to town and change them for money. If I'm lying, may the heavens strike me down! Now that I'm already like this I don't have any reason to lie to you anymore."
Chen Xiuxiu began to feel that there was light at the end of this tunnel. After all, in the final analysis, although she took advantage of the situation to rob some food, what she had taken was only worth a few copper coins at most. As long as Su Tang was willing to forgive her, it could just be considered a small and trivial matter. Moreover, there was Madam Zhang, who stole the iron pot which was worth much more than a few grains as a comparison.
Su Tang nodded. "It seems that it's a pity I didn't die then."
Chen Xiuxiu's face turned awkward, "Tang girl, I really know I was wrong. Please forgive me this time!"
"Well, since Auntie Sun said so…" As Su Tang spoke, the light smile never left her face.
Of course, Wang Changhe had no desire to let things go so easily, so he spoke up to try to persuade, "Tang girl…"
"Hm, Village Chief, the people in our Sujia Village have always been simple and honest folk. We all know that stealing is wrong, and since even Auntie Sun says she knows that she was wrong, I…"
By now, even Madam Qin and Madam Zhou could hardly believe what they were hearing. They remembered very clearly that Su Tang didn't have such an easy-going personality! The last time something like this had happened, she had been very ruthless and decisive, so what was going on here? Did she suddenly have a change of heart or something?
Su Tang chuckled, "Oh, actually there was something else. Auntie Sun, don't you remember how I made these cloth bags for you with all my heart? Of course, satin should cost one or two silver taels per yard, so they are a bit expensive, but I still made them since you said wanted them so badly!"
Su Tang's words were full of hints. Didn't you, Chen Xiuxiu, say that the bags were yours? Now I've said how much they're worth, and if you spend some money to buy them from me, then, of course, the bags won't be stolen, because they will have been yours all along!
Chen Xiuxiu was no fool. Now that Su Tang had already spoken to this point, how could she not understand what was going on? She suddenly looked up at Su Tang and growled, "You want to blackmail me?"
"Huh, what are you saying Auntie Sun? Didn't you yourself say that these cloth bags were yours? Or, could it be that it turns out the bags were actually mine…" Su Tang made a show of looking very surprised.
Then, still looking into Chen Xiuxiu's eyes, she subtly moved her gaze over to Wang Changhe as a silent reminder. Telling the older woman: Didn't she still want her daughter, Sun Guihua, to marry into Wang Changhe's family? Would that ever be possible if she had a reputation as a thief?
Chen Xiuxiu knew very well that Su Tang was intentionally bullying her, but in this situation, all she could do was gnash her teeth. Fortunately, she had recently found a lover in town, so she actually did have a few valuables in her hands right now. She calculated quickly. If her daughter could really marry into a good family, then her life would get much better as well, but if she became known as a 'thief' and made it impossible for her daughter to marry, wouldn't that ruin everything? In a split second, she was able to see exactly which side was worth more when comparing the things in her hands to her daughter's marriage prospects.
And as for Su Tang, this brat who was twisting her arm, Chen Xiuxiu knew she could only grit her teeth and bear it for now. But she wrote it all down in her heart, fully intending to come back and collect this debt later on.
Although her heart was full of hatred and unwillingness, Chen Xiuxiu squeezed out a smiling face. "Oh right, actually, because of all this mess, I had nearly forgotten to pay you as we agreed!"
Chen Xiuxiu reluctantly took a silver bracelet from her arm and looked down at it sadly. She had only gotten this bracelet from her lover in town very recently and now, before she could even wear it for a few days, she had to give it away.
In the end, she clenched her teeth and slowly put the bracelet on Su Tang's wrist. Of course, the silver bracelet was originally something for an adult, and Su Tang was still very young, so her wrists were small and thin and the bracelet could barely stay on. However, despite the slightly ridiculous sight of the oversized bracelet on a child's small arm, many of the villagers were too shocked to even notice. After all, such a bracelet had to be worth a few taels of silver at least, so they all wondered where Chen Xiuxiu had gotten the money to afford it.
"That's right. A few days ago, Auntie Sun asked me to make her these two cloth bags but, before I could deliver them, something like this happened, it's such a shame. Oh, but it's all thanks to Auntie Sun's help that things have turned out so well this time. If not for you who knows if I would have ever seen my iron pot again."
Once the bracelet was on Su Tang's wrist, she began to smile innocently and her tone completely changed in an instant. Not even mentioning Wang Changhe, even the people who know her like Su Yongqiang and Su Yongshun were stunned by this sudden switch. What was going on here?
