Fortunately, Jiang Qingli worked efficiently. Four or five hours later, the entire room had finally been transformed.
Rubbing her sore arms, she gazed at the freshly cleaned space and let out a long breath of relief.
It had to be around one o’clock in the morning by now. At last, she could get a proper night’s sleep.
Her eyes drifted to the bare wooden bed. Only a thin layer of cotton padding remained on it now. Thankfully, the weather was not too cold. She planned to sleep in her clothes for the night and air out all the bedding and quilts tomorrow.
She did not know how much time had passed when, in her half-asleep state, she vaguely heard noisy shouting coming from outside.
“Someone come quickly! Something’s happened!”
“This is bad! Shen Family’s little sister broke her leg!”
Immediately afterward, the creak of doors opening, hurried footsteps, and countless overlapping voices shattered the silence of the night.
Jiang Qingli shot upright.
Before she could fully process what was happening, the commotion outside grew even louder.
“Oh no! Someone’s dead! Shen Family’s little sister has died young!”
The shrill scream of Xu Mazi’s wife pierced the night sky.
Shen Family’s little sister?
Could they be talking about Shen Xiaohua?
The thought made Jiang Qingli’s heart tighten.
Without even bothering to put on her shoes, she ran outside barefoot.
An old ox cart stood at the compound entrance. Curled up on the wooden bed of the cart was a tiny figure.
Under the moonlight, the little girl’s face was as pale as paper. The leg of her trousers on the right side had been soaked through with dark red blood, giving off a horrifying sheen.
Standing nearby was Wang Dagou, the local tofu maker.
The man, who was a little over forty years old, wore a coarse cloth outfit that had been washed so many times it had nearly turned white. His rough hands rubbed together nervously as he stammered his explanation.
“I… I had nothing to do with it. I just happened to see her fall in a mountain ditch and brought her back out of kindness…”
He secretly glanced at everyone’s expressions, terrified that they would mistake him for the person responsible and have him arrested.
Zhang Dazui, who lived near the well, pushed his way forward. One glance was enough for him to understand what had happened.
Everyone knew that this little girl from the Shen Family walked for hours every day from Dahai Village just to cook meals for her newly arrived sister-in-law. Then, after spending the afternoon there, she had to walk several more hours back home.
How could a young girl walk dark mountain roads every night without eventually getting into an accident?
The more he thought about it, the more agitated he became. He slapped his thigh and exclaimed,
“What are we supposed to do now? Shen Li went to the provincial capital with the people from the Ordnance Department to procure supplies. He’s not home at all!”
“Then where’s Shen Family’s daughter-in-law? Isn’t she inside?” Wang Dagou asked anxiously.
Granny Liu curled her lips in disdain, her wrinkled face full of contempt.
“That lazy wife of his? You think she’d care? It’s already a blessing if she doesn’t bury Xiaohua alive herself!”
As she spoke, she took a step backward, afraid that even standing too close would bring bad luck.
Xu Mazi’s wife nodded vigorously.
“Exactly! Doesn’t that lazy wife beat or scold her little sister-in-law every chance she gets? Maybe today’s accident is exactly what she wanted.”
“That’s right! If she hadn’t forced the girl to leave every day, would she have ended up like this?” Zhang Xiuniang, who was still in her postpartum confinement period, squeezed forward to add her opinion. After all, the hen she had saved for her recovery had been stolen by that vicious woman only a few days ago.
“What a black-hearted sister-in-law…”
The crowd instantly erupted into angry chatter.
Gathering her courage, Xu Mazi’s wife stepped closer to take a look, only to recoil in terror at the sight of the blood covering the little girl.
“Maybe… maybe we should take her to the town hospital?”
Zhang Dazui shook his head.
“It’s the middle of the night. Who would even be on duty there?”
“Are we just supposed to wait here and watch her die?” Wang Dagou stamped his feet anxiously as beads of sweat rolled down his dark face.
The honest tofu maker regretted everything.
His donkey at the mill had thrown a tantrum earlier that day and delayed his trip home. He had never expected to stumble into something like this.
