Chapter 197: Chapter 197 Are You Trying to Kill Me Chapter 197: Chapter 197 Are You Trying to Kill Me After dinner was cleaned up, Lu Yichen and Stone walked off together, and Luo Qiao went into her space to prepare the bedding from the city. Having it ready in advance meant that it would be there for use on days when she might not be able to rush back and needed to stay in the city.
At the Secretary’s Home, Zhang Dezheng’s wife, Wang Chunnian, was scolding their daughter, “What’s gotten into you, a young lady, gossiping about others for no reason? Just listen to what people are saying about you now.
What has Luo Qiao ever done to provoke you? You’re ruining her reputation. If she finds out, our whole family will suffer for it.
The others in the Zhang Family remained silent, while the Secretary, looking at his daughter with disappointment, said, “Qiaoyan, if all your schooling has led to this kind of behavior, you would have been better off not attending at all, lest you one day bring ruin to the Zhang Family.”
Zhang Qiaoyan looked up at her father in disbelief, “Dad, it’s just a few words I said about Luo Qiao. Are you all overreacting like this? I am still your daughter.”
Shang Hongying, the eldest daughter-in-law of the Zhang Family, humphed quietly. She had always disliked her younger sister-in-law, feeling that the girl was too proud because she was the only one from the village attending high school.
Now that Luo Qiao was attending high school in the city, Qiaoyan couldn’t stand it and had been bad-mouthing her. Qiaoyan thought she was doing nothing wrong, but all the village women laughed at her these days.
They wouldn’t confront her face to face, but behind her back, they said she had bad character. If her father-in-law wasn’t the Secretary, someone would have probably spoken up by now.
Zhang Dezheng said, “How did I, Zhang Dezheng, end up with a brainless daughter like you? Slandering Luo Qiao like this every day, what do you gain? What do you hope to achieve?
Luo Qiao will still go to high school in the city when the time comes. But what about you? Your parents and brothers all live in this village. You’re not only ruining your own reputation but dragging the Zhang Family’s name through the mud as well.
Are you deaf? Can’t you hear what outsiders are saying about you, about me, about the Zhang Family? If these words reach Luo Qiao’s ears, do you think I can still comfortably sit in the position of Secretary?”
Zhang Qiaoyan retorted defiantly, “What can she do to you? I don’t believe she can turn the sky.”
Wang Chunnian, furious, came over and punched her daughter, causing Zhang Qiaoyan to burst into tears.
In anger, she said, “Mom, are you trying to kill me?”
Wang Chunnian replied, “If it wasn’t a crime to kill someone, I really would want to kill you. Just look at the trouble you’ve caused these days. Listen to how others mock our family, saying you have a poor character, you’re jealous, vindictive, and bullying others just because your dad is the Secretary.”
Shang Hongying also stood up and said, “Qiaoyan, mom and dad are doing this for your own good. The things you said won’t hurt Luo Qiao, but instead, they have ruined your own reputation, dad’s, and tarnished the name of the Zhang Family.”
Zhang Qiaoyan, already unhappy with her parents’ lecturing, now faced reprimand from her sister-in-law too. After all, she was a high school student, and here was someone who hadn’t even finished primary school presuming to teach her a lesson.
She glared fiercely at her sister-in-law, “My parents are still alive. Who are you to reprimand me? You, who haven’t even completed primary school, have the nerve to educate me, a high school student?”
That was the last straw for Shang Hongying. She slammed the dishes and utensils she was carrying to the kitchen down in the courtyard, “Yes, my family was poor and couldn’t afford my education. Happy now?”