Chapter 44: Something Huge Has Happened

Li Yunqing could not help but smile, a mixture of exasperation and amusement. That Li Pinghua really devoted all her brain power entirely to scheming against others.

With the evidence collection nearly complete, Li Yunqing stopped by the grain shop to purchase three catties of brown sugar and five catties of flour, hoisting them over her shoulder for the walk home.

By dusk, the courtyard was relatively quiet. Liang Mingxue and Lady Chu had both gone to the fields to water the crops, while her grandmother, Lady Wang, stood up to help Li Yunqing carry the flour inside.

"Grandmother, where are the others?"

Lady Wang dragged the flour into the kitchen and replied, "Your second aunt and Youyong went to look for your second uncle. Your father and mother are out in the fields, and A-yan and the others went to play at the neighbor's house."

"Second Uncle didn't come back even at noon?"

"Indeed not. Who knows what your second uncle has been up to lately."

Seeing the worried look on Lady Wang's face, Li Yunqing said no more. She began kneading the flour with warm water, mixing in the brown sugar and leaving the dough to ferment.

She placed a dozen brownish-red dough balls onto the stove, covered them with a clean cotton quilt, and tended a small fire beneath the stove to accelerate the fermentation process.

By the time the brown sugar steamed buns were fully fermented and cooked through, Liang Mingxue and Lady Chu had returned, carrying their shoulder poles and water buckets. Gasping for breath, the two sat down on wooden stools, starving to the point of spots dancing before their eyes.

Li Yunqing poured a bowl of water and handed it to them, then brought out a bowl of the freshly steamed buns.

The brownish-red buns emitted the rich fragrance of wheat and the sweet aroma of brown sugar. Soft yet chewy, Liang Mingxue shoved one into his mouth without minding the heat.

The warm sweetness spreading across his lips instantly melted away the exhaustion of an entire afternoon of labor. Lady Chu also broke off a piece and put it in her mouth.

She had always favored sweets, and these buns suited her palate perfectly. Beside them, the ravenous Lady Wang fixed an eager gaze on the remaining buns in the bowl.

Li Yunqing shifted the bowl closer to her.

"Have one, Grandmother."

"Good, good. My eldest granddaughter is truly filial."

Lady Wang snatched a bun in one hand and shoved it straight into her mouth. She had been drooling just watching them being made, and now that she finally tasted it, she was so satisfied she closed her eyes in bliss.

In the old days, how could anyone ever hope to eat pure white flour buns, let alone ones spiked with brown sugar? In the village, only women who had just given birth were ever treated to brown sugar.

"My dear granddaughter, this is simply too delicious!"

"Indeed, the flavor is exceptional."

Liang Mingxue echoed the praise without stopping. After finishing a single bun, he immediately felt strength return to his limbs, and the dark spots stopped swimming before his vision.

Li Yunqing broke off half a bun and ate it herself. The bun was fairly standard; since it was her first time making buns over a wood-burning stove, she had deliberately used less brown sugar for fear of failure.

Now that she had some experience under her belt, she could add a bit more brown sugar next time, which would make the texture even better.

Grandmother Wang finished her first bun and immediately reached for a second. Before doing so, she glanced at Li Yunqing's expression, and seeing that the girl did not mind, she boldly picked it up.

Just as her fingers touched the bun, she heard Auntie Ma's anxious shouts from outside the door.

"Eldest Liang! Yunqing! Are you at home? Something's happened! Something terrible has happened!"

This urgent cry made Lady Wang drop the bun right back into the bowl. Li Yunqing took the lead and went to open the door.

She was met with Auntie Ma's flushed, frantic face. Without pausing to explain, Auntie Ma grabbed Li Yunqing by the arm and pulled her outward in long strides.

Lady Chu and Liang Mingxue followed closely behind. For a moment, none of them had any idea what was going on, except for Li Yunqing, who vaguely suspected the truth.

Taking advantage of their stride, she turned to Auntie Ma, who was still pulling her along, and asked, "Auntie, stop running for a moment and tell us—what on earth has happened?"

