The black military boots crunched crisply against the gravel road.
The tall, imposing soldier strode through the crowd.
With every step he took, the ironclad authority of a military man radiated from him, compelling the surrounding villagers to move aside without even realizing it.
The crowd, which had been relatively quiet moments earlier, immediately parted to make way for him.
“Second Son! The second son is back!”
Li Chunhua, who had been cowering behind Old Man Li, peered through the narrow slits of her swollen eyes.
She recognized that upright figure in the green military uniform at a glance.
It was her own younger brother, the regiment commander in the army—Li Zhengting!
“Oh, Heaven above! My own flesh and blood has finally come home!”
The terror that had been weighing on Li Chunhua’s heart instantly transformed into a flood of grievances.
She flung off the tattered burlap sack covering her body and charged toward Li Zhengting, moving like an enormous, foul-smelling pig.
“Zhengting! Second Brother! You’re finally back!”
“If you’d come back any later, that lunatic Yu Qinghuan would have beaten your big sister to death!”
“She smashed our bride-price table and kicked me straight into the pig manure pit!”
“Just look at my face! Look what she’s done to me!”
Li Chunhua wept so violently that tears and snot ran down her face. Pointing at her swollen, pig-like features, she loudly reported Yu Qinghuan’s supposed crimes.
In her mind, Li Zhengting was a military officer who valued rules and discipline above all else.
Now that this country bumpkin of a shrew, Yu Qinghuan, had caused such a tremendous scene, there was no way he would tolerate her behavior.
Once Li Zhengting learned what had happened, he would undoubtedly write her a divorce notice on the spot and drive the madwoman out of the Li family!
Behind her, Miao Cuihua had just been helped to her feet. She immediately joined in the wailing.
“Second Son! My precious son! Our cellar has been emptied! Even the iron cooking pot is gone!”
“This is all because that jinx brought disaster upon our family!”
Mother and daughter wailed one after the other, their cries echoing across the square outside the brigade headquarters.
Li Zhengting stopped walking.
His handsome, stern face showed not the slightest unnecessary emotion. His deep black eyes were as still as a calm lake.
He looked at his older sister charging toward him and furrowed his brows slightly.
Because—
The faint but unmistakable stench of pig manure clinging to Li Chunhua was truly overwhelming.
Beside the wooden post near the woodshed, Yu Qinghuan stood with the cleaver in one hand, watching the scene coldly.
She studied the exceptionally handsome, stern-looking man in the military uniform.
That was her husband in name, Li Zhengting.
He certainly had an impressive appearance: broad shoulders, a narrow waist, long legs, and a commanding bearing.
But this was hardly the time for romance.
The corner of Yu Qinghuan’s mouth lifted into a faint, dangerous smile.
Want to complain?
Want to twist the facts and make yourself look innocent?
Well, that depended on whether you would still be alive and well enough to finish your story!
Just as Li Chunhua was about to throw herself into Li Zhengting’s arms, with everyone waiting expectantly for him to lose his temper, Yu Qinghuan’s clear, ringing voice suddenly exploded through the air like a clap of thunder.
“Well, well, Big Sister-in-Law! You certainly run fast!”
“Crying like you’ve suffered some terrible injustice—what’s the matter? Was the wind in that haystack at the village entrance not strong enough for you the night before last?”
The question rang out loudly and forcefully, carrying clearly to every single person present.
A haystack?
The night before last?
The moment the onlookers heard those particularly suggestive words, their eyes lit up like two-hundred-watt light bulbs.
Li Chunhua froze mid-stride as she rushed toward Li Zhengting.
The smugness and grievance on her swollen, pig-like face instantly solidified.
In their place came overwhelming terror.
“Yu Qinghuan! Y-You! What kind of nonsense are you spouting?!”
Li Chunhua shrieked. Her voice trembled so violently that even her teeth began chattering.
“Nonsense?”
Yu Qinghuan took two steps forward, pointing the cleaver toward the muddy ground as she regarded Li Chunhua with an openly mocking expression.
