Lin Xizhi was so excited that she almost didn’t sleep the entire night.
Early the next morning, Aunt Hui took Pei Yunnuo up the mountain to gather firewood.
Once again, Lin Xizhi was left alone at home.
She brought the clothes she hadn’t had time to wash the previous night into her pocket space. After rinsing them with the spiritual spring water, they became automatically spotless.
They even carried a faint scent of fresh grass.
While she was at it, Lin Xizhi removed Aunt Hui’s pillowcases and bedsheets and washed them as well.
After everything had been rinsed and hung out to dry, she saw that Aunt Hui and the others still hadn’t returned. So she prepared two simple dishes in advance, covered the bowls, left a small note beneath Aunt Hui’s pillow explaining where she had gone, and then set off, asking for directions all the way to the Fourth Production Brigade.
She was looking for Zhang Lirou.
Before leaving, she had deliberately brought along a bottle of medicinal wine that Aunt Hui had brewed herself, intending to use it as an icebreaker.
Unfortunately, her timing was poor.
That day, the Fourth and Fifth Production Brigades were jointly clearing woodland. Zhang Lirou wasn’t working in the fields or staying at the dormitory she had been assigned to work up in the mountains.
Since no one knew exactly when she would return, Lin Xizhi didn’t think it made sense to wait there. She opened her paper parasol again and prepared to head home.
Unexpectedly, as she passed the road marking the boundary between the two brigades, someone suddenly shouted at her.
“It’s you!”
Lin Xizhi recognized the familiar, stern voice.
She turned around.
It was Ke Yuerong.
Ke Yuerong had two large burlap sacks slung over her shoulder, both filled with heavy rice.
She strode up to Lin Xizhi, abruptly flung the sacks to the side, then, without saying another word, snatched the paper parasol from Lin Xizhi’s hand and tore it to pieces.
“It’s because of you city-educated youths that the whole commune has become such a mess!”
“So what if the sun shines on you? Every adult and child around here grew up under this seaside sun!”
“Why are you the only delicate one? You need a parasol just to leave the house?”
“I’d like to see whether you can survive today without one!”
The provocation came completely out of nowhere.
If Lin Xizhi hadn’t witnessed Ke Yuerong’s behavior before, she would have thought the woman was completely insane.
The last time, Lin Xizhi hadn’t gotten angry because Ke Yuerong had taken her frustrations out on Pei Yunnuo.
But this time…
The parasol Ke Yuerong had destroyed was one that Aunt Hui had painstakingly handmade herself.
A cold glint flashed across Lin Xizhi’s eyes.
“I know you don’t know much about the city, so you’re deeply hostile toward outsiders from there.”
“But your ignorance is your own problem. You should learn to correct it yourself.”
“Instead, you’ve turned your ignorance, rudeness, and lack of manners into weapons to bully other people.”
“Every educated youth who came to the countryside answered the nation’s call.”
“The way you keep dividing everyone into ‘locals’ and ‘outsiders’ is harmful to unity.”
“I can’t stop you from using those excuses to bully people.”
“But today, you destroyed my master’s personal property. That was wrong, and you should compensate for it.”
Hearing the argument, several commune members hurried over to mediate.
“Forget it, young comrade. You don’t know her she’s always been as stubborn as a bull…”
“Yeah, yeah. It’s not worth falling out over a single umbrella! Ke Yuerong’s strong enough to kill a cow with her bare hands. Don’t fight with her.”
Lin Xizhi ignored every word.
She pointed at the ruined parasol on the ground once more.
“So tell me. How are you going to compensate me? Will you pay for it, or replace it with an identical one?”
Ke Yuerong laughed.
“You really are asking for a beating.”
“So are you the scorekeeper at the drying yard,” Lin Xizhi shot back without yielding an inch, “or a robber pretending to be one?”
“The last people who snatched my belongings without caring about right or wrong were pirates at sea. I thought that after coming ashore, something like that wouldn’t happen again.”
