Hong Shanpang froze in fear. “Su Xiaoqi! What are you trying to do? Murder is against the law!”
She trembled all over.
“Mom! Su Xiaoqi is going to kill someone!”
Xu Yongguo was the first to rush in when he heard his wife’s scream.
He was used to seeing the sisters-in-law fight. As long as his own wife didn’t suffer, he never cared.
But if his wife was the one taking the beating, that was another matter.
“Su Xiaoqi, you’re courting death!”
Su Xiaoqi pressed the scissors even deeper against Hong Shanpang’s neck.
“Take one more step, and your wife will be meeting the King of Hell today.”
The commotion inside the house startled everyone who had gone to the kitchen to fetch steamed buns and pickled vegetables.
Yang Huaihua’s heart sank.
She had known all along that Zhou’s eldest daughter-in-law was trouble.
“Su Xiaoqi! Put the scissors down this instant!”
Xu Youtian’s pipe trembled in his hand as he shot Xu Yong’an a meaningful glance.
“Stop exchanging looks. Let me make myself clear today.”
“I want to split the family.”
“You’ll give me a house plot and a piece of private farmland.”
Su Xiaoqi had always been easy to talk to.
“No!” Yang Huaihua was the first to object.
“Why would a family split up?”
Xu Youtian also refused.
He had raised his stepson Zhou Ye to adulthood. Zhou Ye’s monthly allowance and grain coupons from the army helped support the family. Why would he agree to divide the household?
Yang Xiaolin objected as well.
“You just married into the family. How can you ask for a separation already?”
“Yong’an is getting married next week. If you bring this up now, the whole production brigade will laugh at us.”
Zhou Zheng and Zhou Cao had no say in the matter.
The entire Xu family opposed dividing the household.
Su Xiaoqi had never expected them to agree on her first attempt.
She nodded.
“Fine. If you won’t split the family, then once my husband’s living expenses are handed over, don’t expect me to do any work.”
Twelve yuan a month.
In a rural village during the 1970s, that was enough to live quite comfortably.
“What daughter-in-law doesn’t work after marrying into the family?” Yang Huaihua glared with her triangular eyes.
“You think you can rebel?”
Su Xiaoqi drove her knee upward.
Hong Shanpang crashed onto the ground.
Xu Yongguo charged forward to hit Su Xiaoqi.
She had been prepared.
Su Xiaoqi grabbed the basin of corn porridge with both hands and flung it at him.
Crash!
The entire basin splashed across the floor.
“Xu Yongguo! You dare ambush me? When Zhou Ye comes back, I’ll have him beat you to death!”
Yongguo leaped outside to wash himself at the well.
The scalding corn porridge had burned him.
Yang Huaihua felt as if a lump was stuck in her chest.
“You wretched woman! How dare you waste food like this!”
The Xu family stood there dumbfounded.
Was this really the same Su Xiaoqi who used to get beaten by Yang Xiaolin and Hong Shanpang until all she could do was curse?
The neighbors were long accustomed to fights among the Xu family’s daughters-in-law.
Every few days they would hear Su Xiaoqi’s miserable screams, angry curses, and the arrogant laughter of Yang Xiaolin and Hong Shanpang.
The two women even bragged to others about how they beat Su Xiaoqi.
As a result, nearly every gossiping woman in the village thought she was easy to bully.
Holding the scissors, Su Xiaoqi walked past everyone and entered the kitchen.
She lifted the pot lid.
Inside were an egg Yang Huaihua had saved for Xu Meizhen and a bowl of white rice porridge.
Su Xiaoqi deeply respected food.
Without hesitation, she picked up the porridge and egg and ate them.
She dipped the boiled egg into a little soy sauce.
Delicious.
In the novel, Yang Huaihua only truly cared about two younger members of the family her entire life—Wen Anning and Xu Meizhen.
In her eyes, her youngest daughter was beautiful and would one day let her enjoy an easy life.
As for Wen Anning, she believed she was a lucky star who would bring wealth and fortune to the Xu family.
Yang Huaihua hurried into the kitchen.
She saw Su Xiaoqi had finished the porridge and even placed the empty bowl back into the pot.
“You disaster of a woman! Give me back my egg and white rice porridge!”
Yang Huaihua wished Yang Xiaolin and the others had beaten Su Xiaoqi to death earlier.
She grabbed the broom from the corner and swung it down.
“Help! The Xu family is murdering someone!”
Su Xiaoqi darted outside and shoved over the shovel leaning against the wall.
“Zhou Ye! Save me! I can’t live like this anymore! The women of the Xu family are trying to kill Zhou Ye’s wife!”
Her shout brought all the nearby neighbors running.
“Heavens! Where’s the justice?”
“Zhou Ye is serving the country in the army while his wife is being beaten to death at home!”
“Secretary! Captain! Help!”
Su Xiaoqi wasn’t afraid of making a scene.
She pinched her fingers as if calculating…
Her moral compass was missing.
Xu Youtian cared deeply about his reputation.
He quickly urged his daughters-in-law.
“Go stop her! Don’t let her disgrace the Xu family! And don’t let Zhou Ye find out about this!”
Just like him, Zhou Ye’s wife wasn’t any good either.
