Borrowing Turmoil

The Second Child and the Third Child were teasing Xiaohei and Huahua. As soon as the two puppies heard the Youngest Child's cry, they were so scared that they ran to the courtyard, whereas the Second Child and the Third Child also came over to join the Youngest Child and cried out, "Mother, if you don't come back, you will become a puppy."

Lu Jiao had a black line on her face. She accelerated her pace and walked towards Xinghua Village. She's just going to her parents' house. Why are they behaving as if she's going to leave them forever?

She will definitely take them with her next time she goes to her parents' house to save herself the trouble.

Xinghua Village is close to Xie Clan Village, but because there is a mountain between the two villages, Lu Jiao will have to take a detour from the pathway north of the mountain to get to Xinghua Village, which will take at least two hours.

Had it been the original owner, she wouldn't have been able to cover such a long distance in one go, but Lu Jiao was not bothered by this and covered the whole distance to Xinghua Village in one go.

Nothing noteworthy happened along the way.

Xinghua Village, like Xie Clan Village, is a big village, and the Lu family is somewhat famous in the village, so when Lu Jiao appeared at the entrance of the village, many people greeted her.

Lu Jiao responded one by one, neither humble nor arrogant, but winning a lot of praise. Everyone was praising her for becoming the wife of a Scholar. Now her status is different from before.

Lu Jiao followed her memory all the way to her home, which was located in the centre of the village and was pretty easy to find.

The yard of the Lu family is quite large, but the house is run-down and muddy, with three shabby and dilapidated mud-made houses in front and three rooms on each side, and there is a chicken coop near the front door containing a few chickens.

Lu Jiao was taking in the condition of the house when someone came out of the main room and saw her.

As soon as he saw Lu Jiao, Lu Gui, her younger brother, frowned and said angrily, "What are you doing here?"

Lu Jiao's face was also a little sad. To be honest, she knew that this younger brother didn't like her, and she didn't have any feelings for him. In fact, if it wasn't for Mrs Tian, she might not have come back.

She has no feelings for the Lu family.

Lu Jiao walked in confidently, carrying the basket on her back, and said as she walked, "This is my home. Can't I come back?"

Lu Gui became even more unhappy after hearing her response, "The family is already very unhappy because of you. What else do you want?"

As soon as she heard Lu Gui's words, Lu Jiao was sure that Mrs. Tian had given her money without telling the family first, and now the whole family must have come to know of this.

Lu Jiao was happy. Fortunately, she had brought the money. Otherwise, Mrs. Tian would have been wronged.

Lu Jiao thought of this and strode towards the main room with the basket on her back. Lu Gui reached out to stop her, but Lu Jiao gave him a cold glare. He retracted his hand and resorted to staring at her gloomily.

However, the other people in the family had already heard the commotion, and everyone from the east room and the west room came out.

Someone also came out of the master bedroom. It was Lu Jiao's father, Lu Danian.

When Lu Danian saw Lu Jiao, he was a little annoyed, but he didn't forget to greet her, "Why is Jiaojiao back?"

Lu Jiao gave him a sidelong glance before completely ignoring him.

Mrs Tian, who had also heard the commotion outside, quickly turned over and sat up, asking, "Jiaojiao, is Jiaojiao back?"

"Yes, mother, I'm back," Lu Jiao said as she walked in with the basket on her back.

Mrs Tian was lying in bed. Her face was sallow, her eyes were red, and it was obvious that she had been crying.

Lu Jiao walked over, grabbed her hand, and asked with concern, "Mother, what's wrong with you? Are you sick?"

Mrs Tian immediately shook her head and said, "It's okay, Mother is in good health, but I'm a little tired from work recently, so I decided to lie down."

After she finished speaking, she didn't want to talk about this topic again, so she changed the subject. She grabbed Lu Jiao's hand to take a good look at her. After looking at her, she noticed that Lu Jiao had lost weight, and Mrs. Tian was immediately distressed, saying with concern, "Jiaojiao, why do you look so thin?"

Lu Jiao subconsciously touched her face after hearing her words. In the past few days, she has been eating a lot less and moving a lot more, so she must have lost some weight. However, because she was too fat before, she didn't even notice anything, but Mrs. Tian did.