“I never expected that after escaping the sea pirates, I’d end up running into a bandit like you instead.”
Ke Yuerong immediately reached out, intending to grab Lin Xizhi by the collar.
The nearby commune members hurriedly restrained her.
“Come on, Xiao Ke! Better to avoid making a bigger issue out of this… If this gets blown up and reaches the brigade leader, you’ll be the one in trouble…”
“Let go!”
Ke Yuerong twisted her body and easily shook off everyone trying to stop her.
She aggressively closed the distance until her nose was almost touching Lin Xizhi’s.
“I may not be as good as you with words, but don’t think your sweet talk can fool everyone!”
Lin Xizhi met her gaze without retreating.
“Don’t try to twist the facts. You were the one who stole my belongings first. No matter who judges today’s incident, you’re the one in the wrong.”
“Even if you beat me to death, you’d still be wrong.”
“Justice lives in people’s hearts.”
Ke Yuerong unconsciously took half a step back under Lin Xizhi’s unwavering stare.
After thinking it over, she had to admit she really had destroyed Lin Xizhi’s property.
If this female educated youth seized on that point and made a huge issue of it, it would be troublesome.
So Ke Yuerong said dismissively,
“Isn’t it just a broken umbrella? I’ll pay you back.”
“What do you mean, ‘a broken umbrella’?” Lin Xizhi glared at her.
“It was perfectly intact before you destroyed it.”
“You must replace it with a brand-new one.”
“And you must also formally apologize to me for what happened today.”
Ke Yuerong looked at her sideways.
“You should be grateful I’m even willing to replace the umbrella.”
“Apologize? What do I have to apologize for?”
“Of course you have to apologize.”
“You must apologize.”
Lin Xizhi wasn’t someone who started trouble, but neither was she afraid of it.
She raised her voice so everyone around could hear.
“Don’t think that just because you’ve always acted like a tyrant around here, and everyone else is afraid of you, I’ll simply go along with it and accept my loss.”
“The last time you bullied Pei Yunnuo, I let it go once already.”
“But this time, I’m not going to indulge your bully’s temper.”
“You were clearly the one who did something wrong, yet you show no remorse.”
“Your first reaction was to hit me, intimidate me, and use violence to solve the problem.”
“Do you think you’re the only one with a temper?”
“I have one too.”
“So you must apologize to me.”
The surrounding commune members were stunned.
They finally realized that this young educated woman truly had backbone.
She wasn’t afraid of being beaten.
She stood firmly on reason and had gone head-to-head with Ke Yuerong from beginning to end.
She was really something.
The crowd watched with a mix of seventy percent concern and thirty percent curiosity.
In fact, they found themselves reluctant to leave.
The movies the brigade usually showed weren’t nearly as entertaining as this.
Lin Xizhi, standing there like an indomitable iron-willed heroine, was ten thousand times more impressive than anything they had ever seen on the screen.
Even the way they looked at Ke Yuerong gradually began to change.
Once again, Ke Yuerong felt an invisible pressure.
Just like last time at the drying yard.
With only a few words, Lin Xizhi could rally people to her side…
A woman blessed with such a silver tongue couldn’t possibly be a good person!
“Why are all of you looking at me like that? I didn’t do anything wrong! You’ve all been fooled by her!” Ke Yuerong shouted angrily.
An elderly woman leaned on her hoe and laughed.
“What did she fool us about?”
“Xiao Ke, she never expected us to help her.”
“Unlike you, who always waves your tiny bit of authority around like an imperial decree, throwing punches and ordering people about whenever you feel like it.”
Ke Yuerong was furious.
Pointing at the two large sacks of grain on the ground, she shouted,
“When have I ever ordered you around?”
“It’s the brigade that’s always ordering me around!”
“I was supposed to carry these two sacks of grain to the brigade cafeteria so they could cook communal meals in a few days.”
“But since this is how all of you feel, then forget it!”
“I work myself to death and still don’t get any appreciation. If that’s the case, why should I keep doing all this?”