Chapter 85: Washing the Cloak
Qianhuan only learned about what happened in the Liang family's old house from hearing about it from people in the village.
The villagers all looked sad when they talked about Cuihua. Her mother-in-law gave her a cold shoulder, and her family members also hated her. Fortunately, there was a man named Sun Wang who protected her, otherwise she would have had a hard time living.
Qianhuan couldn't help but sneer: Cuihua is lucky to be able to live this kind of life now. She hasn't started to take action yet. Let her be happy for a few more days. When she takes action, that will be the beginning of her truly miserable days!
It had been gloomy these past few days, but today the sun finally came out. Qianhuan quickly put Chu Yichen's cloak in a clean wooden basin, took a small bag of decontamination brine bought in the county town (alkaline soil containing natural alkali collected by ancient people on some alkaline lands, which has a strong decontamination effect), and took it to the stream to wash it.
She deliberately chose to come here at noon to wash it. After all, this was a man's cloak and the material was so expensive. People in the village would know at a glance that this was not something her father could afford to wear. If someone misunderstood it, who knows what would happen.
Qianhuan was squatting by the stream, washing clothes seriously with her head down. Suddenly, she heard footsteps. She looked up and saw the eldest daughter-in-law of the Xie family coming to the stream with a wooden basin and a mallet.
Qianhuan thought to herself that it was terrible. The person who came was actually the big mouth from the Xie family who couldn't keep secrets. God really wanted to make trouble for her and not do what she wanted.
She had clearly avoided the peak time for washing clothes in the morning, but there were still people coming to the creek.
She wanted to get up and go home right away with the clothes in her arms, but unfortunately the eldest daughter-in-law of the Xie family had already seen Qianhuan. She shouted from a distance, "Qianhuan girl, are you washing clothes too?"
"Yes, Aunt Xie, I'm almost done washing. Would you like to come and wash clothes too?"
"I'm washing the quilt cover. My little rascal is not well behaved when eating. He likes to run around with his bowl. So, he ran to his room and accidentally spilled the rice soup on the quilt cover. It's a rare day when the sun came out, so I hurried out to take it off and wash it."
The eldest daughter-in-law of Xie family was getting closer and closer. Qianhuan quickened the rubbing motion of her hands. She just wanted to finish washing and go home quickly. She really didn't want the eldest daughter-in-law of Xie family to see her washing a man's cloak.
She even said to herself: Don't come over here again, stay away from me.
This time, it seemed as if God had heard her voice. The eldest daughter-in-law of the Xie family finally stopped dozens of steps away from her. She squatted down, put the quilt cover into the stream to wet it, and then began to beat the quilt cover with a laundry pestle.
Looking towards Qianhuan from her position, if you don't look carefully, you probably won't be able to tell what clothes Qianhuan is washing.
Qianhuan quickened her movements. Just when she finished washing and was about to get up and go home with the wooden basin, the eldest daughter-in-law of the Xie family suddenly ran over.
She scratched her head and said embarrassedly, "Qianhua girl, I see you use brine to wash clothes, can you give me some brine? My rascal spilled soup on the quilt, and I beat it for a long time but couldn't clean the dirty spot."
Qianhuan placed the wooden basin on the ground behind her, quickly picked up the small bag of brine and poured some for her. The eldest daughter-in-law of the Xie family stretched out her hand to receive it.
At this moment, the eldest daughter-in-law of the Xie family suddenly noticed the cloak in the wooden basin behind her. She exclaimed, "Qianhuan girl, your dress is actually made of silk? There is also animal fur on it? Oh my God, am I seeing things?"
Qianhuan thought to herself: Oh no, she saw it after all. How should I explain it?
The eldest daughter-in-law of the Xie family immediately squatted down to look at the clothes in Qianhuan's wooden basin. It was inconvenient for her to hold the brine in her left hand, so she used her clean right hand to lift up the clothes in the basin and take a look.
This was a surprise, she found out that it was a man's cloak. Although she didn't know what kind of fur was on the collar and the hood, she was sure that the animal fur must be very valuable.
She exclaimed again: "Qianhuan girl, whose cloak is this? Is it your father's?"
"Aunt, you misunderstood. This cloak does not belong to my father. How can my family afford such an expensive cloak?" Qianhuan quickly thought of a countermeasure in her mind.
"If it's not your father's, then whose is it? This is a man's cloak." The eldest daughter-in-law of the Xie family had an expression as if she had discovered a shocking secret.
"Two days ago, when my mother and I went to the city to set up a stall, we accidentally soiled a nobleman's cloak. The nobleman got angry on the spot and asked us to pay compensation. My family runs a small business, and even if we sold all three of us, we couldn't afford such an expensive cloak. We had no choice but to take the cloak home and have the nobleman wash it before returning it." Qianhuan could only make up a lie.
"Oh, I see. Did you clean the dirty area?"
"Thank God, it's clean." Qianhuan said with a deliberately relieved look on her face.
"It's good that it's washed. Otherwise, you won't be able to compensate for such a good cloak even if you spend all your money." When the eldest daughter-in-law of the Xie family heard that it was washed clean, she also breathed a sigh of relief for Qianhuan.
"Hey, that's not right. The nobleman actually let you take such a valuable cloak home to wash it? Isn't he afraid that you won't return it?" The eldest daughter-in-law of the Xie family asked as if she realized it belatedly.
