The people sitting on the donkey cart were precisely Granny Niu and her family from the Wei Clan Village.
They originally had a large family of around a dozen people, but many of them had died in these past years. Only seven of them, including Granny Niu, had survived until the present.
The donkey had also wasted away and simply wasn’t fit to pull along seven people long-distance. Hence, it had been simultaneously flayed and beaten while floundering on the way here.
When mentioning the Qiao Family, Granny Niu had a bellyful of anger that she couldn’t release. At that time in Xijiu City, Granny Niu and her family alleged that Qiao Wenjuan had caused their Third Junior Wei’s death, and they would frequently find the Qiao Family to demand compensation.
In the beginning, the Qiao Family would still give them some grains and cloth.
However, once it dragged on, even the Qiao Family’s most good-natured Qiao Zhongbang became annoyed, and he instructed the city lord to strictly guard against their family and immediately drive them far away once they appeared.
As a result, they were simply unable to approach the Qiao Family in Pear Blossom Alley later on. As they were beset by cold and hunger every day, quite a few of their family members had starved to death.
“The people from your Old Qiao’s family’s eldest branch are simply not human!” Granny Niu ranted, “I’m telling you, Xu Jiao, you need to find Elderly Lady for this matter. As long as Elderly Lady agrees, we might even be able to move in.”
“It’s no use to find the eldest branch! Those two’s hearts are as hard as iron! Back then when my family’s young grandson was about to die from illness, they weren’t even willing to dole out a mouthful of hot soup.”
“That’s right, that’s right.” Granny Niu’s eldest daughter-in-law, Madam née Bo, tugged Xu Jiao’s hand and persuaded earnestly, “Look at how our family’s fourth branch of three have all starved to death. This goes to show how harsh and merciless your Old Qiao’s family’s eldest branch are.”
“They didn’t tell us at all when they moved out from Xijiu City back then.”
“Bah, how would they tell us. They were especially avoiding us when they directly moved out from Xijiu City!” Granny Niu spat out. She turned her head aside and said reprovingly, “I’m telling you, Xu Jiao, your Old Qiao’s family’s eldest branch are living well! They must have secured better prospects, that’s why they moved to the Mo Kingdom capital. Otherwise, how would they have been able to move here? Isn’t this the logic?”
“Aunt’s words are very reasonable.” Xu Jiao stated with a darkened face.
“Sister-in-Law, look at how starved your family’s Xiao Long is. They’re both the grandsons of Old Qiao’s family. What’s with the differential treatment, isn’t that right?” Madam née Bo continued to instigate while blinking at the second branch’s Madam née Sun.
Madam née Sun hastily put in her two cents too, but she had always been clumsy in speech and couldn’t say much.
Seeing this, Madam née Bo glared irritably at her own sister-in-law and then pulled Xu Jiao’s hand while advising patiently, “Sister-in-Law, I’m only saying this because I treat you as one of us. Our family was bullied tragically by your eldest branch! Not only did our fourth branch’s family of three all starve to death, our second branch too, go ask my sister-in-law, her two daughters also starved to death too.”
When her two daughters that had starved to death were mentioned, Madam née Sun hastily wiped her tears.
Back then, since the family didn’t have enough food, it was definitely first reserved for the Wei Family’s eldest branch’s three sons. She had given birth to three daughters, so they weren’t allocated much food. In the end, two of her daughters had starved to death.
Granny Niu waved her hand and concluded, “In short, we have to first contact your mother-in-law before saying anything else.”
“The Mo Kingdom capital is so big, who knows where to find them.” Xu Jiao was so infuriated that her stomach hurt. Once she thought about how their family of three was suffering while the eldest branch’s family was eating and drinking well all these years, she felt indignant from the unfairness of it all.
“Humph, I don’t believe that we won’t be able to find your Old Qiao’s family with so many of us.”
——
