The Eldest Daughter of a Rural Family
Chapter 81: The Hidden Silver (1)_1

Chapter 81: Chapter 81: The Hidden Silver (1)_1

Si Ya saw that Lady Zhu and Lady Chen indeed had come, and she was boiling with rage inside. Now, the secret of their stashed savings had been discovered by Grandmother and Madam Fang! Without handing over the silver, any chance for peace was out of the question.

Lady Zhu’s face was gloomy, the corners of her mouth drooping down; she looked at Pei Qin and Lady Fang with malevolence.

Lady Chen also looked at them obliquely through narrowed eyes, but she didn’t speak first, leaving everything to her mother-in-law, Lady Zhu.

"No wonder you’ve been making a fuss about dividing the household. It turns out you had your own hidden stash of silver coins!" Lady Zhu had thought it was at most a few copper coins, with maybe a little supplement from Lady Fang’s family home. She hadn’t anticipated that the spent money was actually from a secretly stashed fund, not at all a relief from her parents’ home.

San Ya’s small face was scrunched up with worry, and her eyes began to redden.

Lady Fang herself didn’t know what to say, standing there with a bundle of firewood on her back.

Pei Qin, who hadn’t noticed Lady Zhu and Lady Chen, brought the firewood into the courtyard and laid it out under the wall to dry; she then came over to take the drier bundle from Lady Fang and carried it into the kitchen.

"Mother, sister-in-law," Lady Fang called out in greeting.

Lady Zhu snorted, "Mother? If you really saw me as your mother, would you have caused all this trouble!? And if you really saw your sister-in-law as such, would you have let that damn wench hit someone!? You even dared to secretly stash away the household’s silver coins!"

Pei Qin saw her pointing at them and walked over, "What’s the matter, you only remember that I hit someone, but not why I hit them? Shall I help you recall!?"

"You hit me for no reason at all, and you hit Er Lang. And now you want to hit again!?" Lady Chen said, her hostility belying an inner fragility.

"It seems you have forgotten that you privately hoarded silver taels and schemed to sell someone else’s daughter, so I thought I’d help jog your memory!" Pei Qin turned around, kicked up a stick, broke it with a snap, cursed under her breath, and then picked up a bigger one.

"You want to hit someone again, don’t you!? You beat your elders, which is an act of great unfilial behavior, and now you even dare to hit me, your grandmother!?" Lady Zhu angrily pointed at Pei Qin, raising her voice in hopes of drawing the villagers’ attention.

Hearing the noise, villagers gathered around to see what the fuss was about.

Seeing the crowd, Pei Qin held the stick and gave Lady Chen a sweeping glance, with an air of someone who had nothing to lose.

Fearing a loss of reputation in front of the villagers for her and her son, Lady Chen spoke first in defense, "You kicked up such a fuss about dividing the household to the point of death because you had hidden away the family’s silver! Now that Mother knows, Lady Fang, you still won’t admit it? You dare to deny it?!"

"Even if my mother did have her own hidden silver, so what!? She neither stole nor robbed anyone!" Pei Qin had been waiting for her to say this.

"Without a division of the property, you’re not allowed to have your own hidden stash of silver coins! You secretly hoarded the silver coins, and once the division occurred, it became yours! That silver should have been part of the common family fund, held by your grandparents!" Lady Chen did not mention the beating but instead focused on the hidden silver.

Pei Qin laughed, "Can’t my mother have a little something for her dowry?!"

"Your mother basically has no..." Lady Chen shouted fiercely but abruptly stopped herself.

"You want to say that my mother basically has no dowry, right!? My mother was also a scholar’s daughter. Even if not wealthy, she had some dowry when she got married. I would like to inquire where that dowry is now?" Pei Qin said, looking toward Lady Zhu.

Lady Zhu, with a dark cloud of rage on her face, pointed at Lady Fang, "She squandered her own dowry. Do you expect me to replace it?!"

Pei Qin cooed, "Why should I ask you for it!? Could it be that you know where my mother’s dowry went?!"

It wasn’t uncommon for mothers-in-law to pocket their daughters-in-law’s dowries, but it was always done in secret, something not to be exposed to the light.

As Pei Qin spoke in this manner, the onlooking villagers cast various glances back and forth between Lady Zhu, Lady Chen, and Lady Fang.