Chapter 92

Chapter 92: Quibbling
Li Tao Hua didn’t waste time arguing about pain. She seized Tang Ming Xiu’s wrist and yanked her arm into the torchlight.

“It hurts, does it? Where? Show me. Are you bleeding?”

“Ah!” Tang Ming Xiu tried to jerk away. “Let go of me!”

Qin Hui Yin stepped in and pinned Tang Ming Xiu by the shoulder, steady and firm, so Li Tao Hua could roll up the sleeve.

Madam Wang let out a shriek and lunged forward. “What are you doing? Let go of my daughter!”

Tang Da Fu blocked her with both arms. “Madam Wang, don’t—”

Madam Wang dropped to the ground with a thud and began wailing, as if she’d been struck. “You’re ganging up on us just because you have more people…”

Tang Yi Xiao sneered from beside the torch. “Our family doesn’t climb other people’s walls in the middle of the night. How come no one ever gangs up on us?”

Li Tao Hua peeled the cloth back and stared hard at Tang Ming Xiu’s skin.

There was no blood. No broken skin. Not even a clear bite mark.

She turned to the Village Head, voice sharp with contempt. “Look at that, Village Head. Not even a scratch. She’s faking it.”

The Village Head’s face darkened. “You really have nothing better to do? You climb into someone else’s yard at midnight and then try to frame them. Shameless.”

Madam Wang’s eyes flashed. She grabbed her daughter’s arm and hissed, low and furious, “You little brat—weren’t you bitten?”

Tang Ming Xiu’s mouth opened—and instead of an answer, she doubled over and retched.

The sound was wet and ugly in the cold night.

Madam Wang’s gaze snapped up at once, as if she’d been handed a new weapon. “Village Head, look! My daughter’s been beaten so badly she has internal injuries! You have to stand up for us!”

Tang Ming Xiu kept her head down and vomited again, shoulders shaking.

The truth was, the dog had lunged only once. It had hurt—enough to make her see stars—but it hadn’t torn skin. She’d screamed on purpose, hoping to scare money out of them. When Li Tao Hua rolled up her sleeve and there was nothing to show, panic crawled up her throat like bile.

So she kept retching. If her mother wanted to make it a spectacle, she’d give her one.

Li Tao Hua spat a curse. “Shameless. They’re trying to scam us.”

Tang Yi Xiao and Tang Lu Wu held the torches, their faces hard in the light.

Qin Hui Yin reached out and took Tang Yi Xiao’s torch, then stepped closer to Tang Ming Xiu. She lifted the flame so it lit Tang Ming Xiu’s face, watching her eyes, her breathing, every twitch.

Madam Wang shouted, “What are you doing? Trying to burn my daughter to death?”

Qin Hui Yin didn’t blink. “If she feels this awful, we should call a physician to examine her. It’s too late to travel safely right now. Let’s wait until dawn and invite Doctor Shi from Shi Jia Village to come take her pulse.”

Madam Wang’s wail cut off short. “No need. Just pay us some money.”

“No.” Qin Hui Yin’s voice stayed even, almost gentle. “If it’s serious, we should pay her medical fees properly. A physician should decide that, not shouting.”

Li Tao Hua tugged Qin Hui Yin’s sleeve, eyes blazing. “Daughter, they’re clearly putting on a show.”

Qin Hui Yin patted the back of her mother’s hand, calming without looking away from Madam Wang. “Mother, don’t rush.”

The Village Head glanced at Qin Hui Yin, surprised despite himself. A young girl—yet she spoke with more sense than most adults. And the whole Tang household listened to her.

Since the doctor was already being called, the Village Head felt his job done. He shifted, ready to escape. “If you’ve arranged that, then there’s nothing more for me—”

Qin Hui Yin stepped between him and the gate. “Village Head, the injury can wait for the physician. But you still haven’t judged them climbing our wall.”

Madam Wang bristled. “I told you—we came to pick something up!”

“Then where is it?” Qin Hui Yin asked.

“It’s too dark. How would we see it?”

“Fine.” Qin Hui Yin nodded, as if granting a favor. “We’ll wait here until dawn. When it’s light, you can find this undergarment. If you really find one, we’ll call it a misunderstanding.”

