Wait a moment! As expected of his wife, she understood Sang Pingliang the best and finally came back to her senses. “Mister, just what happened?”
“Hmph! It’s all your fault!” Sang Pingliang grunted coldly and dragged her into the room before shutting the door behind them. With a gloomy expression, he said coldly, “Wasn’t it just a kilogram of flour? Couldn’t you’ve just lent it to Yufei since he asked for it? He is the son of my elder brother, my nephew, and you refused to lend a kilogram of flour to him! Is there anyone as stingy as you?! If you had just refused and closed the door then, it would’ve been fine, but no, you just had to rebuke him! He’s my nephew and also yours, is this any way to act as an elder?! You useless wife! Your conscience must have been eaten by a dog!”
“Mister!” Li Shi raised her hand to touch his forehead, “Have you been possessed? Why are you saying something so strange? Why should we lend our things to them? Sure, they’ll be borrowing, but can they return what they borrowed? Furthermore, that is all in the past now! We have nothing to do with them anymore! Forget about him, he can keep on dreaming about being our nephew!”
Li Shi pouted. Don’t just nag at me, you were the most enthusiastic when scolding them yesterday!
“Silence!” Li Shi’s words stabbed right into Sang Pingliang’s sore spot, causing him to roar angrily, “What do you mean nothing to do with them anymore! Who said that! Sure we’ve had some conflicts but can the blood relation between us be something that will disappear with just some words? I’m telling you, and you’d better listen closely, I, Sang Pingliang will always be his uncle, even if he doesn’t want to recognize me, there’s nothing he can do about it!
“You’ve changed so much just from a simple trip to town! It seems like I might have to ask Priestess Huang to make a trip here!” Li Shi widened her eyes in disbelief as she looked at Sang Pingliang.
“I’m fine! I’m fine! Calm down, I’m fine, I’m completely fine!” Sang Pingliang finally calmed down and sighed reluctantly, “Thank goodness I took a trip to town today. Otherwise, we’d be in for a huge loss!”
Thereafter, he told Li Shi everything about what he had seen and heard in town.
“What!” Li Shi cried out involuntarily, “He came in first and received the title of Top Escorted Examinee?!”
“Lower your voice!” Sang Pingliang glared at her hatefully and lowered his own, “For now, no one in the village knows about this yet! Listen to me, go to their house immediately and right yesterday’s wrongs.”
“That brat, Sang Yufei, managed to be the top escorted examinee? Mister, are you sure you haven’t gotten it wrong?” Li Shi’s heart felt extremely uncomfortable. Just how did he manage to get the title? Was he just that lucky?
“How could I be wrong?” Sang Pingliang continued, “I, Sang Pingliang of Sihe Village, heard it clearly in Yangliu Town and asked many bystanders. How could I be wrong!”
“Maybe… maybe the announcer announced it wrongly!” Li Shi was starting to feel sour.
“Can’t you say something more positive!” Sang Pingliang poked her forehead with a finger, “Our Sang family is finally going to prosper, so why are you so unhappy about it?”
“Mister, we just broke off ties with them yesterday, so what does them prospering have to do with us!” Li Shi pouted.
“You still dare to say that!” Sang Pingliang shouted angrily, “Yesterday’s problem was all your fault! I don’t care how you do it but change things back! What, don’t you want to be the aunt of a top escorted examinee?”
Li Shi’s eyes lit up and she unconsciously smiled, saying happily, “Oh yes, oh yes! How could I have forgotten! We are their elders after all! Keke, Mister, we just hit a jackpot!”
“En! Keke, that kid, Yufei, has always been smart from young. Just like I’ve said, he would definitely do well!” Sang Pingliang liked what he heard and said with a smile while stroking his short beard.
“I’ll go right away!” Li Shi was on cloud nine and was about to leave the house.
“Stop right there!” Sang Pingliang glanced at her and frowned, “Change your clothes and comb your hair before you go. Also, never utter a word about the good news, not a word of it, understand me?”
“Yes, yes!” Li Shi replied while opening the wardrobe to pick a set of clothes, “If they knew about it and not let bygones be bygones, that would be really terrible for us! I have at least this much sense!”
“Hmph, at least you aren’t completely senseless!” Sang Pingliang laid down on the bed, with his hands crossed behind his head and his legs crossed, as he began to dream of making fortunes.
Li Shi changed into a new set of clothing and combed her hair before leaving for Sang Hong’s house. She knocked on the courtyard gate while cheerfully calling out, “Xiao Fei, Ah Hong, are you home?”
Shortly after, Fang Shi walked out. Holding the door with one hand to block Li Shi, she said in a polite and detached tone, “Oh, isn’t this Auntie Sang? Is there something you need?”
“What Auntie Sang ah,” Li Shi smiled, “Have you forgotten that I’m your Second Aunt! I’m here to find Xiao Fei and Ah Hong; are they at home?”
“If there’s anything, you can just tell me!” Fang Shi blocked her and did not let her pass.
“What are you doing not letting me in!” Li Shi raged.
Fang Shi smiled, “Auntie Sang, this is my home, not yours. I don’t wish to entertain a great deity such as yourself, so I can’t let you in! Furthermore, Ah Hong and Yufei aren’t home!”
“Not at home?” Li Shi paused before recalling that Sang Hong must be teaching in the village school. However, Sang Hong was not the important character, thus she asked, “Then where did Xiao Fei go?”
