Xu Dageng shot his wife a disapproving look. 'She's at that awkward age—not quite a child, not quite an adult. It's when pride matters most. Couldn't you have waited to talk to her in private?'
「Outside the courtyard gate.」
Xu Changqing glanced at her grandparents, who had come out with the crowd, her eyes lingering on her grandmother. Just a moment ago, the old woman had worn a gentle, apologetic smile. Now, her face was drawn in a long, grim line.
"What are you doing? Look how you've scared the girl. Whatever it is, we can talk about it after things settle down. Are you really going to leave our third son's wife in there all by herself? You're worn out today, too. Go on inside."
Old Mrs. Xu, Wang Shaoyao, usually deferred to her husband. Whatever he said, went. But hearing his words now, she couldn't stamp out the fire raging inside her.
"You go rest. I'm not tired." Seeing that it was getting late and her husband apparently had no intention of returning to their eldest son's house for the night, Old Mrs. Xu stepped aside to let him go in first.
Xu Dageng saw this and knew her stubborn temper was flaring. He walked past her, but instead of going through the gate she had cleared, he sat down on the nearby threshold, took out his pipe, and started to light it.
Old Mrs. Xu wasn't surprised. She knew he wouldn't enter while their daughter-in-law was home alone. Besides, he was worried she might hit the girl. On any other day, she would have been the one to back down and go inside with him.
But now?
"Don't you worry about it. Just sit tight."
She deftly grabbed her granddaughter, who was taller than her, and pulled her a short distance from the gate. She figured that if things got loud, her heavily pregnant daughter-in-law inside the house wouldn't be able to hear.
After stopping, Old Mrs. Xu bent down and picked a thin switch up off the ground. "Behave now. Palms up."
Seeing her grandmother issue the command in a calm, unhurried tone, Xu Changqing quickly waved off her grandfather, who was anxiously starting to stand up nearby, and obediently held her palms out to her grandmother.
When Old Mrs. Xu saw her granddaughter wasn't going to resist, much of her anger subsided. Still, the movement of her hand didn't falter as she kept the switch held high.
WHACK… WHACK… WHACK…
After striking her left palm three times, the switch moved to her right. By the second strike there, the force had already lessened. Xu Changqing watched Old Mrs. Xu, and for some reason, scenes from her dream began to replay in her mind.
"Grandma."
"Still not enough for you?"
'If that dream was real, you're so pitiful. In the end, you'll be angered to death by your precious eldest granddaughter…' "If you're angry, just take it out on me…"
"You still don't think you did anything wrong?"
The moment the words left her mouth, Xu Changqing knew she'd spoken too rashly. But was she supposed to put on a sycophantic grin and suck up to her? She couldn't bring herself to smile. That's why she truly didn't understand how the "her" from the dream could have later become so black-hearted and shameless, able to spew lies so easily. That wasn't who she was. She would rather die than speak against her conscience.
Biting her lip, Xu Changqing kept her hands outstretched, lowering her gaze to look at her own palms. "Wrong? I really don't think I did anything wrong. What was my mistake?
He dared to have sticky fingers in my own home. I only held back from crippling him for Xu Baimei's sake. But what did she do? She started throwing punches without even asking a single question.
I went easy on her. The first time, she started harassing Brother Gangzi and hitting him right in front of my mother without any explanation. The second time, she lunged at me, and at first, I didn't even fight back.
And after that?" As she spoke, Xu Changqing glanced up at Old Mrs. Xu's stony face. "It's better left unsaid. If you're not satisfied, then keep hitting me. But it's either me or her."
What? As Old Mrs. Xu listened, a fresh wave of fury surged through her. She subconsciously raised the switch and swung.
Xu Changqing watched the thin switch land on her arm. Did it hurt? It hurt. But suddenly, she had the inexplicable urge to laugh. And so she did, laughing until tears streamed down her face.
Seeing her granddaughter's strange reaction, Old Mrs. Xu slowly stopped. The arm holding the switch dropped limply to her side. She took one last look at her granddaughter, who was staring up at the sky, then turned and walked away without a word.
'What kind of drama is this now?'
Witnessing this, Xu Dageng opened his mouth, at a loss for what to say. When he saw his wife finally heading inside, he silently patted his granddaughter's thin shoulder, heaved a long sigh, and followed her.
"Dad, Mom, you're back." Bai Xiulan said, watching her in-laws enter one after the other. Her eyes went to her mother-in-law, who led the way with a grim expression. She quickly tried to placate them, "Please don't take it to heart. What sisters haven't argued and fought before? It's just a bit shocking when it happens so suddenly with our girls."
Old Mrs. Xu gave her daughter-in-law a complicated look. After a moment's thought, she said before entering the east room, "You should get to sleep early, too. It'll be a long while before your husband and the boy get back."
Hearing this, Xu Dageng instinctively glanced toward the doorway of the main room. He paused for a second, then turned to his watching daughter-in-law and offered a reassuring smile before silently following his wife inside.
Bai Xiulan wasn't surprised. Just as her mother-in-law said, her husband hadn't been home in several days. After escorting the children's uncle and the others, there was no way he'd be back this quickly.
As for those two girls? 'The older one was probably in her own little home, waiting hand and foot on that husband of hers who thinks she's the most beautiful woman in the world. As for the younger one, she was probably scared of the reckoning to come and was sticking to her father's side, not daring to come home.'
'What a bunch of troublemakers. I used to think the older one was a handful, but at least the younger one was obedient. Who knew the little one would end up causing even more trouble than the big one? Look at this mess they've made. Not a moment of peace with any of them.'
Seeing that her in-laws were already inside, Bai Xiulan knew that if she lingered any longer, her mother-in-law would start telling her to go to bed. She quickly picked up the oil lamp from a niche in the west wall and entered the west outer room.
「Outside the courtyard gate.」
Xu Changqing stared up at the sky, motionless. After a long while, she gave a bitter smile as she glanced toward the threshing ground, then wearily raised her stinging palms to rub her face.
"Uncle?"
Bai Xinsheng had just finished a circuit of the threshing ground. Seeing that the night watchmen were doing their duty, he discussed tomorrow's arrangements with the brigade leader, who also hadn't gone home yet. Only then did he start to leave.
He was just about to reach his own gate when he suddenly heard someone call out to him. If it hadn't been for the dead of night, he might not have caught the faint, soft cry.
Seeing the striding Bai Xinsheng finally come to a halt, Xu Changqing hurried out from the shadows of a tree by the road to meet him.
"Afraid I'll agree to that punk's outrageous demands?" Bai Xinsheng said before Xu Changqing could even speak, guessing exactly why his niece was waiting for him.
"I did nothing wrong!"
"…" Bai Xinsheng fell silent. If it wasn't so late, and if the girl hadn't already fainted from exhaustion earlier that day, he really would have given her a proper talking-to.
'Who said you were wrong? If you were the one at fault, do you think you'd be standing here unscathed? You would've gotten a beating long ago!' "Fine," he said. "When he states his terms, I'll let you know first."
"That won't be necessary. I couldn't care less about my reputation. What even is a reputation?" 'Can you eat it?' she thought. Xu Changqing kicked at a clod of dirt on the ground. "This is the perfect opportunity to show everyone that our family is strong, whether we have a son or not. It'll put Mom's mind at ease, too. It doesn't matter one bit if I get a little brother or a little sister."
'You really are your father's daughter!'
'She even sounds just like him! The very same attitude!'