After staying at the educated youth compound for a few days, life became simple and peaceful without the Cheng family’s constant mistreatment.
With enough nutrition now, Nono’s complexion had improved considerably.
As for her frail body, that wasn’t something that could be fixed in a day or two. It would take time and careful nourishment.
After the autumn harvest, the brigade had taken two days of rest before becoming busy again.
The fields needed to be plowed, deeply loosened, leveled, and fertilized in preparation for the next planting season.
Even the rice straw left behind after threshing had to be dried and sorted.
The better straw was kept for roofing or weaving straw mats, while the poorer-quality straw was burned into ash and buried in the fields as fertilizer.
Li Wanqing brought Nono along with her to work.
Nono was a well-behaved child. She neither cried nor made a fuss, and she never ran around.
Whenever Li Wanqing went into the fields, she would leave her daughter in an empty patch of ground beside the field ridge, laying down some rice straw first so Nono wouldn’t get her clothes dirty.
Since she had already decided to go to the army to find Nono’s father, Li Wanqing had no intention of working herself to the bone for work points like the original owner had.
Six work points a day was enough. As long as she kept an average pace and didn’t give the gossiping women anything to talk about, that was fine.
The last time she had gone to the county town to buy things, some people in the brigade had already started gossiping about her.
There had even been a few people shameless enough to make sarcastic remarks right to her face, only to be promptly shut down by her.
Flies might not bite, but they were still disgusting.
She only wanted to live comfortably for the remaining time she had before leaving.
Meanwhile, the Cheng family had been in complete chaos over the past few days.
Zhao Chunhua had taken her son back to her parents’ home.
In order to bring her grandson back, Liu Yufen had been forced to hand over even more money, leaving her resentment ready to explode at any moment.
Li Wanqing hadn’t deliberately tried to find out what was going on.
Unfortunately, the women working alongside her were far too enthusiastic.
“Good people always get bullied. Li Zhiqing, you used to be too easygoing, which was why the Cheng family took advantage of you.”
“Exactly! Luckily, you came to your senses before it was too late. Sometimes, when you need to stand your ground, you just have to be tough.”
…
Li Wanqing merely gave a faint smile and said nothing.
The original owner hadn’t simply been kind.
“Li Zhiqing, did your third brother Cheng really not send you a single letter?”
The person asking was Wang Yanni, the wife of Brigade Captain Zhang Jianguo. Everyone called her Sister-in-law Wang.
Li Wanqing shook her head.
“He’s probably been busy with his missions and didn’t have the time.”
Wang Yanni looked at her sympathetically.
He could send his allowance on time every month. How much effort would it really take to write one more letter?
At the end of the day, it simply meant he didn’t care.
“So what are you planning to do next?” Wang Yanni asked again.
She didn’t even dare tell Li Wanqing that the Cheng family had been thinking nonstop about how to get Cheng Baichuan and Li Wanqing divorced.
The elderly Cheng couple had gone to the post office to make a phone call, but they couldn’t reach their third son.
When they returned, they had pestered her husband, wanting the brigade and the commune to step in and directly declare the two divorced.
Her husband had been so furious that his chest hurt!
In the end, he had sternly warned Liu Yufen that sabotaging a military marriage was a serious crime and could even result in death.
Only then had the Cheng family finally quieted down.
“Nothing for now.”
Li Wanqing shook her head.
“I just want to get Nono’s health back on track first. I’ll think about everything else later.”
She had originally wanted to mention her plan to go to the army and find Nono’s father, but there were too many people around and too many ears listening.
So she held back.
She would talk about it after these two busy days were over.
While the adults worked in the fields, the younger children played together nearby.
Children who grew up in the countryside could turn the mountains and rivers into playgrounds. They didn’t need adults to worry about them at all.
As the temperature gradually rose, Li Wanqing began to worry about Nono.
When she turned around to check on her, she saw three children surrounding her daughter.
One of them was Cheng Kai, the eldest grandson of the Cheng family.
Li Wanqing’s heart tightened.
This little tyrant had bullied the original owner and her daughter more than once.
“Cheng Kai!”
