"Lanfang, you’ve indeed done wrong this time," Zhang Family’s daughter-in-law chimed in with agreement. "You can’t just say that because someone came looking for Mianmian!"
This evidence is not sufficient at all!
Looking at Shen Mianmian’s aggrieved appearance, it was truly heartbreaking.
It’s just different when it’s not your own flesh and blood. If it were her own daughter, let alone there being no such issue, even if she caught her daughter in someone else’s bed, she’d be the one covering up for her. Who would be so anxious for others to know, shouting about it here?
Zhou Lanfang felt somewhat humiliated by the comments of the others and, lacking further evidence, her arrogance slowly subsided.
"I’m just worried about this girl messing around outside. I heard that she was dating someone at school, and with Jianhua not at home, I have to discipline the child properly."
"Who did you hear it from? You can bring them over to confront directly," Shen Mianmian said, with an appearance of being upright and unafraid, giving Zhou Lanfang no chance to muddy the waters.
Zhou Lanfang was taken aback and said with guilt, "I don’t remember her name."
"Could it possibly be Zhou Siyu who said it?" Lu Siyuan snorted.
Right at the start of the commotion, he had seen Zhou Siyu arrive among the crowd. He had wanted to call her over to pull Zhou Lanfang away, but as soon as he spoke up, she had disappeared without a trace.
"Don’t you dare sling mud at my Siyu," Zhou Lanfang immediately bristled, spitting a few drops onto Lu Siyuan’s face.
"Just speak, don’t spray," Lu Siyuan said with disgust, wiping his face, before yelling loudly.
"What, you want to hit someone now?" Zhou Lanfang ignored him and started to lash out, plunging her head into Lu Siyuan’s chest. "Come on, hit me, I’ll let you. Go ahead, hit me!"
Lu Siyuan was so angry he clenched his teeth. If Zhou Lanfang weren’t Shen Mianmian’s mother, he truly might have struck her.
Aunt Liu from behind grabbed hold of Zhou Lanfang. "What are you doing? Bullying a child in front of everyone, aren’t you afraid of being laughed at?"
Most of the villagers were surrounding them, eager to watch the spectacle.
"He wants to hit me, doesn’t he? I won’t fight back, I’ll let him do it." Zhou Lanfang was brazenly confident that Lu Siyuan wouldn’t dare strike her.
"Mom, stop making a scene. All the uncles and aunts are watching. When dad comes back, he can judge the matter," Shen Mianmian brought up Shen Jianhua in defense.
Zhou Lanfang’s face changed, and she stopped her ruckus immediately.
Shen Jianhua cared about his reputation; if he learned about this, he would certainly argue with her.
Siyu still relied on Shen Jianhua to go to school, she couldn’t afford to anger him.
With this thought, she stopped making a fuss and, glancing at the onlookers, said, "If anyone causes trouble by talking carelessly in front of Jianhua, don’t blame me for coming to your door."
She turned around and headed home.
It was already noon, and she was hungry. It was a good time to go back and cook.
This wasn’t the first time they had seen Zhou Lanfang over the years. Everyone showed a mocking expression as the protagonist left and the excitement died down; everyone soon went home to cook. Follow current novels on 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵✦𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖✦𝙣𝙚𝙩
"Mianmian, you’ve suffered these years." Aunt Liu stroked Shen Mianmian’s hair with sympathy. Everyone in the neighborhood knew exactly how Shen Mianmian had been treated at home, and no one knew better than her.
"It’s alright, Auntie. I’m already used to it." Shen Mianmian forced a bitter smile, then bade farewell. "I didn’t go to work this morning; they even had to send someone for me, so it wouldn’t be good if I didn’t go now."
"Alright, then you better hurry on with your work."
Aunt Liu didn’t want to hold Shen Mianmian back from her job, as it happened she needed to go back and cook as well.