He was being criticized and judged by three aunties who were old enough to be his ancestors...

Ye Guo's face flushed red, then turned ashen, his voice filled with gritted teeth: "Nonsense! If you dare to spread rumors again, I'll tear your mouths apart."

"Hurry! Hurry! He's furious!" Ma Dajiao slapped his thigh and laughed.

Shen Meihua rolled her eyes. "That's called being embarrassed and angry. Don't you have any children in your family who go to school?"

Ye Guo was about to swing his hoe to chase away the gossipy old women when Wenrou, sensing something was wrong, began to back away.

"Ye Guo, you fucking incompetent, you're lying to me?" A lame man carrying farm tools walked down the dirt road, followed by a crying little girl.

The lame man came up and delivered a direct hit to Ye Guo.

Bang--!

Ye Guo fell backward onto the field. He covered his mouth, which had been cut by teeth, and his pupils shrank as he shouted, "Someone's being hit! Captain, the cripple is hitting someone!"

The little girl, who had been brought by her father to demand an explanation with a heartbroken expression, stopped crying when she heard Ye Guo call her father a cripple. She rushed up and started slapping his face from both sides.

"You're the cripple, you're not only crippled, you're incompetent."

Ye Guo, who had never suffered such a humiliation, wanted to fight back, but was restrained by three aunts who had exchanged glances, a situation commonly known as taking sides.

They were groaning and saying "Don't hit me!" but actually they were using dirty tricks.

The educated youth who rushed over after hearing the commotion had no idea what was going on. They saw their own people being bullied by the villagers. How could this be allowed?

In an instant, a chaotic fight broke out in the field.

By the time the brigade leader arrived, the educated youth had been pinned to the ground and were unable to move.

He roared, "Stop it, all of you!"

Shen Meihua shuddered, realizing she had gotten herself into trouble. She hurriedly and sullenly told everyone to stop. The captain came down and helped the young men up.

An angry gaze swept across the faces of the group, while a crowd of onlookers gathered nearby.

"What happened? Tell me! If you don't, all the wages for the workers who did the job today will be deducted."

Ye Guo pointed at Chen Meihua and the others with a face full of resentment and complained: "Captain! These people come to me as soon as they start work and talk about all sorts of nonsense. This cripple is even worse. He came up and started hitting people."

You need to give me an explanation today. If you can't explain it clearly, I'll call the police.

"This is outrageous! Are the villagers collectively bullying the educated youth?"

"What did they say about you?" The brigade leader was indifferent. He had heard the city kids complaining about this and that all the time.

"They said...they said..." Ye Guo stammered, unable to say the words they used to slander him for bedwetting and incompetence, his face turning a deep purplish-red.

"You all speak," the captain said, pointing at the three timid women. His voice was authoritative even without anger.

Seeing the three men tremble and lower their heads, Qian the Cripple, having calmed his breathing, said, "Let me explain!"

"This guy said he wanted to marry my daughter half a month ago. I saw that he was from the city and had been hardworking and reliable in our village for the past few years, so I decided to marry my daughter to him."

I just heard today that he's not only impotent, but he also wets the bed. Isn't this marriage fraud?

Ye Guo was a little hesitant at first. He had been living in the countryside for several years and it was time for him to get married. His family had only agreed to give a dowry of fifty yuan, which was only enough to marry a village girl who had little knowledge of the ways of the world.

The village chief and the brigade leader's daughter both looked down on him, so he set his sights on Qian Duoduo, whose family background was simple.

There's only one crippled father in the family. If she marries him, she'll do the laundry, cook, and have children. If she can't go back to the city, that's how her life will be. If she has the chance to go back to the city, he can just leave. Liang, the only daughter of this crippled father, can't do anything about it.

He glanced at Qian Duoduo with a hint of resentment in his eyes, thinking, "Didn't we agree not to tell our family about our relationship?"

Country women are indeed ignorant and unable to keep their secrets.

But when he heard the lame man say something about being impotent and bedwetting, he panicked and loudly protested, "No!"

I am perfectly healthy. You are all spreading rumors and slander, talking complete nonsense.

Seeing the brigade leader looking over, Shen Meihua quickly said, "Don't look at me, it was Xiao Ruan, an educated youth, who exposed his bedwetting!"

In her panic, she rushed over to Wenrou, who was hiding behind the crowd: "Girl! Tell me, did he wet the bed? And you even washed his dirty underwear for him!"

Everyone: Wow, that's exciting!

They couldn't help but whisper among themselves.

Although it was said to be spoken softly, the sound was almost as loud as shouting across a distance.

"Really bedwetting?"

"Bedwetting may not be the case, but this educated youth Ye is about twenty-three or twenty-four years old. In our village, if a kid isn't married at that age, he's considered an old bachelor. Would he not get married if he didn't have some kind of problem in that area?"

"Ugh! How smelly must a pair of underwear that leaks urine be? Doesn't Wen Zhiqing find it disgusting? What's she after?"

"You just don't understand! Young people these days value free love. What you consider garbage can't be candy to someone else."

The whispers and pointing fingers around her, along with the oppressive gaze of the captain, brought Wenrou to the brink of collapse several times.

"No! I've never washed any of his clothes, and I don't even know if Comrade Ye wets the bed. I didn't!"

“You have it! You have it!” Shen Meihua jumped up and down, beaming with pride: “Ruan Zhiqing said it himself.”

Ruan, Xian, Xian!

The brigade leader gritted his teeth and pointed at one of the men, saying, "You, you go to the educated youth settlement and bring that troublemaker over here."

So, with two red marks on her cheeks and a tuft of hair on her head, Ruan Xianxian was dragged from her bed to the fields.

When questioned by the crowd, this guy looked completely innocent.

"I'm innocent, Captain! It was clearly Wen, the educated youth, who said he was going to wash the men's clothes. You can ask the educated youth section if you don't believe me; everyone heard it!"

When Xiang Hongjun glanced at them, the male educated youths all lowered their heads in shame. Last night, the two leaders had mentioned this matter, and since they thought someone would wash their clothes, none of them had refused.

Chu Li and Wu Xueliang were surprised; they had been having a private meal together on the mountain the night before and had no idea.

Mu Xia stepped forward: "That's right! I can testify that it was Comrade Ye who started it, and Wen Zhiqing made the decision to agree."

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