Although Auntie Wu had quieted down these past few days, the incident had caused a very bad impression in the village. So even though she had been the victim, she now had no choice but to accept criticism. Meanwhile, Matchmaker Liu had gotten off rather lightly.
Matchmaker Liu was secretly pleased. Since the team leader hadn’t called her out by name, she simply pretended not to know.
If everyone had to take criticism, then everyone could take it together. Matchmaker Liu felt she had still come out ahead.
While the people on the platform were speaking passionately, Lin Yi and Yingzi had long since stopped caring about who was right or wrong. It had little to do with Lin Yi anyway.
Yingzi, however, had opened up and was telling Lin Yi all sorts of interesting things, including how Zhou Lixing had bullied her when they were children and all the mischievous things he had done. She told Lin Yi everything about him catching fish and stealing eggs.
By now, Lin Yi had formed a clear image of Zhou Lixing from Yingzi’s stories: a mischievous, smooth-talking man who liked to bully people. He was very different from the soldiers she had imagined.
As they talked, Yingzi suddenly fell silent. Lin Yi thought she must be missing her brother.
The dead could not be brought back to life.
All she could do was gently pat Yingzi’s back to comfort her.
Yingzi sobbed for a long time before finally calming down. Perhaps she missed her brother so much that she was especially kind to Lin Yi.
Liu Dalong spoke for more than an hour. He started with the villagers’ general attitude and appearance, then moved on to the problem of young men remaining bachelors. The reason so many young men in the village were unmarried, he said, was that the environment was poor and people’s thinking was backward, so no girls were willing to marry into the village.
The main point was that the town commune would be sending a propaganda instructor to help improve their ideological awareness and change their general outlook.
By the time he finished, everyone was practically falling asleep.
“Let’s go,” Lin Yi said.
Yingzi didn’t want to stay either. Today’s meeting had clearly been a criticism session for Auntie Wu and Matchmaker Liu. Neither of them was easy to deal with, and now that the production team had dealt with them, the village could probably enjoy some peace for a while.
They had just carried their stools out of the school when, passing through a small grove, someone caught up with them from behind.
“Lin Yi!”
A man’s voice rang out particularly clearly in the night.
Lin Yi turned around. In the hazy moonlight, she recognized him as Yuan Jinfeng, the educated youth from their production team.
His face was difficult to make out under the moonlight, but his eyes were especially bright—so bright that they made her feel uneasy.
“Lin Yi, what exactly are you thinking?”
Yuan Jinfeng strode over in several large steps, not even caring that Yingzi was standing beside her.
“Educated Youth Yuan? What a coincidence. You came to the meeting too?”
Yuan Jinfeng: “……”
Why did he feel like Lin Yi was deliberately pretending not to know?
“Lin Yi, we had everything settled. How could you suddenly say you didn’t agree? Did the Zhou family force you? The instructor from the town commune is coming tomorrow. If the Zhou family is making things difficult for you, we can go to the instructor and ask him to judge the matter fairly.”
“Who is it? Who dares bully my second sister-in-law?”
Yingzi rushed forward and blocked Yuan Jinfeng.
Yuan Jinfeng didn’t take her seriously at all.
“Who’s bullying her? I’m just here to talk to her. Lin Yi, why are you going back on your word?”
“Then just consider me someone who goes back on her word. I’m not good enough for you, all right? Look at you. You’re educated, and you’re from the city. We’re not suitable for each other.”
Yuan Jinfeng didn’t believe her at all.
“Have you taken a fancy to another man? Is the Zhou family making things difficult for you?”
Lin Yi wondered if this man was sick. Hadn’t she already made herself clear?
“I just want to stay with the Zhou family. I don’t want to marry anyone. Can you understand that now?”
After she said this, Yuan Jinfeng spat out a few words through clenched teeth.
“Don’t you dare regret it!”
Lin Yi couldn’t be bothered to care what he intended to do. As long as he stopped pestering her, that was enough.
“Sister-in-law.”
Yingzi hurriedly took Lin Yi’s hand, frightened that someone might snatch her away.
“All right, let’s go.”
When they returned home, Liu Huilan had also come back.
“I thought it was something serious. It was just a criticism meeting for Auntie Wu and Matchmaker Liu? The whole village, young and old, had to suffer because of them. And tomorrow, the commune is sending a committee member over.
“If you ask me, I don’t blame Auntie Wu. She has grievances she can’t even voice now. Matchmaker Liu insists that she was only introducing someone, and that if the other person wasn’t interested, then that was that. But because the match didn’t work out, she was cursed at.
“And Auntie Wu’s reputation wasn’t good to begin with. She used to be one of the village bullies. If anyone offended her, they were in for a terrible time. She could stand outside someone’s door and curse them for several days.”
Lin Yi nodded. She finally understood.
In the past, Auntie Wu’s reputation had been too terrible. Although she was sometimes in the right, she never let anyone off once she had the upper hand. Now that had become a problem. Her reputation was so bad that even when she was in the right, everyone ignored her reasoning and instinctively assumed she was bullying someone.
Look at what happened this time. She was clearly the one who had been wronged and had nearly been tricked by Matchmaker Liu. But when Matchmaker Liu provoked her, she went crazy, making the entire village restless and even attracting the attention of the commune. Then she had to attend a meeting and be criticized. No matter how capable Auntie Wu was, she didn’t dare openly resist at a public meeting.
Auntie Wu wasn’t a good person, but she really had been wronged this time. And Matchmaker Liu’s mouth was truly formidable. She could make the dead come alive and turn black into white.
