At this point, Gu Rou was pinning down Gu Li and Gu Yaozu, beating them relentlessly. Zhang Cuihua and Gu Jianguo kept trying to intervene, but each time Gu Rou skillfully dodged them and struck directly at Gu Yaozu or Gu Li. After repeating this a couple of times, Zhang Cuihua finally broke down.
“Stop! Gu Rou, your second aunt is begging you, you can’t hit them anymore!”
Everyone looked at each other, feeling a bit sorrowful. A family that used to be close had now completely turned into enemies. Gu Rou was incredible—she had single-handedly broken down three members of Gu Jianguo’s family. Initially, some had wondered if Lin Dafa was acting alongside Gu Rou as a setup to teach Gu Jianguo’s family a lesson, but now they had no doubt. Gu Rou was so strong that Lin Dafa really wasn’t a match for her.
When the village captain arrived, he saw the scene. Knowing the whole story and realizing Gu Jianguo had almost harmed his niece, he regretted leaving too quickly. But as the captain, he couldn’t just watch this, so he shouted:
“Stop!”
Hearing this, Gu Rou seemed to notice the newcomers for the first time. She promptly dropped what she was holding, as if relief had finally arrived in the form of someone to uphold justice for her. Her expression shifted instantly from calm to wronged.
“Captain, you finally came.”
“I… I was really so scared…”
Seeing the captain, Gu Jianguo’s family started to relax, only to hear Gu Rou venting beside the captain.
“There’s no justice in the world! Their whole family are devils, always scheming against me! Why doesn’t heaven strike them down with lightning and kill them?”
Li Xiufang, seeing this, joined in, wailing about how pitiful and tragic her daughter’s situation was. Zhang Cuihua, unwilling to be outdone, cried out:
“Captain, if you don’t come, my son would’ve been killed!”
“Gu Rou hitting elders—this is outrageous.”
The three women kept shouting, giving the captain a headache. Finally, he shouted back:
“Quiet! One at a time, stop yelling!”
At his command, the three immediately fell silent.
Then a commotion arose elsewhere:
“Dad, you’re finally here! Come save me!”
“Shut up! You don’t get to speak here!” the secretary shouted at Dafa, then turned to Gu Rou with a smile.
“My little niece, my son isn’t very bright. If someone says something, he’ll act foolishly, causing trouble for you. I truly apologize.”
“But it’s more important to handle your side of things first. You continue, go ahead…”
Gu Rou gave the secretary a sharp look, thinking he was a sly old fox, but she agreed—better to finish here first, then deal with the rest later.
“Captain, I’ve always been honest and decent in this village. When their family harmed me before, I thought we were all one family, so I gave them a chance to reform.”
“But who knew they wouldn’t repent and would escalate! Just a few days later, they conspired with Lin Dafa to harm me, to take my life.”
“Luckily, I brought tools with me when I went up the mountain, so I escaped their plot.”
“Otherwise, what you’d be seeing now would be my corpse.”
“Lin Dafa just admitted everything in front of everyone. Captain, if you question anyone, you’ll understand the entire story.”
The captain nodded at Gu Rou’s angry gaze.
“Girl, I know you’ve been wronged. But now that you’ve already fought back, what do you want as a resolution?”
“I want to report them to the police! This entire family is rotten to the core. If I just let this go, I’ll never dare live in this village again.”
“Who knows what evil scheme they’ll come up with next to try to take my life.”
Before Zhang Cuihua and Gu Jianguo could respond, a voice interrupted.
“No, you can’t.”
It was the secretary. Hearing that Gu Rou wanted to go straight to the police, he was alarmed. An attempted rape was a serious crime, punishable publicly, possibly even by gunfire. Their only son couldn’t have anything happen to him.
Gu Rou shot back: “Can’t? Then I’m just supposed to let people bully me? Secretary, is that fair?”
The secretary frowned at her boldness. This girl was so disrespectful—even though he was the village secretary, she gave him no face. But there was nothing he could do; with his son in trouble and the upper hand in Gu Rou’s hands, he had to speak kindly.
“Gu Rou, you misunderstand. I just think there’s no need to report to the police. My son Dafa didn’t even touch a hair on your head. You already fought back. We can compensate you, how about that?”
“Don’t worry about Dafa. He was just being incited. The real culprits are Gu Jianguo’s family, not my son.”
In a few words, the secretary shifted the main responsibility onto Gu Jianguo’s family, trying to divert Gu Rou’s attention.
Gu Rou raised an eyebrow. “Compensate? If Lin Dafa had succeeded, I wouldn’t even be alive. I’m the only vocational school student in Xiangyang Village. Do you think a few dozen yuan can make this right?”
The secretary had originally thought that thirty to fifty yuan would suffice—a couple of months’ wages for a worker and enough to show sincerity. But he didn’t expect this girl to dismiss such a small amount.
The meaning here was that Gu Rou wanted more money. The secretary glanced at his troublesome son, closed his eyes briefly, and quickly replied:
“Gu Rou is right. Considering what you went through today as the child at the head of Xiangyang Village, giving you just a few dozen yuan would be an insult.”
“Uncle originally intended to give you 100 yuan. You were frightened today, so you deserve proper compensation.”
Only then did Gu Rou nod in satisfaction.
“150.”
“What?”
“200!”
Hearing her bold demand, the secretary was about to argue, but when he realized she was pushing even further, he immediately shut his mouth, afraid she would demand even more.
“Alright! 200 it is!”
The secretary knew that if he didn’t go big today, the matter wouldn’t be settled.
“But it’s agreed—our family will give you this money, and this matter will be closed. Any remaining debts or grievances, you’ll have to settle with Gu Jianguo’s family. We bear no further responsibility.”
Gu Rou nodded. “Of course. I’m the only vocational school student in the village, and I have a reputation to maintain. Everyone’s heard today, so I wouldn’t go back on my word. As long as you pay, this matter is settled.”
Gu Rou hadn’t intended to completely burn bridges with the secretary’s family. After all, they still had to live here, and she didn’t care about that—she just didn’t want the secretary to cause trouble for her parents or Gu Chuan. Getting 200 yuan for now was sufficient; in the future, if she wanted to teach Lin Dafa a lesson, she had plenty of ways that others wouldn’t notice.
Seeing that Gu Rou wasn’t holding a grudge against his son, the secretary’s expression softened slightly. He promised that the 200 yuan would be paid—being the village secretary, he wouldn’t cheat a little girl.
Meanwhile, Gu Jianguo, who had been frowning the whole time, was now even more frustrated. He hadn’t expected the secretary to settle the matter with 200 yuan in compensation just to keep the peace. How was his family going to deal with that?