“Waaaaah! How am I supposed to live like this?!”
“Heavens above, have you gone blind?! A wicked daughter-in-law has entered our family, and now she’s going to bring ruin upon us all!”
The bitter winter wind howled outside the Hongqi Production Brigade headquarters.
Miao Cuihua plopped herself down on the bluestone pavement in front of the entrance and kicked her legs wildly.
Her wailing was loud enough to shake the heavens.
Her daughter, Li Chunhua, was wrapped in a torn burlap sack. A nauseating, biohazard-level stench still emanated from her entire body.
She huddled behind Old Man Li, her eyes red as she sobbed uncontrollably.
Because Li Chunhua smelled so horrifically foul, the villagers gathered around the brigade headquarters to watch the commotion instinctively retreated five meters, leaving a massive empty circle around the family.
“What are you howling about so early in the morning?!”
The production brigade secretary emerged from his office, wearing a military overcoat and a dark expression as he pushed open the wooden door.
The moment he caught a whiff of the overpowering pig manure stench in the air, his brows immediately knitted into a tight knot.
“Miao Cuihua, you’ve been a longtime member of this brigade!”
“How can you throw yourself on the ground and make a scene right outside the brigade headquarters? Have you no sense of propriety?!”
As soon as Miao Cuihua saw the secretary, she scrambled toward him on her hands and knees.
“Secretary! You have to stand up for our Li family!”
“That little slut Yu Qinghuan refuses to respect her mother-in-law and even laid hands on her own sister-in-law!”
“But the most outrageous thing is that she acted as an inside accomplice last night, teaming up with some worthless man from outside to steal everything our family owned!”
“She even carried off our iron pot! She’s trying to starve our entire family to death!”
With snot running down her face and tears streaming from her eyes, Miao Cuihua pointed at Yu Qinghuan, who was following behind her, and poured out her grievances in a heart-wrenching wail.
The brigade secretary turned his head and looked at Yu Qinghuan, who stood quietly to one side.
By now, Yu Qinghuan had washed her face clean.
She wore an old, faded cotton-padded jacket covered in patches.
Her body was so thin that she looked as fragile as a sheet of paper, trembling slightly in the cold wind. She appeared utterly weak and helpless.
The brigade secretary frowned and lowered his voice.
“Yu Qinghuan, is what Miao Cuihua said true?”
Yu Qinghuan walked forward unhurriedly.
Unlike Miao Cuihua, she didn’t throw herself around or wail hysterically. Instead, she looked calmly at the brigade secretary.
“Secretary, I, Yu Qinghuan, have always conducted myself honorably and kept my conscience clear.”
“Since my mother-in-law insists that I was the thief, I’d like to ask everyone here a few questions.”
With that, Yu Qinghuan slowly rolled up the sleeve of her worn-out jacket in full view of the crowd.
She exposed a bony arm as thin as a dried twig, with purplish bruises caused by malnutrition scattered across her skin.
“Secretary, just look at my arm. How much strength do you think I have?”
Yu Qinghuan spoke in an unhurried voice, cool and clear.
“Last night, my mother-in-law locked me in a drafty woodshed under the pretext of teaching me the rules of their household.”
“The door was tightly fastened from the outside with twisted wire.”
“I hadn’t eaten for an entire day and night. I was so hungry that I could barely see straight.”
“Meanwhile, the Li family’s cellar contained two hundred pounds of white flour alone, dozens of pounds of cured pork, and heavy jars of cooking oil.”
“Not to mention the enormous iron pot in the kitchen, which weighed dozens of pounds.”
Yu Qinghuan swept her gaze over the villagers gathered around them.
“I’d like to ask all the uncles and aunties here something.”
“I’m a young woman who weighs less than ninety pounds and hadn’t eaten for an entire day.”
“With the main gate locked, how could I possibly carry away more than a thousand pounds of grain and an iron pot all by myself, without anyone noticing?”
“Do I have the ability to duplicate myself, or can I perform supernatural magic?”
The moment those words left her mouth, the watching villagers erupted into an uproar.
“Exactly! Even I struggle to lift that iron pot. How could Yu Qinghuan possibly carry it away?”
“And the gate was locked! What kind of nonsense is this?!”