“He went to work in the fields!” Fang Shi said briefly.
“Aiyo, you guys ah! How could you let him work in the fields!” Li Shi’s heart ached and her knees turned weak.
Fang Shi laughed, “Auntie Sang, I don’t think anything that happens in my house has got anything to do with you, right?”
“You–” Li Shi stared at Fang Shi and was at a loss of words. Fang Shi had never been afraid of her and was even less afraid now. Knowing there was nothing she could do in front of Fang Shi, she grunted and said proudly, “Since they aren’t home, then I shall head home first! Tell them to come to my house later!”
“That won’t be good!” Fang Shi smiled, “Yesterday, didn’t Auntie Sang and Mister Sang say to never ever step into your house? We aren’t thick-skinned enough to do something so shameless!” She looked at Li Shi mockingly.
Coincidentally, two women, slightly older than Li Shi, were passing by. Seeing her outside Sang Hong’s house with a face full of rage, they thought she had come to pick a fight again and quickly approached her. “Old Sister, what are you doing here? Haven’t you broken ties with them? Why can’t you be more generous and spare them!”
“I agree, you should just treat them as if they do not exist! Why the need for this!”
The two of them spoke, and waved towards Fang Shi before forcefully dragging Li Shi away with them.
Li Shi was so furious that she glared at them angrily before explaining to them hurriedly, “What, what happened yesterday doesn’t count, it doesn’t count at all! We haven’t broken off our ties!”
Oh? She has the cheek to say that!
The two women looked at each other and inwardly scorned her with the same thought floating in their mind: Li Shi must have realized that breaking off ties means that she could no longer take advantage of them and was regretting it now! This person ah, how can she be this shameless! For the two Sang brothers to have this pair of elders, it must’ve been difficult to guard their property from being emptied!
“Old Sister, that’s where you’re wrong! Yesterday’s incident was recorded on paper by Li Zheng [TL Note: An official in charge of residential record and taxes.] so how can that not be official? Furthermore, all of us witnessed it!”
“That’s right!”
The two of them were extremely disgusted and excused themselves before Li Shi could defend herself.
“How dare you act so arrogantly!” Li Shi muttered angrily, “Just you wait! When this old lady makes it big, even if you guys come begging me, I won’t even bother looking in your direction!”
“How did it go? Has everything been settled?” Sang Pingliang asked urgently the moment Li Shi returned home.
“No!” Li Shi replied harshly.
“No?” Sang Pingliang raised his voice, “then why have you come back?”
“No one’s home!” Li Shi said, “Both brothers aren’t at home! That b*tch Fang Shi even played me! So disrespectful to her elder, we should make Ah Hong divorce her one day!”
“No one’s home? Where did Xiao Fei go?” Sang Pingliang was quick to ignore Li Shi’s complains; he only cared about Sang Yufei. As for Li Shi getting played, it wasn’t anything urgent and it was not like she would lose a piece of her flesh!
“Supposedly, he went to work in the fields but who knows where!” Li Shi said with a dark face.
“Work in the fields?” Sang Pingliang thought for a moment before asking, “Then Ah Hong? Is he in school?”
“Yes!”
“Then I’ll go look for him,” Sang Pingliang dusted his clothes and said, “I just had an idea. I’m going to find Ah Hong and drag him to Li Zheng. Then, I’m going to force him to let us adopt Xiao Fei as our son, how about that?”
“Adopt him as our son?” Li Shi’s eyes brightened as she clapped in joy, “Good, good! It can’t get better!” Gratuitously receiving a top escorted examinee as their son and the mister wouldn’t have the need to get concubines; this was literally a blessing from the heavens! However, what she didn’t know was that since Sang Pingliang had already made up his mind, not even a god can stop him from getting a concubine.
“En!” Sang Pingliang gleefully said, “The Second House doesn’t have a descendant, but the Main House has two sons. It is only natural to let us adopt one so we can have someone to care for us!”
Sang Pingliang was betting on Sang Hong’s naivety as he would surely not dare to refute him. As long as he agrees and Li Zheng settled it on paper, then Sang Yufei wouldn’t have a choice even if he refused.
“Go catch two chickens and wait at the entrance of the school. I’ll add another 5 silvers as well. Just wait for me to drag Ah Hong out of the school and we’ll head to the Li Zheng’s house immediately!”
“Eh, okay, okay!” Li Shi could not help but feel her heart ache upon hearing that they were going to give two chickens and even add in 5 silvers.
“Listen carefully,” at such a crucial time, Sang Pingliang had more charm around him. He stared at Li Shi and said seriously, “Pick the largest rooster and a healthy hen. Let me warn you, if you cause trouble for me with any more of your pettiness, you’ll see the last of me!”
Li Shi’s heart ached even more from those words and was entirely frightened by the last sentence. In an instant, she nodded hurriedly.
“Be quick, I’ll head out first!” Sang Pingliang threw in a few more words before rushing off.
Sang Hong was giving lessons in the school to a group of children of various ages. Seeing Sang Pingliang waving to him with a broad smile from the outside, he hesitated for a moment before assigning two chapters for the students to memorise and headed out.
Sang Pingliang had predicted correctly. Even though yesterday’s matter had caused Sang Hong’s heart to become cold, there was no way he would pretend not to see Sang Pingliang.
