“Get away! Get away! Don’t put that stuff right in front of my door! Do it again and I’ll come out with a basin of blood water and throw it at you!”
The old woman waved her arms and stamped her feet, cursing, but nobody paid her any attention. Suddenly, a little boy threw a firecracker right at her feet. Bang! The old woman was so startled she nearly fell flat on her butt, luckily Liu Manli caught her in time.
Someone jeered, “Bao Sanpo, what kind of superstitious nonsense are you selling now to cheat people out of money? If you get locked up again, see if you’ll ever get out!”
“Nonsense! Can’t I have relatives visiting me?” The old woman shrank back towards her door, but still wouldn’t let go of Liu Manli, muttering away. Jiang Yan only caught the end of it: “…it works, you have to pay me, you can’t just get away with a bucket of food.”
“Don’t worry,” Liu Manli said, then hurried off. The thermos bucket she was carrying was clearly empty, and her expression was one of deep annoyance.
Damn it. If she’d known Bao Sanpo’s place was so noisy and crowded, she would never have come here.
When Jiang Yan got home, Liu Manli rushed up to her. “Oh dear, Yanyan! Where have you been? Your mother was worried sick!” She patted her chest. “Thank goodness you’re back, I was just about to go out looking for you with a flashlight!”
It was as if nothing had happened at all.
She didn’t even notice how fake her smile was, like she was wearing a mask completely different from Shi Ronggui’s genuine warmth.
Jiang Yan reached out a hand and held it right under the woman’s nose, sneering. “If you care that much, give me five hundred yuan right now!”
Another stab right to the heart. The mask instantly crumbled. Liu Manli’s eyes flashed with malice, and it took every ounce of strength she had to swallow the stream of curses rising in her throat. “I-I’ll get it for you tomorrow when the bank opens!”
“Fine, I’ll be waiting.” Jiang Yan turned, closed the door, and went to her room. Soon after, she heard Liu Manli’s voice, harsh and barely suppressed: “You little whore, if you dare make a sound, I’ll skin you alive!”
She was taking it out on Shi Hongmei again.
But this time, the beating didn’t last long. “Get back to your room and sleep! Tonight, even if you hear someone coming to kill me, you stay inside! If you dare come out, I’ll wring your neck!”
“Yes…” Shi Hongmei’s voice was muffled, full of tears, as she covered her mouth and scurried back to her room.
Liu Manli also went back to bed, but she tossed and turned, unable to sleep. Finally, when it reached the time Granny Ma had specified, she crept out of bed and went to the door. She pressed her ear against the wood to listen, then slowly opened it and peeked out.
Sensing it was safe, she took out the talismans she had hidden and began pasting them all around Jiang Yan’s room.
With every talisman she stuck, she chanted: “Heaven is spiritual, earth is spiritual, Supreme Lord, show your power now…”
At the same time, she pulled out a small straw doll from her pocket and started sticking needles into its chest and head.
Granny Ma agreed with her: that ungrateful girl had suddenly become so tough because she was possessed by an evil spirit!
Once she drove the ghost away, the girl would go back to being weak and easy to bully.
Just wait until tomorrow when she asked for five hundred yuan again she’d be crushed under her mother’s thumb!
The talismans were quickly placed. Liu Manli brought out an old brass basin the very same one Shi Hongmei had banged on before. She was thrifty, so even though she’d yelled and hit the girl, she’d made her bring it back.
Now, in the dead of night, all she had to do was chant the spell, take the talismans down, and burn them in the basin. It would be done, and no one would ever know!
Suddenly, Jiang Yan’s loud shout came from inside the room: “Fire! Fire!”
Wait, she hadn’t even lit anything yet!
But Jiang Yan had already thrown the door open and was running towards the main gate.
That little bitch was going to open the door and shout so the whole world would know!
Clang! Liu Manli dropped the brass basin and tried to stop her, but what about all the talismans stuck everywhere?
She needed backup!
“Hongmei! Get out here right now!” she shrieked.
She called three times, but Shi Hongmei’s door didn’t budge an inch.
Meanwhile, Jiang Yan had already thrown open the front gate, yelling at the top of her lungs: “Fire! Help, there’s a fire!”
To be honest, in the middle of the night, even if the neighborhood committee had given orders, few people would get out of their warm beds just because something happened to Jiang Yan.
But fire was different. If it wasn’t put out quickly, it would spread to their own homes.
By the time Liu Manli rushed desperately to stop her, several neighbors had already arrived, shirtless and sleepy. “Where’s the fire?” Then they looked at her suspiciously. “Liu Manli, why are you grabbing Yanyan like that?”
“Nothing!” Liu Manli quickly let go, but everyone had already seen the yellow talismans stuck everywhere. They gasped in shock. “This is a new society! We’ve gotten rid of old superstitions! Who dares to practice this feudal nonsense? Go get the police from the station!”
Liu Manli went pale. She immediately pointed a finger at Jiang Yan, trying to turn the tables. “These are on Jiang Yan’s door! She’s the one doing this! Oh Jiang Yan, how dare you do this behind my back! Wait until the officers take you away for re-education!”
Jiang Yan held up both hands for everyone to see. “Auntie Li, Uncle Sun, look at my hands they’re perfectly clean.” She pointed at Liu Manli. “Her hands are still stained yellow from the paper. Anyone can see who’s doing the superstition!”
Eyes turned sharply towards Liu Manli. She pulled her hands behind her back as if burned, frantically rubbing them while shouting, “That’s not true! It was Jiang Yan! I saw her doing it, and Hongmei saw it too!”
Again she screamed, “Hongmei! Get out here and tell them!”
Still, that door remained closed.
Instead, it was Shi Hongxing’s door that opened. The half-grown boy rubbed his eyes, looking angry. “Can’t you let people sleep? If you want to fight, go outside!”
Liu Manli quickly called out, “Son! Come quickly and testify for Mom…”
In response, her precious son just rolled his eyes and slammed the door shut again.
It felt like an icy winter wind cutting through her bones. Liu Manli stood there like a sleepwalker, hands spread open as if questioning the heavens, but all she received was the condemnation of the crowd:
“Even if your hands are clean now, do you think we’re blind? We saw you rubbing them behind your back! And not even your own kids will stand up for you everyone knows you’re the one doing this!”
More and more neighbors gathered. Then a stern voice boomed over the noise: “Who is practicing superstition and disturbing the peace at this hour?”
The crowd parted. Director Zhao had arrived with three officers.
Jiang Yan was genuinely surprised.
Usually, unless the police happened to be nearby, by the time you called them and they arrived, it would be too late.
How had Director Zhao gotten here so fast?
Well, no matter. It saved her the trouble of convincing everyone to drag Liu Manli to the station herself.
Liu Manli was terrified but instantly sharpened up. This wasn’t the time to act like a wronged mother. She had to attack first.
“It’s Jiang Yan! Director Zhao, look! She stuck these talismans all over her walls! There’s a basin and matches right there! If I hadn’t caught her, she was going to burn them!”
Now that her hands were clean, if she just kept blaming Jiang Yan, there was no evidence against her.
See? Even without her husband around, she could handle herself perfectly well!