Chapter 44: Should children pay for their mother's debts? What do you all think...?
Seeing this situation, none of them dared to step forward. They knew better than anyone what Chen Gengnian was like when he got ruthless. No one dared to challenge this man who could drive away a herd of wild boars when he was not even ten years old.
He protected Linjia Village. Over the years, the villagers had been indifferent to his family, and many even mocked him behind his back for his limp. Neither he nor his mother had ever really gotten angry. But today, the Wang family was humiliating his mother like this. No one knew what terrible things might happen next.
Some people peered quietly at the courtyard gate, hoping that the people who went to find the village chief would return soon. The women and men who were fighting also quietly retreated. The group of people who had helped Wu Xiangmei, including Zhang Cuiping and Zhou Caixia, all trembled and hid behind others.
Chen Gengnian looked at Wu Xiangmei with an extremely cold gaze.
After a long pause, he finally uttered a few words in a cold voice.
Why are you treating my mother like this?
"I...I..." Wu Xiangmei stammered for a long time, unable to utter a single word.
Wang Shu didn't have time to pay attention to the situation here. She quickly lifted the table and chairs off her father, pulled him out, and put him aside. She then called out to her husband, who had just entered the house and was standing by the door, "Come and take care of Dad."
The husband didn't move, not even glancing at him, but staring straight at Chen Gengnian.
Wang Shu was furious, but he didn't have time to argue with him and turned to go to Chen Gengnian's side.
He rushed over and stood in front of Wu Xiangmei to block his mother. He raised his scratched face and said tremblingly to Chen Gengnian, "If you're a man, come at me! My mother is just a woman. What are you, a grown man, doing arguing with her?"
Chen Gengnian squinted at Wang Shu, adopting the posture of a superior.
Question: "Does the child have to pay for the mother's debts?"
Wang Shu hesitated for two seconds before gritting her teeth and replying, "Yes! He is me..."
Thud—
Before Wang Shu could finish speaking, Chen Gengnian punched him to the ground, knocking him unconscious.
Everyone gasped, and then Chen Gengnian uttered a few words from his nose.
"I didn't agree to that."
Wu Xiangmei was so frightened that she kept backing away.
Chen Gengnian took two steps forward, stopping in front of Wu Xiangmei who had nowhere to retreat, and said coldly, "You have provoked me time and time again, and I have always refrained from arguing with you because we are from the same village, but you have gone too far..."
“I’ve told Aqing many times that no one covets your things, we don’t care about them, why can’t you understand?” Chen Gengnian said, clenching his fists so tightly they cracked.
Wu Xiangmei tried to say something in a trembling voice, but was coldly interrupted by Chen Gengnian.
"Two choices." Chen Gengnian held up two long fingers and said, "One, slap yourself a hundred times to apologize to my mother and Baifu."
Second, I need one of your hands.
"I choose one!" Wu Xiangmei started hitting her face without thinking, but the force was too weak.
Lin Jing rolled up her sleeves and shouted, "If you can't do it yourself, I'll help you!"
Snap—
Snap—
Instantly, a loud slapping sound came from the courtyard. Wu Xiangmei closed her eyes, gritted her teeth, and used all her strength to slap her face.
She shed tears of frustration, because from now on the villagers would laugh at her for apologizing not only to Chen Yuetao but also to a dog.
Chen Gengnian looked at the accomplices hiding behind the crowd and saw Zhang Cuiping and Zhou Caixia among them. He warned in a cold voice, "From now on, if anyone bullies a single hair on my family again, I, Chen Gengnian, will kill him/her even if it means going to jail. Try me if you don't believe me!"
As soon as Chen Gengnian said this, no one dared to utter a sound, and they were all trembling with fear.
Chen Yuetao did not intervene in the events unfolding before her eyes, having experienced too many unpredictable human natures; she had long since lost any compassion for others.
In order to settle down in Linjia Village, she had to risk her life to drive away the wild boars with her son. These people received her protection but never knew how to be grateful. She had seen how many bad things they said and did in private over the years, but she just felt it was unnecessary and tolerated it.
And now...
Chen Yuetao stroked Baifu's head repeatedly, looking at the wounds on its legs and the shocking scars on its hands, and called out to Chen Gengnian, "A-Nian, let's go home!"
Go home and heal your injuries first, then settle the score later.
Chen Gengnian turned around and carried Chen Yuetao on his back, while Lin Jing carried Baifu beside him. The three of them and the dog were about to leave when the village chief finally arrived.
Also accompanying them was Dr. Shen, the village's traditional Chinese medicine doctor.
Before the village chief even stepped into the yard, he heard a series of loud slaps. He rushed into the yard and saw Wang Shu and Wang Lixing lying stiffly on the ground. The person who slapped them was none other than Wang Shu's mother, Wu Xiangmei.
"Hey, what are you doing!" the village chief shouted anxiously to Wu Xiangmei. "Stop it! If you keep hitting her, you'll never be able to show your face again!"
Without waiting for anything else, she grabbed Doctor Shen and headed towards Wang Shu and his father, saying, "Quick, Doctor Shen, please take a look."
But before Dr. Chen could even take a step, he was stopped by Chen Gengnian.
"Dr. Chen, could you please bandage my Baifu's wound first?"
The doctor was somewhat hesitant, but Chen Gengnian said, "They've just fainted. Don't worry, I know what I'm doing. If I really try to kill them, you won't be able to save them."
