Wen Yuzhen had lived most of her life and had seen unreasonable people, but she had never seen anyone so utterly depraved. She trembled with rage, pointing her finger at Granny Li's nose, each word seemingly squeezed out from between her teeth: "You...you're selling children! That's illegal! Aren't you afraid of being arrested and shot?"
"Pah!" Granny Li spat on the ground, completely ignoring Wen Yuzhen's threats. "Stop trying to scare people! What do you mean by selling? That's called adoption! It's her good fortune that city people want my granddaughter! Besides, what business is it of yours what I do with my own granddaughter? Did I eat your rice?"
She put her hands on her hips, and her fleshy body jiggled three times. Her slanted eyes rolled upwards, giving her an air of being in the right no matter who it was.
"You..." Wen Yuzhen was so angry that her chest tightened, and she couldn't swallow the words. She wanted to curse, but she realized that it would be a waste of breath to curse someone like this.
"Give her back...give me back my daughter..." Liu Fen, slumped on the ground like a broken puppet, could only utter this repeated, broken plea. She reached out to grab Granny Li's trouser leg, but Granny Li kicked her away in disgust.
"Get out of here! You're such a nuisance! Is it really necessary to make such a fuss over a little girl? You should use that energy to take care of your health and give me a grandson!"
This kick, with this amount of force, wouldn't have been anything to Liu Fen normally. But for a woman who had just given birth, was physically exhausted, and had suffered a huge blow, it became the last straw that broke the camel's back.
Liu Fen's eyes went blank. She stared straight at Granny Li's mean face, her lips moved, but no sound came out. Then, her body slumped backward, her eyes closed, and she fell straight down, her head hitting the hard ground with a "thud".
"Liu Fen!" Wen Yuzhen exclaimed in surprise, forgetting her argument with Granny Li, and rushed over to help her.
Granny Li was also startled by this and took a step back, still cursing under her breath: "What are you pretending to be dead for? I haven't even done anything to you yet!"
Wen Yuzhen checked Liu Fen's breathing and touched her forehead; it was ice-cold to the touch. She had completely passed out.
"You son of a bitch! You'll get your comeuppance!" Wen Yuzhen yelled at Granny Li, her eyes red. Unable to move Liu Fen by herself, she could only lay her flat on the ground before rushing out the door in a fit of anger and frustration. If she stayed any longer, she feared she might slap the old hag to death.
Granny Li watched Wen Yuzhen run away, then looked at her daughter-in-law lying on the ground. She felt a chill run down her spine, but she still forced herself to say, "If you're so capable, don't come back! It would be better if you died out there!"
Wen Yuzhen ran all the way home, her heart filled with anger.
With a "bang," she pushed the door open from the outside, and the wind blew in the cold air from the courtyard.
Su Wantang was tucking the blanket around Da Bao in the cradle when she was startled by the noise. She looked up and saw her mother-in-law's ashen face, her chest heaving violently, and her lips trembling.
"Mom, what's wrong?"
"I'm so angry! I'm so angry!" Wen Yuzhen walked to the table, picked up the tea that had long since gone cold, and gulped down more than half of it before she could finally catch her breath. She plopped down on a stool and poured out everything that had happened at Liu Fen's house, speaking and gesturing, all at once.
"...That old hag, she's not human! She's a beast! For fifty yuan, she sold her own granddaughter who was only a few days old! Liu Fen was so angry that she fainted on the spot and is still lying on the ground, we don't know if she's dead or alive..."
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