Chapter 034: A Difficult Problem, the First Case

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Behind Lixin Primary School stood several low, dilapidated houses—the school buildings and offices that had not been completely demolished years ago.

Ten years had passed. With no one using or living in them, the buildings had collapsed in places and caved in elsewhere, rotting into a ruinous mess.

The person Feng Rui was looking for lived in one of the old classrooms that had partially collapsed.

The three of them had not yet reached it when a little head poked out from a battered wooden shack. The child smiled upon seeing Feng Rui.

Feng Rui waved. “Dongzi, is your mother home?”

The boy nodded, then turned toward the room and called, “Mom, Uncle Feng is here.”

Before long, someone inside moved aside the unlatched wooden door. A woman who looked about twenty-four or twenty-five bent down and crawled out. She smiled at Feng Rui.

“Teacher Feng, you’re here.”

Feng Rui chuckled and introduced her to Tian Xiang and Chen Yong. The woman was Yan Xiaomai, the eldest daughter-in-law of the Huang family from Family Compound No. 9.

“Comrade Xiaomai, these are two new clerks in our office, Tian Xiang and Chen Yong. If you need anything in the future, you can come to them as well.”

Yan Xiaomai rubbed her hands together and smiled awkwardly, her eyes filled with envy as she looked at the two of them.

They were so young, yet already had jobs—and at the machinery plant, no less.

“Comrades, it’s such a mess inside that there isn’t even room to stand, so I won’t invite you in. Maybe next time. If we get the chance, I’ll make you both some tea.”

Yan Xiaomai sounded rather embarrassed. Clearly, that was not something she would be able to do anytime soon.

Tian Xiang glanced through the doorway and saw piles of matchboxes on the floor.

It seemed Yan Xiaomai was also part of the group that pasted matchboxes.

But as the eldest daughter-in-law of the Huang family, why was she living alone with her son in this ramshackle house?

The three of them did not stay long. There was nowhere even to sit, so discussing the matter was inconvenient.

Feng Rui briefly asked about the recent circumstances of the mother and son, then left with Tian Xiang and Chen Yong.

Once outside, the three of them stood beneath a tree and talked.

Before long, Feng Rui told them everything he knew about Yan Xiaomai and her son.

Yan Xiaomai’s husband, Huang Wenhua, had once been a skilled technician in a machinery-factory workshop. He had died of a brain tumor nearly a year earlier.

Six months ago, Yan Xiaomai and Du Zhiqiang, a loading worker at the textile mill, had developed feelings for each other.

Du Zhiqiang had sent a matchmaker to Yan Xiaomai’s home, hoping to marry her.

But Yan Xiaomai’s father-in-law, Huang Hongyun—the father of Huang Wenhua—was firmly opposed. Instead, he insisted that Yan Xiaomai marry his younger son, Huang Wenbiao.

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For an elder brother to die and his younger brother to marry the widow, raising his nephew as his own son—it did not sound pleasant, but it was not against the regulations. In some places, it was even an established custom.

The problem was that Yan Xiaomai wanted to marry Du Zhiqiang, not Huang Wenbiao.

She could not accept marrying her brother-in-law, either.

Each of the people involved had his or her own ideas. They had argued, and they had fought.

Yan Xiaomai refused to marry her husband’s younger brother. The street office and neighborhood committee came to mediate. Since Huang Wenhua was dead, there was no reason to force Yan Xiaomai to marry his younger brother. She had the freedom to choose her own marriage.

Huang Hongyun knew perfectly well that he had no legal grounds, so he kept his grandson and drove Yan Xiaomai out of the house.

She could remarry, but she was absolutely not allowed to take the boy with her.

He could never allow his own flesh and blood to become another family’s son.

If Yan Xiaomai had simply married into the Du family, the matter would have ended there. But she could not bear to part with her son. Huang Qidong had been raised by her since childhood, and he could not bear to leave his mother either. Neither of them could live without the other, so the marriage never took place.

