Huang Chunxing was the first to react. She spat toward the people gossiping.
“You people—has a donkey kicked your brains in? Xiao Mandong and Xiao Manxue look like they were carved from the same mold. What, are both of them his? Is he some kind of baby-making machine? Just look at him! There isn’t a single feature they share!”
Someone in the crowd immediately chimed in:
“Exactly. With a face like that, even if Zheng’s ancestors’ graves were smoking black, he couldn’t father such a pretty girl.”
“That’s right. Anyone can see this Zheng fellow is deliberately stirring up trouble. Not a single word out of his mouth is true.”
“You little slut, stop it! My son—someone help! You’re going to beat him to death!”
Seeing her son being beaten and realizing she couldn’t stop it, Old Mrs. Zheng finally threw herself on top of Zheng Chao.
Only then did Xiao Mandong stop. She didn’t dare hit the old woman—what if the woman turned around and tried to extort money from her?
Zheng Chao lay sprawled on the ground, gasping for breath. His body was covered in purple and blue bruises, and his leg hurt as though the bone had been broken. He had tried several times to fight back, but he hadn’t had the strength. Where had this little slut gotten so much power?
Just then, Li Fengmei returned, with the old village doctor following closely behind her.
The old doctor was carrying his medical bag. His legs were already in poor condition, and after walking such a long way, he was panting heavily. As soon as he entered the courtyard, he saw Wang Fugui holding an elderly woman. Half of the woman’s face had gone slack, and saliva was still running from the corner of her mouth.
He hurried over, crouched down, lifted the woman’s eyelids, and checked her pulse. His expression immediately darkened.
“She’s had a stroke. She needs to get to the hospital right away. If we’re too late, she may not make it. I’ll give her a few acupuncture needles to stabilize her first. You need to find a vehicle, now.”
As he spoke, the old man took silver needles from his medical bag and quickly inserted them into several acupoints, including Baihui and Fengchi.
Wang Fugui was frantic. He turned and shouted at Li Fengmei, “What are you standing there for? Go find a vehicle!”
“Find one, find one—where the hell am I supposed to find one? Who do I even know? You useless bastard, if you’ve got the ability, go find one yourself. Stop barking orders at me all the time!”
Li Fengmei exploded as well. A man who had neither a job nor any money still thought he could order her around as if things were the way they used to be. He had clearly been spoiled rotten.
“What did you say?”
Wang Fugui felt humiliated at being contradicted by Li Fengmei in front of so many people. He glared at her furiously.
“What, what? Why are you staring at me? If you need a vehicle, go find one yourself. Don’t count on me.”
Li Fengmei dropped herself onto the ground and decided to let everything fall apart. She secretly wished the old woman would die sooner rather than later. Then all the money in Old Lady Wang’s hands would belong to her. The old woman clung to those few lousy bucks every day and still had the nerve to shout at her. If not for the fact that Wang Fugui had once had a job, she would have dealt with the old hag long ago. Now that Wang Fugui had lost his job, she wasn’t going to fawn over them like before.
Just then, someone in the crowd shouted:
“The police are here! The police are here!”
The onlookers immediately parted to make way. Two police officers strode into the courtyard, and the one in front swept his eyes over the scene.
“Who reported this?”
Xiao Mandong raised her hand. “Officer, I did.”
The police officer nodded and was about to speak when Wang Fugui suddenly rushed over.
“Officer, please save my mother. She’s had a stroke and is barely hanging on. Please take her to the hospital first.”
Following his gaze, the officer saw an old woman lying on the ground. One side of her face was slack, drool hanging from the corner of her mouth, and her eyes were half-open.
It was obvious that she was ill. The officer turned to his colleague and said, “Quick, get her to the hospital first.”
When Old Mrs. Zheng heard the word “hospital,” she hurried over as well. “Officer, my son was beaten by that little minx. We need to go to the hospital too.”
The officer glanced at Zheng Chao in the corner. He did look pretty bad, his face covered in bruises, so the officer nodded.
