Xiao An naturally had fair skin. Even though she worked in the fields every day, her complexion carried a slightly yellowish tint, but she hadn’t gotten tanned. Earlier in the kitchen, when Chen Xuelan had swung at her, Xiao An had fought back just enough to keep the blow from hurting too badly, but the mark left on her face was still shocking to look at.
As she ran, Xiao An messed up her hair with her hands and wailed loudly, making herself look as pathetic and distraught as possible.
Before long, she reached the village chief’s doorstep.
The village chief, Xiao Changzhu, was walking back from the fields with a hoe over his shoulder alongside some other villagers. When he bumped into Xiao An, he was genuinely startled by her disheveled state.
“What happened? Don’t cry, tell us slowly. The chief and us uncles will back you up and sort it out,” a villager asked anxiously.
The chief looked equally worried. “An’an, who bullied you? Tell me. Even if I have to stop being village chief, I’ll beat whoever did this to a pulp!”
When Xiao Changzhu was a little boy, he had almost drowned in the river, and it was Xiao An’s grandfather who had jumped in and saved him. Because of this, the chief had always treated Xiao An with great affection.
Weeping, Xiao An explained what had happened. Her account was brief, yet clear and straightforward.
The surrounding villagers couldn’t help boiling with anger. “That Chen Xueqiang family is truly heartless.”
Xiao Changzhu raised his voice and yelled toward his courtyard.
“Mother of my children, hurry up! Come with me to An’an’s father-in-law’s house.”
The chief’s wife hurried out. When she saw Xiao An, her heart ached. “What happened to you, An’an? You haven’t eaten yet, have you? Come inside and eat at our house.”
The chief frowned. “You come with us to Chen Jinyou’s place first. Once things are settled over there, we’ll let An’an come back for dinner.”
Furious, the group strode purposefully toward Chen Xueqiang’s house.
As they stepped into Chen Xueqiang’s yard, they saw Chen Xiaogang blocking the doorway of the main room, while Chen Xuelan and Li Xiuhua tugged at him from either side, trying to force their way inside.
Though a look of pain crossed Chen Xiaogang’s face, he stood firm, refusing to yield. There was no way he was going to let those two into the main room to destroy the evidence.
On the way over, the chief’s wife, Tian Weiying, had already been filled in on what happened to Xiao An, and she fully understood why her husband had called for her.
Before the men could make a move, Tian Weiying lunged forward, grabbed Chen Xuelan and Li Xiuhua by their hair, and yanked them backward with all her might.
Crying out in pain, the two women staggered back, releasing their grip on Chen Xiaogang.
Wincing and leaning back, Li Xiuhua glared sideways at Tian Weiying.
“Ouch… ouch… What… what are you doing?”
Shedding her usual gentle demeanor, Tian Weiying was fierce and unyielding. “You know it hurts, do you? When An’an was working herself to the bone like an old ox in your house—doing all the chores and getting nothing in return—when you beat her and pulled her hair, did you ever stop to think that she would hurt too?”
Xiao Changzhu told Xiao An, “An’an, go on inside and search.”
Nodding, Xiao An sprinted toward the main room. Chen Xiaogang quickly stepped aside, and the moment she went in, he resumed his post at the door, acting like a temple guardian.
Chen Xuelan glanced sideways at the crowd in the courtyard and instantly lost her nerve. But the pain in her scalp was agonizing, bringing tears to her eyes, and she whimpered like a mosquito: “Auntie… it… it was my sister-in-law who hit my mom first, so we just—”
“Your mother pulled that filthy stunt and she deserved to be hit! If I were An’an, let alone hitting your mother, I’d set this house on fire myself!”
Tian Weiying gave another hard tug, drawing another piercing shriek from Chen Xuelan and Li Xiuhua.
With a firm push, Tian Weiying shoved Chen Xuelan aside.
Torn and desperate to rescue her mother, Chen Xuelan took a tentative step toward Tian Weiying, but the villagers who had accompanied the chief immediately stepped in front of her.
Since they were men, they didn’t want to hit her, so they simply stood there, blocking her path.
Swallowing hard out of fear, Chen Xuelan shrank her neck and took a step back.
Tian Weiying didn’t do much else, aside from casually giving Li Xiuhua’s hair another yank every now and then.
