Er Gouzi saw that the little girl offered no resistance. He grinned, puckered his dirty mouth, and moved towards the little girl's face.
The little girl was desperate. Tears slid from the corners of her eyes. In such a troubled world, who could save her?
Su Muqing couldn't bear to watch any longer. She flung Su Cuiping's hand away and rushed over. Just as Er Gouzi's mouth was about to touch the little girl's face, she pulled the girl behind her.
"She's so young, you can't do this to her!" Su Muqing held the little girl firmly behind her and began to unbuckle the carrier holding the little baby.
Er Gouzi saw that it was Su Mingyuan's adopted daughter who had spoiled his good deed. If her adoptive father were still alive, he might have been afraid. But now that she was an orphan herself, how dare she meddle in other people's affairs?
"Qing丫头, you don't understand! She has no one to care for her now. If I take her back and give her something to eat, she can survive. Otherwise, if she walks this road alone without anyone to guide her, who knows how long she'll live!" Er Gouzi shamelessly twisted his wicked intentions into good intentions!
Su Muqing, afraid of harming the little baby, took the child from the carrier and held her in her arms. Seeing this, Wang Shi immediately took the baby.
After confirming the little baby was safe, Su Muqing continued to speak to Er Gouzi. "She's a person, not a cat or a dog. She has her own food. She just wants to follow us."
"Stinky girl! Why are you minding my business? Or do you want to follow me, uncle?" Er Gouzi was displeased. He bared his foul mouth and began to talk nonsense.
"Er Gouzi, what the hell are you spouting?" Su Minghui, hearing Er Gouzi's words, rebuked him sternly.
Whether the little girl from another village wanted to follow Er Gouzi was not Su Minghui's concern. But Su Muqing had to call him grand-uncle by seniority. How could Er Gouzi talk such nonsense?
Seeing the village head's anger, Er Gouzi quickly apologized sheepishly. He had almost forgotten that Su Minghui and Su Mingyuan were close cousins and had been like brothers since childhood! They were very close. Now that Su Mingyuan was dead, Su Minghui clearly intended to protect that dead girl.
He had to endure it. He couldn't anger him at this juncture. What if he was driven out of the team? It wasn't worth it to be driven out of the village for a girl who hadn't even fully grown! He'd better drop it!
Just as Er Gouzi figured it out and was about to say he didn't want the little girl anymore...
"I am her mother, and I have the final say. This girl is yours." An annoying voice rang out at this moment. The tone carried hints of deep hatred and the pleasure of revenge!
Su Muqing turned her head to look. The person speaking was the troublesome woman from before, the little girl's mother?
Hearing her stepmother's words, the little girl's face turned even paler. Her small body trembled, and she hid further behind Su Muqing, whispering pleas, "No, I don't want to go with him..."
Hearing the woman's words, Su Muqing found it hard to believe. If she had been forced to give up the child to survive, she could have grudgingly understood. But now that the village head had tacitly agreed that they could travel together, why would this woman give her daughter to an old man to abuse?
Su Muqing immediately retorted, "How can you do this? Are you still her mother?"
The woman retorted, unwilling to back down, "I'm not her mother, are you? Who are you, a young brat! Go away! Don't your elders discipline you! Such impudence!"
The little girl, hiding behind Su Muqing, now saw her as her only hope for survival. She tightly grabbed Su Muqing's sleeve and said softly but firmly, "Sister, she's not my birth mother. She's my stepmother. And my father and brother were both killed by her. I won't listen to her. Please save me...!"
So it was a stepmother! No wonder she was so vicious! She even killed her father and brother! And now she was casually deciding the little girl's fate!
"You wretched girl! What nonsense are you spouting? You've always been a disobedient and unfilial little harlot! And now you dare to slander your mother like this!" Hearing the little girl say she had killed her father and brother, a flicker of guilt flashed across the woman's face. She quickly regained her composure and tried to rush forward to tear at the little girl.
"Xiao Rong, you mustn't talk nonsense. If it weren't for Mother, you would have already..." Not long after the woman finished speaking, her eldest daughter also stepped forward and began to scold the little girl!
Su Muqing grabbed the little girl's arm, dodging the woman's outstretched claws, and quickly asked the girl, "How did she kill your father and brother?"
The little girl said with a face full of sadness, "We were originally traveling with the people from the village. Then we encountered those people on the road. Later, she said something to my father, and we stopped to wait for her. Soon after, we were captured by those bad guys. My father and the others were beaten to death... Later, I overheard them talking. I found out that my stepmother had known them for a long time. It was she who deliberately deceived my father... I also heard her tell the leader of those bad guys that they shouldn't have dealt with my father so soon... Woo woo woo."
After speaking, the little girl, remembering the scene at the time, couldn't help but whimper again!
Hearing the little girl's words, the woman's eyes darted, and she suddenly let out a wail, her tears flowing like rain as she slapped her thighs repeatedly and denied everything, calling the little girl ungrateful and slandering her. She demanded proof!
Su Muqing had never seen such a scene. She was afraid that if this woman actually broke her own thigh, how would they be able to travel afterward?
Seeing the woman's wailing getting louder, Su Muqing also raised her voice and shouted, "Even if you didn't intentionally want to kill her father and brother, what about her? Since you're not her birth mother, what right do you have to control her whereabouts? Now that all her blood-related relatives are dead, she is the one who can make her own decisions. You have no right to make decisions for her, let alone give her away casually!"
Seeing that her attempt to collude with the mob had been exposed, the woman was looking at Su Muqing triumphantly. Then she heard that dead girl repeatedly saying she had no right, and her temper immediately flared up, "How do I not have the right? I married into her family four years ago, and she has called me mother for four years. Now that her father and brother are dead, I am the one who has the final say. I can decide her life or death! If it weren't for her, how could my daughter have... Anyway, no matter what, her affairs are up to me. I can give her to whomever I want, and she must obey me."
Stirred up by Su Muqing, the woman almost blurted out that her eldest daughter had been bullied by a few ruffians! Fortunately, she held back. Otherwise, her eldest daughter would never find a good match in the future!
The other people from Houxi Village had changed their expressions after hearing the woman's words! This woman was a bit vicious! And a bit foolish!
Now, no matter which family she married into, she would be a stepmother. Many people wanted to find a woman to bring home during these times of scarcity, not just to make things easier for the elderly and children in the family?
But with her atrocious attitude and her disregard for her stepdaughter as a human being, what family would be willing to take such a person home? Would they bring her home to abuse their own children?