From within the crowd, Section Chief Liu’s wife squeezed her way forward, her eight month pregnant belly protruding prominently.
“I know Doctor Miao from the clinic nearby. Why don’t we take her there?”
“Right, right! Take her there!”
The crowd immediately echoed the suggestion in relief.
Just as everyone was discussing the matter at once, a single sentence from Zhang Dazui silenced them all.
“With how stingy Shen Li’s wife is, who’s paying the medical fees?”
The compound instantly fell silent.
He was right.
The Shen Family was dirt poor, and Shen Li’s wife was notoriously unreasonable. If someone advanced the money and never got repaid, what would happen to their own family’s food supply next month?
No one was more distressed by those words than Wang Dagou.
He had only helped because he could not bear to leave a little girl lying injured in a ditch.
Surely someone would not simply abandon her now… right?
At this point, he regretted his decision so deeply that his intestines felt green with remorse.
If he had known this would happen, he would have taken a different route home.
Now that he was involved in this mess, how was it supposed to end?
Just then, Shen Xiaohua suddenly began coughing violently atop the ox cart.
A mouthful of fresh blood burst from her lips.
Wang Dagou jumped backward in fright.
“Hey! If you’re going to die, don’t die on my cart! I was only trying to help. Since you’re from the military family compound, I thought I’d bring you back here…”
The crowd grew restless.
Some stepped backward.
Others shook their heads and sighed, but no one dared approach.
Suddenly, the door of the innermost red brick house creaked open.
Minister Zhang emerged wearing a military overcoat, his expression frighteningly dark.
“What’s all this shouting in the middle of the night?”
His gaze swept over Shen Xiaohua on the ox cart before settling on the tightly closed door of the Shen Family’s home.
“Go knock on that door. Wake up Shen Family’s lazy wife. She’s the Shen Family’s daughter-in-law. If she doesn’t take responsibility, who will?”
The crowd grumbled as they moved forward.
Then they were stunned by what they saw.
From the corner came a tremendous rumbling commotion. A large dark round figure suddenly charged toward the crowd.
Wang Dazui was the first to recognize the situation.
The moment he identified Jiang Qingli, he immediately shouted,
“This is bad! The Shen Family’s wife is trying to run away! Grab her!”
No sooner had the words left his mouth than seven or eight hands shot toward Jiang Qingli simultaneously.
Despite her large frame, Jiang Qingli moved with surprising agility.
With a quick sidestep, she slipped past the first wave of interception.
“Ouch!”
Zhang Dazui lunged forward and completely missed, crashing directly into Granny Liu.
The two tumbled into a heap.
“Don’t let her get away!”
Xu Mazi’s wife charged after her.
Instead, she was knocked aside by Jiang Qingli’s “human cannonball” momentum. Staggering several steps backward, she landed squarely in a nearby chicken coop, sending hens flapping and clucking in every direction.
Wang Dagou was the bravest of them all.
Spreading his arms wide, he threw himself forward in an attempt to perform a bear hug tackle.
Unexpectedly, Jiang Qingli slammed on the brakes.
Unable to stop himself, Wang Dagou ended up hanging onto her body while being dragged forward for another two meters.
The sight resembled a sloth clinging desperately to a charging rhinoceros.
“Let go! Let go!”
Jiang Qingli shouted while trying to shake him off.
“What are all of you doing? Let me see Xiaohua!”
The crowd froze.
Only then did they notice that Jiang Qingli was barefoot, wearing nothing but a thin nightshirt. Her hair was so messy it resembled a bird’s nest.
No matter how they looked at her, she did not seem like someone trying to flee.
Minister Zhang was the first to recover.
He barked, “Shen Family’s wife, good, you’re here. Hurry and see how your little sister-in-law is doing. Let me tell you, this is Shen Li’s younger sister. If you dare abandon her now, we’ll…”
Although Jiang Qingli disliked the way everyone was treating her, the original owner had indeed been at fault.
She could only swallow her grievances.
Right now, the most important thing was checking on Shen Xiaohua’s condition.
Without wasting another second, she pushed through the crowd and hurried forward.