The Eldest Daughter of a Rural Family
Chapter 114 The White-Eyed Wolf I Raised_1

Chapter 114: Chapter 114 The White-Eyed Wolf I Raised_1

Hearing Lady Zhu’s furious knocking at the door, Si Ya immediately came out and locked it, preventing Lady Fang and Pei Wendong from opening it for anyone.

Lady Zhu glared at Lady Fang, "Open the door!"

"If you have something to say, just say it," Lady Fang refused to open the door. "If it’s about why we taught it to someone else, we’ve already split from the family. The two households don’t interfere with each other, and we can naturally seek out whoever we want!"

Lady Zhu had not even begun to ask her question when she was choked by the response, growing even more furious, "Heartless and ungrateful wretches! Have you forgotten who raised you? You turn your backs on your own family and now you think you’re in the right? You’ve grown up with private savings, living in luxury, what have you given back? Laoda works himself to death earning money to support all of you, and yet you blatantly help outsiders! Ungrateful curs!"

With pursed lips, Si Ya retorted, "Grandma, don’t talk about private savings! Eldest aunt has saved more than twenty taels of silver! As for raising us, we’ve done every bit of work around the house! My mother earns several hundred wen money a year with her embroidery! Yet we’ve never bought anything to eat or worn new clothes! How are we heartless and ungrateful?"

"You insolent girl! It’s not your place to speak!" Lady Zhu shouted angrily.

With the door locked and no way for her to rush in and beat her, Si Ya glared fiercely, "As for spending money, it’s the first wife who spends it all! And yet the reputation for extravagance is pinned on us! Whenever there’s anything good to eat in the house, it’s sneakily given to the first wife’s family! On ordinary days, we can’t even have an egg!"

"You... You sharp-tongued wretch! Without us to feed you, you would’ve starved or frozen to death long ago! You wouldn’t be where you are today!" Lady Zhu kicked the door, cursing furiously.

Si Ya wasn’t going to reason with her on that. "The first wife may earn money, but she doesn’t spend any of it on us! Don’t try to blame it on us! We’ve done all the work and never reaped the benefits! You say you raised us, well, that’s your duty! We call you Grandma! We are your grandsons, granddaughters! If you have sons and daughters, you have to support them! With grandchildren, you must do the same!"

The villagers, gathering around to watch the excitement, began to come over in twos and threes.

Grandma Miao, with a smirk, said of Si Ya, "This girl’s got such a sharp tongue! I’ve already had a taste of it."

Lady Fang, seeing Lady Zhu’s uncontrollable anger and noticing Lady Chen and Pei Houli emerge, with Pei Wenbo throwing stones in the courtyard, pulled Si Ya and Pei Wendong back, "Mother! Qinqin can make the corn stripper, we’ll teach whoever we want! Not teaching the first wife to make it isn’t a crime!"

The onlookers started to buzz at the mention of the corn stripper since it was known in the village that someone was selling the device for stripping corn, no longer having to pick corn and get blisters on their hands.

"That corn stripper was actually invented by Pei Laoda’s family’s Daya?"

"I saw the young man selling the strippers this morning. He was carrying a piece of meat and two boxes of pastries! And something else wrapped in a sack! He delivered it all to their house!"

"Really? They can actually make the stripper? But Pei Laoda is a carpenter, why didn’t he teach his elder brother?"

Si Ya said sharply, "After the separation, we don’t interfere with each other. Teaching others gives us an opportunity to make money! When we split the family, we didn’t take one copper coin or a grain of food! Why should we still teach others our skills for nothing?"

Lady Zhu was so angry she wanted to curse even more, but felt she couldn’t lose face. She had always prided herself on her status—she was the grandmother of scholars and would be a dowager when her eldest grandson passed the exams, unlike those other common village women. But facing Lady Fang and Si Ya, she was exceptionally livid.

