With the atmosphere already heated to this point, when the neighbors came over to break up the fight, Ren Chaomei naturally stopped.
Seeing that the person lying on the ground was still alive, the aunties who had come to intervene all breathed a sigh of relief. Then they pulled Ren Chaomei aside and tried to calm her down.
“Don’t be angry, don’t be angry. Girl, calm down, okay?”
“That’s enough, that’s enough. It’s not worth losing your life over a man like this.”
One kind-hearted aunt gently patted Ren Chaomei on the back and tentatively reached for the weapon in her hand.
“You’ve already beaten him up. How about we put the scissors away, okay?”
“Our team leader is a reasonable man. He’ll definitely stand up for you, so don’t be afraid.”
With so many people around, there was no way the fight could continue. From here on, it was time to settle things reasonably.
The moment the aunt touched the scissors, Ren Chaomei handed them over without resistance.
Her cooperative attitude made the Wang family’s faces turn green. Wang Ergou shouted, “What good does taking away her scissors do? Who knows if she’ll hurt someone again? We need to tie this crazy woman up!”
When the Wang family had tried to snatch the scissors and the stick earlier, they had all taken several blows. Wang Ergou had several bloody puncture wounds on his body, and he had been hit by the stick more than once.
A woman who was capable of taking down his entire family like this needed to be tied up before anyone could feel safe.
Ren Chaomei had never seen anyone so unreasonable yet so brazen. She cursed without holding back, “You idiot! You still want to tie me up? Who’s the criminal here, and who’s going to be tied up and sent to prison—it’s still uncertain!”
She had been about to rush over and give Wang Ergou another couple of blows, but there were too many kind-hearted villagers holding both sides back.
A crowd began complaining all at once.
“Wang Ergou! Can’t you say a little less?”
Wang Ergou refused to back down. “She was the one who mistook someone else during the blind date. What does that have to do with me? We’re already married. She still wants to run away!”
“You’re so ugly that I’d have to be blind to mistake you for someone else! Even if you jumped, you wouldn’t reach my knees. I’m not stupid. Why would I willingly marry you without taking a bride price and even pay to marry into your family?”
Hearing this, everyone inwardly marveled at how vicious Ren Chaomei’s tongue was, but they couldn’t help agreeing with her.
There was clearly something wrong with this marriage.
The moment someone mentioned that she had been tricked into marriage, everyone suddenly understood. Not a single person disagreed.
Ren Chaomei genuinely wanted to send Wang Ergou to the police station now. Wang Ergou was exactly the sort of fool who could stand before a judge and say, “Don’t keep yelling at me. If you’ve got the guts, shoot me!” He was so stupid that it practically showed on his face.
She sneered. “Just you wait. Trafficking women and children isn’t some minor offense.”
Ren Chaomei wasn’t sure whether the crime of human trafficking was already included in the Criminal Law at this point, but such an immoral act was wrong no matter where you looked at it. So she was incredibly confident.
When the team leader and Party branch secretary heard that something like this had happened involving members of their production team, they came running over.
As soon as they arrived, before Ren Chaomei even had a chance to make a complaint, the team leader started cursing at the Wang family.
“You people must have had your brains eaten by dogs! You actually dared to trick someone into marriage!”
“You’re ugly and your heart is rotten too. We should hold a mass meeting, drag you onto the stage to reflect on your mistakes, and make you haul manure from now on!”
Wang Ergou tilted his head back proudly. “Why? My family has been poor peasants for three generations!”
“Because you’re rotten! Because there’s something wrong with your political thinking!”
The team leader was so agitated that his spit flew directly onto Wang Ergou’s face.
With something like this happening in his production team, he would definitely be criticized when he went to the commune for meetings. If the commune happened to hold some kind of mass rally, not only Wang Ergou but even he would have to go onstage and make a public self-criticism.
Hearing the team leader say this, Ren Chaomei finally felt completely at ease.
She had almost forgotten what era she was living in.
