Chapter 16

“Open the door! Ye Wanqing, open the door for me!”

“Is this the principle your father and I taught you? An unmarried grown girl with no sense of propriety at all, running to a man’s house to cook and do chores like a servant—do you still want any face?”

“You don’t feel ashamed, but I feel ashamed!”

“You open the door! You come out!”

“……”

The solid courtyard gate was being pounded with loud “bang bang” sounds. When Ye Wanqing rushed into the courtyard, the first thing she saw was Ge Yuan standing silently in front of the gate. His tall body was slightly bent as he stared tightly at the gate.

His face was ashen, his eyes deep and cold. Although the surrounding space was very open, he looked like a wild wolf that had been forced into a corner.

“Don’t worry.” She walked over and took Ge Yuan’s hand, only to find that his hand was extremely cold, as if it had just been taken out of ice water.

“Don’t……” Ge Yuan quickly pulled his hand back, lowered his eyes, and said heavily, “I just finished washing things. My hands are cold. Don’t let them freeze you.”

Ye Wanqing didn’t care at all. She grabbed his collar, pulled his body down, cupped his face, and kissed him once.

Their lips touched, and her body temperature gave him a bit of warmth.

Ge Yuan’s deep black eyes gazed at her, a little nervous yet carrying a few points of ease. In a hoarse voice he asked, “……Is it prickly?”

Ye Wanqing pressed her lips into a smile. “Not prickly!”

The gloomy mood instantly cleared up.

Ge Yuan turned from guest to host. His large hand locked onto Ye Wanqing’s waist as he lowered his head and kissed her fiercely once.

“Shameless!” Ge Yue stood under the eaves hugging her small water bucket. Seeing the scene she quickly separated one hand to cover her eyes, yet her little hand opened a finger gap as she secretly peeked at the two of them.

Ge Yuan: “……”

Ye Wanqing: “……”

Pushing Ge Yuan away, Ye Wanqing patted her own burning cheeks. “I’ll go open the door. You stay by my side and protect me. Battles between women emphasize a sharp tongue—fists aren’t needed. You stand to the side as the house-guarding divine beast. Don’t you dare rush out unless I let you appear, or even if we have reason it will become no reason.”

“……Okay!” Ge Yuan quickly perked up.

His little girl wouldn’t abandon him—she still needed him very much! He was the house-guarding divine…… forget it, that wasn’t important!

Outside the Ge family’s small courtyard a dense crowd of people was squeezed together. Besides those who had come with Liu Lizhen—either to pull her apart or to support her—there were also neighbors from near the Ge family’s small courtyard who had come to watch the excitement. It was quite a spectacular sight.

Ye Wanqing pulled open the courtyard gate. The clamorous, noisy sounds flooded into the quiet small courtyard like a flood.

She took a deep breath and faced the people who had come.

Liu Lizhen had been forcefully pounding the courtyard gate. When the door was suddenly pulled open she almost fell from the unexpected movement. The evil fire that had already been burning fiercely in her heart instantly surged even higher.

The moment she saw Ye Wanqing’s face she raised her hand and wanted to give her a slap. “I’ll beat this shameless thing to death!”

Ye Wanqing didn’t need Ge Yuan’s protection. She easily took one step back and dodged Liu Lizhen’s hand.

Her cool eyes looked at Liu Lizhen as she made things clear: “How am I shameless? Last time you wrongly accused me of stealing your money, and it turned out Ye Mingzhu had taken it. This time you want to throw dirty water on me without any basis again?”

These words were spoken with great skill. In an instant, many people’s gazes toward Liu Lizhen became strange. So Liu Lizhen treating her adopted daughter this way wasn’t just once or twice—last time she had truly thrown dirty water.

In her previous life Ye Wanqing did not like defending herself. Even when many people misunderstood her she still did not speak.

But in this life she understood a principle: even if she did not like explaining to people and did not like this world that followed the crowd, if she said nothing at all others would have no way to understand the truth, and that would also be disadvantageous to her.

“I’m wrongly accusing you this time?” Liu Lizhen pointed at Ge Yuan and said furiously, “Someone saw this man get drunk and take liberties with you—saw it clearly! He committed the crime of hooliganism and should be shot. Yet you still associate with him. Tell me, aren’t you shameless?”

The crime of hooliganism?

Ye Wanqing’s heart gave a jolt.

In this era, the crime of hooliganism carried very heavy sentences—possibly even execution by shooting.

Who had seen it that day? Hadn’t Ge Yuan’s little brothers cleared the scene? Could it be……

Ye Wanqing suppressed the worry and impulse in her heart. She did not look toward Ge Yuan and tried hard not to show any unusual expression.

Her mind raced. Her gaze swept across the crowd once, and she suddenly thought of a good idea. She curved her lips into a cold smile and said, “Although I’m not your biological daughter, we at least have eighteen years of feelings. In order to harm me you actually want to drag an innocent person into the water. Do you truly have no conscience?”

“Innocent person? Pah!” Liu Lizhen pulled Sun Guixiang out from behind her and said loudly, “Didn’t you say your younger brother saw it? You tell them!”

At these words everyone looked toward Sun Guixiang. Ye Wanqing’s pair of cold almond eyes also stared at her. Sun Guixiang instantly felt her head was as big as a bucket and her forehead ached.

If she had known Liu Lizhen was this unscrupulous she would never have waded into this muddy water!

With people staring, even if Sun Guixiang did not want to speak she had to give an explanation. Yet just as she opened her mouth, Ye Wanqing’s voice rang out.

