“You filthy old bastard! You still dare threaten Auntie Bai?”
Educated Youth Zhou was furious. “Auntie, don’t be afraid. I saw everything he did and heard every filthy word he said. If this goes to the commune, I’ll testify for you.”
He Yan remarked coldly, “Whether you were merely trying to frighten her or committed the crime of hooliganism, you’ll find out once the commune police arrest you.”
Li Xiangyang was also glaring at the eldest son of the Lu family. He pulled down a length of vine, intending to tie him up.
Realizing that he couldn’t talk his way out of the situation, the eldest son began crying and sniveling, his battered face swollen like a pig’s head.
With a thud, he dropped to his knees and begged for mercy.
“Sister-in-law! Sister-in-law, I was wrong! I really was wrong! Please, for the sake of my being Lihua’s eldest uncle, forgive me this once.”
“I never should have had those filthy thoughts. I’m a complete bastard.”
The eldest son slapped himself twice across the face.
“Please spare me! Tell them not to have me arrested and sent away for reform through labor. I’ll do anything you ask!”
“Anything at all?”
Bai Su seized on his words. “Then I don’t want to live under the same roof as someone like you anymore.”
“Sooner or later, you’ll harm me. You’ll sell Lihua and her sisters to raise money for Lu Dajun’s marriage. I want to separate our households.”
The eldest son’s expression stiffened.
But when he thought about the consequences of being arrested and sent away for reform through labor, he gritted his teeth.
“All right…”
They escorted the eldest son back to the brigade’s medical station, where Bai Su asked Educated Youth Zhou to help write a written confession. Looking utterly miserable, the eldest son pressed his fingerprint onto the document.
Li Xiangyang also ran home to fetch his father.
By the time Bai Su and the eldest son returned to the Lu family’s house, Li Xiangyang arrived with the brigade leader.
Li Zhiqiang had been so busy these past few days that he barely had a moment to rest. Spring planting was finally nearing completion, and he had only just sat down to eat a hot meal when Li Xiangyang dragged him off to the Lu family’s house again.
First, Bai Su had gone to the commune to report her mother-in-law and sister-in-law, getting them arrested. Now she wanted to separate her household from the eldest branch of the family?
He had never encountered anyone who could stir up so much trouble!
The moment Li Zhiqiang saw Bai Su, he felt a faint headache coming on.
He turned to the eldest son of the Lu family.
“Have you thought this through? Do you really want to divide the family?”
“Xiangyang said the two branches will split the grain equally. Comrade Bai Su doesn’t want the Lu family’s house. She’ll take the sewing machine bought with the money and ration coupons sent by Lihua’s maternal uncle, and you’ll give her some additional money. Is that correct?”
A hesitant expression appeared on the eldest son’s face.
Bai Su reached into her pocket and took out the written confession.
He immediately panicked.
“That’s right, Brigade Leader! We’ve already discussed everything and reached an agreement.”
Bai Su slipped the confession back into her pocket, then pointed toward the chicken pecking among the grass in the courtyard.
“That chicken. I want it too!”
“I’ll slaughter it and invite you and Xiangyang to a meal celebrating the division of the family. It’ll be my way of thanking you for helping us separate our households. And when I fell on the mountain today, Xiangyang was the one who helped me.”
Bai Su looked at Li Xiangyang with an expression full of gratitude.
Li Xiangyang was deeply moved, feeling that he had rescued Auntie Bai from a den of wolves.
The brigade leader’s head began throbbing again.
His foolish son had been used as a pawn by that He family brat, yet he was still delighted with himself.
Oh, well!
Who could he blame for having such a foolish son?
Given the He family’s background and that brat’s sharp mind, this little mountain village would never be able to hold him back forever.
Fortunes could change dramatically over time.
He would simply turn a blind eye. Once that brat owed him a favor, he would surely look after his foolish son a little more in the future.
“Ahem. There’s no need for a celebratory meal. Brigade officials must not take so much as a needle or a thread from the people. Keep the chicken for laying eggs.”
The brigade leader made his decision.
“All right. Since you’ve agreed to divide the family, the work points earned by Lihua and her sisters this year will also be transferred to their own household account. That way, their grain allocation can be calculated separately after the autumn harvest.”
The eldest son’s face immediately fell, as though someone had just died!
His mother and wife rarely worked in the fields, and Erjun was still attending school. On his side of the family, only he, Lu Dajun, and Chunya earned work points.
But his younger sister-in-law and her daughters earned four workers’ worth of work points!
If their household registration was separated and those work points were credited to the second branch, the grain allocated to his family after the autumn harvest would certainly not be enough to eat.