Li Xiuhua felt like her entire scalp was being ripped off, and her shrieks were harrowing to hear.
The commotion in the yard drew a growing crowd of curious villagers.
Chen Xueqiang’s father, Chen Jinyou, pushed his way through the onlookers, holding an old tobacco pipe. Seeing Tian Weiying manhandling his wife, anger flared in his eyes as he challenged the chief.
“Village chief, what do you think you’re playing at? Dragging your wife over here to beat mine—what kind of behavior is this? I’m going to report you to the commune!”
With a gaze as sharp as a knife, the chief didn’t waste a word. He walked right up and drove a hard fist straight into Li Jinyou’s stomach.
“Go ahead and report me! I didn’t come here today as the village chief; I came as a member of An’an’s maternal family. I came here specifically to beat you Chen family members. You’re a grown man who refuses to work the fields, spending all day wandering the village with your pipe. I’ll give you something to wander about, bullying An’an like this.”
He followed it up with two more punches.
Chen Jinyou hadn’t expected Xiao Changzhu to actually throw hands. Taking the three solid punches, he instantly lost his bravado. Cowering, he retreated into the crowd of onlookers, sticking his head out to yell at Xiao Changzhu.
“An’an… is my family’s daughter-in-law! Which family’s daughter-in-law doesn’t have to work? Besides, how… how did we bully her? We did no such thing!”
Some villagers who were walking back from the fields and had witnessed Xiao An fainting earlier heard this and chimed in indignantly.
“What do you mean you didn’t bully Xiao An? Your whole family stays cooped up inside enjoying yourselves while your own daughter has a rosy complexion, and you two old fogies look healthier than Xiao An! And you have the nerve to say you didn’t bully her—does she have to be beaten every single day for it to count?”
With her hair a bird’s nest and cobwebs clinging to the top of her head, Xiao An emerged from the main room carrying a stack of letters.
“Village chief uncle, I found them! They were hidden against the wall under Chen Xuelan’s bed, tucked inside a pair of old shoes. These letters were right inside. I haven’t read them yet. I brought them out so the chief can read them with everyone, just so they can’t try to pin false claims on me later.”
Xiao Changzhu took the letters and spoke gently to Xiao An, “An’an, go get some paper and a pen so we can list out everything the Chen family has taken from you, item by item.”
Nodding, Xiao An ran off to the side room, quickly returning with paper, a pen, and a low stool. “Uncle, there are quite a few letters. Have a seat.”
Without standing on ceremony, Xiao Changzhu sat down on the low stool and addressed the surrounding villagers.
“Today’s events will serve as a witness for Xiao An. This is going to take a while, so if you can’t stand for that long, go grab a stool from Chen Jinyou’s house and listen at your leisure.”
A few people near the front ran over to grab small benches from the Chen household. Since there weren’t many chairs to go around, those who couldn’t find one simply sat down on the threshold.
Xiao Changzhu spoke again, “Anyone who knows how to read, come over to Xiao An and take the paper and pen to help keep a tally. A few of you should come stand close by to act as witnesses and keep watch, just in case the Chen family tries to backpedal later and claim we cheated them out of extra things for Xiao An.”
Five or six people stepped forward, including both adults and school-aged children from the village.
Opening the letters one by one, Xiao Changzhu began reading them aloud to the crowd.
The letters contained words of deep concern for Xiao An, advice urging her to remarry, suggestions that she take the college entrance exams, and offers to bring her over to Beijing.
It was impossible for the onlookers not to feel a twinge of envy, especially upon hearing about the cash and ration coupons mentioned in the letters. Everyone gasped in astonishment.
Some letters included five or six large-value notes, while others enclosed several hundred yuan, not to mention various kinds of ration coupons and regional specialty foods.
After more than an hour, the reading finally wrapped up. The chief turned to the person keeping the tally: “Add it all up and give us the total in a moment.”
Tian Weiying had been pulling on Li Xiuhua’s hair for so long that her arms were aching. With a firm shove, she let go.
Li Xiuhua collapsed onto the ground, slapping the earth with both hands as she wailed at the top of her lungs.
“The world’s gone mad! A daughter-in-law is teaming up with outsiders to bully two old folks and a child—they’re trying to push our whole family to our deaths!”