Chapter 115 Punishing Aunt Wang the Second: A Shrew
Bai Linlin gripped the hoe tightly, turned around abruptly, and slammed the hoe down hard on her patch of land.
This time, the hoe landed steadily and accurately, and no corn seedlings were mixed in with the mud it kicked up.
Under the shade of a tree, Xie Chunlan fanned herself with her notebook, not even lifting her eyelids. Her voice, though not loud, carried an undeniable warning: "What's all the noise about? Don't you want your work points anymore?"
The word "work points" was like an invisible prohibition, and the surroundings instantly fell silent, leaving only the "thud" of hoes hitting the soil, each strike heavy and solid in the hot June wind.
Bai Linlin and Li Chunyan exchanged a glance. They had just tried to reason with Aunt Wang in a gentle manner and resolve the conflict in a mild way.
Suddenly, Xu Zhili quietly came out, but given the situation... the two of them silently took a small step back, giving up the main battlefield.
“Aunt Wang,” Xu Zhili stepped forward, her voice not loud, but clearly penetrating the sound of hoeing, her gaze calm yet carrying an undeniable sense of pressure, “Since you won’t listen to reason, then pay up.”
"What?"
Aunt Wang's eyes widened as if she had heard the biggest joke in the world. "Pay me money? Xu Zhili, have you gone mad? Why should I pay you money? What money should I pay!"
She stood with her hands on her hips, spitting almost onto Xu Zhili's face, looking fierce.
Xu Zhili's face remained completely calm. She calmly picked it up from the ground, carefully opened it, and found several crushed pieces of walnut shortbread covered in dirt. The oily crumbs gleamed pitifully in the sunlight.
"Aunt Wang,"
Xu Zhili pushed the unfolded handkerchief forward so that the villagers who were peeking around could see it clearly. "Whether your shoulder bump was intentional or accidental, the result is that you ruined my sweet treat."
"I had to ask someone to buy this from the county supply and marketing cooperative with great difficulty. It's a rare item. Now it's like this, covered in dirt and broken beyond recognition."
"Why should I eat these muddy scraps? Tell me, shouldn't I get compensation?"
The whispers around them grew louder.
Aunt Wang's face flushed bright red, like a boiled shrimp: "Bullshit! Who bumped into you on purpose? You were the one who blindly walked right into me! Besides, what's the value of these crumbs? I think you're just trying to scam me!"
"A lousy dessert?"
Xu Zhili's lips curled into an extremely cold smile, carrying an almost cruel calmness.
“Aunt Wang, those words are really hurtful. These pastries are made with the finest white flour, precious white sugar, and these walnuts! Every single one of them was bought with my hard-earned work points.”
"Isn't every single one made from the most precious grains? 'Food is the foundation of life,' and wasting food is an outrage against nature! You know perfectly well what kind of temper I, Xu Zhili, have. If you don't pay this money today..."
She paused, her gaze sweeping over Aunt Wang and then over the villagers watching. "This matter is not so easy to let go of."
Aunt Wang shuddered at her icy gaze, her arrogance involuntarily diminishing by three points, but she still stubbornly maintained her composure.
“I’m not paying. What can you do to me? Don’t think that just because you’re strong you can run rampant in our village.”
"Fellow villagers!"
Xu Zhili stopped looking at Aunt Wang and turned to the surrounding villagers. Her voice was clear and bright, carrying a hint of grievance and even more of a sense of self-righteousness.
“Everyone heard and saw it. Aunt Wang broke the pastries I had worked so hard to get, and she didn’t apologize or admit her mistake. She even accused me of trying to extort money.”
"We educated youth responded to the call to go to the countryside, just wanting to earn a living with our own hands and live an honest life. Can't we even get justice when our meager food rations are wasted?"
These words were like sparks flying into a haystack.
The villagers had long harbored resentment towards Aunt Wang's usual rudeness and shrewishness, and now Xu Zhili had precisely struck their most sensitive nerve: the preciousness of food.
The memory of surviving the famine was still etched in their bones; anyone who dared to waste food was going against the entire village.
"Wang Er's wife, what you did was really unfair! If you break something, you have to pay for it. It's only right and proper! Pay up!"
"Exactly! What kind of skill is it to bully a young educated youth? Pay up!"
"Hurry up and make up the difference, so as not to delay everyone's work and earning work points."
The accusations came raining down like stones.
Aunt Wang's face turned pale and then flushed, sweat beading on her forehead. She looked pleadingly at a few people she knew, but they either turned their faces away or simply lowered their heads.
Public anger is too much to bear!
“…Pay up! I’ll pay, okay?” Aunt Wang squeezed out the words through gritted teeth, her voice trembling with resentment. “How much?”
Xu Zhili weighed the crumbs of pastry in her handkerchief without even raising her eyelids: "Not much, just one yuan. That covers the cost of the pastries and the effort I put into running around the county."
"One yuan? That's all the cheap stuff..."
Aunt Wang almost cried out again, but when she met Xu Zhili's unfathomable, cold eyes, she felt a chill run up from the soles of her feet, and her back was instantly soaked with cold sweat.
The condemning gazes from those around her made her feel like she was being pricked by thorns.
She gritted her teeth, her hands trembling, and pulled an old handkerchief roll from her waistband. She peeled it open layer by layer, and with extreme pain, twisted out a crumpled banknote, almost throwing it at Xu Zhili: "Here you go! I must have had the worst luck in eight lifetimes, is that alright?"
Xu Zhili caught the money steadily and spoke in a voice that was neither too loud nor too soft, but clearly heard by everyone, as she looked at Aunt Wang's furious back.
"Aunt Wang, take care. Next time you walk, you'd better watch your step. Don't be so 'careless' all the time, or you'll get hurt."
The tone carried a subtle hint of mockery.
The surrounding villagers burst into laughter and gave Xu Zhili a thumbs up.
"Good job, young Xu, that's how you deal with her."
"That's satisfying! Let's see if she dares to bully people again."
In the village, Aunt Wang was notorious for being greedy and had the behavior of a complete shrew.
She couldn't stand seeing others have good things. When she saw her neighbor buy new fabric, she went over to touch it and praise it. In the end, she even tore off a corner and said, "Make a sample for me so I can have a reference when buying fabric in the future."
At the market, before the vendors had even settled their weights on the scales, she would reach for a handful of sunflower seeds, cracking them open while haggling over the price. If things didn't go her way, she would put her hands on her hips and start cursing, spitting everywhere, completely oblivious to the stares of others.
When the collective supplies were being distributed, she complained that her family received too little, so she sat down on the ground, crying and wailing, insisting that the village officials were biased, and tried to grab some.
Village officials and villagers tried to dissuade her, but to no avail. In the end, she took a lot more than she was entitled to before stopping, all the while cursing under her breath.
The villagers avoided her like the plague, yet they were helpless to do anything about it.
Xu Zhili smiled and nodded to everyone, carefully put away the one yuan, and then carefully wrapped up the bag of mud-stained pastry crumbs so as not to waste them.
He thought to himself that although the money was small, it would severely offend Aunt Wang and at least keep her quiet for a while.
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