Chapter 45: Short on Fate

Chapter 45: Chapter 45: Short on Fate

The situation spiraled out of control.

When Ji Liansong saw Granny Kang about to grab Ji Mingfang, he rushed to block her, only to be slapped twice across the face for his trouble.

After hitting him, she plunked herself down in the middle of the courtyard and began to wail dramatically. "Oh, heavens above! This life is impossible! One after another, you all treat this old woman like dirt! I feed you, I give you drink, and this is the thanks I get? I’m the one at fault?"

With two red handprints swelling on his face, Ji Liansong knelt and begged her, "Mother, please stop. It’s all my fault. Please don’t talk about Ming Fang like that. He’s not useless..."

Hearing this, Granny Kang began to rain blows on Ji Liansong, cursing as she hit him. "You worthless coward! How is he not useless? He *is* useless! Don’t you know how the whole neighborhood laughs at our Ji Family behind our backs? You’re a cripple, and you fathered a cripple! Now I’m the grandmother of one! I’m too ashamed to show my face in public! What sins did I commit to deserve this...?"

"Mother, it’s all my fault. Don’t be angry, you’ll make yourself sick..."

Ji Liansong kept apologizing, never considering how every "cripple" and "useless" from Granny Kang’s lips was like a steel nail being driven straight into Ji Mingfang’s heart.

Ji Mingfang struggled free from Yang and started to walk over. He was determined to settle this matter once and for all today!

THUD. Behind him, Yang had fallen to her knees.

"Ming Fang... don’t... Mother is begging you..."

Ji Mingfang looked at his father, who endured the beatings and curses without fighting back, then at his meek and timid mother. After a long moment, he suddenly broke into a grin.

His laughter grew louder and louder until he couldn’t stop.

Granny Kang’s tirade came to an abrupt halt. Every pair of eyes in the courtyard turned to stare at Ji Mingfang in astonishment.

Still laughing, Ji Mingfang entered the east wing and shut the door. Through the wall, the sound was more like sobbing.

’Don’t tell me another one has gone mad,’ Mrs. Zhu thought, unnerved.

"What nonsense are you spouting!" Granny Kang shot her a glare and climbed up from the ground.

’Her grandson’s behavior just now had indeed been unsettling. Who knew what deity the Ji Family had offended recently? One after another, they were all acting as if they were possessed.’

"You! Go find my basket!" Even at a time like this, Granny Kang hadn’t forgotten her basket.

Although Yang was worried about her son, she didn’t dare delay her mother-in-law’s errand. She hastily opened the main gate and found a basket of pigweed sitting right outside.

"That child... He clearly gathered the pigweed, why didn’t he bring it inside?" Yang muttered as she carried the basket in.

Ji Huan had left the pigweed there and quietly pulled Dabao away.

She had heard everything that happened in the courtyard and knew this wasn’t the right time for her to appear. If Granny Kang found out that Ji Mingfang had helped her fetch water, things would only get worse.

They say harsh words can chill you to the bone, even in summer, and Granny Kang’s tongue was far worse than merely vicious. In the past, she had mostly resorted to veiled insults directed at the eldest son’s family, but this was the first time she had openly screamed at them by name.

She could insult her own grandson like that. In her eyes, no one but Ji Liantang even counted as a person.

What was surprising was Ji Mingfang’s reaction.

In the past, whenever Granny Kang had one of her fits, Ji Mingfang would either lower his head in silence or shut himself in his room. He had never once talked back to her face like he did today.

This was a good change.

With someone like Granny Kang, constant compromise would never lead to peace. If Ji Mingfang wanted to defend his dignity, standing up and fighting back was the right thing to do.

Unfortunately, he had parents who held him back...

Ji Huan wondered if she was overthinking it, but from Ji Mingfang’s brief words, she got the sense that there was another reason for his disability.

’Wasn’t it because he was playing outside when he was eight and refused to come home, then accidentally fell into a ditch and broke his leg?’

She was probably just overthinking it. If there was some hidden story, no matter how much of a pushover Ji Liansong and Yang were, they wouldn’t just stand by when it concerned their son’s entire future, would they?

After breakfast, Ji Huan was just about to go to the Hu Family’s home to ask when Widow Xie would next be back from the silk workshop when, speak of the devil, Widow Xie showed up at her door.

