Qiao Mei’s village was in a mountainous area, so all the neighbors were located far away from one another.
However, the aggressive manner in which Qiao Zhuang and his family rushed to Qiao Mei’s courtyard meant that the act was witnessed by many people.
These people did not crowd around to join in as this was a family matter between Qiao Qiang and Qiao Zhuang and both of them had strong personalities.
If this was happening at someone else’s house, the busybodies would have come over to add their few cents’ worth.
However, what Qiao Mei said was indeed not very appropriate. In that era when village life was pure and simple, it was very usual for people in the countryside to take food from one another. It was not considered as being demanding.
“Auntie, your words are really interesting. Relatives sharing vegetables?” Qiao Mei’s expression darkened and she said mockingly, “In the village, who doesn’t know that my family doesn’t have enough vegetables to eat? We still go out to buy vegetables every month, so which one of your families are we supposed to share vegetables with? When I was young, I went to pick vegetables at your place and even got kicked out with a beating!”
This incident happened five years ago. At that time, the original owner of the body was going through puberty.. When there were no more vegetables left in the house, she was so hungry that she ran to Qiao Zhuang’s vegetable garden to ask for a bunch of vegetables, but was kicked out in the end.
Big Auntie Qiao also felt a little embarrassed when she thought of this matter, but she still continued to say stubbornly, “Your family has two people, but our family has more than ten people. How do we have food for you?”
“Yes! That’s the logic!” Qiao Mei said loudly. “In that case, my family also doesn’t have enough food. Why should I let you pick any?”
This sentence completely shut Big Auntie Qiao up, her own words being used against her in such a manner that she could not rebut.
Qiao Zhuang’s family looked at Qiao Mei and then at Qiao Zhuang. The atmosphere had become awkward.
Qiao Zhuang stared at Qiao Mei wordlessly.
The neighbors who had come over looked at Qiao Mei in surprise. They could not imagine that these clear and logical words were coming out of the mouth of this simple-minded person.
Qiao Qiang stood at the back with his eyes slightly red.
Qiao Mei looked at Qiao Zhuang and said in a straightforward manner, “Second Grandpa, if you really want to help us, then grandfather and I will always remember this kindness. But if your intention is to use this reason to come over and take my family’s land, then that’s impossible!”
As soon as she said that, everyone was stunned and fell silent.
Qiao Zhuang sized Qiao Mei up, no one knew what he was thinking. In the end, he shouted, “Go! Let’s go back!”
His voice was curt and his words clearly revealed his intentions. His motive was to seize this piece of land.
Although, based on his character, it was not as if he needed to hide his intentions. After all, he was the biggest bully in the village. Did bullies need self respect?
Upon hearing this, Qiao Zhuang’s family collectively put away their hoes and followed Qiao Zhuang out.
Before leaving, they glared fiercely at Qiao Mei.
Qiao Zhuang had five sons in total. His third and fourth sons had moved out while the other three sons still lived with him.
As long as they still lived with him, they would not be able to get a share of land in the village.
The eldest son of the Qiao family had three sons, the second son had three sons and two daughters and the youngest son was 25 years old and still unmarried.
With more than 10 people living in a small house, the vegetables they grew at home was truly not enough to feed all of them.
They were just waiting for Qiao Qiang to die so that they could take over his land.
“Wait!” Qiao Mei suddenly shouted.
The Qiao family stopped in their steps and Qiao Zhuang turned around, frowning at Qiao Mei.
“Second Grandpa, as you know, my grandfather is sick. The relationship between our two families isn’t too good so there is no need for you all to visit him in the future! Otherwise, I will think that you have evil intentions and want to use this opportunity to anger my grandpa to death so that you can seize my family’s land.”
These words were so brutally frank that they caused the entire atmosphere to freeze up immediately.
Qiao Zhuang glared at Qiao Mei fiercely with menace in his eyes.
However, Qiao Mei was not afraid at all. In her other life, she was a lawyer who specialized in criminal cases. What kind of difficult situations had she not seen before?
In the few years when her career was going well, the cases she worked on got more and more high profile. All the defendants she had encountered were vicious and evil people, no less worse than Qiao Zhuang.
In comparison, Qiao Zhuang’s gaze was not threatening at all.
As for those vicious and evil people, they still ended up at her mercy and were all sentenced to death. Hence, everyone in the industry had called her the “Sword of Justice”.
Qiao Zhuang furrowed his brows. He never thought that the previously silly Qiao Mei would be so bold.
Qiao Zhuang turned to look at Qiao Qiang and said, “Big brother, does that mean that you’re not going to acknowledge me as your younger brother?”
When Qiao Qiang heard that, he looked over with inscrutable eyes and said, “It’s been 65 years and I finally hear you call me Big Brother. How rare it is.”
Qiao Zhuang’s face sank.