There is nothing to protect here, just the broken pots and bowls. Let Liu Honghua do whatever she wants. I will make her pay back tenfold later.
Yan Runzhi was still reluctant to part with it, "The things we use to eat and sleep..."
"Let's go. Who wants these junks? They kicked us out, so how can we let them get away with it?" Jiang Lin was very strong and pulled Yan Runzhi away.
In front, Dabao had already pulled Xiaobao and ran to the brigade headquarters.
Jiang Lin ignored the banging sounds behind him and pulled Yan Runzhi straight to the brigade headquarters.
By this time the sun had already set, dyeing the western sky a rouge red. Cicadas climbed out from under the leaves to get some fresh air, chirping very hard.
The brigade headquarters was originally the Cheng family's large courtyard. Now the door was open. There was a big sycamore tree in the courtyard, and an old bronze bell was hung on the branch. The brigade used this bronze bell for work, meetings, and timekeeping.
Jiang Lin ran over and started banging the bell.
Yan Runzhi was startled, Cheng Dabao's eyes widened, and Xiaobao clapped his hands and shouted "Come on!"
"What's the matter?" The officer on duty at the brigade came out and asked. When he saw Jiang Lin, he was stunned for a moment. "Jiang Zhiqing, didn't you ask for leave to go back to the city to visit your family?"
Jiang Lin ignored them and continued to ring the bell until several team leaders came over to ask her.
The brigade secretary Cheng Fujun, the brigade leader Cheng Fulian, the women's director Cheng Yulian, the public security director Wang Gang, and soon several other production team leaders also came.
"Why are you ringing the bell, you bitch?" Cheng Ruhai's eyes were filled with anger when he saw Jiang Lin.
Just now her own wife was grinding cornmeal, but she brought her kids to cause trouble and even beat her. Now she's making trouble again, she really deserves a beating.
Jiang Lin snorted and said sarcastically, "I'm just ringing the death knell for you to wake you up."
Cheng Ruhai's face turned pale and he cursed, "You vicious woman, you really deserve a beating." He raised his hand and was about to slap Jiang Lin.
How could Jiang Lin just stand there and let him beat her? She quickly hid behind the cadres and said, "Secretary, there are cadres bullying the people."
Cheng Fujun was promoted by the former secretary Shang Weiye, and he always remembered the old secretary's words to take care of Cheng Rushan's family.
However, this time Cheng Ruhai became the production team leader by virtue of his relationship with the commune, and Yan Runzhi was used to being criticized and looked down upon, so she would never resist if she could get along with him. Jiang Lin was also planning to return to the city, so naturally no one went to the brigade to ask for justice. Without someone to ask, they could not interfere in Cheng Ruhai's family affairs.
Sometimes the hardest step is breaking up.
Of course, it would not be right to hit someone in front of him now. He glanced at Cheng Ruhai and said, "If you have something to say, let's talk."
Jiang Lin: "Secretary, team leader, I want to sue Cheng Ruhai for abusing my stepmother, my brother's wife, and my nephew. He kicked us out without a proper division of the family property. This is clearly the behavior of a bandit and a bad element. How can such a beast be the production team leader? What qualifications does he have?"
Cheng Ruhai was stunned. She actually dared to attack him directly. She was simply rebellious! "You lazy bitch, you insisted on marrying my brother just to be lazy and not work..."
"Puh, puh, puh!" Jiang Lin interrupted him, "What do you mean your brother? Do you think he is your brother? As soon as your brother got some bad news, you kicked out your old mother and his wife and son. What kind of brother are you? I think you are a bad guy with a black heart and rotten intestines!"
She imitated Liu Honghua's words to curse Dabao and cursed back at him, making Cheng Ruhai so angry that his face turned black.
He was just about to say that he didn't drive them away, but they just couldn't stand the humiliation and moved away on their own!
Jiang Lin did not give him a chance to speak. "I am a soldier of the great leader. I am responding to the party's call to build a great countryside. You slander the leader like this. Doesn't that mean you are a bad element? How can you be the production team leader? I will expose and report you!"
Cheng Ruhai was so angry that his face turned blue and red, but he was not as good at talking as her. The words of rebuttal were on the tip of his tongue but he had no chance to say them. He was really suffocating!
Not only Cheng Ruhai was confused, everyone else also stared at Jiang Lin blankly, not understanding why she suddenly became so aggressive.
Jiang Lin did not give them a chance to respond and continued, "I originally asked for leave to go back to the city to visit my relatives, but when I walked to the county public security bureau, I suddenly thought that our grandma was alone at home, and Cheng Ruhai, that bastard, would bully her. How could I just ignore it? We are a family! How could I watch you two bastards bully a weak woman like her?"
