A husband found in the village? I bought a regent for a penny!

The voice is Gu Qingye.

Gu Xixi's good mood, which had been built up because of finding treasure, was suddenly ruined by the crying and screaming.

Aunt Zhang raised her head and said unhappily, "Yesterday they didn't care whether people lived or died, and today they come to my door and kowtow. Who are they trying to impress?"

She shook the dust off her hands and was about to get up when she said, "I'll make her leave and go wail at her own doorstep!"

Gu Xixi stopped Aunt Zhang, saying, "Auntie, I'm fine for now, you can go about your business."

"She must have come here at Uncle Qian's behest. It wouldn't hurt to go out and listen in."

When Gu Xixi opened the door, Gu Qingye was kneeling right in the center outside the door.

The beauty's forehead was covered in dust, her eyes were red and filled with tears, and even the strands of hair at her temples were slightly disheveled.

She looked even more pitiful than usual.

As Gu Qingye cried out her apologies, villagers began to gather around.

Seeing this, Gu Xixi simply opened the door wide, so that she could see everything clearly inside and out.

"You can say whatever you want to say."

Gu Qingye sobbed, "My sister told me to go down the mountain to find Aunt Zhang. I thought I'd put the fruit I picked back home first, but when I got home, when I got home..."

She glanced at Gu Xixi and the people around her, and spoke in a weak and strained voice, "After I got home, my brother wouldn't let me go out."

Gu Qingye crawled a few steps on her knees and grabbed Gu Xixi's sleeve. "Sister Xixi, I really didn't mean to!"

"My brother has locked all the doors to the house. If I try to go out, he'll beat me to death!"

Gu Xixi pulled her sleeve back and looked down at Gu Qingye.

"Since you were trapped and had no other choice, why didn't you tell the truth when Aunt Zhang saw you?"

Gu Qingye cried, "I swear, the things I said to my aunt were all taught to me by my brother beforehand."

“My brother was glaring at me from outside, and I really couldn’t do anything about it.”

"Sister Xixi, I'm just a girl, how could I dare disobey my brother..."

After saying this, Gu Qingye collapsed to the ground and wept uncontrollably, seemingly transforming from a perpetrator into a victim.

Some onlookers were moved and sighed, "Gu Tiezhu really is a scoundrel!"

"It's obvious that daughters will eventually get married, and Gu Laosan and his wife will definitely favor their son."

“Sigh, I didn’t think she was a bad person before, but now she’s being pushed out by her family to take the blame. It’s so pitiful.”

Gu Xixi looked at Gu Qingye, her heart completely unmoved.

She smiled, bent down, and reached out to help Gu Qingye up. "Good sister, get up."

As the two drew close, Gu Xixi whispered in Gu Qingye's ear, her voice as ethereal as the wind.

"Was it out of necessity, or was it an opportunistic move?"

Gu Qingye was taken aback.

Gu Xixi had already let go of her, without saying whether she forgave her, she just smiled and said, "I know everything you said."

"Go home early, and don't trouble everyone to stand here."

After speaking, Gu Xixi smiled and nodded to everyone before entering the courtyard and closing the gate.

Aunt Zhang was already furious. "This little girl, so young, is really getting into trouble!"

"Even if others believed her when she cried and knelt, I didn't believe a single word of it!"

Gu Xixi smiled and said, "Let's not even talk about whether Gu Tiezhu can really beat his only younger sister to death."

“Take last night for example. If she really wanted to save me, even if she didn’t dare to tell the truth, she would have had plenty of opportunities to warn you.”

"Such numerous loopholes are merely meant to deceive those who are uninvolved."

Aunt Zhang nodded repeatedly, then asked worriedly, "Do you think Old Qian might have been scammed too?"

"No," Gu Xixi said confidently. "Uncle Qian has a good sense of right and wrong."

"He will give me a satisfactory explanation for this matter."

Gu Qingye stood outside the door in a daze for a while, unable to understand what Gu Xixi meant, and could only go back to her own home.

At Gu Laosan's house, Gu Tiezhu had already woken up.

He just stared blankly upwards, motionless.

Liu cried, "Otherwise, let's get a doctor for Tiezhu."

Old Gu scolded in a muffled voice, "Where are we going to find a doctor? It'll be too embarrassing to go out like this!"

Gu Qingye took a deep breath at the door before cautiously lifting the curtain to go inside.

"Dad, Mom, I'm back."

Upon hearing the voice, Gu Tiezhu suddenly erupted, "It's all your fault! What you said to Granny Zhang, was it something I taught you?"

"Now everyone knows I forced you, and I'm the bad guy!"

Fearing her son might hurt his leg again in his excitement, Liu hugged him and cried and scolded Gu Qingye:

"You still know how to come back!"

"How could you say those things to the village chief and pin all the blame on your brother?"

Gu Qingye's previously timid expression suddenly disappeared.

"Mother, it was my brother who wanted to kill you, not me."

"It's his own fault for being stupid. He's done so many bad things, but he's never succeeded even once. His whole family has to clean up his messes!"

"The village chief knew everything this time, and that's why he came to our house. What can I do?"

Liu, Gu Tiezhu, and Gu Laosan all stared wide-eyed in surprise, looking at Gu Qingye as if they didn't recognize her.

Gu Qingye continued, "My brother's reputation is already ruined. You two spoil him, so he won't be any better off."

"Only me! Now, in other people's eyes, I'm the only good person in our family!"

She looked at Gu Laosan and Liu Shi in turn, "Didn't my parents want me to marry into a good family so they could get a dowry from me?"

"Only my brother can take responsibility for this, otherwise I'll lose my reputation and how will I get married?"

It turns out that this morning, Old Qian, in his capacity as village chief, personally visited Gu Laosan's house.

With witnesses and physical evidence readily available, Lao Qian managed to uncover the mastermind behind Gu Qingye in just a few questions.

He ordered Gu Laosan to bring Gu Tiezhu to Gu Xixi's house immediately to apologize and to loudly admit the truth in front of the other villagers.

Gu Tiezhu immediately flew into a rage, screaming that he would rather die than go, and finally coughed up blood and fainted.

Liu held her son and cried loudly, cursing Gu Xixi as she did so.

While feeling sorry for his son, Gu Laosan kept to himself and pretended not to hear, determined not to lose face by taking the lead himself.

At this moment, Gu Qingye stepped forward to apologize on Gu Tiezhu's behalf.

She said she would take responsibility for her mistakes.

She also said that she, as the younger sister, should atone for her brother's sins and share the burdens of her parents.

Seeing this, Lao Qian granted Gu Qingye's filial piety.

However, after that day, Old Qian did not let Gu Laosan's family off the hook just because Gu Qingye apologized.

The next morning, a notice was issued in the village stating that Gu Laosan's family would not be allowed to participate in village affairs for three years, and that any village profit-sharing activities during this period would be irrelevant to Gu Laosan's family.

This serves as a warning to the villagers not to follow suit and to uphold the simple and friendly folk customs of Huachidu Village.

In addition to the overt punishment, there are also intangible consequences for the Gu family.

Liu had previously planned to find a wife for her son, and had treated the matchmaker to drinks and meat quite a bit for this purpose.

Now Gu Tiezhu is lame, and his past misdeeds have piled up.

The matchmakers who had previously been associated with Liu were all scared away, and none of them remained.

When Gu Tiezhu found out, he shouted at home that he would never let Gu Xixi go.