But Chen Xiuxiu was very quick on the uptake, and when she heard Su Tang's prompt, she hastened to say, "Isn't that right? Ah, Sanshou's wife is just so poisonous. She was even hoping that you two siblings were dead. Fortunately, your hard fate also gives you a long life, or else… well, I won't say anymore. I'm just glad you're both alright."
Seeing these two suddenly start acting like two great friends simply amazed the group of onlookers.
The orange cat just sighed, 'Tch, am I seeing the legendary plastic sisters now?'
Unhappy with the mocking speech bubble above the 'Divine Beast's' head, Su Tang calmly retorted. 'I'm starting to think that it's time for you to lose some weight. Starting today, you need to run from Sujia Village into town five times a day, every day!'
Then she continued, 'Heh heh, and what kind of sister could I be with Chen Xiuxiu anyway? There's me, a beautiful little sister with a flower-like appearance, and then there's Chen Xiuxiu… with that kind of face, tch, who would believe it?'
Of course, the orange cat immediately capitulated, 'Well you aren't any kind of sisters then, whatever. I've done my part, okay?'
Su Tang: 'Humph.'
Wang Changhe really hadn't expected the conversation to go in the direction and, naturally, his face turned a little ugly as he asked, "What do you mean by this?"
Seeing that he was unhappy, Su Tang sneered at the old man in her heart but, on the surface, she just smiled and guilelessly scratched her head. "Uncle Village Chief, I think Auntie Sun is very pitiful. It was only a little bit of grain, and she was probably just confused in the heat of the moment but didn't mean anything by it."
"Bah, if she's pitiful, then I'll…" Madam Zhang began to retort immediately. She really couldn't understand what was going on. Hadn't Su Tang always been tough and unyielding in the past, never willing to let anyone take advantage of her? Why was she so different today?
Su Yongqiang was also confused, and he sent a questioning gaze at Su Tang. But in response, Su Tang minutely shook her head, obviously telling him not to say anything. He waffled for a moment but finally decided to let Su Tang handle this.
Wang Changhe had only come here so quickly this morning with his son in tow because he thought this was an opportunity to finally peel back their masks and show his son what kind of people Chen Xiuxiu and Sun Tiezhu really were. And, in the best case, he had hoped to take advantage of the situation to make it so that Sun Guihua would never have the chance to pester his son again for the rest of her life.
He had thought that everything was going very well until Su Tang suddenly and inexplicably decided to reconcile with Chen Xiuxiu. Now that he realized that there was no way he would be able to brand Chen Xiuxiu with the label of 'thief' this time, he was very unhappy. He sent one final glance at Su Tang, snorted, then shook his sleeves and turned to leave. "Xiaotian, let's go."
Wang Xiaotian was still a bit confused. "Huh? Dad, is it okay to just leave like this?"
"It's fine. It seems the Tang girl has the ability to take care of everything." And with those words, Wang Changhe really just left.
Su Yongqiang walked up to Su Tang, squatted down, and whispered, "You should know that Wang Changhe is not a generous person, now that you've done this…"
"Heh, what? Only he can use me, but I can't use him? Brother Yongqiang, have you already forgotten how that man became the village head?" Su Tang snorted dismissively.
Su Tang had never expected that Wang Changhe would sincerely help her from the beginning. After all, it only took a little bit of thought about why the village head of Sujia Village was surnamed 'Wang' instead of surnamed 'Su' to understand the relationship between her family and his.
In the past, Wang Changhe had used despicable means to snatch the title of village head from Su Yonqiang's hands and, in the end, even the Su family's ancestral tomb had been demolished thanks to his machinations. The reality was that Sujia Village had been slowly developed by the ancestors of the Su family over many years only for the position of village head to be snatched away by an outsider.
Wang Changhe always seemed to be very polite to Su Yonqiang on the surface but, in fact, he was always busy suppressing the Su family everywhere. It was to the point that, although the Su family was obviously the largest family in Sujia Village, they had slowly been dragged down beneath the level of other ordinary families.
Su Tang had thought it was very strange from the moment she had arrived in Sujia Village. Obviously, if you went according to common sense, the village head of Sujia Village should be a member of the Su family, so how did the position end up in the hands of an outsider? Later on, the orange cat did some investigation and managed to ferret out the real story.
