Aunt Fang rushed to help her husband, the old Party Secretary, and cried out in alarm, "Old man! Someone come here!"
Meanwhile, Ning Weibing, who had been knocked to the ground by Hua Zi's punch, angrily got up and charged at Hua Zi, yelling, "Fuck you! I'm a cadre! How dare you hit me!"
He had just been promoted to a reserve cadre position at the textile factory, and everyone in the workshop treated him with great respect!
Hua Zi blocked his fist and then slammed it into his nose: "I don't care what kind of bullshit you are?!"
His father was the village party secretary; he was fair and just, and everyone in the village respected him!
Although Ning Weibing was also young, in terms of strength, he could never compare to Hua Zi, who had worked in the fields for a long time.
They huddled together and fought a few times before Hua Zi pinned them to the ground and beat them.
Ning Jinyun, who had been watching the commotion, panicked when she saw her precious son being outmatched. She screamed and lunged forward to pull Hua Zi away.
"Let go, you country bumpkins! How dare you hit my son!"
She tried to scratch Hua Zi's face, but Hua Zi couldn't hit a woman, so he ended up with several bloody scratches.
Aunt Fang couldn't stand by and watch her son be bullied. She pounced on Ning Jinyun, grabbed her hair and started tearing at it: "You wretched woman, how dare you bully my child!"
Ning Jinyun screamed in pain: "Ahhh—Let go!"
The scene was chaotic, which quickly attracted the attention of the villagers, who gathered around.
They saw the old Party Secretary fall to the ground in a sorry state, and his family and three strangers were fighting together.
"What's going on, Aunt Fang!" Several women rushed into the yard immediately, asking in surprise.
Aunt Fang almost had her hand bitten by Ning Jinyun, so she slapped Ning Jinyun hard across the face with both hands while shouting angrily—
"These people from the provincial capital couldn't find the person they were looking for, so they bullied us country folk and beat up my old man!"
When the production team heard this, they were shocked!
Outsiders are bullying the locals in the village, and they're even bullying their leader!
Rural areas naturally have a strong clan culture, fostering unity against external forces.
Occasionally, there would be some collective brawls with neighboring villages over water canals and work points, but the commune and the village production team leader kept things in check.
Ning Weibing, an outsider, dared to make the first move, instantly stirring up a hornet's nest.
Seven or eight burly men and five or six women rushed into the courtyard immediately.
The women rushed to help Aunt Fang, scratching and tearing at Ning Jinyun with all their might: "Kill this shameless, filthy woman!"
Two of the men went to help the old Party Secretary.
The others joined in, punching and kicking Ning Weibing.
"You son of a bitch, you're asking for it! You think you can bully us because we're weak?"
"You dare to come and cause trouble on our turf!"
"Kill this son of a bitch, he's got a death wish!"
Even in a one-on-one fight, Ning Weibing and Ning Jinyun might not be a match for Hua Zi and Aunt Fang, who are used to doing farm work.
Moreover, he was now being surrounded and beaten by a group of villagers, and was immediately screaming in agony—
"Help! Help! Murder!"
Before Ning Zhuliu could speak, he saw his wife and son fighting with someone.
He seemed stunned and frightened, retreating repeatedly and hiding behind the wall.
Only when he saw his son vomiting blood did he come to his senses. He rushed to the old Party Secretary and begged for mercy.
"Old Party Secretary, tell them to stop fighting! If they keep going, someone will die. It's my fault for not controlling my family!"
The old Party Secretary had just been helped up, his back aching from the fall. He stared at him coldly with a dark face, saying nothing.
At this time, Manhua had already been informed that her father-in-law and husband had been beaten, and she rushed back.
She quickly helped her father-in-law up, and sneered twice: "When you were hitting people just now, why didn't you do anything! You didn't say a word, and now you're trying to talk big in front of us!"
Seeing this, Ning Zhuliu suddenly knelt down with a thud, her voice trembling as she said—
"We're so sorry, we came here looking for our child, and we got agitated because we couldn't find him. Please understand how we, as parents, feel!"
The old Party Secretary frowned. This guy knelt down without warning, as if he were the one who was unreasonable and unforgiving.
"Alright, this is a new society under the red flag. Stop using those feudalistic ways of kneeling and groveling. You're a grown man, yet you run away from problems and can't even manage your wife and kids properly. Are you even a man?!"
The old Party Secretary gestured for someone to pull Ning Zhuliu up.
Ning Zhuliu didn't want to get up, but the two men pulled him up from both sides and he stood up in an instant.
