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.
Thank you for the chapter!
I have this feeling that the author is just using last chapters as a filler – only now we have something important actually said. Can’t wait how the siblings will use the leverage now.