So, because she knew exactly what kind of person Wang Changhe was, Su Tang had no desire to help solve any problems for him from the very beginning. It was just that she had heard the gossip about Sun Guihua and Wang Xiaotian recently and knew that he would probably make a move in this kind of situation, so she decided to get some benefits from his hands.
She knew that if she had really allowed Wang Changhe to settle everything, he would have definitely just used the opportunity to stick Chen Xiuxiu with the label of 'thief', and then given her a beating or something. To be clear, if he was allowed to handle things using this method, wasn't it just handing Wang Changhe an excuse to refuse any talks of marriage with the Sun family? That would make him very happy, but what good would that do for Su Tang?
Obviously, it would do her no good at all. And this sort of thing, handing over benefits to someone else for no reason, Su Tang would never do it! It was absolutely impossible.
From beginning to end, Su Tang had only invited Wang Changhe over in order to pressure Chen Xiuxiu into compromising and forcing her to cough up some money. After all, since Wang Changhe was so concerned about Chen Xiuxiu and Sun Tiezhu, there was no reason for her no to take advantage of him.
As for the matter between Wang Xiaotian and Zhou Xiaocao, after she had heard the orange cat's description of the situation last time she had thought that they were purely in a brother-sister relationship, but now that she had seen them herself she felt that Wang Xiaotian seemed a little interested in his cousin. Fortunately, Zhou Xiaocao herself didn't seem to be interested in him. After all, it wouldn't be a good thing for a nice girl like her to get caught up in his mess. With a father like Wang Changhe, it was obvious that Wang Xiaotian wasn't a good choice of man to marry.
Su Yongqiang really hadn't expected that Su Tang would bring up this matter. After all, the time when he had been framed by Wang Changhe and ultimately lost his position as the village head was already many years in the past.
Of course, he also had many grievances in his heart due to this matter, but it was already in the past and Wang Changhe was now indisputably the village head. And also, more importantly, it was rumored that the other man's son, Wang Xiaotian, was an excellent learner and that he may even be admitted to take the child exam this year.
If Wang Xiaotian actually went on to become an official in the future, it would mean that the Su family really wouldn't be able to afford to offend the Wang family at all anymore. In all honesty, just thinking of this matter would always make Su Yongqiang feel very depressed. Why couldn't the Su family have a good seedling like that who could study and learn?
"Whatever the case may be, he is, after all, now the village head while we, the Su family, have already been thoroughly beaten down." Su Yongqiang said with a deep sigh.
Su Tang raised an eyebrow. "So what? Do you think that if we are down, we will be down forever? Karma is a cycle. When someone takes something that does not belong to them, they will have to return it sooner or later."
Su Yongqiang froze for a moment because of Su Tang's unexpected words, but then he smiled bitterly, "It's not that easy."
After all, a child sees things too simply.
But Su Tang smiled right back and said, "It's not that difficult."
Su Yongqiang faintly smiled back but didn't say anything more, not thinking much of it. He just thought that Su Tang was a child and was babbling childish nonsense, so he didn't put it to heart. Seeing that, Su Tang didn't say anything more. After all, no matter what she said to him now, it would all just be empty words until she actually had the ability to back up her words.
Meanwhile, after Wang Changhe flicked his sleeves and left, Chen Xiuxiu and Sun Tiezhu exchanged relieved glances. Whatever the reason, since Su Tang had extended an olive branch at the last moment it seemed that everything was fine, and the marriage talks for their daughter could still proceed as planned.
On the other hand, Madam Zhang still couldn't understand how things had developed like this. She muttered in a dazed voice. "What's going on here…"
Hadn't they just been saying that Chen Xiuxiu had stolen that grain a moment ago? How did it suddenly turn into a pre-arrange business transaction? In a rage, Madam Zhang pointed at Su Tang and Chen Xiuxiu and shouted, "You two are framing me!"
Chen Xiuxiu, who had been blackmailed by Su Tang and had lost her bracelet, was feeling very suffocated. Her lover had only given that bracelet to her two days ago and, before she could even enjoy the feeling of wearing it herself, she had been forced to hand it over to Su Tang. And the worst was that it was made from real silver, and was worth at least a few silver taels, so it was actually something very good. There were many women in Sujia Village who would never even dream of being able to afford such a good bracelet.
Chen Xiuxiu gritted her teeth and glared hatefully at Madam Zhang. If that woman hadn't stopped her just now, things would never have turned out like this. If she hadn't been slowed down by that wretch, she definitely would have already taken those bags home with her and she would have not only earned all the grain inside but even the two pieces of satin as well.
