"Bah." For years, Old Mrs. Liu had been known in her village for being shamelessly difficult. But despite her thick skin, being mocked by Su Qing in the city, in front of so many people, was still a huge loss of face. She stomped her feet and shrieked, "Look who’s talking! You’re the one with a black heart! It’s a powder worth a few measly cents, yet you have the gall to demand six yuan a gram! You’re worse than the greedy landlords of old! Hey, everyone, come and see! This young girl is bullying a poor old woman like me!"

As she spoke, Old Mrs. Liu plopped herself right on the ground and started slapping her thighs, wailing for all she was worth.

The commotion quickly drew a crowd, including Fu Yuzhen’s family, as well as Old Mrs. Liu’s daughter, Liu Suhua, and her husband, Hu Zhi. When they saw Old Mrs. Liu clashing with Su Qing, both families hurried downstairs.

"Xiao Qing, are you being bullied?" The moment she arrived, Fu Yuzhen pulled Su Qing behind her. In her mind, Su Qing was a delicate, gentle girl who needed protecting. Moreover, the woman opposite them, Old Mrs. Liu, was sitting on the ground throwing a fit. Fu Yuzhen had long been fed up with her behavior. Over the past few months, she had seen with her own eyes how the old woman was insatiably greedy and loved to cause a scene.

"Aunt Fu, I’m fine," Su Qing said quickly, seeing Fu Yuzhen shielding her.

Pan Youming and Pan Youshan also stepped in front of Su Qing, frowning at Old Mrs. Liu.

Seeing this, Old Mrs. Liu shrieked, "What’s this? What’s this? Ganging up on me, are you?"

Fu Yuzhen ignored Old Mrs. Liu and asked Su Qing, "Xiao Qing, how did she bully you?" 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝙚𝔀𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝒐𝒎

Before Su Qing could speak, a few people in the crowd explained the cause of the argument between her and Old Mrs. Liu in great detail.

As it happened, Liu Suhua and Hu Zhi had also come downstairs by then. Hearing the crowd’s explanation, they were mortified. They knew their mother loved taking advantage of people and throwing tantrums. They had tried to reason with her several times, even threatening to send her back to her hometown to get her to behave. It worked for a while, as Old Mrs. Liu reined it in a little. But later, perhaps realizing they were just bluffing, she became completely shameless.

And now, on the second day of the Lunar New Year, she was at it again, trying to get her hands on a young girl’s scar treatment powder—and an expensive one at that.

Then they saw Pan Runqing standing right next to Su Qing, which made the couple even more frantic. Liu Suhua rushed forward to pull her mother up. "Mom, what are you doing? It’s the New Year, can’t we just have some peace and quiet? Come home with me, now."

Seeing that her own daughter wasn’t helping her but was actually undermining her, Old Mrs. Liu said angrily, "You wretched girl! I’m your mother! I’m being bullied, and instead of helping me, you’re siding with outsiders! How did I end up with such a useless daughter?"

Still fuming, Old Mrs. Liu slapped Liu Suhua across the face a couple of times.

Liu Suhua was furious. "Mom, stop making a scene! That girl’s scar powder is expensive. How could you just demand it for free? It’s perfectly reasonable for her to refuse."

"Bah! How expensive could it be!" Old Mrs. Liu shrieked. "I heard from the village practitioner that herbs are cheap. How expensive can they be? Do you have any idea how much this wretched girl is demanding? Even if I were to pay, it should be thirty or fifty cents at most. And she wants six yuan a gram! If that isn’t price gouging, then what is?"

"Oh, Mom, you..." Liu Suhua began, flustered, but she was cut off by Fu Yuzhen before she could finish.

Hearing the crowd’s chatter, Fu Yuzhen now understood that the argument was about the scar treatment powder.

Of course, Fu Yuzhen knew about the prescription for the scar treatment. She was the one who had taken Su Qing to the doctor who gave it to them. The thing was, several of the ingredients in the formula had to be at least fifty years old, and they had to be wild-grown. Those were incredibly hard to find and would certainly not be cheap. For the past few months, she had been asking around everywhere with no luck. She never imagined Su Qing had already managed to prepare the medicine.

’Could medicine like that be cheap?’

’And this Old Mrs. Liu actually planned to take it for free!’

Fu Yuzhen’s temper flared. She sneered and said, "Let me tell you something about that powder. I was right there when the doctor wrote the prescription. All the ingredients have to be wild-grown, and several of them have to be at least fifty years old. Medicine like that can be bought for a few cents? Why don’t you go buy some and show me?"

Hearing this, the crowd gasped. Goodness, wild-grown and at least fifty years old. While most of them didn’t know much about traditional Chinese medicine, those who frequented apothecaries understood. One of them chimed in, "If that’s the case, then six yuan a gram is a bargain! When I was getting herbs at Hongji Hall, I heard one of the clerks say that any wild-grown herb over fifty or sixty years old costs hundreds, if not thousands. And that’s the price for just a single ingredient."

After hearing that, everyone looked at Su Qing’s face. Goodness, no wonder the scars on her face were healing. With medicine that expensive, how could it possibly not work?

Hu Zhi, who had been listening from the side, was red-faced with embarrassment. He frowned at Liu Suhua and said, "Hurry up and get Mom back home."

’Don’t let her stay here and embarrass us any further. Our family has lost enough face recently.’

After saying that, Hu Zhi turned apologetically to Pan Runqing. "Mr. Pan, I’m so sorry. My mother-in-law is getting on in years and can be unreasonable sometimes. Please don’t take it to heart. We’ll take her away right now."

Pan Runqing’s face was cold. "She was cursing my niece. Apologizing to me is useless."

Hu Zhi understood immediately and hurried to apologize to Su Qing.

Su Qing gave a faint smile. "I’ll let it slide this time. But if there’s a next time, and I can’t stop myself from getting physical, don’t blame me for not respecting my elders."

"It won’t, it won’t." Hu Zhi breathed a sigh of relief. ’Thank goodness she isn’t holding a grudge. If Pan Runqing decided to stand up for his niece, he could easily make my life difficult. I work under him, after all. If he wanted to mess with me, all it would take is a single word.’

Liu Suhua saw her husband’s face had turned pale with anger. She knew if she didn’t drag Old Mrs. Liu home right now, this matter wouldn’t end peacefully. Ignoring her mother’s struggles, she forcefully pulled and dragged Old Mrs. Liu upstairs.

After Old Mrs. Liu was dragged away, Fu Yuzhen turned to Hu Zhi and said, "Mr. Hu, speaking of which, your mother-in-law has been getting more and more out of line lately. She’s causing widespread complaints among the neighbors. I hope you’ll keep a better handle on her. Otherwise, who knows what trouble she’ll cause next."