“Miao Cuihua must have lost her mind. Her own family got robbed, and now she’s trying to pin it on her daughter-in-law!”
“She treats that poor girl like a beast of burden every day. Just look at how badly she’s starved her! What a heartless woman!”
In an instant, public opinion swung entirely in Yu Qinghuan’s favor.
The brigade secretary’s expression softened. He shot Miao Cuihua a fierce glare.
“Miao Cuihua! You need evidence before making accusations!”
“Yu Qinghuan was locked up by your family all night. How could she have gone out stealing things?”
The secretary’s scolding made Miao Cuihua panic.
She stiffened her neck and pointed at Yu Qinghuan, cursing furiously.
“It WAS her! Last night, she was possessed by a ghost or something! She kicked the woodshed door to pieces with a single kick!”
“She must have had some bastard helping her!”
Yu Qinghuan smiled faintly.
Her smile was extraordinarily gentle, yet it sent a chill through Miao Cuihua’s heart.
“Mother, the public security officers and the militia company commander both inspected the scene last night.”
“The footprints around the cellar and in the courtyard belonged to a man wearing size-forty-four shoes.”
“The cigarette butts on the ground were from Peony brand filtered cigarettes—the kind only people from the city could afford.”
“I’m just a country girl who wears size-thirty-seven cloth shoes. I can’t even stand the smell of ordinary tobacco.”
“If you truly believe I did it, you’re welcome to report me to the county Public Security Bureau.”
“As long as the authorities prove that I was the one who stole everything…”
Yu Qinghuan paused. Her voice remained gentle, but every word landed with unmistakable force.
“Then they can drag me straight to a public trial and execute me by firing squad. I won’t utter a single word of objection.”
“But…”
Her voice suddenly turned cold, carrying an air of authority that made people hesitate to meet her gaze.
“If you have no evidence and still stand outside the brigade headquarters slandering me and falsely accusing a military family member…”
“Or if you are even trying to seize my teaching position…”
“Then you are maliciously slandering the orphaned daughter of a martyr!”
“That makes you an enemy of the people showing utter disrespect for the revolutionary cause!”
The orphaned daughter of a martyr!
An enemy of the people!
Those two politically damning accusations came down like enormous boulders.
Miao Cuihua’s brain practically short-circuited.
She was completely illiterate, and the moment she heard words like “execution” and “reform through labor,” her legs went weak.
She collapsed onto the ground, the cry in her throat becoming stuck before she could even make another sound.
In those days, falsely accusing the orphaned daughter of a martyr was an entirely different matter.
It could get a person dragged through the streets, forced to wear a tall dunce cap, and publicly denounced!
The surrounding villagers drew sharp breaths, looking at Miao Cuihua as though she were a lunatic.
“The Li family has finally picked a fight with someone they can’t afford to offend.”
“Yu Qinghuan’s father sacrificed his life saving someone back in the day. He was a martyr. Miao Cuihua really has a death wish!”
“Serves her right! Evil people eventually get what they deserve!”
The brigade secretary slammed his hand down on the table, his face dark with anger.
“Miao Cuihua! Shut your mouth!”
“If you keep causing trouble, I’ll issue a referral letter today and send you to the county political study class for three months!”
The moment Miao Cuihua heard that she might be sent away for “political study,” she immediately became obedient.
Anyone who went into that place would come out suffering, if they came out in one piece at all.
She shrank her neck and didn’t dare mention Yu Qinghuan stealing anything again.
But when she thought of her family’s completely emptied possessions and her daughter, whose face had been beaten until it resembled a pig’s head, resentment and hatred gnawed at her heart like poisonous snakes.
She glared at Yu Qinghuan, her eyes blazing with venom.
She couldn’t beat her.
She couldn’t win an argument against her.
Even the brigade secretary was taking that little slut’s side!
Miao Cuihua stiffened her neck like a defeated rooster still desperately trying to flap its wings, then shrieked hysterically:
“Fine! There’s no way I can live like this anymore!”
“You jinx! Our family has been cursed ever since you stepped through our door!”
“Just wait until Zhengting comes back tomorrow! I’ll make him divorce a shrew like you, even if it’s the last thing I do!”