"What exactly happened? Just tell me, what’s the use of crying?" Tong Gang rebuked harshly, "Do you know that if your reputation is ruined,, not to mention becoming a Scholar’s wife, you might even have difficulty getting married at all..."
Tong Lingling didn’t dare to cry anymore and sobbed twice, "I..." She had just been too scared and upset to think about what to say.
"Speak up, will you? Do you want to out of your mind?" Tong Liushi also grew anxious and poked her daughter’s forehead with her hand.
"Mother, it was all Yang Dani’s doing..." Tong Lingling blurted out, "She had someone strip off my clothes..."
"Did they... have they..."
"No, they just stripped off my clothes, that’s all, they didn’t touch me..." Tong Lingling shook her head, "She just wanted to destroy my reputation so that I couldn’t marry my cousin in the end..."
"That Yang Dani!" A cold light suddenly flashed in Tong Liushi’s eyes, "How shameless can she be?"
"If you didn’t do anything, why would she come out of nowhere to strip your clothes?" Tong Gang had more experience and saw the bigger picture. Besides, he understood his own daughter’s spoiled nature,, and moreover, Yang Dani rarely had the chance to come to town; she used to be called Yang blockhead. How could she have the power to know the town’s riffraff, to say nothing of commanding them?"
"I..." Tong Lingling shivered with fear, but she knew that if she told the truth, her father might abandon her. She stiffened her neck, waiting for Tong Gang’s response, "Wasn’t it because I told Yang Dani to stay away from my cousin the last time I met her in town? She took offense and has held it against me since then. You can ask my cousin if you don’t believe me; she even played a trick on her at the time."
Tong Gang frowned, "Did you really do nothing?"
"What’s with you?" Tong Liushi couldn’t hold back any longer and yelled at Tong Gang, "It’s that Yang Dani who’s shameless, causing trouble for our daughter, and yet you’re taking her side?"
"I..." Tong Gang felt somewhat helpless.
"Didn’t Yang Dani always chase after your nephew relentlessly before? She almost stripped down for him... Now that Qingshu is with Lingling every day, she’s probably jealous, so she resorted to despicable means..." Tong Liushi had already conjured up her own chain of events, firmly believing that her daughter was not at fault, "It’s just like a scumbag offspring from a shameless person..." Everyone familiar with the Dapu East Village knew that Xun Hui was a bought bride.
Tong Gang opened his mouth to contradict his wife’s words but ultimately remained silent. Although he felt that the problem was more likely to be with their own daughter, he couldn’t say that.
Of course, what Liushi wasn’t willing to admit was that, at the heart of her malicious speculation about Yang Dani, she was very jealous of Xun Hui.
Her family had always been well off, and she was beautiful, having been flattered by others since she was young. But during one visit to her elder cousin’s place, she found a woman, less noble in status than herself, yet much prettier. She remembered that Tong Gang had even admired the woman, and despite knowing that he was merely expressing wonder, it made her uncomfortable inside. Even if she was to have no future interactions with Xun Hui, she simply did not like that woman.
So naturally, she would not care for that woman’s daughter, especially since Yang Dani had always been fixated on her son-in-law candidate. Thus, when her daughter got into trouble, of course, she wouldn’t think it was her daughter’s fault.