"Mother, it's better to be thin. People look good when they're thin."

After hearing her words, Mrs Tian's red eyes were filled with distress. She said, "Jiaojiao has suffered. The burden of your family has fallen on you, and you must have gone through a lot."

She raised her hand and touched Lu Jiao's head when she finished speaking, and asked, "Why are you free to come back today? What about Yunjin? What about the four little guys?"

"I asked someone to take care of them. Don't worry, mother," Lu Jiao said with a smile.

After Lu Jiao finished speaking, she took out ten taels of silver from her sleeve and handed it to Mrs Tian, saying, "Mother, I'm afraid the family will be unhappy with you because of those five taels of silver, so as soon as I earned some money, I came to return it."

When Mrs Tian listened to Jiaojiao's words, how could she possibly be willing to accept it? She resolutely refused.

"Don't you need to buy medicine for Yunjin? Take it back and buy medicine for him. Mother has some money in her hands."

Lu Jiao could make it out from Mrs Tian's sallow appearance that the family must have made her really, really angry. Otherwise, how could such a strong woman like her lie in bed during the daytime?

Lu Jiao leaned in close to Mrs. Tian's ear and whispered, "Mother, I went up the mountain and happened to pick up a Ganoderma lucidum and sold it for two hundred taels of silver. Now that I have money, I will give you ten taels of silver. Five taels are to repay you, and you can keep the rest five taels as your private money."

Mrs Tian looked at Lu Jiao in disbelief and said, "Really?"

Mrs. Tian's face brightened as Lu Jiao nodded affirmatively.

But she didn't want Lu Jiao's ten taels of silver. Instead, she said, "Just give your mother five taels of silver."

Lu Jiao wanted to say something more, but Mrs Tian said seriously, "Just give your mother five taels. You are in need of money right now. When Yunjin's legs are healed, you can give your mother money to show your filial piety, and Mother promises to keep it."

After seeing her serious expression, Lu Jiao knew she would still not accept it, so she gave Mrs Tian five taels of silver and put away the rest.

Mrs Tian took the money, turned over, got out of bed, and strode out. Lu Danian, their three sons, and two daughters-in-law were all standing in the yard at this time.

"Here, Jiaojiao returned the five taels of silver," Mrs Tian said as she threw the five taels of silver to Lu Danian.

When she was finished, she looked at Lu Danian and said, "I was really blind at that time, so I thought I wouldn't be wronged following you."

Lu Danian hadn't expected Mrs. Tian to be so angry in front of his daughter, and he was so embarrassed that he kept stammering for a moment when he looked at Lu Jiao.

"No, Jiaojiao, it's not that your family doesn't want to help you. It's just that we're really poor."

Lu Jiao's sister-in-law, Sun Mei, was relieved to see the five taels of silver. She looked at Lu Jiao and said with a smile, "Younger sister-in-law, it's mainly because Mother borrowed money from others without telling us, so we said a few words to her."

Hu Xiang, her second sister-in-law, followed suit and said, "We know we were wrong, and we shouldn't have asked Sister-in-law to return the money."

Lu Jiao glanced at her eldest brother, Lu Ping, and second brother, Lu An. Both of them were just simply standing there silently. Everyone in the yard seemed to be blaming Mrs. Tian for lending her those five taels of silver.

Lu Jiao's face became a bit ugly. It seems that Mrs. Tian was being bullied by the family.

As she glanced at each of them one by one, she said, "Mother lent me five taels of silver, without telling you, that's really not good. But if you want to blame someone, blame me. I'm here to apologize to you, since all of this was caused by my family."

Lu Jiao respectfully apologized to the Lu family, and the faces of all the people standing next to her turned red as if they had been slapped on the face.

Lu Jiao spoke again after apologizing, but this time her voice was cold.

"But I have to say a few more words. You can complain about my mother if the five taels of silver she borrowed were spent on food and drinks for me, but the money she borrowed was for the treatment of her son-in-law, who was seriously injured and confined to bed, right? I just want to ask you what crime did she commit?"

"You are my family. If you don't help with this now, if our family becomes more respectable in the future, will you not be honored?"