Chapter 69: Chapter 69 Do You Know How Charming Your Worldview Is?_1 Chapter 69: Chapter 69 Do You Know How Charming Your Worldview Is?_1 “You’re the younger ones, and Old Zheng is an elder. What’s wrong with asking him for a favor?” the village chief puffed his beard and glared.
An Jing laughed out of anger, “We asked him to make a bed, not for free. Why should we have to humble ourselves and beg him? Is that how business is done? The carpenters in town certainly wouldn’t make us feel aggrieved.”
The village chief didn’t expect her to retort so much to one comment. He huffed and puffed for a long time before suppressing his anger, and then, with an apparent depth of feeling, he said, “An Jing girl, we’re all from the same village. You see the state of Old Zheng’s house – how poor they’ve become. Why must you argue with him? He was just hot-headed at the time. All you need to do is say a few nice words, apologize, and then wouldn’t this all be settled? Isn’t it a big hassle to have to go to town to get a bed made? Besides, it’s so much more expensive in town; isn’t it much cheaper with Old Zheng? If you just give in a little, you can save quite a bit of silver coin, give Old Zheng some business, and help with neighbor relations. What’s not to like about that?”
What’s not to like about that?
An Jing really wanted to spit in the old village chief’s face, thinking only he would have the cheek to say such a thing.
“Village chief, you want me to speak nicely to Carpenter Zheng and apologize? Haha, so it really is all our fault, is it? You all did nothing wrong, huh? Now that I’ve already had the bed made, you still have so much to say. What, do you want me to go beg Carpenter Zheng to make another one?” An Jing said sarcastically.
The village chief’s face turned green then white. He simply couldn’t outtalk An Jing!
Clenching his teeth as if to vent his anger, the village chief finally said, “That’s not what I mean. I don’t want you to go to Old Zheng to have another bed made. I want you to go from door to door to apologize, to put an end to this talk of going to the officials. We don’t want the village to be so discordant. You don’t want to keep being ostracized by the villagers, do you?”
Has Jiuping Village ever been harmonious?
Far from being angry, An Jing replied with a laugh, almost gleefully, “Fine, I can go door to door to apologize, but on one condition: the entire village of Jiuping Village must first come and kowtow to apologize to me and my husband, Changyi. As long as the villagers kowtow and apologize for what they’ve done to Changyi and me in the past, I’ll immediately go door to door to apologize, without breaking my word!”
The village chief was very pleased to hear An Jing say she could apologize, thinking that she didn’t want to be ostracized by the villagers and feeling quite smug about it, but he didn’t expect An Jing to have more to say. The more he listened, the closer the village chief came to losing his breath from anger.
“You…” the village chief pointed at An Jing, trembling with rage. It took quite a while before he managed to get the words out, “Aren’t you afraid of being ostracized by the villagers?”
“Afraid of what? There are just the two of us, Changyi and I. If we’re fed, the whole family isn’t hungry. As for you, each with so many mouths to feed in your homes, heh, heh.”
“You!” the village chief stood up angrily and slammed the table, cursing, “Stubborn and unenlightened!”
“Village chief,” An Jing suddenly sighed, looking regretfully at the village chief, “You know, your values are very intoxicating.”
Although the village chief didn’t quite understand An Jing’s words, he could tell they were far from complimentary, which made him even angrier.
“Any reasonable person knows right from wrong,” An Jing sighed again.
The village chief understood that remark and flew into a rage, his eyes nearly popping out, “Right from wrong?”
He pointed his finger angrily at An Jing, “Lin Anjing, as a woman who can’t bear children, what kind of woman are you?”
He then pointed to Xiao Changyi, who had remained silent, “Xiao Changyi, you were born with misfortune, having caused the death of your grandfather and father. Isn’t it normal for everyone to be afraid? The vil—”