The doctor glanced at the village chief, and seeing that he didn't speak, he put down his medicine box and started bandaging Baifu.
Seeing how badly Baifu's legs were crushed, and how they flinched whenever Dr. Chen touched them, it was clear that they were in great pain.
Lin Jing hugged Baifu tightly, and even the usually carefree Lin Jing choked up.
"Baifu must have been ambushed, otherwise he wouldn't have been injured like this."
Chen Yuetao got off Chen Gengnian and went over to stroke Baifu, tears of guilt streaming down her face.
"Yes, it was Wang Lixing who ambushed it. When he saw me being pulled and focused on rushing towards Wu Xiangmei, Wang Lixing grabbed a tall stool and smashed it down on him..."
Chen Yuetao couldn't continue speaking, tears streaming down her face.
They raised Baifu when he was so small, and over the years they have come to regard him as family.
Amidst the resounding slaps, everyone eagerly awaited Doctor Shen's bandaging of Baifu, followed by Chen Yuetao's, while Wang Shu remained unconscious.
"Young man, you... sigh!"
The village chief wanted to say something, but he swallowed the words back down.
After a while, Dr. Shen finally went over to examine Wang Shu and his father.
Doctor Shen was very skilled and quickly woke Wang Shu up. His eyes and nose were instantly bruised and swollen, and he was still in a daze.
After a deep sigh, the village chief said to Chen Gengnian in a tactful manner, "Don't hit so hard in the future. If something bad happens, you'll be implicated too."
The village chief never dared to speak harshly to Chen Gengnian.
Of course, it wasn't because of past merits, but because of the village head's reputation.
He knew better than anyone that Chen Gengnian was a favorite of the village head, and offending him would mean losing his position as village head.
So no matter how dissatisfied you are, you can't say anything.
Chen Gengnian, however, was unmoved and sneered, asking the village chief, "Village chief, why didn't you tell those who bullied my mother not to do such things again? Was my mother the one who started it all?"
"This..." The village chief was speechless.
He paused for a moment before continuing, "I'll make them give you an explanation for what happened today, but I still hope that you'll consider that we're from the same village and that I practically watched you grow up..."
The village chief looked at Wu Xiangmei, who was still slapping him in the face, and hesitated before saying, "Let's spare Wang Shu's mother this time! Look at how this joyous day has turned into such an ugly mess."
Chen Gengnian neither spoke nor refuted.
Seeing him like this, the village chief quickly gave a wink to someone nearby. The person belatedly understood and hurriedly went over to pull Wu Xiangmei away.
Wu Xiangmei was already stunned by the slaps; her face was covered in finger marks, which looked painful to behold.
She was stunned for two seconds before she realized what was happening and ran towards Wang Shu and Wang Lixing, crying out in pain.
"My son...and his father..."
She cried so bitterly that most of the people present felt she deserved it, while a few began to feel sorry for her.
Even some people who had long been dissatisfied with Chen Gengnian spoke out.
"Village chief, you are the head of the village, so why are you always being overshadowed by Chen Gengnian? Could it be that our village is like those stories, where Chen Gengnian is actually in charge?"
Chen Gengnian didn't have time to look to see who was speaking, but he heard several other voices echoing his words.
"Yeah, yeah, what's the difference between Chen Gengnian and a bully? I think we should just let him be the village chief!"
As various opinions arose, the village chief, who had previously been meek and submissive, began to show an increasingly gloomy expression, starting with a certain remark.
The troublemakers, unafraid of making things worse, became even more indignant after seeing the village chief's changing expression.
For a time, all sorts of things were being said in the courtyard, with some even shouting, "A person like this will be a menace in Linjia Village sooner or later. Who knows what kind of important person this stubborn temper will attract in the future!"
Seeing that the village chief's face was as black as the bottom of a pot, Chen Gengnian didn't want to talk to these people anymore. He picked up Chen Yuetao again, called out to Lin Jing, and was about to walk out, but at the moment he stepped out the door, the village chief, who had been silent all along, finally called out to him.
“Young man, today’s matter has indeed gone too far.”
Chen Gengnian and the others slowly turned around. The village chief did not dare to look up and meet the man's gaze. He looked away and gritted his teeth, saying, "Everyone has some complaints about this matter, so I hope that in the future, you will wait for me to make decisions before making any decisions. Please don't be so impulsive again."
Originally, the village chief was determined to regain his face, but he chickened out when facing Chen Gengnian and had to resort to words that didn't sound very flattering.
Chen Gengnian quietly observed the village chief for a moment, thinking that the village chief had helped them a lot these days, and that his husband was about to make some moves again, so he didn't want to offend him. He took a step back and coldly said, "Fine."
The single word conveyed a cold attitude, but it gave the village chief ample face.
What kind of person is the village chief? He's a smiling tiger, a sycophantic opportunist.
Even if they don't take him seriously, they still have to give way, because they need to survive here. As long as it's not too outrageous, he won't want to touch this person.
However, he had completely lost heart towards most of the villagers in Linjia Village.
Chen Gengnian carried Chen Yuetao away, and Wang Shu and his father were helped into the house. The people who had eaten at the banquet also dispersed one after another. Wu Xiangmei was sobbing and crying in the house.
Wang Shu's new husband, on the other hand, has always acted aloof and superior. Even now, he is still peering out from the courtyard gate at the direction of Chen Gengnian's house, with a cryptic smile on his face.
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