Chapter 258: A Different Jia Zhangshi

Jia Zhangshi gave away all the money on her person.

Neither too much nor too little.

Exactly one thousand.

She, too, had learned from Bangeng's theft of the letter, worried that if she hid the money inside the house, Bangeng might harm her, and if she hid it outside, it felt even less secure.

After thinking it over, she believed that only by hiding the money on her person would it be safest.

The turtle despised the big tortoise.

The despised woman, Jia Zhangshi, who had sewn money onto her underwear, also employed the big move of hiding money in her underwear, sewing the thousand onto her underpants.

This money really came in handy.

Relying on her old age.

And she wasn't afraid of losing face.

In the process of taking out the money, Jia Zhangshi did not hide in the outhouse; she directly turned her back to the master and took out the thousand she had secretly hidden from her underwear.

Jia Zhangshi, poisoned by the master.

But she didn't just donate this thousand.

She hadn't heard the master say that the Money Substitute Method emphasizes financial depth—the more money offered, the shorter the time to resolve the calamity.

Jia Zhangshi prepared to take out all of the Jia family's savings of over two thousand, without leaving a single penny, to use for the Money Substitute Method.

And she wasn't worried about not getting this money back.

The master said that the Money Substitute Method would resolve Jia Zhangshi's calamity, and this money would be returned to its original owner in full.

Without her saying a word, the master already knew all of Jia Zhangshi's information and even revealed past secrets that even Yi Zhonghai didn't know.

Jia Zhangshi regarded the master as a living immortal.

What did the master say?

What did she believe?

Fearful that delay would ruin the Money Substitute Method's resolution of her calamity, Jia Zhangshi started running.

The Siheyuan's famous big fat woman.

She used to be a lazy glutton.

This run.

Could be considered suffering alive.

She was exhausted to the point of near death, and besides, she fell several times, making Jia Zhangshi suffer immensely.

She ran all the way, alternating between fast and slow.

She ran into the Siheyuan.

Looking at the crowd of neighbors before her.

Jia Zhangshi was somewhat taken aback.

At first she didn't want to pay attention, thinking these people were watching the Liu family's fat father beating his son for fun, she walked forward a few steps, intending to squeeze through the crowd to go back to the Jia family to get money, but discovered these people were surrounding their Jia family's gate.

Only then did Jia Zhangshi realize the neighbors weren't watching the Liu family's spectacle, but rather a good show put on by the Jia family.

Likely feeling emboldened inside, she felt revived, her anger surged, she opened her mouth and unleashed a string of foul curses at the neighbors.

"What are you looking at? What are you surrounding for? All of you, get out of my way, old woman, you don't care about face, you keep bullying our Jia family's orphans and widows—watch out, one day heaven will strike lightning and kill you beasts, not let our Jia family live well—you're not human, you can't have any good…."

Some neighbors who had originally wanted to stay neutral.

Being scolded by Jia Zhangshi's tirade, they were forced to side with the big matriarch.

About twenty-seven or twenty-eight households.

Ninety-nine percent of the residents agreed that the big matriarch should take back her money.

The only person holding an opposing view was the Jia family themselves.

Qin Huairu, who had slipped away by pretending to urinate, returned to the Siheyuan a step ahead of Jia Zhangshi, still thinking of pretending to be pitiful in front of the neighbors, gathering their strength to suppress the big matriarch as much as possible.

Many hands make great strength.

But she didn't expect that Jia Zhangshi's few words would ruin Qin Huairu's plan to rely on the neighbors' influence.

She was angered to the point of being smug.

She turned and gave Jia Zhangshi a barrage of retorts.

"Mom, what are you doing? Is it that you're satisfied now that the whole courtyard's neighbors have isolated our Jia family? Will you let Bangeng marry in the future? Will you let Xiao Dang get married?"

She acted out the whole play.

Qin Huairu, who had complained a few sentences about Jia Zhangshi.

She began performing in front of the crowd.

"Neighbors, we've lived in this big courtyard for so many years; you also know what kind of person my mother is—typical sharp-tongued but soft-hearted, with no ill intentions—so don't take her words to heart."

On the neighbors' faces, each showed a mocking smile.

Jia Zhangshi, she's soft-hearted!

Saying this, Qin Huairu wasn't afraid of biting her tongue.

Jia Zhangshi's ill fame had already spread beyond the Siheyuan; the surrounding big courtyards all knew of her reputation, aware that in the Red Star Courtyard there was a notorious figure called Jia Zhangshi, the wicked old woman.

"Qin Huairu, you are my Jia family's daughter-in-law; how can you turn your elbow outward? If they truly regarded our Jia family as neighbors, they wouldn't have forced us to move into a haunted house—they can't stand to see our Jia family prosper."

That remark really wasn't wrong.

At the very least, Shazhu supported that opinion.

If they saw the Jia family as good, the neighbors wouldn't have insisted that Yi Zhonghai gave Qin Huairu two thousand.

"If I, the old woman, were to say, everyone in the courtyard, each and every one, are all scoundrels, they bully our Jia family's widows."

Jia Zhangshi's aggressive, pressing tone.

Putting on an unreasonable show of arrogance.

It made Qin Huairu feel a hint of doubt.

These past few days.

Thanks to Qin Huairu's ploy of borrowing ferocity to intimidate, Jia Zhangshi lay awake at night, listless by day, her vitality visibly deteriorating.

She simply lacked the strength and energy to stir up trouble with the neighbors.

According to Qin Huairu's plan, after a few sharp retorts at Jia Zhangshi, the listless Jia Zhangshi couldn't be bothered with the neighbors, and the matter would be considered settled.

But Jia Zhangshi didn't play by the rules, gave Qin Huairu no face, and further angered the courtyard's neighbors.

Where did something go wrong?

Why did Jia Zhangshi's change become so drastic?

Qin Huairu fixed her gaze on Jia Zhangshi, whose clothes were completely covered in dirt, as if she had rolled in the ground, and her face bore signs of a fall.

What most caught Qin Huairu's attention was Jia Zhangshi's gaze: these past days it was like a wooden puppet's—even when Qin Huairu waved her fingers back and forth before Jia Zhangshi's eyes, Jia Zhangshi's eyeballs stayed fixed straight ahead, unmoving; now Jia Zhangshi's eyes held a hint of vitality.

Her thoughts stirred.

Could it be that Jia Zhangshi really found those people?

In that case.

She could then sit securely on the fishing terrace, waiting for certain people to take the bait.

Report.

Arrest.

After two rounds of combined punches.

Can Jia Zhangshi still be Jia Zhangshi?

The Jia family would then usher in the era of Qin Huairu's authority; she would have the final say in the Jia household, and could even turn the Jia family into the Qin family—except the current difficulty is settling matters with the eldest aunt.

What Qin Huairu wants is a Qin family with two thousand in savings, not a Qin family with no savings at all.

"Mom, the eldest aunt has returned."

Jia Zhangshi stared blankly for a moment.

Who has returned?

The eldest aunt!

Wasn't it said she went back to her hometown in the countryside?

She's come back again.

Jia Zhangshi shuffled through the crowd, and only when the eldest aunt's figure came into her view did she realize Qin Huairu hadn't lied—the eldest aunt had really returned.

Her heart swelled with pride for a moment.

She silently exclaimed.

Heaven has opened its eyes.

On one side she spent a thousand, on the other someone immediately gave her a thousand; she lost nothing and even gained a thousand.