Chapter 258 - 237: For the Sake of Siblings
Chapter 258: Chapter 237: For the Sake of Siblings
Passing the Mo Family Courtyard, Xiao Man pointed it out to Gu Shaojun. "This is the tiger’s den you mentioned. I grew up in this courtyard. Until I was eleven, I was still naive and ignorant, treating them as my dearest family and willingly enduring their abuse and enslavement. My so-called biological parents, after learning their child had been swapped at birth, didn’t come to see me right away. For the sake of the daughter they raised and her fainting spells, they decided to abandon me. The couple who raised me also tried every way they could to ruin me for their biological daughter’s future. And so, I became a child despised and rejected by both families... If Grandpa and Grandma hadn’t taken me away at that critical moment, broken off all ties with them, and started a new household, I would have been completely ruined by now—turned into an ugly monster no one would spare a second glance for."
Back in Beijing, Gu Shaojun had heard about Xiao Man’s bizarre and heartbreaking story from his grandparents, which had already left him furious and pained. However, he had only known the basics about her adoptive parents’ abuse. Now, hearing Xiao Man herself recount in such a flat tone the abandonment by her blood relatives and the cruelty of her adoptive parents, his heart twisted into an unbearable knot of pain.
Gu Shaojun was struggling to control himself, too upset to speak, when the courtyard gate swung open. Liu Fengying walked out with a basket on her arm. Seeing Xiao Man, she froze for a moment before immediately lunging at her.
"Xiao Man! Oh, my Xiao Man! You’ve finally come back to see your mother? Mommy missed you so much, my dear daughter!"
Xiao Man rolled her eyes. ’I know she’s shameless, but I can never stand it when she acts like this.’
Gu Shaojun pulled Xiao Man to his side, causing Liu Fengying to lunge at empty air. When she looked up and met Gu Shaojun’s blade-like, icy gaze, she couldn’t help but shudder. "You... Who are you? What are you doing with my Xiao Man?"
"Shut up! You have no relationship with Xiao Man whatsoever. You have no right to even say her name! Back off and stay far away from her!"
"What do you mean I have no right? I raised her for eleven years! I may not be her birth mother, but I’m the one who raised her! We’re mother and daughter—do you understand what that means? You’re an outsider... AHH!"
As Liu Fengying spoke, she tried to walk toward Xiao Man again. The moment she lifted her foot, she felt a sharp pain slice through her legs as if they had been cut by a blade. With a loud cry, she collapsed to the ground.
Xiao Man looked up at Gu Shaojun in surprise. "Wind Blade?"
The corners of Gu Shaojun’s lips lifted slightly. "The Gu family practices inherited Ancient Martial Arts. I’ve only reached the Basic level of understanding, so my power is still insufficient. If it were my grandfather, he could sever someone’s tendons without breaking the skin, crippling them while leaving the surface completely unharmed."
"Wow, Grandpa Gu is that amazing? Then what you just did..." Xiao Man glanced over at Liu Fengying. She noticed a thin, horizontal slit on each of the woman’s pant legs, as if cut by a razor blade. There were no signs of blood. It was clear Gu Shaojun’s Wind Blade could only stop her from taking a step; it couldn’t actually break the skin.
Liu Fengying decided she might as well sit on the ground and throw a full-blown tantrum. "I don’t want to live anymore!" she wailed. "What have I ever done to deserve this? My own daughter, the one I raised, is so ungrateful she even gets someone to beat me... Oh, Heavens, open your eyes and look at this!"
A crowd of villagers, young and old, quickly gathered. Several of Mo Shuixia’s younger siblings came over as well, calling out "Sister Xiao Man" as they clustered around her. Xiao Man handed a small medicine bottle to Mo Shuiyue and told her to take it back for her older sister to apply.
Seeing the medicine bottle, Liu Fengying had an idea. She stopped her wailing, stood up, and started limping toward Xiao Man again, shouting, "Xiao Man, my daughter, listen to your mother!" Xiao Man felt Gu Shaojun’s aura turn cold and quickly grabbed his arm. ’It’s not worth wasting his Inner Strength on Liu Fengying.’
Standing on Xiao Man’s other side, Mo Zhiyuan was fiddling with a slingshot. When he saw Xiao Man press close to the tall man beside her, he thought she was frightened. He raised his slingshot and shot a stone at Liu Fengying’s leg, stopping her from advancing.
