A sudden cough rang out, and the crowd instantly fell silent, shrinking back to clear a narrow path.
The newcomer was none other than the village party secretary, Zhou Dana. Having held the position for so many years, he had long since become a seasoned old fox in the village.
Wang Xiaohong disliked him from the bottom of her heart, but without his authority, things in the village were truly hard to get done.
Seeing him approach, Wang Xiaohong's eyes lit up. She hurried over to greet him with quick, small steps. "Secretary, I was just heading to your house! You couldn't have come at a better time!"
"What's the matter?" Zhou Dana asked, his hands clasped behind his back. He swaggered over, sweeping his gaze across the onlookers before slowly letting it rest on Wang Xiaohong.
"The watermelons in my field are only the size of a fist, but Zhou Xiaoying and her sister have already plucked so many of them!"
Wang Xiaohong raised her voice so everyone could hear. "Secretary, it's not easy for you to lead our village on the path to prosperity, is it? But look at them, doing nothing but causing trouble.
To put it lightly, they're bullying my family because we don't have anyone to back us up. To put it seriously, they're holding the whole village back from winning the advanced title..."
Huang Meili tried to interject several times, but Zhou Dana glared at her so fiercely that she swallowed her words.
The moment Wang Xiaohong finished speaking, Huang Meili immediately pulled a long face, looking as though she had suffered a massive injustice.
"Uncle Dana, you have to stand up for us! You can't just listen to her spout nonsense!
My two girls are teenagers, not three-year-olds. Those unripe melons aren't even edible, so why would they pick them?
It was probably some other family's kids, and since she can't find the real culprits, she's trying to pin it on us!"
As she spoke, she yanked Zhou Xiaoying, who was standing beside her. "Hurry up and tell Grandpa Dana that you two didn't pick any melons!"
Zhou Xiaoying didn't dare to look up. She stared at the tips of Zhou Dana's black cloth shoes, but her tone was stiff and unyielding. "My sister and I were cutting grass in the field. We didn't pick any melons. She's framing us!"
"Framing you?" Wang Xiaohong pointed frantically in the direction of the melon field. "I caught her by the wrist red-handed, and you still dare to say I'm framing you?
Hongxia saw it too, and so did Zhang Ming, who was cutting grass by the river. They both saw it clear as day!"
Zhou Dana was already harboring a bellyful of anger.
At the commune meeting yesterday, Wangjiazhai had been singled out for criticism yet again. They ranked third from the bottom out of all the backward villages in the commune!
For one thing, they hadn't implemented the family planning policies well. For another, their crop yields were poor, and they had to rely on relief grain year after year.
He had been holding onto this frustration with nowhere to vent, and today this incident had to happen. Wang Xiaohong's comment about "holding the village back" had struck a nerve.
His face darkened like the soot at the bottom of a pot. He swept his gaze over Zhou Hongxia and then glanced at Zhang Ming, who was shrinking his neck into his shoulders in the crowd. "Zhou Hongxia, Zhang Ming, did you two really see it?"
Zhou Hongxia bit her lower lip, but her voice was loud and clear. "I saw it with my own eyes. Zhou Xiaomei went into Xiaohong's field and picked the unripe watermelons."
Zhang Ming's voice was as quiet as a buzzing mosquito, but it was still clear. "I... I saw it too."
"You..." Huang Meili stomped her feet in panic. "What kind of bribe did Wang Xiaohong give you two? You're ignoring your conscience and speaking blind lies! Aren't you afraid of karma..."
"Enough!" Zhou Dana barked sternly, abruptly cutting off Huang Meili's rant.
"Zhimin's wife, if a daughter is uneducated, it's the mother's fault! Your girl ruined the crops, and as her mother, you bear the most responsibility!"
"Uncle Dana, my two girls really didn't do it! They're teaming up to frame us!" Huang Meili cried out, slapping her thigh in distress.
"Framing you? Why aren't they framing anyone else, but specifically choosing to frame you?" Zhou Dana's eyebrows knotted together.
"Go back and discipline them properly! If they have the free time to cause trouble, they'd be better off pulling a few more weeds in your own fields."
"Back when we ate from the communal pot, you lot were lazy and shirked your duties. Now that production is contracted to households, you still don't work hard, and just do useless things!"
He swept his gaze over the onlookers. "And you lot, what are you all crowding around for? Have you finished weeding your fields? Have you turned over your sweet potato vines?"
The crowd was left speechless by his scolding. Some scratched their heads and turned to head back to their fields, while others sheepishly took a couple of steps back, reluctant to leave.