Seeing Bai Su reach into her pocket again, the eldest son’s face turned an ugly purplish shade.
“Since their household account is being separated, the work points should naturally go to my sister-in-law and her daughters. I have no objections.”
How could he possibly have no objections?
How could he have no objections?!
Lu Chunya was frantic!
She was convinced her father must have encountered a ghost. He had gone up the mountain intending to teach her aunt a lesson, yet after returning home, he suddenly wanted to divide the family.
He had even agreed to let Bai Su take the sewing machine her grandmother had saved up to buy!
The girls in the brigade had all come to curry favor with Chunya after learning that her family owned a sewing machine. Even Sun Mingyuan from the educated youths’ residence liked to exchange a few extra words with her.
And now the sewing machine was gone!
Gone!
He Yan, Li Xiangyang, and Educated Youth Zhou came to help with the move and carried the sewing machine away.
Bai Su then rushed toward the remaining chicken in the courtyard and picked it up too.
The big machine and the little chicken were both gone.
“Dad, I hate you!”
Lu Chunya could no longer bear it and burst into loud sobs.
As Bai Su and her daughters finished moving their belongings and headed toward the door, Chunya’s heartbroken wails echoed from inside the house.
Bai Su had been about to stride straight out, but she stopped when she heard the crying and reached into her pocket.
“Eldest Brother, you’d better keep Lu Chunya under control. Don’t let her come looking for trouble with me or Lihua and her sisters.”
“If someone tries to make my life miserable, I won’t let them live comfortably either.”
Bai Su pulled out the written confession and waved it.
“If anyone from your family comes to cause trouble for us, I’ll hand this confession over to the commune and have you sent away for reform through labor. Xiangyang, Xiao He, and Educated Youth Zhou are all witnesses.”
Bai Su’s maiden family’s house had remained empty ever since her father died.
Lihua’s maternal uncle had been serving in the military for many years, but he still found time to return for family visits. Bai Su and Lihua had therefore continued cleaning the house regularly, so it wasn’t particularly dirty inside.
That morning, before going to work, Bai Su had already wiped down the rooms. There wasn’t much cleaning left to do. They only needed to sort and put away the clothes, quilts, everyday necessities, and grain they had brought from the Lu family’s house.
Spring planting in the brigade was nearly finished. Since they were moving, the brigade leader had agreed that Bai Su and her daughters could take the afternoon off from farmwork.
Bai Su kept Lihua and her sisters bustling around, assigning one to fetch water and another to wipe down the kitchen stove.
He Yan, Li Xiangyang, and the others who had come to help found that there was nothing much left for them to do indoors.
So they split the bamboo they had cut in the mountain hollow and began building a fence around the open ground outside the house.
Hadn’t they cut that bamboo to build a fence for the brigade leader’s family?
Why were they fencing her property first?
Bai Su was delighted.
“Are you helping me fence off a vegetable garden? Here, have some sweet potato to tide you over. I’ll make something delicious for you tonight.”
“Old Mr. Bai used to grow vegetables on this patch of land. I even helped him turn the soil before. Once the fence is up, we can hoe the ground and transplant some vegetable seedlings. There’s still time.”
He Yan finished eating a piece of sweet potato.
“We’ll also build you a chicken coop over here, Auntie.”
“There’s no need to build a chicken coop. I was fortunate to have all of you helping me on the mountain today. I’ll slaughter the chicken later and make chicken soup for you tonight. Consider it a meal to celebrate our new household.”
Young men were full of energy and had hearty appetites. Naturally, they craved meat.
When Li Xiangyang heard that Bai Su intended to slaughter the chicken, he couldn’t help swallowing.
But his father had told him that brigade officials mustn’t take so much as a needle or thread from the people.
He felt too embarrassed to stay for chicken.
After hastily swallowing the rest of his sweet potato, he said, “Auntie, the fence is almost finished. I should head back to the fields and get some work done.”
Educated Youth Zhou was tempted by the thought of chicken too, but he felt that Bai Su and her daughters had only just established their own household. Surely they ought to keep the chicken for its eggs.
Besides, he had finally begun to understand what had happened!
That scheming He Yan, with all his twists and turns, hadn’t had the filthy pervert escorted to the commune. Instead, he had persuaded them to help Auntie Bai divide the family and move her belongings.
Why did Zhou Changqing suddenly feel as though he’d been drawn into that brat’s scheme?
He needed to go back and think this over carefully.
Just then, someone arrived at the brigade’s medical station to collect medicine, so Educated Youth Zhou found an excuse to leave.
Once the more thin-skinned men had departed, only the shamelessly thick-skinned He Yan remained.
“In that case, I’ll have to stay and taste Auntie’s cooking!”