No wonder she's been fooling the Liu family all their lives, her eloquence is really something!
Watching Wu Xia sob and wail, turning black into white, outright denying all the misdeeds she's committed wasn't enough. Even her earlier hysteria was just the result of being heartbroken from her good intentions being misunderstood, words spoken out of frustration. She refused to go home with Brother Lianshan, considering her reputation. After all, causing a stir so soon after a divorce and then getting saved from drowning? Wouldn't that give everyone plenty to gossip about?
In any case, inside and out, she had her reasoning.
If it weren't for Liu Shuzhen knowing what Wu Xia is truly like from personal experience, the pitiful look through her tears might have softened her heart. Not to mention the usually honest and simple-minded big brother, who doesn't have so many twists and turns in his heart! Wu Xia's few words had already swayed him quite a bit, and his initially dark expression softened considerably.
Seeing her brother in such a difficult position, likely wanting to turn a big issue into a small one, Liu Shuzhen coldly smiled, casting Wu Xia an extremely disdainful eye roll: "Pah! Wu, save your crocodile tears! Do you really think saying a casual sorry can settle things after what you've done?
Oh, you meant well, it was a misunderstanding, you truly had my best interests at heart?
Just keep your 'good intentions' to yourself, so you don't accidentally bury me next time."
Wu Xia's heart skipped a beat, never expecting that the once soft and pliable sister-in-law would become so tough after a brush with death. Initially, her crying had even softened her husband's heart a bit. Now, with the stubborn girl unwilling to let go, it seemed today's crisis would be hard to pass!
The blame was on her for not being careful enough, letting her husband and brother-in-law witness such a lethal scene. Now the reasoning was all on that stubborn girl, without showing some softness today, peace would be hard to find.
With this realization, Wu Xia simply fell to her knees before Liu Shuzhen, tears and snot flowing freely as she cried: "It's all my fault, every bit my fault, meddling in things that don't concern me, my mouth spewing nonsense! Sister-in-law, I beg you to spare me this once, I promise, I'll dare not again…"
"Alright, as long as you, Wu, retrieve the money you got from selling me out, and stop this backstabbing behavior, it'll be fine! Also, whether I keep or abort the child in my womb is my business, I don't need your unwarranted opinions. This time, Brother Lianshan acted with integrity; otherwise, had I been unlucky, do you think you could escape? Murder requires paying with one's life!"
Instead of the panic and avoidance Wu Xia imagined, or a helping hand extended, Liu Shuzhen calmly accepted Wu Xia's kneel, delivering those lines amidst her cries. And of course, the phrase about murder requiring payback was emphasized on purpose.
Wu Xia's eyelid twitched, trying to defend herself: "No, sister-in-law, you really misunderstand your sister-in-law! I've been in this household for a full eight years now, don't you know what kind of person your sister-in-law is? I have a sharp tongue but a soft heart, no real bad intentions…"
Liu Shuzhen sneered at these words: "Alright then, I initially intended to let bygones be bygones if you confessed truthfully. To share a bed takes a thousand years of fate; though you are lazy, greedy, and unreasonable, and in eight years haven't laid an egg, you've still been with big brother all these years. Since you refuse to shed tears until you see the coffin, I'll make sure you see clearly. That way, big brother won't think I'm making a big deal out of nothing and feel you're wronged!"
Having said that, ignoring the stunned looks from everyone, she just marched straight to the room where her big brother and Wu Xia slept. Wu Xia, realizing the gravity of the situation, tried to stop her frantically but was held left and right by Liu Shouren and Su Hongying.
"Husband, let me go! How can we allow a sister-in-law to freely rummage through the room we share as a married couple? If this gets out today, how can I live afterward?" Though she had faith in her hiding spots, Wu Xia looked tearfully at Liu Shouren, her eyes full of pleading, hedging just in case.
Unfortunately, the previous charm that could move mountains and rivers all failed, meeting only with a cold glare: "If Shuzhen wrongs you, I'll not favor her. Whatever you say, be it fight, punish or expel. But if today she isn't wrong, you've reached the end of the road as the Liu family's daughter-in-law!"
"What, what do you mean?" Wu Xia was stunned, never expecting her usually obedient husband could be so cold and distant.
"What do I mean? I mean that in the Liu family, we can tolerate a lazy, greedy even barren wife, but not a venomous character who stabs family in the back! Shouldering vile deeds while waving the flag of goodwill, you sure can scream thief and grab thief!" Liu Shouyi, the second brother, said dark as a pot's bottom, his gaze toward Wu Xia like a beast ready to devour her, showing no respect a brother-in-law should have for a sister-in-law.
Liu Shouren frowned, just about to reprimand his second brother, advising him to address the issue directly without unnecessary sarcasm. Yet the fiery-tempered Liu Shouyi couldn't refrain from a machine-gun burst: "Big brother, don't vent at your little brother. It's not that I disrespect our eldest sister-in-law; it's just that such a rotten creature can't command an ounce of respect.
Look, hidden behind your bed drawer in that mousehole are over five hundred yuan and over a hundred pounds of national grain tickets; her dowry chest has two packets of abortion medicine and a letter to some Bai Jing. Proof and evidence are clear; it's her greed blinding her conscience, not our siblings wronging her. Today, Shuzhen was fortunate to encounter Brother Lianshan, else wasn't she pushed to suicide or a deadly accident by this malicious woman!
You, being the eldest among us three brothers, must decide how to handle this cursed woman from your household!"
Seeing the siblings dig out everything she had carefully hidden, even the letter she'd just written but hadn't sent, Wu Xia felt dizzy and cold inside, feeling this hurdle today, she probably couldn't get past.
Indeed, Liu Shouren, with trembling hands, took that letter addressed to Bai Jing in such-and-such district in Beijing, confirming the medicine's lethal intention to harm his own sister, the honest man simply snapped. The slap he gave Wu Xia split her lip, ignoring her pleading, seizing her arm and dragging her out like a dead dog, hell-bent on sending her back to the Wu family and severing ties with this venomous woman.