30: Chapter 30 Trouble Comes
Jin Zijin returned and clearly staggered at the sight of the door that was on the verge of collapse.
He had come back quite early today, looking at the sky, it must have been around three or four in the afternoon.
Youyou had just walked around the yard in the morning and managed to stir up so much trouble; given her weak constitution, she’d wisely stayed inside the house for the rest of the afternoon, not venturing out again.
“Did someone come by?” Jin Zijin asked indifferently.
Gu Youyou tucked the blanket closer around herself and replied mildly, “Yes, a lot of people came!”
“A lot of people?” Jin Zijin was taken aback again.
Most of the game he had hunted today wasn’t brought back; what could be sold had been disposed of promptly, leaving him only with his hunting tools and a wild chicken.
The fresher the game when killed, the better the sale, unlike other goods that could be sold after a day or two; otherwise, it would go stale and stink.
Gu Youyou didn’t wish to elaborate too much, for if her guess was right, trouble would soon be knocking at their door.
Seeing that Gu Youyou didn’t want to talk, he refrained from pressing her and went to prepare the meal after washing up.
Halfway through the meal preparation, the trouble arrived.
It was Wang Youcai and his parents—the same child that Gu Youyou had scared unconscious earlier in the day—and an old woman, presumably Wang Youcai’s grandmother.
“Devil girl, you’ve scared my grandson silly, now you have to see how you’ll compensate!”
So here was a forthright person who wasted no time getting right to the issue of compensation.
Jin Zijin tossed some firewood into the stove and stood up after dusting his hands, asking, “What happened?”
Wang Youcai’s aunt stood silently behind her husband, covering Wang Youcai’s eyes with her hands, fearful that another glimpse of Gu Youyou might scare the child again, which would not do at all.
The old woman, looking utterly fierce, said sharply, “What else could have happened?
You ask your wife how she frightened my grandson today.
I’m telling you, my second son has only this one child.
If anything happens to him, it’ll be endless trouble for you.
I’ll drag you all to the Governor’s Office.”
Jin Zijin glanced at Gu Youyou, then asked calmly, “Youyou has been unwell and stays at home all day; how could she have possibly frightened your grandson?”
Caught off guard, the old woman was momentarily speechless.
After hemming and hawing for a bit, she shouted, “What does it matter where she scared him?
The fact is she did the scaring, and many saw it.
Ask her herself, isn’t it true?”
Without denying, Gu Youyou quietly said a single word, “Yes.”
That response seemed to delight the old woman, who lifted her head and said triumphantly, “There you go, I told you she was the culprit.
If my grandson has been scared by her, compensation is due.
With a cold laugh, Gu Youyou said, “Then, in your opinion… how should the compensation be made?”
Jin Zijin gave her a glance, his expression inscrutable, before turning back to tend to the fire and continue cooking.
Since Gu Youyou wished to handle it herself, he did not interfere.
As Gu Youyou hit the nail on the head, the old woman became even more triumphant.
She stepped into the room, taking a quick look around with glee, her gaze landing on Gu Youyou’s bridal dowry, and she was ecstatic.
To mask the joy spreading across her face, she desperately tried to hold it in, causing the flesh on her face to tremble.
“Ah, I know your family can’t produce anything of value,” she said.
“Why not just compensate with three… or perhaps five bolts of fabric from this trunk?!”
Such were her grand delusions.
Gu Youyou, leaning on her cane, rose from the chair and stared intently at the old woman.
Her demeanor was surely intimidating, and when the old woman turned around to see Gu Youyou, she let out a sharp scream.
If she hadn’t been holding the wall for support, she would have surely fallen flat on the floor.