When Jiang Xu spoke, her voice wasn’t loud.
Nor was her manner aggressive.
On the contrary, a faint smile lingered on her face the whole time.
This made Wang Chunhua, who had been full of confidence and certain of victory, feel deeply uneasy.
She looked at Jiang Xu, then at the run-down little courtyard, at Old Lady Xu standing beside Jiang Xu, and at Jiang Nan with his displeased face.
A flicker of doubt stirred in her heart.
The Jiang family’s circumstances were the worst in the entire production brigade.
But…
Wang Chunhua thought of their identity as people from the capital, Jing City. If one day the Jiang family could return to Jing City, wouldn’t her daughter become a city dweller along with them?
With that thought, Wang Chunhua steeled herself again.
“Who are you? What gives you the right to speak for the Jiang family?”
“I’m talking to Old Lady Jiang. You’d better step aside if you know what’s good for you.”
As she finished speaking, Wang Chunhua even reached out to push Jiang Xu.
Old Lady Xu immediately stepped forward.
Blocking Wang Chunhua from pushing Jiang Xu.
Jiang Nan also stood in front of Old Lady Xu and Jiang Xu.
He couldn’t make a sound, but his whole body radiated an aura that said: whoever dares come closer, I’ll kill them.
Old Lady Xu glared at Wang Chunhua. “She is my great-aunt, an elder of our Jiang family. Her wishes are our wishes.”
Wang Chunhua??
What great-aunt?
What seniority was a great-aunt?
Jiang Xu pressed down on Old Lady Xu’s hand. “Don’t get worked up.”
“Your health matters more.”
Old Lady Xu immediately took a deep breath. “Yes, great-aunt.”
Wang Chunhua??
Jiang Xu placed her hand on Jiang Nan’s shoulder and pulled him aside.
The timing was about right; she didn’t want to waste any more time.
Just then, Zhao Jianhua, having heard the commotion, arrived with the brigade’s militia.
Perfect timing.
Where no one noticed, Jiang Xu’s finger gave a light flick.
Liu Cuiqiao, who had looked utterly aggrieved a moment ago, suddenly stood up.
“The baby in my belly isn’t Jiang Nan’s.”
Wang Chunhua, who had been standing with hands on her hips, ready to lie down on the ground and throw a tantrum, froze??
“You little wretch, what nonsense are you spouting?”
Liu Cuiqiao was equally bewildered. What on earth was she saying?
She wanted to shut her mouth, but the words kept pouring out as if beyond her control.
“The baby in my belly is my boyfriend Chen Sheng’s.”
“When my sister gave birth, I went to bring her sweet rice wine and didn’t come back. I told Mother I was staying at my sister’s place, but actually, actually I went to Chen Sheng’s house…”
Wang Chunhua’s eyes widened as big as copper bells.
The Liu family sisters-in-law and the Wang family members who had come along to back her up all stared at Liu Cuiqiao as if they’d swallowed a fly.
Liu Cuiqiao’s face was a picture of shock and terror.
She raised her hand to cover her mouth, not wanting to speak, but the words between her teeth were completely uncontrollable.
They rushed out of her mouth, tripping over each other.
“Chen Sheng, Chen Sheng’s family may be poor, but he said he’d treat me well… He also said that once I was pregnant, my mother wouldn’t despise him for being poor anymore…”
Zhao Jianhua, who had just arrived, was dumbfounded.
“Then who told you to frame the Jiang family and set your sights on Jiang Nan?”
Liu Cuiqiao: “My mother.”
“She said that even though the Jiang family is dirt poor, they’re from Jing City after all. If someday, someday they could return to Jing City, I could take my child and become a city dweller along with them.”
“My mother also said that the Jiang family is just two old folks, plus Jiang Nan, a brainless fool. As long as I insisted that the baby in my belly was Jiang Nan’s, they’d be scared.”