“Sister Wang, were you robbed of your bag half a month ago? I remember you told me about it.”

Wang Fang was also present.

She had been afraid Liu Lizhen would make things look bad and worried that Ye Wanqing’s reputation would be damaged, so she had wanted to come along to persuade the mother and daughter. At these words she nodded without understanding. “Yes…… over ten yuan was robbed.”

Yet she also felt it strange. She seemed not to have told Ye Wanqing about this matter. Had she remembered wrong?

“Actually that day I was also robbed of money by little hooligans, and almost……” Ye Wanqing lowered her eyes and tightly bit her lip. “If it weren’t for Brother Yuan happening to pass by and saving me, I simply would not be standing here safe and sound! So he is not only not a bad person, he is my life-saving benefactor!”

“You…… you’re talking nonsense!” The moment she heard Ye Wanqing bring up the little hooligans, Liu Lizhen’s expression changed.

How could she know that Ge Yuan actually had this kind of connection with Ye Wanqing?

Ye Wanqing: “Whether I’m talking nonsense or not, just find the little hooligans who did bad things to me back then and it’ll be fine, right? Maybe they’re the same group as the ones who robbed Sister Wang’s money! If I remember correctly, those little hooligans were……”

“Forget it! You…… don’t change the subject!” Liu Lizhen shouted sharply. “Even if…… even if this man isn’t a bad person, then…… then……”

She suddenly pointed at Ge Yuan and spoke without choosing her words carefully: “Then you shut the door with this man and hide in the courtyard—who knows what you’re doing inside? If you didn’t give him some sweetness, how would he willingly do things for you, doing whatever you tell him to do?”

Ye Wanqing was so angry she laughed instead. “Do the words you’re saying sound like something a person would say? According to your logic, last time you made a suit of trousers for Uncle Chen—was that also because you had something going on with him? Otherwise, why would someone as calculating as you be willing to make trousers for him?”

Liu Lizhen’s face instantly flushed red. She trembled all over from anger. “What nonsense are you talking?! I took a job. He gave me the cloth and paid me the labor fee, so I made the trousers for him. Stop fabricating things here!”

Ye Wanqing: “Then I also paid labor fees to hire someone to do work. Why is it so dirty in your mouth?”

Fatty Wang’s mother, who was surrounding outside, immediately opened her mouth to chime in: “Who says it isn’t? I’m also following Comrade Ye to do work—cutting vegetables and helping out for her, also busy in this courtyard. Does that mean I’ve also done things that can’t see the light of day?”

“In this day and age who doesn’t have a job?”

“My family makes tofu. Who knows how many people go to my house every day? According to this logic, it can’t be explained clearly?”

“Your own eyes are dirty, so everything you look at is dirty!”

“……”

The combat power of the various aunts and old ladies had originally all been used to gossip about the Ge family’s rights and wrongs. Yet under the leadership of Fatty Wang’s mother, and under the temptation of having work that could subsidize the family, they one after another became Ye Wanqing’s allies and spoke until Liu Lizhen’s face turned green.

Angered to the extreme, Liu Lizhen narrowed her eyes and suddenly calmed down as she questioned Ye Wanqing: “You mean that you and this man have an employer-employee relationship and are not dating?”

She had lived for so many years after all—could she not see the peculiarities in this?

Not to mention anything else, just looking at the way this wild man looked at Ye Wanqing, she didn’t believe they were truly pure! If Ye Wanqing said they were not, perhaps this wild man would get angry and……

Ye Wanqing did not fall for it. “I didn’t say that. Right now it’s an employer-employee relationship. In the future if we happen to take a liking to each other, maybe we’ll become boyfriend and girlfriend? Does that mean that because of one sentence from you, free love is no longer allowed from now on, and we still have to abide by your pure rules and strict regulations?”

This time before Liu Lizhen could open her mouth, Sun Guixiang coldly laughed in a sarcastic tone. “You’re just afraid to say you’re not!”

What free love—clearly it’s corrupting morals!

She forced a fake smile onto her face as she looked toward Ge Yue standing under the eaves and waved at her. “Little friend, come over here. You tell us—has this older sister and your older brother hugged and kissed at home?”

“This person has come to snatch your older brother, to trick him away. In the future your older brother won’t want you anymore.”

“You tell us, and we’ll help you drive this shameless older sister away. We’ll even give you candy to eat. Look……”

Those watching the show were not afraid of the excitement growing larger. Among the people who had come along, who knew who truly handed Sun Guixiang a few fruit candies. Sun Guixiang took them and raised her hand toward Ge Yue, looking just like an old fox waiting for the little white rabbit to fall into the trap.

Ge Yuan’s heart instantly rose high. Even Ye Wanqing’s gaze changed a little.

The surrounding people either watched with schadenfreude or looked toward Ge Yue with worried faces, none knowing what earth-shattering words Ge Yue might say.

A five- or six-year-old child simply could not distinguish what should be said and what should not be said, let alone with the temptation of candy present. Perhaps she would spill everything in one go.

What the truth of the matter actually was…… even Fatty Wang’s mother who had switched camps felt that the beating heart in her chest was expecting explosive gossip! The nature carved into her bones could not be restrained ah!

Sun Guixiang was still inciting: “Look, I have several fruit candies here. They’ll only be given to honest children. You say—has this older sister seduced your older brother and kissed him?”

Ge Yue’s large eyes stared at the candy in her palm as she stepped closer step by step. In a clear voice she asked, “What is kissing?”