To be honest, Lin Yi hadn’t expected the situation to turn around like this. The man Matchmaker Liu had introduced was clearly an idiot, and yet she could still make him look innocent?
Matchmaker Liu kept insisting that a blind date was a matter of mutual willingness. If you didn’t agree, then forget it. Besides, the other person might not even have been interested in you. She went on and on.
Liu Huilan yawned. “All right, go get some rest. There’s nothing we can do about this.”
The next day, Wang Dana from the village drove a bullock cart to town and brought back two instructors. They were both women, one named Xu Wenjuan and the other Liu Rui.
As soon as the two instructors entered the village, they began visiting the villagers, checking for any recent sources of unrest: fighting, brawling, drinking, gambling, or verbally abusing others for no reason.
Xu Wenjuan smiled. “Fellow villager, how is the public security in your village? Have there been any fights?”
The villagers were a little nervous at first. But when they saw that the women had pleasant features, were very amiable, and had no airs at all, everyone gradually relaxed.
For several days in a row, there was not the slightest disturbance in the village. It was unusually peaceful.
Everyone else was fine, but Auntie Wu was anxious, angry, and aggrieved. Her anger and distress overwhelmed her, and she fell ill and became bedridden.
Xiumei hurriedly came to find Lin Yi.
“Sister Lin Yi, my mother is sick. What should I do?”
Xiumei was at her wits’ end. Her father had died young, and her mother had raised the three sisters on her own. If her mother hadn’t been so fierce and formidable, people would have bullied them long ago. She hadn’t expected her mother to fall ill and become bedridden after returning from the meeting.
Lin Yi asked, “What do you want me to do?”
“I want to borrow your bicycle and take my mother to see a doctor.”
Xiumei’s voice grew quieter and quieter.
A bicycle was a valuable possession, and ordinary people were reluctant to lend theirs out. Lin Yi’s bicycle was brand-new, too…
“It’s fine. I’ll lend it to you. Can you manage?”
Could a petite woman really ride a bicycle while taking another adult to the hospital? Lin Yi looked at Xiumei’s small frame and wondered.
“I can! I can! Thank you, Sister Lin Yi!”
Xiumei was so excited that she thanked Lin Yi repeatedly. She regarded Lin Yi as a great benefactor.
Xiumei parked the bicycle in front of her house and called her mother, Wu Sanni, out from inside.
Wu Sanni was a tall woman wearing a shabby gray padded jacket. A patched-up old scarf was tied around her head. She sat on the bicycle with her head lowered and her body hunched over, looking half-dead.
“Mom, sit tight!”
After making sure her two younger sisters were settled, Xiumei got on the bicycle and took Wu Sanni toward the hospital. As they passed through the village, plenty of people asked with concern where she was going. Xiumei stammered, while Wu Sanni kept her head down and said nothing.
“Did you see that? Wu Sanni has finally been defeated.”
“Isn’t that the truth? Wu Sanni has lorded it over the village for so many years, but she finally lost to Matchmaker Liu.”
“I have to say, Matchmaker Liu really does have a silver tongue. She could make the dead sound alive.”
“You can’t really blame anyone else. Isn’t it because Wu Sanni’s reputation is so bad? With her fiery temper, she’ll probably be angered to death this time.”
That evening, Xiumei came over to return the bicycle, her eyes red from crying.
Lin Yi comforted her. “What’s wrong with your mother? Is it serious?”
When Xiumei saw her, she looked as though she had seen a relative, and tears nearly fell from her eyes.
“My mother just has a bad temper. She got sick from being so angry this time. The doctor said it’s an emotional illness.”
Lin Yi: “……”
There was certainly some truth to the saying that anger could harm the body. But this was also partly Wu Sanni’s own fault. With a temper that flared at the slightest provocation, she would explode like a firecracker whenever something happened. If she didn’t end up suffering, who would?
“When you have nothing else to do, try to talk to her and persuade her.”
Xiumei nodded.
Seeing how pitiful the girl looked, Lin Yi was afraid she might get taken advantage of, so she said, “If anyone tries to introduce you to someone in the future, come and tell me. I’ll help you take a look.”
“Thank you, Sister Lin Yi.” Xiumei’s eyes glistened with tears, and a blush spread across her cheeks.
After seeing Xiumei off, Lin Yi found a book in the desk and began reading. They were all books the original owner had collected in the past: a few biographies of famous people, along with several high school textbooks.
Whenever she had nothing to do, Lin Yi would take them out and flip through them to pass the time.
She had helped Xiumei because she couldn’t bear to watch such a good girl fall into a trap. But what happened afterward was beyond her control. Wu Sanni had ended up in this state largely because of her own personality.
“Second Sister-in-law! Second Sister-in-law, come outside and see! Something’s happened in our village again!”
Yingzi hurried in from outside, holding her knitting.
“What happened?” Lin Yi asked unhurriedly.
“Second Sister-in-law, you’ll know when you come out.” Yingzi grabbed her hand and pulled her outside.
Lin Yi suddenly felt that she was becoming just like the villagers who loved watching gossip. Whenever something interesting happened in the village, she somehow managed to be there.
As soon as she stepped outside, she noticed everyone in the village heading in the same direction. There was no need to ask—something must have happened over there.
Could Wu Sanni have caused trouble again?
But when she arrived, she realized that wasn’t the case.
There were plenty of people gathered to watch, and many were whispering among themselves.
“You didn’t hear? The Bai family’s daughter ran back from her husband’s family last night.”
“Really? What happened?”