Furious, Yang Huaihua threw down the broom and slapped her thigh.
“Su Xiaoqi, you cursed woman! How did our Xu family end up with a daughter-in-law like you?”
The old woman cursed furiously.
She hadn’t even been willing to let her grandson or husband eat white rice porridge and eggs.
She had been saving them for Xu Meizhen, hoping she would grow into a beauty and marry into the county to enjoy a government-funded life.
Wen Anning had even said Xu Meizhen was destined to “eat government grain.”
Instead, it had all ended up in Su Xiaoqi’s stomach.
Seeing that everyone had gathered, Su Xiaoqi thought through every heartbreaking memory from both her previous and current lives.
In the end, she concluded that imitating dramatic scenes came with risks.
Being an overworked employee in the modern world was still better than living in a rural village in the 1970s.
Tears streamed down her face uncontrollably.
She cried as she stamped her feet.
“Mother… I was wrong. I shouldn’t have eaten Meizhen’s rice porridge.”
“But I’m beaten and starved every single day. I had no other choice.”
She rolled up her sleeves.
Bruises covered her arms for everyone to see.
Yang Xiaolin and Hong Shanpang were stunned.
They never pinched her arms when they beat her.
They always pinched places that couldn’t easily be shown, just to prevent her from complaining.
“The Xu family is going to torture a soldier’s wife to death!”
“Zhou Ye… come home…”
“If you come back any later, the grass on your wife’s grave will be taller than you…”
She cried so miserably that anyone listening would feel heartbroken.
Several elderly women from next door stepped forward to take a look.
They quickly pulled her sleeves back down and began discussing the matter all at once.
Village life revolved around gossip.
There simply wasn’t much else to talk about.
One of Yang Huaihua’s longtime rivals even had tears in her eyes.
“What a pitiful girl. She’s been abused.”
“Yang Huaihua has always played favorites. She feeds her youngest daughter white rice porridge while beating her daughter-in-law. She’s truly heartless.”
“And Xu Youtian, that old fool, never treated Yang Huaihua’s eldest son well.”
“Comrade Su has only been married into this family for a few days, and she’s already been tortured into this state.”
“What a tragedy.”
“Those two old scoundrels have no conscience.”
…
Xu Youtian’s face turned red with shame.
Ever since Zhou Ye joined the army, everyone respectfully called him Uncle Youtian.
Now his reputation was crumbling.
Listening to the open and whispered insults around her, Yang Huaihua’s face turned ashen.
“Who’s been bullying you?”
“You loaf around the house all day, sleeping and eating.”
“You’re either fighting with your sisters-in-law or arguing with Meizhen.”
Yang Huaihua knew Zhou Ye sent home a generous allowance.
She didn’t expect her eldest daughter-in-law to work tirelessly.
She only wanted her to wash the family’s clothes, tend the private plot, and cook for everyone.
Was that really asking too much?
But she found that Su Xiaoqi wasn’t grateful at all.
Relying on Zhou Ye’s monthly twelve-yuan allowance, she refused to do any work.
All she ever did was fight.
Su Xiaoqi looked delicate.
Her fair skin was flawless.
Tears naturally rolled down her cheeks without any effort.
A breeze blew.
She swayed weakly.
“Everyone, please judge for yourselves.”
“On the day I married into this family, Zhou Ye left for the army.”
“The very next morning, Yang Xiaolin and Hong Shanpang beat me.”
“They insisted I hand over my bride price money.”
Just then, Su Xiaoqi noticed that the production brigade captain and the party secretary had arrived.
She cried even harder.
“The bride price was money Zhou Ye earned by risking his life.”
“I saved it for our own little family.”
“Why should his sisters-in-law demand money from their younger brother’s household?”
“They even said this was the tradition in the Xu family’s production brigade…”
“They told me if I refused, they’d beat me nine times every three days.”
“Waaah…”
The Xu family’s faces were as dark as burnt pot bottoms.
Yang Xiaolin and Hong Shanpang, usually so proud, now looked utterly humiliated.
Hong Shanpang hurriedly explained,
“Su Xiaoqi, you always spend money carelessly. We were only doing it for your own good.”
“Besides, we weren’t keeping the money. It was supposed to go to Mother.”
Yang Huaihua didn’t want to earn the reputation of mistreating her daughter-in-law.
Nor did she want to alienate her son.
Her eldest son was ruthless and showed no mercy.
“Su Xiaoqi.”
“If you’ve been bullied, tell me.”
“Mother will stand up for you.”
“We’re family. There’s no need to tell outsiders these things…”
Yang Xiaolin quickly added,
“We never beat you.”
“We were only joking.”
Sniffling, Su Xiaoqi smoothly ran over to the production brigade captain.
“Captain, I request personal protection.”
She was about to roll up her sleeves again when the Women’s Affairs Director beside her stopped her.
“We’ll stand up for you.”
Inside, Su Xiaoqi was overjoyed.
The matter of them causing the original Su Xiaoqi’s death was far from over.
Her face lit up as though she had finally found someone to rely on.
“Director Tang.”
“I still have many more injuries.”
“Of course, since they refuse to admit they abused me… then I suppose I must have beaten myself.”