Everything was because of Madam Zhang! Chen Xiuxiu hated Su Tang, but she also hated Madam Zhang for ruining the good thing she had stumbled across. So now, remembering Madam Zhang's accusations, she began to snicker creepily before retorting.
"Aiya, what a joke, just who is trying to frame you? Who forced you to come to someone else's house and tear up their stove to take away their iron pot? Tch, who was it just now that was saying that this iron pot could sell for a hundred copper coins at the pawnshop in the town? You really are a money crazy woman."
No matter whether or not anyone else believed it, it was already an established fact that she had given her money to Su Tang in exchange for the bags she 'had been wanting to buy', which meant that she was safe from being called a thief. Having firmly grasped Su Tang's olive branch and protected herself, of course, there was no way Chen Xiuxiu would spare Madam Zhang, so she immediately began satirizing and humiliating the other woman.
When Madam Zhang heard that, she was so angry that she wanted to beat Chen Xiuxiu to death. Unfortunately for her, because Wang Changhe had left, when she went forward to start beating Chen Xiuxiu again, she found that the other woman no longer tried to hide and dodge away, but instead fought back directly.
"Bah, you shameless bitch! You want to frame your grandmother here when you were the thief all along? Who else is like you and won't even let go of the iron pot in someone else's stove?" Chen Xiuxiu had always been someone with a sharp tongue, and soon she was beating Madam Zhang while scolding her at the same time.
The villagers standing around only watched the fight with confused expressions. In fact, they all understood what had really happened here, but for some reason, Su Tang, the victim of the theft, had jumped out to protect Chen Xiuxiu. Also, it seemed that she didn't intend to say a word on Madam Zhang's behalf.
Su Yonggui only felt that this whole farce was causing him to lose all of his old face, so he hurriedly gestured for Madam Wu to go pull Madam Zhang back. At the same time, he glared at Su Tang and said, "Tang girl, Madam Zhang was just… well…"
Seeing how Su Yonggui was acting, everyone could tell that he was hoping that Su Tang could casually dismiss Madam Zhang's crime the same way she had done for Chen Xiuxiu.
Obviously, Su Sanshou could also read his father's intentions so, although he hated Su Tang in his heart, he hurriedly squeezed out a smile and saluted politely. "Father's right, you have always been generous, and it was only a moment of impulse…"
"Aiya…" Without waiting for father and son to finish speaking, Su Tang suddenly let out a theatrical sigh.
As she sighed, Su Tang let her gaze drift over Su Yonggui's family, finally stopping on Madam Zhang and Chen Xiuxiu, who were still tussling wildly, with eyes as if she were looking at something pitiful and ridiculous. Su Yonggui saw her expression and secretly felt a little unhappy, but decided to bear it for now.
"Back when Xiao Nuo and I were still living in your household, you would always tell us that the family was too poor, and you couldn't afford to feed us, which was why we could only consider ourselves lucky if even two bites in a whole a bowl of porridge had any rice in them."
"Back then, when I always saw you all wearing fine cotton clothes and expensive jewelry, I just thought that you were lying to us. I really didn't expect that it turned out to be true, and nowadays poor Madam Zhang even has to go over to other people's homes trying to find things to pawn just to survive."
Su Yonggui's face directly turned black. He always knew that Su Tang was a difficult character to deal with, but he had never expected that she would suddenly bring up the past like this.
Back when she and her brother had been living in his household, of course, they had not been very kind to them. There was only so much food at home, and wasn't it a waste to give too much to them? Wasn't it fine as long as they didn't die? And besides, didn't they have a hard fate anyway? It wasn't so easy for them to die.
Of course, back then a lot of the other villagers had been vaguely aware of how Su Yonggui's family was treating these two children but, at the end of the day, it could be considered another family's matters, so it was difficult for outsiders to say anything. Plus, most of the other villagers had only ever heard vague rumors, and it wasn't as if they had personally seen the situation themselves.
And on top of that, Madam Wu had always been going around and complaining about how miserable she was and how hard it was to be a stepmother back then, which convinced some of the villagers. So, in the end, when Su Tang said this sentence, all the villagers were a bit shocked. Who could have known that these two siblings could barely even get two bites of rice back when they were living with Su Yonggui?
Su Tang's words were eerily specific, mentioning exactly how little rice they had been fed back then, so it sounded like something that really happened.
