After Su Ruoli finished crying, she rubbed her face twice, then turned around and went back to work.
When work got off at noon, Su Ruoli finished her work, went home and took Zhang Sitong home, and the two of them rode away on their bicycles.
This time, Su Ruoli took the main road and rode where there were more people.
Whenever she met someone along the way, she would tell them that she was going to the county town. Those who mentioned Su Ruoli really thought that Su Ruoli was going to report to the police.
Everyone gathered in groups of three or five to discuss the matter. The most frightened among them was Wang Yanfen, because she was the one who spread the rumor.
Su Ruoli and Zhang Sitong went all the way to the county town. They first went to a state-owned restaurant to have dinner, and then went to mail the sauce and the letter Zhang Sitong wrote to her family to Zhang Sitong's home.
After walking around the county town, they hurried back home as they were about to get off work in the afternoon. They chatted as they rode their bikes home.
But the topics of their conversation were all about what the police were doing this time and when they would come to investigate.
Because when they were walking to the county town at noon, Su Ruoli told Zhang Sitong that someone in the village had spread rumors about her, which almost made Zhang Sitong angry to death. She even threatened to hit her with a forty-meter-long wooden stick.
Finally, Su Ruoli told her plan, which led to the following scene.
A group of frightened ladies stopped Su Ruoli's bicycle and came over to apologize.
"Su Zhiqing, what the villagers said was not what we said. I just heard it from them."
"Su Zhiqing, we didn't say that. I just heard it from other people. We were just chatting, and I definitely didn't mean to spread rumors about you."
Su Ruoli looked at the crowd, pointing at each one, until she pointed out the two ladies who were punished by the team leader to carry manure.
Su Ruoli said to Zhang Sitong, "Sitong, go and call the captain for me."
"Okay, Ruoli, wait for me, I'll be back soon." Zhang Sitong jumped off the bicycle and ran away.
Su Ruoli looked at the group of aunts in front of her and said, "Since everyone says it wasn't you who said it, then do you have any evidence? Now that those two aunts are gone, you can't just randomly accuse others."
"Su Zhiqing, please believe us. We really heard what Old Lady Wang and Aunt Zhang said. If you don't believe me, I'll call them and we can confront them face to face." Aunt Zhang,
"Yes! Su Zhiqing, if you don't believe me, I'll go call them right now."
"Yes, Su Zhiqing, we heard it from those two ladies. When the police come, you have to help us speak up for them. It's really not us who said it."
Old Lady Wang and Aunt Zhang were the two ladies who scolded Su Ruoli and Lu Chen and were punished to carry manure.
"Okay, then you ask someone to call Aunt Wang and Aunt Zhang. I don't believe that they would spread rumors anyway." Su Ruoli said calmly while sitting on the bicycle.
"Okay, wait for me to call them." An old lady said and ran towards the two people's home.
Although these ladies are old, they are not slow at all. They run as fast as cheetahs.
When Zhang Sitong brought the captain and his family over, the old lady who ran to call people also pulled these two people over.
"Ruoli, who is the person who spread the rumor? I was planning to investigate door to door after dinner, but I didn't expect you to act so quickly." Liu Guofeng asked Su Ruoli.
"These aunts and sisters-in-law all said it was Aunt Wang and Aunt Zhang. Look, this aunt has brought the two people here. Let's ask them in person if it was them who said it." Su Ruoli said, pointing to the three people who were pulling each other.
This lady is really amazing. She can pull two people by herself and still have the upper hand.
"Stop talking nonsense and come here." Liu Guofeng's skin was dark to begin with, and now his face looked even darker with his stern face, which scared several ladies so much that they hurried over.
As soon as Old Lady Wang approached the team leader, she sat down on the ground, kicking her feet and clapping her hands. The countryside was covered with dirt and it wasn't raining.
With the kick and slap from Old Lady Wang, yellow dust flew all over the sky in an instant.
Old Lady Wang was still shouting, "It's unfair! I didn't do anything, yet you want to send the police to arrest me! I can't live like this anymore! I might as well die."
"Oh my God! Just look at them, are we really going to let them bully us honest people like this?"
Seeing this, Aunt Zhang joined Old Lady Wang, and the two of them made dirt everywhere.
Su Ruoli finally saw what an old rural woman looked like: she cried and made a fuss, and was almost about to hang herself.
Seeing this, the people around moved as far away as they could. The two ladies made a fuss for a long time, but no one came to help them.
Finally, maybe he couldn't howl anymore, so he gradually stopped.
After the soil leveled off, Liu Guofeng spoke, "Have you two had enough of the quarrel? Can you talk it out now? They all said that the villagers heard those things about Su Zhiqing from you. Is that true?"
Old Lady Wang kicked her legs and began to howl, "Aiya! I won't live any longer! Those educated youth clearly said that, how can they let us get away with it? It's so unfair!!"
Aunt Zhang also said, "It was clearly you educated youth who said it. Why didn't you go find her instead of arresting us?"
"Aunt Zhang and Aunt Wang, you said that the things the villagers said about me were said by us educated youth. Which educated youth did you hear that from?" Su Ruoli asked.
"It's the educated youth who was slow at work. Oh yes, you two had a conflict when you first came here." Old Lady Wang said first.
Zhang Sitong jumped out and said, "This is easy. Wait, I'll call all the educated youth here. Then you two will know who told you what."
Comrade Ying also said, "That's right. Call all the educated youth here to find out who said it. Jinhua, you and Zhang Zhiqing go together."
"Okay, Sitong, let's go." Liu Jinhua pulled Zhang Sitong and was about to leave.
Su Ruoli got off the bicycle, pushed it to Zhang Sitong and said, "Sitong, you two should ride your bicycles. It's so far and it will be tiring."
"Okay, wait for us." After saying that, Zhang Sitong rode his bicycle away with Liu Jinhua.
"Captain, we have both explained everything. Can we leave now?" said Old Lady Wang.
"Why are you in such a hurry? The people haven't arrived yet. It's not too hasty to leave after they arrive and investigate thoroughly. It's just that you two are feeling guilty." Tongzhi Ying said.
Aunt Zhang stiffened her neck and said, "I... why should I feel guilty? Anyway, we didn't say that. We just heard it from others. We were chatting and you overheard it. It wasn't us who spread it on purpose."
Therefore, it was not intentional and only the two people on the ground should know about it.
Su Ruoli guessed that Wang Yanfen had hired someone to ruin her reputation, but that person might have gone out to recuperate in the past two days, so Wang Yanfen didn't know whether he had done anything or not, so she had to rely on her own guess.
She must have seen the two aunties arguing with her, so she used their mouths to slander her. If she was discovered, everyone would only think that the aunties were angry that she was punished to carry manure, so they spread the news on purpose.
If I had a weaker mental state, I might have jumped into the river. That's really wishful thinking.
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