Chuntao had a bamboo basket hooked over her arm. Her body swayed slightly, and she nearly lost her balance.
Zhou Xiaowei quickly propped his bicycle against the edge of the field and hurried over to steady her.
Big Yellow the dog rubbed affectionately against Chuntao’s leg, though its eyes remained wary as it stared at Wang Lanhua.
“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Zhou Xiaowei barked at Wang Lanhua.
Wang Lanhua wrinkled her nose and launched straight into a tirade. “Zhou Xiaowei, there isn’t a decent soul in your whole family! What do I want? I want every last one of you to die a horrible death! Old or young, you’re all shameless. Just looking at you makes me sick… Get the hell out of here!”
The veins at Zhou Xiaowei’s temples throbbed. His fists clenched so tightly they creaked.
“Wang Lanhua, shut your filthy mouth! Your Wang family isn’t any better—”
Chuntao only wanted to finish burning the offerings and leave. She looked up at Zhou Xiaowei and urged him softly, “Don’t say anything more.”
Supporting Chuntao by the arm, Zhou Xiaowei led her toward the graves. Big Yellow stayed close beside her, guarding her every step.
When Wang Lanhua saw that Chuntao wasn’t answering her, it was as if she had punched a wad of cotton. Her fury had nowhere to go, and it clogged her chest until it heaved violently.
Li Dazhuang hurriedly tugged at her arm and lowered his voice. “Lanhua, calm down. Don’t get worked up.”
“You can say that because you’re not the one suffering! I married into your family, endured hardship, and bore you children. And what did she do? She just patted herself on the backside and walked away!” Wang Lanhua shrieked.
“Jieshi made that choice himself back then. You can’t blame anyone else for it,” Li Dazhuang said helplessly.
Wang Lanhua’s eyes bulged. “Li Dazhuang, shut your mouth! I don’t care about Jieshi’s business, but this bitch killed my son. Today, I’m going to fight her to the death!”
Roaring, she snatched up the hoe at her feet and charged at Chuntao like a madwoman.
Chuntao was almost at Grandma Shen’s grave when Wang Lanhua blocked her path.
“Li Chun Tao, get lost! If you don’t leave right now, this hoe of mine won’t care who it hits!”
Chuntao’s eyes reddened, but she met Wang Lanhua’s gaze directly. Her voice was unshakably firm. “I came back to pay my respects at my grandma’s grave. Move.”
Wang Lanhua sneered, her face filled with contempt. “You still have the nerve to come here? The old woman was driven to her death by you! If you hadn’t run off with some wild man, would she have died?”
Wang Lanhua planted herself firmly in front of the grave. When Chuntao tried to go around her, she immediately raised the hoe to block her again.
“Get lost! Grandma Shen doesn’t want to see you! You dragged her good name through the mud!”
“Wang Lanhua, stop making a scene!”
Before Li Dazhuang could rush over, Zhou Xiaowei had already grabbed the handle of the hoe in Wang Lanhua’s hands.
Before she could react, Zhou Xiaowei wrenched it away and flung it aside.
“Get out of the way!”
Wang Lanhua trembled with rage and cursed him. “Zhou Xiaowei, you cowardly bastard! I’ll fight you!”
She lunged at him, clawing and scratching.
“Lanhua!”
Li Dazhuang rushed over to break them up. As he dragged her back, he shouted at Chuntao, “Hurry up and go!”
Chuntao ignored him. Her voice rose sharply. “Wang Lanhua, if you’ve got a grudge, take it out on me!”
She stepped forward and grabbed Wang Lanhua’s arm. Wang Lanhua immediately let go of Zhou Xiaowei and raised her hand to scratch Chuntao’s face.
Zhou Xiaowei seized her wrist and scolded her harshly. “Wang Lanhua, you crazy woman! Are you ever going to stop?”
At the same time, Big Yellow bared its teeth and rushed forward, clamping down on Wang Lanhua’s pant leg and tugging with all its might.
Wang Lanhua was wearing elastic-waist trousers. With one fierce pull from Big Yellow, they slid straight down to her knees, exposing the bright red underwear beneath.
The villagers working in the nearby fields heard the commotion and straightened up to look. Several women and half-grown boys even tossed aside their farm tools and ran over to watch.
