The Green Lotus Peasant Girl

She sued her son and didn't want to find another way to recover the money. This was to force Yang Lanrou to feel sorry for her husband and then find a way to pay back the money.

Mrs. Xu was really a ruthless person.

In fact, she was more ruthless than anyone else.

Many people in the village felt that that move was too vicious. The money was stolen to save the Yang family's son and now that Xu Changjie was in jail, they must find a way to save him. If they don't repay, not to mention the decline of the Yang family's reputation, Yang Lanrou would also have to live the life of a widow. And if Mrs. Xu didn't let her back in, then what was the difference between this and being sent back to her maternal home?

The Yang family once again tried to raise money by borrowing. But no one was willing to lend them money this time. Even when he offered to pay 50 percent interest, no one agreed.

The truth was that the Yang family owed too much money. It was just like what Li Qinghe said, even if they wrote an IOU for 100 taels, what was the use of it if they can't pay it back?

On this day, it was raining and Li Qinghe had rare free time. So she took her son to Yu Yan's house. The two of them didn't have much land. Yu Yan was responsible for embroidery and Min Rui was responsible for taking care of their child. The child was one year old and when playing with someone energetic like Xiyu who liked to run around, an adult was required to supervise.

Min Rui was very patient and ran back and forth under the eaves with the two children.

Li Qinghe stitched the clothes with a needle and thread. After getting married, she rarely had time to embroider. The two were talking about the fun stories of their children when they heard someone knocking on the door.

Yu Yan ignored it, and it didn't take long for Min Rui to bring in a thin woman.

- Yang Lanrou.

Yang Lanrou's eyes were swollen and she looked haggard. When she entered the house, she was a little surprised to see Li Qinghe there.

On the other hand, Li Qinghe got up and said, "Since you have a guest, I'm going back."

Yu Yan stretched out her hand to pull her back and gave her a blank look, "Why are you going back? How is she a guest? She will soon. It's rare for you to come here and now you want to run away?"

Yang Lanrou, who was said to be leaving in a while, had already burst into tears, "Qinghe, since you're also here, you can listen as well."

Min Rui had already retreated and closed the door. Yu Yan lightly hummed and said, "Min Rui lets anyone inside the house."

Yang Lanrou's face turned pale. She had been running around a lot these days to ask people for help, and still, Yu Yan was the first one to be outright disgusted by her and displayed it clearly to her face. Even if the others didn't lend her money, they at least said some comforting words. Many couples even quarreled because of her.

"If you have something to say, say it and leave when you're done." Yu Yan urged. Watching tears fall more fiercely, Yu Yan was annoyed, "What are you doing coming here to cry? Don't you know that you can't go to villagers' homes to cry?"

Yang Lanrou, who was accused, wiped her tears and said, "Yu Yan, I know you hate me because I married Changjie…"

Yu Yan raised her hand, "I hate you, not because of who you married. It's because you have an unpleasant nature as if the men under the sky should be accommodating to you. Why?"

"Do you think it is easy to find a man who is not charmed by you?" Yu Yan glanced at her, "You came here to deliver buns and water every three days. Do you dare to say that you didn't come here to seduce him?"

Not only did she not admit that she didn't like her because of Xu Changjie, but she blamed Yang Lanrou for what she had done.

Yang Lanrou was stunned and her eyes were brimming with tears. She looked extremely pitiful. But in front of her were two women who didn't like her, so naturally, they didn't feel anything for her.

But she quickly reacted, "Yu Yan, Changjie was arrested by the magistrate, did you know?"

"Yes." Yu Yan nodded, "You are still great. You spend a lot of money to keep up your beautiful appearance and he cares so much about you that he even emptied his family's savings and gave them to you. I wonder if he ever thought how much effort it took for his mother to save for so long before taking the money. His younger siblings depended on that money to get married and his parents for their retirement…"

"I didn't want the money either." Yang Lanrou's tears fell again.

Li Qinghe couldn't bear to hear her anymore, especially when she was crying and acting pitifully. She seemed very hypocritical. She couldn't help but say, "You didn't want the silver, but didn't you still take it anyway? Didn't you use it to save your brother?" She sounded normal, but Yu Yan felt that something was wrong and looked at her suspiciously.

"The magistrate said that if he didn't return the money in the next few days he will be sent to county jail." Yang Kanrou raised her eyes and looked at Yu Yan, "I know you like him too and you also have some silver. Can you lend it to me? I will repay it to you later."

"No." Yu Yan refused, "I can't lend you money. Also, the person I like is my husband."

Yang Lanrou didn't expect her to be so straightforward and say these words without any hesitation at all. Yang Lanrou froze again, her eyes then turned to Li Qinghe who had already picked up her needle and thread at the side and started stitching, "Qinghe ......"

Li Qinghe looked up, "Don't say anything which will make me angry. If I get angry, I'm going to hit someone."

"I'll repeat it for you again. I didn't save him because I like him but to thank him." Li Qinghe emphasized clearly as she glanced up and down at haggard-looking Yang Lanrou, "If I had liked him, I would have married him."

Yang Lanrou's face turned as pale as a paper. She choked up and asked, "Can't you help me?"

"Why should we help you" Yu Yan was not polite, "I heard that you have caused many couples in the village to fight in the past two days. Do you also want us two couples to lose their harmony? Think about it, if I save him with silver, will my man let me go easily?"

Yang Lanrou was anxious, "You can't just stand by and watch him go to jail. At least once ......"