“We villagers would stand on our side too, forcing the Jiang family—outsiders—to admit that the baby in my belly was Jiang Nan’s…”
“Liu Cuiqiao!”
Wang Chunhua’s voice pierced the sky. “You little wretch, what nonsense are you spouting?”
“When did I ever say that to you?”
She rolled up her sleeves and made as if to strike Liu Cuiqiao.
Zhao Jianhua stepped in front of Liu Cuiqiao.
“Mother…”
Liu Cuiqiao trembled with fear, but still couldn’t control her mouth.
“On the way to the Jiang family’s place, you told me to start crying the moment we arrived, and not to care about anything else.”
“You said there were plenty of fools in the village—Second Aunt, Third Aunt, Auntie—all brainless. As long as I cried, they’d take our side and help curse the Jiang family.”
“You said you’d definitely make me the Jiang family’s daughter-in-law, and my baby would find a father.”
Wang Chunhua now wished she could sew her daughter’s mouth shut.
This wretch—what was she saying?
The sisters-in-law who had come behind her to back her up now looked hideously pale.
They hadn’t expected that they had come in good faith to help seek justice, only to be used as pawns?
Not only used as pawns, but called fools too?
Did they have nothing better to do?
“Sister-in-law, you’re really something!”
One of Wang Chunhua’s sisters-in-law said sarcastically, then turned and left.
The others did the same, each dropping a remark that Wang Chunhua should watch herself, and walked off.
They couldn’t afford to lose face like this.
Wang Chunhua saw that all the people she’d called to back her up had left, and she plopped down on the ground.
She started wailing at the top of her lungs.
“Oh heavens, what sin did I commit to deserve this? How could I have a daughter who spouts nonsense and even wrongs her own mother?”
She cried and shouted, looking utterly pitiful.
But Liu Cuiqiao kept talking and talking.
As Liu Cuiqiao’s words grew more and more outrageous, Zhao Jianhua’s face darkened.
He raised his hand, rubbed his eyes, and looked toward Jiang Xu in the courtyard.
“Comrade Jiang, look at this…”
Though he hadn’t seen what had happened, his intuition told him that Liu Cuiqiao’s current state had something to do with Jiang Xu.
Jiang Xu didn’t much care for village gossip either.
Her fingers twitched slightly, and the Truth-Telling Talisman stuck on Liu Cuiqiao flew back into her palm.
No one saw the talisman.
Jiang Nan, standing beside her, only saw her withdraw her hand.
It seemed as if a drop of water had fallen into her palm.
After the Truth-Telling Talisman was withdrawn, Liu Cuiqiao—the chatterbox—hiccuped and promptly covered her mouth.
That feeling from before, the constant urge to speak the truth, was gone.
She could control her mouth now.
Realizing this, Liu Cuiqiao wept tears of joy.
Wang Chunhua was still sitting on the ground making a scene.
Zhao Jianhua’s face was stern. “Wang Chunhua, you wronged innocent people without cause and nearly drove another family to ruin—and you still have the nerve to carry on like this here?”
“Someone, take Wang Chunhua to the brigade office and lock her up. She’ll be released when she admits her mistake.”
“Also, dock her five work points.”
“Yes.”
A militiaman nearby answered.
Wang Chunhua, still rolling around making a scene, went blank the moment she heard her punishment.
Why was she the one being locked up?
“Brigade Leader, I didn’t—”
Before she could finish the word “serve,” a militiaman clamped down on her arm.
Zhao Jianhua looked at her and said, word by word, “Causing trouble at the brigade means you should be prepared to face the consequences.”
Without giving Wang Chunhua any chance to argue, he had her taken away.
When Liu Cuiqiao saw her mother being taken away, she covered her mouth and followed behind, sobbing.
Once they were gone, the world suddenly fell quiet.
Zhao Jianhua walked a few steps forward and handed Jiang Xu an envelope. “Comrade Jiang, this is something Hanzheng asked me to give you.”