One year, the military and the local authorities held a social gathering, with the aim of helping the cadres solve their marriage problems.
The female comrades were all temporarily transferred from various departments. Since the local police station had no female staff, Lin An’an and her best friend were dragged in by her older brother to make up the numbers.
Fortunately, Ji Cheng had no impression of Lin An’an. Otherwise, things would have been awkward.
Lin Dong stayed at the Qiao family’s home for two days and also learned what kind of reputation Qiao Xiaohong had in the village. He didn’t believe that the Qiao and Ji families could get the entire village to sing from the same hymn book.
According to the outsiders’ accounts, Qiao Xiaohong’s character left much to be desired.
Two days later, he left with Qiao Xiaohong, both of them thoroughly disgraced.
Lin Dong had originally intended to stand up for his two younger sisters. Instead, he had ended up getting slapped in the face over and over.
Jiang Xiu let out a long sigh of relief. “At least she’s finally gone. I don’t expect Xiaohong to be grateful to the Qiao family, and I don’t expect her to support me when I’m old. I just hope she won’t cause any more trouble.”
Lin An’an didn’t know Qiao Xiaohong very well, but she felt that Jiang Xiu was being far too naive. There was no way Qiao Xiaohong could have hidden her true nature so deeply for more than twenty years. Hadn’t Jiang Xiu already been taken advantage of by her?
Once Qiao Xiaohong returned to the Lin family, who knew what kind of sob story she would tell Mr. and Mrs. Lin?
As it turned out, Lin An’an had guessed correctly.
The moment Mrs. Lin opened the courtyard gate, Qiao Xiaohong threw herself into her arms, her shoulders heaving as she sobbed.
Lin Dong, walking behind her, was stunned. What was she trying to pull this time?
“Don’t cry. Were you mistreated?” Mrs. Lin wiped her daughter’s tears while scolding her son. “Lin Dong, I told you to stand up for your sister. What kind of standing up for her was that?”
Lin Dong was disgusted by his mother’s refusal to distinguish right from wrong. He was even more disgusted that Qiao Xiaohong said nothing and simply let everyone else imagine whatever they wanted.
“Why don’t you ask her whether what she said was true? The man she found wasn’t some cripple. He’s an injured serviceman, and when he came here, the engagement hadn’t even been called off. She even secretly took seven hundred yuan in betrothal gift money.
“And that family isn’t dirt poor, either. They have enough to eat.”
Qiao Xiaohong cried even harder. “Ji Cheng’s fa-a-ther is the village Party secretary, the tu-u-ruler of the village! Who would dare say anything bad about them? Who would dare take my side?”
Lin Dong went inside to change his clothes, then headed back out. “I’m going to report in at the local police station. I’ll be staying there for the next few days, too, so don’t come looking for me.”
Mrs. Lin was a little angry. “You’re leaving even though your sister is like this? Is your work more important than your sister?”
“I have a clumsy tongue and don’t know how to comfort people. You comfort her.”
He had no idea what shocking things this sister of his might say next. Lin Dong couldn’t shut Qiao Xiaohong’s mouth, but neither could he make his mother see clearly and stop blindly believing everything she heard. All he could do was get out of there and keep out of sight.
…
Lin An’an didn’t let her business fall behind. With Lin Dong helping clear away the obstacles, everything proceeded fairly smoothly.
She didn’t just sell apples, either. When she went to the county town to pick out picture stickers, she also spent more than fifty yuan stocking up on hair flowers and hair ties. Girls shared certain tastes, and since Lin An’an had selected them so carefully, the girls liked them very much…
After ten days, Lin An’an did a quick calculation. She had earned nearly three hundred yuan.
She gave Jiang Xiu twenty yuan and Shanzi five.
Jiang Xiu tried to return the money to Lin An’an. “You worked from dawn until dusk to earn this. Mom can’t take it.”
“If it weren’t for your and Shanzi’s support, I couldn’t have earned it. The money I’m giving you is for living expenses. Let’s buy some meat and good food to nourish ourselves.”
Jiang Xiu clutched the money in her hand. She decided to buy some pork, then buy two three-jin geese from the neighbors. After raising them for two months, they would be ready to slaughter and eat.
Shanzi didn’t know what to do with the money. From the time he was little until now, he had never had more than twenty cents in his hands.
“How about I keep it for you?” Jiang Xiu suggested.
“No. I want to save it myself.”
The next day, Lin An’an stopped selling things. Taking advantage of the good soil moisture, she first helped Jiang Xiu plant the little more than one mu of wheat.
