Picking Up a General to Plow the Fields

Chapter 487: Dealing with the Tian family

All credit to original author: Yi Yi Lan Xi

Lian Fang Zhou sneered, “The Tian family are too shameless! I doubt they expected they would be so unlucky.
I won’t meddle with this matter, with Qing’er and the rest, the Tian family will surrender first and save us the trouble.”

Madam Ruan and Madam Song were not ignorant.
They knew how to build momentum, how to plan, and how to improvise.
A bunch of rural villagers were not their opponents! And Lian Fang Qing and Xiao Hui were not to be underestimated.
If the Tian family tried to mess with them, they would suffer greatly.
And with support, Third Aunt’s ability to abuse people would be brought into full play: mother-in-law Tian and her daughter-in-laws would probably die of anger!

Lian Fang Zhou was very at ease leaving this to them and was actually looking forward to it.
Looking forward to seeing the Tian family disgraced and shooting themselves in the foot!

Her prediction came true.
After Third Aunt arrived at the Tian family with Madam Ruan, Madam Song, Lian Fang Qing, and Xiao Hui, the Tian family began to live a life of cats and dogs!

Madam Ruan and Madam Song had never planned to live in the Tian house and spent 2 taels of silver to rent two rooms from the house next door to the Tian house and borrow the neighbor’s kitchen.

The family received 2 taels for nothing and were both surprised and delighted.
Naturally, they would not be unwilling and seeing that the two women’s demeanor was nothing like rural people they were very accommodating.
Additionally, Lian Fang Qing was both cute and outgoing, with a sweet mouth, and they fell in love with her instantly.

Chatting with the women of the family, Madam Song and Madam Ruan made sure to promote Third Aunt and complained about the hardships she had suffered.
They emphasized how terrible her illness was and how tired it made her.

Their words led the neighbors to the obvious conclusion that the root of Third Aunt’s illness must have been due to the bullying and torture she had received from the Tian family.

After Third Aunt lost her husband her life in the Tian family was indeed difficult, everyone knew this.
In addition to the hints from Madam Ruan and Madam Song, it was easy for the widow to gain the sympathy of her neighbors.
For a while, the wind turned and everyone couldn’t help but sympathize with Third Aunt.

While they chatted, Madam Song and Madam Ruan would hand out little gifts such as sweets, snacks, flowers, etc.
and were even more favored by the neighbors.

Seeing this, Eldest Madam Tian and Second Madam Tian were full of anger.
With no place to vent, they became impulsive.
They had always been domineering and arrogant, so when they saw the two women become so popular, they openly began to point fingers at Third Aunt and scold her.

Their actions only served to confirm the words of Madam Ruan and Madam Song.
Seeing them like this, the reputation of the Tian daughter-in-laws became even wore.
This even affected their youngest sister-in-law, Tian Xiao Gu.

She didn’t know it at the time, but her reputation had plummeted all of a sudden, making the few families that had been considering her as a marriage candidate reconsider.

After all, who wanted to marry in a daughter-in-law that turned out to be a shrew? Not to mention whether it would make trouble in the family, the reputation of the family would be affected.

Tian Xiao Gu’s marriage was repeatedly blocked until finally she couldn’t find any candidates at all and was forced to marry a widowed butcher in his thirties as his second wife.

And after she got married, she became the stepmother to two stepsons and two stepdaughters!

Not long after they arrived, Third Aunt fell ‘ill’ and Lian Fang Qing and Madam Song went to Old Madam Tian to cry and complain, asking for money to send Third Aunt to the doctor.

But how would Old Madam Tian be willing to spend money on Third Aunt? Don’t look at Eldest Madam Tian and Second Madam Tian whispering in her ear that Third Aunt was faking it, even if Third Aunt had really been ill, she wouldn’t have given any!

After she refused, Lian Fang Qing and Madam Song didn’t leave.
Sitting in the main room of the Tian house, they wailed and cried endlessly and surrounded her for half a step without moving.

The two of them were not shy.
They poured their own water to moisten their throats when they were thirsty and served themselves food when the Tian family had meals.

Furious, the Tian family jumped up and wanted to drive them away but they were too afraid of Xiao Hui.
The could only scold them from a distance.
But nothing they said stopped the crying and begging.
Every sentence of out Madam Song’s mouth was: “Old Madam, this is a member of your Tian family! This is your daughter-in-law! How can you be so cruel? Are you not afraid your son will not be able to rest in the afterlife? Old Madam, this is a life! You are a kind-hearted person, you can’t do this kind of thing and let people scold your ancestors for eight lifetimes!”

Madam Song’s eloquence was good, very moving and full of tears, and Old Madam Tian almost lost her temper when she heard it!

Lian Fang Qing was not as good at speaking, so she just kept sobbing and weeping, every word pitifully calling “Third Aunt! Third Aunt!”

Madam Song, Madam Ruan, and Lian Fang Qing made such a fuss that everyone in Tianjia village sighed.
No one said anything to the Tian family’s face but whenever they went out, they received a lot of interesting eyes.

Old Madam Tian wanted to strangle Third Aunt to death!

Seeing that they hadn’t caused enough trouble, Madam Ruan and Madam Song simply ‘supported’ Third Aunt to visit the ancestral hall of the Tian family at the center of the village and cry.

The head of the village, Tian Li Zheng, had heard about the household matters o the Tian family.
Not to mention rural families, even wealthy and noble families had quarrels between family members so naturally, no one batted an eye at this.

But now that someone had come to the door, Tian Li Zheng had no choice but to look into the matter.

Though the Tian family complained, they couldn’t change the fact that Third Aunt was a weak widow.
Who would be stupid enough to believe that one weak person would fight the entire family and that she successfully bullied them?

What’s more, Old Madam Tian, Eldest Madam Tian, and Second Madam Tian had missed a crucial point: Lian Fang Zhou’s cotton seeds.

Cotton seeds had been sent to all the village heads in the surrounding villages.
Lian Fang Zhou had not publicized this, but Steward Qin had told Tian Li Zheng this privately.

Although he couldn’t speak of it publicly, Tian Li Zheng had kept this matter in his heart.

The one who was bullied was Lian Fang Zhou’s Third Aunt and she was the one that Lian Fang Zhou valued.
Otherwise, why would she send her own sister and two maids to serve her?

Tian Li Zheng had to resolve this matter and he had to favor Third Aunt.

What was more, he had another identity— the patriarch head of the Tian family.

He went to speak to Old Madam Tian.
Originally, he just wanted to talk about it but soon he began to secretly persuade the old madam to be nicer to Third Aunt.
A home was best when everyone was happy! And she was her daughter-in-law, after all.
Moreover, the Lian family was now prosperous and treated Third Aunt better.
In the future, in terms of her face, the Lian family would still take care of your Tian family…

This last sentence was the final straw for Old Madam Tian.
All the insults, coupled with her unresolved anger from the last few days, suddenly slammed into Tian Li Zheng.
Furious, the old madam accused him of benefiting from the Lian family and be biased towards them, even forgetting that his surname was Tian!