TCFSRMR |Chapter 14

Chapter 14

The fire that had gathered in Liang Cuiping’s heart blazed up with a “boom”. So she naturally wore a sullen face and dragged Shi Dahai to their door to demand an accounting.

Since Shi Guoan had been unkind, he should not blame her for being unjust either. Nobody’s life would be easy now. Today, no matter what, she had to make a scene and vent the bad air in her chest.

She actually went straight over and was about to grab Shi Ying:

“You little brat, come here! You think you’re going to heaven, huh! Your uncle only hugged Xiaobei, and you dared to cut with a knife. Go on, cut! Cut for me again!”

Before her hand even touched a corner of Shi Ying’s clothes, a black shadow suddenly crashed over. Caught off guard, Liang Cuiping sat down hard on the ground with a “plop.” Her head also hit the hard ground, making a “thud,” and just hearing it made people feel pain.

In pain, Liang Cuiping cried out “ow”. Only after she recovered did she realize that the one who had crashed into her was none other than Miao Xiu xiu, who everyone agreed had a good temper and was thin-skinned. For a moment, she found it rather unbelievable:

“You, you dare to bump into me?”

One had to know that before this, over her younger brother’s matter, Liang Cuiping had not once criticized Miao Xiuxiu by insinuation and indirect abuse in front of her. But no matter how unpleasant she spoke, Miao Xiuxiu never talked back, and even when walking, she would go around her.

As for the past few years, she was even more like a fool. Liang Cuiping felt that even scolding her was a waste of effort. Yet today, before Liang Cuiping had really done anything, Miao Xiuxiu not only dared to make a direct move, she even did it so hard?

She wanted to curse a few words, but unexpectedly met Miao Xiuxiu’s dark, heavy eyes:

“If you dare touch my daughter with even a single finger, I’ll fight you to the death.”

Clearly Miao Xiuxiu’s voice was not high, but in that instant, Liang Cuiping suddenly felt a chill in her heart. The filthy abuse that had reached her mouth actually gurgled and was swallowed back down again.

When she came back to her senses, she nearly burst with anger.

Over there, Shi Dahai also clearly had not expected such a turn of events, and instinctively went to pull Liang Cuiping, who was lying on the ground.

But Liang Cuiping shoved him away with one hand and cried out:

“Shi Dahai, are you even a man? You’re just going to stand there and watch your wife get beaten?”

As she spoke, she covered her head and lay on the ground refusing to get up:

“Ow, my heavens, are we not allowed to live anymore? This isn’t how you bully people…”

Yin Zhaodi was so frightened her face went white. She hurriedly ran forward as well to help her up:

“Sister-in-law, get up quickly and see where you hit yourself. My eldest sister-in-law was just confused for a moment…”

Inside, she was already suppressing her resentment. If they had listened to her earlier and disciplined Shi Ying more, how could there have been such a disaster? Now look, they had provoked Liang Cuiping, that tigress. Let’s see how they were supposed to clean this up!

Just as she was lost in thought, Liang Cuiping kicked her in the face:

“Get lost. Don’t pretend to be a good person in front of me. None of your family are good people…”

Over there, Shi Dahai was clearly also enraged. He stepped forward and was about to grab Miao Xiuxiu by the collar, but as soon as he moved, Shi Guoping, who was standing nearby, caught him by the arm:

“What do you think you’re doing?”

Yin Zhaodi was worried Shi Guoping and Shi Dahai would start fighting, and hurried over again to pull them apart, but Shi Guoping directly shoved her away:

“Take the children into the house.”

He looked like he was about to hit someone if they said one wrong word.

Shi Dahai was not afraid either. Pointing at Shi Guoping’s nose, he said, “What do you think I’m doing? If you still call me your brother, then get out of the way. Today, if I don’t slap that stinking bitch surnamed Miao…”

Before he could finish speaking, a big hand reached over, and it was Shi Guoan who directly slapped him across the face.

Shi Guoan used all his strength in that strike. Shi Dahai cried out “ow” and with a “plop” went to lie down beside Liang Cuiping as her companion.

The scene instantly fell silent. Even Liang Cuiping was somewhat stunned. Despite Shi Guoan’s tall and sturdy build, he had never once fought with even the most troublesome families in the village.

And yet now he had actually, in front of so many people, directly slapped Shi Dahai?

Liang Cuiping had been lying on the ground earlier just to put pressure on Shi Dahai and Shi Zongyi’s family. Now that she saw Shi Dahai actually get hit, she was immediately terrified. When she saw that the corner of Shi Dahai’s mouth had even split open, she no longer cared about the lump on her head. She scrambled up from the ground and was about to throw herself at Shi Guoan.

