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Chapter 36: The Pitiful Third Branch\n“Old Madam!” The Third Master cried helplessly and hurriedly embraced his motionless wife.\n
Everyone saw Matriarch Wang creep in, lifting and looking under all the objects, making a mess out of the room. She even tried lifting to see under the bed, disregarding whether the unconscious Madam Zhao was still lying on it or not.\n
Seeing Matriarch Wang probe and scour so meticulously, the Third Master was afraid that she would end up overwhelming the delicate Madam Zhao. Not caring for whether he felt ashamed or even embarrassed, he firmly stood up, protectively shielding Madam Zhao.\n
“Old Madam, none of us in the Third Branch stole the money, you…” The Third Master was filled with a righteous air, his voice even.\n
He believed that his family would not do such a thing.\n
But, how come every time something went missing in the family, Matriarch Wang would unfairly pin the crime on the Third Branch?\n
No matter whether there was evidence or not, the Third Branch was always the one to get scolded and harshly disciplined.\n
“Bah! You must have taken it!”\n
Matriarch Wang grabbed all the quilts on the bed and yanked them to the floor, sifting through everything she could get her hands on.\n
There was almost nothing in the Third Master and Madam Zhao’s room, they didn’t even have a cabinet. It didn’t take long for Matriarch Wang to search and scan through the entire room.\n
The carefully folded and washed patched-up clothes had been scattered to the ground, making the room look even more shabby.\n
Yuhang and Yuyang steered clear of Matriarch Wang’s ransacking, tightly clinging onto their Father, trembling out of anxiousness. Seeing Madam Zhao faint had truly scared them, their hearts felt like they had been frozen by an indescribable cold.\n
They were afraid that their Mother and unborn sibling would die and that today was the Third Branch’s demise!\n
Grandmother Ciying felt like she was walking on pins and needles, glancing hopefully at Patriarch Li. In return, Patriarch Li looked on indifferently, as if this whole matter had nothing to do with him.\n
He was an aloof scholar who wouldn’t trifle with these trivial matters. \n
Grandmother Ciying then turned around and peered at the expressions of the rest of the crowd. The Village Head’s expression had gone blue with anger and the faces of the villagers looked quite bad.\n
After seeing Madam Zhao fainting into Third Master’s arms and the chaotic scene of the small, dilapidated rooms being flipped through, everyone thought that Matriarch Wang had gone overboard.\n
Although everyone was afraid to provoke the irritable and petty Matriarch Wang, most of the people were rather simple-minded and honest.\n
“Impossible! It must be in another room!” Matriarch Wang frustratedly tugged her hair and hurriedly walked out of the room and went to go search in Yuhang and Yuyang’s room.\n
The Third Branch’s rooms were all connected to each other, each room very similar to the next. Each dimly lit room had just one shabby bed and wasn’t very big.\n
Yuhang and Yuyang’s room was the emptiest, and Matriarch Wang only took two glances around the small, cramped room. Yanking the quilt on the bed to the ground, she then marched onto Grandmother Ciying and Bailian’s room.\n
Bailian looked on coldly, clearly noticing Patriarch Li’s frown after he saw that Matriarch Wang had searched through two rooms, but they still hadn’t any sign of the missing silver.\n
It was as if he was thinking, Why hasn’t the silver been found yet?\n
In the Li Family’s eyes, the dignity and life of the Third Branch were worth nothing, the most important thing was their money.\n
Because the Eldest Master was a talented scholar and all of the Li Family had placed their hope on him for the future.\n
In addition, they also expected great things from Yuwen, who would definitely become an excellent scholar like his father and grandfather.\n
Moreover, there was also silver saved for Li Jinyu’s dowry, who would marry a young landlord in the future.\n
Or, in the future, the Fourth Master would marry a beautiful wife.\n
In short, none of it was to be used on the Third Branch.\n
Matriarch Wang felt very anxious, itching to get her hands on her missing silver. She had already left no stone unturned in Bailian and Grandmother Ciying’s room, but she didn’t find a single copper coin.\n
This made her feel very flustered.\n
“Impossible! It must be here! Get it out now!” Matriarch Wang carefully looked in the room’s corners, turning everything upside down in her search. After still seeing nothing, she swiveled around, her eyes frenziedly darting up and down Bailian’s body, as if she was about to pounce on her any second.\n