"Yes, Auntie Ma, do tell us!" Liang Mingxue called out anxiously from behind.

Auntie Ma gasped for several lungfuls of air before she managed to reply.

"Your second brother has caused a colossal disaster! Right now, he and your sister-in-law are being cornered at the village entrance, and there's a woman trapped with them too!"

"A woman?"

Li Yunqing had guessed quite early on that Liang Zhiyan would stir up trouble, but she had not expected it to involve another female.

Auntie Ma nodded repeatedly. She seemed on the verge of saying something else but held back, her expression deeply troubled.

A flash of insight crossed Li Yunqing's mind. She stopped in her tracks and asked, "Did Liang Zhiyan take a concubine?"

"Huh? What?!"

Behind her, both Liang parents wore expressions of absolute shock. Folks in the countryside struggled just to afford a primary wife, let alone some concubine!

Besides, Liang Zhiyan was usually kept on such a tight leash; how could he possibly have the audacity to take a mistress?

Liang Mingxue opened his mouth to dismiss Li Yunqing's wild guesswork, but Auntie Ma simply nodded in helpless confirmation.

Liang Mingxue instantly looked as though he had been struck by lightning. Hobbling along behind them, the grandmother leaned on her walking stick and looked toward the group frozen in place.

"What's going on here? Weren't we going to look for the second one?"

Grandmother looked around at the three of them, reading the various expressions on their faces. "What heaven-forsaking crime has the second one committed this time?"

Li Yunqing nodded at her. "You could say that. Even if the heavens don't strike him down with lightning, someone else surely will."

By the time they reached the village entrance, the area was already surrounded three deep by a dense crowd of onlookers. When the Liang family members arrived, all they could see was a sea of people.

"Make way, please make way."

Li Yunqing squeezed through the crowd. Before she was even halfway through, she could already hear Liang Zhiyan's wretched, miserable howling, along with her second aunt's uniquely shrill voice. Mixed in with them was the crying of a strange woman.

"Make way, everyone make way!"

Li Yunqing pushed frantically through the throng. With great difficulty, she finally squeezed into the inner circle, and the sight before her made her immediately start pinching the space beneath her nose while calling frantically upon the 007 system.

What on earth is this situation?!

Liang Zhiyan was already bruised and battered, kneeling on the ground with a face covered in scratch marks.

On the other side, sobbing face-down on the earth, was her second aunt, Li Pinghua, who alternated between weeping and cursing Liang Zhiyan.

Squatting behind Liang Zhiyan was a frail-looking woman. She appeared to be in her early thirties, her skin significantly fairer than that of the surrounding farming women. She wore silk floral hair ornaments.

Her attire was also unlike anything worn in the village: a water-red outer tunic paired with a grey inner skirt.

She had also sustained quite a few injuries; her exposed arms were covered in bruised patches from beatings, though they looked somewhat older.

Catching sight of Li Yunqing, Liang Zhiyan—whose eyes were already swollen nearly shut from the beating—instantly lunged forward, wailing loudly, "My dear niece! Save your second uncle! Save me!"

Li Yunqing stepped back a few paces in disgust. Before she could retreat further, a pair of coarse, heavy hands grabbed her by the arms from behind.

"Are you the one who's going to pay his debts?"

The person holding Li Yunqing was a towering brute with a face full of knife scars, glaring at her with sharp, piercing eyes.

"Yes, yes! This is my niece! She has plenty of money! She knows the owner of the Xike Restaurant, go to her for the money!"

Liang Zhiyan groveled abjectly at the brute's feet, his every word an attempt to push Li Yunqing into the line of fire.

Liang Mingxue, who had just forced his way through the crowd, saw this scene and felt the blood rush straight to his brain. He let out a roar:

"Let go of my daughter!"

Seeing that the brute refused to release her, Liang Mingxue charged forward instantly. He was shorter than the ruffian, standing only as high as the man's nose when standing straight.

Just as he rushed in to pry the hands off Li Yunqing's arms, the brute struck him with a single punch, knocking him flat to the ground.