Chapter 74: It’s Not So Easy to Take Advantage

Li Meng hurried over. “Fang Yuan, I’m your sister-in-law. Whatever happened in the past, let’s put that aside. I’m your sister-in-law now, and at least we’re family. How can you act like this?”

Fang Yuan replied, “You might be family to them, but you’re not family to me. I haven’t even acknowledged your brother as my husband—what kind of sister-in-law are you supposed to be? Am I supposed to recognize you just so I can embarrass myself with you all, or so your whole shameless family can come over and try to take advantage?”

Watching the commotion from behind the fence, Sister-in-law Sun couldn’t help but mutter, “She’s got way more bite than I do.”

Brother Sun said, “It’s not just talk—she acts, too. You don’t want to mess with her.”

Sister-in-law Sun had seen it herself—Fang Yuan didn’t hesitate to use her fists. “I’m never going to provoke her again, don’t worry.”

Hearing this, Brother Sun was genuinely relieved. Otherwise, with his wife’s sharp tongue, who knows when Fang Yuan might teach her a lesson.

No matter how much Li Meng pleaded, Fang Yuan ignored her. Anyway, they weren’t getting that bicycle back.

All those little tricks Li Meng’s sister-in-law tried were useless in front of Fang Yuan. She was stubborn—no money, no bike.

The whole village was just standing around watching the show. Word had even spread to neighboring villages, and people came over to see the spectacle.

The show’s title: “The Tigress Deals With the Old Scoundrel.”

It wasn’t until people from the commune arrived that Li Meng’s sister-in-law and mother rushed over to them like they’d seen their saviors, hugging them and crying that they’d been robbed by bandits.

Everyone was stunned. The Lu family had called the commune officials, not these freeloaders.

Fang Yuan, on the other hand, was calm. “You can’t just listen to their side,” she said, pointing at the two women crying and complaining. “How could I have dragged them into my house? They practically delivered themselves to my door to be robbed—I’ve never seen anything like it.”

The commune officials were left speechless. This girl didn’t sound reasonable at all.

That’s when Lu Chuan stepped up. He told everyone not to leave and asked them to stay as witnesses, then explained everything that had happened from start to finish.

Only then did he let the crowd disperse and invited the commune officials and the village head inside to sort things out.

Lu Chuan’s commanding presence caught the attention of both the village head and the commune officials. Anyone could see this young man was someone to watch—he handled things so well.

Of course, it would have been even better if things had been handled before the commune officials arrived.

And looking at someone like him, it seemed he couldn’t even handle his own wife’s affairs.

The commune officials were muttering to themselves: How did he end up with such an unreasonable wife? “A good man has no good wife”—maybe the old saying was right.

With the village head helping as a witness, Li Meng’s family couldn’t make much of a fuss.

But Fang Yuan demanding compensation and holding onto the bicycle wasn’t really justified, either.

The commune officials tried to reason with Fang Yuan, but she wouldn’t budge—she insisted on compensation, or they weren’t getting the bike back.

Her house wasn’t a place people could come and go as they pleased.

The commune officials tried their best to persuade her, but all they could do was morally condemn Li Meng and her family for their behavior. But holding onto the bike wasn’t right.

They kept trying to talk Fang Yuan into it, and by the time they were done, the officials had drunk two ladles of cold water.

It was a real ordeal. In the end, it took the village head to step in before Fang Yuan finally relented a little.

Honestly, even the village head hadn’t realized he had so much sway—he was quite proud.

Li Meng’s sister-in-law hadn’t expected that even with the commune officials there, Fang Yuan still wouldn’t back down. She’d really run into a tough one this time.

In the end, Fang Yuan finally let up, saying she’d accept her losses for now. But as for the Lu family’s house being smashed up last time, they’d reported that to the commune, and that couldn’t just be let go—they had to pay compensation.

Li Meng’s face turned green. Her sister-in-law was never one to part with money, and if they actually managed to squeeze money out of her, it’d be a miracle.

Li Meng herself didn’t care much about a hundred or so yuan—she knew money would be worthless in the future anyway.

But now, after two months of hard times, she understood that a hundred yuan determined her current standard of living. It wasn’t easy to earn.

She really didn’t want to cough up the money.

The village head nodded—Fang Yuan’s demand was reasonable.

Lu Chuan secretly nodded, too. Well said. You have to hold your ground somewhere. If Li Meng’s family never suffers a loss, they’ll never learn.

Li Meng’s sister-in-law had never suffered like this before and refused to accept it. “Breaking off an engagement—who does it nicely? So we smashed things up, so what?”

Who wouldn’t frown at that? Who’d want to deal with people like this?

Lu Chuan said, “It was your family who wanted to break off the engagement, and now you’re here making trouble? Lu Laoda, say something.”

Lu Laoda couldn’t hide this time—it was his wife’s family, after all.

Li Meng tugged at Lu Laoda, pleading. He looked at Li Meng, then at her mother and sister-in-law, and finally forced out, “Let’s just let it go.”

The village head almost spat in disgust. Easy for you to say—now you’ve dragged your whole family, and even me as the village head, into this mess.

Lu Chuan didn’t want to meddle in family affairs, but today he couldn’t just let it go. He had to stand up for Fang Yuan and see things through for her.

Lu Chuan stepped forward. “Let it go? How? If this woman wants to date someone from the commune, that’s her business—we can’t control that. If she wants to fool around with someone, that’s up to her, too. But her family smashing up our house—that can’t just be let go. The house doesn’t belong to you alone.”

He laid it out clearly, though he threw Lu Laoda under the bus.

If Lu Laoda cared a bit more about his family, Lu Chuan wouldn’t have had to push him like this.

When Fang Yuan had said this earlier, Lu Laoda and his wife weren’t around, so things could have been glossed over. But now, with everyone present, there was no hiding.

The village head looked much happier—this was the way to talk, with backbone. If you let it go this time, what about next time? They’d just come and make trouble again.

Li Meng’s face turned livid. “What are you saying? Who fooled around? Oh, I’m being slandered to death! I can’t live with this kind of accusation!”

If she wanted a better life in the future, she couldn’t let people dump this kind of dirt on her. Li Meng was desperate now.

She lunged at Lu Chuan. “My brother-in-law is trying to kill me!” She acted just like her mother—truly a chip off the old block.

Fang Yuan stepped in front of Lu Chuan and kicked Li Meng away. “If you don’t want to live, go die somewhere else!” She couldn’t let this woman mess with Lu Chuan.

Then she added, “Slandered? Nonsense! Who doesn’t know about your business except Lu Laoda? Did you think I wouldn’t check out your background before marrying into this family?”

Li Meng instantly fell silent. Of course, the Fang family would have looked into everything before the engagement.

Everyone understood—this wasn’t just made up; there was evidence.

Li Meng saw there was no way out and just closed her eyes, pretending to faint.

She felt so wronged—why was life so hard? Why was there always a trap, always someone ready to put her in her place?

If only she’d come back earlier, before the engagement was broken off—how much better things would have been. She was already thinking about how to win Lu Laoda back. As for her reputation, was there any hope left?

Lu Laoda’s mother sighed. “Second daughter-in-law, the eldest’s wife is siding with outsiders—she’s no good. Let’s just talk about how they’re going to compensate us.”

What else could they do? Things had come to this—she couldn’t just watch her eldest daughter-in-law’s reputation get trampled. There wasn’t much left of it anyway.

Fine, let’s talk compensation. No one cared about Li Meng and Lu Laoda’s drama anymore.

[End of Chapter 74]"