Meanwhile, when Old Madam Wang saw her precious grandson being beaten so badly, her heart ached terribly. How could she possibly let the matter go?
She immediately rushed forward, grabbed Old Madam Su firmly by the arm, and demanded angrily, “Hey! You old hag, what exactly do you think you’re doing? Why did you barge into my house for no reason and beat my grandson? Even if you are the brigade leader’s mother, does that mean you can run wild and do whatever you please? Do you really think no one can do anything about you?
“Believe me, I’ll go straight to the commune and report the brigade leader for abusing his authority and showing favoritism! Stop right now! My grandson has always been a good, well-behaved child. You’re already this old, yet you’re being so vicious toward a young, ignorant child. Is that reasonable?”
Old Madam Su heard her, but she did not stop what she was doing. However, since she had already given that little bastard Wang Daqiang a thorough beating, she figured she could let him off for the moment.
With that thought, Old Madam Su slowly lowered her arm and shot Wang Daqiang a vicious glare. She thought to herself, Hmph! We’ll settle this score properly later!
Old Madam Su turned around and glared furiously at Old Madam Wang. Then she let out a cold snort.
With a mocking laugh, she said, “Hmph! Your precious grandson? Take a good look at what your so-called ‘good grandson’ has done! He actually pushed my Mingyue down the mountain, causing her to hit her head. The wound on her head was bleeding profusely!
“You still call him a good grandson? Didn’t you know about this? That little brat of yours certainly struck hard. My Mingyue had such a huge hole in her head and lost so much blood. Poor Mingyue—she passed out right there on the ground.
“But Wang Daqiang? After hurting her, he ran away like a frightened rabbit! Does he really think he can escape responsibility that way? Let me tell you, you can run away, but you can’t escape your responsibility! Hmph, what a heartless, rotten bastard!
“If my Qingfeng hadn’t waited and waited for Mingyue to come back and then gone to the old family home to get Heping, and if Heping and the neighbors hadn’t found Mingyue lying there injured in time, the consequences would have been unimaginable. Maybe by now my Mingyue would have already…”
At this point, Old Madam Su’s voice suddenly choked up, and her eyes gradually filled with tears.
She paused for a moment, quickly raised her sleeve to gently wipe the tears from the corners of her eyes, then took a deep breath and tried to calm her agitated emotions.
She continued indignantly, “And look at this boy from your family. After seeing my Mingyue unconscious, not only did he make no effort to find someone to rescue her, he could actually sit here calmly as though nothing had happened. Wang Daqiang, Wang Daqiang, do you have even the slightest bit of compassion or conscience? Someone like you doesn’t deserve to be called a human being! You’re a murderer! Someone like you belongs in prison—you deserve to spend years behind bars!”
When Wang Daqiang heard Old Madam Su screaming that he was a murderer and threatening to have him sent to prison, he froze as though struck by lightning.
A moment later, fear surged through him like a tide. His face filled with terror, his entire body trembling as he cried out in a shrill, desperate voice, “I didn’t kill anyone! I really didn’t! I didn’t mean to! I…I just acted on impulse at the time.”
Just as he stumbled over his words, desperately trying to explain himself, Old Madam Wang was badly frightened. She hurriedly reached out to stop him, afraid that if he continued talking, he would end up revealing the truth himself.
Old Madam Wang immediately rushed forward, clapped a hand over Wang Daqiang’s mouth, then turned around and glared furiously at Old Madam Su as she shouted, “Did you hear that? My Daqiang himself said he didn’t kill anyone! You old woman, don’t you dare make baseless accusations here! How dare you pin all kinds of nonsense and filthy accusations on my family!
“Let me tell you, my Daqiang is an innocent, good person. He hasn’t done a single bad thing! If you want to slander him, then you’d better produce solid evidence! Hmph! I’ve heard that nowadays, people can’t just be falsely accused. Everything has to be based on evidence! You keep claiming that my Daqiang pushed your Mingyue into a hollow in the mountains. Who saw it with their own eyes? What evidence do you have? If you have none, then we’re not admitting to anything!”
Seeing his grandmother defend him so forcefully, Wang Daqiang felt somewhat reassured. He quickly chimed in, “That’s right! There’s no evidence. You can’t frame me!”
Old Madam Su looked at the two of them stubbornly refusing to admit anything. She pointed at them angrily, her lips trembling as she muttered, “There’s no justice anymore! There’s no justice! Even what the victim herself saw doesn’t count as evidence now! You two truly have rotten hearts!”
Su Heping firmly grasped his mother’s rough, slightly trembling hand, stopping her from continuing. His eyes were now as cold as winter stars as he stared directly at the grandmother and grandson standing opposite him.
His expression was as cold as still water, and his voice was icy enough to make the surrounding air seem to freeze. He questioned Old Madam Wang without the slightest courtesy, “We never once said that Mingyue was pushed into a hollow in the mountains. We only said that Wang Daqiang pushed Mingyue into the mountains.
“How did you know that Mingyue was in a hollow in the mountains? Doesn’t that tell us something? Wang Daqiang, Wang Daqiang, now that things have come to this, are you really sure you still want to stubbornly refuse to admit your mistake and continue down this wrong path?
“To be honest, I have always been willing to believe that you didn’t intentionally mean to push Mingyue down and injure her. But the facts are right in front of us. Mingyue has suffered a head injury, though fortunately the rest of her body is unharmed.
“If you still refuse to admit what you did, then I’m sorry, but I have no choice except to report this to the public security authorities and ask them to investigate. My demand is actually very simple: I only want Mingyue to receive the compensation she deserves.
“But you need to understand one thing. If I report this to the police, the public security authorities will certainly conduct a thorough investigation. They will naturally be capable of finding out who exactly did this to Mingyue.
“When the truth comes to light, I’m afraid this will no longer be an ordinary civil dispute. It could become a serious criminal case involving attempted murder! And in that case, going to prison would be inevitable. After all, how can you be certain that no one saw you when you came down from the mountain? Or what evidence do you have proving that you didn’t push Mingyue?
“I don’t want a villager from our village to end up in prison. But if we can’t find the person who pushed Mingyue, then I have no choice but to report it to the authorities. So you’d better think this over very carefully!”