Chapter 131: Chapter 131: Defend Honor with Blood
In this world, ruining a woman couldn’t be easier.
Just add some fuel to the fire about her romantic scandals and fabricate some baseless stories.
Soon, she would become the slut in everyone’s eyes and be humiliated to death.
Hearing the surrounding gossip, Yue Xiaofang trembled all over.
Lin Chunju sensed something was wrong and covered her ears with her hands, but could not shut out the mouths of others.
“I didn’t!” Yue Xiaofang cried out, while the onlookers just watched her coldly.
“I really didn’t!” Her cries were heart-wrenching.
However, the crowd acted as if they hadn’t heard, buzzing with excitement in their discussions.
“This morning I saw her give the Yue Family eldest a pair of gloves, made of sheepskin no less. Who in the village could afford that? It must have been a gift from her lover.”
“Why did Ma Jinbao’s family beat Yue Xiaofang before, why not someone else? Surely it was because Yue Xiaofang was not chaste.”
“His family killed all her children, maybe because Yue Xiaofang was cheating, and the kids weren’t even his.”
Gossip burrowed into the ears of the Yue Family, one after another stated with certainty, all aiming to throw Yue Xiaofang into an abyss of irredeemable darkness.
Yue Jiannan swung his fists at the people around him and shouted loudly, “Shut up, my sister is not what you say she is—all her money comes from working as a tailor in the city!”
Zhang Ying wept copiously, “Xiaofang is innocent, it’s the Ma family who were the beasts.”
But the louder they were, the more guilty they appeared.
Ma Jinbao, embracing Pan Xiumei’s waist, walked up to Yue Xiaofang with disdain on his face.
“I must have been blind to marry a flirtatious woman like you, wasting my father’s life, but luckily I woke up in time.”
“Now Xiumei is pregnant and will definitely give birth to a precious son, unlike you, who only gave birth to a liability, pah!”
Pan Xiumei lifted her hand to tuck her hair behind her ear, her face all smiles.
“Xiaofang, I should actually thank you. If it wasn’t for you, how would I have found such a fine man? Tell me, we’re both wives, why has Ma Jinbao never laid a hand on me? Think about it yourself.”
Her daughter being insulted nearly snapped the last cord of sanity in Lin Chunju’s mind.
She surged to her feet, ready to fight those two.
But she was firmly embraced by Yue Xiaofang, “Mother!”
The onlookers watched Yue Xiaofang as if she were a joke, the disdain and malice in their eyes nearly spilling over.
A few men leered at Yue Xiaofang with blatant lust.
One of them, a scoundrel, laughed deliberately, “Yue Xiaofang, why do you only sell yourself in the city? Us fellow villagers have some money too, don’t let outsiders have it all.”
Yue Jiannan suddenly charged forward, lifting his fist towards the man’s face.
But before he could reach him, he was restrained by other men.
“Alright, he was just joking, why start hitting him?”
“If your family is not feeling guilty, why be so agitated?”
Yue Jiannan was frail, struggling several times without getting any closer to the scoundrel, frustrating himself to the point of almost vomiting blood.
The scoundrel, known in the village as a wastrel, with no skill or education, abandoned by his parents, had not managed to find a wife even nearly at thirty.
In the village, he spent his days peeping at young wives bathing, and had been beaten numerous times.
This was the first time someone attacked him and was restrained.
The scoundrel was thrilled, becoming even more arrogant, “What’s the matter? If you can do such things, are you afraid of people talking? You are just a discarded shoe sent back by your husband’s family, nothing you do would be surprising.”
“I figure since nobody wants you, might as well I make do, but don’t expect a dowry from me. The Yue Family should pay me instead!”
Laughter erupted among the crowd.
Amidst this mocking laughter, Yue Xiaofang’s gaze shifted to a wooden post not far away.
Now, no matter what she said, she could not prove her innocence; perhaps her death would suffice.
She was resolved to use her blood to preserve both her honor and that of the Yue Family!