Chen Anwen looked at the young woman and said, "First, my family is a farming family, and we are law-abiding people. Second, the ginseng added to the soup was found in the mountains near our village. You can ask anyone who lives in Xie Village if there is ginseng there."
"Third, there is a river in our village, and everyone is allowed to fish there once every three days. So, both the fish and ginseng are from the mountains and river."
"My family is poor, and we don’t have much money. Even for the hospital fees, we had to borrow money from friends and relatives."
"Comrade, we don’t even know each other well. Based on what you said, are you hinting that my family bought the fish and ginseng with money from an unknown source?"
"Do you know that your careless words of jealousy could bring disaster to my family? If someone reported my family after hearing your careless words, can you take the responsibility?" she asked.
When everyone heard her words, they felt ashamed but also secretly gloating at the young woman. She was young, but her heart and mind were crooked.
Just because her husband ignored her and her in-laws treated her badly, she always spoke harshly whenever she saw others doing better than her.
In the past few days they had stayed here, they had already tasted how vicious her words were. But because she was a shrew, no one was willing to call her out, fearing that she would cause a ruckus and embarrass their families.
Now that someone finally dared to go against her, of course, they were eager to see the show.
The young woman was stunned for a moment before she regained her senses and said, "Did I say something wrong? Who knows if your family even lives near rivers and mountains?"
Chen Anwen narrowed her eyes and said, "Comrade, you don’t even know my name or where my family and I live. So what right do you have to say such careless words?"
"If you have no evidence for your claims, I can report you for slandering me and my family. Do you know that slandering others’ reputations could land you in the police station for a week to a month for re-education?"
After a brief pause, she added with a smile, "I believe your family wouldn’t be pleased if they learned about what happened today—or if I reported you to the authorities."
This time, the young woman finally felt fear. She looked at Chen Anwen and realized she was serious. Her marriage was already unhappy—her husband didn’t love her, and her in-laws loathed her.
If she was reported and ended up being re-educated, she was sure her husband would take the opportunity to divorce her. It was fine if she was alone, but now that she had a child, she couldn’t let her child become fatherless!
Reaching this conclusion, she quickly said, "Sister-in-law, I’m sorry. I apologize to you and your family. I promise I won’t say careless words about you and your family again. Can you forgive me and not report me?"
Chen Anwen hadn’t planned to make a big deal out of it—she only wanted to give her a warning. So, after seeing her attitude, she said, "I will let it go this time. But if I hear you say anything about my family again, don’t blame me for being ruthless."
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