Uncle Tian Er hadn’t even caught his breath yet when he began explaining to Tian Youfu: “Youfu, Lingling fainted today because Shitou choked on a piece of candy. Wang Ying helped him get it out, and it just so happened to bounce off and hit Lingling on some acupoint or something, which made her faint. It has nothing to do with Wang Ying!”
Tian Youfu was completely taken aback by Uncle Tian Er’s sudden explanation, but he immediately caught the key point: “You’re saying Shitou choked on candy?”
Tian Youfu had only had this youngest son after turning thirty-five. His eldest child was already over ten years old and good for nothing except making trouble. This little one, though, was well-behaved and adorable. So the moment he heard this, he panicked.
Uncle Tian Er quickly clarified: “Shitou’s fine now. Wang Ying learned a bit of medicine from her mother and got the candy out in time… Youfu, you really need to make things clear to Yongshun and his wife—it’s not Wang Ying’s fault. How could they just beat her like that?”
Tian Youfu quickly pieced the events together and felt his face burn with shame. What kind of mess was this?
Wang Ying had saved his son, and Wang Lingling had fainted from her own bad luck. But then Li Chunjuan had assumed Wang Ying had harmed Wang Lingling and beat the poor girl like that…
“…Wang Ying, I’m sorry…”
“If you have any requests, just say them. Anything I can take responsibility for, I will.”
But Wang Ying didn’t feel she had the right to accept someone’s apology just like that. First of all, she wasn’t the original owner of this body. Since arriving a few days ago, she hadn’t contributed anything to Wang Lingling’s family. Even the beating she’d just gotten was only a few hits, and Li Chunjuan had ended up getting kicked flat on the ground—it was basically even now.
Secondly, in Wang Ying’s view, the original owner’s way of handling things had been completely ineffective. Even if she wasn’t like herself, the original owner had the identity of a martyr’s child—a legitimate and respected status. She could have just loitered around the brigade leader a few times. Given how quickly Tian Youfu apologized, if he’d noticed even a hint of something wrong, he probably would have stepped in against the Wang Yongshun family.
There were so many other ways to deal with the situation, but the original owner didn’t use any of them. She really stayed at home doing chores every day and ended up stifling herself to death.
On the surface, Wang Ying still wore a timid, sorrowful expression. If she didn’t take this chance to air out all the grievances the original owner had endured, then she’d be a fool.
But even venting needed strategy. Wang Ying looked timidly at him and asked, “Uncle Youfu… I want to sell my parents’ house to the brigade… would the brigade want it?”
Tian Youfu didn’t seem to understand what she meant: “What?”
He had been prepared to hear the girl cry about Li Chunjuan’s harsh treatment. But instead, she brought up selling the house?
Wang Ying seemed startled by his reaction and hurried to explain, “Uncle Youfu, I want to sell the house, or maybe the brigade could swap it for a shed or something… just not a livestock shed.”
Not just Tian Youfu—everyone around was baffled.
“Ying girl, don’t tell me you misunderstood something? That’s the house your parents left you. You’ve been living there just fine—why would you give it up?”
“Yeah, with those two rooms, whether you want to take in a husband or get married, it’ll be convenient in the future.”
Tian Youfu also tried to persuade her: “Are you scared your aunt will bully you again? Don’t worry, I’ll talk to your uncle in a bit. Your house has nothing to do with them. Just live there with peace of mind.”
Poor thing—must be that the girl was so scared of her aunt that she didn’t want to live near them anymore.
Wang Ying replied, “It’s not that… I just feel…”
“I’m not in school anymore, and I have no income, no work points… My aunt says I’m just lazing around eating for free at home… I thought I’d sell the house and use the money to pay her back…”
Wang Ying knew perfectly well what was going on. The original owner’s meekness came from both her personality and the constant psychological manipulation from Li Chunjuan’s family.
Li Chunjuan always ordered the original owner around, constantly saying she had nothing to her name except for the two rooms and that all her food and drink came from her uncle’s generosity.
The original owner didn’t know she was entitled to a subsidy until the age of eighteen. She really believed everything Li Chunjuan said. Although Li Chunjuan couldn’t stop her from attending school, she’d scare her before every semester, saying that Wang Yongshun was paying her tuition, so she had to be filial and grateful to them. She even faked a ledger where she claimed she was keeping track of all the money the original owner owed, saying she’d have to repay it someday.
On top of that, Wang Yongshun played the good guy, letting Li Chunjuan be the bad cop while he showed up occasionally to “offer warmth.”
With all that, the original owner was constantly torn—resenting her aunt but still looking up to her uncle.
But now that Wang Ying had taken over, she immediately saw something was off with the subsidy situation. No matter the era, martyrs’ children always received support from the collective. Especially since the original owner was an orphan, the brigade would’ve definitely taken care of her until adulthood—it wouldn’t be based on whether she was in school or not.
So all of Li Chunjuan’s words were basically lies that could be easily exposed.
Sure enough, when Tian Youfu heard that, he was shocked: “You owe your aunt money? Doesn’t the brigade give you twenty yuan a year and two hundred work points?”
This had been stated openly in front of the whole brigade—plenty of people knew.
