A Good Country Wife
Chapter 242 - 234 Backstabbing_2

Chapter 242: Chapter 234 Backstabbing_2

Zhao Bing let out a cry and began to weep, the duck egg he’d been holding was no longer of interest to him, and he threw it to the ground where it broke, rendered useless. Liu’s heart ached at the sight; each egg had been bought for five "coin," and with that throw, ten "coin" were wasted. She thought her sister-in-law was really raising her child to be wasteful, but this thought she kept to herself.

Lin Yue, on the other hand, didn’t think much of it. It’s common for little children to throw tantrums, and since the kids from both families were generally well-behaved, she wasn’t angry to see Zhao Bing like this. She had already been inclined to pull Li Xiaomei over to her side. If there was any commotion from the old Zhao house, someone could tip them off. So, she took out some candy and coaxed, "Ah Bing, don’t cry, your second auntie has candy for you."

Li Xiaomei, seeing her own son had damaged someone else’s duck eggs, felt somewhat embarrassed. "Sister, you shouldn’t indulge him. This brat really needs discipline. Look, he’s smashed your duck eggs. Otherwise, I should compensate you for the eggs." Li Xiaomei didn’t really intend to pay, but she had to keep up appearances.

"Look at what you’re saying, it’s just two duck eggs. If the child wants to eat them, I, as his aunt, would let him have them. And even if the egg was accidentally broken, it really isn’t worth mentioning such hurtful things," Lin Yue replied.

"Sister, you really are generous, no wonder everyone in the village speaks so highly of your family."

Lin Yue and Li Xiaomei exchanged pleasantries, but Liu was more concerned with the two broken eggs on the ground. It seemed such a waste to her. She fetched a bowl intending to salvage the unsoiled egg. It was then she noticed something amiss. "Eh, what’s with this egg? Sister, come look—inside the egg looks half-cooked, steamed almost. It’s no good for making salted eggs. Who would do such a despicable thing?"

At Liu’s words, Lin Yue lost any interest in chatting with Li Xiaomei and immediately crouched down to inspect the broken eggs. Sure enough, just as Liu had described, they weren’t rotten but half-steamed, as if someone had deliberately sabotaged them.

Li Xiaomei also came over to scope out the commotion. "Sister, you really need to be careful. Look at the vile tricks people come up with. If these were used for making salted eggs, they would spoil in no time—it wouldn’t be making salted eggs, but rotten eggs. Sister, have you offended anyone lately?"

Lin Yue glanced at Li Xiaomei, who seemed to be taking delight in her misfortune, and pondered who could be responsible for such an act.

"Big sister, do you know from which family these eggs were collected?" Lin Yue guessed the culprit didn’t expect the wrongdoing to be uncovered—had Zhao Bing and his mother not thrown a fit and smashed the eggs, nobody would have discovered the mischief.

"These eggs were collected by Chunhua. Wait here, I’ll go and ask her whose eggs they were," Liu said, more anxious than Lin Yue, and immediately went outside to summon Wu Qiang’s wife. When Wu Qiang’s wife, Chunhua, heard about the situation, she was both shocked and outraged—who could be so unscrupulous?

Luckily, the duck eggs hadn’t been mixed together yet. Upon arrival, Chunhua immediately recognized which family they came from, which only added to the surprise, "How could this be? These eggs came from Chunxi’s home, but she has a good relationship with Yueyue, why would she do it?"

"It’s her," said Lin Yue, not surprised to hear it was Chunxi, but she found the woman’s malice a bit too extreme.

"You see," Li Xiaomei, who was never one to mince her words, spoke, "It’s true what they say, you can know someone’s face but not their heart. Sister, you are too kind-hearted, always helping her. Chunxi has benefited plenty from you. Look at the life she led before and how now she’s wearing new clothes. It’s bad enough she isn’t grateful, but to backstab you on top of it, such people can’t be trusted. I always felt Chunxi was no good, always so meek and quiet—just pretending to be harmless, but now we see her true colors. Only she could come up with such a wicked scheme."

Li Xiaomei couldn’t resist the opportunity to kick someone while they were down, especially since she envied the benefits Chunxi received from Lin Yue.

Liu, too, felt emotional. "I can’t believe Chunxi would be such a person."

"There’s nothing to be surprised about. I’ve always found Chunxi to be evasive and complicated. She’s definitely not a good person. These eggs have been collected, the money’s been paid, and confronting Chunxi would likely lead to denial. It’s best to have nothing to do with such people in the future," Sister Chunhua was clearer-headed about it than Liu.

"Yueyue, I was the one who collected these eggs. It’s only right that I compensate for the loss. Calculate how much it is, and I’ll pay you back," Chunhua insisted.

"Sister Chunhua, how could this be your fault? To anyone else, these eggs would all look the same when collecting. It was Chunxi who harbored malicious intent. It seems that when she asked for my help last time and I refused, she took it to heart," Lin Yue sighed, portraying wounded disbelief.

Of course, Lin Yue was only putting on an act. Now that she saw Chunxi’s true colors, she couldn’t be bothered to care about such a person. But since Chunxi had acted this way, she would have to pay the price. Lin Yue wasn’t about to play the martyr, swallowing the injustice after being wronged. While she couldn’t do much to Chunxi directly, she could tarnish her reputation. Rumors can be fearsome, and with Chunxi’s household already the subject of gossip and her husband away, life wasn’t going to get any easier—especially with Li Xiaomei around, whose sharp tongue spared no one.