She hadn’t even run a few steps when, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Miao Xiuxiu charging over from the side again. This time it was even better. That Miao Xiuxiu, who usually spoke softly and gently to everyone, had actually rushed out of the kitchen with a kitchen knife.

People always said never to provoke an honest person. If an honest person is not angry, nothing happens. But once they really get angry, they’ll fight with their life. Only by now did Liang Cuiping finally understand what that sentence meant. Looking at Miao Xiuxiu, who was holding a kitchen knife and staring fixedly at her, she was so frightened her calves were practically trembling.

In fact, not only Liang Cuiping, but the other neighbors who heard the commotion and came over to watch the excitement all had a jolt in their hearts.

They thought to themselves, didn’t they say that after the Shi family’s daughter came back, Miao Xiuxiu was already better? Why did she look even crazier now than before?

Too frightened, they even forgot to come over and help Liang Cuiping block her off.

There, Liang Cuiping watched Miao Xiuxiu chase after her with the kitchen knife raised, and for a moment was so shocked her soul nearly flew out. Frightened, she turned and ran, but she ran too urgently and slammed headfirst into the old jujube tree in the yard. In pain, she clutched her forehead and started howling.

“Xiu xiu…” Shi Guoan also saw that Miao Xiuxiu’s expression was off, and hurried over to hold her.

But Miao Xiuxiu gritted her teeth and stared fixedly at Liang Cuiping, struggling hard in Shi Guoan’s arms.

Shi Ying also came back to her senses by now. She trotted over and hugged Miao Xiuxiu’s arm:

“Mom, Mom…”

That soft, gummy voice, carrying a trace of urgency, finally called Miao Xiuxiu back to her senses. Looking down at Shi Ying, who had raised her head and was looking at her with worry, Miao Xiuxiu froze for a moment. The next second, letting Shi Guoan take the kitchen knife from her hand, she crouched down and hugged Shi Ying tightly.

“Mom, Mom…” Shi Ying leaned into Miao Xiuxiu’s thin embrace, where one could almost feel every rib. Her heart ached terribly. She wrapped her arms around Miao Xiuxiu’s neck and said softly, “Yingying is back. I will never leave you again…”

“Mm.” Miao Xiuxiu pressed her face against Shi Ying’s face, her hand stroking Shi Ying’s back again and again, and said in a choked voice, “Good girl, don’t be afraid. Mom will beat the bad people away. No one will ever think of hurting you again…”

Over there, Liang Cuiping sensed the crisis had been lifted and finally let out a breath. Before she could even think of how to speak, Wang Xiujue beside her had already cried out in surprise:

“Ow, sister-in-law, your head is bleeding.”

As soon as Wang Xiujue shouted that, the others also looked over. It was just that the jujube tree bark was rough enough. Liang Cuiping, in her panic just now, had also run desperately, so the skin on her forehead had not been scraped open?

Liang Cuiping also realized something was wrong now. She subconsciously lifted a hand and wiped it, and her palm was instantly a field of red.

Liang Cuiping cried out “ow” and started wailing again:

“Ow, Shi Guoan’s wife is trying to kill someone! Is there still any law anymore!”

“Dahai, hurry and go call people, call all our brothers over!”

“Are you even a man! Watching your wife get bullied like this, aren’t you ashamed…”

“Ow, sister-in-law, stop crying. This wound can’t get wet, or it’ll get inflamed and then it’ll be troublesome…” Wang Xiujue said while pulling over a towel to wipe Liang Cuiping, and at the same time glared at Shi Guoan. “Guoan, I don’t mean to say this, but today’s matter is really not on your side. No matter what, you have to call Dahai brother your brother. As the younger brother, how can you make a move on your elder brother?”

“Brother? Bullshit!” Shi Dahai’s eyes were red. Stomping the ground so hard it sounded like thunder, he pointed at Shi Guoan and said, “Who knows which family’s wild seed he is, and he still deserves me calling him brother?”

As soon as those words fell, Shi Guoping and Shi Guoliang were unhappy:

“Dahai-ge, how can you talk like that? How can you say that about our brother?”

The two had been Shi Guoan’s followers since childhood, and when they grew up they still took the big brother’s lead. Even if they were scolded themselves, they might not talk back, but they could not listen to others say Shi Guoan was a wild seed.

“Guoping, Guoliang, there is no place for you to butt in here!” Wang Xiujue’s husband, Shi Dajun, on the side also became unhappy. Wang Xiujue and Liang Cuiping had a good relationship, and in the final analysis, it was also because Shi Dajun and Shi Dahai were close.

“Dahai-ge is our brother. What’s wrong with scolding him a couple of times? If you can take it, then listen. If you can’t take it, you still have to listen!”

