Volume One, Chapter 10: A Wife Won Through Struggle, Dough Shaped by Kneading

Before the threat could be uttered, the wrist holding the flashlight was seized by Xia Niannian, who had lunged forward. With a sharp tug, the man lost his footing and sprawled face-first onto the ground.

Xia Niannian acted with lightning speed, pinning Yang Ergou’s arm behind him. The man wailed and begged for mercy, his voice echoing as he slammed against the dirt.

Gu Nanzhou remained composed. After a few seconds of hesitation, he gave Wang Hu a look and stepped forward to pull Xia Niannian aside. He looked into her eyes and said, "Don't be reckless."

Xia Niannian was skilled in martial arts and didn't know how to hold back; he didn't want her to get into trouble over a small-time thug.

Seeing Xia Niannian pulled away, Li Ergou gritted his teeth and scrambled up, nursing his pain, intent on teaching her a lesson. But before he could even touch her, Xia Niannian’s foot had already connected with his stomach.

She sent him flying over a meter; had it not been for a table blocking his path, he would have been knocked even further.

Li Ergou wanted to curse, but a single glance from Gu Nanzhou turned his face deathly pale. He curled up on the ground, whimpering in agony.

Gu Nanzhou looked at the young woman before him, feeling a strange urge to laugh. He had never expected her to be so quick—mid-sentence, her foot had already struck.

Wang Hu shook his head, grabbed Li Ergou by the arm, and dragged him into the courtyard. "Whether she was lying or not, we'll find out soon enough."

He was genuinely impressed—or rather, baffled. Knowing full well they were no match for her, they still rushed to get beaten; if that wasn't a sign of a broken brain, he didn't know what was.

Now, having been kicked again, they truly deserved it.

Seeing how formidable Xia Niannian was—daring to strike someone even with the village chief and soldiers present—Li Meihua’s legs turned to jelly, and her back was drenched in cold sweat.

The cowardly lot, fearing retaliation from Li Ergou but also terrified of being targeted by village officials, spilled everything from start to finish before they even reached the brigade office.

Their entire family relied on the production team for their livelihood, and with the New Year approaching, no one dared to be a martyr.

That very evening, Gu Nanzhou and Wang Hu delivered Li Ergou to the Public Security Bureau. The troublemakers were scolded so severely by the village chief and party secretary that they didn't dare lift their heads.

Li Meihua, in particular, had all her dirty laundry aired out by Xia Niannian, who sat calmly by the fireplace. Xia Niannian even brought up the fact that Li Meihua had stolen and worn the underwear of Wang Cui’s mother-in-law.

Li Meihua’s youngest son had a girlfriend who taught in town; the girl's family insisted they live independently, or the marriage would be off. To secure her son's future and save face, Li Meihua had set her sights on her nephew’s house.

To force Wang Cui to leave willingly, she had spread rumors that Wang Cui was pregnant with an illegitimate child and that her husband’s death was caused by her and her supposed lover.

Wang Cui had confronted Li Meihua several times, only to be beaten until her face was a mass of bruises. During the last assault, she had nearly lost her baby.

She spent over half a month in the hospital trying to save the pregnancy, and not a single soul from Li Meihua’s family came to visit.

Fresh from the hospital after giving birth, Li Meihua had brought people to catch Wang Cui in an act of adultery. When they couldn't find anyone, she had ordered Yang Ergou to tear off the bedding...

Upon hearing Xia Niannian’s account, the elders of the clan could no longer sit still. One man slammed the table and stood up, pointing a trembling finger at Li Meihua and her husband, Yang Dawa, and cursing them soundly.

"When your parents were ill and needed care, you two claimed they were filthy and divided the family assets, taking the last ten yuan and all the grain for yourselves. The second son and his wife, who had just given birth, didn't say a word. Now you want the old family home and you're dragging the daughter-in-law’s name through the mud? Have you two dogs had your consciences eaten by wild curs? How can you be so heartless? If the cousin hadn't come, this widow and her orphan would have died without the village ever knowing!"

The old man was so enraged that he raised his walking stick and struck at the couple’s heads. Bystanders rushed to intervene, fearing the old man might suffer a stroke from the fury.

The onlookers joined in, using every insult they could think of. Those who were close to the late Yang Zhuzi took advantage of the chaos to kick the couple several times.

"It’s absolutely disgusting! They couldn't even afford a pair of underpants, so they stole them from their own nephew’s wife. It’s a disgrace to their ancestors!"

Following this uproar, Wang Cui’s reputation was thoroughly cleared. Even the medical expenses for her hospital stay were forced out of the eldest uncle’s family.

Two hundred yuan, along with two dozen eggs, two old hens, and two jin of white flour—which had been bought to entertain the in-laws—were delivered to Wang Cui’s home by the village chief early the next morning.

While the items might not have seemed like much, in those days, it was a staggering sum of compensation.

...

Looking at her destitute home, Li Meihua sat in the courtyard, wailing and rolling on the ground.

"How miserable is my life! That two hundred yuan was supposed to be for Xiangxi’s bride price! Stolen by that black-hearted disaster! I don't want to live anymore!"

Li Meihua cried with snot and tears streaming down her face. The children peeking over the wall laughed heartily at the sight.

Yang Dawa squatted in the corner, taking a furious drag of his pipe. He glared sideways at the woman on the ground and roared, "What are you howling for? Aren't you embarrassed enough? Look at the time—get up and make dinner!"

His reputation had been completely destroyed in the village by this wretched woman.

Li Meihua was in the depths of her grief, and hearing her husband say this, she sprang up from the ground, refusing to let it go. She pointed at Yang Dawa’s nose and launched into a tirade.

"Eat, eat, eat! That’s all you ever think about! The white flour and the eggs were all taken by Yang Jianshe for that disaster. Do you want me to go scoop manure to make your dinner?"

"You old fool, were you dead just now? When Yang Jianshe took everything, you didn't even try to stop him, just stood there smoking. Why didn't that smoke choke you to death, you old bastard?"

Driven to a frenzy, Li Meihua snatched the pipe from Yang Dawa’s hand and smashed it against the ground. She was so fast that Yang Dawa didn't even have time to react.

Everyone in the village knew Yang Dawa was addicted to his pipe and never went anywhere without it. Seeing it smashed into pieces was like losing his soul.

Sure enough, as Yang Dawa saw his pipe in shards, his rage skyrocketed. Without a word, he raised his hand and slapped Li Meihua across her face, hitting her so hard she could only shield her head, unable to fight back.

Furthermore, many men in the Northwest were deeply chauvinistic; feeling he had lost face by being cursed by his wife in front of so many people, he took off his shoe and began to lash out at Li Meihua’s face.

The three children tried to intervene, but Yang Dawa struck each of them with his shoe, leaving them standing by, too terrified to move.

Before long, the courtyard was packed with onlookers. Some even brought their dinner bowls out to watch Yang Dawa beat Li Meihua.

There were those who fanned the flames, never finding the drama intense enough.

"As the saying goes, a wife is like dough—the more you knead it, the better it gets. She still dares to talk back? That just shows Uncle Dawa is weak, letting a woman hold the reins. If this gets out, the other villages will laugh us to death."

"Hahaha..."

Between the jeers and the taunts, Yang Dawa was spurred on to mount Li Meihua and strike her repeatedly. Her shrieks were enough to carry for miles.

If the brigade leaders hadn't arrived in time to pull them apart, someone might have died in that courtyard today.

"You two are over a hundred years old combined. Can’t you have a shred of dignity?"

They were scolded severely in front of everyone, with no face spared. Had they been literate, a thousand-word letter of self-criticism would have been the bare minimum.