Chapter 52 The Law Does Not Punish the Crowd
Kong Dazhuang's words struck a nerve with Grandpa Sheng.
The old man was now completely murderous, his cloudy eyes turning bloodshot: "You beast, worse than a pig or a dog, today it's either you or me who dies!"
With that, the stick in his hand came down heavily, and Xu Chenglin, who was moving so fast, had no time to stop him.
"Aww—"
Kong Dazhuang couldn't dodge in time and was hit hard on the back. He immediately collapsed to the ground in pain, tears streaming down his face like a dead dog.
Grandpa Sheng seized the opportunity and raised his stick, aiming it at his head.
Smash it! Smash it hard! As long as we smash this beast's head, he'll never be able to disturb An'an's good life again!
A terrified scream rang out, and onlookers instinctively closed their eyes, unable to bear watching the bloody scene that followed.
"grandfather!"
Sheng An squeezed through the crowd and witnessed this scene. His eyes widened, and he rushed forward, grabbing Grandpa Sheng's raised hand tightly.
Xu Chenglin arrived just in time and gripped the falling stick tightly: "Grandpa, calm down!"
If someone dies, the old man won't get away with it either.
It's not worth getting imprisoned for such a shameless scoundrel!
Seeing his anxious granddaughter, Grandpa Sheng's lost control gradually returned, but he did not let go of the stick in his hand: "An'an, you go inside first, leave this to Grandpa."
Sheng An shook her head, her eyes a little red: "Grandpa, this is between him and me, so I should handle it myself."
After she finished speaking, she gave her father-in-law, Xu Chenglin, a wink.
Xu Chenglin understood immediately. Taking advantage of Grandpa Sheng's distraction, he snatched the stick from his hand and pulled the old man back two steps to prevent Kong Dazhuang from fighting back.
After losing his weapon, Grandpa Sheng finally calmed down after being persuaded by the two men.
However, the look in his eyes as he stared at Kong Dazhuang still carried a sharp, murderous intent.
Clearly, if Sheng An is unable to resolve this matter, the old man will still use his own methods to completely eliminate this troublemaker.
Kong Dazhuang shrank back, not daring to meet Grandpa Sheng's gaze.
He almost wet his pants just now.
Sheng An gave Kong Dazhuang a cold look, then his gaze fell on the three old men from the Kong family whom he had summoned as intermediaries:
"Sixteen years ago, he abandoned his family and daughter to marry into another family, and you didn't care. Today, you come to meddle in our business. Aren't you afraid that my mother, if she is watching from heaven, will come looking for you in the middle of the night?"
The old men's faces stiffened, and a hint of fear flashed in their eyes.
They've all reached the age of knowing their destiny, and they're all terrified of death, unable to even bear to hear the word "death" in their daily lives.
Moreover, they knew that Sheng An's biological mother died in childbirth. It is said that women who die like this harbor deep resentment, and as long as their resentment lingers, they will not be able to reincarnate.
Now that Sheng An has brought it up, how could they not be afraid?
Despite their fear, the old men of the Kong family were unwilling to be humiliated by a woman, and they took turns lecturing Sheng An:
“If your mother were alive, she wouldn’t want to see you being unfilial and disrespectful to your own father and sick younger brother.”
"That's right. As a daughter, it's unacceptable for you to be disrespectful to your own father."
"If you don't want to be despised by the world, then talk to your father properly and listen to what he tells you to do."
"..."
Sheng An gave a cold laugh, ignoring them completely, and looked at the neighbors who were surrounded by layers of people: "Uncles, aunts, and grandmas, you heard what they said. I also have some questions that I need your help to answer."
The neighbors exchanged glances, seeing the gossip gleam in each other's eyes, and nodded in agreement: "It's Xu's turn to speak."
Kong Dazhuang vaguely guessed what Sheng An wanted to say, but felt that she wouldn't air her dirty laundry in public and make a fool of herself in front of outsiders. He was torn between whether or not to step forward and stop her.
Unfortunately, Sheng An didn't give him a chance to stop her, and spread out his hands to show everyone the thick calluses on his palms.
Although Xu Jinnian had been applying moisturizing cream to her hands every night for the past two months, the thick calluses that had formed over the years were not so easy to remove.
Even now, the sound of them scraping against each other still sounds like fingernails scratching an eggshell.
Everyone could clearly see the calluses on Sheng An's palms; these were not the hands of a sixteen-year-old girl.
Compared to Miao Ya'er, who had suffered greatly at the hands of the Sun family, the calluses on her hands were not as thick as these hands.
Then, Sheng An slowly began to speak: "My mother was an only child. When she reached marriageable age, my grandparents found her a son-in-law who would live with her family."
At this point, she pointed to Kong Dazhuang, whose face was pale: "It's him."
Before anyone could cast strange glances at Kong Dazhuang, Sheng An continued, "He's lazy and good-for-nothing. He lies in bed all day doing nothing. My mother was nine months pregnant and still had to kneel in the field to harvest rice."
Buzz—
A murmur of discussion erupted from the crowd, and everyone looked at Kong Dazhuang with disdain.
It's not unusual for pregnant women to work in the fields, and it's even more common to see them kneeling in the fields during the busy farming season, provided that the men in the family are also working, rather than comfortably lying in bed sleeping.
This Kong Dazhuang showed absolutely no compassion for his pregnant wife; he was utterly cruel and cold-blooded.
“My mother not only had to work, but also had to manage the household chores. However, he complained that my mother’s cooking was not good. He tricked me into marrying into the family to carry on the family line and forced my mother to compensate him with double the dowry. He forced my mother to have a difficult childbirth and hemorrhage, which led to her death.”