Early in the morning, Lin An’an, who had slept soundly through the night, was jolted awake by a commotion.
“Get lost! I don’t need your help.” That was Jiang Xiu’s voice.
“You ungrateful wretch! You have no man in the house to support you. Do you know how hard and exhausting things are? Have you ever experienced it?”
The voice was unfamiliar. Lin An’an was certain she had never heard it before.
She hurriedly got dressed and peered outside over the windowsill. There was an elderly woman and a short, stocky man.
“I have a daughter and a son. No matter how hard or exhausting things get, I don’t need you two meddling.”
The man tried to pull the handcart, but Shanzi yanked him off balance.
The old woman cursed, “You little brat! That’s your Third Uncle. He came to help your mother with the work.”
“My mom has me and my sister to help her. We don’t need you! None of you have good intentions. You’re all bad people.”
The old woman slapped Shanzi across the face. “You little bastard raised by a slut! How dare you curse your Grandma and Third Uncle?”
“Old Harridan! I wasn’t cursing people.”
Jiang Xiu rushed over to shield Shanzi. “If you have the guts, come at me. Shanzi is a child of the Qiao family. You, his Step-Grandmother, have no right to hit him.”
Her words stirred up a hornet’s nest. Grandma lunged forward like a mad dog.
“You little slut! You killed my Second Son, and now you want to kill me too? I, your Stepmother-in-law, went to so much trouble to build a house for you people. How have I wronged you? You ungrateful wretch! Why doesn’t Heaven strike you dead with a bolt of lightning?!”
Cursing alone wasn’t enough for Grandma. She started hitting her as well.
The squat, black-faced dough-ball of a Third Uncle pretended to pull his sister-in-law away and stop Grandma from hitting her, but in reality, he was using the chaos to take liberties with Jiang Xiu.
Jiang Xiu was only one woman, and she still had to protect Shanzi. Naturally, she was no match for the two of them.
Seeing this, Lin An’an’s head grew hot. She snatched the sickle from the wall and charged outside.
Grandma was still her grandmother, at least in name, and she was an elder. So Lin An’an could take the opportunity to deal with that black-faced dough-ball of a Third Uncle who was bullying her sister-in-law.
She held the sickle across Qiao Shucun’s path. “Let go. Otherwise, this blade won’t care who it cuts.”
Jiang Xiu used the sickle to chop stalks in the fields and sharpened it every day. Its blade gleamed brightly, making it terrifying to look at.
Qiao Shucun hurriedly let go of Jiang Xiu. “Don’t, don’t! Niece, I’m your Third Uncle. I was only trying to protect your mother out of kindness.”
Jiang Xiu spun around and slapped him across the face. “You shameless, heartless bastard. Even if you were reborn, I still wouldn’t believe you had good intentions.”
“My granddaughter is hitting her grandmother! My daughter-in-law is hitting her mother-in-law! My niece is trying to kill her Third Uncle!”
Grandma promptly threw herself onto the ground. She flailed her arms and legs wildly, looking just like an old tortoise flipped onto its back, unable to right itself.
When the neighbors who hadn’t gone out to work in the fields heard Grandma’s cries, they abandoned their chores and hurried over.
Since it wasn’t happening in their own homes, everyone was delighted to come watch the spectacle.
The moment Grandma saw that she had an audience, she flailed even harder. “Take a good look, everyone! This is the wife my Second Son left behind and his two vicious brats! They’re beating their mother-in-law and grandmother, and they even want to kill their Third Uncle!”
Naturally, Jiang Xiu protected her children. “Grandma, you know perfectly well what you’re plotting. If An’an hadn’t been pushed to the brink, why would a young girl like her have picked up a sickle?”
Two tears appeared with great effort in Grandma’s narrow, beady eyes. “What bad intentions could I possibly have? I only saw that you had no man to help you and wanted Third Son to lend a hand. You refused to appreciate it, then hit your mother-in-law and ordered your two brats to attack their Third Uncle.”
The onlookers began discussing the matter among themselves.
“It’s kind of her brother-in-law to help a widow with her work. Those two youngsters are being a little ungrateful.”
“With the way that mother and son behave, you could swear to it until the end of time and I still wouldn’t believe they had good intentions.”
…
Lin An’an wanted to settle the matter quickly. She pressed the sickle’s tip a little closer. “Tell me. What bad intentions do you two have?”
Qiao Shucun was terrified that Lin An’an might actually bring the sickle down and end his life, so he hurriedly said, “I’ll talk! I’ll talk—”