Li Qinghe propped up her chin and looked at her. After a few seconds, she said, "Do you think that everyone in this village should like you two as a couple? It is not normal to have people who dislike you."

Yang Lanrou was dumbfounded.

Yu Yan was startled, "It's true."

Then she urged her, "Hurry up and go!"

Today, she seemed to be particularly impatient. Yu Yan had always had a gentle temperament, and she was smooth at handling things. She usually didn't get offended by other people's words and had never embarrassed anyone like this.

Yang Lanrou said a few more sentences but the two ignored her completely. Her eyes turned red with anger. She said, "You are stone-hearted." and turned around to leave.

She wanted to run out but the door was closed. She raised her hand to open the door, and with a quick movement, she opened it and rushed out.

A figure carrying a child was standing near the door and hurried to avoid her. It was Min Rui.

Yang Lanrou never thought that there would be an eavesdropper at the door. After being stunned for a while, she saw that Min Rui was only looking nervously at Yu Yan, without even glancing at her. She furiously opened the courtyard gate and left.

Min Rui put the child down and ran to close the door. Then he ran back to the room but didn't dare to come inside. He only put his head inside and explained, "Yan'er, I didn't mean to eavesdrop. It was the child who was looking for his mother."

Then, he looked at his son who had cooperated extremely well by reaching out both of his hands and saying, "Mother, hug."

Yu Yan folded her arms and looked at the father and son. She hummed lightly, "Do you think I should have lent her the silver or not?"

Min Rui seriously said, "If you want to lend it, I will never say a word more."

Yu Yan smiled, "Okay then, go and bring the Yang girl back..."

"She has already left, so what's the point of asking for her to come back? Besides, you once said you wouldn't let me talk to her, so I'm not going!"

Yu Yan couldn't help but burst out laughing. She snorted and glanced at him, "Vinegar jar!"

Min Rui was a little uncomfortable, and coughed lightly, "There's still a guest here."

Guest Li Qinghe: "..." You can completely pretend that I don't exist, really!

Li Qinghe, who was at the sidelines from beginning to end, ate a bowl of dog food. She couldn't sit there anymore and took Xiyu home.

In the evening she heard a quarrel in the Yang family house. She listened carefully and it seemed that Yang Lanrou was accusing her father of being ruthless and righteous for refusing to sell the house to pay the money.

The land on which the Yang family house was built was worth some money. If they really sold the house, then there would be nothing left for them.

Xu Changjie was locked up in the town jail for ten days. Yang's family collected 10 taels of silver and paid for it. For the rest, after negotiating a lot, they wrote an IOU of 15 taels to Mrs. Xu before they brought back Xu Changjie.

However, Mrs. Xu didn't let the husband and wife enter the house. Xu Changjie had to give her a silver coin every month for her retirement, no matter where he lived.

They had to pay rent if they wanted to live in the town, which was not possible as they owed a lot of debt. So finally they went to live in the Yang family house. If a married daughter brought her husband to live at her parent's house, it would be the talk of the town and would be criticized by everyone. But all of this happened because of the Yang family, so Mr. Yang couldn't refuse them. If he drove his son-in-law and daughter out at this time, he would have a reputation for being ruthless and unjust.

The weather was gradually getting hot, and the herbs that were planted were not dead. Judging from their growth, there should definitely be some harvest.

After Li Qinghe bought the mountain near the village, it was inconvenient for the villagers to cut the firewood. The villagers used to go up the mountain and chop however much they wanted. But now if they took the route from Li Qinghe's area, then they would have to walk half an hour more before they could cut trees.

Therefore, almost no people were going in the direction of Li Qinghe forest.

She didn't hire anyone to guard the forest. Occasionally, Mrs. Chen and her husband would guard it. There was no harvest inside the forest and even if a thief went inside, he could only chop some trees. Later, she would need someone to patrol the mountain area.

One morning in mid-May, Li Qinghe and Zhou Chengkang were still sleeping, when they heard someone hurriedly knock on their door. Mrs. Zhou was a light sleeper and when she heard the knock she went to open the door. The couple didn't move and they heard the sound of the door opening. A few seconds later they heard Mrs. Zhou's anxious voice, "Fourth child, Qinghe, come out quickly!"

The two got up and hurriedly put on their clothes. When they went outside, they saw an injured eldest brother Zhou standing at the door. There were wounds all over his face, and if they hadn't known him well, they wouldn't have recognized him at all.

Zhou Chengkang walked towards him and asked, "Big brother, what happened?"

"Last night, we were attacked by a thief." He seemed to have pulled the wound at the corner of his mouth when he spoke. As he opened his mouth to speak, he looked even more hideous.

"What happened?" Mrs. Zhou frowned, "Did they just steal and beat you? Did they hurt Xili?"

Then she looked at the carriage behind him and asked, "And Mei Hua, why isn't she here?"

"Let's go inside first." Zhou Chengkang frowned, "Qinghe, find some medicine to treat wounds."

When Li Qinghe returned with the medicine, she heard eldest brother Zhou recounting the incident. The thief had entered the courtyard to steal things. When he opened his eyes he saw a figure moving in front of the bed and he subconsciously shouted.

As a result, he was not alone. Three or four people came in and tied him up and asked him to hand over the money. When he refused to give them money they beat him. They not only beat him, but they also threatened to beat Xili. In the end, it was almost dawn when they took all the silver and Mei Hua's jewelry and left.