“You d*mned old woman, what the hell are you coughing for! Can I just pass my days in peace and quiet, ah? I’m gonna beat you old hag to death!”
“Ah, ah, I’m dying, don’t beat me, cough cough, you’ll beat me to death, ah!” Elderly Lady flopped back and forth on the ground like a dying fish.
“Hey, are you letting us sleep anymore?” Granny Niu sat up irritably and snapped.
Qiao Zhongheng was also foul-mouthed. “Are you finished? After beating her to death, you’re going to buy her a coffin?”
Xu Jiao spat in contempt before throwing down the bamboo slab in a clatter. “Death would end all this trouble. It’s better than seeing her neither dead nor alive every day.”
The families in the other corners were all used to this scene, and they jeered at Xu Jiao in ridicule.
Just as they were about to continue sleeping, they heard the sound of neighing horses from the rundown temple, as well as someone reporting, “Master, this is the place.”
A row of torches soon lit up the entrance to the temple, and when the person in the lead, an eldery man in his sixties, saw the old woman whimpering while lying on the ground, he was taken aback.
After someone next to the elderly man whispered into his ear, he immediately understood. He promptly put on a benevolent expression as he walked up to help up the frail and weak Elderly Lady, who was so filthy that the color of her clothes couldn’t be discerned. “Sister-in-law, I am your brother Qiao Dongbo, from the main family. Do you still recognize me? We should have met several times some years ago.”
Since the corner of Elderly Lady Qiao’s mouth had ruptured from being beaten, speaking hurt so much that she shuddered. Hence, she could only gaze pitifully at Qiao Dongbo with her two panda eyes. “Y-You are?”
Yet Qiao Zhongheng and Xu Jiao were the first to react. Immediately revealing covetous gazes, they walked up with bent waists and lowered heads, incessantly speaking pleasantries. “Y-You must be Eldest Uncle from the main family. Goodness, we’ve finally found a relative!”
Qiao Dongbo suppressed the bit of revulsion in his eyes, and he said to them with a smile, “Correct, correct. You are Zhongheng, right? I am your Eldest Uncle from the main family.”
In reality, Qiao Dongbo had long had someone investigate their identities. If it weren’t for the fact that he stood to gain something from them, he wouldn’t have thought of coming to this rundown temple to meet these country bumpkins.
This discomposed old lady was the Marquis of Jiayuan’s biological mother and the crown prince consort’s grandmother!
A calculating glint flitted past Qiao Dongbo’s eyes.
Seeing Qiao Dongbo dressed in presentable clothing, Granny Niu was so impatient that she started drooling. She went up and grabbed onto Xu Jiao, prodding her in a suppressed voice, “Ah Jiao, we’ve shared trials and tribulations together during these ten days or so. If it weren’t for my material assistance, you wouldn’t have been able to wait to see these good days. You have to bring our family with you, okay.”
When Granny Niu saw Xu Jiao flattening her lips noncommittally, she anxiously stepped in close and squeezed her hand, saying quietly, “After returning to the main family, you’ll have an extra helper with another brother with you. My son, and my two grandsons, can all help you take care of matters.”
“Right, that’s right.” Madam née Bo also hastily joined in and brazenly said to Xu Jiao, “Sister Jiao, after interacting for so long, our two families know each other thoroughly. Bringing us along will be good for taking care of various matters in the future, yeah.”
The other people inside the rundown temple gazed at them in extreme envy, and they regretted inside that they didn’t build good relations with Qiao Zhongheng’s family from the start.
Just like a prideful peacock, Xu Jiao stood up straight and looked down on these scum holed up in the corners of the rundown temple.
Hmph, just wait until she returned to the Qiao Clan’s main family and became their third young mistress. She’d definitely not let off Qiao Zhongbang and his family of devils!
“Achoo.” Qiao Mu raised her hand to rub her small nose.