Turning Antagonist to Protagonist: He is Both Soft and Fierce-Chapter 184 - 179: Lin Qiao Was Not the First Victim, Nor the Last
Lin Qiao wasn’t sleeping very soundly, as soon as he moved, she woke up, rubbing her drowsy eyes, "Did you sleep well?"
"Yeah, sister-in-law, do you want to come up and sleep for a while?" Song Tingfan considerately got up and made the bed for her, bending down to pat the spot where he’d slept several times, afraid it might be dirty.
"No need, I’ll go make breakfast." Lin Qiao had slept for a long time, her arm was numb, and as soon as she lifted it, she let out a hiss.
Seeing this, Song Tingfan instinctively reached out to help her rub it. Lin Qiao hadn’t reacted yet, but he blushed, although he didn’t let go, squeezing her wrist with just the right amount of force.
After a while, he awkwardly asked, "Are you feeling better, sister-in-law?"
"I’m fine." Lin Qiao drew her hand back.
...
Song Qin and Song Rong were already in the kitchen making dinner, and when they saw the two come in, Song Qin smiled and told them to go out, "It’s almost ready, go have a seat outside."
They were old, but their hearts weren’t old, they knew the family was in trouble, they wanted to help but were powerless, so they could only take care of things like cooking to spare them the worry.
Lin Qiao picked up the dish that had been fried on the chopping board and sniffed it, "Granny’s cooking always smells nice."
She didn’t plan to tell them about Song Ming, afraid it would cause them distress if they knew.
The two elderly were already having a hard time.
"Eat more later."
"Okay."
At this moment, the sound of a dog barking came from outside, and several people turned their heads towards the door; it was Song An who had arrived.
After calling out to his father and mother, Song An called Song Tingfan into the room, took out a money bag from his bosom without the slightest hesitation, "Here are twenty taels of silver, take it for emergencies, I’ll go borrow the rest, don’t worry, Uncle is still here." 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢
"Be more attentive to your sister-in-law, don’t let her stay alone."
A place like the brothel, a proper lady stepping foot in is already hard to explain, let alone Lin Qiao going in, who knows what happened inside.
She might have bad thoughts in her heart.
The heavy silver, Song Tingfan held it tightly with mixed feelings, "I know, I’ll take good care of sister-in-law."
"Thank you, Uncle, I’ll definitely repay you."
"No need to repay, just make sure you live well."
Thinking of how the madam said Song San’s family initially even considered selling Song Tingfan, Song An, feeling heartache, lifted his hand to touch his head, paused, and then said, "Don’t let your grandpa and grandma know, their health isn’t good, they can’t handle it."
"I know."
Song Tingfan didn’t want Grandpa and Grandma to know either, their health wasn’t good.
Song An stayed for a while and then left, at this moment Mrs. Song was crying and making a fuss in the yard, if it weren’t for Song Hao and Song Mei holding her back, she would’ve caused a scene outside by now.
Song Mei comforted, "Mom, stop crying, or the neighbors will hear."
"We’ve given all our savings to outsiders, our family is left to drink the northwest wind!" Mrs. Song cried and wailed.
At this moment, seeing Song An had returned, she shook off Song Mei and Song Hao, ran over to him, and started scolding him wildly, "Song An, are you trying to ruin us, Haozi’s wedding money is gone!! You were willing to give up all our family assets for someone else’s wife, and what about your own son?"
"You go and get it back for me, if you don’t, I’ll jump into the river and die."
Song An lowered his head, letting her hit him, and softly said, "I’ll take care of Haozi’s marriage."
"Mom, it’s okay, if it doesn’t work out, we can delay it, we can’t let them take sister-in-law away," Song Hao came over to comfort his mom.
"Delay, delay what, the date is set, they might not even want to marry us anymore."
Mrs. Song just hoped her daughter and son would be well, the more she thought about it, the more she broke down, sitting on the ground wailing, finally cursing Song San’s family, "Song Ming, you beast, why should we pay for the sins you’ve committed, may you die without a penny to your name, rot by the roadside."
She didn’t know that in her past life, she had become such a wicked person in Song San’s family.
The neighbors heard it, looked on for a bit, and soon the Song Family closed the door.
...
The Song Family caused quite a fuss over borrowing silver for most of the day, Lin Qiao was unaware of it, the next morning she took a donkey cart to the town to ask the shopkeeper of Fulaoyun for help, and incidentally to exchange the blueprint for silver, hoping to gather fifty taels of silver.
The boss of Fulaoyun was an easy person to talk to, and hearing that her silver note had gotten wet, he took her to the Money Shop to exchange it for three new notes, and asked at the end, "When will you bring your pastries for me to try?"
Hearing her hint at wanting to collaborate, guessing the cold dishes were selling well, Lin Qiao felt a bit apologetic, "Mr. Liu, sorry, something happened at home recently, just a few more days."
Liu Fuzhu sized her up, seeing she looked much more haggard than a few days ago, he asked impulsively, "What happened, if I can help, I definitely will."
"Thank you, Boss, I can handle it." Lin Qiao genuinely appreciated it.
Hearing this, Liu Fuzhu didn’t say anything more, after Lin Qiao bid farewell, she went to the cloth shop, where Mrs. Liu Xu, upon seeing her, was very happy and chided, "Where have you been these days, not setting up your stall or coming here, I was thinking of visiting you this afternoon."
In conversation, she noticed Lin Qiao looked a bit haggard and asked, "What’s wrong with you?"
Having interacted for some time, Lin Qiao felt no need to hide and recounted everything that had happened recently. Liu Xu was shocked, and then cursed, "Is your third uncle’s family a bunch of beasts?! They even dared to sell their niece-in-law!"
Then she worried for her, "It’s a good thing you escaped, that brothel isn’t easy to deal with, the madam was associated with several officials when she was young."
"A few years ago, a girl who sold bean sprouts, as pretty as you, the brothel forcibly kidnapped her, and after the incident, it only resulted in a measly compensation of dozens of taels of silver from the government."
"That girl died the second day after returning home, and her parents, unable to bear it, followed her in death."
Lin Qiao was neither the first nor the last.
In those times, how could the common folk dare clash with the powerful, even a knife had to be swallowed silently.
Lin Qiao understood the sorrows of the old society, the common people didn’t have the "right to speak," and women even less so.
Before she could say anything, Mrs. Liu Xu handed her a substantial amount of silver, "Consider it an advance for your blueprint, use it to pay off the brothel’s silver, make sure to get the waiver contract your third uncle’s family signed, best to have it notarized at the government office so the brothel publicly won’t force you anymore."
"As for your third uncle’s family, I’ll find out more, a few days ago I heard they were heading to the next county, once found, they must be reported, or else there will be a next time for such vile deeds."
Lin Qiao looked at the silver in her hands, a total of sixty taels, and after deducting the blueprint money, she borrowed thirty taels and felt a warmth in her heart, "Thank you, Boss, but I don’t need that much, just the blueprint money will do."
"Keep it, I’m not worried about you running away." Mrs. Liu Xu previously had no good impression of her, but after all these days, she realized Widow Song was indeed having a hard time.