The old Party Secretary looked at the timid Ning Zhuliu and said coldly—
"Children are most attached to their parents. Think about it, why don't the children say goodbye to their families before leaving? The working class and peasantry are one family, but you city people should understand reason better than me, a country person!"
"Yes, yes!" Ning Zhuliu nodded vigorously.
The old Party Secretary then spoke up, clutching his back: "Alright, send them out of the village, and don't let them come again!"
Only then did everyone stop.
Ning Jinyun, with disheveled hair, blood streaming from her head, and her clothes torn to shreds, crawled quickly to her son's side, her face covered in scratches.
Ning Weibing was beaten black and blue, his eyes were swollen and he couldn't open them. Blood was gushing from his nose, and he was clutching his stomach, howling "ouch, ouch!"
"Call the police...call the police...murder! Murder!" Ning Jinyun wailed along, her heart breaking. This was her only son, her lifeblood!
Ning Zhuliu looked at the gloomy faces of the people in the courtyard, and raised his fists, eager to try.
He rushed over and slapped Ning Jinyun across the face: "Shut up, stop howling! Help the guards walk, do you want to die?!"
Ning Jinyun looked at the cold light in Ning Zhuliu's eyes, choked, and dared not shout anymore.
She could only help Ning Zhuliu support her son as they limped out.
Aunt Fang tucked her disheveled hair behind her ear and raised her voice fiercely, "If you ever dare to come to our village to bully people again, we'll beat you up every time we see you!"
The three of them were so frightened that they ignored their limp and aches all over their bodies and quickened their pace to leave.
This beating, which Ning Weibing brought upon himself, resulted in three broken ribs.
Ning Jinyun suffered a laceration to her scalp and was covered in bruises; she was hospitalized.
"Why didn't you call the police? We're so badly injured, why didn't you let them go to jail!" Ning Jinyun, her head wrapped in gauze, looked at Ning Zhuliu with a mixture of anger and tears in her eyes.
Ning Zhuliu put down her lunchbox and looked at her with annoyance: "Bai Jin said you're an idiot, and you really are! You've spoiled the guards!"
Don't assume that the local authorities will definitely protect their own people. No one was killed. You were the one who started the trouble and started hitting people.
No one in the village admits to the violence, so what can be done?!
"So you're just going to let that brat Ning Yuan go like this? She ate my food, drank my water, and I raised her up all these years, and I can't even sell her for a penny. It's all for nothing!" Ning Jinyun raised her voice.
Ning Zhuliu frowned: "Let me think about how to find her. That child is sentimental. Let's wait for her older brother to come back before we talk about it."
After saying that, he gave Ning Jinyun a cold glance: "If you hadn't been so greedy and treated your little sister so badly, would she have been able to run away? You idiot!"
After saying that, he turned around and went to his son's hospital room.
Ning Jinyun was furious, but dared not say anything, and finally continued to lie on the bed groaning.
By the time Ning Yuan found out that Ning Weibing and Ning Jinyun had been beaten up, it was already the weekend when Man Hua went into town to sell her goods.
After learning that Ning Zhuliu was alright, she felt relieved and couldn't help but laugh out loud: "Sister Manhua, thank you all!"
She had wanted to beat up Ning Weibing for a long time. From childhood to adulthood, the one who stole her food and beat her the most was not Ning Jinyun, or even Bai Jin, but Ning Weibing.
Ning Jinyun always protected Ning Weibing whenever he bullied her.
Ning Yuan was extremely pleased that Ning Weibing had been beaten so badly.
She bought a lot of snacks and several bottles of Songhe liquor for Manhua to take back and invite the old Party Secretary's family and the villagers who helped drive away Ning Jinyun's family to eat together.
"Don't use my name when talking to the villagers. Just say it's Sister Manhua, thanking them for helping the old Party Secretary," Ning Yuan instructed.
Manhua initially wanted to decline, but when Ningyuan said that she would need to trouble the villagers again in the future, she nodded and took it back with her.
Having temporarily resolved her biggest concern, Ning Yuan was in a good mood. These past few days, before officially starting school, she spent her days riding her bike all over the streets and alleys.
"Aren't you afraid of running into Uncle Liu's people if you go out like this?" Rong Zhaonan looked at her newly bought, slightly worn women's bicycle, his eyes turning cold.
Ever since he kissed the top of her head last time, she has been avoiding him somewhat, and even bought a second-hand bicycle instead of riding on his bike.
Although they still slept in the same room, they were now in separate beds. Since Qin Hongxing couldn't find her, there was no need for the fake couple to sleep together anymore.
Ning Yuan's reasons were so compelling that Rong Zhaonan's handsome face remained cold and aloof every day.
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