A bone or muscle injury takes a hundred days to heal!
Although Chuntao didn't injure her bones, the wound was deep and she lost a lot of blood. Upon discharge, the doctor instructed her to rest for a few days and avoid heavy lifting.
Wang Xiaohong took over all the household chores—fetching water, cooking, washing clothes, feeding the pigs, and cleaning. She didn't let Chuntao worry about a single thing.
"Sister-in-law, just lie in bed and rest. Don't think about anything! I'll bring your meals to you!"
But Chuntao had been lying in the hospital for half a month. Her whole body ached, and she really didn't want to stay cooped up in bed anymore.
She walked over to the small square table right by the door in the main room and pulled up a small stool to sit down.
No sooner had she sat down than several women gathered in her courtyard, craning their necks to peek inside the house, as if looking at a new bride.
After all, she had stayed in the county hospital for so long. The injury must have been severe, and everyone was curious.
"Chuntao, you're finally back! Everyone has been so worried about you. Are you alright now?"
Wang Chunxiao walked into the room with quick, small steps, her eyes glued to Chuntao's wrist.
Sighing, she said, "People nowadays are so wicked. Why can't they just talk things out instead of resorting to knives!"
The other women followed her inside, clutching half-made shoe soles in their hands. They spoke words of concern, but their eyes roamed all over Chuntao.
One woman asked, "I heard you were stabbed? What exactly happened?"
Wang Xiaohong pushed a bowl of vegetables closer to Chuntao and spoke up, "My sister-in-law ran into a thief at the fair!
She fought with the thief, and that's how that scoundrel stabbed her wrist with a knife."
Hearing this, the women's eyes widened, their faces full of disbelief and disdain.
Wang Chunxiao let out a soft scoff and pressed, "Really? Someone as delicate and weak as her dared to fight a thief?"
"Why wouldn't she?"
Wang Xiaohong stiffened her neck, raising her voice a notch. "If my sister-in-law hadn't clutched the money so tightly, refusing to give it up because she wanted to hand it over to the police, she wouldn't have gotten hurt!"
The women gasped, but their faces still showed skepticism.
Wang Chunxiao stepped forward with a fake smile. "Chuntao, you're really brave... If it were me, I probably would have just given him the money. It's not worth suffering like this."
"Alright, my sister-in-law was just discharged from the hospital and needs a good rest."
Without waiting for them to speak again, Wang Xiaohong stood up and started shooing them out. The women could only purse their lips and leave resentfully.
In the hospital, at first, Zhou Zhijun and Wang Xiaohong hadn't dared to ask Chuntao what had happened.
It was only when she was about to be discharged, with her injury mostly healed and her spirits much improved, that Wang Xiaohong quietly asked about the incident while they were eating.
Chuntao told them everything in detail.
Upon hearing the story, Wang Xiaohong's eyes widened round. She was surprised but also felt it made sense.
"No wonder that person bumped into you out of nowhere; he was trying to pass off the stolen money...
His accomplice kept following you and even got a child to trick you into going to the outhouse... That's absolutely despicable!
Sister-in-law, if you had just given him the money, you wouldn't have suffered like this!"
At the time, Chuntao had only thought about not letting the thief have the money; she never expected to be stabbed so severely.
Had she known it would turn out this way, she wouldn't have been so stubborn, nor would she have burdened others with taking care of her and spending so much money.
Zhou Zhijun had the toughness of a soldier. If he had encountered such a situation, not only would he have refused to hand over the money, but he would have dragged the thief straight to the police station.
But Chuntao was different. She was a frail woman, and in his view, her priority should have been protecting herself.
Thinking back to the sight of Chuntao unconscious from excessive blood loss that day, he still felt a lingering fear.
With a cold face, he warned her, "If you ever run into something like this again, don't try to be a hero. Your own life is the most important thing!"
Chuntao kept her head bowed low, unable to say a word.
Her heart was filled with regret. Her momentary stubbornness had caused so many people to worry about her.
Soon, the story of Chuntao bravely fighting a thief and getting injured spread through the village, but most people didn't believe it.
Previously, villagers had gossiped that she was stabbed by a hooligan, and some even claimed it was a scandalous affair that led to violence!
That day, when the village party secretary, Zhou Dana, visited the hospital, he felt too embarrassed to ask Chuntao directly. Before leaving, he inquired with Zhou Zhijun.
Zhou Zhijun simply said he hadn't asked yet, which made Zhou Dana suspicious: If it was something honorable, why wouldn't they talk about it?
