Village Guardian's Wrath

Lily Evans glanced at Mrs. Thompson, not intending to respond at all. She simply walked around her and kept going.

But unexpectedly, Mrs. Thompson grabbed Lily's sleeve from behind. Lucky, seeing Mrs. Thompson lay a hand on his wife, shouted coldly, "Don't touch my wife!"

Mrs. Thompson was startled by Lucky's outburst and quickly let go, stiffening her neck and yelling, "Why are you so fierce? Are you trying to hit me? Is your wife so precious that I can't even pull her sleeve?"

Lucky glared at her. "My wife is precious! If you grab her again, I'll break your hand with a stick!"

Lily tugged at Lucky and said, "Forget it. There's no point talking to people like her. Let's go home and eat."

Just as Lily and Lucky turned to leave, they heard Mrs. Thompson wailing behind them, "The Evans family is a bunch of troublemakers! Because of you, my house is about to collapse. Winter is coming and we won't have a roof over our heads—are you trying to kill my whole family? Lily Evans, you black-hearted woman, you want to harm your fellow villagers!"

Lily stopped and turned to look at Mrs. Thompson, who was crying and making a scene. She couldn't help but laugh, "Your house collapsed because it wasn't sturdy. What does that have to do with me? I didn't build your house for you, so how can you blame me for it falling down?"

"How is it not your fault? Don't try to deny it!" Mrs. Thompson rolled her eyes and shouted, "I went to the temple and asked the oracle for a divination. The oracle said the Evans family built a house on farmland, angering the Earth God! The Earth God got furious and made my house collapse! If you hadn't built that mudbrick house on the field, my house would never have fallen!"

Mrs. Thompson's commotion had already drawn a crowd of villagers. She stood with her hands on her hips, pointing at Lily. "How can you be so selfish? All you care about is making money for your own family, building houses all over the fields and angering the gods. Now my family is the one suffering the consequences. If it's not your fault, then whose is it?"

Lily was exasperated by Mrs. Thompson's nonsense. "What are you talking about? How does my house in the field affect you? Your house fell apart because you cut corners and built it poorly. Why blame me? You're just trying to scam me for money!"

"How am I trying to scam you? Lily, how could you think so badly of me! I just want justice! We're all farmers, scraping by generation after generation. Who's ever seen someone build a house on farmland and plant things inside? Lily, what you're doing has angered the Village Guardian. I don't care, you made my house collapse, and you owe me an explanation!" Mrs. Thompson crossed her arms, refusing to back down.

Now even the villagers couldn't stand it anymore and spoke up for Lily. "Mrs. Thompson, everyone knows how you built your house. After the flood washed everyone's homes away, you tried to save money when rebuilding and didn't even lay a foundation, just slapped together a mudbrick house. My husband even warned you to at least lay a foundation or the house wouldn't last, but your man cursed him for jinxing you. It's your own fault for building poorly, so how can you blame Lily?"

"Exactly! There are so many houses in the village, but only yours collapsed. If the Earth God was really angry, why would he only knock down your house?"

Mrs. Thompson let out a cold snort, hands on her hips and full of stubbornness: "I don't care! My house is collapsing, and now I have no money to rebuild. My whole family will freeze to death this winter without a roof! Lily Evans, your family got rich, you can't just eat alone and forget your neighbors. If you don't give me money to rebuild, I'll bring my husband and kids to move into your house!"