While they were talking, Shi Dahai’s older brother Shi Dashan and younger brother Shi Dachuan also arrived.

Shi Dashan was a bit better. Normally he rather admired Shi Guoan, but Shi Dachuan was a troublemaker. He actually picked up a brick and was about to throw it at Shi Guoan.

Just like Shi Dahai, Shi Dachuan simply looked down on Shi Guoan. Usually he had not lacked occasions of speaking rudely to Shi Guoan, only Shi Guoan generally did not bother with him and mostly acted as if he had not heard.

Even when others said Shi Guoan was quite a character, Shi Dachuan was unconvinced a hundred times over. What character? Shi Guoan was simply a coward!

He was still thinking that if he shouted like this, Shi Guoan would definitely be scared into apologizing like a grandson.

But he never expected that the moment he moved, Shi Guoan would clamp down on the hand holding the brick. Shi Dachuan only felt a wave of piercing pain, and in pain he cried out repeatedly:

“Shi Guoan, you dare to do this to me…”

Before the word “hand” even came out, he felt a wave of dizziness and the world spinning. Shi Guoan had directly given him an over-the-shoulder throw, and even more, pressed him down with his knee, saying word by word:

“Shi Dachuan, listen to me. Normally I put up with you, but today I won’t. Today I will put one sentence here: whoever it is, if they dare harm my daughter, don’t think they’ll have an easy time.”

Shi Dachuan was also frightened badly at this point. Looking at Shi Guoan, he was terrified beyond measure. His lips moved, but he truly did not dare say a single word.

Seeing that both younger brothers had been beaten by Shi Guoan, Shi Dashan also felt a little unable to save face:

“Guoan, what are you doing? Do you still have me, your eldest brother, in your eyes? What can’t be said properly? The whole family yelling and threatening to hit and kill people, aren’t you afraid of becoming a joke?”

Team leader Liang Dacheng also hurried over. He also came over to pull Shi Guoan apart, and after great difficulty got the people to separate. Over there, Liang Cuiping’s maternal family also rushed over.

Originally, facing the enraged Shi Guoan, Liang Cuiping had already been somewhat timid. Now that she saw members of her maternal family, she immediately became spirited again, sitting on the ground and starting to cry and complain in long and short bursts:

“Ow, Shi Guoan, just beat me to death, fine. My maternal family has also arrived, hit me in front of my maternal family…”

Then she cried to an emaciated old woman running at the very front:

“Mom, if you’d come a little later, you wouldn’t have seen your daughter anymore…”

Seeing the old woman, the neighbors all became somewhat timid.

Wasn’t Liang Cuiping’s ferocity inherited from her own mother, Zhao Aixiang?

Speaking of this Zhao Aixiang, she was also no ordinary person. Before liberation, she had been a spirit medium and shamanic fairy known throughout the ten-mile radius and eight surrounding villages. Originally, during the Campaign to Eliminate the Four Olds, they were going to arrest Zhao Aixiang and criticize her, but her tongue was truly slick and eloquent. She actually recognized the mother of the revolutionary committee director as her sworn elder sister.

Not only did nothing happen to her, she even became more and more prosperous.

“My poor daughter, how did you end up with such a hard life!” Zhao Aixiang hugged Liang Cuiping and began howling, “Married into such a mother-in-law family that bullies the weak and fears the strong…”

As she spoke, she got up from the ground and went to crash into Shi Guoan:

“What exactly has my daughter done to wrong you people? You torment my daughter like this? My daughter has been bullied by you into this state, and I don’t want to live either. Just beat this old woman to death too…”

At the same time, her mouth kept muttering incantations without pause:

“Nine-Heavens Bodhisattva… Grand Duke Huang, please take away this heartless thing…”

Shi Guoan was furious at this point, but there was no way he could possibly lay hands on Zhao Aixiang like this. Facing Zhao Aixiang crashing over, he immediately became somewhat flustered.

The Liang family members behind Zhao Aixiang were obviously also stirred up. They all gathered over, looking like fierce gods and evil spirits, as if if Shi Guoan dared to resist, they would follow suit and make a move.

Team leader Liang Dacheng on the side instantly broke out in a sweat. He hurriedly stepped forward to stop them:

“What are you doing? What do you all think you’re doing?”

“No one is allowed to make a move.”

“Team leader, you can’t play favorites! Just look at how miserable Dahai and Cuiping are…” Wang Xiujue raised her voice.

“What playing favorites? Don’t join in the excitement if you have nothing better to do.” Liang Dacheng said irritably.

The others also tried to persuade them one after another:

“It’s not that big of a matter…”

“It’s just because of a child, is it worth making such a fuss?”

