Chapter 57: Chapter 57 Adding Frost to Snow_1
Chapter 57: Chapter 57 Adding Frost to Snow_1
The Li Family courtyard was filled with a cacophony of ghostly wails and wolfish howls that finally subsided after a long while. Li Genbao had spent the previous night indulging in amorous delights, staying at a widow’s house until midnight. Now feeling weak and fatigued, he chased Zhao Lan until he was too tired to continue, then stopped and viciously cursed at her. The ferocity in his demeanor contrasted sharply with the gentle and subservient behavior he showed at Widow Zhang’s house—it was as if he was a completely different person. This situation perfectly illustrated the saying, “A wife is not as good as a concubine, a concubine is not as good as a steal.” It’s uncertain what Zhao Lan would think if she saw that side of him.
“What are you wailing about! Your wailing is giving me a headache. Did you give the money to your nephew?” Li Genbao sat on a stool, holding a teapot in hand. Without using a cup, he poured the tea directly into his mouth.
Zhao Lan looked at her husband’s despicable appearance, and under normal circumstances, she would have already started fighting with him. She was holding back today because she was in the wrong regarding the day’s events. If another commotion arose and became known to others, the village chief and the elders of the Zhao Family would only see it as her unchanging bad behavior. She feared she might get expelled from the family, so she simply acquiesced by saying, “Not yet. I told the village chief and Great Uncle San that our family doesn’t have that much silver, so I had a promissory note drawn up.”
“Good, you still have some brains for not giving away the silver. Even with the promissory note, what of it? If your nephew comes to demand payment, you just brush him off. I don’t believe he can do anything to us.” Li Genbao had the air of a thug, very much like Zhao Lan. Birds of a feather flock together; no wonder they became a family.
Hearing Li Genbao speak, Zhao Lan felt somewhat proud. “Of course, I never intended to pay the silver. At that moment, I had no other choice but to agree to draw up the note at the insistence of the village chief and Great Uncle San. Otherwise, I would have been sent to the government. Thinking about it now, it’s really bad luck—didn’t get any advantage and just got into trouble. This time, I really capsized in the gutter,” Zhao Lan said, feeling triumphant.
Zhao Lan spoke resentfully. She had never suffered such a big loss since she was born. Not only was she beaten until she ached all over, but she was also framed and made to kneel in the ancestral hall and pay silver. Yet the one who actually started the fight received the sympathy of everyone else.
“You know,” she reflected, “when I went to collect things from Zhao Erhu’s house, why did you have to beat his wife into such a state? I heard you left Erhu’s wife with a bloody head and injuries all over her body. No wonder Zhao Erhu was furious with you. He’s already lost two wives, and he cherishes the one he just remarried. If you hadn’t been so ruthless, you wouldn’t have taken it to the village chief and Great Uncle San. It was just a few juniors; they’re nothing compared to your influence.”
After all, it was just a promissory note with no actual loss. Having vented his anger by beating Zhao Lan, Li Genbao’s mood had calmed down. He began to analyze Zhao Lan’s mistakes, his words tinged with a sense of disappointment that Zhao Lan had not lived up to his expectations, considering he also benefited from the things she brought home.
“You think I don’t know that? I wasn’t the one who started it. And those things were broken by that little bitch herself. I was still taken aback when she started hitting me already. Her strikes were ruthless, targeting places on my body that were either hidden from light or particularly sensitive. I clearly suffered a big loss but couldn’t voice my grievances. My whole body still hurts, and it probably won’t get better for a few days,” Zhao Lan said as she moved her shoulder slightly and winced in pain. The beating from Li Genbao just added insult to injury. The thought of having to kneel at the ancestral hall that afternoon made Zhao Lan even more distressed.
“Is that so?” Li Genbao was somewhat surprised. He had thought that Zhao Lan had simply lost her temper, taking her frustrations out on that delicate and seemingly easy prey. To learn that the truth was actually quite different came as unexpected.