All the commune members were busy working in the distant rice paddies, so there had been no one outside the Lu family’s house at first. As Bai Su chased Old Madam Lu and her eldest daughter-in-law, the two women screamed in terror.
Finally, a young man carrying a shoulder pole loaded with rice seedlings appeared up ahead. Old Madam Lu and her daughter-in-law shouted for help and rushed toward him.
Bai Su waved her sickle, shouting that they were trying to sell Lihua. The handsome young man swung his shoulder pole, sending Old Madam Lu and her eldest daughter-in-law tumbling down the embankment.
The commotion caused by Bai Su chasing the women with a sickle had already attracted the attention of the commune members working in the fields.
As Old Madam Lu and her daughter-in-law lay at the bottom of the embankment, clutching their waists and groaning in pain, the brigade leader, who had been supervising the spring planting, arrived surrounded by commune members.
“This is the busiest time of spring planting! Why aren’t you out working? What’s all this commotion?”
“The Lu family is trying to sell Lihua to Liu Laizi! They’ve driven honest Auntie Bai to madness!”
The young man carrying the rice seedlings offered this explanation to the brigade leader on Bai Su’s behalf.
Then he turned to Bai Su and said, “Auntie Bai, don’t be afraid. Our brigade leader is a good cadre who serves the people. He’ll definitely see that justice is done. Whatever grievances you have, just tell him.”
Bai Su noticed Lihua climbing barefoot onto the paddy ridge from the fields, where she had been earning work points[1]Work points (工分) recorded a person’s contribution to collective labor and helped determine the household’s share of collective income and grain. They were not daily cash wages. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3694780_1_1').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3694780_1_1', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], });. The other commune members had also gathered, drawn by the commotion she had caused.
The timing was just right!
With her eyes red and swollen, Bai Su dropped the sickle in her hand.
“I was half asleep in the house when I heard my mother-in-law and sister-in-law talking. They said Dajun and Educated Youth Zhao are dating, and that he needs to offer a bride price of 188 yuan to make a grand impression!”
“They said the money Lihua’s uncle saved and sent home from the army wasn’t enough, so they were going to sell Lihua to Liu Laizi.”
“They also said the medicine they forced down my throat was leftover cattle medicine from the last time Lihua’s eldest uncle helped feed the brigade’s oxen.”
“They said that if someone who was already sick from the cold drank a whole bowl, they’d drop dead.”
“They said it would be even better if I died, because then they could control Lihua and all her sisters.”
“They said raising worthless girls was a waste of food. After selling Lihua this time, they could sell Lanhua and Hehua next. Every one of the sisters was pretty, so they’d all fetch a good price…”
Having been threatened by Bai Su’s sickle, Old Madam Lu hadn’t dared to utter a word.
But when she realized Bai Su was exaggerating what had been said, she jumped up in fury. “We only sold Lihua! Who said anything about selling Lanhua, Hehua, or the others? You rotten-hearted bitch! You’re deliberately stirring up trouble…”
In her panic, she had blurted out a confession without even realizing it.
The commune members who had gathered to watch the spectacle all turned contemptuous gazes toward Old Madam Lu.
Human trafficking and attempted murder!
She had admitted it herself. The evidence was undeniable!
The brigade leader had never imagined that, under his leadership, Heping Commune could still harbor such feudal-minded, ignorant scum as Old Madam Lu and her daughter-in-law.
He immediately ordered the commune members, “Tie them up! Tonight, they’ll undergo ideological education[2]Ideological education (思想教育) is a form of compulsory re-education used as punishment, with forced study sessions and self-criticism meant to correct the offender’s way of thinking. jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3694780_1_2').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3694780_1_2', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); at the brigade’s threshing ground.”
No matter how hard the eldest son of the Lu family tried to make excuses for his mother and wife, the brigade leader had witnessed the incident himself. The ideological education session at the threshing ground went ahead that evening as planned.
The brigade’s mischievous children, the older women who held grudges against Old Madam Lu and her daughter-in-law, and even Liu Laizi’s mother, who had been implicated in the incident and criticized, showed no mercy. They pelted the two women with twigs and mud.
Bai Su also took advantage of the chaos to pick up a few stones and throw them at the women.
Seeing her grandmother and eldest aunt scream and collapse to the ground, Lihua turned to look at Bai Su in astonishment. For a moment, she even forgot her sadness and simply stared at her mother through tear-filled eyes.
Oh? Had she been caught making a sneaky attack?
Bai Su winked at her and slipped a small stone into her hand. “Here, throw one!”
“Mom?”
Lihua felt uneasy. It was as though her mother had become a completely different person.
When her mother had grabbed a sickle and chased her grandmother and eldest aunt to protect her, Lihua had been so moved that tears filled her eyes.
She had always thought her mother only cared about her eldest male cousin.
She had been wrong!
For her sake, even her gentle, soft-spoken mother was willing to pick up a sickle and fight her grandmother and eldest aunt to the death.
