USWHC -Chapter 99 My Woman (Part 9)

“Mother, I don’t want to live anymore!”

The very first words that Ji Mei shouted upon rushing home were so shocking that everyone in the house immediately ran out at her cry.

“Ah! Mei Zi, what’s wrong with you?” Old Madam Ji nearly fainted at the sight of her daughter’s messy state, looking like she’d come apart from front to back.

Although Ji Mei kept shouting that she didn’t want to live, she didn’t actually jump into the well. Instead, she threw herself into her mother’s arms, crying and wailing, “Mother, you have to stand up for me!”

The next moment, Zhu Jie ran in as well, holding a hoe in her hand. “Sister, sister!”

Her cry immediately drew everyone’s attention. She too had tears in her eyes, looking at Ji Mei with concern and a face full of pity as she walked toward her.

But when Ji Mei saw her, she immediately panicked and burrowed deeper into her mother’s arms, trembling as she said, “Y-you stay back!”

Old Madam Ji took one look and realized this was unusual! Ji Mei had clearly intended to teach Zhu Jie a lesson, yet here was Zhu Jie standing there unscathed, while Ji Mei ran back looking like a lunatic?

“Stand right there!” Old Madam Ji shouted sharply. “Tell me, what did you do to my Mei Zi?”

Zhu Jie, feeling extremely wronged, began to cry, “Mother, no! It wasn’t me!”

“Not you? Then who else could it be?” Old Madam Ji shouted angrily, refusing to listen to her explanation.

“I-I don’t know how it happened!” Zhu Jie said pitifully. “Sister was teaching me how to hoe the soil, but this hoe just wouldn’t cooperate, and I—I lost control for a moment!”

“You actually hit our Mei Zi like that?” Elder Brother Ji shouted angrily. “You really have no heart! My sister is so cute—there’s barely time to even dote on her, and you went and hit her?”

Hearing this, Zhu Jie was momentarily stunned. This isn’t like when they were fighting! When did your sister suddenly become “cute”?

Still, Zhu Jie didn’t argue with Elder Brother Ji. Instead, she cried out in grievance, “I didn’t! Big brother, I didn’t hit her—it was sister who ran into the hoe herself!”

Calling him “big brother” like this cleverly turned an external conflict into a family misunderstanding. No, a misunderstanding!

“Mei Zi ran into it herself?” Old Madam Ji refused to believe it. Could she have gotten into such a messy state all on her own? Her Ji Mei isn’t a block of tofu!

“Impossible! The clothes are ripped—let’s see who can rip them like that!” Sister-in-law You exclaimed, clearly skeptical, as if everyone else were fools.

Hearing this, Ji Mei seemed to remember something and quickly burrowed deeper into her mother’s arms again. But she was now in a rather awkward position—front exposed to protect her back, back exposed to protect her legs. She looked so disheveled that she might reveal herself at any second. How could she possibly cover herself properly?

Zhu Jie, however, looked innocent and said, “The clothes weren’t torn by bumping—they were scratched.”

Quickly, she added, waving her hand, “But it wasn’t me who scratched them—it was the hoe!”

Hearing this, everyone looked at her with disdain. “Can a hoe jump up and scratch clothes on its own? Weren’t you the one holding it?”

“Yes, I was holding it, but I didn’t mean to!” Zhu Jie hurriedly explained. “It was my first time using this tool, and I wasn’t familiar with it. When I saw my sister hit it, I panicked and got angry. I wanted to move the hoe away, but I accidentally scraped her clothes!”

Pointing to Ji Mei’s back, she added pitifully, “Luckily, it didn’t scratch her skin!”

Yes, the skin was unharmed. But now the whole village had seen it. Soon, everyone might know every little mark on Ji Mei’s back!

Still, Zhu Jie continued to explain, “The front part—my sister got scratched while saving me. If she hadn’t saved me, I might have been the one scratched instead!”

At these words, everyone turned to look at Ji Mei.

She felt almost like laughing at how “great” Zhu Jie was making her out to be.

Yet Zhu Jie’s eyes were full of gratitude. “At that moment, I felt like dying to atone, but my sister, ignoring her own safety, risked her life to save me. I was so moved by my sister!”