BOOM!
Dry tinder catches fire the moment it meets flame.
Su Wan curled a cold smile at the corners of her lips, watching the orange-red fire spread wildly along the base of the wall. She picked up the prepared gong and hurried toward the Educated Youth Compound.
She struck it as she shouted, “Fire! Everyone come quick and put out the fire!”
Inside the room, the two people caught mid-embrace suddenly caught the acrid stench of smoke and the commotion outside.
Coughing repeatedly she said, “Chuan-ge, why is there smoke?”
“Damn it there is a fire outside!”
Lin Wenchuan scrambled off Bai Wei, coughing as he grabbed his clothes and pulled them on in a rush. Bai Wei also threw her clothes on in a panic.
Just then the wooden door flew open with a violent kick.
Lin Wenchuan jumped in fright. He stared at Su Wan and the crowd of villagers rushing in to fight the fire, fumbling frantically to button his shirt, his face a picture of flustered confusion.
Bai Wei shrieked, pulling the quilt tight around herself and huddling in the corner of the bed.
Both were disheveled and thoroughly exposed in their disgrace.
“Lin Wenchuan, Bai Wei what on earth do you think you are doing!”
Su Wan’s eyes glistened red, threatening to spill tears.
“Wan-wan listen to me…”
Two sharp slaps rang out.
Before Lin Wenchuan could finish, Su Wan raised her hand and struck him hard twice across the face.
The blows were sharp and heavy and ten distinct finger marks bloomed instantly across his cheeks.
“Lin Wenchuan, five years ago you tricked me into falling into the river, then feigned risking your life to save me and forced me into marrying you! After we wed, I foolishly gave you the easy post of points recorder, while I rose before dawn and toiled till dark to earn our keep. What did I ever do wrong by you?”
“Later, when policies loosened and your family pulled strings to get you a permit to return to the city, you kept making excuses and refused to bring me and Yaya to live with you.”
“You said housing was scarce in town, that I was better off staying here to look after my parents. Once I am settled properly I will bring the whole family to enjoy a good life in the city you told me.”
“And I believed you! I truly thought you were a good honest man. But all along behind my back you have been carrying on with Bai Wei! This marriage of ours was nothing but a scheme from the start! Lin Wenchuan are you even human?”
Lin Wenchuan stood stunned, stinging as villagers murmured and pointed. His face alternated between ashen and flushed.
“Su Wan how dare you strike him!” Bai Wei wailed, lunging forward to grab at Su Wan.
Su Wan stepped aside, then seized Bai Wei’s wrist in a firm grip. As the other woman cried out in pain, Su Wan slapped her twice hard.
“Bai Wei, I looked on you as a younger sister! I gave you that post so you would not have to break your back in the fields and this is how you repay me? Sleeping with my husband? Have you no shame at all?”
“Folks in the village warned me and said you were growing too close to Lin Wenchuan. And I defended you both! Turns out you really are nothing but shameless adulterous trash!”
Bai Wei shrieked again and again.
“Su Wan let her go damn it!” Lin Wenchuan snarled, lunging to pull Bai Wei free only for Su Wan to drive her foot hard into his knee.
He lost his balance and fell with a heavy thud into the dirt, crying out in pain.
“Lin Wenchuan, cheating and then trying to strike me? You deserve far worse!”
Su Zhenhua gave a sharp command, and the villagers who had followed him swarmed around Lin Wenchuan. Fists rained down like hail, leaving him curled on the ground, whimpering.
“Stop please do not! My stomach it hurts!”
Bai Wei caught sight of several older women who had watched Su Wan grow up, clenching their fists and glaring her way. Her face drained of all color as she clamped both hands protectively over her belly.
Su Wan narrowed her almond eyes. She reached out, took Bai Wei’s wrist, and felt for her pulse.
Just as she suspected Bai Wei was already more than two months pregnant.
No wonder they had been so desperate to get rid of her. Lin Wenchuan held a secure permanent government job and if word got out about his affair, he would lose everything. And for Bai Wei unwed motherhood would bring shame and scorn enough to last a lifetime.
Su Wan gave a cold sharp laugh. “Bai Wei you are pregnant. Who is the father?”
Bai Wei’s eyes darted away and she just sobbed and said nothing.
“Does it even need asking? It is definitely Lin Wenchuan’s child!” someone called out.
“That explains why she sent Su Wan down to the riverbank tonight she had it all planned!”
“And those thugs they hired they were paid to ruin Wan-wan’s reputation so the two of them could run off together!”
“How wicked how utterly cruel!”
The crowd’s outrage flared again, and Lin Wenchuan took another beating until he lay sprawled in the dust, bruised and bleeding, unable to move.
“Wan-wan what will you do?” Su Zhenhua asked, his face grim. “Should we send for the authorities?”
Su Wan paused, then spoke. “Uncle, I want a divorce. Please go back with the others. There are things I need to discuss with them first.”
She had no intention of calling the police not yet. Even if they were charged, the punishment would be light. She would bide her time and make sure these two got exactly what they deserved. But first she would end this marriage.
Su Zhenhua frowned, but seeing Su Wan nod firmly, he signaled the villagers to leave.
Silence settled over the room. Bai Wei crawled to Lin Wenchuan’s side, weeping his name over and over. Lin Wenchuan was barely recognizable face swollen, blood at his mouth, clothes caked in mud and ash.
“Su Wan how can you be so heartless? He is your husband how could you let them beat him like this?”
Su Wan gave a short scoffing laugh. “Husband? Did he think of himself as my husband when he drugged me? When he hired thugs to destroy my reputation? When he plotted against me at every turn? If murder were not a crime I would kill him myself.”
Lin Wenchuan found his glasses squashed and cracked and put them back on. He stared at Su Wan at her cold unyielding gaze and felt as though he were looking at a stranger.
“You knew all along. And the fire you started it. You wanted the whole village to see me shamed.”
Su Wan made no denial. “Lin Wenchuan spare us the talk. Let us discuss the divorce.”
Lin Wenchuan struggled to his feet, leaning heavily on Bai Wei. His eyes sharp and spiteful through the cracked lenses were fixed on her. He wanted a divorce just not like this. He was up for promotion to Deputy Section Chief and if word of his infidelity and schemes reached his superiors, he would lose his career entirely.
“Su Wan remember I hold something over you. If you want to keep Yaya from growing up branded a bastard you will not push this now.”
Su Wan had expected this threat. She could endure whispers about herself but not her daughter. Never her daughter.
“I am divorcing you. If you do not want this to destroy us both, we make a deal.”
“What kind of deal?”
“An amicable uncontested divorce.” Su Wan spoke calmly. “Our daughter stays with me. You pay three thousand yuan in compensation. In public, we say we have simply grown apart no mention of you and Bai Wei. And you never breathe a word about Yaya’s parentage to anyone.”
Bai Wei shrieked first. “Three thousand yuan? Su Wan you might as well rob us!”