The moment they saw what had happened, everyone burst into laughter. Wang Lanhua was both humiliated and furious, her face turning the color of liver.
With one wrist clamped tightly in Zhou Xiaowei’s grip, she could only use her free hand to hurriedly pull up her pants.
“Zhou Xiaowei, you son of a bitch! Let go of me!”
But Zhou Xiaowei’s grip did not loosen in the slightest. He said coldly, “Wang Lanhua, are you done causing trouble?”
Zhou Xiaowei was tall. He lifted her wrist upward, leaving Wang Lanhua unable even to bend over.
Li Dazhuang stood nearby, mortified, and quickly bent down to help pull up her trousers.
The foul air trapped in Wang Lanhua’s chest had nowhere to escape and suddenly shot downward.
Just as Li Dazhuang bent over, a muffled “poot” sounded. A pungent stench rushed straight into his nose and mouth.
The onlookers laughed until they doubled over. One woman teased, “Dazhuang, you just got a good, warm mouthful of fart!”
“Hahaha! Silent farts stink, loud farts don’t. But a rumbling one can stink for half a day!”
…
Li Dazhuang’s face flushed bright red as he frantically pulled Wang Lanhua’s pants back up.
Wang Lanhua’s face turned purple, but she still refused to shut up. “Zhou Xiaowei, you bastard! I curse you to have a child without an asshole—”
Zhou Xiaowei abruptly flung her wrist aside. Wang Lanhua stumbled, and her body toppled backward before she could stop it.
Li Dazhuang hurried to catch her, but the two of them fell into the field together.
Taking advantage of the chaos, Chuntao quietly walked over to the fire pit in front of the grave. She lit a stack of yellow spirit papers and placed a steamed white bun and a small piece of boiled pork beside them.
Then she lit a short string of firecrackers. Their sharp popping echoed through the graveyard.
“Grandma, I came to see you…”
Tears rolled down Chuntao’s cheeks like beads from a broken string, splashing onto the blades of grass.
When the firecrackers went off, the onlookers fell silent. Only quiet murmurs remained.
Li Dazhuang climbed to his feet and reached down to pull Wang Lanhua up, but she simply sprawled on the ground and refused to move. Throwing her head back, she unleashed a torrent of filthy abuse.
She grabbed a clod of earth from the ground and hurled it viciously at Chuntao.
“Li Chun Tao, you slut! You shameless fox! You ran off and fooled around with some wild man, then gave birth to two bastard children…”
Big Yellow looked up and saw the clod flying toward Chuntao. It immediately leaped in front of her, and the clod struck it solidly.
Still unsatisfied, Wang Lanhua picked up a stone and prepared to throw it at Big Yellow.
Big Yellow bounded forward several steps and barked furiously at her.
“That dog understands everything. It knows how to protect its owner!”
“It sure does. You don’t see that every day!”
“Wang Lanhua’s just like her mother. Someone ought to teach her a lesson!”
…
Everyone in Li Family Village knew what kind of people Wang Lanhua’s family were. They also knew how much Chuntao had suffered over the years. Seeing Wang Lanhua end up humiliated and covered in dirt, the villagers all felt a deep sense of satisfaction.
Wang Lanhua spat and cursed until her mouth went dry.
Zhou Xiaowei was furious and wanted to go over to argue with her, but Chuntao gently tugged at his shirt.
“Let’s go home.”
Zhou Xiaowei knew there was no point getting entangled with someone like Wang Lanhua. He could only force down his anger, take the bamboo basket from Chuntao, and walk behind her protectively as they headed toward the edge of the field.
Wang Lanhua climbed to her feet and pointed at Chuntao’s retreating back, screaming hysterically, “Li Chun Tao, you filthy slut! Every time you come here, I’ll curse you every time!”
The farm path was full of potholes and difficult to walk along. Zhou Xiaowei hung the bamboo basket from the bicycle’s handlebars and pushed it slowly forward.
Chuntao walked beside him, with Big Yellow close behind.
The two of them and the dog gradually disappeared down the country lane.
As she reached the village, she saw a group of half-grown children gathered around a stylish woman in the distance, their eyes full of curiosity.