At first, Madam Zhao hadn't wanted to say anything because of her husband's warning. However, by this point, Wang Changhe had already left and Chen Xiuxiu had gotten off scot-free, so in her mind, everything should be about settled. But, unexpectedly, Su Tang was still clinging to Madam Zhang's matter without letting go! Madam Zhao really couldn't just sit still in this situation.
"You shameless, cheap, little bitch, what kind of nonsense are you spouting? Is there anyone who can't see that this bitch stole your food but now wants to blame it on poor Sanshou's wife? Our family at least raised you two siblings for many years, but you're ungrateful and don't even know how to help your family instead of an outsider…" Madam Zhao directly pointed at Su Tang's face and began to scold her loudly.
However, Su Tang's face remained expressionless despite the old woman's rant: "Sister-in-law, why are you so anxious? Are you worried I might ask why that daughter-in-law of yours is so knowledgeable about the prices in the pawnshop?"
Even though she had been pointed at and scolded, Su Tang's expression was normal and her tone was light, even as she cut through and directly pulled out the key point. That point being: Madam Zhang had mentioned exactly how much money she would get for an iron pot at the pawnshop.
This information wasn't something an ordinary housewife would know. It was information that would normally only come up if a family was especially poor and desperate to survive and had ended up selling their iron pot, which clearly didn't apply to Madam Zhang. And, as for any other reasons a person might know about the specific prices at the pawnshop, well none of them were any good for a supposedly 'honest' villager.
Su Tang had some of the original owner Su Dani's memories, and she could recall clearly that there had been many times when things had "disappeared" after Madam Zhang had married into the family, but she and her brother had always taken the blame.
Madam Zhao was brainless so she didn't grasp the point Su Tang was making, but Su Yonggui immediately reacted and even the nearby Madam Wu's eyes flickered. Madam Wu suddenly remembered how one time, one of her earrings was missing and she had directly suspected that it to be the work of the two brats. However, even after beating them bloody, the earring had never materialized, and she had been forced to let the matter go.
Back then, Madam Wu hadn't really thought anything of it, only hating the two brats a little more and acting a bit more protective of her things out of fear that the brats might try to take them away.
However, when she heard Su Tang's words now, she began to reflect on the situation. No wonder the brats had never coughed up the earring even after being beaten, it turned out that Madam Zhang had been the thief all along!
Su Tang looked up at Su Yonggui with eyes full of sarcasm, feeling happy in her heart. Didn't this old man love his face? Let's see what kind of face he would have left after she was through with him.
On the side, Su Yongqiang also clearly understood what Su Tang meant, and he sent a disdainful glance at Madam Zhang. It was truly a humiliation for Su Yonggui to let such a woman marry into his family, she was really losing face for the whole Su family.
"Enough. There is no room in the Su family for a wife who can't keep her hands clean. Although the Su family may not be as good as it used to be, it is still a family with rules. Yonggui, you need to keep an eye on the woman in your household. If you let them run wild and dirty the reputation of the Su family, then don't blame me for being rude."
Now that Wang Changhe was gone and Chen Xiuxiu had been pardoned thanks to Su Tang's words, this whole thing had become an internal matter of the Su family. Thus, as the patriarch of the family, Su Yongqiang had the right to take control of the situation, and he certainly had some things to say.
The crime of theft could be big or small depending on a variety of factors. And, although Su Yongqiang had often lamented that the current generation of the Su family had no good seedlings who could study and learn, in his heart he still had hope. After all, it seemed that Su Nuo had currently found himself a teacher and, even if the current generation never managed anything, there would still be more children and grandchildren in the future.
However, if there was a criminal in the Su family, even a criminal who was only guilty of a small crime like petty theft, it would have an indisputable impact on the whole family's reputation. From then on, it would be very difficult for the children and grandchildren of the Su family to ever pass the imperial examination, and even if they managed to pass it would definitely affect their official career.
In the current era, a family would prosper or fall together, so Su Yongqiang was very serious in his warning to Su Yonggui and he wanted to make it very clear that it was imperative that the Su family did not end up bearing a reputation as thieves.
Su Yonggui's face felt very hot from the shame, but because Su Yongqiang had already spoken to this point he had no choice but to try to defend himself, "Brother Qiang, you can't just wrong people like this."
Unfortunately, he didn't really have an explanation, so he could only make some weak noises of protest. After all, he knew about what went on in his own household best, and he was very clear about where things sometimes "disappeared" to, but in this situation, he could only cover for Madam Zhang in order to save face.