"Zhimin's wife, we'll leave today's matter at that. Don't let it happen again!" Zhou Dana waved his hand.
Huang Meili felt as if she had been granted amnesty. She grabbed Zhou Xiaomei and her sister, who were looking down and picking at the corners of their clothes, and prepared to leave.
"Grandpa Dana, we can't just let it go!" Wang Xiaohong anxiously took a step forward.
"If you let them off today, they'll definitely go and do bad things again tomorrow!
This isn't the first time they've done this. They did it just a few days ago!"
The few people who hadn't dispersed immediately perked up, staring intently at Zhou Dana's expression.
"Halt! Don't be in such a hurry to leave!" Zhou Dana shouted.
Huang Meili had only taken two steps before she stopped dead in her tracks out of fright.
"Uncle Dana, don't listen to her nonsense! That really didn't happen!"
"I caught her by the wrist, and you still want to deny it? Those small watermelons that were picked are still in the field, it breaks my heart just looking at them!
And a while ago, they were the ones who made up stories about my sister-in-law and ruined her reputation.
My sister-in-law is kind to everyone in the village, and she's never even raised her voice.
They just saw that my brother is in poor health and thought they were easy to bully! Party Secretary, you have to stand up for my sister-in-law!"
Everyone's gaze simultaneously landed on Chuntao. Her face was as white as a sheet of paper, her lips were pressed tightly together, and the hands gripping the corners of her clothes were trembling.
Zhou Dana also glanced at her, then turned back to stare at Zhou Xiaoying and her sister. "Is what Xiaohong said true?"
Zhou Xiaoying had admitted it in the melon field just now, but now, under Zhou Dana's glare, she buried her head even lower and refused to say a word.
Huang Meili, however, started crying, with snot and tears running down her face. "Uncle Dana, you believe Wang Xiaohong's words? It's pure nonsense!
My two girls have been honest since they were little, they never gossip!"
"She admitted it with her own mouth in the melon field just now, and now she's going back on her word!" Wang Xiaohong stomped her foot in frustration.
"I didn't admit it! I was just joking around!" Zhou Xiaoying was also scared now, her face flushed red.
"I can testify!" A voice suddenly popped up from behind the crowd. It was the half-grown boy, Zhou Zhengtang.
"That day they ran to Wang Haichao's house and said Aunt Chuntao was fooling around in the ditch... I heard it!
In the end, no one was caught at all. They were just talking nonsense and ruining her reputation!"
Zhou Xiaoying's face instantly turned pale, and her voice carried a crying tone. "I didn't, he's talking nonsense!" Saying that, she hid behind Huang Meili.
Wang Xiaohong glanced at Zhou Dana, then looked at Huang Meili and said, "We can't just let this watermelon picking matter go, you have to pay for the damages!"
As soon as Huang Meili heard "pay for the damages," she immediately blew up, slapping her thighs and wailing, "I don't have money, our family is so poor we can't even put food on the table..."
Wang Xiaohong stood to the side and said, "If our village wants to be rated as an advanced village, we have to keep rascals like you in check.
One bad apple spoils the bunch! If you don't pay up, you won't learn your lesson. This money must be paid!"
At the mention of "rated as advanced," Zhou Dana got a headache again.
Wangjiazhai had been at the bottom of the rankings for several years in a row, either due to neighborhood quarrels or reduced crop yields. They had received so much relief grain that the commune leaders couldn't even be bothered to look at him.
Since Wang Xiaohong had already put it that way, it would be unjustifiable for him not to make an example out of someone.
"Zhimin's wife, wasting food is a massive sin! Compensate Jieshi's family with two yuan, and we can put this matter behind us!"
Zhou Dana continued, "Spreading malicious gossip, ruining the harmony of the neighborhood, and bringing shame to our village. You and your girls need to give Jieshi's family a proper apology!"
"I won't give you a single cent! I didn't spread any rumors, and I absolutely will not apologize!"
Huang Meili nearly jumped out of her skin, reacting as if a hot iron had just branded her backside.
"Fine! No money and no apology, is that it?" Zhou Dana turned on his heel to leave. "Then from now on, your family can forget about getting any of the village's relief grain or fertilizer quotas!"
The moment those words left his mouth, Huang Meili's legs gave out. She plopped hard onto the ground and began to wail uncontrollably.
"Why is my life so miserable... You can't just bully people like this..."
Right in the middle of her sobbing, Zhou Xiaoying suddenly let out a piercing shriek. "Ah—" Huang Meili's cries came to a screeching halt.
She frantically whipped her head around to look at Zhou Xiaoying, and what she saw drained all the color from her face in an instant.
