" I wasn't the only one in this!" Qiu Bai knew that he could no longer shirk responsibility for his actions this time and could only dodge it by dragging the name of the other villagers together with his, he couldn't believe that the villagers would try to make him the sole culprit when everyone was willing to join the scheme while teaching Yu Dong a lesson " the villagers all agreed! They were the ones who made me do this, saying that as I was her Uncle in law, Yu Dong wouldn't blame me! Now they are trying to drag me in the trouble ?"
If Yu Dong was here she would have rolled her eyes ' this Qiu Bai was really good, it was clear from the villagers' confessions that he was the one who gave them the idea and he was the sole conspirator but now that he was caught, he was still trying to shirk responsibility!'
" and wasn't I already punished? Look at this bad burn on my back and the amount of bandage and medicine I have to pay for! Her fields weren't harmed in the least but my back was burnt because of her throw!" Even though Qiu Bai was on the verge of death he wasn't afraid, he wanted to fight till his death. He was hell-bent on making Yu Dong's life troublesome but wasn't willing to suffer at all. Now that he was the one who was suffering he wasn't going to back down without a fight!
Thus, Qiu Bai's anxious, shrill voice could be heard from the Yu house as he exclaimed and tried to rope in as many villagers as he could, even going as far as naming the one who bad-mouthed Yu Dong and agreed to burn her fields together.
These villagers all had a guilty conscience and followed Mu Xuan and when they heard Qiu Bau name them, they got anxious and fought with Qiu Bai. Saying that they were only following what Qiu Bai told them to which Qiu Bai wittily responded that all of them were grown women and he was just a small mer how could he coax them into following him.
These women who heard him argue like was all hopping mad but couldn't do anything. They all rushed to explain and that made the courtyard of the old Yu family even noisier.
The weather was rather chilly as the winter was on the verge to roll autumn with its silvery blanket, but even then Qiu Bai's entire back was soaked with sweat after arguing with the bunch of women. He couldn't win against them and his wife wasn't willing to help him either, so he sat on the floor and smacked his leg as he cried " aren't you bullying me now? I'm just a simple mer... Even my kids don't listen to me, you think I can hoodwink you all and drag you around with your noses? My niece just threw a burning log at me and burnt my back! I should be the one who should be compensated with silver taels! And yet you want to beat me? Why don't you just take my life!"
" who would compensate you silver taels? Your entire existence isn't worth copper taels and yet you have the face to demand silver? Why don't you go ahead and rob someone's house?" this awesome reply came from Grandmother Yu, though she couldn't stop the separation of Yu Dong and her family, she still considered Yu Dong as her own, sometimes she would send some vegetables to the pregnant Chen Mi but she was tightly watched by Grandfather Yu. Every time she sent something to Yu Dong's family Grandfather Yu would create a fuss in the village, calling Yu Dong and her husbands a leech who were still dependent on their old grandmother to subsidize them.
Many times Grandmother Yu thought of divorcing Old Zhang ( Grandfather Yu) but Yu Qing would always intercept and stop it from happening, later on for the sake of not troubling her granddaughter's family Grandmother Yu created a distance from them.
So how could she be not upset when she heard that Qiu Bai tried to harm Yu Dong? No one other than her was happy to see Yu Dong change for the better, she was afraid that if the villagers and Qiu Bai succeeded then Yu Dong would have gone to her old ways. Just the thought alone was enough to make her break out in cold sweat.
Only because she was infuriated Grandmother Yu made such a harsh remark against her son in law or else she wouldn't have used such a foul language.
Qiu Bai wasn't afraid of anyone but he was afraid of his mother in law the most, whenever Grandmother Yu pulled a long face, Qiu Bai didn't dare to say a single word of complaint. This time was the same, he didn't say anything and immediately jumped behind his wife, trying to make himself as inconspicuous as possible.
" It was you who wanted to burn those crops that my granddaughter sowed with so much trouble and yet you have the face to complain that you got burnt? You got burnt because of your own foolishness and scheming nature, if anyone has to compensate you then you are the one who should be compensating yourself by learning how to stay at home without causing trouble every day! My Yu family don't need to extort people like this if you want to extort people using this kind of lousy excuse then you call Qiu Chen for me I want to have a good chat with how she teaches her son!" Qiu Chen was Qiu Bai's mother, she was a decent person but just like everyone else, she doted on her daughter more than her son.
Qiu Bai didn't dare to say another extra word, his mother was a good woman but she was also narrow-minded and old school. She believed a married mer as water spilled water, she was someone who asked his daddy to teach him the verses of being a good husband before he got married. She even emphasised that he should listen to his in-laws before he was carried off to the Yu family, if she found out that he tried to burn the crops of his niece law's then his mother would definitely kick him out of the Qiu family genealogy.
Qiu Bai still needed his maternal family, with how explosive Yu Qing's temper was if he got kicked out of his maternal family where would he go?