Chapter 19 The rules of the Wang family ancestral hall are the law!
The clan elder gave the order, and Li Wenshu sighed helplessly, turning to Lu Zhe for his opinion: "Comrade Lu, what do you think of this..."
Having already experienced a cross-country adventure once, Lu Zhe had learned to rely on the organization's resources: "We can't let the villagers continue like this! Lives are at stake, we have to go down the mountain and ask for help immediately!"
Li Wenshu tapped his leg, looking annoyed: "The mountain path is treacherous, I can't walk like this at all. And you, you don't know the way either, sigh!"
Lu Zhe looked up at the sky, where countless stars twinkled.
Looking around again, I saw mountains surrounding me, and dark shadows looming overhead.
In this small, almost isolated mountain village, he once again felt powerless.
Several burly men stepped forward and roughly grabbed Chunni. Chunni did not resist at all, letting them drag her away.
Chunni's daughter Daya, whom she had risked her life to protect, huddled in a corner with her trembling younger sister Erya in her arms, silently shedding tears.
"Let's go home! The fortune teller is coming tomorrow, and there'll be a real show to watch!" The crowd dispersed, excitedly discussing everything that had happened that day.
Chu Yanxi was pulled forward by Wang Lao Er. When she turned around, her eyes met Lu Zhe's. Without a word, they both understood: it was another arduous journey.
Lu Zhe unconsciously followed Chu Yanxi's direction and walked quickly, as if only by getting close to her could he draw strength to fight against this damned feudal clan power.
Unfortunately, just as they got closer, Wang Erzhu warily blocked Chu Yanxi in front of him, glaring at Lu Zhe, the outsider in the orange jacket: "What are you doing?"
Lu Zhe opened his mouth, but didn't know what to say. In the end, he could only say gently, "I just arrived in the village and plan to interview some villagers. May I ask you..."
Before he could finish speaking, Wang Erzhu refused forcefully, not giving him a chance to make a request: "My brother got into trouble and I'm in a bad mood, so don't mess with me!" With that, he quickened his pace and led Chu Yanxi home. As soon as they stepped into the courtyard, he slammed the wooden door shut.
Lu Zhe looked at the tightly closed door, glanced around, and secretly memorized the location, planning to find another opportunity to speak with Chu Yanxi.
Behind the door, Chu Yanxi was pushed onto the bed by Wang Erzhu, who demanded sharply, "Why did that flirtatious outsider come over? Did you seduce him?!"
Chu Yanxi sat up leisurely, head lowered, then slightly raised, and said softly, "Second brother, I don't know him. Besides, cultured people like him are all show and no substance. How can he compare to you, Second brother, who is physically strong and knows how to care for his wife? Why would I even look at him?"
Flattery will get you everywhere.
Especially this kind of rhetoric that belittles one while praising another is the most damaging.
Chu Yanxi's words made Wang Erzhu feel incredibly comfortable. He was a rough farmer who had never tasted the pleasures of a woman before. Now, under the dim light, seeing such a beautiful woman and hearing her praise him so highly, how could he suppress his desires? He pounced on her and hugged her tightly, his mouth nuzzling against her neck and face.
A foul stench hit them, and Chu Yanxi, who was a germaphobe, almost vomited.
Chu Yanxi used a clever move to push Wang Erzhu away: "Second brother, my body hasn't recovered yet. Men can't touch a woman when she's in confinement after childbirth, or they'll get into trouble."
Wang Erzhu was initially annoyed by Chu Yanxi's rejection, but after hearing what she said, he couldn't help but be skeptical: "Really?"
Chu Yanxi nodded, her face sincere: "Of course it's true. I worked in a hospital in a big city, and I learned a lot from that. When a woman is in her postpartum period or menstruating, she's covered in blood, which is considered yin energy, and men shouldn't touch her. I personally witnessed a man who insisted on being intimate with his wife during her postpartum period, and as soon as he left the hospital, he was hit by a car and covered in blood. How strange!"
Trying to explain science to an ignorant man like Wang Erzhu is like talking to a brick wall, but feudal superstition is very effective, so Chu Yanxi started making up lies to fool him.
Wang Erzhu still looked suspicious.
A surge of lust welled up within him, his mind went blank, and he longed to tear this delicate woman before him apart and devour her alive. Wasn't there a line in a play, "To die beneath the peony blossoms, even as a ghost, is still romantic"?
Seeing the red glint in his eyes, his flushed face, and his rapid breathing, Chu Yanxi knew he was driven by lust, so she lowered her voice and added, "Think about your brother, he must have been intimate with Chunni quite a few times during those times, so..."
The thought of Wang Dazhu lying sprawled on his back with his neck slashed and bloody was startled Wang Erzhu, who suddenly became wide awake and hurriedly took a few steps back: "You, you, you... go to sleep, I won't bother you, I won't bother you."