Pei Houli, sensing the situation was going awry, quickly stepped forward to explain, "I’m not trying to get your teaching for free! If we sell it as our own family product, we will still share the profits with you! I won’t deduct or cheat you like outsiders would! Although we’ve split the family, we’re still from the same Pei surname, one family! If you ever need help, we certainly can’t just ignore you! I saw Wenli a few days ago, and I made sure to remind him, when he’s successful, he must look after you!"

In a low voice, Pei Wendong mocked, "My eldest sister said he’s not the type to be successful! Even if he is, he won’t do anything good!"

Lady Fang tugged at him and said with downcast eyes, "We prefer to work with others! Their family is very good. They pay properly and they know gratitude!"

"Not teaching you is like we’ve committed a crime, cursing us as heartless and ungrateful! What good would it do to teach you anyway? Besides, it’s our thing whether to teach or not, that’s our choice!" Si Ya fumed. She still thought Sun Tiezhu gave them too little share of the money. If they taught the eldest branch, wouldn’t that mean even less for them, so little that it’d be practically nothing?

"Whether we teach someone or not isn’t a crime. If mother wants to scold, scold me all you like! Don’t scold the children!" Lady Fang glanced disapprovingly at Lady Zhu before turning around to pull Si Ya and Pei Wendong into the house.

Grandma Miao quickly tried to get Lady Fang’s attention, but nobody paid her any mind, and the door was locked. She couldn’t very well climb over the wall. She pursed her lips in displeasure, "No wonder they dared to split the family and ask for nothing in return, must be quietly making a fortune! There’s even the smell of meat in the courtyard!"

The villagers began to inquire and gossip among themselves.

Hearing the discussions on how Pei Daya’s family was earning money and secretly getting rich, eating meat for days and having wheat flour at home, Grandma Zhang’s face turned sour as she carried her laundry to the well to wash.

"Dayun’s mother! That Pei Loaer’s Daya really has some skills, even making her own money! Look at them, carrying gifts and meat to their home! Now you should stop preventing Dayun from getting married!" A woman joked while washing clothes.

"Our Dayun needs to find a clean and proper family, " Grandma Zhang said curtly, spitting disdainfully in her heart. That wretched and shameless mother of hers, the daughter she bore can’t be any good, can she? At such a young age, she’s already ensnaring our Dayun, offending aunt and grandmother, like a mad cow! Thinking of entering their household? Fat chance!

"Hehehe... Let’s just hope you don’t change your tune once you see they’ve got money and come knocking at their door!" The women teased.

Pei Qin was confident about how her family handled things. With Si Ya’s sharp tongue and the advantage on their side, she wasn’t likely to be outargued. She and San Ya took the skateboard to Wang Ting’s gate and asked the gatekeeper to send a message.

Wang Ting, eager to see the more entertaining little cart, had already informed the gatekeeper the night before. As soon as the gatekeeper heard that it was for Third Young Master Wang, he rushed to report it inside.

Wang Ting soon ran out, wearing a light yellow robe embroidered with round patterns, his small face pale and tender, eyes sparkling, "What kind of little cart? Show me quickly!"

"Find me an empty space to try it out first, then I’ll let you play with it!" Pei Qin said, then asked, "Does your family have a training ground?"

The expression on Wang Ting’s face froze for a moment, and his voice dropped, "No!"

"There must be some empty space or corridors, right? Look for the stone paved paths with railings," Pei Qin gestured for him to lead the way.

Wang Ting insisted on seeing it first.

Pei Qin gave him a preview.

"This is nothing like the other one, it’s so strange! Try it and show me!" Wang Ting said, leading them into the courtyard and pointing to an empty space.

Pei Qin placed the skateboard on the ground, stood on it with one foot and tested it out. The wheels weren’t very responsive, but it was passable. She circled around without touching the ground. At the end of a circuit, there was no need to turn around; with a jump, the skateboard followed her feet, reversing direction, and glided straight back.

Wang Ting watched, dumbstruck.

San Ya was also shocked; with this skateboard thing, her eldest sister seemed to be very adept at it.