Chapter 5: Keep dreaming

"Yes, if I had known your whole family were beasts, I wouldn't have entered your door even if I died. Isn't your Tian family just coveting that I was cheap, that my family didn't treat me as a person, and your family was short of silver to support a child studying? Don't be ungrateful. You only used a hundred jin of wheat in the shell to marry me, and I worked like an ox and a horse for your family. It was truly a great deal. I drank soup while you ate rice and flour.

Qiao Mai replied unhurriedly, not afraid of Tian Li Shi at all, like a different person from just now.

Today, whoever dared to force her to death, she would fight them to the death. At worst, she would die again. She had never been afraid of the word death!

"You bitch, you aren't even worth the money for a bag of wheat!"

"Yes, I'm not worth it, but I know that for a laborer like me, working in a big household for a day would cost at least ten wen, and a month could earn two or three hundred wen.

How much money was that hundred jin of wheat in the shell of yours? I'll count it as ten months in your family, at least two taels of silver in wages. You ate rice and flour, I drank soup.

Just for this point, I don't owe your family anything, let alone you beating and scolding me. Your family didn't lose money but made a profit. In the future, it's better to mention less about bride price and such. It's truly laughable."

"You, you!"

Tian Li Shi saw Qiao Mai being so sharp-tongued for the first time. Unable to take it, she lowered her head to find a tool to beat Qiao Mai.

The village head roared. It wasn't that he wanted to protect Qiao Mai, but he was truly too angry.

He, the village head, was presiding over justice here. She wasn't a member of the Tian family anymore, yet she dared to treat the victim like this, not putting him in her eyes at all.

"Tian Li Shi, stop, all of you stop! You must remember, she is not the servant girl you bought. If you dare to move your hand again, believe it or not, I'll let you sit in the county jail? It's truly rebellious. In the future, whoever dares to torment their daughter-in-law like this, think carefully about how your daughter-in-law will treat you when you are old and can't move! Humph!"

The watching villagers heard this, and their hearts couldn't help but tighten. Yes, you torment your daughter-in-law for a moment of pleasure now, but when you are old and can't move one day, you will suffer.

If the daughter-in-law is tormented to death, the reputation is gone, the children don't have a mother, and you have to spend silver to marry another one for your son.

But if the daughter-in-law outlives the father-in-law and mother-in-law, and you treat her like this, you still want her to serve you? Keep dreaming!

Maybe at some point, a dose of rat poison will poison you to death. To the outside world, they'll just say you didn't make it because you were old. Since it's normal for old people to die, who would suspect? And no one would report it to the officials, just bury you and be done with it.

Everyone looked at Tian Li Shi with schadenfreude. She didn't just torment the youngest daughter-in-law; she also tormented the eldest and second daughters-in-law, just not as fiercely.

The tempers of these two daughters-in-law weren't good. Maybe there would truly be such a day.

Thinking of their own families, they should also restrain themselves when they go back, lest they be poisoned when they are old. The village head's unintentional words made life easier for the daughters-in-law in the village.

Qiao Mai didn't care what the villagers said. Anyway, if the Tian family dared to say a word to her, she would retort ten times.

The Tian family looked at her with such malice, but so what? Today she must leave the Tian family.

She couldn't stay in the village anymore. The human nature in this village was too poor, not even willing to spare a bite of dry food. She didn't want to deal with them, and she had no excuse to turn things around here with such a body.

The only thing she could do was go out. So, she glanced at the people in the village. She still had to perform a play later.

If you don't help me today, don't expect me to help you in the future.

Just as she was fighting with the Tian family with her gaze, the village head's second child wrote the divorce letters.

He read the divorce letters in front of all the villagers.

The content didn't offend anyone, and even wrote the Tian family as good people: Sanzhuang was serving in the military, life or death unknown, couldn't bear to let the third daughter-in-law spend her youth alone, so he specially wrote the divorce letter on behalf of the third son. The signature was Tian Laoshi.

