Everything else was out in the open and not worth much attention. The main items were the biscuit tin she’d taken from her grandmother’s room, and the large wardrobe and desk taken from Shen Baiwei’s room.
She moved the tin into the open yard of her space with a thought. Inside were banknotes of various denominations, adding up to a total of 850 yuan, along with a number of ration coupons. At the bottom was a handkerchief-wrapped bundle containing a pair of gold earrings and a pair of silver bangles.
Next was Shen Baiwei’s wardrobe. It was full of clothes—nothing especially interesting. Still, these clothes were things Shen Baiwei had gone to great lengths to acquire. The fabric and condition were good. Even if she sold them to a recycling station later, they’d fetch some money—far better than leaving them for Shen Baiwei to wear.
The desk, on the other hand, held some decent finds. Shen Baiwei’s private stash contained 103 yuan, eight feet of cloth coupons, some grocery coupons, and a bunch of miscellaneous odds and ends that weren’t very useful.
At the very back of a drawer was something wrapped in several layers of cloth. When she opened it, she found an old ginseng root—not young at all. So this was Shen Baiwei’s carefully hidden treasure.
Lastly, she found twenty yuan tucked inside a tattered padded jacket belonging to her eldest aunt—clearly her hidden private money.
Adding that to the thirteen yuan her father had secretly stashed away, she now had a total of 986 yuan in her hands.
Compared to the mere two yuan of private money she’d had before yesterday, this was an astronomical sum.
Plus the twenty-five yuan she’d just pocketed from Old Man Shen earlier, it came out to a neat total of one thousand yuan, with the remaining eleven yuan set aside for Susu as pocket money.
After finishing the inventory, she drifted back to sleep in a daze. When she woke again, she was startled awake by noise outside—she thought she heard Susu’s voice.
Afraid Susu was being bullied, Shen Baizhi hurried out of bed to take a look. Only then did she realize the sun was already close to setting—she’d slept for a long time without noticing.
The noise was coming from her fourth uncle’s newlywed room next door. Before she even got close, she heard Susu’s furious voice, bristling with anger:
“She did it on purpose! Why should I apologize? You’re ugly and you think too much!”
“I’m telling you to apologize, so apologize! Today I’m making you kneel down and apologize to your Fourth Aunt. If you dare refuse, don’t even think about staying in this household—or continuing your schooling!”
Shen Laosi’s voice was smug and arrogant. Earlier today, he hadn’t been able to force Zhang Guihua to apologize to Yumei, letting Yumei suffer a grievance. But surely he could still control a little girl?
“If you dare stop me from going to school, tomorrow I’ll go cry at the school gates. I’ll tell everyone the Shen family married in a capitalist young lady who needs her husband’s niece to bring her foot-washing water—and even wants the niece to kneel and wash her feet! And when the niece refuses, she’s not allowed to go to school anymore.”
“As long as you don’t let me study for even one day, I’ll go cry at the school gate for that whole day. Not just there—I’ll go cry at both of your workplaces too…”
“You—your Fourth Aunt just married into the family today! Younger relatives serving tea and water to earn a red envelope is an old tradition passed down from our ancestors. Plenty of people would love to earn that money and don’t even get the chance!”
“And even if you go around telling people, who’s going to believe you?”
“If I can’t go to school anyway, I’ll have nothing better to do. I’ll wander around the commune and the county every day, telling everyone. You won’t be able to go to work either—you’ll have to follow behind me every day explaining yourself!”
“Let’s see who people believe—you or me!”
“You—”
Shen Laosi was left speechless. He was starting to regret listening to his wife and choosing Shen Baisu as the one to make an example of. But since he’d already picked her, there was no turning back. Today, he had to crush this girl into submission.
If reason wouldn’t work, he’d use force. He raised his hand high, ready to strike the girl.
When Shen Baizhi arrived, she saw Shen Laosi with his hand raised. She shoved aside the children blocking the way, grabbed Shen Baisu’s hand, and pulled her back a step, making Shen Laosi’s slap miss.
Shen Laosi stumbled and nearly lost his footing. When he saw Shen Baizhi, he frowned instinctively and said unhappily:
“Why haven’t you left yet? It’s almost dark. A married daughter isn’t supposed to stay at her parents’ home for dinner when she comes back.”
Shen Baizhi ignored him completely and turned to Shen Baisu instead. “Susu, what happened?”
Seeing her sister arrive to protect her, Shen Baisu—still just an eleven-year-old child—couldn’t hold back anymore. With a face full of grievance, she complained:
“Sis, Fourth Uncle said earlier that we should bring tea and water to the new Fourth Aunt and that we’d get red envelopes. So a few of us came over. But he deliberately assigned me to bring the foot-washing water. I thought there was money to earn, so it wasn’t a big deal.”
As she spoke, she angrily pointed at Tang Yumei, who was standing to the side watching the spectacle.
“But then she kept saying the water was too cold, then too hot. I went back and forth changing it three times. The last time, she kicked the basin over—water splashed all over me. Fourth Uncle even blamed me for being careless and made me apologize to her!”
Shen Baizhi clenched her fists as she listened. She’d been worrying about not finding an excuse to start a fight—now her Fourth Uncle had delivered one right to her doorstep.
She lifted her head and narrowed her eyes, glancing at the other courtyards, which were eerily quiet. Shen Baizhi knew that aside from her parents and Third Uncle and his wife—who were honest people and had gone to work—everyone else was hiding in their rooms, eavesdropping.
“I really didn’t do it on purpose!”
Tang Yumei explained with a wronged expression to Shen Laosi. He gave her a soothing look, then turned back to face the sisters.
“So what if she did it on purpose? You two freeloading girls eat this family’s food, so you have to listen to the family.”
“Your Fourth Aunt is—she’s a meritorious member of this family. Today she even contributed her dowry money to help the household. What’s wrong with you suffering a little grievance to make her happy?”
“Just wait and see if anyone in this family will stand up for you today!”
Shen Baizhi gave Shen Laosi a look whose meaning was hard to read, then pushed Shen Baisu gently.
“Susu, go back and lock the door.”
Then she grabbed the wooden stick leaning against the wall and swung it straight at Shen Laosi.
Shen Laosi never expected her to attack so suddenly. He hurriedly raised his arm to block. With a sharp crack, his arm bent downward at a grotesque angle.
He stared blankly at his arm for a moment before realizing it was broken. Only then did the pain surge into his brain.
“Ah! My arm—my arm is broken…”
“Shen Baizhi, you… you…”
Everyone else was shocked by the sudden turn of events and rushed out of their rooms. Shen Baisu looked at her sister with eyes full of admiration.
Remembering what her sister had just told her, she took advantage of the chaos and ran back home, bolting the door from the inside. Then she crouched under the window, pricking up her ears to listen—why hadn’t her sister dragged them outside to beat them more?
Tang Yumei couldn’t sit still anymore. She jumped off the bed, one hand protecting her belly as she tried to run out.
How could Shen Baizhi let the real culprit go? She grabbed Tang Yumei by the throat with one hand and slapped her face left and right with the other—smack, smack, smack.
Of course, she controlled her strength. She’d accidentally broken Shen Laosi’s arm just now—better to hold back a bit so she didn’t actually kill someone.
The children who’d run into the courtyard wailed at the top of their lungs:
“They’re beating someone!”
“Fourth Uncle’s arm is broken!”
…
Hearing something was wrong, Eldest Uncle Shen and the old Shen couple hurried out. Even Shen Baiwei came out, leaning against the wall for support.