When he returned home, Zhou Zhaodi eagerly trotted over to ask for details.
Zhou Dana said he didn't know. Zhou Zhaodi immediately curled her lip, snorted, and said, "Still hiding it! She must have done something shameful, otherwise why would she stay in the hospital for so long?"
She turned around and squatted at the village entrance, spreading exaggerated rumors to the women stitching shoe soles. "Just you wait and see. That business with Li Chuntao is definitely shameful. Even Zhou Zhijun doesn't dare speak of it!"
The villagers already loved making wild guesses, and after her instigation, they became convinced there was something fishy about Chuntao's injury.
Even though Wang Xiaohong insisted she was injured fighting a thief, no one believed it.
"Her? Fighting a thief? How embarrassing to even say that!"
While shoveling corn mush into her mouth, Zhou Zhaodi hollered at Wang Qingshan, "If she really dared to fight a thief, I'll walk upside down!"
Wang Qingshan kept his head down, focused solely on eating, completely unwilling to respond.
Seeing him stay silent, Zhou Zhaodi snatched the bowl from his hands. "I'm talking to you! Are you deaf or mute?"
Wang Qingshan looked up and glared at her. "What do you want me to say?"
"Tell me what you think about this Li Chuntao business. Do you think she really dared to fight a thief? I certainly don't believe it!"
"That's someone else's business. What does it have to do with you? Stop gossiping!" Wang Qingshan said with a dark face, his voice muffled.
Zhou Zhaodi wanted to say more, but Wang Qingshan suddenly stood up, stiffened his neck, and walked out.
"Wang Qingshan, where are you going? Come back here and eat!"
Seeing him leave, Zhou Zhaodi quickly put down her bowl and chased after him, grabbing his arm. Her voice softened a bit. "I'll stop talking about it, okay?"
When they first got married, Wang Qingshan was easily aroused, but for the past month or so, no matter how much Zhou Zhaodi threw herself at him, he remained indifferent.
Zhou Zhaodi was so anxious she developed blisters on her mouth. She thought about treating her in-laws better and gossiping less in the future, hoping he wouldn't be so annoyed with her, but her big mouth was hard to change!
"I'm not eating!" Wang Qingshan shook off her hand and continued walking out.
Zhou Zhaodi's chest heaved with anger. Suppressing her temper, she said, "I was talking about someone else, is it worth getting so mad over?"
Wang Qingshan ignored her. He walked to the base of the kitchen wall, grabbed the hoe leaning there, and headed straight for the north fields.
When he reached the fields, he didn't start working. Instead, he plopped down on the ridge, his heart feeling heavy and suffocated.
They had been married for almost half a year. Zhou Zhaodi craved him every day, yet her belly was as empty as ever.
Zhou Zhaodi was greedy and lazy, gave his parents attitude, and spread gossip all over the village. What was the point of having a woman like her?
The more he thought about it, the more he regretted it. Marrying her was worse than staying a bachelor.
Suddenly, Chuntao's image floated into Wang Qingshan's mind.
On the day Wang Jieshi got married, all the men in the village were incredibly envious, having wild fantasies about that delicate and pretty little woman—and naturally, Wang Qingshan was one of them.
But she was someone else's wife, and all he could do was dream!
Who could have known that Wang Jieshi would run off on his very wedding night? Ever since, the men in the village looked at Chuntao with the same ravenous hunger as if they were staring at a rare feast of holiday meat.
Wang Qingshan was a quiet and reserved man who knew his own limits. He only ever lusted after her in the secrecy of his mind; he didn't stare at Chuntao with hungry, predatory eyes like the other men did.
Normally, when he bumped into Chuntao, he didn't even dare to look her in the eye.
In the four years since Chuntao had married into the Wang Family Village, Wang Qingshan hadn't spoken a single word to her.
No one but himself knew his true feelings.
He picked up a hard clod of dirt from the ground and crushed it fiercely in his fist.
It was as if what he was crushing wasn't a clod of dirt, but Zhou Zhaodi's mean, bitter, fat face.
At first, he would fantasize that Zhou Zhaodi was Li Chuntao, but as time passed, he grew numb to it. It had lost its appeal.
Lately, just seeing Zhou Zhaodi annoyed him; he couldn't even be bothered to lift a single finger around her.
Thinking back to earlier at home, when Zhou Zhaodi was gossiping about Li Chuntao, an inexplicable wave of irritation surged in his heart once again...