He backed up too fast and accidentally tripped over his own feet, falling flat on his face.
Now, Wang Erzhu believed Chu Yanxi's words even more and made up his mind not to touch her until she was clean.
At this moment, when she saw her second son enter the room to sleep with her, Granny Wang thought he was being filial and was afraid that she would be heartbroken by the death of her eldest son, so she hugged Wang Erzhu and burst into tears.
"My poor Dazhu, he was hacked to death by his wife!"
"This is tearing my heart out! How can there be such a vicious woman as Chunni in the world..."
"Tomorrow I want to see her drowned in the pond, I want to see her die!"
Wang Erzhu wasn't actually too heartbroken. His elder brother, being the eldest, didn't treat him well and had taken all the valuables from the house when the family divided the property. Later, he drank more and more heavily, and when he ran out of money, he would ask his mother for money, only showing him, his younger brother, a token gesture.
However, seeing his mother crying so sadly, he could only pat her and comfort her, saying, "Alright, alright, let that vicious woman die. Don't be sad, Mom, you still have me."
As night deepened, the lights in the mountain village flickered sparsely.
Chu Yanxi closed her eyes and fell asleep fully clothed.
This mountain village disregards the law. To break out of this predicament, they cannot take the usual path. Perhaps they can resort to the power of "metaphysics".
The second day's breakfast consisted only of thin porridge, steamed buns, and pickled vegetables.
Chu Yanxi didn't complain and ate heartily. This body was too weak; she needed to eat more to have the strength. With strength, she could find a way to save Chunni.
Seeing that she was behaving obediently and did not seem to want to run away, Granny Wang relaxed her guard a little. Although she was cursing, she took out a bag of brown sugar from the cupboard, took out some, and put it into the porridge.
"You're lucky to have an old woman like me to serve you. Look at Chunni, if she doesn't behave herself, she'll be drowned!"
Chu Yanxi pretended to be frightened, shrank his neck, and said in a trembling voice, "Mom, I will definitely be dutiful. Once I recover, I will cook for you, feed the pigs, and take good care of you."
She paused, then turned her gaze to Wang Erzhu, who was silently drinking his porridge: "And, and Second Brother too."
Granny Wang was finally satisfied: "Since you intend to live a good life with Erzhu, I won't treat you badly. Yesterday you spoke up and said those things, so beating you was too lenient. Don't think you're so tough just because you've been in the city for a few days, understand?"
Chu Yanxi nodded repeatedly: "Yes, I will listen to Mom from now on. Um, I've never seen a fortune teller before, could you take me with you to see one?"
The thought of her son's tragic death filled Granny Wang with heart-wrenching pain, and she was too tired to argue with her anymore. She only urged Erzhu, "Second son, keep a close eye on your wife and don't let her run around. Do you hear me?"
Wang Erzhu replied in a muffled voice, "Hmm."
The Wang Family Ancestral Hall is the only decent blue brick building in the entire village. It is tall and gloomy. The two stone beasts in front of the gate have been worn away by time, but they still have their empty mouths open, as if they want to devour all disrespect.
Early in the morning, Chunni was dragged by two burly men to the open space in front of the ancestral hall, her hands tied behind her back, like a lifeless piece of wood. The bloodstains on her body had dried and turned black, sticking to her tattered clothes. Her exposed skin was covered with a shocking mix of old and new wounds.
Villagers arrived one after another, crowding the open space in front of the ancestral hall.
The morning light illuminated faces etched with wrinkles by the mountain winds and barrenness, faces that held a mixture of fear, excitement, and a near-fanatical anticipation of the impending bloodshed.
The child was held in an adult's arms or carried on their shoulder, their innocent eyes staring at the woman curled up in the center.
Old Man Wang, the white-haired elder respectfully addressed as "Clan Chief," stood before the high threshold of the ancestral hall, leaning on a snake-headed cane that symbolized authority. Several other equally aged clan elders surrounded him, each with a solemn expression.
Here, the ancestral hall is the courtroom, and the clan rules are the law.
"Wang family daughter-in-law Chunni," Old Man Wang's voice, though aged, carried an undeniable authority, drowning out the whispers of the crowd, "murdering her own husband is a heinous crime, a disgrace to the family, unforgivable by heaven and earth! According to the rules set by our ancestors, how should she be dealt with?"
An elder with a pointed face and monkey-like features immediately chimed in, his voice shrill: "Husband-murder is an unforgivable crime! He should be drowned in the pond as a warning to others, to appease the wrath of the gods and spirits, and to cleanse the Wang family's reputation!"
