Don't be fooled by his quiet voice—his grip was anything but weak. Liu Jinhua, seized right where it hurt, howled "aiyo, aiyo" while cursing him nonstop as a "little cheap slut."
Wen Xi didn't know how to curse people, so he weakly shot back: "Well, you're an old cheap slut."
Chen Lanfang snapped out of her daze, and while he had the woman pinned, she rewarded Liu Jinhua with two more resounding slaps.
This old hag had smeared his reputation in front of so many people—she really did deserve a beating. Thinking this, Wen Xi quietly dug his nails into Liu Jinhua a few more times.
And then there was Zhao Shoutian, the chief culprit. Wen Xi knew he'd get nowhere facing him head-on, so he glanced around, spotted a broom leaning in the corner, and tremblingly picked it up, whacking Zhao Shoutian several times from behind.
Zhao Shoutian, his face bruised and swollen from Yan Wangchun's beating, couldn't believe that someone as lowly and weak as Wen Xi dared to sneak-attack him. He spun around and snarled viciously, "I'll beat you to death, you cheap bitch!"
Wen Xi hit and ran—there was no way he'd stand there foolishly and let him strike back.
Yan Wangchun grabbed Zhao Shoutian by the collar just in time: "I'll beat you to death first."
Wen Xi's heart pounded at Zhao Shoutian's ferocious appearance. Taking advantage of the man's inattention, he circled around and came back with the broom, whipping him hard again.
Zhao Shoutian covered his head and scrambled about wildly: "You cheap bitch, just you wait…"
Wen Xi threw the same words back at him: "You hit a ge'er, so you're the cheap one."
Li Wan and He Jin had things well in hand dealing with Lin Xuemei and didn't need help, so after cursing Zhao Shoutian, Wen Xi went over to help Chen Lanfang beat up Liu Jinhua.
That old hag only used dirty tricks and was shamelessly shrewish—if he didn't help, his mother-in-law would surely suffer.
The Zhao family's men were simply no match for the Yan family's men, and Lin Xuemei and Liu Jinhua, facing two opponents each, couldn't gain the slightest advantage. What was supposedly a mutual brawl was really just the Zhao family getting one-sidedly pummeled.
In the chaos, someone kicked over the Zhao family's chicken coop, and a flock of chickens panicked and flew wildly in all directions. Yan Wangchun gave the wailing Zhao Shoutian on the ground a kick, then reached out and caught a flapping old hen with swift, precise hands.
Yan Fuqiu followed his brother's example and caught one too.
The two brothers declared righteously: "You stole our rabbit and beat our people—these two chickens will count as your apology. If you ever dare come bully our family again, forget the chickens—you won't get to keep a single animal in your house."
The family only raised five chickens in total, birds they could barely bear to eat themselves. How could Liu Jinhua let them take them away? She hopped and stamped around like a spirit medium, chasing the two Yan brothers, clawing and scratching.
No matter what, the Yan family men had more scruples than Zhao Shoutian. They couldn't bring themselves to hit an old woman like Liu Jinhua, so they could only run around the yard clutching the old hens.
Zhao Gengnian, the village head of Daoxiang Village, arrived to see exactly this chaotic scene and roared, "Everyone stop, right now!"
At his shout, everyone chasing and fighting in the yard froze.
Liu Jinhua, hair disheveled, rolled her eyes and immediately ran up to Zhao Gengnian, wailing: "Third Granduncle, you have to stand up for us! The Yan family is simply inhuman—they came to our house and raised trouble for no reason at all, beat our whole family to this state, and on top of that they're stealing our chickens. They have no respect whatsoever for you as village head!"
Chen Lanfang spat: "You shameless hag, rolling your tongue around trying to turn black into white. Our family doesn't act as shamelessly as some people. Don't think that just because the lizheng is one of your own kin, you can spout nonsense in front of all these neighbors."
"You've got one mouth with two lips—you can twist anything your way. Who knows if the wound on your husband's face wasn't something he bumped into himself, and now you're trying to frame us because you think our family is easy to bully." With backing now, Liu Jinhua spoke with a good deal more confidence.
Tiezhu and Tao'er, who should have been at home, suddenly popped out from behind Zhao Gengnian: "Nonsense! He's the one who hit him. We all saw it!"
