“Uncle, are you trying to make Brother Liu my aunt?”

Standing by the ditch, Wan Xiaohua craned her neck to look at the person picking tung flowers for her on the large rock and voiced her suspicion.

The buds of the tung tree flowers looked a lot like little tung nuts. Wan Dongyang casually plucked two and smashed them right against her forehead. “What kind of nonsense are you spouting?”

“What nonsense am I talking about?” Wan Xiaohua wouldn’t back down, clutching her head where she’d been hit as she retorted. “If you don’t want him to be my auntie, then why are you helping him?”

This morning he’d asked her to speak up for him, to expose the lies of the Jiang family’s eldest daughter-in-law; just now, too—he’d sided with Brother Liu without even knowing the full story, completely disregarding what the Wang brothers and Zhou Laoya had said. If anyone claimed this meant he had no feelings for Brother Liu, she wouldn’t believe it.

Her mother had told her: if you like someone, you’ll believe them and stand by them. She’d thought it through carefully—if Brother Liu were to become her aunt-in-law, she’d be willing.

Brother Liu was very kind to her—he’d pick flowers for her, and he was a formidable fighter; three of them together couldn’t beat him. She was happy for Brother Liu to be her younger aunt.

As Wan Xiaohua thought this through, she nodded to herself, officially accepting him as her auntie. But just as she nodded, several more flower buds came flying toward her!

She quickly dodged them, chattering, “Uncle, are you shy? You won’t even let me say it, hehe~.”

“Shy my foot! You’d better start thinking about how you’re going to avoid a beating when we get home.” When Wan Dongyang mentioned going home, Wan Xiaohua’s face immediately fell, and she truly began to worry.

It turned out the two hadn’t come out specifically to pick oil tea flowers; they’d come out to escape for their lives. That was why they’d been running so breathlessly just a moment ago.

Earlier, two groups of people had come to the Wan household, both seeking medical help. The uncle and niece had betrayed each other, spilling everything—from giving the herbs to the visitors to revealing that Wan Yong’an was a doctor. Mother Wan was furious; by the time she grabbed a broom, the two had already vanished without a trace.

But neither of them had expected that, having simply run out to avoid a beating, they would stumble upon what had just happened.

Earlier, Wan Dongyang had kicked Wang Chunyu into a thicket of thorns. The vines were covered in sharp spines, and Wang Chunyu immediately let out a shriek. By the time he finally crawled out of the thicket, he didn’t know about the rest of his body, but his hands were already slashed with several deep cuts.

The Wang brothers were both shocked and aggrieved, yet they were powerless against Wan Dongyang. Only then did they fully realize that the nickname the villagers had given him wasn’t an exaggeration—he was truly a scoundrel of the worst kind, capable of laying a hand on even a young man, let alone a handsome one in the prime of his youth.

The Wang brothers left, seething with anger and feeling wronged, and Zhou Laoya naturally followed them out.

After the three had left, Wan Dongyang finally turned his gaze to Liu Qishuang, who had already changed into Wan Xiaohua’s clothes. Just as he was thinking to himself, “How can she be so thin that he can even fit into Xiaohua’s clothes?” Liu Qishuang began to recount the events of earlier in meticulous detail.

However, just as he finished speaking, Grandpa Liu came to call for him. It turned out the others had gone to the Liu family’s rice paddies to complain to Grandpa Liu. Liu Qishuang had no choice but to take his tattered flower wreath and leave with him.

After Liu Qishuang left with Grandpa Liu, the uncle and nephew didn’t dare go back either. They planned to stay out a while longer, waiting until Mother Wan had calmed down before doing anything.

Liu Qishuang explained what had just happened to Grandpa Liu. Both of them understood that regardless of the truth, as long as the Wang or Zhou families came to complain, Liu Qishuang would inevitably face a beating from his parents today.

The two worked in silence. After about half an hour, they finished their work and headed home. As they passed by the Wan household, Liu Qishuang intended to retrieve the basket he’d used to deliver the eggs earlier, but just then, members of the Wang family arrived at the Wan household to demand an explanation.

Wang Chunyu was the favored ger of the family. Having been beaten and left with several scrapes on his hands, his family was in no mood to let the matter rest. They didn’t even need the two to exaggerate their complaints; just seeing their ger’s pitiful state was enough to drive them to the Wan household to demand an explanation.

“Today, if your Wan family doesn’t give us a proper explanation, this won’t end here!” Wang Chunyu’s mother had only seen her son’s hands, and her heart was already breaking with worry.

There were not only clear teeth marks but also several cuts on his hands. Though they were just superficial scrapes—mere minor wounds—they must have been painful! Not to mention, his lips were split from the beating, his nose was bleeding, and his face was even swollen.

Mother Wan was already angry with Wan Dongyang, and now that someone had come knocking on their door, her anger only grew.

