"Ha, don’t you feel ashamed saying that, Liu Mei?" As soon as she said this, the onlookers all burst into laughter.
"Just your family’s luck, finding rabbits and pheasants every day, huh? How come our family never has such luck?"
"Exactly, there’s a limit to how much one should take advantage. Be careful or lightning will strike you down!"
While everyone was denouncing Liu Mei, someone finally couldn’t stand it anymore. They picked up Xiaoxi and ran towards the clinic at the end of the village. Some people remembered Xiaoxi had been close with the Ruan Family recently and went to find the Ruanlin Family.
When the Ruanlin Family received the news, she was preparing lunch with Ruan Jiaojiao. Upon hearing what had happened, she immediately stood up, turned, and ran out. Halfway out, she turned to Ruan Jiaojiao who was following her, "Jiaojiao, quickly go to the entrance of the village and call your dad over here, quick, tell him to ride the tricycle here!"
Without waiting for Ruan Jiaojiao to respond, she turned and followed the person who brought the news, running quickly.
Ruan Jiaojiao dared not delay either and ran towards the village entrance with her little short legs as fast as she could.
When Ruan Jianguo arrived at the clinic at the end of the village with Ruan Jiaojiao, riding the tricycle, the Ruanlin Family and Liu Mei were almost coming to blows.
The Ruanlin Family pointed at Liu Mei’s nose and cursed furiously, "You heartless, venomous woman! Let me tell you, if anything happens to Xiaoxi, see if I won’t report you to the authorities!"
"Mom." Jianguo stepped forward to protect her. Liu Mei, who was about to fend off the Ruanlin Family’s finger pointed at her nose, backed away upon seeing Jianguo’s arrival, but her mouth didn’t back down. She spat towards the Ruanlin Family, "Mind your own business, this is a matter for the Xiu Family, you don’t need to stick your nose in our affairs, you old..."
Liu Mei intended to call the Ruanlin Family an old prude, but upon seeing Jianguo’s icy glare, she unconsciously swallowed the rest of her words.
"I am going to take charge of this matter. Come on, Doctor Lu, you come and tell everyone what happened to Xiaoxi," said the Ruanlin Family as she pulled the clinic doctor to the center of the crowd. "Tell them, how evilhearted this woman is!"
Doctor Lu initially didn’t want to get involved but felt that Liu Mei’s actions were indeed too excessive.
So, he said to Liu Mei, "Xiu Family, you should really be kinder as a person. How could you leave a child so hungry? It’s been three days, huh? If he goes one more day without food, even Fairy Daluo couldn’t save him!"
"Three days? This Liu Mei is really..."
"Three days without food, how could one be so heartless, to be made of stone?"
"Seriously, not eating for three days, and yet forcing such a little kid to go hunting in the mountains. Now he’s injured and she won’t even treat him..."
"I didn’t, I didn’t force him to go hunting!" Liu Mei found herself unable to refute the accusations of the crowd, feeling wrongly accused. She blurted out some words, "He never eats at home! It’s not just these three days..."
As she spoke, she suddenly realized what she had said and covered her mouth, her eyes widening in shock.
The crowd erupted accordingly.
"Xiu Family, what you mean to say is, you’ve never fed the kid?"
"My God, there really are only evil stepmothers in this world!"
"You eat the best food every day, never lacking meat, yet you don’t give a single bite to the child. What kind of world is this..."
Doctor Lu hadn’t expected it to be this bad, and his view of Liu Mei changed, his tone becoming very serious: "Xiu Family, what you are doing is child abuse, a criminal offense. You could go to jail for this."