Chapter Twenty-Seven: Rumors
Old Song, his back hunched, his weathered face flushed red with excitement and anger, his lips trembling.
Wang was holding a girl who was trembling and crying uncontrollably in her arms. It was Song Ru.
Wang cried her heart out, patting her daughter's back while wailing and cursing in a shrill voice, her face covered in tears and snot: "You damned beast! How could I have given birth to such a troublesome devil! That's your own sister, your own sister!"
"How dare you...how dare you sell her to that old coffin maker to pay off debts behind your parents' backs? Have you lost your mind? My Ru'er...my lifeline...you heartless beast almost ruined her!"
Song Ru huddled in her mother's arms, her small body trembling uncontrollably. Her face was deathly pale, her eyes swollen like peaches, and tears streamed silently down her face. Her eyes were filled with immense fear as she clung tightly to her mother's clothes, as if they were her only lifeline.
Kneeling on the ground, Song Jiabao was so scolded by his mother that he couldn't lift his head. He still muttered in a low voice, trying to justify himself: "I...I had no choice...those people wanted to cut off my hand...I...I was confused for a moment...Father...Mother...please forgive me..."
"Spare you? Bah!"
Old Man Song spat out a mouthful of spittle, his hand trembling as he pointed at his son, his voice filled with overwhelming anger.
"If it weren't for your clever sister overhearing your conversation with those bastards and risking her life to find your mother... if it weren't for the village chief arriving in time with his men and blocking those damned bastards at the village entrance... my Ru-jie... my Ru-jie would have been sold by you! Sold for ten taels of silver to fill that bottomless pit for you! Song Jiabao, I... I wish I could beat you to death, you beast!"
As he spoke, he actually bent down, took off one of his worn-out cloth shoes, and was about to rush forward to fight.
The strong men nearby quickly stopped them.
The village chief slammed his hand on the table: "Silence! Old Man Song, sit down! This is the council chamber, not your private bed!"
The village chief's face was ashen; he was clearly furious.
He looked around the room, his gaze sweeping across the faces of Zhang Liuyi and the other villagers watching, before finally settling on Song Jiabao, who was kneeling.
"The matter is clear. Song Jiabao, you are addicted to gambling and have accumulated huge debts. Instead of repenting, you dared to secretly collude with human traffickers behind your parents' backs, attempting to sell your younger sister, Song Ru, to Liu Laocai, a wealthy man in the county, as his second wife. Using your sister to pay off debts is an act worse than that of a beast! It is utterly immoral and corrupts human ethics! According to village rules and clan laws, you should be severely punished without leniency."
The village chief's words confirmed Song Jiabao's crimes, and the villagers watching were immediately in an uproar.
"My God! He really did it himself?"
"Selling your own sister? This...this is inhuman!"
"You always look so listless, how could you be so heartless?"
"No wonder Mr. and Mrs. Song cried so much, they were really scared!"
"They've been bewitched! They'd even sell out their own family for gambling!"
Standing in the crowd, Zhang Liuyi felt a chill run from the soles of his feet to the top of his head.
So that's how it is! It wasn't that Mr. and Mrs. Song were heartless enough to sell their daughter; it was actually this good-for-nothing second brother who, in order to extricate himself, deceived everyone and tried to push his own sister into a pit of fire.
Her gaze was fixed on Song Ru.
The little girl was clinging tightly to her mother, her body still trembling violently. Her eyes, which had once been full of hope and innocence, were now empty.
"Father...Mother...I was wrong...I was really wrong...Please forgive me...I'll never do it again..."
Only now did Song Jiabao truly feel fear. Looking at his father's bloodshot eyes, listening to his mother's heart-wrenching cries and curses, and feeling the contemptuous and disgusted looks of the surrounding villagers, he burst into tears and desperately kowtowed, begging for mercy.
"Spare you?" The village chief's gaze was sharp as a blade. "You have committed such a heinous crime, how can you let me off so easily? Men, take Song Jiabao away and lock him in the side room of the ancestral hall under strict guard! Tomorrow, the clan elders will discuss and decide how to deal with him! As for the accomplices and thugs sent by Liu Laocai, they have already been detained by this village chief. Together with the indenture signed by Song Jiabao, they will be sent to the county government. The government will handle the justice!"
Two strong men immediately stepped forward and dragged Song Jiabao, who was limp on the ground and wailing for mercy, away like a dead dog.
Only then did Old Man Song and Madam Wang seem to have all their strength drained away. Holding their daughter, whom they had lost and then found again, they wept even more bitterly.
Standing in the crowd, Zhang Liuyi looked at the family of three, who were tightly embracing and crying, and then at the village chief's dignified yet tired face. He was filled with mixed emotions.
Fortunately, she was surrounded by kind people, and her aunt had taken care of her since she was a child.
Zhang Liuyi returned home with the thrilling and unexpected events that had unfolded in front of the council hall, as dusk quietly enveloped the courtyard.
The aroma of food wafted from the kitchen, where Zhang Dashan was busy preparing dinner, while Xiao Nan'er played with wooden blocks on the floor of the main room.
Zhang Dahe, meanwhile, absentmindedly wiped the long table in the main room, a symbol of honor, upon which sat Zhang Liuji's scroll of blue cloth and red ink, documenting his craftsman's registration.
“Father, Uncle, I’m back.” Zhang Yili put down his hoe.
