“As far as I know, there are stiil a lot of things happening in your family these days, so why do you still have time to come and see me?” Madam Wu sat down and asked Chen Xiuxiu.
Chen Xiuxiu’s eyes swept the table in front of them and saw that there wasn’t even a mouthful to eat. She pursed her lips. In the past when she used to come to see Madam Wu, Madam Wu had always provided melon seeds and other snacks, but these days the woman had become very stingy.
Madam Wu followed Chen Xiuxiu’s gaze and naturally understood what she was thinking about, but she still didn’t plan to take out anything for her to eat. In the past, she used to be able to earn some private funds for herself in her free time, so of course, she had been able to keep some money in her hands and had no shortage of things at home.
But the situation was different now. Her brother, Wu Yong, had both his legs broken and needed treatment from a doctor so she had sent one or two silver taels to him. A bit after that, her parents had come to find her and ask for money. Of course, she had wanted to just ignore them, but they had threatened her and said they would never care about her again if she ignored them this time.
After throwing down their ultimatum, they had sniveled and cried for a good long while, which made Madam Wu feel very disgusted. Unfortunately, at the end of the day, she was still a married woman, so she still needed her family to support her from behind. Otherwise, she might end up like Su Dafu’s original wife, Madam Liu, where even if she died there was no one to help and her children could only endure being bullied every day.
With that in mind, Madam Wu could only struggle to find a way to continue supporting her maternal family and, as a result, she was very strapped for cash these days. Naturally, she could not act as extravagantly as before. And besides, Chen Xiuxiu wouldn’t leave over something like this. If she did, then wouldn’t she have made the trip here in vain?
And, sure enough, when Chen Xiuxiu saw that Madam Wu really didn’t plan to take out anything for her to eat, although she cursed in her heart that Madam Wu was really too stingy, she still kept herself in check. After all, she just so happened to have a very important piece of news this time, so she just sat down on the kang bed and began to speak.
“You speak as if the matters in my family aren’t the result of the rumors spread by your Su family. Ah, my poor innocent daughter, her fate is so bitter to have this kind of trouble fall onto her head!” Since Chen Xiuxiu had been reminded of the problems at home by Madam Wu, she couldn’t help but say a few snide words.
Madam Wu hurriedly retorted, “Don’t talk nonsense. Our branch of the Su family is different from those other ones. But who could have imagined that those people were so black-hearted and unclean? However, what does the Wang family mean to do now? When will they be officially inviting little Guihua into the family?”
Of course, on the inside Madam Wu was sneering. Chen Xiuxiu said her daughter was innocent but everyone in Sujia Village knew exactly what kind of thing that Sun Guihua was.
It was easy to tell that Madam Wu was feeling a bit unsettled herself these days from the way she treated Chen Xiuxiu. Her words sounded like words of comfort, but there was clearly a sense of sarcasm and a sense that she was laughing at the other woman’s situation between the lines.
Naturally, Chen Xiuxiu could hear that too. Despite the fact that these two women were always spending time together and calling each other sister, in reality, they weren’t all that close. Thus, when Chen Xiuxiu heard the meanness in Madam Wu’s tone she gritted her teeth angrily. But the thought that she still needed to use Madam Wu for something stopped her from lashing out like she usually would. She decided to just pretend like she hadn’t heard the subtext at all.
“Isn’t that right? Those people from the Su family really black-hearted and shameless. Probably their guts will start to rot from all the schemes and they won’t come to any good end.” Chen Xiuxiu said meaningfully.
Now it was Madam Wu’s turn to grit her teeth. Unexpectedly, this woman had turned her own words around and used them to scold her!
After the two had exchanged barbs like this, Chen Xiuxiu finally got around to talking about the reason she had come over: “Heh, although there are still some small issues happening in my family, we are still destined to be joined to the Wang family through marriage. But the Su family, ah, I’m afraid some people from the Su family might end up soaking in a pig cage.”
When she heard this, Madam Wu immediately stopped caring about her little fight with Chen Xiuxiu. She could still remember how Chen Xiuxiu had told her before that the little brat she hated was actually getting close to some servant from a wealthy family.
“My good sister, what exactly are you talking about? Tell me all about it.” Madam Wu reached forward and grabbed Chen Xiuxiu’s hand, a little excited.
She had always been thinking of ways to kill those two brats, but the task was really too difficult. They had already been adopted into someone else’s household and even moved out of the village so, even though Madam Wu had thought about it again and again, it seemed impossible. Rather, the matter Chen Xiuxiu had told her about last time still seemed like the biggest chance for her to deal with them.
“Haha, you really need to thank me this time!” Chen Xiuxiu instantly saw through Madam Wu’s worries and chortled.
.
tl begging corner:
tl note: Being drowned in a pig cage was (supposedly) a punishment used in ancient China for adulterous women.
Not just adulterous women, immoral, unclean women. So girls that were thought to be guilty of seducing men, or having premarital sex, could be drowned in a pig cage. The accusations could be very broad, didn’t necessarily have to have proof, and guilt mostly came down to public opinion of the girl’s reputation.
Wu! How can you be so stupid to fall for her lies. I think the fortune teller was talking about Wu instead of the kids.