But she would never belittle or wrongly accuse her own child in front of outsiders just to keep the peace; no matter how big or small the matter, she always insisted on getting to the bottom of it.

However, the moment she began to ask questions, the Wang couple simply wailed and complained, insisting that the Wans were protecting their own child and bullying the Wangs, who were outsiders in the village. Just as the couple was crying their hearts out, Wan Dongyang returned, and Liu Qishuang was waiting at the courtyard gate.

He was waiting for his little basket.

Wan Dongyang hadn’t expected the Wang family to come knocking on his door; this was quite unusual. In the past, whenever he’d gotten into a fight with someone in the village, no one had ever come looking for him—because coming wouldn’t have done any good anyway.

But he wasn’t thinking about that right now. He turned to Ma Cuilan and said, “Second Sister-in-Law, where’s the basket Xiaohua brought back this morning? It belongs to Liu-ger. He’s waiting outside and asked Xiao Hua to bring it out for him.”

“You little rascal, you actually bothered to come back. I’ll deal with you later about what happened earlier! Now tell me, what’s going on between you and that ger from the Wang family? How could you lay a hand on a little ger?” Though Mother Wan’s words spared the Wang family’s face, she didn’t actually believe her son would hit a little ger for no reason; there must be a reason behind it.

She just wanted her son to spill the beans.

Wan Dongyang didn’t beat around the bush. He didn’t even mention the incident involving Liu Qishuang and the others; he simply stated, “He started it.”

“That’s right. That ger attacked my uncle first. We took turns hitting each other—it was a fair fight.” Wan Xiaohua chimed in, holding a large handful of tung flowers to her nose and taking a light sniff. Her nonchalant demeanor infuriated the Wang couple all over again.

After speaking up for Wan Dongyang, Wan Xiaohua headed home. Her mother had just gone back—presumably to fetch the Liu family’s basket, which she intended to take out for Liu-ger.

Before long, mother and daughter emerged together. Wan Xiaohua skipped and hopped toward the courtyard gate with the basket in hand, while Ma Cuilan reached the steps of Wan Yong’an’s house and stood beside the Wang couple.

The Wang couple had already been seething with anger, and now they were so enraged by the Wan uncle and niece that they could hardly speak. They pointed at Wan’s mother and shouted, “Well done! Well done! The Wan family is truly something else!”

Father Wang was so enraged that his chest heaved with anger. He hadn’t expected the Wans to be so protective of their own, so he could only swallow his pride and prepare to leave—but Mother Wang refused to go.

The earlier incident with the paddy fields had already been a great injustice to her ger. She couldn’t let him suffer another loss now. Even if they wouldn’t come out ahead, she had to speak her mind and vent her frustration.

“Hmph! Now I know for sure—your Wan family is a pack of shameless, worthless dogs! That relative of yours, Wan Changqing, is nothing but a lapdog, drooling all day long after my ger. Too bad my ger doesn’t even give him the time of day!”

“You, you!” Lin Qiuyue wasn’t good at arguing with people. Though she was angry, she couldn’t think of a retort for a long while and could only look anxiously at Ma Cuilan standing nearby.

Ma Cuilan’s face was dark, but she said nothing. Seeing this, Aunt Wang grew even more brazen and continued her tirade: “Your son isn’t much of a catch either. He talks about respecting family ties, but I saw right through that business with the carts. He wasn’t worried about Wan Changqing at all—he probably had his eye on that good-for-nothing ger from the Xu family. Makes sense, though—trash goes with trash; they’re a perfect match!”

“Finished ranting?” Ma Cuilan began rolling up her sleeves.

The Wang couple had no idea what she was up to; they just stared at her warily for a moment. In the blink of an eye, Ma Cuilan had taken a few steps forward, grabbed Mother Wang by the collar, and hoisted her up so she couldn’t move, then slapped her across the face several times in quick succession.

Only after she’d finished beating her did Ma Cuilan let go. Wang’s wife could barely stand by then; after stumbling a few times, she fell straight to the ground.

“You—you wicked woman! How dare you hit someone?” Father Wang couldn’t believe it. He wanted to help his wife up but, unable to contain his anger, pointed at Ma Cuilan and cursed, ready to step forward and teach her a lesson.

Unfortunately, Ma Cuilan was built like a tank to begin with, and now she had Wan Dongyang protecting her. Seeing the two acting like bullies, he felt intimidated, afraid he might get beaten up too.

Now he finally understood: the Wan household was nothing but a den of bandits—they didn’t stand for any sense of reason!

No wonder, no wonder—no wonder his son dared to lay a hand on a young ger. It turns out the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree; the whole family is no good!

“Pah!” Ma Cuilan pushed Wan Dongyang aside with one hand and pointed at the couple. “Stop spouting that nonsense! My younger brother may have a bad temper, but he’d never bully someone for no reason. I don’t know how your ger provoked him, but I do know this: your ger definitely deserved a beating!”