Seeing that both sides had no objections, Tian Laoshi and Tian Li Shi pressed their handprints on it, and Qiao Mai also pressed her handprint on it.

After getting the divorce letter, she looked at it. Although she didn't recognize the ancient traditional characters, she could guess the gist. Seeing no problems, she folded it solemnly and held it tightly in her hand.

Old Tian Head was about to take his family away when Qiao Mai shouted.

"Wait a moment before leaving!"

The village head frowned. What was it this time? Qiao Shi's affairs were truly many. He became a bit impatient.

"What is it now?"

Qiao Mai stood up from the ground. "Trouble the Village Head to ask a few aunts to search my body."

"What are you making a scene about again?"

"I'm afraid that after I leave, if I get rich, this Tian family will be shameless and say I stole their things."

"You child have too many thoughts."

"No choice, I'll have to live alone in the future, better to have one less thing than one more. Don't you think so, Village Head?"

"Fine, Old Tian family, you wait a moment, search her body before leaving!"

So the village head asked his wife and a few women in the village to come forward and search Qiao Mai's body.

Except for the divorce letter in her hand, there wasn't a single wen of money on her, nor any other objects. Even her hair was pinned up with a tree branch.

Qiao Mai looked coldly at the Tian family. "With so many people testifying, I, Qiao Mai, didn't take a single cent from the Tian family. These clothes were what I wore from my maiden home."

"Humph, you'd better die outside."

"Rest assured, I, Qiao Mai, am diligent, and I will only live better and better."

After saying this, Qiao Mai swept a glance at the villagers.

"Which kind person can help me, Qiao Mai? If one day I, Qiao Mai, become rich, I will return it tenfold. One wen or two wen is not too little. I, Qiao Mai, will be grateful to you for a lifetime."

Hearing this, the Tian family curled their lips and left. The watching villagers also scattered one after another. Qiao Mai looked at the village head.

"After a while, when I nourish my body, can I take the divorce letter to find you to handle the household register?"

"Find the village head or leader where you live to handle it. You aren't capable, don't listen to advice, insist on separating, use whatever ability you have yourself. Remember what you said, don't let Taohua Village be implicated because of the Tian family's affairs."

"Village Head, you are truly naive. I don't talk? If I don't talk, this matter won't spread? Which of those long-tongued women in the village doesn't have relatives and friends? Better to manage their mouths first."

"When did you become like this?"

"Why, should I, Qiao Mai, get up early and work late every day, suffer bullying without saying a word? And deserve to be bullied to death by the Tian family?"

"Fine, fine, you go, don't return to the village in the future."

"Who cares to return!"

Qiao Mai turned and walked toward the village entrance. The village head looked at her back, lost in thought. Just now he seemed to have said the wrong thing. He had supported Qiao Shi, so what was missing for the household register?

If she had prospects in the future, wouldn't she be able to remember his kindness?

Now it's good, just said a few angry words, and offended people to death.

Fortunately, he was the village head. When Qiao Shi handled the household register, it had to go through him to be moved. By then, he would ease the relationship.

Qiao Mai threw the divorce letter directly into the space for safekeeping. She walked alone on the village road, thinking about how she could gain a foothold in town.

There was a small town north of the official road, close to the original host's maiden home. She couldn't go there. There was also a small town south, close to Taohua Village, but the town in the south was more prosperous than the one in the north.

After thinking it over, she decided to go to Tianshui Town in the south.

Just the dirt road in the village was two li long. Walking south on the official road, it had to be at least ten li.

Although her body was full, she was postpartum and weak, especially at the tailbone, which ached when she walked, so she could only walk for a while and rest for a while.

The space had everything, and also things that could be used to exchange for money, but she couldn't take any of them out.

Having been an elite agent for so many years, she was quite meticulous and wouldn't give anyone a chance to frame her, and tried her best to avoid trouble.

(End of chapter) ===== CHAPTER 6 =====