"Who do you think you are, Wu Meili? You can't just search my house like that!" Wei Aiguo blocked the people who were trying to barge in.

"You're feeling guilty, aren't you? You don't dare let anyone search you!" Wu Meili said, one hand on her hip and the other pointing at Wei Aiguo.

Cheng Yousuo was the militia captain; everyone sometimes called him Captain Cheng. Wei Aiguo said, "I wonder whose orders Captain Cheng took to search my house today!"

Captain Cheng touched his nose. "I... I had no choice."

"Is it that the person who gave you the order is afraid to say it in public, or is it that no one gave you the order and it was your own idea?" Wei Aiguo's face was very gloomy.

"I... I let her. Where's Song Yan! Let her come out. She thought she could get away with hiding like that." Wu Meili shouted, spittle flying from her mouth, her cheeks flushed with excitement, one hand on her hip and the other pointing at Wei Aiguo.

Song Yan: He Jianian always considers himself an intellectual. He despises vulgarity and ignorance. Yet, he pursued Wu Meili to escape labor. Given this, how could he possibly do it? We should applaud his flexibility and resilience!

"Who is it? Shouting like that. I thought it was some old hag. You really don't hide your true colors. You've laid your whole face out in front of everyone like a shrew." A person with a job and education has an aura that no village girl can match. Song Yan walked up to everyone. She was shorter and thinner than Wu Meili, but she had more presence and could overshadow Wu Meili.

"You dare to insult me!" Wu Meili was a force to be reckoned with in the village; who dared to contradict her?

"Captain Cheng, is Wu Meili the brigade leader? Or the women's director?" Song Yan asked.

What could Captain Cheng say?

"Captain Cheng, ignore her and start searching!" Wu Meili shouted.

“Wu Meili, your father is the brigade leader. Can you exercise his authority on his behalf when he’s not around?” Song Yan asked.

"Captain Cheng, Comrade Wu Meili, I want to submit an article to the provincial daily newspaper to truthfully describe the bureaucratic style of the Qingshan Brigade cadres. The brigade leader is absent, yet his daughter, Wu Meili, can mobilize the militia without any evidence and act in his place. The militia captain actually dares not resist and obeys orders..."

Before Li Yuanzhao could finish speaking, Wu Changsheng rushed up and slapped Wu Meili across the face.

Wu Changsheng was furious. He already knew that Wu Meili had forced Cheng Yousuo to search Wei Aiguo's house based on mere speculation. He rushed over and overheard Li Yuanzhao's words. Li Yuanzhao frequently submitted articles to the newspaper; if this article were actually published, would she still be able to remain the brigade leader? She's definitely someone who knows how to use a pen; look how big a accusation she's trying to pin on herself!

Song Yan thought: As expected of the female lead, she immediately put the scene in control. Also, because she was a person who could speak up for justice, the educated youth had implicitly regarded her as their leader ever since she came to the brigade three years ago.

"Dad! You hit me?" Wu Meili had never been hit by her father before.

"Shut up! Cheng Yousuo, you're the militia captain, your job is to maintain village order, not to mess around." Captain Wu was furious. Beautiful nonsense? Didn't Cheng Yousuo know his place?

"I, I..." Cheng Yousuo stammered. He was forced into this situation because Wu Meili wouldn't let it go.

"Li Zhiqing, today is all a misunderstanding. It's Meili's fault, and I'll have Meili apologize to you right now." The brigade leader had absolute authority in the village, and this was the first time he'd ever done something like this.

Song Yan was unhappy. He was the one being blamed (although it was only half true—why only half? Because he had to pay the price). Wei Aiguo was the one whose house was surrounded. Captain Wu made Wu Meili apologize to Li Yuanzhao? Haha, I have a pen too.

There was a stone table in the courtyard. Song Yan took out a pencil and paper, sharpened the pencil in a few quick strokes, and began to write rapidly.

The captain grabbed Wu Meili and made her apologize to Li Yuanzhao.

"Captain, Wu Meili shouldn't have apologized to me!"

The captain held onto Meili tightly, refusing to let go. Wu Meili, emboldened, retorted, "I won't apologize! I did nothing wrong! What are they? They're just beggars coming to you for food!" This statement was far more serious. The captain had only intended to slap her once, to show his stance; this second slap... he wanted to kill Wu Meili...

"What are you doing?" The brigade leader's wife, who had just arrived after hearing the news, saw her husband beating their daughter, who was her precious darling. She yelled and rushed over, scratching the brigade leader. "You're hitting Meili for an outsider! Are you even human?"

The brigade leader was furious. It was all because this woman protected her daughter that she acted so lawlessly. There's an inherent physical difference between men and women; if the brigade leader laid a hand on them, how could the mother and daughter possibly survive? So, the brigade leader publicly performed a beating of his wife…

The captain's wife was also stunned by the beating. She yelled, "It was Cheng Yousuo who mobilized the militia, and it was Cheng Yousuo who ordered the search of the Wei family's house. Why did you hit my daughter?"

In all the years she had been married to her husband, this was the first time he had been beaten so badly. The brigade leader's wife immediately became obedient, because she saw her husband's clenched teeth; he wouldn't have looked like that unless he was extremely angry.

Only after his wife calmed down did he look for Li Yuanzhao. Li Yuanzhao was watching Song Yan write calligraphy. Several completed sheets of paper were weighed down on the stone table with pebbles. The first sheet had a neat title in regular script: Who Gave the Village Official's Family Members the Rights? Subheading: I'm a Beggar Under the Village Official's Command. The rest of the text was written in flowing cursive script.

The more Captain Wu read, the more frightened he became, breaking out in a cold sweat. Song, the educated youth, hadn't uttered a single lie; she simply wrote that the village captain's daughter, Wu Meili, had mobilized the militia to surround the villagers' homes, and that Wu Meili claimed the educated youth had come to beg for food from under the captain's command. This was a profound insult to the educated youth's dignity; the captain's wife was treating the villagers and educated youth as outsiders. Where was the awareness of a cadre's family member? How did cadres discipline and educate their families and children? Wasn't this detachment from the masses and bureaucratic practices? Wasn't this sabotaging the efforts of educated youth to support rural development?

My dear reader, there's more to this chapter! Please click the next page to continue reading—even more exciting content awaits!