Sheng An closed his eyes, searching for anything related to his mother, his voice filled with barely suppressed resentment:
“My mother’s body is barely cold, and he’s already forcing my grandparents to hand over the land deeds. He even tried to throw me away several times because he thought I was wasting food. If my grandparents hadn’t been watching over me so closely, I wouldn’t be alive today…”
As Sheng An narrated his heart-wrenching words, the crowd's anger was stirred up, and their gazes toward Kong Dazhuang became increasingly hostile.
That's an absolute beast!
No, even animals have the instinct to protect their young; he's not even as good as an animal!
Sheng An still felt it wasn't enough, and with her eyes red, she added fuel to the fire:
“Less than half a year after my mother passed away, he stole all the money in the house and married into another family in the village. He spent my grandparents' and my mother's hard-earned money to raise another man's two children. When I was sick, I had no money for treatment. It was my grandparents who knelt before the doctor for a day and a night to save my life.”
Upon hearing this, everyone present, young and old, hardened their fists.
Damn it, if you want to "remarry," then "remarry," but you even dare to steal money from your deceased wife's family. How are they supposed to live on that?
Isn't this just deliberately trying to force them to die?
From the crowd, someone shouted:
"That beast dares to come to our territory and use us as pawns. We must teach him a lesson and see if he dares to do it again!"
The crowd was already enraged by Sheng An's words, and this shout reminded them that they had almost been tricked into becoming part of the attack on the Sheng family. This completely ignited the pent-up resentment in their hearts.
"Yes, we must teach them a lesson! Let's all attack together!"
"Go!!"
With a single call, a huge crowd surged toward Kong Dazhuang, who was filled with terror and had no time to escape.
"No, no, help me—"
Kong Dazhuang shouted desperately, but was immediately overwhelmed by fists and kicks, only managing to let out a shrill scream.
Those three old fogies, who were talking so casually without a care in the world, were immediately terrified, their faces turning ashen. They didn't dare to approach at all, and only one thought occupied their minds:
It’s over!
Sheng An stood quietly at the gate, watching coldly as Kong Dazhuang was consumed by the anger of the onlookers, completely indifferent to his life or death.
The law does not punish the masses; as long as the people did not die at the hands of the Sheng and Xu families, the government could not arrest them arbitrarily.
Just then, a warm, large hand grasped Sheng An's cold hand, and Xu Jinnian's worried voice rang in her ears: "An'an..."
Sheng An turned her head and met the man's concerned eyes. She gently shook her head and said, "I'm fine."
Just as Xu Jinnian was about to speak, a head popped out from the side.
The young boy with rosy lips and white teeth smiled brightly at Sheng An, his innocent baby face exceptionally adorable: "Sister-in-law!"
Sheng An's pupils dilated. Before she could ask who he was, she lowered her voice and asked, "Was that your shout just now?"
The boy exclaimed in shock, "Sister-in-law has such good hearing! She recognized it right away!"
After saying that, he asked somewhat anxiously, "Sister-in-law, you won't blame me, will you?"
Old Xu was so murderous just now. It was the first time he had ever seen Old Xu so emotionally expressive. He was afraid that Old Xu would act impulsively and kill that beast, ruining his own life.
In his desperation, he shouted something, never expecting it to have such an effect.
This beast is my sister-in-law's biological father. If he's really beaten to death by those people, won't my sister-in-law blame him?
"Thanks."
Sheng An looked at the boy and thanked him sincerely: "Your shout helped me vent my anger."
She wanted to do it herself, but she couldn't do it in public, otherwise her public denunciation of Kong Dazhuang would have been in vain.
"My sister-in-law is so kind!"
The young man breathed a sigh of relief, pretending not to see Xu Jinnian's cold face, and grinned as he moved closer to Sheng An: "Sister-in-law, my name is Tan Zhenlin, I'm Lao Xu's junior brother, you can call me Zhenlin or Xiao Tan, it's fine."
Old Xu?
Sheng An glanced at Xu Jinnian, whose face was as dark as ink, with amusement, and smiled as she accepted Tan Zhenlin's address of "sister-in-law": "Okay, I'll call you Zhenlin from now on."
Tan Zhenlin was very happy and chattered to Sheng An about Xu Jinnian: "I've wanted to come and visit you for a long time, but Old Xu just wouldn't budge, as if he was afraid I'd cling to you. Do you think I, Tan Zhenlin, am that kind of person?"
Sheng An felt that this kid was being overly enthusiastic, and couldn't help but wink at Xu Jinnian.
Xu Jinnian said expressionlessly, "The dumplings I brought to the teacher a few days ago were eaten by him."
Master Jiang was a native of Nanjing, but he loved eating dumplings. Every other day, he would ask his servants to go to Yunji to buy some to satisfy his craving.
That day, Sheng An suddenly wanted to eat dumplings, so he made several lotus root and pork dumplings. Xu Jinnian thought that Master Jiang would like them, so he brought him a portion.
Who knew it smelled so good that Tan Zhenlin noticed and shamelessly asked Master Jiang for a few.
After that first encounter, he couldn't forget Sheng Anbao's dumplings and kept pestering Xu Jinnian to come over every day.
Not only was he obsessed with it, but Master Jiang was the same. He hinted and suggested several times, but Xu Jinnian pretended not to understand.
Today, Kong Dazhuang came to cause trouble. Miao Ya'er was worried that Grandpa Sheng and Xu Chenglin wouldn't be able to handle it, so she secretly ran to the Jiang family to inform Xu Jinnian.
Master Jiang readily allowed Xu Jinnian to return and even tacitly permitted Tan Zhenlin to go and help, clearly indicating that he had other plans.
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