Family Support from Her Mother's Side

Sun Shi and Su Shirong stood at the doorway, craning their necks to look at the 'silkworm pupa' hanging there. In the faint morning light, they saw it was their quilt, inside which was wrapped a person. Half of the person's head was buried in the quilt, and the exposed skin was bruised purple and blue.

"Oh, what is this?" Sun Shi scratched her head in confusion.

"Sister-in-law and Shirong are back!" Zhang Shi saw them standing at the door and warmly greeted them, "Oh, last night there was a thief in the house! We caught the thief and gave him a beating, then hung him at the door as a warning! We'll send him to your village chief later to deal with."

"A thief?" Sun Shi looked puzzled, not recalling the accusation that the Su family were thieves. She thought to herself, the Haizi village has been peaceful for many years, no thieves have come in, right?

"Yes, that's the thief, and two accomplices, but they escaped because it was too dark at night," Zhang Shi quickly ushered them inside. "This thief is cunning, even tricked us by saying he was your husband's eldest brother, Su Daqi. Oh, thieves nowadays are too sly, not only stealing but also full of lies!"

Sun Shi and Su Shirong knew the inside story and exchanged a glance, thinking to themselves, could it be that the Su family was sneaking in again last night to steal?

"Ah, this... let’s put the person down first..." Sun Shi hurriedly asked Su Shirong to release the person.

They pulled back the quilt and saw it was indeed Su Daqi, his face bruised and swollen!

Su Daqi glared at Sun Shi and Su Shirong, and as soon as the rag was pulled from his mouth, he shouted hoarsely, "Third sister-in-law, Shirong boy, are you revolting? How dare you beat your eldest uncle! Let me go, this is wicked!"

Zhang Shi and the Sun brothers were dumbfounded, "Is this really Su Daqi?"

Sun Shi was speechless, telling Su Shirong to untie him while asking, "Eldest uncle, why did you come to our house in the middle of the night?"

Su Daqi rolled his eyes. Of course, he wouldn’t foolishly say he came to steal Su Lanxiang, but shivering from the cold, he crawled inside and huddled near the fire basin, frowning, "Who told you to take all the stuff from home? There's no coal to burn, the quilt is thin, I can't live like this, so I came to 'borrow' some from your house. Who knew your family brothers and sisters-in-law were so unreasonable, hitting anyone they see? Look at what they did to me! They even poured cold water on me, freezing me half the night! This won't do, you have to compensate me for my losses!"

Because of the earlier incident where the Su family moved their belongings out, Su Daqi’s excuse was actually believed by Sun Shi and Su Shirong.

After all, they had lived together for more than ten years. Sun Shi and Su Shirong couldn’t imagine that the Su family’s real goal now was to sell Su Lanxiang.

"Sister-in-law, why did your husband’s family sneak in through the wall at night to ‘borrow’ things? What’s going on?" Zhang Shi sensed something was off.

Now that things were out in the open, Sun Shi had no choice but to explain the earlier incident of the Su family moving their belongings. Her brothers and sister-in-law from her natal family listened, clenching their teeth in anger.

"You shameless Su family! You only know how to bully honest people! You didn’t manage to steal anything and got beaten, and you still have the nerve to ask for compensation? I won’t give you a cent!" Zhang Shi put her hands on her hips, pointing at Su Daqi’s nose and scolding, "Last night’s beating was well deserved. Is there such a shameless eldest uncle like you?!"

Sun Shi’s three brothers and their eldest sister-in-law all jumped out to support her. Seeing their anger growing stronger, Su Daqi realized they were about to hang him up and beat him again. He dared not mention compensation anymore, covered his head, and ran off like a flash.

"Pah! If you dare come steal again, I’ll beat you until you shit yourself!" Zhang Shi chased after him, throwing a piece of firewood at Su Daqi.

The firewood hit Su Daqi’s back of the head with perfect aim. Su Daqi howled in pain and ran even faster.