Wang Liang was terrified he had no intention of taking responsibility. If he didn’t need someone here to wash his clothes and cook his meals, would he ever have looked twice at Su Xiuxiu?
“So… is she all right?” he asked.
“I don’t know. She wasn’t home this morning. Why don’t you go ask her yourself?”
Wang Liang slowed his steps. A flicker of scorn flashed across Su Ying’s eyes. Sleep with someone and refuse to own up to it what kind of trash would go and ruin some other good girl’s life next?
But knowing Tian Cuifen, if Wang Liang tried to back out, she’d tear him apart. And then… there would be quite a show to watch.
When Su Ying got back, Su Xiuxiu was already home. Sobs drifted from her room.
Tian Cuifen hissed: “Stop crying! You did something shameless now you dare cry? No you must marry quickly. Are you going to just stand there and watch your belly grow bigger every day? Do you want people spitting at me the moment I step outside?”
Su Xiuxiu sniffled: “Ma, then I’ll go find Wang Liang right now. He loves me he’ll take responsibility.”
Tian Cuifen jabbed a finger at her forehead, teeth gritted: “You fool! I told you marry the boy the matchmaker spoke of. She says she’s bringing him round to meet you these few days. Bind your belly tight with white cloth, and eat less at night.”
“Ma, I only want to marry Wang Liang. This baby is his I can’t marry someone else carrying his child! Besides… I don’t even know what he looks like or his name. How can I marry him?”
Tian Cuifen thought her daughter was thick as a block she’d said everything there was to say, yet the girl just wouldn’t see sense. What was so great about Wang Liang anyway? She pinched Su Xiuxiu’s ear in frustration. She was her own flesh and blood if not, she’d have slapped her already.
“Listen to me this marriage is settled. We’re not letting that little brat Su Ying get away with it. You will do as I say.”
Su Xiuxiu wept, one hand protectively cupping her stomach. Su Ying coughed pointedly. Tian Cuifen shot her a warning glare and lowered her voice: “She’ll be taken away tonight anyway just behave.”
Tian Cuifen stepped out of Su Xiuxiu’s room; though she tried to look pleasant, her face was sharp and mean. She turned to Su Ying with a simpering smile. Su Ying glanced back coolly. Like mother, like daughter.
Barely had Su Ying caught her breath when Su Fugui burst in and kicked her hard on the backside. She stumbled forward, nearly falling flat on her face.
“Useless girl get out and gather pigweed! What are you standing there for?”
“Why don’t you go? I raised those pigs will I get a share when they’re sold?”
Su Fugui had heard talk in the fields about Su Xiuxiu and Wang Liang and was simmering with rage. Even if she wasn’t his blood, he’d raised her if this was true, it brought shame on the Su family. He swallowed his resentment for Tian Cuifen’s sake, but the anger had to go somewhere and Su Ying was the easiest target.
Furious, Su Fugui snatched up a stick and advanced on her. “You ungrateful thing! I feed and clothe you and this is how you repay me? You want to fly before your wings have grown? Say that again go on!”
“Say it again I will! I work from dawn till dusk and never get a full meal you only hit me! Ma must have been blind to marry you. Su Fugui your debt of raising me? I’ve paid it back long since. From now on, I want to split from this family.”
The very words made Su Fugui’s throb. This girl had grown bold how dare a child barely out of childhood demand to separate?
“Split? You’re nothing but a babe and such wild ideas! You’d starve without us.”
“I wouldn’t. The work points I earn are enough to feed myself.”
Trembling with rage, Su Fugui raised the stick and brought it down hard toward her head. Tian Cuifen smirked from the kitchen doorway. Think she could leave? Not a chance tonight she’d be handed over like chattel. The girl had been far too cocky lately; if Su Fugui broke her legs, so much the better. Not her own no loss to her.
Just as the stick was about to strike, a voice boomed from the doorway: “Stop!”
Familiar. Su Fugui froze and looked up. Su Xiuxiu turned it was her maternal uncle, Li Dazhuang. In his forties and hardened by years of farm work, he was broad, muscular, and imposing as a bandit, pushing a brand-new heavy-duty bicycle. Su Xiuxiu stared wide-eyed her uncle was so handsome; if only her mother had lived, she’d have been beautiful too.
Li Dazhuang propped the bike against the wall, hefted a patched white bag from the back rack, and strode in he seemed to fill the doorway. Su Fugui shrank back, uneasy. This brother-in-law was formidable once he’d hunted and killed a full-grown wild boar single-handed and carried it back alone.
Li Dazhuang knelt beside Su Ying, seeing her pale, sallow face, and his heart ached. He’d wanted to take her away long ago, but this brute and his wife had refused. She’d grown up quiet and withdrawn, and they’d stayed away though they never stopped worrying, visiting often so no one could say she had no one.
Su Fugui bowed and scraped: “Brother-in-law… what brings you here? Come in, come in!”
“Spare me your grovelling. You knelt at our door begging to marry my sister. She had a hard life and died too young and now you mistreat her own daughter. If she were alive, I’d have taken them both home long ago. Our Li family can provide for our own blood.”
Su Fugui seethed inwardly she was the one who died young! but he nodded meekly: “Yes, yes, of course.”
Li Dazhuang took Su Ying’s hand. “Yingzi… come home with me. Your aunt is kind you’ll never go hungry there.”
Su Ying knew her aunt was good to her. In her old life, she’d been too timid, too afraid of being a burden so she’d borne everything alone.
Su Fugui and Tian Cuifen spoke as one: “No!”
The groom’s family was supposed to come for her tonight. Had Li Dazhuang heard something he shouldn’t? If she left, so would the four hundred and fifty yuan three hundred had already slipped through their fingers. This time it had to succeed.
She must not be allowed to leave!