At the other end.
After Qi Qingyao left Linquan Village, news that she had won both Zhang Tieyuan’s farm and the land deeds had quickly spread. Everyone was talking about it. By that evening, almost the entire village knew that the gambler, Zhang Tieyuan, had lost both the deeds to his farm and land.
The old Qi family did not know anything about this since they had not left their house that afternoon. Madam Liang noticed that her grandmother had not said a single word, and thought that it was maybe because she did not know the news. She rushed to Madam Guo’s house after dinner.
The moment she arrived, she frantically searched for her sister-in-law, Madam Guo. “Do… do you guys know what’s just happened?”
“What happened in the village now?” Madam Guo had been thinking about how she did not receive a share of the rice distribution and was growing more and more gloomy about it. She did not feel like talking at all.
Madam Liang began describing the situation vividly. “Qi Qingyao and Zhang Tieyuan were gambling at the village head’s house this afternoon. What started as two taels became twenty taels, then fifty taels and a hundred taels. Zhang Tieyuan had won a few rounds in a row, and who knows what happened in between, but they ended up betting all the way up to a thousand taels.”
Madam Wu had heard the wife of her fourth son arriving. Her jaw almost dropped to the floor when she heard what her daughter-in-law had said the moment she came inside. “Huh? A thousand taels!!”
Madam Liang hurriedly dragged her mother-in-law to the clay stove. After sitting down, only then did Madam Liang continue. “I’m not joking, a thousand tales. Out of nowhere, Zhang Tieyuan lost his mind and brought his farm and land deed to bet against Qi Qingyao for the thousand taels. He lost.”
“He lost?” Madam Guo’s expression was highly doubtful.
Madam Liang spread her hands out and said, “That’s right. Now Old Man Zhang has even managed to gamble his home away.”
As she was familiar with the Zhang family, Madam Wu was not surprised. “I’ve said before that with his gambling habit, he was bound to get into trouble sooner or later, but I didn’t think it’d be this bad… Come to think of it, where did she get a thousand taels from? There’s no way that the Lord Heir paid her so much money back then, right?”
Madam Guo came back to her senses and interrupted, “No, wait, what you mean to say is that old Zhang family’s house is now hers?”
Madam Liang raised her eyebrows excitedly as she said, “Of course… Ma Sanye and many other villagers were watching. It was said that they even signed a contract. Of course, anyone who gambles should acknowledge when they’re defeated, but I heard from everyone that Zhang Tieyuan did not want to accept the loss. Qi Qingyao suggested two ways out for him. First, he could admit defeat. Alternatively, he could choose to leave a hand behind, the hand that signed the contract.”
“Ah…” Madam Guo’s eyes widened with surprise.
Madam Liang pointed at Madam Guo’s wide-eyed expression and said excitedly, “Yes, yes, yes, that expression. I had the same face too as I watched everything unfold. It was so violent and cruel, it’s just… Didn’t your family say that she was a fool? This ‘fool’ isn’t so foolish now, how is she so clever?”
Madam Guo had trouble describing the complicated emotions she felt now. She was quiet.
Madam Liang could not help asking her sister-in-law and mother-in-law, “Mother, do you think that she was only pretending to be a fool back then, and she isn’t actually stupid?”
“…” Madam Wu shook her head, refusing to believe that she may have been tricked in the past.
However, she also did not want to believe that Qi Qingyao was so clever now…
After Madam Liang left, both Madam Wu and Madam Guo exchanged glances and sighed.
There were some things in Madam Wu’s heart that she could not say to her daughter-in-law. When she got back home, she ranted it all to the old man.
“That foolish girl really thinks that she’s some hotshot. As if I’d believe that! Let’s see for how long she can keep up this ridiculousness.”
“…” Old Man Qi was silent.
Madam Wu continued chattering away for a moment, but could not help asking about something she dare not believe was true. “Do you think she was pretending to be a fool back then and she isn’t actually one? Do you think she was tricking us?”