C37

Soong Dajiang gave 10 taels of silver to Butcher Ma. Then, Butcher Ma left the village reluctantly.

yamen runner also left, Lu Yunkai also returned home early, the rest stayed under the great banyan tree.

"Grandma Zhang, you sure are capable!" Village Head Wan was trembling with anger. "If you want to destroy Soong Changyuan, then just let it go."

"Village Chief, we …" Grandma Zhang wanted to explain more, but was stopped by Soong Dajiang. "Thank you, Village Head. I will explain it to Mom and the others when I get back."

Then he turned to Soong Xintong and said, "Xintong, uncle has let you down this time. I'm sure it won't happen again."

Soong Xintong laughed and pointed it out directly, "Of course it can't happen again. If Soong Changyuan does it again, he won't be able to take the exam."

"Soong Xintong, you jinx, you're not allowed to curse my brother." Soong Qingxiu jumped up and scolded, "Truly shameless. Since you said it so openly, I think you'll never get married again in your entire life."

"Didn't you rinse your mouth this morning? Why does your mouth smell so bad?" Soong Xintong retorted without any trace of politeness.

Soong Qingxiu's face turned pale. "Unfilial, shameless! No one would want someone like you, who would even sue his own aunt!"

"So what?" After taking two steps, she turned around and bowed to the surrounding people, "It's really not easy for me and my two younger brothers to live on each other's backs. Now, we've even recruited a villain. If it weren't for all of the uncles and aunties who spoke up for us today, our family might really have collapsed. Thank you very much." He bowed again.

Then he turned around and walked back to his house.

Grandma Qiu also followed along with a worried look on her face. "Xintong, this matter has caused a huge ruckus. Your good name will definitely be damaged. What should we do now?"

Soong Xintong had always wanted to teach Grandma Zhang and Zhang Cuihua a lesson, but she had forgotten that this ancient woman had always been very virtuous and gentle. For her to be so bold as to sue the aunt who broke the engagement in front of everyone, and even propose marriage in front of the man, was already a completely different story.

Although everyone enjoyed watching the show, they would definitely comment on her actions after she turned around. At that time, as the news spread further, her reputation would also decline. Since ancient times, her reputation and character had always been the most important.

However, even though this plan had ended Grandma Zhang's scheming, it had still brought him a lot of trouble.

"However, those people are also very understanding. They know the situation today." Grandma Qiu said.

Soong Xintong had already mentally prepared herself. If her reputation was bad, then so be it. She didn't plan to get married so early anyway. Worse come to worse, when she raised her two younger brothers, she would make a woman and live in a county.

"This won't do, I'll go and vent my anger on those old women." With that, Grandma Qiu turned and ran back towards the great banyan tree.

"Sis, will those bad guys come back?" Little Treasure was really scared today. His little face was extremely pale.

"No, they're scared." Soong Xintong actually didn't dare to be sure that Grandma Zhang would still cause trouble, but she wouldn't dare to do so for a short period of time.

"Then Big Sis can stop marrying. That's great." Great Treasure's tone was heavy, and his mood didn't sound very good.

"Mm, I won't marry. In the future, sister won't marry either!" Soong Xintong said.

"Sorry, sister, Goudan wanted us to go to his house to get the iron hoops to play, so …" As soon as they ran home, they found that the door had been opened. They even found out that the eggs were missing, making them extremely anxious.

"Amazing, I didn't even know the egg was missing." Soong Xintong patted their heads and looked at the other side of the stream. She could vaguely see a white back.

Thank you.

Soong Xintong whispered in her heart.

When they got home, the three of them tidied up the messy house and hid the land deeds and other items in a different place before sitting down on a wooden bench under the eaves, placing themselves in a row from top to bottom.

The three of them had their hands on their cheeks like blossoming flowers, silently staring at the cloudless sky in a daze.

Grandma Qiu pushed open the wooden door and walked in. When she saw the three of them, she couldn't help but giggle. "Hey, what are you three doing?"

Soong Xintong came back to her senses and weakly called out, "Grandma Qiu."

"Xintong, don't worry. Grandma and I have already broken out of our relationship. It was originally Grandma Zhang's family that was in the wrong. You were forced to do it." Grandma Qiu looked at Soong Xintong worriedly, "As long as you are an intelligent family, you will not care about it."

"It's okay, Grandma Qiu. I don't care. If worse comes to worst, we can just get a woman in the future." Soong Xintong didn't mind.

"Don't think like that. It will be better in a few days." Grandma Qiu comforted her, "You will soon be fifteen years old, and it's time to say 'kiss'. Grandma will keep an eye out for you."

What no one knew was that Soong Xintong's' magnificent feat 'today had been wantonly exaggerated by Grandma Zhang and the others. She had become a woman with an extremely bad character, and no matchmaker had ever been willing to visit her.

"Don't worry, I still want to raise Big Treasure and the others." Soong Xintong smiled. "Oh right, I heard the Great Banyan tree ringing its bell. What's the matter?"

"I was about to tell you, when the two yamen runner came over to inform us about the tax increase." Grandma Qiu said with a stern face, "Our village has few good farmland, and it's all sloping fields and mountains. What's the point of suddenly raising taxes?"

The output of the hill and mountain lands was not as high as that of the farmland, so naturally, the taxes were low. There were not many farmland in the Peach Blossom Village, and each household only had two or three acres. Soong Xintong's family originally had two acres, but after her father passed away, she sold them all.

"How much more?" Soong Xintong asked.

"It's increased by 30%, it's already more than enough to force him into a good land." Grandma Qiu sighed. "If I had known this would happen, I wouldn't have opened so much wasteland."

Soong Xintong knew that everyone in the village had opened up a lot of mountains, so she thought about not paying taxes, but now that they had raised that much, no one would be willing to accept it. "Then what do we do?"

"What else can we do? We already have a land deed, we can't not hand it over." Grandma Qiu's heart ached.

"I'm afraid all of this was done by County Lord." Soong Xintong guessed.

Grandma Qiu hurriedly looked around. "Don't speak carelessly. If someone does …"

Seeing how cautious Grandma Qiu was, Soong Xintong guessed that County Lord must be a greedy official. She then thought about the two Wu steelers that she coincidentally met today, "Fortunately, I didn't go to the yamen today."

"That's right, you have to thank Scholar Lu. If not for those two Wu steelers, you might even ask for some silver coins." Grandma Qiu said.

Soong Xintong nodded. "I understand."

"Right, Xintong, we found a few fields on the mountain today, and it should be around four to five hundred catties. Uncle Xie and I will go dig them up after it rings." Grandma Qiu paused. "Did you find anything else?"

"All of them are small pieces." Soong Xintong said.

"What should we do then?" What if it's less than fifteen hundred kilograms tomorrow? " Grandma Qiu was very worried.

Soong Xintong was also worried. "I'll go and look for it again."