Volume One, Chapter Three: The Foolish Younger Brother Is Bullied

The sounds of crying and shouting rose from the room, as if someone inside had seized the window and slammed it shut.

Yet the mother-in-law’s heart-rending curses still pierced through the glass, striking her face again and again like slaps.

Thinking of how the original owner had gone to every length to curry favor with that man, using every possible trick, and how she had endured his outrageous mother just to stay with him, only to live so humbly and receive nothing in return but the mother-in-law’s oppression and his contempt, she felt a surge of anger.

"Lu Zetao!"

"Come out here and let your mother explain herself!"

"If you won’t come out, fine. I’m telling you, with that mouth of your mother’s, today it isn’t you who’s divorcing me—I’m the one dumping you!"

Su Wanyue was furious. She did not lower her voice at all, letting every medical worker in the dormitory building hear her clearly.

By the next morning, divorce notices were pasted all over the streets and alleys of Caixia Village, even on the doghouses.

She had written them herself after staying up all night.

She wanted the whole world to know that it was Su Wanyue who was divorcing Lu Zetao, that she had written the letter of dismissal and cast him aside!

When her father, Su Junye, heard about it at the production brigade, he hurried to find Su Wanyue.

"Wanyue, what are you doing? Have people from the Lu family bullied you?"

Seeing her father’s face full of worry, sweat continuously streaming down his forehead, Su Wanyue suddenly choked up.

"Dad..."

The face of the middle-aged man made her think of her father in her past life, who had worked so hard to raise her, only to fall ill and die without ever enjoying a single good day.

Now the two faces seemed to overlap, and Su Wanyue’s eyes grew hot.

"Girl, if anything’s wrong, tell your dad. Dad will stand up for you."

"Dad... I want to divorce Lu Zetao!"

Su Junye’s heart ached for her. He patted his daughter’s back gently. "All right. No matter what you decide, I support you. Let’s go home first..."

The father and daughter walked silently along the village path when they suddenly heard a burst of cursing and beating from the yard to the east.

"You idiot, daring to steal things! I’ll break your hands!"

Then came sharp cracking sounds, as if bamboo strips or branches were striking flesh.

And the shrill, wailing cries of a child.

Su Wanyue recognized it as her foolish younger brother, Xiaoxing. She turned at once and ran toward the eastern yard.

The moment she rushed in, she saw a woman brandishing a branch with fierce momentum, lashing it hard against Xiaoxing’s hands as he howled in tears, all the while shouting, "I’ll break your hands!"

Seeing this, Su Wanyue hurried forward, seizing the woman’s wrist with one hand and, with the other, pulling her brother behind her to shield him.

"What exactly did my brother steal from your house that you have to beat him like this to death?!"

When Chen Ruyun, Li Yunfei’s wife, saw that someone from the foolish boy’s family had arrived, she froze for an instant. But only for an instant; then she returned to her earlier shrewish self.

"That idiot brother of yours not only stole vegetables from my house, he ruined an entire patch of land too! That was all planted by my Yunfei with great effort, meant to be taken to market in a few days. You came just in time—pay up now! Otherwise, I’ll chop off that idiot brother of yours’ hands!"

Chen Ruyun kept calling Xiaoxing an idiot, while Xiaoxing’s filthy little hands were swollen from the beating. Su Wanyue felt both heartache and anger.

In the dim light of the yard, Su Wanyue glanced at the small vegetable patch in Chen Ruyun’s yard. It had indeed been trampled badly; the green leafy vegetables were flattened and scattered everywhere. There was no way they could be sold now, only kept for the family to eat.

"How much do you want?"

"At least two yuan!"

Su Wanyue rummaged through her pockets for a long while and found six fen.

In this era, one yuan could buy a mountain of vegetables; two yuan would probably cover all the produce this little patch could yield.

"These should be enough to compensate for your vegetables."

Chen Ruyun looked at her with obvious disdain. "Six fen? Hah, what’s that good for? Are you trying to shoo away a beggar?"

"I’ve got another four fen here."

Su Junye stepped forward and handed it over.

"Then give us one yuan first."

Before Chen Ruyun’s hand could touch the money, Su Wanyue took it back. "We can pay part of it first, but what you did to my brother, we have to settle right now."

At that, Chen Ruyun froze. "What... do you mean by that?"

"What do I mean? I mean paying compensation is fine, but you also need to give us an explanation for beating my brother."

Su Wanyue let out a cold laugh, shielding Xiaoxing tightly behind her.

"Look at his hands. You beat them until the skin broke, swollen like steamed buns. My brother is not someone just anybody can hit casually, so you must give us a proper account!"

A crowd of villagers had gathered at the gate to watch the excitement. Seeing this, they all felt that Su Wanyue seemed like a different person.

The old Su Wanyue had been timid and weak, caring only about dressing herself up prettily, and paying no heed at all to her two foolish brothers at home.

Now she had become so forceful, and so fiercely protective of her own.

"You parents, you sisters, if you can’t properly discipline that idiot, why can’t I teach him a lesson? I’ve already hit him—what can you do about it?!"

Chen Ruyun’s voice rose higher and higher, and she even rolled up her sleeves.

Su Wanyue was no soft touch either. She lifted her chin and rolled up her sleeves too. "What’s that? Want to fight?!"

"I’d like to see who dares lay a finger on my child!"

Su Junye had always been honest and mild. In situations like this, if things could be settled peacefully, he would never waste words.

But seeing his daughter defend her brother so firmly, arguing with reason and evidence, he also felt that he had been wrong before... Perhaps it was precisely because of his weakness that his sons had always been beaten and cursed by others.

So now, he would stand up for his children and never again allow anyone to bully them.

With Su Junye backing her, Chen Ruyun immediately wilted.

"Uncle Su, I didn’t really mean to hit him... Don’t be angry. It was only that the child was being naughty, and I got carried away and hit him once." Chen Ruyun took a step back and gave a dry, uneasy laugh.

"You got carried away, so you dared to hit someone?! Then if I get carried away now, and my dad gets carried away too, can we hit you as well?"

Today, Su Wanyue was determined to make the neighbor Chen Ruyun, who often bullied Xiaoxing, back down and admit fault, and to let everyone else know that they were not to be trifled with—so that no one would dare lay hands on her two foolish brothers again.

"No, no, that’s not what I meant..." Chen Ruyun awkwardly tugged at the corners of her mouth. "I know I was wrong. I promise I won’t hit him again in the future, all right?"

"It’s fine if you don’t want us to hit you back, but today you must apologize properly to my brother in front of everyone!" Su Wanyue pressed in relentlessly.