Crying out in pain, Liu Fengying fell to her knees again and wailed, "Xiao Man, you can’t do this! You’ve studied medicine, you know acupuncture, and your remedies are so effective you even cured that crazy Mo Chengfu! You should take pity on Xiaoqiang and Xiao Feng! They’re your little brother and sister! You carried them on your back and held them in your arms as they were growing up. For the sake of your sibling bond, please, save them! If you cure them, I’ll consider it your filial duty to me paid for this lifetime. I’m begging you! I’ll kneel down, I’ll kowtow to you, alright?"
A few of the older women in the crowd started scolding Liu Fengying. "What do you think you’re doing? Get up! An elder kneeling to a junior? You’re deliberately trying to shorten her life!"
"That rotten bitch! She’s always been this evil-hearted!"
Granny Han was drying vegetables by her door when she heard the commotion and walked over. The moment she saw Xiao Man, she knew exactly what was going on and immediately started railing at Liu Fengying on the ground.
"Liu Fengying, you vicious woman! You must want to harm Xiao Man even in your dreams! She started working for you when she was only five or six! What day did you ever actually provide for her? Everything she ate, she earned through her own hard work! The Tang parents raised your biological daughter for you, pampering her like a princess. And you? You treated their daughter like a common servant! How dare you call Xiao Man your daughter and demand her respect? Do you deserve it? Liu Fengying, do you have any idea what a disgrace you are to all women? You might as well just go die!"
Another old woman spat in Liu Fengying’s direction indignantly. "One mouse dropping ruins a whole pot of soup! I’ve lived for seventy years, and Gongdao Village has never produced a woman as vicious as you. Everyone resents that Mo Guoqiang for the wife he married. She’s ruined the reputation of all the women in our village!"
Hearing Granny Han and the old woman, another sturdily built woman’s face lit up with sudden understanding. She slapped her thigh and yelled, "Oh, you’re so right! She’s a disgrace to the women of Gongdao Village, ruining our reputation! My eldest daughter found a potential husband and they were all ready to discuss the marriage, but his parents came out with, ’A girl from Gongdao Village? We should reconsider. We need to be careful!’ I’ve been trying to figure out what they meant! So that’s what it was all about! Liu Fengying, you troublemaker! Look what you’ve done! I’m going to stomp you!"
The large woman was a formidable one, and she really did march forward and stomp viciously on Liu Fengying several times. Liu Fengying tried to get up and fight back, but she was no match. Pounded and stomped on by the big woman, she couldn’t even get to her feet and could only shriek and wail.
Amid the chaos, Granny Han pulled Xiao Man back to her own house, with Gu Shaojun following close behind. Granny Han had once been an army wife back when Grandma Han was still in good health, so she could tell Gu Shaojun was a soldier. She chatted with him enthusiastically for a while, then made them some oil tea. Only after they had each finished a bowl did she let them go on to Mo Shuixia’s house.
They were at Mo Shuixia’s house for half an hour when Qiu Xiaohu came running, sent by Grandpa to hurry them back. The pair got up to take their leave, and as Grandpa had instructed them to do earlier, they invited Mo Shuixia’s father to their home for dinner.
It was a rural custom that when inviting a family to a meal, you only needed to extend the invitation to the head of the household. It was then up to him to decide whether he wanted to bring any of his children along.
On the way, Gu Shaojun said to Xiao Man, "I can see that you’re attached to Gongdao Village, and the people here really care about you. But that Mo family is still trying to use you. That woman, in particular, is utterly repulsive. I don’t want her getting near you. Child abuse is a felony. She should be locked up in prison for the rest of her life!"
Xiao Man replied, "Secretary Tang had Mo Guoqiang sent to a labor camp, but what good does that do? He’s disabled. He’ll be taken care of in prison, given work within his abilities, sheltered from the wind and rain, provided with food and drink, and live on a regular schedule. It’s no exaggeration to say that aside from the lack of freedom, it’s more comfortable than being a farmer at home. If Liu Fengying were sent there too, she’d probably be glad for it. But what would happen to that family? Who would clean up the mess that couple made? Even Tang Yaxuan refuses to return to that home or take responsibility for her biological parents. Two disabled children and three young ones... Should they just be pushed off onto society? Of course not. You reap what you sow. Liu Fengying will have to be tied to her children for the rest of her life. It’s much harder than prison, but there’s a silver lining. At least the family can be together."