There were scratch marks on her face, and she looked frantic.

Ji Huan’s heart sank. She quickly asked her what was wrong.

"Sigh, it’s about that jar of hand cream you gave me..."

A while ago, while Ji Huan was staying at the medical hall with Dabao as he recovered from his injuries, she learned that Widow Xie was returning to the silk workshop. So she bought some medicinal herbs from Yide Hall and privately made a jar of hand cream for her.

When she had sold the recipe to Zhen Jili, they had an agreement: as long as Ji Huan didn’t sell it to anyone else, she was free to make it for her own personal use.

At first, Widow Xie didn’t think much of it. She’d seen plenty of similar remedies, and none of them worked. But she didn’t want to waste Ji Huan’s efforts, so she would apply a little each time before work.

After a few days of this, Widow Xie herself hadn’t noticed a change, but the manager at the silk workshop did.

Even though she was doing the same work as everyone else, whose hands were festering and raw, Widow Xie’s hands were smooth and moisturized, without a single patch of redness or swelling.

The manager asked Widow Xie if she had found some secret remedy.

Only then did Widow Xie realize what a miraculous thing the hand cream was. But, remembering Ji Huan’s instructions, she tried to be vague and avoid giving details.

But how could the manager be so easily fooled? Besides, several women who shared a room with her had seen her applying a cream to her hands and, hoping to curry favor with the manager, they spoke up.

One woman even offered to go get the cream to show the manager, an offer he was naturally happy to accept.

Furious with these sycophants, Widow Xie saw the cream being dug out of her belongings. She rolled up her sleeves and started fighting with the woman leading the group, finally managing to snatch the cream back and throw it into a pool of wastewater.

Because of this, Widow Xie had offended quite a few people and had a falling out with the manager. She didn’t care about any of that; she rushed back without even asking for leave, just to give Ji Huan a heads-up.

"Steward Gu won’t let this go. He knows where I live, so he might come looking for you himself... It’s all my fault. I’ve caused you trouble..."

Ji Huan comforted her, "It’s not your fault. If we’re really pointing fingers, this whole mess started because I gave you the hand cream. Let him come if he wants. I won’t sell it. What’s he going to do, force me?"

"If he were just some ordinary person, we’d have nothing to fear, but that Steward Gu has powerful connections..." Widow Xie still blamed herself for being so impulsive and causing trouble.

"It’s fine. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. No matter how powerful his connections are, they can’t be more powerful than the law."

Not two days after she said this, Steward Gu did indeed show up at her door.

Before he arrived, he had been a little uncertain, worried that Ji Huan might refuse to sell. But when he saw the dilapidated shack she lived in and the coarse clothes she wore, his worries vanished.

He decided not to beat around the bush and got straight to the point, stating that he wanted to buy the recipe for the hand cream.

"Steward Gu, you’re a straightforward man, so I’ll be honest with you. I’ve already sold the hand cream recipe to someone else. It no longer belongs to me, so I have no right to make a deal."

"Miss Ji, don’t be so quick to refuse. Everything is negotiable," Steward Gu said with a smile that didn’t reach his eyes. "You probably don’t know this, but our workshop is an enterprise of the Bai Family of Ye City."

Well... she really hadn’t known that.

Ji Huan was a little speechless. ’Why does everything have to be connected to the Bai Family?’

Steward Gu wore an expression as if he were waiting to be met with awe and reverence. Ji Huan really wanted to tell him that if he hadn’t mentioned the Bai Family, there might have been a slim chance, but now that he had, it was completely out of the question.

Even setting aside her personal grudges, she had already sold the recipe to Zhen Jili. Whether she had sold it for a high price or a low one, there was no reason to double-dip and sell it a second time.

"If only I had met you sooner, Steward Gu, I would have been very happy to make this deal. But unfortunately..." Ji Huan said with a regretful look, "we were both a step too late. I suppose the Bai Family and I are just not fated to be."

Steward Gu’s smile vanished. "Miss Ji, I’m trying to be nice here. Don’t be ungrateful."

Ji Huan remained modest. "I’m truly sorry."

Steward Gu snorted, flicked his sleeves, and stormed away.

Ji Huan thought that was the end of it. But the next thing she knew, she heard that Widow Xie had been fired from the silk workshop.