But how could Su Yongqiang not know what he was doing? He just snorted and said, "Well, Madam Zhang, if you can't explain to us why an iron pot that clearly doesn't belong to you is in your hands, I can only assume that you are a thief and handle the matter accordingly."
After scuffling with Madam Zhang for so long, Chen Xiuxiu's neat hair bun had turned into a mess and she looked a bit disheveled, but her mouth was still in top form: "Oh, Su family patriarch, I saw everything with my own eyes. She took that pot and then started saying that she was going to bring it to the pawnshop in exchange for money, and she was very familiar with the price, saying it should be worth around a hundred copper coins. If you think I'm talking nonsense, you can go to the pawnshop and ask them how much a pot like that would be worth yourself."
By now, Madam Zhao had also done some reflection and also come to a realization. She suddenly pointed at Madam Zhang angrily and shouted, "So all those things before… I'm going to kill you!"
Su Yonggui looked at Su Tang coldly. If these two wretches had just died like they were supposed to back then, none of this would have happened. He would still be able to hold his head high in Sujia Village, but instead, he was in this situation, with a daughter-in-law who was revealed to be a thief in front of the whole village and surrounded by eyes looking at him with scorn.
Su Tang felt his hateful glare but just returned a casual smile. She wasn't afraid of what the old man thought of her at all. Ever since the day he had thrown her into the Qing River with his own hands, everything was over between them. From that point on, he and his whole family were just a pack of murderers who had forced Su Dani to her death, and that was a debt she would never forget. But for now, she was still content to bide her time, after all, there was no hurry.
After all, when people took what didn't belong to them, they would always have to pay it back eventually. Sooner or later, the injustice that this family had visited upon her and her brother would be returned to them.
When he saw his wife suddenly go up to start scolding Madam Zhang, Su Yonggui felt a headache coming on. He was very worried that she would say anything wrong again and make the situation worse. After all, right now it could still be said that maybe Madam Zhang had only stolen the pot in a sudden moment of greed, but if it was revealed that she was constantly stealing things at home then the whole situation would change for the worse.
At least for now, this daughter-in-law of his couldn't be branded as a habitual thief, nor could she be sent back to her family over this matter. After all, he couldn't afford to lose the support of that person right now.
"If you have nothing to do then just keep quiet." Su Yonggui growled at Madam Zhao warningly, trying to get her to stop speaking.
Then he looked over at Su Tang, who had for some reason crouched down and started playing in the snow with a twig, and opened his mouth to say, "Well, your nephew's wife was confused for a moment and stole your iron pot, but she only did it because times are hard at home."
"En. Just like Brother Yonggui says, times are hard at your home. After all, in the past few years, you only ever let my brother and I stay in the dark and cold barn at night, with shabby bedding and worn-out clothes."
"Plus, the rice porridge you fed us was always more water than rice, just barely enough to keep us alive until, in the end, you even had us go and be sacrifices to the River God in order to repay all the 'kindness' of raising us."
"Since you've always treated us so 'well', it seems that I would have to be inhuman if I wanted to pursue this matter any further…"
As she spoke, Su Tang used her twig to idly carve the likeness of the orange cat into the big snowball it had painstakingly rolled with its head.
Madam Zhang breathed a sigh of relief when she heard that Su Tang seemed to be conceding. After all, even that Chen Xiuxiu's crimes had been forgiven, so wouldn't Su Tang be too heartless if she didn't forgive her, a family member?
Su Yonggui's face became even darker. Every one of Su Tang's words was like a slap to his face. On the side, Madam Zhao gritted her teeth for a moment before being unable to control herself and blurting out: "Who says that we didn't feed you? Just how many of our eggs did you two little bastards eat?"
Madam Zhao was talking about how, after Su Tang had transmigrated into this body, she had unceremoniously gone into the kitchen to take all the food she wanted a couple of times. However, before Su Tang could even refute, Su Nuo suddenly spoke up.
"It was you who told my sister and me to sacrifice ourselves to the River God. Back then, my sister knelt and begged you for a whole night to spare us, but you just said that we deserved to die…"
Unexpectedly, his words were very harsh.
Su Nuo was still young, but he had a good memory, and he could remember that his sister had taught him that, when he was on the side of reason, he should absolutely never let go of the opportunity to use his words to ruthlessly attack.
