Chapter 49: Coming to the Door to Demand an Explanation!

The setting sun slanted westward.

Life in Li Family Village was destined to be turbulent.

In a mud-brick house not far from Li Feng's home, a woman glared at the scoundrel of a boy who looked as though he had been rolling in the mud. Without a second word, she snatched up a nearby broom and rained blows down upon him.

The child was nimble, clearly well-accustomed to handling such situations.

"Get back here, you little wretch!" the woman roared from behind. "I told you not to ruin your clothes when you were out playing the fool, but you completely ignored me!"

Fleeing desperately, the boy offered a flustered defense. "Mother, it wasn't me! It was Sanniu, Siniu, and Wuniu from the Li family!"

"They beat me up!"

"What?!"

Upon hearing this, the woman instantly tossed the broom aside, lunged forward, and pulled the child into her arms. "You got into a fight? Are you hurt anywhere?"

Emboldened by his mother's protection, the boy began to wail tearfully, "Sanniu's family made something delicious, and he wouldn't share it with me. Then they hit me!"

"They hit me so hard, boo-hoo~"

The boy lifted his shirt to reveal the bruises beneath.

"How could they be so vicious!"

Seeing the purple and black bruises on her son's arm, the woman was consumed by sudden rage. She grabbed his hand and declared, "Come along, Mother will go settle the score for you!"

As soon as they stepped outside, they ran into several other women accompanied by their own children.

"Fat Aunt, where are you all headed?" the woman asked, recognizing the one leading the group.

Fat Aunt was a famously well-to-do resident of Li Family Village. Not only was she plump and prosperous-looking, but her husband was capable, ensuring their household lived in comfort.

However, even though Fat Aunt had been married into Li Family Village for ten years, she had only borne a single son, named Li Jiabao.

Because the boy was far from as robust as his parents, Fat Aunt naturally doted on him immensely, sending him off to the thatched-roof academy in Xiàhé Village at a very tender age.

He was usually away from home for the better part of every month. If she remembered correctly, this boy had just returned to the village today—what on earth had happened?

Fat Aunt raised her booming voice. "We're going to Second Uncle Li's place! His brats beat up my boy, and I'm going to demand justice!"

"Me too! Just look at this—Second Uncle Li's brats are so cold-blooded, look what they did to my boy!"

As they spoke, the women lifted their children's shirts one after another, exposing dark bruises that looked truly alarming.

Tie Dan's mother, who had been chasing and beating her own son just moments ago, quietly fell silent.

Well, it seemed her Tie Dan had gotten off the lightest by far.

Now she felt rather hesitant. With injuries this minor, was it really necessary to go pick a fight?

"Tie Dan's mother, didn't your Tie Dan get beaten too?" Fat Aunt called out.

Tie Dan's mother: Was he beaten or not?

Those minor scrapes on Tie Dan really didn't amount to much...

"Stop dawdling, let's hurry over to Second Uncle Li's house! If we go too late, the whole family might have already left for town, and tracking them down later won't be so easy."

"What's going on?"

Tie Dan's mother had only one hobby: gossiping about local domestic affairs.

"Didn't Second Uncle Li just get assigned that new house? Are they moving out already?"

Fat Aunt strode heavily at the front of the group, dragging her son along by the hand like a little chick.

The boy struggled incessantly in the rear, his delicate face flushed red with exertion.

Yet he still couldn't break free from his mother's iron grip!

After wasting all his effort, it was entirely in vain.

Finally, Li Jiabao gave up struggling.

Brother Sanniu, it wasn't that he didn't try; it was simply that his mother's grip was too strong, leaving him no room to speak!

"Hah, what else could it be!" Fat Aunt scoffed. "When I passed by the Li family's old homestead just now, there was nobody there. The front gate was locked up tight—they must have gone to town to rely on the eldest and third brothers' families!"

"Has the third brother's injuries healed?" Tie Dan's mother asked curiously.

She was somewhat astonished by Li Qingyun's constitution.

How could he recover so quickly? He had taken thirty heavy blows just two days ago, and already he could walk?