"They were reluctant at first, but it was Mr. Cai, who is in charge of the stalls in the city, who acted as a guarantor for our family. Your Excellency has some friendship with Mr. Cai, so they were willing to let us take it home to wash. Otherwise, how could they feel comfortable letting us take such a valuable cloak home?" Qianhuan continued to make up stories.
"Then you have to take it home and put it in the yard to dry and watch it carefully. It will be troublesome if someone steals it." The eldest daughter-in-law of the Xie family kindly reminded.
"Oh, Auntie, I understand. I'll go back first."
"Good. Go back and hang your cloak out to dry."
Qianhuan picked up the wooden basin and walked quickly back home. She didn't want to be seen by other people again. She didn't know if the eldest daughter-in-law of the Xie family would go around the village and spread rumors again. Although she didn't care about other people's gossip, her parents couldn't stand it.
Qianhuan hung the cloak in the yard to dry. The sun was strong today and it should be dry after an afternoon of drying. She would have to return the cloak to Young Master Chu tomorrow. She felt uneasy leaving such a valuable item at home.
It is said that after the eldest daughter-in-law of the Xie family washed the quilt covers, she met several villagers who were washing clothes and shoes by the stream with wooden basins on their way back. Two of them were married women, and the other two were unmarried girls. They all came to the stream to wash their dirty clothes and shoes because the sun was good today.
The eldest daughter-in-law of the Xie family started to have her old habit again. She told these people what happened when Qianhuan washed the cloak by the stream just now. She did not deliberately ruin Qianhuan's reputation, but just told them the exact version of Qianhuan's story, that is, she took the dirty cloak home to wash.
She said to the villagers with an envious look on her face: "You don't know how valuable that snow-white cloak is. It has animal fur on it, I don't know if it is fox fur or mink fur. The silk material feels so smooth. This is the first time I have touched such precious clothes."
When the women heard this, they looked envious. They usually wore patched coarse cloth clothes and had never been to the city. They had never even seen what silk clothes looked like. They couldn't help but feel curious about the nobleman's clothes.
One of the village women said, "How about we go to Liang Laoer's house and take a look at the cloak? If it is returned tomorrow, we will never have the chance to see such a rare thing again."
"Okay, okay, we all want to go and have a look too."
Several other village women, including the two unmarried girls, also echoed the sentiment. People in the small mountain village were just like that. None of them had seen the world, so whenever someone's family got something good, they would like to go over to take a look and touch it. Sometimes, even if someone bought a new farm tool, they would gather around to take a look, not to mention this precious silk cloak with animal fur.
When Liu heard the knock on the door, she went to the front yard and opened it. She was surprised. Why did everyone come to her house in groups today?
Before she could ask, one of the women said impatiently, "Madam Liu, I heard from the eldest daughter-in-law of the Xie family that you soiled a nobleman's cloak while setting up a stall, and you took it home to wash it. I heard that the cloak was made of snow-white silk and trimmed with animal hair. We have never seen such expensive clothes, so we wanted to come and have a look."
When Liu heard this, she was confused. When did they dirty the noble's clothes? Could it be that they were talking about the cloak that the young master of Zuixianju put on his daughter?
Liu suddenly felt a little flustered. Her daughter had worn that cloak all the way back on the ox cart. At that time, she thought her daughter was sick, so she didn't care too much about it. She didn't know if the villagers had seen it.
She knew how much these village women loved to gossip. What would happen if they knew that the man's cloak was brought back by her daughter?
"My dear aunts, we took the cloak home to clean it because it was soiled. The clothes were not ours to begin with, so we cannot show them to you. If it gets soiled again, we cannot afford to pay for it even if we sell our whole family. I am really sorry to have you come here for nothing."
When Qianhuan heard the noise, she hurried out to help Liu out. She didn't expect that as soon as she left, the eldest daughter-in-law of the Xie family told this matter to others.
Liu also chimed in, "Yes, everyone, I'm really sorry. We will return the clothes to you tomorrow. It's really inconvenient for you to see them."
When everyone heard this, they could only leave with unhappy looks on their faces.
On the way back, a quick-talking aunt said, "I think Liu is too stingy. Can she make her clothes dirty with just one glance?"
One of the two unmarried girls is Xu Tingting, the daughter of the Xu family in the village. When Liang Wenyong got married last time, Xu Tingting said bad things about Qianhuan at the banquet.
While they were talking, Xu Tingting had stuck her head out of the gate of Liang Laoer's house and looked inside. She had already seen a man's cloak drying in the yard.
She curled her lips and said disdainfully, "Huh, what are you afraid of seeing the clothes dirty? I just saw a man's cloak drying in the yard. He said he accidentally soiled the nobleman's clothes and took it home to wash. Who knows if he stole the man's clothes and then washed them for him? This Liang Qianhuan looks like a foxy girl. You can tell at a glance that she is not someone who will keep quiet."
The other women were also discussing the matter, and everyone felt that what Xu Tingting said seemed to make some sense.
When Xu Tingting saw that everyone was saying bad things about Qianhuan, a smug smile appeared on her lips.
She has always liked Jiang Tongsheng, but Jiang Lin's mother went to Liang Qianhuan's house to propose marriage. Even though they have called off the engagement now, she still hates Qianhuan very much in her heart.