The reason they moved out was because Liu Honghua was always making insinuations, withholding food for Dabao and Xiaobao, and instructing her cousins to bully Dabao and Xiaobao. The original owner was determined to return to the city and turned a blind eye to this. Yan Runzhi judged the situation and had to move out in order to prevent Dabao and Xiaobao from suffering losses. Naturally, the family was not divided fairly.
When Yan Runzhi heard what Jiang Lin said, she covered her face and started crying, accusing Cheng Ruhai, "Back then on the farm, people bullied you and I protected you. Later, when we came back from the farm, there was nothing to eat or drink at home, so I saved my rations to feed you first. I was so hungry that I got up at night to drink cold water. When people insulted and bullied you, it was Dongsheng and I who prevented you from getting beaten. Boss, how can you be so heartless? Even if you didn't call me mother, I raised you for so many years and found you a wife. I don't think you are a child who can be reformed, and I will report you to the government..."
She has experienced every movement and knows all the tricks. She has an intuition about whether to bow her head or cry out for justice. In the past few years, there has been no movement to fight against landlords, and only the Soviet revisionists and rightists have been dealt with. Now, everyone from top to bottom emphasizes production.
Without anyone's support, she had to live in fear. Now that her daughter-in-law was making a fuss, she immediately followed suit.
She tried her best to cooperate with Jiang Lin and even instructed her two grandsons to cry.
It’s impossible for Dabao to cry, but when Xiaobao cries, it’s earth-shaking.
To outsiders, it was simply a human tragedy.
"Cheng Ruhai is going too far. He is simply a ruthless person!" Some people expressed their support for Jiang Lin.
Jiang Lin turned her head and saw that it was the educated youth named Sun Qinghui. The original owner didn't have a good relationship with the educated youth. She didn't have many friends except Meng Yiyi, and she had disliked everyone. Jiang Lin didn't expect that Sun Qinghui and others would come to support her.
Sun Qinghui waved his hand towards Jiang Lin, "Jiang Lin, don't be afraid. We are all one family. If anyone bullies us, we will fight back!"
Even if there were conflicts among the educated youth, they would still stand up together when they saw someone bullying them, because if you don’t stand up for yourself, no one will stand up for you when you are bullied.
Of course, the person involved must stand up first. If he does not have the backbone and determination, others will naturally not interfere.
Seeing him speak, other educated youth came to help.
"Let's file a complaint against him!"
"Cheng Ruhai climbed up the ranks to become the production team leader by following the commune's path. Let's go to the county and file a complaint!"
"It won't work in the county. Let's go back to the provincial capital. I don't believe that a production team leader who climbed to the top through crooked means dares to bully the educated youth from the provincial capital!"
Everyone in the village knew that Cheng Ruhai had joined the commune.
Shuihuai Village was a large village, with 6 to 12 educated youth in each production team, totaling more than 20. Even if more than half of them spoke out, Cheng Ruhai would be in big trouble.
Since the policy adjustment in 1974, the status of educated youth in the countryside has increased. Local cadres and members are not allowed to gang up on educated youth, force them to marry, or arbitrarily withhold their food rations, etc. However, because the educated youth are educated and are not afraid to go out and can go to the county to deal with the Public Security Bureau, the Revolutionary Committee and other departments, many members are still afraid of them.
At this moment, someone spoke up for Jiang Lin. The brigade secretary Cheng Fujun and the brigade leader Cheng Fulian also wanted to curb Cheng Ruhai's arrogance, lest he become arrogant because of his relationship with the commune.
Cheng Fujun shouted, "Don't get excited, educated youth. Let's talk it over nicely."
Sun Qinghui shouted, "Secretary, what can we say about this? Captain Three is going too far. The news about my brother just came back, and the government hasn't even stamped it yet, but he drove out the mother, wife, and children. How can this be done by a human being? How can our party and government use such corrupt people as cadres? Isn't this a deliberate attempt to smear the government? He deserves death!"
Cheng Rushan was taken away by the Public Security Bureau. In fact, no one knew the details, and there was no official news. It was just that someone secretly spread the news that Cheng Rushan participated in some counter-revolutionary activities and was reported and arrested and imprisoned.
Now Cheng Ruhai is spreading the news that he got into trouble in prison, which is also his one-sided statement, and there is no official document issued. The members are uneducated and generally like to gossip, and they believe everything they hear, but the educated youth are not so easily fooled. In fact, if you think carefully, you will know that it is not so hasty.
Originally, most of the educated youth looked down on Jiang Lin for marrying a countryman to escape labor, but now that she stood up for her mother-in-law, they felt that she was worthy of respect.
