Shen Yu disdainfully tucked the quilt securely around her before pushing the door open and stepping outside.
The entrance to the courtyard was already surrounded by villagers eager to watch the commotion.
Zhao Weiguo and several others had already carried Lai Ergou over.
Lai Ergou was lying on the ground, groaning and pretending to be dying.
His old mother, Lai Pozi, was sitting on the ground, slapping her thighs and wailing dramatically.
Several of Lai Ergou’s clansmen were standing nearby as well, each looking fierce and carrying shoulder poles, as though they had come to smash the place up.
Wang Xiulan stood at the doorway, trembling with anger, gripping a broom tightly in her hands.
“Lai Pozi, what kind of garbage are you spewing? Your Ergou clearly climbed over our wall in the middle of the night to steal from my house. He deserved to be beaten!”
“Steal? Ha! I spit on that!”
Lai Pozi spat on the ground.
“My Ergou said your daughter-in-law left the door open for him. That little slut couldn’t stand being lonely and wanted a man. My Ergou was just going over to do her a favor!”
“That’s right! I was seduced!”
Lai Ergou pointed at “Cheng An’an.”
“It was her! She left the door open for me and said Shen Yu was a cripple who couldn’t perform his duties as a man, so she told me to come over at night and keep her company!”
“As soon as I entered the room, she changed her mind and demanded money from me. When I refused, she beat me!”
“You’re talking nonsense!” Wang Xiulan’s face flushed red with anger. “How dare you slander my An’an like that?”
“Why can’t I say it? Who doesn’t know what she was like before?” Seeing the growing crowd, Lai Pozi raised her voice even louder.
“She despises your Shen Yu because he’s crippled and can’t do anything anymore. Living like a widow is unbearable, isn’t it? That’s why she set her sights on my Ergou!”
The villagers around them began whispering among themselves.
Although everyone had said the previous night that a thief had been caught, in those days, a widow’s reputation was always the subject of gossip. And Cheng An’an’s reputation really had been poor in the past.
“Could it really be true…?”
“Who knows? Shen Yu is crippled now. Living like a widow can’t be easy.”
“They say flies don’t land on a spotless egg. Why would Lai Ergou go to her house if she hadn’t given him a reason?”
Hearing the whispers, Lai Pozi became even more smug. She climbed to her feet and pointed at Wang Xiulan’s nose.
“You have to compensate us today! My Ergou’s hand has been broken. This matter won’t be settled for less than fifty yuan. And your daughter-in-law has to kneel and kowtow to my Ergou, admitting that she seduced him!”
Wang Xiulan was so angry that tears welled up in her eyes, yet she was too inarticulate to outargue such shameless people.
Just then—
A cold, clear voice came from behind the door.
“Fifty yuan?”
The crowd automatically parted, creating a path.
Shen Yu walked out slowly with his hands behind his back.
When Lai Pozi saw her, she shouted indignantly, “That’s right! Fifty yuan! Not a cent less!”
Shen Yu walked up to her and looked at her calmly.
“You say I seduced your son?”
“That’s right! You seduced him! If you don’t pay fifty yuan for his medical expenses today, I’ll report you to the commune for having an illicit affair and have you paraded through the streets!”
Lai Pozi pointed a finger directly at Shen Yu’s nose, spraying spittle everywhere as she spoke.
Shen Yu let out a soft laugh.
“Ma’am, did you forget to bring your eyes when you left the house?”
“I, Cheng An’an, am a famous beauty for miles around.”
He pointed toward the house.
“My husband, Shen Yu, is a war hero. He’s handsome and dignified. Even if he’s bedridden, that face of his is still good-looking.”
“Now take a look at your son.”
The disdain on Shen Yu’s face was completely undisguised, as though he were looking at something filthy.
“He’s less than five feet three, looks like a moldy potato, has a mouthful of yellow teeth that could knock someone unconscious from three miles away, and doesn’t have two ounces of decent flesh on his entire body.”
“Even if I were blind, or had been kicked in the head by a donkey, I still wouldn’t abandon the precious jade in my own home to go seduce a pile of cow dung, would I?”
The villagers burst out laughing.
“Hahahaha! What a description! A moldy potato!”
“Now that you mention it, he really does look like one.”
“She’s got a point. Who would want Lai Ergou with that ugly appearance?”
Lai Pozi was so furious that she nearly smoked from the ears.
“You… you… You’re only after his body because Shen Yu is useless!”
Shen Yu’s eyes instantly turned sharp as blades.
“Who did you just call useless?”
The murderous aura that suddenly erupted from him made Lai Pozi stumble backward two steps, nearly falling on her backside.
“Let me tell you something.”
Shen Yu stepped forward.
“My husband is a hero who defended our country. He was injured for the sake of the nation. Every scar on his body is a medal of honor.”
“And what is your son? A parasite on society who steals chickens and dogs and harasses women.”
“Let alone seducing him, even if I beat him with a stick, I’d be doing the people a favor. I’d be helping the country get rid of its garbage.”
“And you still have the nerve to demand money?”
Shen Yu gave a cold laugh.
“Perfect. The commune police station officers will be here soon. We can discuss this properly and find out exactly what crime it is to slander the wife of a serviceman and interfere with someone else’s marriage.”
His calm and composed demeanor instead made Lai Pozi feel uneasy.
What was wrong with this young wife?
Why did she seem like a completely different person?
In the past, even when someone raised their voice at her, she would tremble in fear. Why was she suddenly so bold today?
“Fine! Let them come! Who’s afraid of whom?”
Lai Pozi stubbornly stuck out her neck.
“The fact that my son was beaten like this is undeniable! Everyone here saw it!”
“That’s right! Assaulting someone is against the law!”
Several of Lai Ergou’s cousins joined in, shouting in agreement.
Two uniformed police officers arrived at the entrance on bicycles.
“Who reported this?”
Shen Yu quickly walked over to them.
“Comrades, I did.”
“I want to report Lai Ergou for breaking into our home, attempting to assault me, and these people…”
Shen Yu pointed at Lai Pozi and her family.
“For causing a disturbance and publicly slandering the reputation of a military family.”
“Please let the authorities give us justice.”
The two officers from the police station, Lao Yu and Xiao Luo, both looked troubled.
Disputes in rural villages like this were the hardest to resolve.
Both sides claimed they were in the right, and both had their own version of events.
Especially when it involved messy accusations concerning relations between men and women, these cases often ended with everyone being appeased and the matter brushed aside.
As soon as Lai Pozi saw the police arrive, she immediately put on the face of a victim again and wailed dramatically.
“Comrades, you have to stand up for me! This Cheng An’an is bullying ordinary people like us just because her husband has performed meritorious service! Not only did she beat my son half to death, but now she even wants to send him to prison!”
Lao Yu frowned.
“All right, all right. Stop wailing. We’ll investigate what happened.”
He turned to “Cheng An’an.”
This young wife gave him a very different impression.
She was far too calm.
She looked nothing like a rural woman who had just become the target of such vicious rumors.
“Comrade, you claim that Lai Ergou broke into your home to rob you. Do you have any evidence?” Lao Yu asked in an official tone. “The Lai family insists that you opened the door and let him in. How do you explain that?”