Farm Girl's Manor
Chapter 396 Harm Others and Oneself, They Start Fighting (2)_1

Chapter 396: Chapter 396 Harm Others and Oneself, They Start Fighting (2)_1

Sister-in-law Wang and others returned from the town sobbing and wailing. If any villagers happened to bump into them and curiously asked what happened, they would learn of the affair. The more astute villagers could guess the reason behind it, and were unsure whether to laugh or sympathize.

Wang Dali and his group were not fools. After hearing the whole story, they quickly understood why. However, aside from cursing the doctors for their greed and lack of medical ethics, they had no choice but to sullenly allow their wives to carry the chest of silver back to town and humbly request the doctor to treat their injuries at home. They were the pillars of their households, after all. If they were to become disabled or useless, that would be a true loss of life.

When the incident reached Yang Bao’s ears, it reignited his anger. It was one thing to lose face in the village, but to be humiliated outside was unacceptable. What would outsiders think? He couldn’t let these people continue to ruin the village’s reputation—otherwise, future generations might find it even harder to marry off.

With this in mind, Yang Bao stealthily made up his mind. That day, he invited over a dozen respected elders from the village to his house to discuss establishing village rules. He figured that once the rules were set, Wang Dali and the others would have stabilized from their injuries, and it would be the perfect time for punishment!

To avoid overthinking by Mo Yan, Yang Bao shared his plans with her, and after hearing them, Mo Yan readily agreed.

Rather than letting Wang Dali and the others exploit their injuries to gather sympathy from the villagers and thereby escape severe punishment, it was better to wait until they recovered and then discipline them according to the village rules. This would set an example for all and firmly establish the rules.

Establishing village rules was not easy; each clause involved had to be carefully considered and deliberated before being finalized, which would take some time.

Wang Dali and the others, who had been anxious and worried about being held accountable, saw the Mo Family made no move, the village head did not visit their homes, and even the villagers knew nothing of their attempted extortion. Gradually, they each felt relieved and stayed at home to tend their wounds. Wang Dali especially lay in bed, vehemently bragging how the Mo Family was nothing but weak and could not do anything to him—he wasn’t even afraid if Qingze returned and found out about the incident!

However, the good days didn’t last long. These families barely had any silver to begin with, and the daily costs for medicine and treatment, while bearable for a day or two, became insurmountable over time.

Watching the copper coins in their money chest dwindle, the villagers whose injuries had only partially healed began to complain to each other. They regretted listening to Wang Dali’s instigations, saying they had gained nothing and had now completely drained their already meager savings—they were all filled with remorse up to their intestines!

"It’s all Wang Dali’s fault. If it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t have entertained such thoughts and ended up like this! Humph, the Wang Family should pay for the medical expenses!"

The more they thought about it, the less willing they were to accept the situation. Once the last bit of silver was spent, someone finally couldn’t bear it anymore and began to privately incite other injured villagers to join him in demanding silver from the Wang Family.

With someone lighting the fire and an opportunity to benefit themselves, others quickly responded enthusiastically: "That’s right, it’s all because of Wang Dali that we ended up like this. He should pay the silver. If he dares not to, we’ll expose what he did and see if the Wang Family will still have the face to stay in this village."

Villagers who had initially been skeptical joined in the chorus after hearing this. Very quickly, over a dozen of them united in their opinion and stormed into Wang Dali’s home, pressing him to compensate their medical expenses with silver.

"Compensate with silver? Bah, dream on!" Enraged, Wang Dali sat up from his bed, glaring at the villagers: "It wasn’t me who forced you to do anything, why should I compensate? If you hadn’t agreed at that time, would I have gone into the mountains? Even if someone should pay, it should be you paying me!"

At that point, Wang Dali felt even more entitled, boldly standing up to demand silver from the villagers: "I spent several hundred wen on treatment and even pawned my mother’s silver bracelet. Now I don’t ask for much, just three hundred wen from each of you will do."

The crowd did not expect Wang Dali to be so shameless as to turn the situation around on them, uttering such disgraceful words. One villager, outraged, stepped forward and shoved Wang Dali hard: "You’re a shameless scoundrel, leading us to this state, and you have the audacity to ask us for silver? Why don’t you just drop dead!"

Little did they know, one shove would lead to trouble!

Wang Dali, with a pale face, collapsed on the ground, cupping his right leg and screaming non-stop: "Ah—my leg, my leg is broken, it hurts so much—"

Seeing that Wang Dali’s agony didn’t seem feigned, the villagers panicked and retreated to the doorway, terrified that his accident would be blamed on them. The villager who shoved Wang Dali stood dumbfounded, not understanding how Wang Dali ended up like this.

At that moment, Sister-in-law Wang, hearing the commotion from the main room, pushed through the crowd and rushed in. Seeing Wang Dali lying on the ground looking like he was barely clinging to life, she threw herself on him, screeching at the top of her lungs: "Oh, my dear husband, what’s happened to you, what’s happened to you!?"

Wang Dali, soaked in sweat from the pain and with a face full of malice, pointed at the villager who pushed him, threatening: "You’ve torn open my wound—if I become crippled or lame, I will kill your entire family."

The villager, who had initially felt slightly guilty, burst into anger upon hearing this: "Humph, just you try! People like you are a plague; you should have been bitten to death by that tiger that night!"

These words were like poking a hornet’s nest. Before Wang Dali could react, Sister-in-law Wang shot to her feet, reached for the villager’s face, and started scratching and clawing: "You’re the plague, your whole family is the plague, dare to curse my man, I curse you to die without sons to care for you in old age!"

These were essentially curses for someone’s sons to die young, something nobody could tolerate!

"You wretched woman! You dare to curse my son; I’ll kill you!"

The villager, not one to be easily provoked, his face contorted with rage, shoved Sister-in-law Wang and delivered a resounding slap to her face. It dazed her, loosening her teeth and drawing blood from the corner of her mouth.

Seeing the situation turning dire and afraid that a tragic incident might ensue, someone hastily ran out of the Wang Family home to fetch Yang Bao to quell the dispute...