Zhao Ran didn’t push things to the extreme. She hadn’t divorced Yang Jianjun, so she couldn’t go too far. Though this old woman wasn’t much of a person, she was still a human being and had to live.
Frightened by the axe in Zhao Ran’s hand, Old Mrs. Yang sat motionless on the kang. Only after Zhao Ran shouldered the sack of flour and left did Old Mrs. Yang nimbly climb down from the bed. When she saw that the flour jar was nearly empty, her head spun.
Next, she went to check her savings stash and found more than half of the money gone. Most importantly, her bracelet was missing.
Old Mrs. Yang rummaged through the box twice before finally confirming that the bracelet was indeed gone.
Without another thought, she turned and hurried outside. But as soon as she stepped out, she saw Zhao Ran carrying the sack of flour on one shoulder and holding the axe in her other hand. The urge to chase after her instantly cooled by half.
She plopped down in the yard and began wailing loudly: “Someone, come quick! My daughter-in-law is beating her mother-in-law! There’s no justice! She’s trying to kill me! I can’t go on living!”
The sudden crying from behind startled Zhao Ran, but she only paused for a moment before continuing straight home.
Hearing the commotion, neighbors rushed over. Seeing Old Mrs. Yang sitting barefoot on the ground, sobbing hysterically, and noticing the large hole smashed in her bedroom window, everyone exclaimed in shock:
“What happened here?”
“Was there a break-in?”
Seeing people arrive, Old Mrs. Yang seemed to have found her saviors and cried even louder: “That cursed daughter-in-law of mine went mad at noon, took an axe, and smashed a huge hole in the window!
Go inside and see what she’s done to the house! She’s taken all the money. She doesn’t want this old woman to live anymore!”
Hearing this, everyone instinctively stepped inside. Sure enough, the house was in complete disarray, clearly having been ransacked.
“Good heavens, how could she be so cruel? Look at the mess she’s made!”
“I used to think she was quite decent. Now she’s finally shown her true colors.”
“She’s utterly unfilial. Where’s Jianjun? Someone get Jianjun back quickly! If he doesn’t come soon, his mother will be tormented to death.”
“She’s still Yang Jianjun’s mother. How could she do this?”
Everyone chattered away, though some who knew what Old Mrs. Yang was really like stayed silent, quietly enjoying the drama.
Just then, Zhao Ran, having put away her things, suddenly opened her door and stepped out. This time, she wasn’t holding the axe but a kitchen knife. She walked directly toward Old Mrs. Yang’s spot, knife in hand.
The chatter instantly died down, frightened into silence. Even Old Mrs. Yang’s sobs grew quieter.
As Zhao Ran drew closer, a few of the braver ones couldn’t help but shout: “What are you doing? Do you really intend to kill someone?”
Zhao Ran ignored them, heading straight for the chicken coop Old Mrs. Yang kept. She reached in, grabbed a hen, and in front of everyone, slit its throat with the knife.
Old Mrs. Yang instantly wailed as if her son had died all over again: “Ah, my chickens!!! You jinx who can’t bear sons, I’ll fight you to the death!”
By 1983, after policies had loosened up, nearly every household raised pigs and chickens—after all, the Pigu Yinhang was no joke. One could say these chickens were Old Mrs. Yang’s golden nuggets for earning money in her daily life.
Now that one of her golden nuggets had its neck slit by Zhao Ran’s knife, Old Mrs. Yang couldn’t care about anything else and rushed straight over to claw at Zhao Ran.
But she never expected that before she could even reach Zhao Ran, she was kicked flying by Zhao Ran.
“Your chickens? I’m the one farming all the land at home. You stole more than half of the wheat from my storage jar to feed your chickens and sell for money. Did you really think I was too stupid to notice?”
Old Mrs. Yang, kicked to the ground by Zhao Ran, didn’t get up but retorted, “That land is partly mine too! Why can’t I take from it?”
“Don’t you eat or drink? All these years, even before the land was divided after I married into this family, wasn’t the food you ate earned through my Gongfen? Your land, your land is so amazing—does it just magically turn into grain sitting there?
Listen here, old woman, my temper isn’t good right now. If you behave yourself, you won’t starve. But if you keep stirring up trouble and have sticky fingers, I won’t let you off as easily as I did today.
After all, I’ve already died once—I’m not afraid of anything.”
After saying this, Zhao Ran turned to the others: “And what about all of you? Do you enjoy watching other people’s misfortunes so much? Keep watching, and I’ll pack her up and send her straight to your homes so you can have a good laugh every day!”
Hearing Zhao Ran’s words, everyone grew displeased.
“Hey, what’s with your attitude? We’re neighbors—shouldn’t we help each other out? Didn’t you hear how loud she was crying? Is it wrong for us to come check on her?”
Zhao Ran sneered, “Check on her? You all heard her—she’s out of money now. How about showing your concern by giving her a few bucks to spend? Talk is cheap. She’s been sitting on the ground for so long—has any one of you come to help her up? All you do is gossip about this family and that, delighting in others’ misfortunes.
Helping each other? Over the years, hasn’t Yang Jianjun helped you all plenty? And what have any of you done for our family? You always call on Yang Jianjun for every chore, but in the end? My children were home alone for five days—did any of you give them so much as a bite of bread or a sip of water?
A bunch of cold-hearted, heartless creatures—if you could just mind your own business instead of always gawking at others’ misfortunes, I might still consider you human!”
“You! Taking our goodwill for ill intent! Just you wait—see if any neighbors will help your family in the future!”
Zhao Ran said with disgust, “Get out, get out! If something really happens, you’ll be the first to hide. No need to take it as ill intent—you are ill intent!”
Fuming, everyone left with faces pale with anger. Only then did Zhao Ran return to the chicken coop and collect all the eggs inside.
Old Mrs. Yang had raised six chickens in total. Zhao Ran had killed one, leaving five remaining. Old Mrs. Yang had a habit of collecting eggs only in the afternoon, but she never expected Zhao Ran to take them ahead of time.
Now, her head spun even more.
Without so much as a glance at Old Mrs. Yang sitting on the ground, Zhao Ran placed the chicken in the kitchen, returned home, took out the bowls Grandma Sun had just used to serve the children their meal, placed the five eggs she had just collected inside, and headed out.
Knocking on Grandma Sun’s door once more, Zhao Ran handed over the bowl:
“Grandma, thank you for looking after my child these past few days. I don’t have much to offer from my home, but I hope you won’t mind.”