Li Wanqing shouted as she ran toward her daughter.
When Cheng Kai turned around and saw Li Wanqing, he deliberately pushed Cheng Nuo to the ground with a provocative look on his face.
Then he gave her a hard kick before running away.
The other children scattered in all directions!
Li Wanqing’s blood boiled.
She wanted nothing more than to kill that little brat!
She hurriedly checked her daughter.
Other than her dirty, disheveled clothes, the most obvious injury was a large patch of redness and swelling on her thigh.
It was clearly caused by Cheng Kai’s final kick.
Tears of pain and heartache filled Li Wanqing’s eyes.
But Cheng Nuo remained remarkably calm.
Even though her thigh was already swollen, she didn’t cry out in pain.
Instead, she reached up and wiped away her mother’s tears.
【Mommy, Nono doesn’t hurt. Big Brother isn’t very strong. Compared with those bad people, his kick doesn’t hurt at all.】
Li Wanqing’s heart ached even more.
How much pain had a little child endured to become so accustomed to tolerating it?
Li Wanqing wiped the dirt from her daughter’s face and said seriously,
“Nono, if you’re hurt, cry. You don’t have to hold it in.”
Cheng Nuo raised her innocent little face and looked at her.
Li Wanqing continued,
“If someone bullies you again, fight back as hard as you can. If you can’t beat them, call for help or find a chance to run away.”
The little girl’s heart was deeply shaken.
In the past, Mommy had always told her to endure.
When those bad people hit her, Mommy wouldn’t even let her cry. If she cried, they would hit her even harder.
But now Mommy was telling her that she didn’t have to endure.
She could cry.
She could make a fuss.
And if someone wronged her, she could fight back…
The little girl didn’t understand why Mommy had changed.
But she felt that what Mommy was saying now was right.
Her little eyes instantly turned red.
She began whimpering and complaining about how much she hurt.
The others had also seen what happened just now, but because the child hadn’t cried, they had assumed it wasn’t serious.
Now that Cheng Nuo started crying, everyone gathered around.
Only after seeing the swelling on Cheng Nuo’s leg did they realize how serious the injury was.
But Li Wanqing had no time to deal with them.
She picked up her daughter and ran toward the clinic.
Meng Renjie examined Cheng Nuo’s thigh.
“Fortunately, the kick wasn’t very strong. The bone is fine. Apply this ointment twice a day, and the swelling should be gone by tomorrow.”
“However, she’s still very young, so it’s best not to use medicinal alcohol to massage it. The bruising may last for a while.”
“A bruise is fine. As long as it doesn’t hurt and won’t affect her ability to walk later, that’s all that matters.”
Li Wanqing finally breathed a sigh of relief.
She had used medicinal alcohol to massage an ankle sprain before.
That feeling…
It hurt like hell!
Even an adult like her had cried out in agony, let alone a little child like Nono!
Even if her daughter could tolerate pain, Li Wanqing couldn’t bear to let her suffer like that.
After paying for the medicine, Li Wanqing was preparing to leave her daughter with He Mei so she could go to the Cheng family and teach that little brat a lesson.
But shortly after she left the clinic, Wang Yanni came looking for her.
“Li Zhiqing, something happened. Go to the Cheng family first.”
Wang Yanni looked extremely serious.
No matter how much Li Wanqing asked, she refused to reveal what had happened.
When they arrived at the Cheng family home, they could hear Liu Yufen’s mournful wailing before they had even entered the courtyard.
“Oh, Heaven, how can you be so blind?! How could a perfectly healthy person suddenly be on the verge of death?!”
“I don’t care! My perfectly healthy son is suddenly gone just like that! Someone has to give me an explanation!”
Li Wanqing looked at Wang Yanni in confusion.
Cheng Zhenxing was gone?
That would actually be wonderful news!
Wang Yanni’s eyes darted away awkwardly as she led Li Wanqing into the Cheng family courtyard.
“Auntie Liu, Li Zhiqing is here. You need to discuss this properly and decide who you’re sending over.”
Li Wanqing: “…”
The person who had been injured…
Could it be her cheap husband?