Chapter 374 - 370: Astonishing News_1
Chapter 374: Chapter 370: Astonishing News_1
Although Mrs. Feng of the Chen Family and Old Chen were angry at Chu Man for injuring their granddaughter, they thought of Chen Zhao’s sharp tongue and defiance towards anyone, so they kept their peace, hoping their granddaughter would learn a lesson.
But now, seeing Chu Man scratch their son’s face, they couldn’t help but get angry.
“Er Lang, take her back to the room, stop making a spectacle in public!”
Upon hearing his parents’ words, Chen Changping grabbed Chu Man and dragged her into the house.
Seeing that the spectacle was over, the crowd quickly dispersed.
Chen Wan followed Yingbao to retrieve the medicine and prepared it at home before feeding it to her younger sister.
In the meantime, she had not noticed where Xubao had gone.
Meanwhile, Chu Man began to make a fuss after being reprimanded by Chen Changping, crying and shouting to go back to her mother’s house.
Chen Changping was thoroughly annoyed with this woman, he ignored her, left the room and went to talk to Li Xu.
When Chu Man realised that no one was paying her any attention, and nobody was asking her to join them for a meal, she became even angrier.
Packing up her belongings, she smashed a few porcelain jars in the house, then crying loudly, she stormed out the door and headed out of the village.
The villagers watched her go from afar, but no one intervened.
As Chu Man left the village, she started to regret her actions, but she was too prideful to turn back, so she forced herself to keep going down the hill.
Since it was the holiday season, there weren’t many people on the road. Chu Man hesitated and turned around to take one last look, then sat down on a rock by the road.
She had just returned from her mother’s house the day before, and going back this soon would surely lead to disapproval, especially from her father.
Relying on her feet alone to travel the ten-plus miles back to the Chu Family village from South Slope would be exhausting.
As she was pondering her predicament, she looked up to see Xubao standing in front of her with his hands behind his back.
The boy was already six or seven years old, usually quiet and grim looking.
“You little bastard, you scared me!” Chu Man cursed: “Did your bastard father send you here?”
Xubao stepped forward and nodded.
Chu Man smirked and sneered: “Go tell him, if he doesn’t beg for my forgiveness on his knees, I’ll divorce him…”
Before she could finish, a flash of cold light passed by. Chu Man felt a sudden pain in her face and instinctively put her hand to her cheek.
Another flash of cold light came straight for the other side of her head.
Something fell to the ground. Chu Man looked and thought it was an ear.
“Ah! Help!” Chu Man screamed in terror as she saw her hands full of blood, and the pain on her face and head unbearable.
Xubao stepped back, throwing a disdainful glance at the woman kneeling on the ground before running away quickly.
When the villagers heard her screams and came to investigate, they found Chu Man unconscious by the side of the road, her face and head covered in blood.
Someone rushed to inform Old Chen and Mrs. Feng: “It’s bad, your daughter-in-law fell and hit her head, it’s all split open. You better go and see!”
On hearing this, Mrs. Feng turned around and went back into the house, not showing herself again.
Old Chen had no choice but to call his second and third sons to go down to the hill to see what had happened.
So, Chu Man was carried back.
When Chen Changping saw the severity of his wife’s injuries, he quickly instructed Chen Wan to call Yingbao.
Chen Wan nodded, and started walking towards the Jiang Family’s home. Halfway there, she turned back, picked up a bun from the stove room, and slowly began to eat it while she diverted her course to Granny Wu’s house.
When Granny Wu arrived at the Chen’s house with her medical kit, Chen Changping was stunned.
Chen Wan quickly said, “Granny Wu’s medical skills are much better than Yingbao’s, so I asked her to come.”
Chen Changping was furious at his eldest daughter for defying him, but since she had already invited someone, he couldn’t reprimand her in front of others and had to swallow his anger.
However, with some anger on his face, he gloomily invited Granny Wu into the house to attend to Chu Man’s wounds.
Wu Si certainly noticed, the Scholar had no respect for him.
He despised him!
With a cold smile in his heart, Wu Si carefully examined Chu Man’s wounds.
Afterward, he took out the Herbal Balm and applied it on Chu Man’s injuries.
All of Chu Man’s wounds were on her face. There was a cut from left to right that sliced off her nose tip.
The other was on her right ear; almost half of it was shaved off, leaving only a small bit of the earlobe.
Appalling as the wounds looked, they posed no threat to her life, but her beauty was undoubtedly ruined.
Chu Man woke up shortly after, wailing loudly, “The bastard injured me! The bastard injured me!”
Chen Changping coolly stared at her swollen, bruised face, his eyes full of disgust.
“Chen Changping! You let your son hurt me! I will never let this slide! That little brat, I will kill him!” Chu Man’s wailing tore open her wounds again, blood seeping into the pillow and bedding.
“Enough!” Chen Changping pointed at her, “If you dare to spout nonsense, believe it or not I will divorce you at once!”
“Divorce me then! Divorce me!” Chu Man, who had never suffered such humiliation, was choked by old grudges and new injuries. Ignoring the pain in her face, she tried to lunge at Chen Changping.
Chen Changping pushed her back and left the room.
After pausing, he closed the door and locked it from outside.
No matter how much Chu Man threw a tantrum inside, he did not open the door.
Chen Wan sat at her sister’s bedside, quietly listening to the commotion outside. A smile spread across her face. She stroked her brother Xubao’s head, whispered: “Remember, you can’t admit anything. No matter who asks, you just say you were with your sister at home and didn’t go anywhere else.”
Xubao nodded, his small body trembling incessantly.
After injuring his stepmother, he was scared and ran home to tell his elder sister about it.
Not only did his sister not scold him, but she also reassured him not to be scared.
Chen Wan added, “You’re attending school now; you have to think carefully. If you let out one word, you won’t be able to take the imperial exams.”
Xubao nodded, “I understand.”
Meanwhile, Yingbao, after visiting her niece, heard about a shocking event from Erni.
“Chu Man had her nose and ear severed by someone and is making a ruckus at home, so the Chen Family locked her up.” Erni laughed, “That damned woman, who cracked my brother’s head open back then, has finally been repaid in this life.”
Yanru wasn’t aware of the matter yet, but she didn’t bother asking, either.
All she cared about these days was her daughter, who had become increasingly healthier, eating and sleeping well, gaining a bit of weight.
Once awake, she became very active, enjoying being held upright, looking around curiously. When someone spoke, she would dart her eyes towards them.
Erni pinched her sister’s little face, causing her to wave around her arms excitedly.
“Do you want to go out and play?” Erni pinched her little hand and asked.
The baby blinked, even making an “oh” sound, which surprised everyone.
After leaving her uncle’s house, Yingbao saw Niuniu standing at the entrance to her house, wearing the tiger-head hat from Yingbao’s childhood. Niuniu was looking around pitifully.
When she saw Yingbao, with her little short legs, she ran over as fast as she could, “Auntie!”
Then, she clung onto her arm, “Auntie, carry me.”
Yingbao could not carry this chubby girl, especially since she was also wearing a thick cotton coat. “Auntie can’t carry you. Come on, let’s go home.”
She brought the chubby girl back to her room, let her climb onto the heated brick bed by herself, and opened a book to teach her some characters.
They only learned two or three characters a day, and one sentence from the multiplication table.
Niuniu studied with great concentration, even picking up the bamboo stick to calculate the numbers.