"That's right, we all saw it. It was Uncle Zhao Jinbao who hit him, and they even snatched Tiezhu's rabbit."
The group of half-grown children who had been playing by the river all came over to testify.
Liu Jinhua waved her hand to shoo them away: "Go, go, go! What do a bunch of little brats know? Keep spouting nonsense and I'll tear your mouths apart."
Chen Lanfang pulled the two children behind her protectively: "Weren't you supposed to be at home taking care of Third Uncle? Why did you all come over?"
Tiezhu said loudly, "Third Uncle told us to come!"
"All right, all right, I know what happened. Everyone stop talking." The clamoring voices made Zhao Gengnian's ears buzz, and his mood grew even more vexed.
That Zhao Dahe household, relying on their kinship with him, had caused no end of trouble outside, and every time he had to clean up after them. This time they'd truly had shit for brains, going out of their way to provoke the Yan family. Did they really think Yan Shichang and his wife were the sort who could be bullied at will?
Not to mention their younger son was a xiucai who could read—his brain was ten thousand times sharper than theirs.
Earlier, Yan Shichang's eldest grandson, Tiezhu, had run to his house to deliver a letter. The letter explained the origin of the conflict between the Yan and Zhao families, and at the end expressed the hope that he would handle the matter fairly and justly.
Zhao Gengnian had once had Yan Feng'an write spring couplets for him, and he recognized the handwriting as his.
The writing on the letter was clear and elegant, hardly the work of an idiot. When he asked Tiezhu about it, he learned that Yan Feng'an's illness had mostly recovered, and before long he would be up and about.
However tactfully Yan Feng'an's letter was worded, the meaning between the lines was plain: "My husband was beaten. I'm going to stand up for him. You're the lizheng—deal with it as you see fit."
Zhao Gengnian didn't want to offend the Yan family, but Zhao Dahe was, after all, of his own clan. If he showed no partiality at all, the Zhao family would surely stab him in the back.
After some deliberation, he decided he would play it by ear once he reached the Zhao household. Who knew that on the way he would run into Yan Shichang's granddaughter, Tao'er. The tiny girl was remarkably clever—she had rounded up a group of children playing by the river, saying they were to serve as witnesses for her family.
What would children know of such things? Presumably that Yan xiucai figured that words alone were no proof, so he had her find some witnesses.
Zhao Gengnian shook his head inwardly. With both witnesses and evidence, the Zhao family could hardly blame him for not helping.
According to Zhao Gengnian's thinking, he would go over, have Zhao Shoutian apologize to Wen Xi, and have the Zhao family pay some silver to settle the matter. But the current situation left him unsure how to bring up the matter of compensation.
Aside from somewhat messy hair and some dust on their clothes, the Yan family was perfectly fine. The Zhao family, on the other hand, were all bruised and swollen-faced, looking as if they had suffered serious injuries.
Zhao Dahe came limping over to lodge a complaint: "Uncle, look at what these black-hearted Yans have done to us! You have to get an explanation from them."
Zhao Gengnian glared at him: "The trouble was caused by your family's Zhao Shoutian. What kind of justice am I supposed to get for you?"
After scolding Zhao Dahe, he turned to look at Yan Shichang and said, "Zhao Shoutian was indeed in the wrong, but your family shouldn't have used such heavy hands. We're all from the same village—discuss matters like civilized people. What does fighting accomplish?"
A problem that could have been easily settled, and now he didn't even know which side to take.
Yan Shichang had vented most of his anger by now, and he replied, "Since you've come over, out of respect for you, I won't pursue the matter any further today. Let it end here."
He said it as if he were doing Zhao Gengnian some huge favor, but this was a step down that both sides needed, and Zhao Gengnian had no reason not to take it.
He waved his hand and said, "Your family's third son is worried sick. Hurry on home." Then he shouted at the onlookers outside, "What are you looking at? Get moving! Every one of you standing there like fools, not one of you tried to break it up. Sooner or later, you'll all ruin the morals of this whole village."
The onlookers clicked their tongues, thinking to themselves that if anyone was ruining the village's morals, it was the Zhao family—how could it ever be blamed on decent, law-abiding folks like them?
Seeing that the Yan family really was about to take the two chickens away, Liu Jinhua wanted to wail loudly, but Zhao Gengnian shot her a cold, hard look: "Return the chickens or pay for them. Your choice."
