Liu Shi lay at home for a full seven days. During these seven days, although Zhou Lanxiu still cursed and scolded, no one laid hands on Li Weiyang anymore, so the days passed rather comfortably. With Ma Shi’s help, she even ate two full meals.

Seeing Li Weiyang finish washing clothes, Zhou Lanxiu walked over and handed her a large bucket of pig swill: “Go feed the pigs!”

Feeding pigs was a very important matter in rural households. Liu Shi ordinarily never easily entrusted it to others—she always instructed Zhou Lanxiu to do it.

Now that Liu Shi wasn’t watching, Zhou Lanxiu threw this chore to Li Weiyang. Li Weiyang said with a grin: “Yes, Sister Lanxiu!”

Li Weiyang accepted the large pig swill bucket with a smile, laboriously carrying it toward the pigsty behind the house.

The Zhou family raised eight pigs in total. Li Weiyang smiled as she looked at this group of fat-headed, big-eared pigs. After thinking, she ladled some pig swill into the trough. The pigs immediately rushed over to fight for food. Watching them jostle and shove for food, Li Weiyang couldn’t help thinking of a good idea. She looked around in all directions, then placed the pig swill on the pigsty fence, opened the pigsty gate, and let all the pigs out. Those eight pigs that had been confined suddenly regained freedom and fled desperately outward.

Li Weiyang hid to one side. Seeing all the pigs had run away, only then did she curve the corners of her mouth upward. Then she carried the pig swill bucket, quietly went out through the back door, circled around and walked to the well at the village entrance where the most people gathered, and threw the pig swill bucket into it with one motion. Hearing water splashing in the well, Li Weiyang laughed softly.

Several waves of people passed by consecutively. Li Weiyang said nothing. Those people looked at her strangely, discussed for a moment, then left. Li Weiyang glanced at the sky, simply sat cross-legged on the ground, gazing distantly toward the village entrance.

After waiting approximately another half double-hour, she saw Teacher Wang who lived at the village entrance and the village chief slowly walking this way. Seeing them from afar, Li Weiyang grew happy in her heart. This well was a place one must pass through when returning to the village. She had originally only wanted to wait for the village chief to pass here—she hadn’t expected to get Teacher Wang as well. This gentleman was the village’s only scholar. Although he had repeatedly failed the examinations, he was still the village’s only literate person. So if you asked who most liked to reason, who most liked to meddle in others’ affairs, who most liked to uphold justice for others to gain a good reputation—it was none other than this private tutor!

Li Weiyang immediately stood up, vigorously rubbing her eyes with her hands while looking around by the well, appearing very anxious.

The village chief passed by here and looked at Li Weiyang in confusion, first speaking: “Miss Li, what are you doing here?”

He had originally just asked casually. Who knew Li Weiyang would lift her face—an anxious and sad face appeared before the two men. She said: “Sister Lanxiu told me to feed the pigs! I accidentally dropped the pig swill bucket in. What should I do, what should I do? Tonight I’ll definitely be beaten to death!”

The village chief turned pale with shock. “What? How did you manage this?!”

Li Weiyang also showed an extremely flustered expression, almost tearful, as if tears would fall at any moment. To outsiders, she appeared extremely sad and guilt-ridden: “What should I do, what should I do? I’ll definitely be beaten to death. I’ll definitely be beaten to death. I don’t dare go back. I might as well throw myself into this well!”

Speaking thus, she climbed onto the well opening, appearing as if she truly intended to jump down. The village chief was startled. If someone really jumped in, how could the village still drink water from this well! He quickly rushed forward to pull her back! “Absolutely not! Whatever it is, let’s talk it through!”

Teacher Wang watched for a long while, stroking his beard and asking: “What’s going on here? You’re lodging at their home. I heard they receive several taels of silver monthly for you. How can they make you feed pigs!”

Li Weiyang wiped her face with her sleeve, appearing extremely guilt-ridden: “My family previously gave ten taels of silver monthly, continuously for five years. Now they can’t give it anymore…”

“What? Ten taels monthly?” Teacher Wang jumped up at once. Teaching in the village, not a single student in a year could afford two taels of silver as tuition! This was truly too unfair! He looked at Li Weiyang huffily, thinking these people’s hearts were too black. Forget ten taels of silver given continuously for five years—these five years amounted to a full six hundred taels! How much money could raising one little girl cost? Even raising her for a lifetime wouldn’t use up six hundred taels! Yet they still treated her like a servant! Too outrageous! He glared with eyes full of dissatisfaction: “Come on, let’s go to the Zhou house and ask!”

The village chief also felt in his heart that the Zhou family had gone too far. Seeing the gentleman who had always been highly respected in the village go over, he quickly followed, not forgetting to turn back and say to Li Weiyang: “Come along! Stop crying!”

Li Weiyang wiped away her originally nonexistent tears and quickly followed.

Just then, she suddenly heard a strange mocking laugh. She abruptly stopped, turned back to look, but there was no one there. Had she heard wrong? Li Weiyang frowned, then heard the village chief urging from ahead. She looked around in all directions once more, confirming there really was no one, then quickly followed.

She must have heard wrong—

Upon entering, Teacher Wang immediately said loudly: “Zhou Qing! Come out quickly, come out quickly! How can you make a young lady from the city feed pigs? She’s not a servant!”

Zhou Qing ran out from the room. Seeing this situation, he was immediately stunned.

The village chief said: “Yes, yes! She’s lodging at your home. The silver you received from them before was more than enough. Even if you took their money, you shouldn’t make her do rough work!”

At this time, Ma Shi and Zhou Lanxiu both came out, all looking at Li Weiyang in shock.

Li Weiyang said very grievously: “Village Chief Uncle, I wanted to help Sister Lanxiu with some work myself. It’s not her fault. She didn’t deliberately throw the work to me! It’s all my fault. I just saw the bucket was dirty on the outside and thought we couldn’t feed our family’s pigs unclean things, so I wanted to wash it. As a result, I accidentally dropped the pig swill bucket in. It’s all my fault. I’m too clumsy—I can’t even do such a small thing well!”

The village chief glanced at Zhou Qing and said: “You too—making her feed pigs for no reason. A young lady from the city—how would she understand these things! Moreover, she’s living at your home but gave you money. Although now her family doesn’t give money anymore, the money you received before was enough to support her for ten or eight years. How can you use her like a maid!”

Ordinarily, Liu Shi, to prevent people from gossiping, would close the door when scolding or beating people—she wouldn’t damage the Zhou family’s reputation. So Zhou Qing had turned a blind eye. But now the village chief and the village’s only teacher were both here, with all the neighbors watching. Zhou Qing immediately felt he couldn’t save face. He turned back and viciously kicked Zhou Lanxiu: “Lazy good-for-nothing! Making her feed pigs for no reason—how would she know how!”

Li Weiyang lowered her head in a very guilt-ridden manner, looking even more pitiful in everyone’s eyes. Although rural people loved gossiping a bit and felt slightly jealous seeing Li Weiyang’s pretty looks, deep in their hearts they were still quite simple and honest. In their understanding, the Zhou family had received so much silver from her family—they should treat their daughter well. How could they bully the little girl like this? Several neighbors consecutively pointed and commented. Zhou Qing couldn’t control himself and viciously slapped Zhou Lanxiu: “You’re causing me trouble!”

Li Weiyang thought to herself, this matter is only just beginning. Sure enough, she soon heard Zhou Jiang rush out, crying in panic: “Father! The pigs! All the pigs have run away!”