Madam Wang’s throat bobbed. Tang Ming Xiu retched again, more from fear than sickness.

There was no undergarment. They hadn’t come to retrieve anything—they’d come to snoop, to pry out whatever secrets the Tang family was hiding. In the rush, they hadn’t even thought to toss something over first.

Li Tao Hua’s smile was all teeth. “What color is it? We’ll help you look. If we don’t find it, we’ll report you to the authorities.”

Madam Wang’s eyes darted. “Then maybe… maybe we remembered wrong. But no matter why we climbed the wall, my daughter has internal injuries, and you still have to take responsibility.”

“We’ll take responsibility for what we did,” Qin Hui Yin said, voice still steady. “But you’ll also answer for what you did. Village Head—what do you say?”

The Village Head let out a long breath. His patience was threadbare, and he had no love for midnight wall-climbers. “Madam Wang. Tang Ming Xiu. No matter what excuse you give, climbing someone’s wall at night is wrong. You will compensate the Tang family with 20 eggs. You will apologize in front of the villagers at daybreak. And you will promise there won’t be a next time.”

Madam Wang exploded. “No! Why should I give them 20 eggs?”

Tang Ming Xiu’s face turned red, then white. It wasn’t the eggs she cared about. It was the apology—standing in front of the whole village and admitting she’d climbed Tang Da Fu’s wall in the middle of the night. Her stomach twisted.

Li Tao Hua crossed her arms, voice dripping with contempt. “It’s always this petty nonsense. I’m sick of it. If you can’t afford to lose, don’t come poking at our family. I, Li Tao Hua, am not someone you can bully. If you really make me mad, I’ll beat you until you can’t get out of bed.”

Madam Wang shoved her chest out. “Go on, then. Hit me. Hit me—”

Li Tao Hua rolled up her sleeves.

Qin Hui Yin caught her mother’s arm. “Mother. Don’t waste your anger on them. Don’t make yourself sick.”

Li Tao Hua shook with rage. She leaned close to Qin Hui Yin and hissed, “Why are we calling a physician for them? They’re clearly putting on a show.”

Qin Hui Yin drew her mother aside into the darker corner of the yard and murmured a few words by her ear.

Li Tao Hua’s expression shifted—first disbelief, then a sharp, satisfied stillness. “You’re sure you didn’t see wrong?”

“Trust my judgment,” Qin Hui Yin said.

When Li Tao Hua turned back, the anger on her face was gone. She looked at Madam Wang the way a person looked at a fly trapped under a bowl.

“Do as the Village Head said,” she said, almost gracious. “20 eggs and a public apology at daybreak—and we won’t ask why you were really climbing our wall.”

Madam Wang opened her mouth. “Village Head, 20—”

The Village Head cut her off, voice flat. “Aren’t they calling a doctor for Ming Xiu? If the physician finds something serious, what they pay won’t be limited to eggs.”

Madam Wang’s lips pressed together. Her eyes slid sideways, already calculating, already searching for where the most profit might be squeezed.

Qin Hui Yin said, “Uncle Tang, please take the Village Head inside to rest. It won’t be long until dawn.”

Tang Da Fu hesitated, glancing toward the kitchen as if he could see tomorrow’s work piling up there. “We still have to go into town to do business. How are we going to arrange things?”

Qin Hui Yin looked to Tang Lu Wu and Tang Yi Xiao. “Can you cover the stall for one day if needed?”

Tang Lu Wu and Tang Yi Xiao could handle most of the food, but the stir-fried noodles were new, and they still didn’t have the timing right. Tang Da Fu could take payments and ladle spicy soup, but the rest—

Li Tao Hua didn’t wait for him to finish panicking. “You stay here with me,” she snapped at Tang Da Fu. “Daughter will take them to do business.”

Tang Da Fu blinked, then nodded quickly. It wasn’t that he didn’t want to argue—it was that, with his wife’s tone, there was no argument to be had.

Li Tao Hua’s eyes narrowed toward Madam Wang and Tang Ming Xiu. Whatever game those two wanted to play, she’d play it right back.