"Drown in the pond! Drown in the pond!" The crowd was stirred up, waving their hands, their roars forming a suffocating wave of sound that assaulted the eardrums of everyone present. In this secluded mountain village, daily life was uneventful, and it was rare for something so significant to alarm the elders and the shaman to happen. Everyone was excited as if they had gone mad.
Chu Yanxi's heart suddenly clenched.
She knew what "drowning in the pond" meant—in the dead of night or at dawn, Chunni, bound and even stuffed into a pig cage, would be carried to the bottomless pond behind the village and, with the villagers' tacit approval or watchful eyes, sunk to the icy depths. This was one of the cruelest forms of vigilante justice for so-called "immoral" women, a practice that had continued for thousands of years.
Just then, a figure suddenly rushed out from the edge of the crowd and stood between Old Man Wang and Chunni.
It's Lu Zhe.
His face appeared unusually pale in the morning light, but his chest heaved violently, and his eyes burned with anger and determination. He took a deep breath and shouted with all his might, his voice even drowning out the noise around him.
"Stop! You're breaking the law!"
The crowd fell silent for a moment, all eyes turning to the unfamiliar young man who claimed to be a writer.
Taking advantage of the brief silence, Lu Zhe spoke rapidly, his voice trembling slightly with excitement, yet he tried his best to remain clear: "Murder cases must be handled by the public security organs. Everyone is equal before the law, and no one has the right to arbitrarily take another person's life! Your use of vigilante justice is a serious violation of the law and a crime, and you will go to jail!"
Lu Zhe's previous time travel experience taught him that petty people fear power but not morality. In isolated mountain villages like Heishanyu, propaganda alone is useless; organizational power must be used to intimidate them. Li Wenshu's leg injury will take a few more days to heal. Once he's recovered, he can go down the mountain to fetch reinforcements. What Lu Zhe lacks most right now is time.
He tried to intimidate the people before him, who were bound by patriarchal beliefs, with words like "crime" and "jail." However, his words, though loud, echoed in this isolated mountain village, yet were so...pale and powerless.
Old Wang squinted his cloudy old eyes, scanning Lu Zhe up and down as if he were looking at an alien. He slammed his cane down heavily, making a dull thud.
Old Man Wang's lips curled into a cold, almost mocking smile. "Young man, this is Shijian Village, not some big place where you work. In Shijian Village, the Wang family's rules are the law!"
Lu Zhe shouted, "The world is vast, and all things belong to our territory. Clan rules cannot replace the law!"
Lu Zhe stood straight at the entrance of the ancestral hall, his expression solemn. His voice was deep and resonant, with a strong penetrating power that immediately stunned everyone.
The villagers may not understand the crimes of intentional homicide and illegal detention. They believe they are just and think that collectively killing a woman who killed her husband is "eliminating a scourge for the people".
Lu Zhe thought of a crime—hooliganism.
In 1992, hooliganism was a "catch-all" crime with a wide scope, often used to punish group behavior that seriously disrupted public order. This was highly consistent with the situation in this case, and the villagers were very familiar with it, since many people who were executed during the crackdown were charged with hooliganism.
Thinking of this, Lu Zhe said loudly, "According to my country's criminal law, anyone who engages in gang fights, provokes trouble, insults women, or engages in other hooligan activities that disrupt public order, and whose circumstances are egregious, shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than seven years, criminal detention, or public surveillance. The ringleaders of hooligan gangs shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not less than seven years."
Upon hearing this, the villagers felt uneasy and instinctively took a step back.
Lu Zhe added: "Your gathering of a crowd to conduct a public trial in the ancestral hall and your plan to carry out a vigilante justice is a typical example of a mob engaging in hooliganism, which seriously disrupts public order and meets the characteristics of egregious circumstances or even particularly serious harm."
He paused, then pointed to Old Man Wang and several clan elders: "Especially the organizers and ringleaders, they can be subject to extremely severe punishments based on this decision. Add to that the charges of intentional homicide and illegal detention, and with multiple crimes combined, they could very well face the death penalty!"
Old Wang's face twitched, revealing a somewhat ferocious expression.
Lu Zhe looked around, his gaze sweeping across the faces of each villager.
"Those who physically bind and drown others are perpetrators. Directly and illegally depriving others of their lives constitutes intentional homicide and may also face the death penalty!"
“Those who just shouted ‘drowning’ and helped tie him up, you are guilty of joint crimes and can be identified as accomplices or coerced accomplices, and will also bear criminal responsibility.”
“Even those who stand by and cheer, even if they do not commit any specific crimes, their actions have contributed to the momentum and provided moral support. They should still be held accountable and subject to administrative penalties.”
