Soon, they arrived at the Production Brigade office.
Li Yan told the other brigade cadres to go about their business, while he accompanied Ning Yuan into the office.
It was called an office, but it was really just an old room in a rural courtyard, furnished with a table and an old cabinet.
Posters of the working people and slogans like “Long Live the People’s Commune” were pasted on the walls.
A tall, slightly plump middle-aged woman in a blue worker’s jacket was sitting there, holding a ceramic tea mug.
Plump women often appeared simple and affable.
But she had sanpaku eyes, prominent cheekbones, and a rather thin face, giving her a stern and unapproachable air.
Ning Yuan looked at her without speaking.
The woman’s brow furrowed, and her face grew even longer. Only when she saw Li Yan behind Ning Yuan did she stand up and force a slight pull at the corner of her lips. “Secretary Li Yan, I’m so sorry…”
“It’s nothing, Aunt Bai. You go ahead and chat with Ning Yuan. I’ll go handle a few things on the side.” Li Yan nodded politely, tactfully leaving the space for the aunt and niece.
Ning Yuan looked at the woman before her and slowly began to speak, “Aunt, my living expenses…”
“You still have the nerve to ask for money!” Before she could finish, an enamel mug came crashing toward her head.
She instinctively dodged to the side.
Clang—thud! The enamel mug slammed hard against the door before falling to the ground and rolling twice.
Although Ning Yuan had avoided the fate of having her head smashed open, the hot water inside had splashed over half her body.
Fortunately, the water was no longer scalding, but it was still hot enough to make Ning Yuan gasp and shake her clothes. “Hiss—!”
“What are you dodging for? Weren’t you so capable this afternoon, splashing stinky water all over someone else? When did I ever teach you to act like a landlord’s daughter?!”
Aunt Bai’s cold, sharp voice rang out, filled with fury.
It was only because Ning Yuan had arrived a little late that the water wasn’t hot enough. Otherwise, scalding a few blisters on this girl would have taught her a lesson!
Ning Yuan coldly raised her eyes to look at her. “Are you my aunt or someone else’s? Did you even bother to ask about the cause and effect of the matter before you attacked?”
It must have been Tang Zhenzhen and Huang Xuehong. Since they couldn’t beat her, they knew she was afraid of her aunt and immediately went to tattle. They sure were quick.
Seeing her niece, who had never dared to look up and had always been meek and obedient in her presence, actually dare to speak to her like this, Aunt Bai was stunned for a moment. She slammed her hand on the table, her sanpaku eyes blazing with rage. “You dare talk back to me? Fine, then let me ask you. They said you stole something and you deny it. Then where did you get the Jade Chili Pepper? That’s our family heirloom. If you didn’t steal it, how did it end up in your hands!”
Ning Yuan paused, then lifted her eyes to look at Aunt Bai. “Grandma gave it to me when I was three.”
Aunt Bai’s face darkened. “Shut up! Grandma gave it to you? I didn’t know, and your mom didn’t know either?! Still lying!”
Ning Yuan stated plainly, “That’s because Grandma told me not to tell you or Mom, saying you would definitely take it away.”
Aunt Bai froze, then her long, stern face flushed with a myriad of colors. She gritted her teeth. “Your life was given to you by your mom and me! Give me the Jade Chili Pepper!”
Ning Yuan lowered her gaze, her voice somewhat ethereal. “Are there any other demands? Aunt, you might as well say them all at once.”
Seeing her “give in,” Aunt Bai’s tone softened slightly. “You two haven’t registered your marriage yet. Report to the brigade immediately and say that the Reform Through Labor Element surnamed Rong had improper designs on you. Then, kneel and beg Li Yan for forgiveness, and tell him you’re still innocent!”
Ning Yuan looked at Aunt Bai. “You want me to frame Rong Zhaonan? Do you know that he could be imprisoned for over a decade at best, or even executed at worst?”
Sentencing now was different from a few decades later. During the “Strike Hard” campaigns, even peeping at a woman bathing could result in a death sentence.
Aunt Bai’s sanpaku eyes narrowed as she said cruelly, “He’s just a Reform Through Labor Element. If he dies, he dies. What does that have to do with you?!”
Ning Yuan stared at her for a moment, then said faintly, “I disagree. I can’t do something so beneath a beast.”
Hearing this, Aunt Bai’s face instantly turned cold, and she shot up from her seat, slamming the table. “It seems you’re just as they said, you’ve become depraved after sleeping in the same bed with a bad element! How did I raise you all these years, for you to have no upbringing at all! Kneel! Today, I’m going to teach you a good lesson on your mother’s behalf!”
Ning Yuan looked into her eyes and said, word by word, “Aunt, you can’t represent my mom. I didn’t come out of your belly. I haven’t eaten a single grain of your family’s rice for free. I did most of your family’s housework.”
Aunt Bai’s sturdy figure stiffened. She looked at the coldly standing Ning Yuan in disbelief, as if looking at a stranger.
She gritted her teeth. “Are you going to kneel or not? What have you done right that gives you the audacity to marry and fool around with a Reform Through Labor Element without my or the family’s permission?”
