Jiang Xinyu’s steps, which had been about to leave, stopped; seeing the villagers protect her like this, she felt quite moved.

"Xiao Jiang, you go back. Don’t get yourself mixed up in this."

Li Yungui knew the township might very well hold him accountable. But he could handle it alone; there was no need for Xiao Jiang’s reputation to take a hit. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Jiang Xinyu nodded, got on her bike, and left.

She hadn’t even ridden out of Tangjiazhuang when she saw the family’s car come speeding over.

As soon as Jiang Xinyu rode off, Feifei had her brother go call Dad.

If Mom was getting hurt for no reason, that would be trouble.

Wei Kaiyun was working in the fields; when he saw his son running over, his heart skipped a beat. After hearing what Shi Jing said, he didn’t even wait for the boy and ran straight home.

He drove straight over, and only when he saw his wife did he finally relax.

"What are you doing here? I was just about to head back."

Wei Kaiyun’s face still didn’t look good, but seeing that his wife was fine, he just gripped her hand tightly.

"It’s okay, it’s okay." The man had been scared out of his wits.

"Come on, let’s go home." Wei Kaiyun wanted to say a few words, but when he saw how she felt sorry for him, he didn’t say anything at all.

He didn’t want Jiang Xinyu dragged into this kind of mess, afraid she’d get implicated.

"Alright, put the bike on the car?"

Wei Kaiyun simply lifted the bicycle into the car, and the two of them got in and drove off.

"Don’t be scared, I didn’t even go close to the front of it."

"Next time something like this happens, I’ll be the one to go."

"Okay, from now on anything dangerous, you’ll be the one to go.

But Li Yungui really is something. When I got there, I saw a bunch of women all brawling together, and the women from our village were just standing off to the side watching the show."

"He’s a capable man. Chaoyang takes after him in that regard."

"We really should train Chaoyang. And you know, Jing Chu can actually talk with Chaoyang."

"Chaoyang’s had ideas for a long time, but the kid’s a bit self‑conscious; Jing Chu doesn’t know that.

I’ll call him next time; Jing Chu needs a strong man, otherwise I’m afraid no one will be able to protect her."

"Yeah."

When Jiang Xinyu got home, she saw six kids looking at her with eager eyes.

"Mom’s back."

"Mom, are you okay?"

"I’m fine. Your mom’s not that weak, and besides, I didn’t go there to fight."

Back in Tangjiazhuang, Tang Manyin came over with the money and saw that the village women had already started fighting.

"Stop it, all of you stop it."

In the past, when he spoke people would listen, but now who cared what he said?

"All of you, go pull them apart."

No one moved; the men were thinking that women fighting each other wouldn’t do any real damage anyway.

"Tang Manyin, where’s the money?"

"Li Yungui, money’s all you recognize." Tang Manyin said angrily, pulling out a wad of cash.

Li Yungui took it and lowered his head to count. "You don’t recognize money? Then how did you dare take the collective’s money home? I, Li Yungui, would never have the guts to do something like that."

While Li Yungui counted the cash, Qu Xiaoli stood right next to him, like a mother hen shielding her chicks.

Li Yungui counted out exactly four hundred; he shook the whole wad of bills in the air. "Heh, all brand‑new notes; Tang Manyin, you really are well‑off.

We’ll let this matter drop this time, but there better not be a next time."

After he finished, Li Yungui called to the two women and left with them.

"Wait, where’s our Jianjun?"

"How would I know? I just ran into him on the road on my way here." Li Yungui waved a hand and turned his head to shoot Tang Manyin a grin.

"Li Yungui, from now on we’re enemies." Only now did he realize he’d been tricked.

"You, Tang Manyin, aren’t even worthy of being my enemy, Li Yungui’s. But whatever you’ve got, bring it on; I, Li Yungui, will be waiting."

Tang Manyin watched Li Yungui drive off and ground his teeth in hatred.

Seeing the women in a complete free‑for‑all, no one listened no matter how he shouted. He charged in, and that gave the women their chance; in the end Tang Manyin had his face scratched up and his clothes torn, though he still fared much better than his wife.

"Tang Manyin, where’s our Jianjun?"

"That bastard Li Yungui tricked us. He said he just saw Jianjun heading out on the road."

"Damn that Li Yungui. May he fall and die walking down the road."

The others listened to that vicious cursing and felt nothing but utter contempt for the Tang couple.

"Everyone go back to work." Having lost face today, Tang Manyin saw everyone still standing around and started yelling at them.

The wife of Tang Mancheng let out a cold laugh. "Cut the official airs, Tang Manyin. Today we’re going to stand right here and watch your whole family, and wait for the higher‑ups to come investigate you.

If we all leave and you sneak off to hide the embezzled money, that won’t do.

Big Brother, take some people and go stand guard at Tang Manyin’s house. Don’t let them go in. Let’s see how this plays out."

Tang Mancheng’s eldest brother, second brother, and fourth younger brother all left and really did go stand guard at Tang Manyin’s door.

Everyone was already reluctant to work; with such a good excuse, of course no one left.

The educated youths just watched from afar; with the villagers not moving, they were even less likely to move.

When Tang Manyin heard this, his face looked awful, but with the scratches on it, you couldn’t really tell.

Anyway, his whole family wasn’t going anywhere now; they were penned in here.

At home, Tang Fugui lay on the kang, with his five sons standing below.

"Dad, this is the last time. If it happens again, don’t blame us for being unfilial."

Tang Fugui felt terribly wronged; at his age, he was still being lectured by his sons.

So he simply lay there without moving a muscle.

The five Tang brothers didn’t try to coax him; they filed out one after another.

Left alone, Tang Fugui lay there and shed tears. His five sons had once been especially filial to him; when had it changed?

Right, it was after he made Manyin the village chief.

But what else could he have done? Tang Manyin was his son too.

He had always felt he owed Manyin too much and used to give him money on the side. But now that he was old, his sons didn’t want to take care of him anymore.

To have ended up like this in his old age—he really had brought it on himself.

The five Tang brothers went to the eldest brother’s room.

"Let’s all stay out of it. Dad should still have money in his hands. We’ll take turns keeping an eye on him; we can’t let that money go out."

The five brothers all nodded; that was exactly it—the fear was that all the money would end up in Tang Manyin’s hands.

Tang Mancheng was the team leader, but he’d never met the township leaders before.

He waited quite a while before the township chief finished the meeting.

Tang Mancheng wasn’t some fool; he laid out everything from start to finish for Xing Mingying.

"Chief Xing, what we want now is for the township to cooperate with the village. We want to audit the accounts.

There are five hundred mouths in Tangjiazhuang, after working a whole year and we still have to be in debt for food.

That Tang Manyin has no right to be the village chief of our Tangjiazhuang."

Xing Mingying smiled and nodded, though in her heart she didn’t approve of Li Yungui’s methods either. But that was for later; first they needed to sort out Tangjiazhuang’s mess.