Madam Zhou’s silence and furrowed brows did not escape Wufu, and she frowned.
"Mother? Is anything amiss?" Wufu asked.
Madam Zhou forced a smile, parted her lips, but seemed afraid to speak.
"Mother, we’re family, just say whatever it is. What could we possibly have to hide from each other?" Wufu said with a smile, though she pretty much guessed what her mother wanted to say.
Madam Zhou glanced at the few people around and sighed.
"Wufu, the trouble you’ve caused this time, I fear it may lead to unrest for us in the future," Madam Zhou said with worry.
She was indeed worried. Although Wufu now had the upper hand, in the end, they were just a widow and an orphan, without a man in the household. Their relatives might not support them, and if the villagers decided to rise against them, how could Wufu alone defend them?
They had already been unwanted, and with Wufu’s fierce actions now, they might face even greater ostracism.
Upon hearing Madam Zhou’s concerns, Hongyu and Liu Jin exchanged glances and looked at Wufu, yet their eyes did not show worry.
They believed the young miss would resolve the problem.
Wufu thought for a moment and asked, "Mother, if we can’t live here anymore, would you want to move?"
Madam Zhou’s expression stiffened.
"If you want to stay, we can, just put your mind at ease. If we can’t, we can move to the town, which would be more convenient," Wufu said.
Having silver in hand meant she had confidence. She could live anywhere; every place was a retreat, so she never worried.
Living in the town would mean more convenience in daily life, but staying here would probably be more comfortable in the hot summer, enjoying the cool mountain breeze, and she could also train freely on the mountain.
"Let’s talk about that later," said Madam Zhou with a faint smile, yet sighed inwardly once more.
Seeing this, Wufu did not press further. Everything depended on Madam Zhou, and she wouldn’t force her.
As Madam Zhou had predicted, Wufu’s beating of Baozi and her harsh words had upset many people in Wozi Village.
Why should an illegitimate brat be so arrogant and brazen?
Such a person should have been driven out of the village long ago, rather than corrupting the village’s feng shui.
Just like that, the ostracism towards Wufu and her family grew, and some even banded together, demanding the village chief to expel them.
Wufu, however, did not take any of this to heart and focused solely on her carving designs.
"Miss, Miss, the village chief has come," Hongyu called out from the doorway.
Wufu’s hand paused—so, he had finally arrived.
She stood up, took some money from where the silver was hidden, placed it in her sleeve, and went outside.
The village chief was an elderly man held in high esteem, already sixty this year, wearing coarse clothes and carrying a tobacco pouch, standing in the courtyard while Madam Zhou played the part of the cautious little wife beside him.
"It’s not that I can’t tolerate you, but everyone is scared, and I had to make this trip," the village chief said to Madam Zhou, with a hint of disdain in his eyes.
No one would respect someone who had a child before a formal wedding, and if it weren’t for their possession of a Marriage Certificate, to prevent moral decay, she would have been drowned in a pig’s cage a long time ago.
Wiping her tears, Madam Zhou said, "Village chief, we’re just a widow and an orphan, we haven’t harmed anyone, nor have we committed any atrocity. Why can’t everyone tolerate us? Do you really want to drive us to death for it to be considered right?"
The village chief paused in his smoking.
"Village chief, my father always said you were a fair and just man. Could it be that my father was mistaken?" Madam Zhou brought up her deceased husband, Scholar Zhou.
The village chief, hearing this, appeared somewhat embarrassed.