With her teachings in mind, he pointed his small finger at Madam Wu and launched a resounding verbal strike, "The only time we ever ate well was the time when my sister smashed her head against the wall. At that time, she bled a lot and you were afraid that she might die before she could be sacrificed to the River God, so you allowed us to eat eggs and dry rice. However, that time only lasted for two days, and it was the first time that I had eaten eggs or dry rice ever since I was born!"
"Su Sani and Su Wulang were always able to eat those things every day, but we never could." And just when people thought he was finished, Su Nuo ruthlessly added another sentence.
Su Tang really hadn't expected for the little guy to be so powerful. With his words following up what she had just said, it was tantamount to smashing Su Yonggui's face to pieces! Especially that sentence about how that was the first time he had been able to eat an egg, for the villagers who were aware of the general situation in Su Yonggui's household, it was simply too unbelievable.
Having all of this come out, Su Yonggui really wanted to slap Madam Zhao for letting things reach this point. He had always known that these two siblings had become a pair of little scourges ever since they were fished out of the river, they were poisonous and cruel and had no regard for old feelings, so how could Madam Zhao create such an opening for them?
Su Yonggui glared angrily at his wife for a moment before getting his teeth and turning to face Su Tang, "Tang girl, it doesn't make any sense to bring up all these things, right? We should leave the past in the past, don't you think?"
His words were implicitly telling Su Tang: You two siblings have already been adopted into another household, so don't always go around bringing up what happened before.
Su Tang sneered: "Huh, even to this point you still want to bring up this matter? Is it really okay to have such double standards? When things aren't going your way, you just tell us to remember old feelings and forgive you, but now when we really bring up our 'old feelings' you say to just leave the past in the past? But this time, I really think we should go according to our 'old feelings'."
Tch. Su Tang snorted. She suddenly felt very helpless. Since thins were already like this, could she not stand by her own words?
Su Yongqiang looked at Su Tang confusedly, not understanding what she meant. Did she intend to forgive Madam Zhang?
At the same time, some of Madam Zhang's nervousness settled down. Since Su Tang said that they should go according to old feelings, wouldn't everything be fine for her then? After all, it wasn't as if she cared if Su Yonggui and Madam Zhao lost all face, and she wasn't worried about the matter of the pawnshop either. It wasn't like anyone had any evidence and, besides, she hadn't even been the one who had gone to the pawnshop in the past anyway, it had always been her husband Su Sanshou.
Su Tang felt Su Yongqiang and Madam Zhang's curious eyes, so she slightly shifted her posture before driving the knife home, "After all, there's still the previous matter, which can be counted as 'old feelings', right? Unfortunately, the snow is very thick right now so it isn't very convenient to go and report to the officials right away."
She looked over at Su Yongqiang, "But I'll listen to Brother Qiang's arrangements."
"Report to the officials? Your mother! Remembering old feelings means being kind! Su Dani, y-you, you shameless…" Madam Zhang really didn't expect for Su Tang to have said all that, just to unexpectedly conclude that she would go and report things to the officials. Could she not be so crazy?
Listening to the older woman's scolding, Su Tang looked at Madam Zhang coldly before sweeping her eyes over the rest of Su Yonggui's family and saying, "Why don't any of you remind Madam Zhang about the 'old feelings' between us? Back then, I seem to remember clearly saying that if any of you tried anything in the future then I would directly report the matter to the officials and leave everything up to them to decide. Madam Zhang, you were there, weren't you?"
Su Tang sneered in her heart. Right now, she had no way to leave the Su family, so what she needed to most was to have a bigger voice inside the family, and the best way she could see for her to accomplish that would be by helping the Su family take back the village head position from Wang Changhe. If she could really manage to do that, only a select few incurable idiots would still dare to ignore and look down on her and her brother. And it was for that reason and that reason only that she hadn't cleaned up Chen Xiuxiu, because not doing so would add to Wang Changhe's troubles.
She was well aware that things like face and dignity were things that needed to be earned for oneself. She would never expect the other members of the Su family, or anyone for that matter, to just hand those things to her for no reason because she didn't have a problem with her brain. Which meant she needed merits.
Thus, because Chen Xiuxiu was useful to her she would, of course, let the other woman go. However, what possible reason did she have to let Madam Zhang go? It seemed that Su Yonggui's family really regarded her, Su Tang, as some sort of saintly Virgin Mary type.
But she would have to apologize for correcting their misconceptions. Not only was she a person who held grudges, but she was also a firm believer in the saying 'for a gentleman, even ten years is not too late for revenge'.
