The Evil Mother-in-law: Torment Children, Work Hard, Be Rich!-Chapter 229: Shifting the Blame Eastward

"Haven’t found where the person is."

"That bastard must have gotten the tip-off and run away in advance."

The crowd turned Xu Yong’s house upside down but found no one, and they all surged into the courtyard, angrily surrounding Mrs. Tian.

"Where has your husband gone?"

"If you don’t tell us, we’ll stay in your house and won’t leave."

"If your husband doesn’t show up, your family’s belongings should compensate everyone."

Having been the village chief’s wife for so many years, Mrs. Tian remained calm and stood in the middle of the courtyard, emphasizing, "I am not aware of the pesticide issue. My husband has gone to the Zheng Family in Pingchuan County. If you want to find him, you should go there."

In her heart, Mrs. Tian thought that if Xu Yong couldn’t escape responsibility, she would drag the Zheng Family into it.

After all, it was Xu Zaohua who found someone to make the pesticide. Her husband couldn’t be well, so Xu Zaohua shouldn’t think about living peacefully as the Eldest Young Madam of the Zheng Family either.

Seeing that everyone couldn’t find Xu Yong, Liu Tieshan and others believed Xu Yong had indeed gone to the Zheng Family to avoid trouble. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

If Xu Yong really went to the Zheng Family, it seemed everyone couldn’t do anything about it, certainly wouldn’t go to the Zheng family to demand him back.

Even if they complained to the government, with the Zheng Family shielding Xu Yong, he might not be punished.

If Xu Yong argued that he mixed the pesticide for everyone’s corn and didn’t expect it to ruin the corn, with good intentions leading to bad results, the government wouldn’t be able to convict him just on those grounds.

But if Xu Yong couldn’t be found, it was feared the angry villagers would see the whole Qinghe Bay as their enemy, causing trouble for the entire village.

Such a thing was likely to happen.

There would certainly be those simple-minded villagers thinking, why was my corn destroyed by pesticide while your Qinghe Bay’s corn was thriving?

With the imbalance in emotions, it would be easy to turn the hatred towards Xu Yong into hatred towards the entire Qinghe Bay.

Liu Tieshan definitely wouldn’t allow such a thing to happen.

It’s essential for Xu Yong to come out, apologize or compensate, and show an attitude to calm the angry villagers from these villages.

Thinking this, Liu Tieshan said to Mrs. Tian, "Sister-in-law, since Xu Yong has gone to the Zheng Family, let’s have him come back and properly apologize to everyone, and compensate where compensation is due."

Mrs. Tian angrily retorted to Liu Tieshan, "Why should he apologize? Their corn wilted, and they push the blame onto my husband. Who knows if their corn was actually ruined by the pesticide or something else? Maybe they are just taking advantage of the situation."

This statement made the villagers even angrier.

They used the pesticide Xu Yong sold them, which led to the near death of their corn, and yet Xu Yong’s wife was turning the tables on them.

The crowd clamored to move Xu Yong’s family’s grain as compensation.

Mrs. Tian stood firmly in the courtyard, yelling that if anyone touched her family’s grain, she would bash her head in.

Mrs. Tian’s attitude made Liu Tieshan so angry that he wanted to drop the matter.

Initially, he felt that Xu Yong had run away, leaving Mrs. Tian alone to clean up the mess. Her two sons were up in the mountains and not home, so he sympathized with her.

Now, Liu Tieshan felt that Mrs. Tian and Xu Yong were the same kind of people, sleeping together in the same bed and just as unscrupulous for the sake of profit.

"Everyone, stay calm. We are not here to make trouble; we are here to ask Xu Yong for an explanation." Village Chief Hu from Guazhou Bay waved to his villagers.

With so many people, each can only carry so much if they go into Xu Yong’s house to move the grain.

The grain from Xu Yong’s house must be for the villagers of Guazhou Bay.

Village Chief Hu was telling everyone not to act rashly to confuse the other villagers entirely.

Village Chief Zhang from Moon Bay had the same idea as Village Chief Hu.

Tong Huaqiong understood this clearly.

