Mother Liu Maisui held Yang Liu’s hand, tears and snot streaming down her face as she said: “Are you really going to marry that fool?”
Yang Liu said: “If I don’t marry him, is there any other path I can take?”
Liu Maisui wiped away her tears. “It’s all because Mother is useless. I couldn’t protect you mother and daughter.”
Yang Liu stuffed twenty yuan into Liu Maisui’s hand. “Hide it well.” After Zhao Beichen abandoned the Original Owner, it had been entirely thanks to her mother enduring insults and beatings and withstanding all the public criticism that the mother and daughter had been protected. Everyone else simply did not care whether they lived or died.
During the first few years, the old man of the Yang Family had thought Zhao Beichen would come back to take them away. Unfortunately, they had not even caught sight of a single hair of Zhao Beichen’s. Now that Wang Jiumei had caused such a commotion, they could only send Yang Liu to the Zhang Family. Otherwise, their Yang Family would fall apart as well.
After coaxing Niannian to sleep, Yang Liu finally looked at herself in the mirror. So the Original Owner had actually been this beautiful? She looked almost exactly as she had been described in the novel. The Original Owner had a face that looked anything but demure. In later generations, she would have been considered a naturally stunning beauty, but here, being beautiful was itself an original sin. It made her a vixen whom everyone condemned.
Yang Liu began rummaging through boxes and cabinets. She remembered a detail from the novel: when Zhao Beichen left, he had tossed the Original Owner three hundred yuan, various ration coupons, and a gold-inlaid jade peace pendant. The Original Owner had always treasured that peace pendant as though it were priceless, but Yang Liu had found it neither on herself nor on Niannian.
At last, among a pile of tattered old clothes, she found something wrapped in a blue-and-white checkered handkerchief. Yang Liu took it out and opened it. The peace pendant had broken into two halves.
That was fine. It was still better than having nothing at all.
The next day, at the first crow of the rooster, Wang Jiumei arrived at the Yang Family home.
Before setting out, Yang Liu strapped Niannian onto her body.
Wang Jiumei snapped angrily: “Why are you bringing her?”
Yang Liu said: “The child needs clothes too.” With that, she carried Niannian on her back and walked ahead, leaving everyone else no choice but to follow her.
The Supply and Marketing Cooperative sold both fabric and ready-made clothing. From among piles of gray, white, black, bright red, and vivid green garments, Yang Liu chose a pair of solid-colored pants and a floral-print top for Niannian. For herself, she chose a pair of black pants and a black-and-white checkered top.
Wang Jiumei started cursing and grumbling again. “Even picking out clothes takes this vixen forever. She really is nothing but trouble.”
Yang Liu treated Wang Jiumei’s words like a fart and ignored them. She asked the Sales Clerk: “Is there somewhere we can try these on? I want to see if they fit.”
The Sales Clerk said: “Go through that door.”
Yang Liu and Niannian put on their new clothes and changed out of their tattered garments that had patches piled upon patches. When they came out, the Sales Clerk praised how good they looked, while Wang Jiumei and Zhang Guihua glared at them and cursed even more viciously.
Yang Liu paid the money, took Niannian by the hand, and left.
Wang Jiumei grabbed Yang Liu by the arm. “You bitch, why are you wearing new clothes?”
Yang Liu slapped Wang Jiumei’s hand away. “Aren’t clothes meant to be worn? What business is it of yours?”
Wang Jiumei said: “I bet you bitch are trying to seduce men again, aren’t you?”
Yang Liu had already picked Niannian up and walked out through the entrance of the Supply and Marketing Cooperative. The moment she raised her head, she saw a man in a Public Security uniform handling a dispute involving several Stallholders. Now that the economy had opened up, people had already begun setting up stalls and doing business at the commune marketplace.
Yang Liu walked over and grabbed the Public Security Officer’s sleeve, her face filled with terror. “Comrade, save us~”
The Public Security Officer turned to look at Yang Liu and the child in her arms and froze for a moment. “Comrade, what happened to you? Take your time and tell me.”
Yang Liu’s eyes reddened, and tears immediately fell. “Someone is trying to forcibly sell my daughter and me.”
By the time Wang Jiumei, Yang Jianguo, and his wife rushed over, it was already too late.
The Public Security Officer said furiously: “Who has the audacity to traffic people in broad daylight?”
Yang Liu pointed at the furious Wang Jiumei. “Her.” As soon as she finished speaking, she carried Niannian behind the Public Security Officer and hid there, her entire body trembling with fear.