Considering everything this family had done to her and her brother in the past, did they really think that she would just let them go? At the very least, they had all already lived to be so old, was it really okay for them to still be so naive?
After Su Tang finished speaking, Madam Qin, Madam Wen, and Madam Tong were all dumbfounded. So everything Su Tang had said up to this point was just to let those idiots fall into her trap?
Even the people who were familiar with Su Tang were very shocked, not to mention the ones who didn't know her very well. Su Tang saw their expressions and smiled widely. Just what had they thought she was saying so much for?
When she said things, she meant them!
Of course, Su Yonggui also didn't expect that Su Tang had said so many words just to directly say that the matter should be reported to the officials in the end. If this was how it was going to be, what else was there to say?
He looked at the two siblings gloomily and said in a deep voice. "Tang girl, are you so determined to go against us?"
When she heard that, Su Tang directly began to laugh out loud, "I really don't know how to answer this question of yours, Brother Gui. Are you saying that, when the people from your family steal other people's things then those people need to be tolerant and forgive the theft, otherwise it means that they are going against you?"
"Brother Qiang, Brother Shun, my fellow villagers, I'm still young so I don't know very much, but do you all also think this is right?" Su Tang quickly tossed to question to the people who had gathered to watch the scene.
Before anyone could say anything, Chen Xiuxiu quickly interjected, "Tch, anyone who steals needs to be punished."
Su Yongshun quickly nodded along, "That's right, if a person does something wrong, then they should be held accountable. Sanshou should have kept a better eye on his wife in the first place."
The villagers all around also began to nod and make noises of agreement. They pretty much had no choice to agree with what Su Yongshun was saying. After all, if they disagreed, wouldn't that be the same as saying that all thieves should just go free?
Su Tang looked up at Su Yongshun. "At first I thought that Madam Zhang was just carried away in a moment of impulse, but now that Brother Gui has spoken to this point for her, it seems that maybe he endorses her behavior…"
If Su Yonggui had just directly punished Madam Zhang from the start and said a few words to reprimand her in front of everyone then things would have been fine. At most, he might be criticized for not properly managing his daughter-in-law, and he would lose a bit of face. But instead of doing that, Su Yonggui had chosen to speak to Su Tang instead, practically trying to threaten her into dropping the matter by saying that pressing any further would be going against his family.
In the final analysis, it seemed that he hoped to use the pressure of the fact that his family had raised the two siblings before to force her to drop things.
But was Su Tang someone so easy to threaten? Because Su Yonggui said that she should just write off Madam Zhang's actions because of their old ties, couldn't Su Tang just turn around and use how own words to ask if that meant that he had tacitly approved of Madam Zhang's plan to steal?
And, sure enough, after Su Tang finished speaking, the way everyone looked at Su Yonggui had subtly changed.
Originally, this matter only involved Madam Zhang and Su Sanshou, but now because of Su Tang's words, it suddenly seemed as if maybe everything had been orchestrated by Su Yonggui's whole family from the beginning.
Of course, Su Yonggui could feel the way the eyes on him slowly changed, and he suddenly felt that the old face that he had used his whole life to build was about to be lost.
He narrowed his eyes and looked at Su Tang who was still standing next to Su Yongqiang. He said slowly. "Tang girl, it seems that you are really determined to go against us this time. But you should remember, although you have been adopted into another branch and are no longer a part of our household, you are still a member of the Su family!"
As he spoke, he swept a cold gaze over Chen Xiuxiu and Sun Tiezhu, who were still standing around nearby. Just now Su Tang had easily dismissed what Chen Xiuxiu had done but she was still making things difficult for Madam Zhang. Obviously, one side was from the Su family, and the other side was an outsider, so he took this opportunity to accuse Su Tang of helping outsiders while at the same time making things difficult for her own family.
After all, no matter what kind of person Madam Zhang might be, at the end of the day she had long been married into the Su family. Su Tang easily claimed to be a Su family elder, but now she was making things difficult for the 'younger generation' of her own family, while being inexplicably tolerant to an outsider at the same time. Su Yonggui really wanted to see how this sharp-tongued little brat could argue her way out of this.
Everyone immediately understood what Su Yonggui was getting at, so Chen Xiuxiu instantly retorted, "You dead old man, what are you looking at me for? If you have the ability, just make Su Tang admit that she was selling the pot to Madam Zhang the same as she sold these bags to me!"
