On the second day of the Lunar New Year, A-Mian and Meng Chijian returned to Lujia Village to offer incense and pay their respects.
Before we even reached the woods, we could hear Lu's father hiccuping, seemingly chatting animatedly with the others who had come to pay their respects.
"Sigh, what's the use of having a daughter? She'll always belong to someone else's family... And look at me, all alone and lonely during the New Year!"
"Hehe, yes, it has to be a son. I see that Zhang family's daughter-in-law has a pointed belly, it must be a son."
Old Man Lu clicked his tongue twice, "Your family is so much better... You have several sons, but you don't even raise a daughter! If I had known I'd have such an ungrateful daughter, hiccup..."
Just as Meng Chijian was about to go up and yell at them, A Mian grabbed the carrying pole she was carrying and rushed over quickly!
This turn of events was completely unexpected. Instead of heading straight for Father Lu, Ah Mian turned and ran to the group she had been talking to, launching a vicious attack on them. Not only that, she kicked the tombstone, smashing the offerings scattered on the ground to pieces!
"Madman! That crazy woman is here again! Do you really think we can't handle you?!"
"It's the New Year, why invite such bad luck? Little brother, go and catch her!"
This was clearly a small family that had come to pay their respects. There were three men and two women. The eldest man was probably of the same generation as Lu's father, around forty years old, while the youngest man had just come of age.
The other two women, who had married into the village from another village, turned pale and screamed in terror.
But Ah Mian wasn't so easy to catch. With a deft push of her feet, she leaped up into the tree. "The Huang family is shameless," she said, throwing stones down at the same time, "I'll kill you all!"
"You...you're a married woman, what are you doing!" Father Lu shouted in anguish. "Get down here! You Meng guy, look at the wife you're managing! Making such a scene during the New Year, anyone who tells anyone will say she's an illegitimate child!"
Meng Chijian shrugged. “A-Mian is a well-liked woman in our village, praised by everyone. She has the kindest heart. If it weren’t for the bad things you’ve done, how could she have ended up like this? Besides, how many of you are as agile as her? Several of you couldn’t catch her. If she were in the army, she would definitely be a scout.”
Father Lu: "...So I'm supposed to praise her?"
At this moment, one of the Huang family women prostrated herself on the ground and wept bitterly, "Our family has done nothing wrong to you, how could you attack us right away and even destroy my father-in-law's grave, making him restless even in the afterlife..."
Huang Xiaodi shouted, "What are we afraid of her for! She used to try and chop up our house with a kitchen knife. Do you really think we're scared?"
As he spoke, he went to shake the new tree where Ah Mian was, trying to shake Ah Mian down.
Meng Chijian strode over, grabbed the man by the collar, and lifted him up, locking his throat tightly with his arm. "Try moving him again."
Only then did everyone present realize that this couple were truly a perfect match, both being unreasonable and ruthless.
Meng Chijian looked up through the gaps in the tree shadows and saw that A Mian was still furious. He had never seen her like this before; it was as if all the hairs on her body had stood on end.
Boss Huang's face turned ashen: "Can't we talk this out? You... let him go. We can't afford to mess with him, so can't we just leave?!"
The weeping woman was even more puzzled. She looked up and realized how strange this was.
In the countryside, no one would disturb ancestral graves without a deep-seated grudge. Yet this family, who were the ones who were passive, just jumped up and down and cursed a few times.
What kind of person is this young lady?
How could such a young lady get married... The more she thought about it, the more uneasy she felt.
The Huang family didn't want to stay any longer. Meng Chijian released his arm, and Huang's younger brother coughed a few times before quickly catching up. "I really don't understand you guys, what are you so afraid of—"
Snap!
Before he could finish speaking, Boss Huang slapped his underling hard across the face, yelling, "You talk too much!"
They left, but Ah Mian remained in the tree.
Meng Chijian ignored her and first carried the offerings to burn incense, then swept away the snow covering the area.
Lu's father tried to get a couple of coins by acting like a rogue, but Meng Chijian impatiently threw them away.
As soon as he turned around, Meng Chijian sensed that something was wrong.
He walked to the destroyed grave mound and looked at the crude wooden plaque. Strangely, it was blank. This was unusual. Why wouldn't a family that valued "generations" simply write "This is the father of xxx," or something similar?
What happened?
A-Mian jumped down from the tree, picked up the carrying pole again, and continued digging the grave. "Didn't I tell you already? The Huang family is shameless."
"how?"
“When Old Huang was still alive, he always said that he didn’t have a daughter and that he especially longed for one. He would always want to hold any girl who had one. My mother thought his clothes were dirty, so she never allowed it. Later, someone in the village saw him touching someone else’s feet, and many villagers felt that if this got out, it would be bad for their daughters’ reputation.”
Such things are often kept very secret in the village. They choose a time when the adults are not home and only the child is there. Even if they are discovered, the girl's family can only swallow their anger and suffer in silence.
The affair was exposed when he provoked A-Mian, whose mother had recently passed away.
“I was at home when he came in and said he wanted to touch my feet. I thought he was a human trafficker who was going to tie me up and sell me. My mother had only been gone for a few months. I kept a kitchen knife under my pillow, so I grabbed it with all my might and chopped off half of his hand.” A-Mian recalled, “Then he ran outside, and I chased after him with the kitchen knife.”
"Then what?"
"No one stopped me, but no one helped me either. I didn't really feel anything at the time. He thought that since my mother was gone, he was going to bully me, so I fought him."
Meng Chijian also picked up a hoe used for digging wild vegetables and started digging at the grave, saying, "If this were in our village, we wouldn't even need to report it to the authorities; everyone would just drown him in the pond under the cover of darkness."
There's not much to say about this. People at this time generally value chastity, propriety, and a sense of shame. If such a scandal were to spread, the entire family would feel ashamed.
In order to protect the family's reputation, telling this scum to die is obviously a very convenient solution.
"Ah! No wonder. I was wondering later how he could have been found drowned in the pond in less than a month, when he only had a hand injury. But everyone said it was an accident..."
“That’s definitely not it. Weren’t some of their sons unmarried back then? If such a thing were to spread again, what decent family’s daughter would want to marry into their family?” Meng Chijian speculated. “Brother Huang might know about this, and he might even be the one who started it.”
Ah Mian stared at him intently: "You're so smart."
How come she never thought of something so simple before?
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