Divorced woman with child travels through time

Chen Xuanyu retorted, "That's right. Let them tell me if he fell down on his own. My punch wasn't that hard."

"You!" Chen Wenfang didn't know what to say.

The young page muttered, "He didn't fall by himself. He threw a stone, and that's why my young master fell." He then pointed at Fifteen.

"Huh? Fifteen, is that you?" Chen Xuanyu exclaimed.

Everyone looked at Fifteen, but only Xiao Hao showed an expression of "I see."

Shiwu had never seen anything like this before. Terrified, he dropped his chopsticks, knelt down with a thud, kowtowed to Chen Wenfang, and said with tears streaming down his face, "Godmother, it was me. Who told him to bully Xuanzai... It's all my fault."

Chen Wenfang looked at him and seemed to see that little boy who had fallen and was now kneeling in front of her, bruised and battered, begging her to save his brother. Chen Wenfang helped him up and carefully wiped his face with a handkerchief, saying, "It's alright, it's alright, it's not your fault. You didn't start it."

Hearing this, Wang Youcai spoke up, sounding somewhat indignant, "Madam Chen, you're not quite right. My Weicheng said he didn't start it. Besides, they've beaten each other to this state; it's really unreasonable, isn't it?"

Chen Wenfang took Shiwu's hand and pulled him into her arms, laughing, "We admit that he hit us, but it was definitely your child who started it. If you don't believe me, you can ask his classmates. Everyone saw it. It's not like our child is lying. So many children are telling the truth. Do your two children think they can turn the world upside down?" Chen Wenfang was also a little unhappy, and her words became sharp.

Wang Erniu then spoke up seriously, "Village Chief, we admit that someone was injured, but as for who started the fight and is in the right, that's really your child's business. Village Chief, you can't protect your own, that would be unfair."

Wang Youcai, feeling somewhat humiliated, scolded Wang Weicheng with a sullen face, "What are you eating? All you do is eat! Be honest, did you start it?"

With his mouth stuffed full of meat, Wang Weicheng said timidly, "Yes, I started it. I lied."

Wang Youcai immediately put on a shameless smile and said, "Haha, it's true that our child was wrong, but we've damaged their reputation, so we should at least compensate them a little."

Chen Wenfang turned away, pretending not to hear, and didn't want to pay attention to him.

Seeing this, Wang Erniu said, "Aunt Liu, how about we give you five hundred coins as compensation for your child's medical expenses? Is that alright, village head?"

Wang Fugui grinned broadly and said, "Sure, sure, of course, Mr. Wang is very generous." Then he continued eating as if nothing had happened.

Uncle Liu then pulled him along, saying, "Come, come, Brother Wang, please eat this. This fish is really delicious."

"Oh, okay, okay, you must say that, your food really does taste good! My wife could never cook it this well." Wang Fugui praised as he ate. After all, only what you can taste is good, and compliments are free.

After the three of them finished their meal, they packed two more bowls of food to take away.

In the evening, Chen Wenfang and Wang Erniu took Shiwu and several children to the courtyard, where they ate snacks with honeydew melons with everyone else.

Chen Wenfang said with a smile, "Come, come, children, let's have a heart-to-heart talk. It's been a long time since your mother has chatted with you."

Shiwu was a little uneasy. He held a melon in his hand, wanting to eat it but too embarrassed to. He was always worried that he might do something wrong and upset his godmother or something. He was still a little scared.

Chen Wenfang pulled him to sit beside her, patted his head, and placed Chen Xuanyu on one side of her thigh and Shiwu on the other.

Chen Wenfang looked at Shiwu and said, "Shiwu, you did nothing wrong. You did a great job. But this matter, Wang Weicheng is still a child. If all of you went up together, he wouldn't stand a chance against you. You could have just swarmed him and subdued him directly. You wouldn't have needed to fight back; he wouldn't have been able to lift a finger. Besides, you weren't discreet enough when you threw the stones. People noticed, and of course, they attacked you. We can't just offer our faces to them, can we?"

After listening, Shiwu, not sure if she understood, looked at Chen Wenfang with bright eyes and said, "So, does Godmother mean that I did a good job?" Godmother is praising me, Shiwu felt sweet inside.

Chen Wenfang laughed out loud, "Logically speaking, the hit was just right, but it was a bit too hard. It almost disfigured him, but luckily he's just a kid, so a few scrapes are nothing."

Fifteen scratched his head and smiled happily.

Chen Xuanyu, who was standing nearby, seemed to be deep in thought and said, "Mother, next time this happens, shouldn't we just stop him and not let him make a move?"

Chen Wenfang laughed and said, "That's right, there are so many of you, so we should make the most of our strengths, right? There's strength in numbers, no matter what we do, including group fights. But we can't bully people. It's not good to hurt a little kid like this. What if he gets disfigured and can't find a wife in the future?" Everyone laughed after hearing this.

Wang Erniu looked at Chen Wenfang with deep affection in his eyes, his heart fluttering. He really liked Fang'er; she protected her family without being completely unreasonable, kind yet sharp-tongued. Her thoughts were exactly the same as his own, and he really wanted to marry her as soon as possible. There was still almost a month left, and he couldn't wait any longer.

The next morning, Chahua came to work and, having heard about what happened the day before, immediately came to apologize to Chen Wenfang.

"Boss, I am deeply sorry about what happened to my uncle's family. It was just a little squabble between the kids, but it has escalated to the point where it has come to your place. I hope you won't take it to heart." Chahua was very worried about losing her job.

The Chen family is so kind; it's hard to find such a good employer. This uncle and his family really don't consider their feelings at all, actually coming to the Chen family themselves. They really think the village head is an official!

Chen Wenfang held her hand and said, "This has nothing to do with your family, so why would I blame you? It's normal for kids to fight and play around."

Chahua covered her hand with her own and said, "That's good. Madam Chen, you can rest assured that I will definitely work hard here and won't have any ill intentions towards our Chen family."

Chen Wenfang smiled and nodded.

Regarding the issue of insufficient manpower mentioned yesterday, Chen Wenfang pulled Aunt Liu aside and said with a smile, "Auntie, you will be in charge of this village from now on. I looked at the ledgers yesterday, and your handwriting is already very good, and the accounts are very clear."

Aunt Liu sat on the kang and laughed, quite proudly, "Not at all, it's all thanks to Xiaoguang and the others for teaching us. Now everyone can recognize quite a few characters. I just need to practice more."

However, Chen Wenfang learned from Uncle Liu Hai that Aunt Liu practiced more than a hundred characters every night before going to bed, and she learned them by sheer hard work. She used to learn from Dazhuang and Shitou, and when they weren't around, she learned from the Wang trio, namely Wang Hanyang, Wang Xiaoguang and Wang Xiaoming. Uncle Liu Hai didn't quite understand why she worked so hard.