Having addressed Wan Dongyang’s assault on Wang-ger, Ma Cuilan turned her finger toward Mother Wang, who was still putting on a show on the ground, and continued, “As for her, she deserves a beating even more! Just now, I already went easy on you. Given what she just said, the fact that I didn’t tear her mouth to shreds is only because I’m sparing you some face—you’ve just settled here, after all, and I didn’t want to make things too difficult for you.”

The couple clearly didn’t accept Ma Cuilan’s words, but she didn’t waste any more time on them. She cut straight to the point: “Just for slandering my uncle’s reputation, your mother deserves to have her mouth torn to shreds!”

“Exactly!” Wan Dongyang immediately caught on and took over, his face brimming with righteous indignation. “Do you have any proof that my uncle has taken a fancy to your ger? A man’s reputation is his reputation. If you slander my uncle by claiming he likes your ger, and word gets out to other gers and women, it could ruin his marriage prospects—and that would be a major scandal!”

“Don’t try to wriggle out of this—I’m not accusing you of anything. My uncle just kicked those two shameless gers of yours off the carriage himself not long ago. How dare you suggest my uncle has his eye on your ger? It’s like Zhu Bajie looking in a mirror.”

“What a hideous sight.” Lin Qiuyue hid behind Mother Wan and whispered the addition, afraid the Wang couple might not get the hint.

The Wang couple never imagined that not a single member of the Wan family was to be trifled with. With only one man at home right now, they couldn’t even handle him. If the Wan family’s other two sons and the head of the household were to return, wouldn’t they be in for a world of trouble?

At this thought, Mother Wang, who had been lying on the ground pretending to be unconscious, stopped her act.

“You can only swindle the soft-hearted and weak. This family is like bandits—you can’t swindle them.” Fearing another beating, Mother Wang felt a pang of guilt, immediately scrambled to her feet, and hurriedly left with her husband.

“They’re getting out of here pretty fast. We haven’t settled the score with the third son yet,” Ma Cuilan said, rubbing her hands together with a look of disappointment. They had only settled the score with Wan Changqing earlier; they hadn’t yet settled the score with the third son of the family they were framing.

Over here, the Wang couple stepped out of the Wan family’s gate and shot a fierce glare at Liu Qishuang, who was standing at the entrance, snapping, “What are you looking at? What’s so interesting?”

“I’m just looking. Is that not allowed?” Liu Qishuang whispered back at them, but unfortunately, the two had already walked far away. “Xiaohua, I’m heading back. I’ll bring your clothes over tomorrow.”

“Then come by this afternoon. We’re going to play by the big ditch over there and climb the tung trees.” As soon as Wan Xiaohua finished speaking, she was about to go inside when she spotted the tattered flower wreath on Liu Qishuang’s wrist and froze.

“Brother Liu, you like flowers too?” In the past, Brother Liu had only picked flowers for her, so she’d assumed he didn’t like them himself. She never expected that he wouldn’t even throw away a tattered flower wreath.

Liu Qishuang’s right hand trembled involuntarily, but he said nothing. He merely replied softly, “All right.” This counted as accepting the earlier arrangement; he would come looking for her to play early tomorrow.

By the time Liu Qishuang returned home, his grandfather had already been back for a while, and the Zhou family members who had come to complain had been driven away by Xu Shifan. He had no idea that today, his father had actually, for once, stood up for him.

Hearing from his grandfather that the Zhou family had come to the door only to be driven away by his father, Liu Qishuang felt no particular joy. That night, just like Zhou Laoyao and the two Wang gers, he lay awake until the wee hours.

The youngest Zhou son was bitter because he’d not only failed to get the upper hand but had also been beaten.

The two Wang gers were equally resentful, but not because they’d been beaten—rather, because they couldn’t fathom why they’d been beaten.

Wang Chunyu racked his brain but couldn’t figure out why Liu Qishuang had pushed Wan Dongyang into the rice paddy and not only gotten away with it, but had Wan Dongyang treat him even better afterward, while he had merely copied that action and pushed Wan Dongyang once, only to be kicked flying by him.

Liu Qishuang was just as baffled, but what he couldn’t figure out had nothing to do with Wan Dongyang—it had to do with his father.

Ever since his grandmother had changed her attitude toward him, he’d felt uneasy; now that his father was acting this way too, his unease only deepened.

He suspected his father was preparing to arrange a marriage for him, and that the other party must have ties to the Xu family—otherwise, they wouldn’t be acting this way. After kissing the tattered flower wreath by his pillow, Liu Qishuang slowly closed his eyes, drifting off to sleep.

“I’m not afraid.”

His household registration was in his grandfather’s hands; his parents had no say in his marriage.