Brigade work points were worth five cents each, so two hundred points equaled ten yuan, plus the twenty yuan was thirty in total. Even though Wang Ying didn’t work, the brigade still gave out grain according to a four-to-six ratio—four for non-workers and six for workers. So even without working, she still got some grain. With all that, her life shouldn’t have been hard. Not to mention her mother had left behind some things too. Although barefoot doctors didn’t charge for their services, people still paid for medicine. Over the years, with such a small household, they should’ve accumulated quite a bit, right?
Li Chunjuan, who was gagged and lying on the ground, was trembling with fear!
Just as Wang Yongshun stepped through the door, before he could catch his breath, he heard these words—and nearly lost his balance.
It was over! He had only been delayed for a short while, and the brigade leader had already found out about the money and work points?!
Before Wang Ying could respond, Wang Yongshun, sweating profusely, rushed to the front to smooth things over.
“That’s nonsense! Sanya, your aunt is just talking rubbish! How could your uncle possibly ask you for money? You’re your uncle’s own niece—of course your uncle should take care of you! Talking about money—what money? Your uncle sees you as his own daughter. Though your schooling these past few years has cost a bit more, your uncle could manage it!”
The people in the brigade still trusted Wang Yongshun to some extent. After all, with someone like Li Chunjuan causing trouble, people naturally sympathized with Wang Yongshun. Moreover, he wasn’t known to be a slippery or deceitful person—he always lent a hand when others had problems and had a relatively good reputation in the brigade. Hearing what he said, some people started to lean in his favor.
“So from what Yongshun is saying, could it be that Wang Ying spent too much at school?”
“Could be. Her school is in town, and things there are expensive! Maybe this girl overspent and asked Yongshun and his wife for money.”
“Thirty yuan a year… that’s quite a lot to spend.”
…
Wang Ying sighed inwardly—“Just as expected.” This uncle of hers was indeed a tough character. With just a couple of sentences, he managed to shift the blame onto her. Since the money had already been spent, if she made a fuss now and asked the brigade leader to investigate, even if she managed to turn things around in the end, it would still be difficult to explain everything clearly. Besides, the man could just push all the blame onto Li Chunjuan and claim he didn’t know anything about it.
She couldn’t ruin her image, but she also wasn’t going to play along with him.
Wang Ying said, “Uncle, but last year Aunt took my martyr’s child certificate and said the brigade wasn’t giving me any subsidies anymore. And… the year before that, she said you were sick and needed medicine, so I lent the subsidy to Aunt.”
So they wanted to talk about money? Fine, let’s talk about the subsidies first.
Wang Yongshun’s head was about to explode. He glared at Li Chunjuan, who was lying on the ground. Damn it, that woman! He had told her countless times—even if the neighbors were far away, she still couldn’t hit the girl too hard. If the girl ever ran out and someone saw her injuries, not only would they lose any benefits, but they might have to spit out everything they had taken before. And now, this wretched girl actually wanted to latch onto the subsidy issue and wouldn’t let go!
“Sanya… Uncle truly failed you… Your aunt, sigh… it’s my fault for not keeping her in check. I didn’t know anything about that martyr’s certificate. Your subsidy is supposed to last until you’re an adult. I told your aunt to give the money to you—didn’t you know about that?”
Seeing he couldn’t muddle his way through this anymore, Wang Yongshun simply dumped all the blame on Li Chunjuan. After all, it wasn’t his doing. Whether she handed over the money or not—let them argue about that. Either way, it wouldn’t come back to hurt him.
But there was no way Wang Ying was going to let him off that easy. This uncle of hers always hid behind his wife—when there were benefits, they were his, but when there were problems, it was all Li Chunjuan’s fault. It made Wang Ying utterly despise him.
Maybe some of the other villagers didn’t see things clearly, but Tian Youfu certainly did.
He gave Wang Yongshun a long, meaningful look, then spoke before Wang Ying could respond: “We’ll deal with the money and work points issue in a bit—whatever was taken from Wang Ying must be paid back in full. Let’s first address the matter of your wife beating people.”
From how skillfully Li Chunjuan had acted, it was clear that this wasn’t the first time she’d hit Wang Ying. Tian Youfu wanted to see just how low these two could stoop.
When it came to this, Wang Yongshun had nothing left to say. He could still talk his way out of the money and work points, but the beating—well, that was a solid fact.
“Sanya, your aunt was just confused… It’s all my fault. I’ve been too focused on work and neglected these things.”
What else could he do but admit it? The injuries on Wang Ying were solid proof. Not that Li Chunjuan was being wrongfully accused anyway.
Wang Yongshun admitted it cleanly and apologized promptly.
At this point, if Wang Ying kept pressing, it would seem excessive. The villagers genuinely sympathized with her, but if she dwelled too much on it, they might start to see her as being too harsh.
Wang Ying wiped away a non-existent tear and said, “Uncle, I don’t blame you… but could I have my martyr’s child certificate back?”
I am just a novice translator and Chinese is not my native language. I try my best to translate the chapters as accurate as possible.
If there are any mistakes then kindly comment and remind me. Your support means a lot.
