Li Xiuhua’s shrill wails sounded like an electric drill, piercing straight through everyone’s skulls.
Village head Xiao Changzhu turned to his wife, Tian Weiying. “Find a rag and plug her mouth.”
Li Xiuhua’s crying cut off for a second. Then, slapping the ground with both hands, she wailed even louder. “Xiao Changzhu… you heartless bastard! To think you’re the village head, leading a mob to bully the family of a revolutionary martyr! I… I’m going to report you to the higher-ups and get you fired!”
Xiao An looked at Li Xiuhua’s performance with a blank expression, her voice cold. “Go ahead and report them. Try reporting it directly to the military unit—I’d love to see Xueqiang’s superior officers myself. I want to ask for the exact details of how he died, and whether the military has any of his personal belongings left so I can keep a memento. By the way, I’ll also ask about the distribution of his death benefits. As Chen Xueqiang’s widow, I’ve never seen a single cent of my own husband’s pension. Let the military leaders uphold justice for me.”
Li Xiuhua choked off instantly, like a chicken grabbed by the neck.
Hiding in the crowd, Chen Jinyou glared at her and snapped, “Shut your trap! All you know how to do is shoot your mouth off.”
Li Xiuhua shrank her neck back.
Tian Weiying sneered, “Why aren’t you howling anymore? Keep howling and I’ll pull off my socks and stuff them right down your throat. No need for a rag.”
Xiao An had merely been trying to bluff, but judging by their reactions, she realized the Chen family had known far earlier than she thought that Chen Xueqiang wasn’t actually dead.
Suddenly, a coppery taste surged up her throat, and she coughed up a mouthful of blood.
Tian Weiying rushed to her side in a few strides, supporting her with an anxious look. “Oh, goodness—what’s wrong? Come on, let’s go see a doctor.”
Li Xiaogang ran over anxiously as well, staring at Xiao An’s pale face before turning to glare furiously at Li Xiuhua, shouting, “Xiao An must have been beaten by you lot! You people are inhuman!”
He shuddered to think what might have happened if he had arrived even a moment later—would Xiao An have been beaten to death?
Terrified, Li Xiuhua and Chen Xuelan scrambled to explain.
“No, we didn’t use much force!”
Village head Xiao Changzhu’s facial muscles twitched. “Not much force? The red handprint on Anan’s face hasn’t faded yet! If anything happens to Anan, the two of you can just wait to rot in prison. Call the police!”
Hearing the word “police,” Chen Jinyou bolted out of the crowd, rushed over to the village head, and begged suboringly, “Police… no need for that, let’s not rush. Let’s get Anan to a doctor first, a doctor! We’ve always gotten along well as a family, today… this… it must all be a misunderstanding, just a misunderstanding!”
“Old Wen the barefoot doctor is here!” someone shouted.
The villagers automatically parted to make way as a stooped, old barefoot doctor wearing straw sandals with exposed toes walked into the center of the courtyard.
Xiao Changzhu hurried over. “Old Wen, take a look at Anan right away.”
Old Wen quickened his pace, reaching Xiao An’s side and pressing his fingers to her pulse while meeting Xiao Changzhu’s eyes.
“Stagnation of Qi driven by extreme anger. This mouthful of blood was brought on by rage; coughing it up is better than letting it fester inside. It’s just that her body… is far too frail. She needs proper nourishment.”
Chen Jinyou’s suspended heart finally dropped back into place, and he looked pleadingly at the village head. “I told you it was just a misunderstanding! Even if my old woman accidentally… hit Anan a bit, she was just trying to scare her. How could she possibly lay a heavy hand on her? Look—”
Xiao Changzhu leaped up and kicked Chen Jinyou right in the stomach. Chen Jinyou tumbled backward, groaning and rolling on the ground in pain.
Li Xiuhua scrambled over to her husband. “Old man, are you alright? Where does it hurt? Say something! …Old Wen, you—you hurry up and check on my man! Don’t let him get kicked into a bad state. Our whole family… relies on him!”
Old Wen didn’t even glance at Chen Jinyou. He simply turned around and walked over to the corner of the wall, where he squatted down.
He was a refugee who had fled to this village, a wanderer by nature. If it hadn’t been for a meal given to him by Elder Xiao back then, he probably would have starved to death.
Later on, during those turbulent years, he was fortunate that the local folk customs were relatively kind and honest. His medical skills genuinely saved villagers’ lives, and with Elder Xiao’s protection, he managed to keep a low profile and put down roots in the village as a drifter.
