Chapter 17: Seed of Suspicion

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

The way the married women looked at Sun Yunyun had changed. They started to wonder if Sun Yunyun was also acting this way to get their men’s attention.

The seed of doubt had been planted. People were like that — once they started to suspect something, everything would seem suspicious and questionable.

Just a moment ago, everyone was still praising Sun Yunyun and envying her ability to study and get into university. The next moment, they felt that she was up to no good and was good at putting on a front.

“Su Wen, you’ve misunderstood me… It’s not like that. What…what’s wrong with you today?” Sun Yunyun was in a panic. She felt that the Su Wen was a completely different person. She was also afraid that Su Wen would find out about her secret plan, making her panic even more.

“What about me? Don’t you know?” Su Wen asked in a neutral tone.

“I don’t know.” Sun Yunyun picked up her clothes and left dejectedly.

After the manipulative female protagonist left, Su Wen felt that the air was fresher. She hummed a tune as she rinsed her clothes in the clear river. She would occasionally interject when she heard the people around her chatting. She finished washing the clothes within a short time.

When she picked them up and was turning to go, she happened to hear her neighbor on the left, Li Qiuju, say, “Did you guys smell meat last night? That was so fragrant! I couldn’t sleep at night.”

Su Wen staggered and quickly took off.

How could she have forgotten that, in the countryside at this time, half the village could smell a family’s meat roasting.

*****

When Su Wen returned to the courtyard to hang the clothes, she saw Chen Guihua peeking in sneakily from the corner of her eye. Su Wen pretended not to know. She hung her clothes and walked around the kitchen before returning to her room and closing the door. After that, she squatted under the window and looked outside.

As expected —

Within ten minutes, Chen Guihua stuck her head out and confirmed that there was no one in the courtyard. She came in and went straight to the kitchen.

Chen Guihua hadn’t slept well the night before, even dreaming about the food. She had spent the morning pondering about where the smell of meat from the day before had come from. At first, she suspected that Li Qiuju’s family had eaten meat, but only found out that they hadn’t after asking Li Qiuju’s five-year-old son.

Children did not lie. Chen Guihua continued to suspect others. After thinking for a long time, she suspected that it was Su Wen’s house, which was one house away from hers.

Li Qiuju’s house was right in between the two houses, so she had subconsciously suspected that it was Li Qiuju’s house at the beginning. It just so happened that she had met Su Wen at the village entrance the previous night and had seen her carrying a heavy bag in her hand. It was impossible for it to contain pigweed.

Chen Guihua slapped her thigh and cried out that she had been tricked. Where did this little wench get the money to buy meat? She was either taking advantage of loopholes or spending some random man’s money. No matter which one it was, she had to make a report this time and arrest this little wench.

It would serve her right for eating meat in secret and not knowing how to be filial to her third aunt.

Chen Guihua’s eyes gleamed hungrily when she entered the kitchen. The pots, bowls, ladles, and pans were in a mess. The cupboard resting against the wall was locked. Chen Guihua was anxious. She was even more certain that there was meat inside and began to look for things to break the lock with.

Chen Guihua had just entered the kitchen when Su Wen quietly came out. She did not forget to lock her room door when she left to prevent Chen Guihua from sneaking in and stealing things.

In the novel, Chen Guihua had stolen things from Su Wen’s house several times. This time, she wanted to teach Chen Guihua a lesson. It would save her the trouble of always thinking about coming over to take advantage of them and defaming her behind her back.

Exiting from the courtyard, Su Wen headed straight to the village chief’s house.

Wang Chunyan was tidying up the vegetable garden in the private field behind the house. When she saw Su Wen, she asked, “Wen, what’s wrong with you? Why are you so anxious?”