"Fat chance!" Fat Aunt curled her lip. "He doesn't have that kind of resilience! My old man was the one who hauled him to town on a cart!"

"Besides, only the third brother left this morning. The old couple were still at home then, but by lunchtime, they were all gone. Just think about that..."

Hearing this, Tie Dan's mother chuckled. "Isn't it a good thing that Madam Wang left?"

"In our Li Family Village, she's the one who loves wagging her tongue the most. Now that she's gone to town, she won't be around to plague us anymore!"

"Second Uncle Li's family can finally catch a breather, too, right?"

Fat Aunt cast a sharp, meaningful glance her way!

Tie Dan's mother: "..."

Curse this loose tongue of hers!

The group ceased further conversation and pressed on toward Li Feng's house.

Meanwhile.

Big Dog was filled with anxiety, having entirely lost the mood to craft furniture.

"Erniu, Sanniun, were we too much earlier? Were our hands a bit too heavy? What are we going to do if their parents come knocking on our door?"

Erniu curled his lip. "What is there to be afraid of? They started the trouble first, we didn't do anything wrong!"

"Besides, neither you nor I threw any punches. Sanniu, Siniu, and Wuniu were the ones who fought back. If a whole mob of them couldn't even beat three boys and then brought their parents over to complain, they'd truly have no face left!"

"You little bastard, whose family has no face?!"

Fat Aunt reached the doorway just in time to hear those words, and in her fury, she kicked the front door open.

The newly crafted gate nearly collapsed from the impact!

Seeing this, Erniu immediately stepped forward and stared firmly at Fat Aunt. "Auntie, we just finished making this gate. If you break it, you'll have to pay for the damages!"

Pay for damages?

Upon hearing this, Fat Aunt instinctively took a step back, still somewhat shaken.

Then she inspected the door and, seeing it intact, let out a heavy sigh of relief.

Good, good! It wasn't broken!

Li Jiabao looked at his mother and shook his head helplessly.

Since they weren't in the right to begin with, why come here just to humiliate themselves?

He tugged at his mother's sleeve, intending to say they should just drop the matter, but his mother completely misinterpreted his gesture!

Glancing down at her son, Fat Aunt snapped back to her senses.

Wait.

She had come here to settle accounts with Second Uncle Li, so why was she acting scared?

Unwilling to lose face in front of her son, Fat Aunt puffed out her chest, glared at Li Erniu, and demanded, "Where is your father? Go call your father out here!"

"I want to ask him precisely how he raised the lot of you! Just look at what you've done to my son!"

"They threw the first punches!" Daya stepped forward, the stubborn little girl pointing accusatorily at Li Jiabao and the others. "They were the ones trying to steal the food from our house! Third Brother and Fourth Brother only chased them away!"

"We did nothing wrong!"

So that was how it was!

Fat Aunt stared at Daya, her mind buzzing.

Stealing someone else's food?

If it had been her own household, she would have beaten them half to death on the spot!

So...

Fat Aunt looked down at her son again. Did this little rascal actually deserve a beating?

"A wretched little hussy, a good-for-nothing money-loser! There's no place for the likes of you to speak here! My grandson has been beaten to a pulp, and you lot must pay compensation!"

"And restitution for nourishment! My grandson bled, so he needs some good food to build his strength back up. Make your father come out right now and pay up!"

Amidst the crowd, an older woman raised her voice in a shrill screech.

Daya spun around in circles, frantic with worry.

Pay silver?

They were the ones who attempted robbery in broad daylight; what right did they have to demand compensation?

The other women suddenly felt a twinge of shame and instinctively stepped back a pace or two. There was no help for it—it seemed the fault lay squarely with their own rascally boys.

Why on earth would they go snatch things from another family's home?

How embarrassing!

If those brats grew any older, they would surely be dragged to the ancestral hall for a severe flogging. With Li Qingyun's recent cautionary example fresh in everyone's minds, who dared to stir up trouble here?

And Li Qingyun was even an educated scholar!