"You're back? Is the land all ready?" Zhang Dashan tapped the shovel used for shoveling ashes in the kitchen.
"Yes, it's all turned over, and the fertilizer has been spread." Zhang Yili replied, walking to the water tank to scoop water to wash his hands.
Zhang Dashan poked his head out of the kitchen: "Sister Yi, what's going on at the village council hall? Is it really in trouble?" He had obviously heard the news as well, and his face showed concern.
Zhang Liuyi washed his hands, dried them with a cloth, and then walked to the center of the main room.
Zhang Dahe also stopped wiping and, together with Zhang Dashan, focused their attention on her, waiting to hear what would happen next.
Zhang Liuyi took a deep breath and recounted exactly what she had seen in front of the council hall:
How did Song Jiabao become so blinded by greed that, to pay off gambling debts, he dared to secretly collude with a kidnapper to sell his younger sister, Song Ru, to a wealthy man even more powerful than his own father? How did Song Ru cleverly overhear this and risk her life to run away for help?
Every detail she described was enough to send chills down one's spine.
As she spoke, the atmosphere in the main room grew increasingly heavy.
Zhang Dashan forgot to smoke his pipe, and the smoke swirled around him. Zhang Dahe's knuckles turned white as he gripped the rag tightly. Li Xiulan, holding Xiao Nan'er, listened in stunned silence.
Even the naive little Nan'er seemed to sense the adults' seriousness and quietly nestled in her mother's arms.
"My God..." Zhang Dashan exhaled a long breath after hearing this, and slammed his pipe heavily on the threshold, making a dull sound.
"This...this second son of the Song family...he's really bewitched! Selling his own sister? This...this is simply inhuman! He's even more despicable than that Sun Laizi! At least Sun Laizi acknowledged Xiaobao, but he's...he's selling his own flesh and blood!"
"Utterly depraved, worse than a beast!"
Zhang Dahe slammed his hand on the table, making the official documents on it jump.
"He'd even sell his own sister for gambling? His heart is black! Utterly rotten! The county magistrate should punish him severely! Lock him up for ten or eight years and let him suffer!"
Holding her child, Li Xiulan patted her chest with lingering fear: "Thank goodness... Thank goodness! Luckily, Sister Ru was quick-witted, luckily her mother arrived in time, and luckily the village chief led people to intercept them. If she had really been sold... that child's life would have been ruined..."
She looked down at the innocent little Nan'er in her arms, and thinking of Song Ru's experience, she felt a chill run down her spine.
After a brief moment of anger and lingering fear, Zhang Dashan frowned, as if he had remembered something more important. He looked at Zhang Yili with deep worry in his voice.
"Yi-jie, I just heard your sister-in-law say... the rumors in the village are that... Old Man Song and his wife are going to sell their daughter to pay off their son's debts?"
“Yes,” Zhang nodded heavily, “It’s all over the place. People are saying that the Song couple are heartless and are pushing their own daughter into a fire pit for the sake of their good-for-nothing son.”
"Absurd, utterly absurd!"
Zhang Dahe suddenly stood up and paced restlessly in the main room: "These rumors... are too terrible! They can turn white into black! They can talk a living person to death! It was clearly that beastly son who committed the evil deeds behind his parents' backs! How did it become that his parents heartlessly sold their daughter?"
Zhang Dashan took a drag of his cigarette. Amidst the swirling smoke, he paused, his gaze sweeping over everyone in the room, his tone becoming more solemn and serious than ever before.
“Liu Ji now has an official certificate and is a craftsman for the government. Our family is now quite prominent in the village. But the bigger the tree, the more the wind blows. Today’s incident is a warning. Brother, sister-in-law, Xiulan, Liu Ji, Yi’er, from now on, our family must be more careful with our words and actions in the village and stay away from gossip and idle talk.”
Zhang Dahe stopped and nodded in deep agreement, picking up where his brother left off, his tone resolute: "Yes, Dashan is right, watch your mouths! Don't listen to what you shouldn't hear, and don't spread what you shouldn't spread! And don't get involved in those baseless rumors! Our family should just focus on farming, Liuji should do his carpentry work well, Yi'er should manage her stall well, and Xiulan should take care of the family and Xiaonan. Making our own lives prosperous is more important than anything else! We won't wade into those muddy waters of gossip and spreading lies! Do you hear me?"
Zhang Liuji looked up from his reverie, met his father's and uncle's serious faces, and nodded vigorously: "Dad, Uncle, I remember. We'll earn our living with our skills and work hard. We won't listen to any of that gossip."
Having gone through the trials of the examinations, he appeared more composed.
Li Xiulan quickly added, "Father, Uncle, don't worry. We women know what's important. From now on, whatever we hear, we'll let it go in one ear and out the other, and we'll never spread rumors."
Looking at her family's solemn expressions and earnest promises, Zhang felt a surge of warmth and peace in her heart.
She recalled Song Ru's gaze, and looking at the home before her—not wealthy, but united and reliable—she felt an immense sense of preciousness.
She replied softly, "Yes, Uncle, Father, I remember. Let's keep our lives separate, not cause trouble, not be afraid of trouble, and not spread rumors."
Under the dim light of the oil lamp, the shadows of the family flickered on the wall.
The night outside the window grew darker, enveloping Zhuoshui Village, which had just experienced a turmoil of emotions.
The candlelight in the Zhang family courtyard seemed exceptionally peaceful and reassuring.
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