The old village doctor quickly removed the silver needles. Wang Fugui carried Old Lady Wang on his back, while Old Mrs. Zheng supported Zheng Chao. Wang Meixia and Li Fengmei followed behind as they all hurried toward the entrance of the village.
The officer looked at the darkening sky, then at the large, clamoring crowd.
“It’s getting dark, and we won’t be able to finish dealing with this today. It doesn’t look like anything too serious, so here’s what we’ll do: we’ll take the sick person and the injured man to the hospital first. Everyone else can come to the police station tomorrow to give statements.”
He then pointed at Wang Fugui and Zheng Chao. “You two, get in the vehicle first.”
Xiao Mandong panicked. With the child in her arms, she had nowhere to go. The hospital was warm, and if necessary, she could even go to the obstetrician’s home. In any case, she had to find somewhere to stay first.
Xiao Mandong hurriedly grabbed the door just as it was about to close.
“Officer, the child won’t stop crying. I don’t know whether he’s frightened or simply cold. I need to take him to the hospital to be examined too.”
The officer had heard the child’s faint cries as well. Without saying anything more, he let her into the vehicle.
Seeing that the vehicle was now packed with people, Old Lady Wang wisely kept quiet.
The vehicle kicked up a cloud of dust and sped away.
Li Fengmei stood where she was, staring at the retreating vehicle and stamping her feet in fury.
Where was she supposed to stay now? She wanted to go to the hospital too. She could make do sleeping on a bench for a couple of nights, but it was already dark, and she didn’t dare go there alone.
She glanced back at Xiao Mandong and was just about to ask her to take her in for the night when Xiao Mandong shot her a glare and turned away.
The words caught in Li Fengmei’s throat. She didn’t dare say them after all.
The villagers who had come to watch the commotion also dispersed one after another.
Gritting her back teeth, Li Fengmei understood that this wretched girl would never take her in. She turned and walked toward the other side of the village. Exhausted and starving, all she wanted was to find a household where she could pay a few coins for a meal and scrape by for the night.
Once the crowd had cleared out, Old Mrs. Zheng shivered when a cold gust of wind blew past. She glanced at Xiao Mandong’s back and hurried after her.
“Girl, I’m your mother’s mother-in-law, after all. You have to call me Grandma too. You can’t possibly leave me out here for the whole night, can you?”
Xiao Mandong didn’t slow down or look back. She finally understood why Wang Meixia had taken a liking to Zheng Chao—birds of a feather flocked together. From the oldest to the youngest, they were all cut from the same cloth!
Old Mrs. Zheng quickened her pace and caught up again, reaching out to tug at her sleeve.
“You heartless girl! How can you be so cruel? I’m already this old. Are you really going to stand by and watch me freeze to death out here?”
Xiao Mandong suddenly flung her arm away, shaking off the woman’s touch. At last, she stopped and turned around.
“Get lost!”
Just one word, and Old Mrs. Zheng didn’t dare step forward again.
She stood where she was, staring at his retreating back, grinding her teeth with hatred.
“You little bitch, just you wait!”
Li Fengmei could still be seen not far away. Old Mrs. Zheng was about to go after her when she heard the rumble of a tractor behind her. The moment she spotted her eldest granddaughter sitting on it, her eyes instantly reddened...
Seeing no one around halfway there, Xiao Mandong turned into a small grove by the river and released Diandian from her space. The moment Diandian was out, it sneezed at Xiao Mandong several times, shook its tail, then darted straight into the woods.
The little thing had been cooped up for far too long.
Xiao Mandong leaned against an old willow tree, watching it romp happily through the grove. Just as Diandian was having the time of its life, it suddenly stopped mid-run. Its rear end rose, its back arched, and it stared fixedly at the bushes ahead.
Xiao Mandong quietly made her way over and pushed aside the branches in front of her.
Wang Yuanyuan had her back to Xiao Mandong, her arms wrapped tightly around a man from behind.
He wore army-green trousers, his back straight and rigid, utterly motionless.
Wang Yuanyuan buried her face against his back, her voice so soft and syrupy it could practically drip water...