It was 1977. During this period, even teachers were still branded as “臭老九,” the despised intellectuals. Someone like Wang Ergou was even worse—he was practically a bad element.
It seemed all she had to do was make a big enough scene and refuse to compromise. Someone would naturally deal with him.
Compared with Wang Ergou, his mother was much more shrewd. Seeing that the situation was turning against them, she immediately lowered her attitude and tried to persuade Ren Chaomei.
“Chaomei, don’t make a fuss anymore. How about I kneel down and apologize to you? But you’re already married to Ergou. Even if you go back home, no young man will be willing to marry you. You might as well stay with our Ergou. He’s a good boy. He’ll treat you well in the future.”
The truth was one thing, reality another.
Ren Chaomei had done nothing wrong in being tricked into marriage. The people who had deliberately plotted against her were the ones at fault.
But the reality was that everyone now knew she had been married before. A respectable unmarried young man from a decent family certainly wouldn’t want to marry her. If she remarried, there was a high chance she would have to become someone else’s stepmother.
Being a stepmother was not easy. Because of the children, there would always be some barrier between a remarried couple. Wang Ergou might be a terrible person, but at least this was his first marriage.
At this point, many people would choose to take a step back.
Faced with the choice between suffering something terrible in the future and suffering something terrible now, people often chose to endure the present simply because the unknown future was frightening.
That was exactly how the Wang family’s eldest daughter-in-law had been persuaded.
Several aunties couldn’t help sighing after hearing what Wang Ergou’s mother said. They looked at Ren Chaomei with sympathy.
Even the team leader and Party secretary fell silent.
If Ren Chaomei chose not to pursue the matter, they could muddle through it somehow. If the two sides truly became one family, it would also be difficult for the production team to do much to Wang Ergou.
But Ren Chaomei wasn’t buying any of it.
“Who are you calling ‘Mom’? My mother died a long time ago. We didn’t even get a marriage certificate, so what kind of marriage is this? Even if I never find anyone else to marry, I still wouldn’t marry into a family like yours. You’re a whole family of cold-blooded criminals. You all deserve to be taken out and shot!”
Getting a divorce was difficult and could leave one severely disadvantaged, but only a marriage with an official marriage certificate counted as a legal marriage. They had merely held a wedding ceremony. She could simply turn around and walk away.
She turned to the several production-team cadres and said, “I’m not settling this. I don’t want any compensation either. I want this whole family of liars to be taken out and shot!”
The Wang family had been so unwilling to part with the bride price that they had resorted to tricking someone into marriage. Their family clearly wasn’t well-off to begin with.
Apparently, the law at this time was even stricter than it would be in the future, so Ren Chaomei simply went all out and demanded the lives of the entire Wang family.
“How dare you bully me! Every single one of you can go die!”
With that fierce, murderous expression, she didn’t just intimidate the production-team villagers watching the spectacle. Even the cadres were stunned.
Half the people present were illiterate, while the rest were completely ignorant of the law.
“Do they really deserve to be shot?”
“Is it really that serious?”
“The Wang family really picked the wrong person to mess with this time.”
When they saw Ren Chaomei wielding a knife, everyone already knew she had a fiery temper. But no one expected her to be this explosive. She was practically nuclear.
The team leader wiped his forehead, as though wiping away imaginary cold sweat, and tentatively said, “How about I send someone to bring your family here? The two families can sit down and discuss how to handle this.”
Young people were always too impulsive. Something that would affect them for the rest of their lives was better discussed with both families’ elders.
“No need to discuss anything. I’m the only person listed in my household registration. I can make my own decisions.”
Ren Chaomei urged him, “Team leader, stop trying to persuade me. Let’s just go straight to the police station.”
Wang Ergou’s mother was furious. “You also slashed my nephew’s face!”
“He tricked a woman. He deserved it.” Ren Chaomei remained completely unafraid. “You can report me to the police too. If the police decide I deserve to be shot, I’ll accept it.”