Liu Jinhua threw a tantrum, rolling on the ground, unwilling to give any compensation at all.
The Yan family paid her no mind and picked up the chickens to leave. At that moment, Tiezhu anxiously tugged at Yan Wangchun's arm: "Dad, what about my rabbit? We have to get the rabbit back too."
It was the first rabbit he had ever picked up—how could he just let it go?
Yan Wangchun quickly turned back: "That's right, and the rabbit!"
Zhao Jinbao, who had been hiding inside the house, had been scared out of his wits by the fight. Hearing this, he immediately tossed the already-dead rabbit out of the room, crying and shouting, "Mom, Dad, I'm scared—make them go away!"
What child wouldn't be frightened by such a scene? Lin Xuemei wiped her tears and went inside to comfort him. Only after the Yan family left did she start cursing: "I must have suffered eight lifetimes of bad karma to marry into this Zhao family. Every man in this house, every single one, is a spineless good-for-nothing. It's bad enough that they never do an honest day's work, but they're always bringing trouble home too. May they all be cursed! How did I end up stuck with people like this?"
Zhao Changshun put on an act and hollered into the room: "What are you going on about?"
He glanced at Zhao Shoutian and yelled, "And you—it's one thing to go torment other people's children all the time, but how could you drag your own nephew into it?"
"If your family's Jinbao hadn't tried to snatch their rabbit, would I have fought them? And now you're putting on airs in front of me—where was all that toughness when the fight was happening?" Zhao Shoutian, clutching his red, swollen cheek, showed his older brother not a shred of respect.
Zhao Changshun shot him a resentful glare but said nothing.
In the end, the two brothers started arguing with each other, while Liu Jinhua wept about her miserable fate and cursed the Yan family for their cruel hands and black hearts.
Zhao Dahe, shameless as ever, twisted things around and blamed Zhao Gengnian, a fellow clansman, for not helping them.
This whole spectacle was like a stage play, and it nearly made Zhao Gengnian laugh in exasperation.
If you asked him, the Yan family hadn't hit them hard enough—otherwise those people wouldn't still have the strength to stand there wailing about heaven and earth. That Yan Feng'an had passed the xiucai exam at just sixteen; becoming a juren was only a matter of time. The two families weren't particularly close anyway, so why would he offend the Yan family over a household that couldn't tell right from wrong?
At dusk, the red sun sank slowly toward the horizon, wisps of cooking smoke rose from the cottages, and amid the rustling cool breeze, voices drifted from outside the Yan family's gate.
"Let's see which blind fool dares come make trouble for our family this time."
There were too many people outside for Chen Lanfang to dare look too smug, and it was only as they reached home that she put on that satisfied expression. For the sake of Yan Feng'an's future, she and Yan Shichang had always conducted themselves carefully in the village, avoiding conflict with others unless absolutely necessary.
So many things had gone wrong for the family lately, and everyone in the village was just waiting to watch them fail. The Yans had a belly full of anger with nowhere to vent it, and then some blind fool had come barging right into it.
What were the Zhao Dahe family anyway? Hypocritical, fawning creatures daring to trample all over them—did they really think the Yan family was a soft persimmon to be squeezed?
The mere thought of the Zhao family beaten toothless by her family filled Chen Lanfang with delight.
Her gaze swept over her family and finally settled on Wen Xi, and she nodded with satisfaction. "Everyone performed well today. You've all worked hard. Tonight I'll cook something delicious for you myself."
Li Wan chimed in with a smile: "Mother's cooking is the best. We're in for a treat tonight."
He Jin licked her lips and clung to Chen Lanfang's arm, wheedling, "Mother, I want spicy rabbit hotpot."
"Yes, yes, yes, we'll do as you say. But the rabbit was picked up by Tiezhu, so we have to ask my good grandson first."
If it had been alive, Tiezhu would surely have kept the rabbit and cared for it, not letting anyone harm it in the slightest. But it was already dead, and wasting it would be a shame. Reluctantly, Tiezhu handed the rabbit over to Chen Lanfang, instructing her, "Grandma, you have to make it taste really good."
Li Wan tapped his head. "You little glutton. As if you couldn't trust Grandma's cooking! Just wait—you're in for a feast."
Listening to them, even Wen Xi found herself secretly looking forward to dinner that night.