Xiaohu used his head to butt Xiaonuan in the waist, pushing her forward.
Instinctively, Xiaonuan struggled backward while casually grabbing Xiaohu’s hand and giving it a slight push to the side, wanting to push him away so he would stop using his head to butt her forward from behind.
She swore she had only given Xiaohu a gentle shove, but to her surprise, Xiaonuan stumbled back several steps before landing heavily on her backside on the ground, wailing loudly.
This completely stirred up a hornet’s nest. As soon as her second aunt saw Xiaohu pushed down onto the ground, she immediately yanked off one of her cloth shoes and rushed over, cursing as she swung the shoe down directly at Xiaonuan’s head and face.
Naturally, Xiaonuan didn’t dare fight back. Facing the descending shoe sole, she instinctively raised her arm to block it.
The shoe sole struck Xiaonuan’s arm, but then miraculously rebounded, hitting her second aunt right in the eye with a sharp smack (pa).
With a cry of pain, the second aunt flung the cotton shoe away, standing on the ground with one bare foot while covering her eye and calling out to her husband, Xia Shitou:
“Shitou, look at this bastard offspring your eldest brother left behind! We feed her and house her, raising her in your brother’s stead, yet she beats and curses us! Now my eye feels like it’s been blinded by her! Give her a brutal beatingwe absolutely cannot let a bastard child like this go unpunished and un-subdued!”
Before his wife’s voice had even faded, Xia Shitou stood up, walked into the kitchen to pick out a thick wooden club, and turned right back without saying a word. Raising the club in his hand, he brought it straight down on Xiaonuan, caring not whether it hit her head or her bottom.
Seeing her second uncle come over with a club to beat her, Xiaonuan trembled violently with fear. Instinctively raising both arms to tightly guard her head, she was too frightened to even run.
Her second uncle’s club came down with zero mercy, making a loud crack as it struck Xiaonuan’s arm. But the exact same thing happened again: the club rebounded right back, striking her second uncle squarely on the forehead.
The rebounding club gouged a fairly large gash in her second uncle’s forehead, and blood immediately gushed out.
With a cry of pain, her second uncle staggered backward, gripping the club until he crashed into the table.
With a loud crash, the table was overturned, and all the bowls and chopsticks on it fell to the ground, smashing several pieces.
Her second uncle tumbled backward onto the overturned dining table, blood streaming down his face. When he wiped it with his hand, his entire face became smeared with blood, looking terrifyingly gruesome.
Grandmother, who had finished eating and was sitting on the heated brick bed (kang) warming herself, saw her son’s face covered in blood and immediately screamed at the top of her lungs for her grandson:
“Xiaolong, go find the village head (lizheng) right away! Our family absolutely cannot tolerate a beast that beats her parents and eldershurry up and call the village head over to preside over justice!”
Hearing this, Xiaolong immediately agreed, opened the door, and bolted outside to fetch the village head to deliver justice for the family.
He too felt that since Xiaonuan ate and drank from their household, and now had the audacity to beat and curse her elders, she truly was a beast and deserved to be driven out.
The village head of this local village was surnamed Zhao, given name Zhaodashan. In his fifties, he was a quite upright man. In their village, everyone obeyed the village head; essentially, whatever the village head said went.
On the first day of the Chinese New Year, after finishing breakfast, the village head knew that younger family members and villagers would come to pay their New Year greetings, so he sat at home waiting for them.
Suddenly, he saw Xia Shitou’s eldest son, Xiaolong, running in hurriedly.
Entering the room out of breath, Xiaolong said: “Uncle Village Head, my grandmother asks you to come over to my house. This morning, Xiaonuan beat up my dad, my mom, and my younger brother Xiaohu…”
Startled upon hearing this, the village head found it extremely hard to believe. Xiaonuan was merely a thirteen-year-old girlhow could she possibly beat up two adults and a child?
Furthermore, who in the village didn’t know that Xia Shitou and his wife treated Xiaonuan poorly, verbally and physically abusing her every single day? Although the village head found it hard to stomach and often stepped in to stop or dissuade them, it was ultimately a family matter, and even the village head couldn’t overstep. Yet everyone in the village knew the suffering Xiaonuan endured in Xia Shitou’s home!
Still, since Xiaolong had run over with such claims, the village head couldn’t just ignore it and went along with Xiaolong to Xia Shitou’s house.
Before even stepping into the room, he heard the loud, shrieking curses of Xia Shitou’s wife, Du Dingxiang, mixed with the shrill voice of the elderly Old Madam Xia cursing Xiaonuan.
Pushing the door open, the village head saw Xia Shitou and Du Dingxiang sitting on the edge of the kang. Du Dingxiang was loudly hurling insults at Xiaonuan, while Old Madam Xia sat at the head of the kang, continuously spewing curses.
Xiaonuan, with her head lowered, was silently picking up the overturned table from the floor and propping it against the wall, then squatting down to retrieve the fallen bowls and clean up the shattered fragments.
“It’s the first day of the New Year, why are you screaming and cursing a child like this bright and early? Stop the cursing,” the village head said as he entered the room.
Seeing the village head arrive, Old Madam Xia darted off the edge of the kang in a flash:
“Village Head, you must come and preside over justice! This morning, Xiaonuan stole her older sister’s vanishing cream to use. When she was caught, she stubbornly refused to admit it. When a few words were said to her, not only did she kick Xiaohu down onto the ground, but she also smashed her aunt’s eye. And she didn’t stop thereshe even slashed an open gash on her second uncle’s forehead! Look at all that blood on Shitou’s face…”
Ramble after ramble, Old Madam Xia complained to the village head while continuing to furiously curse Xiaonuan.
The village head didn’t believe a single word of it. Xiaonuan was usually beaten into submission by them; whenever a conflict arose, she only ever took the beatingshow would she ever dare to fight back? Even if she truly had fought back, how could a young girl possibly defeat two adults?
Looking at Xiaonuan, who was quietly tidying up, he said: “Xiaonuan, you heard what your grandmother said. Now tell your Uncle Village Head: is the situation the way your grandmother described? Don’t be afraid; speak boldly, and your Uncle Village Head will back you up.”
Hearing the village head’s words, Xiaonuan’s eyes instantly welled up with tears:
“Uncle Village Head, no! That’s not how it happened at all. Think about it: how would I ever dare to raise a hand against my second uncle and second aunt? I wouldn’t dare hit anyone in this household. The reason things turned out this way is because Sister Xiaoju stubbornly insisted on blaming me for stealing her vanishing cream…”
With clear speech and fluent articulation, Xiaonuan recounted the entire sequence of events from beginning to end.
Listening to her account, the village head understood in his heart that the truth must be exactly as Xiaonuan described.
Turning to Xia Shitou, he said: “Shitou, you are the head of the household. Express your stance. It’s the first day of the New Yearlet’s leave this matter here. Give me some face, and consider the memory of your deceased elder brother and sister-in-law. Even if Xiaonuan made a mistake, let it go. She is still a child, and she will be more filial to you in the future. What do you think?”
Before Xia Shitou could even open his mouth, Old Madam Xia screamed out:
“No way! Village Head, what kind of talk is that? Can someone beat their parents and elders just because it’s the New Year? Can someone steal things just because it’s the New Year? Our family can no longer keep such an ungrateful beast. Today, she must be driven out!”