Seeing Old Wen squatting by the wall without moving a muscle, Li Xiuhua shrieked viciously, “Old man, are you deaf? I told you to come check on my husband! If our village hadn’t taken you in, you would’ve died years ago!”
Old Wen’s voice remained flat. “Your husband isn’t going to die.”
Xiao Changzhu interjected, “Old Wen isn’t someone you can order around. He was taken in by our village, not your household. If you have any backbone, the next time your family has a headache or a fever, don’t you dare go to him for medicine.”
Li Xiuhua choked. “…”
Old Wen never charged money for medical consultations; he only asked for a nominal fee for herbal medicine. He scattered the medicinal seeds across the back mountains himself, and anyone unfamiliar with them would just take them for wild grass.
She really couldn’t afford to offend Old Wen completely, because his medical skills were genuinely miraculous.
Xiao Changzhu continued, “I didn’t use much force when I kicked your husband either. I was just trying to scare him. Isn’t that how you treated Anan?”
“Village head… I’ve finished calculating it. The remittances in the letters totaled two thousand seven hundred and thirty-five yuan. Two hundred catties of grain coupons, one hundred and ten catties of meat coupons. As for things like candies and pastries, the letters didn’t specify exact amounts, so those can’t be tallied up.”
The villagers gasped audibly once more.
Over two thousand yuan—that was an astronomical fortune!
In most households in their village, working from dawn to dusk all year round would barely net fifty or sixty yuan. Yet the Chen family had embezzled over two thousand yuan from Xiao An!
Xiao Changzhu looked at Xiao An. “Anan, have your parents-in-law ever given you a single cent of this?”
Xiao An shook her head. “No, not a single cent. I’ve only eaten a few bites of pastries and meat, and I mean literally just a few bites.”
The villagers began murmuring among themselves.
“If Xueqiang knew how his parents were grinding his wife into dust, who knows if he’d come back to haunt these two wretches at night.”
“If I had a daughter-in-law like this, she’d be the golden goose of the household. I’d be treating her like royalty—how could anyone dare mistreat her in the slightest?”
“Utterly devoid of conscience, completely heartless. Look at the three of them in the Chen family—every single one of them looks rosy and plump. You couldn’t find a few people in the whole village with complexions as good as theirs. And then look at Xiao An… she’s practically skin and bones.”
Xiao Changzhu raised a hand to signal for quiet.
He turned back to Chen Jinyou. “Two thousand seven hundred and thirty-five yuan, two hundred catties of grain coupons, one hundred and ten catties of meat coupons. These can be calculated. The food can’t be accounted for—we’ll just consider that Anan filial piety to you as her elders.
“The grain and meat coupons must be returned to Anan down to the last catty. As for the money…
“Since you treated Anan like a beast of burden all these years, I’ll give you a chance to act like decent human beings again. Two thousand seven hundred and thirty-five yuan—I’ll round it up for you. You just need to hand over three thousand yuan to Anan.”
Tian Weiying chimed in with her booming voice, “That’s right! That’s a fair calculation, and everyone here is watching as witnesses. What do you all think?”
“Fair!”
“Fair!”
“Sounds right to me!”
“Fair my foot! It’s not your money coming out of your pockets, so of course you think it’s fair! How could a little girl make over two thousand yuan in a year!” Li Xiuhua scrambled back up from the ground, reverting to her shameless routine. “Xiao An married my son, so she’s part of the Chen family. We’re all one family—there’s no such thing as paying money back!”
Xiao An looked at Li Xiuhua with icy eyes. “Your son and I only finished the wedding bows; we didn’t even make it past the threshold before he left. Strictly speaking, I am not a member of the Chen family. Pocketing my money is theft. Over two thousand yuan—if we report this to the police, you’ll probably rot in prison.”
In truth, Xiao An had no idea if the culprits would actually face prison time if this blew up.
Tian Weiying scoffed, “Pfft, prison is getting off light. I remember over a dozen years ago, someone in the neighboring village committed robbery and got a bullet in the head for it.”
“I remember that happening too.”
“Wasn’t it armed burglary? I seem to remember he hurt someone, too.”
The villagers began discussing it amongst themselves.
Chen Jinyou and Li Xiuhua felt their hearts start to pound with panic.
Intentionally trying to frighten Chen Jinyou, Xiao Changzhu said, “Chen Jinyou, hand the money over right here in front of everyone. If you don’t, do you want to taste a bullet, too?”