Cheng Ruhai: "Nonsense, who kicked them out? They moved out on their own."
But no one believed him.
Liu Honghua ran over with her child, angrily saying, "Jiang Lin, what are you doing? Do you want to rebel?"
Jiang Lin said disdainfully: "You smashed our place to pieces, you are so arrogant. Even more arrogant than the Japanese invaders who raided the village!"
A child ran after him and shouted, "The shack has been destroyed. It's ruined. We can't sleep or eat."
A dozen educated youth immediately rushed forward in anger, especially those who had been bullied in the past, who felt the same way.
"This is too much! He must be severely punished! If you don't give us an explanation, we will file a complaint with the county public security bureau!"
Cheng Ruhai and his wife became frightened.
The trouble caused by the educated youth is no small matter.
At the beginning, the Houmiaozi Brigade received subsidies for the educated youth to go to the countryside but did not build a place for them. They only arranged for them to live in shacks or borrow the homes of members. As a result, a gangster raped a female educated youth and forced her to marry him, causing the female educated youth to jump into the river to commit suicide. The educated youth formed a group to make trouble, and in the end, not only were the brigade cadres punished, but the gangsters who committed the crime were also shot. The higher-ups also issued a new policy that the personal safety of the educated youth must be guaranteed, which curbed some unhealthy tendencies.
Cheng Fujun and Cheng Fulian exchanged glances, while Yan Runzhi and Jiang Lin asked the officials to seek justice. The family affair became a public matter, and they had the right to manage it.
Cheng Fujun said: "Since you have objections, let's divide it again."
Jiang Lin: "Thank you Secretary for your justice. What Liu Honghua smashed belongs to her. We don't claim it." She took out the list she had written down, "This is the list of our family's property."
Cheng Fujun took it and handed it to the brigade accountant.
Liu Honghua: "Fuck your mother, let your mother's dog stink...ah——"
When Jiang Lin heard her dirty talk, she kicked her out of the blue. When Liu Honghua came to her senses and wanted to chase her, Jiang Lin dodged again.
Liu Honghua was so angry that she jumped up and down.
Jiang Lin: "Don't act like a madman. Go and hit me again, will you? Go ahead!"
Liu Honghua rolled her eyes in anger.
Cheng Fujun: "Let's go and divide the family after dinner."
Jiang Lin: "She smashed our house and took away our food. We had nothing to eat."
Cheng Dabao had been holding Cheng Xiaobao's hand and staring at Jiang Lin. Hearing this, he pointed at Liu Honghua with his little hand and said angrily, "She used to not let Xiaobao and I eat enough every day, and now she's stealing food from my house!"
Liu Honghua: "I..."
"It's you!" Jiang Lin immediately blocked Liu Honghua's way back: "You didn't give us much food when you kicked us out. I exchanged some food coupons, and the remaining 30 kilograms of flour and 50 kilograms of cornmeal in the vat were all taken away by you!"
Liu Honghua was so angry that she was shaking all over and couldn't speak, "You...you..."
Cheng Ruhai quickly shouted: "We didn't take any food!"
His eldest son Cheng Tiegang immediately shouted, "We just smashed the pots and pans, but didn't take any food."
There was a burst of laughter in the crowd. Is it glorious to smash other people's pots and pans?
"You even broke into our shack, and there's no food left. Who stole it?" Jiang Lin sneered. There was only some flour in the jar. He wants to blackmail you today. What do you think?
She sneered: "It doesn't matter if you don't admit it. I will go to the county public security bureau to file a complaint overnight and ask the police to handle the case!"
She bowed to the educated youth and wiped away her nonexistent tears. "Classmates, thank you for your help today. I was ignorant before. If I did anything wrong, I bow to apologize."
She was already good-looking, with fair skin and watery eyes, but now her eyes were tearful but her gaze was stubborn and firm, instantly arousing everyone's sense of justice.
Even those who had some grudges against her in the past put aside their grudges and wanted to help her. After all, she had not done anything too excessive to the educated youth before.
Seeing that most of the educated youth supported her, Jiang Lin knew that the matter was settled, so she deliberately added fuel to the fire, "I can't make things difficult for the secretary and the team leader. I'm going to the county to sue Cheng Ruhai!"
She started walking, Cheng Dabao ran over to follow her, and Cheng Xiaobao also ran over and held her hand.
Cheng Fujun made the final decision: "Liu Honghua's behavior of leading others to smash and destroy things is really bad. I punish you by returning Jiang Zhiqing's food immediately. Otherwise, I will hold a meeting to severely criticize you!"
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