During that incident, Yan Xiaomai had struck her head against the outer gate while her son cried inside until he developed a fever. In the end, the street office contacted the factory trade union, and Chairman Jiang intervened, bringing mother and son back together.

But the conflict itself remained unresolved.

Huang Hongyun began acting like a complete rogue. He refused to let mother and son back into the house, and he would not allow Yan Xiaomai to take her son to the Du family. Unless she married his younger son or left the boy behind, nothing could be done. No one could persuade him.

With no other choice, Yan Xiaomai brought her son here to live.

Tian Xiang asked, “Does Yan Xiaomai have no family of her own?”

Why had her family not stepped in? How could they allow their married daughter to be bullied by her husband’s family like this?

“Yan Xiaomai’s family lives in a village more than two hundred li away,” Feng Rui replied. “It takes another half a day by car to get there from here. Besides, this has been going on for so long that they couldn’t possibly be unaware of it. The fact that no one has come means her family is unwilling to take in her and the boy. They simply cannot or will not get involved.”

That made sense too.

“But why is Yan Xiaomai the only one trying to leave the Huang family?” Tian Xiang asked. “What about Du Zhiqiang? Didn’t he want to marry her? Did he not think of doing anything, or make any effort at all?”

“It’s not that Du Zhiqiang did nothing,” Feng Rui said. “He just has no family to rely on, apart from an elderly blind mother. Huang Hongyun was determined to prevent the two of them from marrying. He held on to the household registration booklet and refused to hand it over, and he even stopped the street office from issuing the certificate they needed to register their marriage. When Du Zhiqiang took Yan Xiaomai to his home, he went there and cut his wrists.”

Feng Rui emphasized, “He really cut his wrists! The wound was this deep…”

He gestured dramatically as he spoke.

“At first, the street office and Chairman Jiang even wanted to handle the matter discreetly. They planned to have the police station transfer Yan Xiaomai’s household registration back to her native village, then have her remarry from there. The street office would testify for the two of them and issue a certificate so they could force the marriage through. But after Huang Hongyun pulled a stunt like that, no one dared to act.

“After all, if someone really died, who could bear the responsibility?”

And so the matter had remained deadlocked. Yan Xiaomai had been living in that ruined house with her son for several months.

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Feng Rui sighed. “They’re truly pitiful, but for now, there’s no better solution.”

The three of them pushed their bicycles back to the factory.

Feng Rui still had to go to the factory administration building, so he left first.

Now that Tian Xiang was a factory employee, she no longer had to leave her bicycle outside. She could put it directly in the bicycle shed.

As she went with Chen Yong to park their bicycles, Tian Xiang asked him, “Did you hear about Yan Xiaomai’s situation at the time?”

This was the first time Tian Xiang had taken the initiative to speak to Chen Yong. Even though they were only discussing work, Chen Yong felt quite pleased.

He flicked his hair in what he considered a handsome manner. “With things getting that serious, of course I heard about it.”

“Besides what Teacher Feng just told us, do you know anything else?”

Tian Xiang was rather curious about why Old Man Huang was so insistent on making Yan Xiaomai marry his younger son.

She had heard that after Huang Wenhua died, his job had been transferred to his younger brother. Huang Wenbiao was now also an employee of the machinery factory. There was no reason he should be unable to find a wife.

Chen Yong scratched his head. “I’m not really sure. It happened over in the resettlement district, after all. But I have seen Huang Wenbiao a few times. He has a sharp mouth and a simian face. Before he got a job, he spent all day wandering around, poking his nose into everything. He was nothing but a street loafer.”

Tian Xiang thought to herself, You have some nerve calling him a street loafer. Weren’t you one yourself before?

She opened her notebook and wrote down what Chen Yong had just told her.

Chen Yong was puzzled. “Why are you writing even that down?”

“It might be one of the clues.”

Chen Yong found it amusing. “What is this, an investigation? Clues?”

Tian Xiang shot him a glance. “What do you know?”

“All right, all right. I don’t know anything.”

Chen Yong had no intention of arguing with the great beauty.

“Oh, by the way,” Tian Xiang asked, “do you know Madam Peng’s son?”

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