Wherever Lu Zhe's gaze fell, the villagers instinctively tried to hide themselves. The men who were holding Chunni back took several steps back and hid in the crowd, while those who had been shouting loudly just moments before fell silent upon hearing that they would also be punished.
The field fell silent.
Seeing the situation was turning against him, Old Man Wang raised his voice, which carried an undeniable authority: "This woman killed my Wang family's son and disgraced the Wang clan. It is only right and proper for us to clean house! Don't think that just because you're a writer, even if the county magistrate came, you could interfere in the family affairs of my Wang clan!"
Old Wang's words seemed to have given the villagers renewed confidence, and they began to clamor under the cover of night.
"That's right! The Wang family is in charge of the Wang family's affairs!"
"Outsiders, get out of our village!"
"What kind of bullshit law is this? The rules set by our ancestors are the only law!"
The villagers' emotions were reignited, this time directed at Lu Zhe for meddling. Several hot-blooded young men, their faces grim, surrounded him.
Lu Zhe pointed at Chunni, who was lying on the ground barely alive, his voice rising with rage: "She was a human being too! She was forced to kill! Wang Laowu had been abusing her for a long time and even tried to sell her daughter! This was her resistance! Her self-defense! Look at her! Look at the injuries on her body! Don't you have any compassion at all? Before the police arrived, you couldn't touch her, otherwise, you would be committing intentional homicide!"
Lu Zhe's gaze fell on Chunni, and her desperate and empty eyes burned his soul like a fire.
That look reminded him of his mother, a gentle and sorrowful woman trapped in domestic violence, powerless to escape.
Lu Zhe seemed to have turned back into that thin boy who huddled behind the door, trembling with fear. The air was thick with the smell of cheap alcohol and violence. He could hear his father’s drunken roars and muffled thuds, interspersed with his mother’s suppressed, broken sobs.
He wanted to protect his mother, but she locked him in the house.
He had seen his mother's eyes through the crack in the door countless times, and they were just like that—after the initial fear and pleas, they gradually became numb and empty, as if her soul had drifted away from the body that was enduring the blows, leaving only an empty shell.
Did the mother ever rebel?
Perhaps so, in countless late nights when he couldn't see.
But in the end, resistance only resulted in more severe beatings and emotional blackmail under the guise of "for the sake of the children." Like Chunni, she was tightly bound by a chain called "family" and "fate," and she was unable to truly break free until the end of her life.
As a young boy, he could only watch helplessly, covering his mouth with his tiny fists, afraid to cry out, his heart filled with a sense of powerlessness and hatred for his own weakness.
"If only someone could have helped her back then... If only I could have done something back then..." This thought haunted him like a nightmare throughout his growing years, ultimately driving him to become a lawyer and dedicate himself to advocating for women who are in a vulnerable position, especially those in marital difficulties.
His almost obsessive respect and tolerance for women was, to some extent, a desperate attempt to make up for his guilt towards his mother, trying to redeem himself who was powerless to save his mother by saving others.
At this moment, history seemed to be repeating itself before his eyes.
Chunni's experience is strikingly similar to her mother's tragedy! Both suffered long-term domestic violence, both felt utterly helpless and desperate, and both lived solely for their children. The only difference is that Chunni chose a more extreme form of resistance.
Watching Chunni being bound, insulted, and shouted at by these ignorant villagers as she was to be drowned, Lu Zhe seemed to see his mother again after being brutally beaten by his father, and no matter how badly she was injured, the relatives would still try to persuade her to stay.
"Men are all the same, it's normal for them to have a temper. They'll get better as they get older."
"No matter what, you have to think about the child, just bear with it a little longer, and everything will be alright."
"Divorce? What will happen to the child if we get divorced? Without a father around, the boy will have psychological problems."
Ultimately, the mother chose to commit suicide.
She was too kind and unwilling to hurt anyone, so she chose to hurt herself instead.
Recalling the past, Lu Zhe's deep-seated anger, his hatred for the indifference of bystanders, and his long-suppressed urge to break through everything to prevent the tragedy from happening erupted in his chest like a volcano.
He can no longer be like that helpless child who could only watch the tragedy unfold!
We must do something, even if it's like a mantis trying to stop a chariot, even if it means being shattered to pieces!
An irresistible urge surged up within him, and he rushed forward without thinking, wanting to untie the ropes binding Chunni.
"Get out of my way! You outsider!"
Suddenly, a hand appeared out of nowhere and shoved Lu Zhe into the crowd. Countless hands reached out from the crowd, pushing and shoving Lu Zhe.
Countless faces flashed before Lu Zhe's eyes. He staggered and could no longer maintain his balance, collapsing to the ground with a thud.
Just as he stood up again, about to rush into the crowd, a pebble hit him on the head. It didn't hurt, but it startled him, and he couldn't help but cry out, "Ouch!"
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