These village chiefs, having honed their skills from grassroots work, couldn’t be said to be wrong; they were certainly far better for their villagers’ interests than Xu Yong as village chief.

Their individual plans caused the situation to reach a stalemate for the moment.

Tong Huaqiong felt that Mrs. Tian was stalling for time, one, to let Xu Yong escape and two, to delay until Xu Jin brought the Xu Family members to support her.

Even though Xu Yong had lost power in Qinghe Bay, the Xu Family members were an undeniable force.

While others demanded Mrs. Tian to hand over Xu Yong, Tong Huaqiong had already made preparations.

That morning before she went to the county to offer the prescription, she was still uneasy about Xu Yong acting secretly, so she had her stepson Gu Dahuan keep an eye on Xu Yong.

Just now, when she went into the Xu household to eat melon, she encountered Gu Dahuan, who quietly told her that Xu Yong hadn’t left the house.

But why was it that when the villagers from Guazhou Bay and other places turned Xu Yong’s house upside down, they couldn’t find him?

The pigsty, henhouse, latrine... everywhere was searched, but there was no trace of Xu Yong.

He couldn’t have disappeared into thin air as a living person.

Tong Huaqiong brainstormed; if Xu Yong had run from the house, how would he have done it?

It couldn’t be digging a tunnel; he must have climbed over the wall.

Climbing over the wall was a bit risky; Village Chief Hu from Guazhou Bay was very capable and had already stationed people to guard the surroundings of Xu Yong’s house to prevent his escape.

Tong Huaqiong suspected that Xu Yong had already climbed over the wall and escaped before the villagers from the other villages arrived.

When he escaped, he wouldn’t fear being blocked on the road by these angry outside villagers.

How could he escape without being discovered?

A spark flashed across Tong Huaqiong’s mind.

"Da Han... have our hired workers follow the road from the Xu family’s latrine up into the mountains..." Tong Huaqiong summoned Gu Dahuan from the crowd and quietly instructed him.

Gu Dahuan nodded and quietly withdrew from the crowd.

The Xu Family’s courtyard was surrounded by wooden stakes, with only a hidden path outside the latrine that led through the cornfield into the mountains.

Tong Huaqiong was confident that Xu Yong had scaled the wall and escaped via the latrine before everyone surged in.

If Gu Dahuan could catch Xu Yong, it would meet her expectations, and Xu Yong would certainly appear before everyone in an astonishing manner.

Just thinking about it started to make Tong Huaqiong excited.

"Let your husband come out."

"Don’t think that just because you’re a woman standing in front, we can’t do anything to you."

"If our corn won’t survive, neither should yours have a harvest."

...

Mrs. Tian insisted that Xu Yong was not at home, and no one could prove that everyone’s corn withered because of the pesticide.

Mrs. Tian estimated the time, believing that Xu Yong had already escaped by now.

Escaping to the Zheng Family would mean hope.

As grasshoppers tied on the same rope, Xu Zaohua couldn’t possibly ignore Xu Yong.

"I’ve already told you that the pesticide formula came from Widow Tong’s place. How would we know that the formula would work on the corn in Qinghe Bay but not on yours?"

"Even if you continue making a fuss, you won’t be able to save the corn. You must not only have one acre of land, right? If I were you, I wouldn’t worry about the damaged corn but would focus on increasing the yield of the fields where no pesticide was sprayed."

Mrs. Tian glanced at Tong Huaqiong, hinting.

Damn you, Tong Huaqiong thought, trying to shift the blame onto her again.

"Get it straight, Tian Suying. Stop pointing the finger at me. Didn’t you accept everyone’s silver without saying your drug formula wouldn’t work? Now that Xu Yong isn’t home, shouldn’t you return the silver to everyone?"

Some villagers, who initially thought of asking Tong Huaqiong for the pesticide, were reminded of their lost silver and started clamoring for Mrs. Tian to return their money.

"Make way, make way."

Amidst the uproar, Gu Dahuan, accompanied by four strong young men, carved a path through the crowd.

Tong Huaqiong looked over, and good heavens, four people were carrying someone in.

Mrs. Tian wobbled upon seeing the person being carried in, almost fainting.