“Big Sister-in-Law, eleven o’clock the night before last.”
“It was freezing cold, and you were wearing the red corduroy jacket Mom had just bought fabric for and had made for you.”
“You sneaked out of the village and crawled into that enormous haystack in Auntie Wang’s field.”
“And you were in there with Wang Ergou, that worthless loafer from the neighboring production brigade who does nothing all day but steal chickens and dogs!”
“You really thought nobody saw the filthy business you two were getting up to inside that haystack?!”
BOOM!
Yu Qinghuan’s words were like an atomic bomb exploding in the square outside the brigade headquarters.
The entire village erupted.
“Oh, my goodness! A haystack! Wang Ergou!”
“Li Chunhua hasn’t even married yet, and she’s already crawling into a haystack with a notorious loafer?!”
“Heavens! How shameless! She’s completely abandoned all a woman’s virtue!”
In an era when even a man and woman holding hands could earn them public condemnation, sneaking into a haystack together carried the same implications as adultery and sexual misconduct.
Such behavior could get a person hauled out in a tall dunce cap and paraded through the streets for public denunciation!
Li Chunhua’s legs gave way completely. She sank limply into the muddy ground.
Her face was deathly pale, drained of every trace of color. Her mouth hung open, but she couldn’t utter a single word.
“You… You have no evidence! You’re slandering me!”
Li Chunhua broke into desperate wails, the terror in her eyes already turning into despair.
“Evidence?”
Yu Qinghuan scoffed, looking down at her with disdain.
“Big Sister-in-Law, yesterday morning, Auntie Wang got up to collect hay to feed her cattle.”
“And inside that haystack, she found a brand-new embroidered shoe with a red cloth sole.”
“The fabric was red corduroy that Mom had specifically bought at the town supply and marketing cooperative last month.”
“There’s only one person in the entire Hongqi Production Brigade who owns a pair of red embroidered shoes like that. You!”
“Yesterday morning, you came limping back into the village, telling everyone you had twisted your ankle in the fields.”
“But the truth is, you left your right shoe in the haystack and didn’t dare go back to retrieve it, didn’t you?!”
“Would you like me to ask the militia at the brigade headquarters to search your room right now? Let’s see whether there’s only one shoe left from your precious pair of red embroidered shoes!”
Every word came with a time, a location, and physical evidence.
Her reasoning was so airtight that there wasn’t the slightest opening to exploit.
In just a few sentences, Yu Qinghuan had exposed Li Chunhua and Wang Ergou’s scandal for the entire village to hear.
“WAAAAAH!”
Li Chunhua’s psychological defenses finally collapsed.
Covering her face, she crumpled to the ground and let out a piercing, utterly despairing wail.
It was over.
She was completely finished.
Her reputation was ruined. No respectable family in the city would ever want her now.
For the rest of her life, she would be trapped in this miserable mountain village, branded as a shameless woman!
Miao Cuihua sat nearby as though she had been struck by lightning.
She opened her mouth, only to discover that her throat felt as if a stone had lodged inside it. She couldn’t get a single word out.
Her most cherished daughter—her pride and joy—had actually turned out to be the kind of woman who sneaked into haystacks with men!
Today, Yu Qinghuan had dealt such a devastating blow to the Li family’s reputation that their dignity had been shattered beyond repair!
Meanwhile, Li Zhengting had just made his way through the crowd.
He hadn’t even reached his older sister when he heard this explosive piece of gossip.
Wang Ergou.
A haystack.
A red embroidered shoe.
For a brief moment, the handsome face that was usually as cold as ice went completely blank.
He slowly turned his head.
His gaze fell upon the woman standing at the entrance to the brigade headquarters, holding a gleaming cleaver in her hand.
Her face was still smeared with stove ash, yet she spoke with such vivid enthusiasm and ferocious confidence that she seemed utterly unafraid of the world.
His wife.
Li Zhengting’s two sharply defined, sword-like eyebrows drew together.
Tightly.
Until they formed a deep furrow between his brows.