“Old Madam, we really didn’t steal your money. Grandfather has also seen everything. We won’t go to the main branch anymore and fetch food. People in the Third Branch really wouldn’t even dare to steal the main branch’s things ah!” Bailian said weakly, sounding as meek as a kitten.\n
Bailian was already sickly and looked undernourished due to her thin frame. In addition to the shocking scab in the middle of her eyebrows and the new scratches from Matriarch Wang and Jinyu, she made for a miserable sight.\n
“What? People in the Third Branch can’t enter the main house’s quarters?”\n
“Is it because the Third Branch is…”\n
“It should be like this. The Third Branch indeed has the lowest status out of everyone in the family.”\n
“But the people in the Third Branch are the most hardworking, this is really too pitiful ah!\n
The crowd began to whisper and murmur to each other, their eyes still bright from the commotion they had witnessed.\n
“Cough Cough~” When Patriarch Li heard the villagers ponder over this matter, he subtly coughed twice, wanting to break everyone’s attention for a second.\n
Unfortunately for him, no one got the message.\n
“These siblings are really too skinny!”\n
“They all have to get up early, but Jinyu only just got out of bed!”\n
“Ah, poor children..”\n
“You’re right! We all saw there’s almost nothing in the Third Branch’s quarters, only some worn-out clothes and threadbare quilts. I really don’t know how they survived all these years ah!”\n
“Just look at that quilt, it’s full of patches and holes, it looks rough, in the winter…tsk tsk!”\n
…\n
“When did Grandpa say you can’t enter the main branch’s quarters? Fifth, you can’t just speak gibberish!” Patriarch Li said with a “gentle” expression.\n
Bailian shrank back, eyes widening, and said with a frightened expression, “That’s Fifth’s mistake!”\n
“This Fifth Young Miss is really too pitiful ah!”\n
“Yeah! The Third Branch is too miserable! They work so hard, yet they are still scolded and beaten up.”\n
“My son often tells me that Yuhang and Yuyang are constantly riddled with bruises and injuries!”\n
…\n
When everyone saw Bailian’s frightened reaction, they all felt that Bailian had been used to being mistreated, and that’s why the crowd had exploded.\n
Patriarch Li angrily threw his sleeve to the side, the fabric making a crisp, whipping sound as if he was an angry literati, agitated by injustice.\n
“Bah! You shameless things! The Third Branch are all vixens! You lazy and shameless trash! If you dare steal the silver saved for our Eldest’s exam, you’ll find yourself in the pigpen!” Matriarch Wang had overheard the gossiping pride, instantly retorting loudly.\n
“Madam Wang, what are you trying to do?! Did you actually see the people from the Third Branch steal your money?” The Village Head couldn’t stand it anymore and thought that the people from the Third Branch’s situation was truly too heartbreaking.\n
Technically, this was a matter of the inner courtyard, but not one Mother-in-Law in the village mistreated their inner courtyard to the point of fatality, that he, as the Village Head, had to intervene today.\n
After all, if there were people in the village who purposely mistreated their daughters-in-law, none of the young strapping men in the village would be able to marry a wife.\n
What family was willing to let their girls marry into a village with such bad folk customs and habits?\n
“Who else would it be but the Third Branch?! They must have stolen it!” Matriarch Wang accusingly declared and then grievously slapped her thigh, “It must be hidden on them!”\n
After Matriarch Wang said this, she punched toward the Third Master, reaching out to inspect Madam Zhao’s body.\n
Seeing Matriarch Wang lunge towards his wife, the Third Master defensively shielded his wife, fearing she would get hurt.\n
Now that it looked like Madam Zhao was hanging onto life by a thread, no matter how incompetent or spineless he was, he had to protect his precious wife.\n
“Father, don’t let my Mother fall!” Bailian frowned and threw an admonishing glance at Matriarch Wang, dragging her Father closer to the bed and squeezed past by Matriarch Wang like a fish in water, thoroughly stopping the old woman in her tracks.\n
Yuhang and Yuyang also scrambled over, making a tiny half-circle around their father, fearing that Madam Zhao would fall.\n
With Matriarch Wang attacking and Third Master defending, fending each other back and forth, even if nothing happened, something would go wrong eventually.\n
“Stop it!” Village Head Head bellowed angrily, directing his words at the indifferent Patriarch Li. He could only helplessly roar at Patriarch Li, because he had already told off Matriarch Wang multiple times, but she just wouldn’t listen!\n
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