Free Web NovelChapter 76: Chapter 76: I Refuse
Gu’er held the machete and looked at Zhang Da. She didn’t regret slashing him. In fact, she felt she’d gone too easy on him. In her past life and in this one, he was the person she hated most. She couldn’t remember how many times he had beaten her in her last life, and in this one, he had almost destroyed her.
"Zhang Da, do you need me to slash myself? Is that what it will take for you to drop this?"
Gu’er asked him calmly.
Zhang Da’s back throbbed with pain. Even though the village doctor had stitched him up and given him a shot, it still hurt.
He looked at Gu’er standing before him. Her voice was calm, yet for some reason, a shiver ran down his spine.
’The once introverted and weak Zhou Gu’er... how did she turn into a female Yama from hell? The way she looks at me, it’s like she bears some deep-seated hatred for me. If I nod and say yes, she probably wouldn’t slash herself. She’d bring that machete straight down on my head instead.’
Zhang Da instinctively touched his head and found it covered in sweat.
’But if I say she doesn’t have to... I’m a man, and so many people are watching. How could I not lose face?’
"Zhang Da."
Gu’er called out again.
As if he’d heard a death summons from Yama himself, Zhang Da blurted out without thinking, "No need! No need to cut yourself."
Only after the words were out did he realize what he’d said, and he trailed off, faltering.
"Sister Gu’er, I was the one in the wrong today. I wronged you. This slash is my just deserts. You don’t have to cut yourself. How about we call the matter settled?"
Zhang Da quickly added this. He was a scoundrel, but his vices were limited to gambling and harassing women; he wasn’t truly vicious. This time, Gu’er had scared him witless. He was afraid that if he forced her to cut herself, she would come after him for revenge later.
When Zhang Da said this, quite a few people nodded in agreement. Others thought he was pathetic and started jeering at him.
Zhang Da started trading insults with the crowd, but he didn’t dare take back what he’d said to Gu’er.
Gu’er stared at Zhang Da. She had been prepared for the worst but never expected him to say this. In her past life, Zhang Da had been a bastard in her eyes, but he had also held absolute power over her. ’If only I’d had my current courage—the courage to resist—I wouldn’t have endured so many years of beatings.’
’To think he’s actually afraid of me now. Is it true that bullies only fear someone worse than them?’
Zhou Mazi stared at Gu’er, astonished that Zhang Da could be so cowardly. Gu’er had shut him down with just a few words.
The rest of the crowd couldn’t believe it either.
"Zhang Da, you worthless bastard! How can you be so spineless? You’re scared of her? A grown man scared of some girl? How can you live with the shame? Just go and die!"
Zhou Mei was furious. She couldn’t believe Zhang Da wasn’t pressing the issue. Consumed with hatred, she started screaming. In truth, what she hated even more was that Sun Jiaming was helping Gu’er.
"Zhou Gu’er, you do the cutting! So what if Zhang Da let you off? This isn’t over! I refuse to drop it!" fɾeewebnoveℓ.co๓
Zhou Mei was acting like a madwoman. She wouldn’t let Gu’er off. She wanted Gu’er’s fate to be worse than her own.
"That’s right! She agreed to two slashes. She can’t back out now! Jia Ming, get over here. Let her do it!"
Zhou Erpao, his face grim, called to Sun Jiaming again.
"Jia Ming, we’ll let the matter of the money you lent slide," Sixth Grandpa spoke up. "But you must not get involved in this business with the knife. If your grandfather were still alive, he wouldn’t let you meddle in this either."
Sun Jiaming’s gaze suddenly turned sharp. He tightened his grip on the shotgun and stared intently at Sixth Grandpa.
His glare sent a chill through the old man, and his lips began to tremble.
Sun Jiaming had known Zhang Da wouldn’t force Gu’er to hurt herself; he was confident he could make him back down. As for Zhou Mei’s faction, he had a plan. Now that he had stepped in, he wouldn’t allow Gu’er to be harmed. Since Zhou Mei refused to give up, he would deal with her side of things first.
Seeing that Sixth Grandpa no longer dared to meet his gaze, Sun Jiaming stepped in front of Gu’er, motioning for her to stay put. He stood his ground and declared in a loud voice, "I had intended to resolve this matter before bringing up anything else. But since Sixth Grandpa mentioned my grandfather, let’s talk about him. Third Grandpa, Sixth Grandpa, you all followed my grandfather back in the day. You should know full well how he handled things. Don’t you dare attribute your way of thinking to my grandfather. He doesn’t deserve that insult."
At this, he saw the expressions on the old men’s faces shift, but he paid them no mind. He continued, "You haven’t forgotten what happened back then, have you? That Limp Zhou from the Zhou family is still alive. Should we drag him out here and ask him how my grandfather handled things?"
As soon as Sun Jiaming finished, it wasn’t just the old men whose expressions changed; the members of the Zhou family paled as well. The rest of the crowd broke into murmurs.
The faces of Second Grandpa and the others were flushed not only with anger but also with shame.
Gu’er didn’t know what Sun Jiaming’s words meant. She looked at him, and he began to explain in a solemn voice.
Only then did Gu’er learn that Sun Jiaming’s great-grandfather had fought the foreign invaders when he was young. He had died a hero’s death in his twenties but was deeply respected by the villagers.
Sun Jiaming’s grandfather had been the village chief. He was an upright man, and though young, he commanded great authority. Everyone in the village respected his word.
During his time as village chief, there was a man from the Zhou family named Zhou Ermao. He was a bad sort. One night, he snuck into the home of a widow in the village and raped her.
The widow was a fiery woman. Unable to bear the humiliation, she used a hairpin from her hair to blind Zhou Ermao in one eye.
In a fit of rage, Zhou Ermao beat the widow. He even threw her three-year-old daughter off the kang. If the floor hadn’t been packed earth, the child might have died from the fall.
But it didn’t end there. The next day, he gathered several of his clansmen, stormed the widow’s house, and beat her half to death. They then tied up the widow and her three-year-old daughter, forcing them to kneel in the middle of the road to show everyone what happened when you crossed them.
By the time Grandpa Jia Ming arrived with a crowd, Zhou Ermao had already played the victim, shifting all the blame onto the widow.
At that time, Second Grandpa and the others were still young. They and several other elders felt the widow was shameless and had brought disgrace upon the village. They declared that such a person could not be allowed to stay, and they demanded that the widow and her three-year-old daughter be thrown into the pond and drowned.
The widow’s family was from a minor lineage in the village. With her husband gone, her family line had few people left—only two households, and they were too afraid to speak up.
The widow’s plight back then was even more tragic than Gu’er’s now. She had been raped, her daughter thrown to the ground, and she herself beaten half to death, only to be branded as shameless and sentenced to be drowned along with her daughter.
While some people were outraged, they didn’t dare question the decision of the elders and Second Grandpa’s group. Furthermore, the Zhou clan had many men, so all anyone could do was offer silent sympathy.
Some people even spat at the widow, calling her a slut.
By then, the widow had stopped crying. She had lost all hope. Feeling it was better to be dead than to live like this, she simply closed her eyes and waited to die.
Sun Jiaming’s grandfather stopped the elders. Although they were his seniors and tried to pressure him with their rank, Grandpa Jia Ming was not afraid. He not only ordered the widow and her child to be untied but also declared that the widow was not at fault and must not be drowned.
The elders were furious. He pointed right in their faces and gave them a harsh lecture, enraging them, but there was nothing they could do. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
Sun Jiaming’s grandfather then had Zhou Ermao held down on a bench and beaten with a plank. Even though his eye was blinded, he had ruined someone and done wrong, so he had to be punished.