“A child? That depends on what kind of child, doesn’t it?” Liang Cuiping said, looking viciously at Shi Ying. “At such a young age she already dares to cut people with a knife. You call that a child?”

“I and Dahai were injured like this. They have to compensate us!”

“Their whole family has to kneel down and kowtow to us to beg forgiveness!”

“Dad, they’re so fierce…” Amid the clamor of voices, Shi Ying’s tearful voice suddenly rang out, and her hand was still tightly holding Liang Dacheng’s clothing corner.

Clearly the yard was packed with people, and the chatter was still in utter chaos, yet for some reason the little girl’s childish voice had an unusually strong piercing quality.

“Yingying, don’t be afraid…” Shi Guoan heard it and his heart instantly twisted up. He bent down and picked Shi Ying up.

Shi Ying leaned against Shi Guoan’s chest. Her eyes, filled with sparkling tears, first landed on Zhao Aixiang, then on Liang Cuiping, and finally on Shi Dahai:

“Bad people, you are all bad people…”

In her mind, 001’s voice followed:

“I’m so angry… they are bad people! This bunch of bastards is really too bullying. Tongtong will definitely make them pay the price… Baby, don’t be afraid, I’ve already released the medicine, they will soon be thrown into prison…”

“Oh my little ancestor, stop talking already!” Seeing that Shi Ying still wanted to add fuel to the fire at this moment, Yin Zhaodi was instantly startled. “Are you still not satisfied with how big a fuss this has become?”

How long had this child been back, and she had already caused so much trouble. She was truly too hard to worry about.

“Why can’t I say it?” Shi Ying’s voice became even more aggrieved. Her little finger pointed at Liang Cuiping. “You are all so bad, lying, deliberately carrying me away and giving me to someone else… you are all bad people…”

Meeting Shi Ying’s clear eyes, for some reason Liang Cuiping felt a panic in her heart, and subconsciously looked at Zhao Aixiang.

Was this little girl a monster? She had only been that old then, and she could already remember things?

Zhao Aixiang glared at her hatefully, then turned away from Shi Ying and said to Shi Guoan:

“Are you even a man? You bullied my daughter, and now you let your family’s little girl spew blood from her mouth? Don’t even think too beautifully. A few-year-old child talking nonsense, and you think everyone will believe it? Trying to pour filth on our heads? Not a chance…”

Before Shi Guoan could even speak, Shi Ying looked toward the gate, and with tears in her eyes and a timid expression said:

“Police uncles, are you here to catch the bad people?”

Zhao Aixiang almost laughed herself into fury with a sneer.

Shi Guoan’s little daughter really was clever. But in this world, the person who wanted to frame her, Zhao Aixiang, had not yet appeared.

As for Liang Cuiping, she had already received news from her elder brother back home and knew that Shi Guoan had actually gone to the public security bureau to complain. Feeling guilty, she still turned her head to take a look, and just happened to see two policemen walking into the yard.

“Ow, it’s really the police coming.” The villagers hurriedly made way. Earlier they had still felt that Shi Guoan had gone too far, but now that even the public authorities had come, they couldn’t help thinking again: could it really be, just as that girl said, that this family had harmed someone else’s daughter?

Otherwise, how would Shi Guoan really dare go to the police and complain?

But that also didn’t seem right. After all, Liang Cuiping was indeed a bit fierce, but she shouldn’t have gone so far as to do such an utterly insane thing, right?

Not to mention Shi Dahai was the universally recognized honest man. Everyone didn’t believe he would do such a thing that had lost all conscience.

Over there, Zhao Aixiang had already come to her senses and charged at the police:

“Oh, police comrades, you’ve finally come. If you had come any later, there would have been a death!”

As she spoke, she grabbed Liang Cuiping with one hand and Shi Dahai with the other and pushed them forward:

“Look at this, my son-in-law and daughter have both been beaten like what?”

“If you had come even later, their whole family would have beaten my daughter and son-in-law to death!”

“Honored old masters of justice, you must stand up for us common people and uphold justice.”

While speaking, she also, unnoticed by others, forcefully pinched Liang Cuiping’s palm.

“Yes, yes…” Liang Cuiping also started wiping tears. “Police comrades, you must stand up for me… Saying I stole their daughter, so what if I stole their daughter? Back then, wasn’t it that shameless Miao Xiuxiu who seduced my younger brother? Otherwise, would my younger brother have gone to prison?”

Zhao Aixiang had been slapping her thigh and howling hard when she suddenly heard Liang Cuiping say this, and she couldn’t stop her strength in time, slapping down hard on it in one solid hit.

What? Had her daughter been possessed by a ghost? Otherwise how could she blurt out such a sentence?