Men didn’t usually interfere in squabbles between women and children.
But when they saw Su Qing beating their own children and wives, they couldn’t just stand by.
Several men stepped forward, putting themselves between Su Qing and their wives as they reached out to shove her.
Coldness seeped into Su Qing’s beautiful, peach-blossom eyes. She simply tossed the branch aside.
The women hiding behind their men saw this and looked at Su Qing with mocking smiles.
She’d been so tough when she was hitting them. But the moment she saw their men, she was so scared she threw the branch away.
At least she knew her place. She understood that, in a man’s eyes, that little twig was nothing.
Several women stood off to the side, cheering on their men.
“Beat her! That shameless slut Su Qing’s husband doesn’t even want her. She drags her kids around and flirts with wild men everywhere. She has no shame!”
Su Qing never went to work. Every year, she made up the team’s grain and ration coupons, yet she dressed herself up like a flower and often took her two children out to eat. She must have hooked herself a rich man.
Otherwise, how could a woman with no job, whose husband had abandoned her, live better than they did, even though they had husbands?
Most people in the village thought the same way.
Some men, when they saw how beautiful Su Qing was, would sneak over and climb the wall around her courtyard in the middle of the night. They always ended up being beaten half to death and thrown back out.
It was too humiliating to let anyone find out.
Gradually, the men who had their eyes on Su Qing could only fantasize about her. They no longer dared make a move.
These men couldn’t bear to see their wives and children beaten, of course, and wanted to step forward and teach Su Qing a lesson.
They’d show her what she was up against.
But—
They were the ones who ended up beaten black and blue by Su Qing, with broken arms and legs.
The villagers fell silent.
Su Qing dusted off her hands and swept a cold gaze over everyone. “Who else wants their limbs broken?”
Before she had transmigrated, she’d specifically studied taekwondo.
Zhou Yunzhou and Zhou Wantang gazed at their mother with shining eyes. Their mother was so amazing! They loved this version of her. Now no one would bully them again!
“What’s everyone doing gathered here?” The village chief came over with his hands behind his back, his deeply wrinkled face stern.
The crowd parted to let him through.
He walked up, looked at the men being supported by their wives, and twitched the corner of his mouth.
Su Qing briefly explained what had happened, then looked at the village chief.
“Village chief, I don’t care what these people say about me behind my back. But I won’t let them bully my children.”
“If you think I was in the wrong, then call the police. I’ll find a lawyer, too. I’ll make sure every one of these little devils who bullied my children gets sent away for reform through labor.”
Su Qing spoke with absolute certainty.
She was a modern woman with a higher education. She knew how to use the law to protect herself.
The threshing ground, which had been buzzing with chatter, fell silent in an instant.
Everyone stared at Su Qing in shock.
They’d heard of people getting into fights, and they’d heard of calling the police, but they’d never heard of anyone hiring a lawyer.
“Lawyer” was a strange word in the villages for miles around.
Most people had never heard of it!
Or they had heard it, but it seemed far removed from their lives, something that had nothing to do with them.
At the thought of their children being sent away for reform through labor, someone immediately said, “Su Qing, we’re sorry. We didn’t raise our child properly. We wronged you.” Then they scooped up their child and hurried off.
Some of the bolder ones stayed, glaring at Su Qing.
Was she crazy?
A woman with no in-laws or parents to back her, raising a son and daughter alone in the village, actually dared to sue the villagers?
The village chief cleared his throat. He certainly couldn’t let something like this happen in the village under his charge.
He stepped forward and looked at Su Qing kindly.
“Su Qing, we’re all neighbors here. Let’s not call the police. In the end, it was just children squabbling. I’ll have them pay Yunzhou’s medical expenses. How does that sound?”
The parents who hadn’t left all watched Su Qing.
They were genuinely afraid she’d go through with calling the police.
Their children were their lives, their hope for the future. Naturally, they didn’t want their little ones sent away for reform through labor and marked in their records, ruining their lives.
“Fine. Every family whose child hit my Yunzhou can pay him a hundred yuan. Then I’ll let this go. Otherwise, I’m going to the police right now.”
Su Qing’s beautiful, stern face set in an expression that brooked no argument.
“Why should we?” One child’s mother couldn’t help jumping forward, glaring at Su Qing. “That little scratch is worth a hundred yuan?” And she wanted that from every family! Why didn’t she just go rob the credit union?
The village chief looked at Su Qing disapprovingly.
This was clearly an outrageous demand—a shakedown.
Su Qing was indeed shaking them down.
From the way Zhou Yunzhou had spoken, they’d been bullying him and Tangtang for a long time.
But the children were sensible and had never told her.
When she saw the bruises on them, they’d only said they’d fallen while playing a game.
She’d never once suspected the truth.
She glanced at the woman who had spoken and said calmly, “Why isn’t it worth it? There are medical expenses, nutrition expenses, and emotional distress. If you think it’s not worth that much, we can ask the police to settle it!”
The woman immediately wilted.
“What do you think, Village Chief?” Su Qing turned to him.
The village chief regarded her with a complicated look.
Six years ago, Zhou Huaijin had been drugged and ended up in a cornfield with her while visiting his army friend.
Afterward, although the Zhou family acknowledged her as their daughter-in-law, they’d never lifted a finger to help her, leaving her to fend for herself here.
They hadn’t even cared when she had children.
Yet this woman, who seemed so meek and resigned, was now so forceful.
From the look on Su Qing’s face, if he didn’t agree to her demand, she really would call the police.
No matter how the Zhou family treated her, Su Qing was still a military family member. What’s more, the Zhou family held considerable power in Beicheng. If she called the police, those children who had bullied Zhou Yunzhou really might be sent away for reform through labor.
Most important of all, it would damage his reputation as village chief.
He absolutely couldn’t let that happen.
The village chief nodded firmly, then looked around at the parents of the children who had bullied Zhou Yunzhou, his eyes warning them. “Su Qing is right. You owe her this money.”
“Village chief, a hundred yuan isn’t ten or twenty! She’s asking for enough to take our lives!”
The village chief scolded them irritably. “If you’d known this would happen, why didn’t you think of that before?”
“If you’d kept your children in line and stopped them from bullying Zhou Yunzhou and Zhou Wantang, would things have come to this?”
“Or do you really want your children sent away for reform through labor?”
…
That evening, Su Qing received seven hundred yuan.
She told Zhou Yunzhou and Zhou Wantang to stay home, then went to see the village chief.
“Uncle, could you please issue introduction letters for me and the two children? I’m going to Beicheng!”
Originally, Su Qing hadn’t wanted a divorce. She didn’t have to serve a man or deal with in-laws, she had children and a career of her own, and being married kept unwanted suitors away. She’d practically won at life.
But what had happened that day made her feel she needed to divorce Zhou Huaijin as soon as possible.
She couldn’t let anyone keep calling her children bastards.
“Have you made up your mind?”
The village chief looked at Su Qing with approval. Six years ago, everyone had thought Zhou Huaijin had been badly wronged. Anyone with eyes could see that the Su family had set him up.