The big man was furious, gave a signal to the relatives, and they all surrounded Pei Shu'er.
Pei Shu'er's expression remained indifferent, without a trace of fear, as if she hadn't noticed that if these people weren't careful, they might strangle her at any moment.
The big man walked up to Pei Shu'er, and Pei Shu'er calmly lifted a water bag, took a sip, and smiled at him.
"What, you're not convinced?"
The big man laughed: "Of course I'm not convinced."
Saying this, he raised his fist and swung it towards Pei Shu'er.
Pei Shu'er slapped the man hard on his body, and the man heavily crashed into Tang Peilin, and the two of them together slammed into the cave wall.
Tang Peilin let out a scream, feeling the wound on his back worsen.
He had been smugly watching Pei Shu'er suffer, not expecting disaster to strike him from afar.
Pei Shu'er let out a cry of surprise, genuine guilt on her face, brows slightly furrowed, and tears of urgency even glistened in her peach blossom eyes.
"Uncle, are you alright? It's so dark in this cave, I didn't even notice the one laughing at me was you, my uncle. I thought you were with this man, so I went a bit hard."
Tang Peilin had blood seeping from the corner of his mouth. Pei Shu'er was ruthless, hitting him and then standing morally superior to condemn him, all while appearing innocent.
Tang Peilin shouted angrily, "Pei Shu'er, you did it on purpose."
Pei Shu'er sighed leisurely, letting out a bitter laugh.
"Because uncle disapproves of me, whatever I do is wrong."
She wasn't some evil person, but she wasn't entirely virtuous either.
The tenet she followed was simple: repay kindness with kindness and grievance directly.
Means didn't matter to her; she could be sly or straightforward.
The key was achieving the purpose.
Mrs. Li scolded angrily, "Pei Shu'er, you're way too rampant, causing the deaths of so many people on purpose without repentance, injuring others, and disrespecting, hurting elders. Our Tang Family has no place for a daughter-in-law like you."
Pei Shu'er's eyes reddened with grievance, and she stammered.
"Aunt, just with a turn, you've put such big accusations on me..."
Mrs. Li sneered: "The truth is right in front of everyone, what do you have to deny?"
Pei Shu'er said all this, finally making Mrs. Li say this.
"Even government officers need evidence to solve a case. It's unfair to put such a big accusation on me without checking why everyone's injuries worsened. I really can't be convinced."
"So, I want to examine everyone's injuries. If it's truly due to my medical skills, I'll compensate the injured with five taels of silver."
Mrs. Li's eyes lit up; surely this little vixen had a lot of silver in her hand.
Pausing for a moment, Pei Shu'er added, "However, if it's not my fault and my medical skills have no flaws, I also demand compensation from everyone, five taels for each injury."
Upon these words, Tang Peilin felt rather confident.
A night had passed, and there was a rain at noon, soaking everyone for half an hour.
He just didn't believe Pei Shu'er could find any evidence.
"Alright, then go ahead and find it."
Mrs. Li was also rather dismissive, thinking Pei Shu'er was at death's door, still wanting to find evidence.
Anyway, it was fine to look now; that stuff was so dark, same color as the medicine dregs Pei Shu'er made, how could she possibly find it?
Once her reputation was ruined, it would be easy for them to kill her.
Others also thought Pei Shu'er was deliberately stalling for time; if the medical skills were lacking, they were lacking, what's the use in finding evidence?
Liu Xu also knew her daughter-in-law only understood a bit, feeling somewhat worried for her, couldn't help but tug at her.
"Shu'er, let it go, just apologize to them and admit your mistake now, no need to insist on creating conflict, the journey is long."
She meant well for her. She recently found that after getting along with her daughter-in-law, the person wasn't bad and didn't want her to suffer.
But there were as many as eight injured; if she compensated each one, that's forty taels.
Forty taels were enough to bribe a government officer to ride on a carriage for the journey.
This was crucial on the road to exile.
Tang Shuo and Tang Qinghuan held Pei Shu'er's hand, appearing somewhat nervous.
"Sister-in-law."
Pei Shu'er smiled, patted the hands of the two little ones, then walked over to the injured.
She opened their clothes one by one and couldn't help but give a cold smile upon seeing the somewhat rank smell.
She knew it had to be this couple causing trouble.
She walked over and said to everyone, "Please, everyone, come over."
Everyone curiously approached, not necessarily believing Pei Shu'er had discovered anything, just wanting to see what tricks she had up her sleeve.
Pei Shu'er pointed to the faint black marks on the wounds of these people.
"Please, everyone guess, what is this stuff?"
No one wanted to guess, but they all smelled that rank odor.
Pei Shu'er laughed, "Think carefully, everyone, where have you smelled this odor before?"
Someone immediately remembered, Lin Yu spoke hurriedly.
"This is from that mud in the forest earlier."
Pei Shu'er nodded approvingly, smiling, "Yes, it's from that mud area, which even had animal dung."
"However, this smell is peculiar; if it sticks to you, unless washed with soapberry, it takes several days to dissipate."
"So, everyone might as well think carefully, who possesses this rank odor on them."
Upon these words, Tang Peilin felt a pang in his heart, thinking it flawless, not anticipating such a blunder.
Everyone in the cave searched around and soon directed their gaze to Tang Peilin.
Though having weathered great storms, Tang Peilin was still calm, despite being tongue-tied.
"What are you looking at?"
Pei Shu'er sighed, looked towards the hesitating family of the injured.
"This matter originally should be resolved with leniency, finding the wrongdoer serves no purpose, but given they have done evil once, they are likely to do it again. Finding them is the best way to ensure the welfare of the injured."
Upon these words, those previously hesitant gathered around Tang Peilin.
Now that the Tang Family had fallen, everyone was a convict; there was no longer a distinction between master and servant.
Upon approaching, they saw Tang Peilin's black fingernails, still carrying that rank odor.
Lin Yu's voice was low, filled with displeasure and disappointment.
"Elder, you..."
Tang Peilin hid his hand behind his back, sneered, "You believe whatever Pei Shu'er says, huh? I think it's Pei Shu'er with ulterior motives."
"For all you know, it was Pei Shu'er who smeared it on me and the injured to confuse the issue."
Pei Shu'er raised her eyebrows and smiled, somewhat looking at her uncle in a new light.
Not bad, he even learned to turn things around.