Before long, several Public Security Officers arrived and took all of them to the Local Police Station.
Wang Jiumei had always been a shamelessly obstinate shrew. At first, she threw herself around and caused a scene at the Local Police Station, but after the Police Station Chief roared at her and ordered someone to put her in handcuffs, she was finally frightened into shutting her mouth.
Yang Liu and Wang Jiumei’s foolish son, Zhang Youfu, had neither a betrothal agreement nor a marriage certificate. Marriage exchange was itself a backward feudal custom, but the local area was simply too poor, so everyone had tacitly accepted the rules of marriage exchange. However, once the matter had been brought before the Public Security Officers in broad daylight, there was no way they could simply ignore it.
Neither Wang Jiumei nor Yang Jianguo and his wife could understand how Yang Liu had suddenly become so eloquent today. She systematically accused them of human trafficking and arranged marriage, placing one charge after another over their heads. Even the Public Security Officers were rendered speechless by her arguments. They felt too embarrassed even to try persuading the two sides to reconcile.
Seeing that there was no longer any hope of forcing Yang Liu into the marriage exchange, Wang Jiumei then claimed that Yang Liu had cheated her out of three hundred yuan.
Yang Liu took out an IOU and handed it to the Public Security Officer. “Comrade, this is evidence that she extorted five hundred yuan from my husband four years ago.”
Wang Jiumei was furious. “Bullshit! That was because you did something shameless. Your man paid us that money as compensation.”
Yang Liu said: “Marrying a man I was mutually in love with was shameless, so I had to compensate you? Only marrying your foolish son would count as having shame? Which law says that?”
Wang Jiumei said: “You, you’re nothing but a cheap bitch.”
The Police Station Chief shot Wang Jiumei a knife-like glare. The vicious old woman shrank her neck and shut her mouth.
Yang Liu said to the Police Station Chief: “Comrade Police Station Chief, I am a military wife. My husband was originally an Educated Youth in our village, and later he joined the army. Please issue me a certificate. I plan to take my daughter to the Capital to find the child’s paternal grandparents. Their family has had Military Personnel for several generations. By helping us, an orphaned mother and daughter, you are also helping your own people.”
Public security was very poor these days. For a beautiful woman traveling alone with a child, having a certificate issued by the Public Security Bureau would make many things considerably more convenient.
The Police Station Chief said: “An orphaned mother and daughter?” No wonder she had been forcibly subjected to a marriage exchange. So her husband had sacrificed his life. She truly was rather pitiful.
It was very easy for the Police Station Chief to issue her a travel certificate. Yang Liu took out the household registration booklet and marriage certificate. After the Police Station Chief examined them, he prepared to issue her travel certificate.
Wang Jiumei said: “Wait, Police Station Chief. Make her return my three hundred yuan first.”
Yang Liu said: “Why don’t you return my man’s five hundred yuan first?”
Wang Jiumei said: “Bullshit! That was compensation your dead man paid us.”
Yang Liu said: “Why would he compensate you for no reason? You really are an idiot. That wasn’t called compensation. That was called extortion, and you can go to prison for it.”
The Police Station Chief looked coldly at Wang Jiumei. “Extortion, theft, and human trafficking are all criminal offenses.”
Zhang Guihua tugged on her mother’s arm. “Mother, a wise person knows better than to fight when the odds are against them. We can deal with her after we get back to Yang Family Village.”
Wang Jiumei said: “You’re right.” Once they got back, she would definitely knock this bitch unconscious and take her home so her son could consummate the marriage with her. She still wanted to go to the Capital to find that wild man? In her dreams.
After the travel certificate had been issued, Yang Liu said to the Police Station Chief again: “Thank you. I have one more thing to trouble you with. Could you arrange for a Comrade Police Officer to escort my daughter and me to the train station right now?”
The Police Station Chief said: “You’re leaving right now?”
Yang Liu nodded. “Yes, we’re leaving right now.”
When the Wang Family mother and daughter and Yang Jianguo heard this, they immediately objected. Several of them blocked Yang Liu and refused to let her leave.
Yang Jianguo looked at Yang Liu. “Liu’er, since all the paperwork has already been taken care of, there’s no need to rush over a single day. At the very least, you should go home and say goodbye to your father and mother, shouldn’t you?”
Yang Liu looked at the Police Station Chief. “Police Station Chief, we have to leave right now. If we go back, we won’t make it out alive. The person you’re saving is the granddaughter of the Commander of the Northern Military Region.”