Aunt Bai advanced on Ning Yuan step by step, pointing at her nose and roaring, “Don’t you know this will implicate the family? How will outsiders look at us in the future? Is this how you repay us for raising you?!”
Ning Yuan looked directly at Aunt Bai and sneered, “I’ve done right by myself. Aunt, don’t you just want me to date Li Yan so you can pressure him into finding jobs and military enlistment spots for my older cousins?”
Her mocking tone struck a nerve in Aunt Bai’s heart.
Her stern, harsh face seemed to tremble down to the bone. In an instant, she seemed to understand something. “You did it on purpose?”
Ning Yuan shrugged. “If you say so. I have no interest in being a stepping stone for others. Grandma gave me the Jade Chili Pepper, and I won’t give it to anyone.”
Aunt Bai’s face turned sinister and cold as she stood rooted to the spot, staring at Ning Yuan’s face. “Ning Yuan, your wings have really grown stiff. I’ll ask you one more time, will you kneel and admit your mistake, and will you give me the item?”
Ning Yuan continued, word by word, her gaze firm as she looked at her. “I won’t kneel, and I won’t give it. I’m grown up now. You can’t control me anymore.”
She would no longer fear her threats and shadow!
Aunt Bai’s face suddenly twisted. She violently grabbed the large solid wood stool from the side and swung it viciously at Ning Yuan. “Then you just try me!”
Ning Yuan hadn’t expected Aunt Bai to lose control so suddenly, daring to attack her with a large wooden stool right in the production office.
With such a heavy stool, a blow like that would, at the very least, break her bones!
Though somewhat prepared, she dodged, but Aunt Bai was tall and large, and in an instant, she had her cornered against the door.
Aunt Bai panted with excited, heavy breaths, her face contorted. She then reached back to grab her hair, raising the stool to smash it on her head. “Why are you running? Aunt is punishing you for your own good!”
Ning Yuan reacted, gritted her teeth, and abruptly bent over, preparing to ram into her legs.
Even if it meant taking a hard blow to her back, she had to knock Aunt Bai down and then call for help!
But someone was faster than her. The door was kicked open with a bang, and a slender figure swept out a long leg.
“Ah!!” Aunt Bai was sent flying, crashing into the wall and slumping to the ground.
She let out a miserable cry, curling up at the base of the wall.
Ning Yuan was stunned. She looked at the tall, slender figure standing beside her. “Rong Zhaonan, why are you here?”
Rong Zhaonan looked down at the half-crouching Ning Yuan and said faintly, “If I hadn’t come, you’d be on your way to the hospital today. How would we register our marriage?”
Ning Yuan slowly exhaled, looking at the sturdy woman’s figure curled up under the wall. “Are her ribs broken?”
Rong Zhaonan pushed up his glasses. “Mm, probably two of them. Are you going to blame me?”
He had already been very restrained.
Ning Yuan took a deep breath. “No. Thank you.”
Aunt Bai was about to pass out from the pain. Trembling, she glared daggers at Ning Yuan and Rong Zhaonan. “You ungrateful wretch, you actually dared to have someone hit me… How dare you… I treated you like a daughter…”
“Ning Yuan, you’re truly insane… depraved… It’s an elder’s place to discipline you! How dare you resist?!”
Seeing Aunt Bai’s hateful gaze, Rong Zhaonan raised an eyebrow. “Is this your aunt or your enemy?”
He had never seen anyone discipline a child with the intent to maim.
Ning Yuan shook her head, her eyes downcast. “I don’t know either.”
Even when her aunt passed away in her previous life, she never understood why she treated her that way.
It was as if she had an extreme desire for control and abuse. Her beatings and scoldings were incredibly harsh, and she had sold her out to pave the way for her cousins without a second thought.
But to say it was purely abuse and control didn’t seem right either.
When her own mom didn’t want to send her to school, her aunt had insisted that her mom must, even promising to pay the tuition.
As they spoke, the commotion in the room drew everyone else in.
The crowd looked at each other, staring at the messy room and the groaning Aunt Bai on the floor, unsure of what had happened.
“What happened?” Li Yan rushed over after being notified.
The moment Li Yan entered and saw Rong Zhaonan, his anger flared. “Why is it you again, you Reform Element? Instead of staying in the Cowshed, what are you doing here!”
Rong Zhaonan lowered his gaze, hiding his cool eyes behind his lenses, neither servile nor overbearing. “Reporting. I came to pick up my partner.”
“You…” Li Yan choked, wanting to say something.
Ning Yuan walked over to Aunt Bai and squatted down, conveniently cutting him off. “My aunt and I had a conflict. She tried to hit me, and I pushed her. I got hot water splashed on me, and she got hurt.”
Li Yan frowned, his gaze sweeping sternly over Rong Zhaonan. “Ning Yuan, was it you or him who did it?”
In this era, when relatives came to blows, most people’s default was to turn a big issue into a small one, and a small one into nothing.
But if the Reform Through Labor Element surnamed Rong laid a hand on the masses, the outcome would be entirely different.
Aunt Bai endured the sharp pain, trembling as she pointed at Rong Zhaonan, trying to say something. “He… it was…”
But Ning Yuan, under the pretext of helping her up, suddenly pressed down on Aunt Bai’s broken ribs.