Lihua didn’t dare throw the stone at anyone, so Bai Su leaned close to her ear and whispered, “Silly girl, throw it!”
“Go on, throw one!”
Urged on by Bai Su and encouraged by the look in her eyes, Lihua felt all the grievances she had buried deep in her heart come rushing to the surface.
In the end, she couldn’t hold back. Taking advantage of the chaos, she threw the stone in her hand.
When she saw the stone strike her grandmother, making Old Madam Lu clutch her forehead and scream, Lihua felt an immense sense of satisfaction. A new light appeared in her eyes as she looked at Bai Su.
“Feels good to get even, doesn’t it?”
“Mm-hmm!”
Lihua nodded excitedly, but then asked somewhat fearfully, “Mom, isn’t this unfilial?”
“Your grandfather used to teach your uncle and me that fathers should be loving, sons should be filial, elder brothers should be kind, and younger brothers should be respectful. It means that a father must first show love and an elder brother must first show kindness before a son can be expected to show filial devotion and a younger brother can be expected to show respect.”
“If an elder doesn’t behave like an elder, showing no love and acting viciously instead…”
“Why should you show filial devotion to someone like that?”
Bai Su patted Lihua on the shoulder. “Silly girl, what kind of man do you think Liu Laizi is? His previous wife was beaten to death. If you married him, you’d have to deal with his difficult old mother and raise his children as their stepmother.”
“And because he’d be afraid of you running away, he’d lock you up and force you to bear his children.”
“Your entire life would be ruined!”
“If you still showed filial devotion to someone who wanted to harm you like that, it would be blind filial piety. I’d lose respect for you.”
Bai Su had never spoken to her so openly or at such length before. The light in Lihua’s eyes grew even brighter, as though the stars themselves were reflected in them.
“Mom, from now on, you’re the only one I’ll be filial to.”
“That’s my good girl!”
The novel hadn’t lied. Bai Su’s daughters had inherited their mother’s beautiful features. Despite growing up in the countryside, exposed to the wind and sun, each daughter was more delicate and lovely than the last.
Lihua had an oval face and peach-blossom eyes.
Although years of exploitation under Old Madam Lu had left her malnourished and her complexion sallow, she had naturally good looks and a figure that wasn’t at all scrawny.
With some proper nourishment, she would grow into a stunning, full-figured beauty.
Bai Su’s fierce determination when she had wielded the sickle, along with the words she had just spoken, had deeply moved Lihua. The way the girl looked at her now was filled with the affection and admiration of a daughter for her mother.
Unable to resist, Bai Su reached out and gently pinched her cheek. “You’re so pretty and such a devoted daughter. You deserve someone who’ll protect and cherish you for the rest of your life.”
Her mother had changed!
But Lihua liked this new version of her mother very much.
To protect her and her sisters, her mother was willing to fight her grandmother and eldest aunt with a sickle. She had even taught her that she shouldn’t practice blind filial piety. If elders failed to show kindness, their descendants had no obligation to be filial to them.
Lihua grew a little shy when Bai Su pinched her cheek. “Mom…”
After encouraging Lihua to throw a stone at Old Madam Lu and teaching her that she didn’t need to practice blind filial piety, Bai Su dusted off her hands. “All right, let’s go home. We’ll leave your grandmother and eldest aunt here to receive a proper ideological education from the commune members. They can do their part to bring honor to our Heping Production Brigade as an advanced collective.”
After receiving a thorough ideological education from the brigade’s commune members, Old Madam Lu and her eldest daughter-in-law spent the entire night groaning in pain. Their knees, which had been struck by stones, were swollen like steamed buns, leaving them unable to get out of bed.
Meanwhile, Bai Su had enjoyed a good night’s sleep and woke feeling refreshed, though her stomach was growling with hunger.
The sweet potato porridge Chunya had cooked wasn’t filling at all. Since it was Lihua’s turn to prepare breakfast that morning, Bai Su broke open the grain storeroom and rummaged through it, finding several jin[3]A jin (斤) is a Chinese unit of weight equivalent to 500 grams jQuery('#footnote_plugin_tooltip_3694780_1_3').tooltip({ tip: '#footnote_plugin_tooltip_text_3694780_1_3', tipClass: 'footnote_tooltip', effect: 'fade', predelay: 0, fadeInSpeed: 200, delay: 400, fadeOutSpeed: 200, position: 'top center', relative: true, offset: [-7, 0], }); of white flour that Old Madam Lu had been saving, along with a small basket of eggs.
As a result, breakfast that morning was unusually lavish. There were soft, fluffy steamed buns made from white flour, one boiled egg for each person, and a thick, hearty porridge cooked with white rice.
When breakfast was brought to the table, the eldest son’s face turned purple with suppressed anger.
“Second Sister-in-law, our family’s grain supplies won’t last long if you squander them like this.”
The eldest son stammered, “It’s not even a holiday or special occasion. How could you steam buns with white flour?”
References[+]