TFWYH – Chapter 170 The An Family’s Trouble

These two men had always been loafers. Since Tang Hongba was Tang Wan’s biological father, even just for her sake, they couldn’t sit by and do nothing.

So the two of them stepped in and fought with that group — but they were outnumbered and ended up getting beaten instead.

Zhang San was fine, just some superficial wounds. Li Si, however, was fiercer in his attacks and got beaten more heavily — so much that he couldn’t even get up afterward.

Li Dashan’s face darkened. After explaining, he added, “Uncle Tang wouldn’t say what exactly happened. Wan-niang, you’d better hurry home and check. I saw Uncle Tang take a few blows himself — his face was all bruised.”

“You all keep an eye here, I’ll go check!” Tang Wan immediately dropped the work in her hands and rushed toward her parents’ home.

Fortunately, both her roasting shop and her new home weren’t far from her old one.

In just a short while, she arrived.

The pork stall at the door had already been overturned, meat scattered everywhere — much of it trampled into a mushy mess.

The courtyard gate was tightly shut, with rotten vegetable leaves stuck all over it.

The tofu seller next door saw Tang Wan and, after a long moment, finally recognized her. “Wan-niang?”

Tang Wan looked up and walked to the tofu stall. “It’s me. What happened to my family?”

“Oh, you can blame that sister-in-law of yours!” the tofu woman whispered, pulling Tang Wan aside. “Didn’t you leave some dried beef with your father to sell? One pack per jin, right? Well, your sister-in-law secretly shorted the weight! You don’t even know — she opened every single pack and took some out, none of them actually weighed a full jin. So when people found out, they came to make trouble. Your father, knowing he was in the wrong, got beaten.”

Tang Wan’s face instantly turned cold. “Who hit my father?”

The tofu woman said, “Plenty of people — all customers who bought those short-weight packs. Even the madam from the Yihong Brothel on Flower Street came with her people! That’s how we found out your sister-in-law wasn’t just selling from your father’s stall — she was also secretly selling to the brothel madam for ninety coins a pack, and every pack was shorted! The madam even said your father has to pay ten times the compensation, or she’ll come back next time with more people.”

“Thank you,” Tang Wan said grimly, then walked straight toward her house.

As she pushed the gate open, faint sobbing could be heard inside.

Tang Wan stepped in and saw Madam An kneeling on the ground, crying so hard she could barely breathe.

Her father, Tang Hongba, wasn’t in the courtyard. Her eldest brother was standing there with a dark expression, glaring down at Madam An. Her second brother looked at her with eyes full of fury, as if he could eat her alive.

“Big Brother, Second Brother!” Tang Wan called out.

The two looked up when they heard her voice.

“Why are you back?” Tang Tiansheng frowned, his gaze evasive.

Tang Tianyang, less restrained, hurried over. “Little sister, if you hadn’t come back, I was about to go find you! This woman is outrageous — sneaky and shameless! She secretly made deals with that brothel madam, sold her the dried beef short of weight, and now people have come to make a scene! Father was beaten and is too angry to get out of bed — I just—”

“Tianyang, shut your mouth!” Tang Tiansheng’s face went black. “This is a family matter! Little sister’s already married out — why are you telling her all this?”

Tang Wan’s expression chilled. “So what you mean is, since I’m married, I’m no longer a daughter of the Tang family?”

Tang Tiansheng froze, quickly explaining, “Wan-niang, that’s not what I meant. I just didn’t want you to worry. We can handle this ourselves — no need for you to get involved.”