Unable to sleep in, Second Uncle Yun began questioning Liu Zhaodi. In the household, she was the only one bold enough to try to take advantage of the eldest brother’s family. Perhaps she had provoked them.
“Hah! With so much going on lately, who has time to run all the way to the commune?”
Neither of them had a clue why the eldest sister-in-law was showing up at their door so early looking for a fight.
But Yun Feng, hiding in the kitchen doing chores, had a vague, uneasy feeling in her heart.
—
In the end, after dawdling for a few minutes, Second Uncle Yun and his wife came out.
Yun Su moved a bamboo chair into her own yard, sat down, and nibbled on some egg cake she had bought yesterday while watching the commotion across the way. When she saw her second uncle and aunt come out, she widened her eyes, thoroughly delighted.
The main event was about to begin!
“Elder Brother, Elder Sister-in-law. Showing up at our door like this first thing in the morning—that’s not very appropriate, is it?”
First Aunt-in-law: “Pah! You’re talking to me about appropriateness? Why don’t you take a piss and look at your own reflection? You two fools think you’re so clever, but you’ve been deceived by your own daughter.”
From the moment First Aunt-in-law had started shouting, the neighbors had been utterly confused.
Now, hearing this, they were even more bewildered.
They all wondered: what on earth was going on?
First Aunt-in-law didn’t keep them guessing. Seeing that she had everyone’s attention and catching a glimpse of the gathered villagers out of the corner of her eye—making sure there were enough—she unleashed her full firepower:
“Heh heh, you still don’t know, do you? A few days ago, our Dahai received a phone call at his work unit from Yun Feng.”
Everyone was stunned to hear that Yun Feng had called. But then they thought, it’s perfectly normal for a niece to call her uncle.
“Right? Every one of you thinks that’s perfectly normal, don’t you? But do you know what that girl Feng said on the phone? She called to tip us off. She said that Third Brother’s Minzi had been accepted by the processing factory. She told us to use whatever means necessary to snatch that job for our Kangzi. Hmph! Do I, He Ying, seem like that kind of person? Does my Dahai seem like that kind of person? Our Kangzi would rather go to the countryside than stoop to despicable tricks to steal his cousin’s job. That’s not just a job—it’s a person’s entire future!”
Getting emotional, First Aunt-in-law’s eyes turned red. She looked deeply pained.
“Second Brother, Second Brother’s wife. I know you two are good at putting on a show. But this time, you can’t just let it slide. You can’t just say a few words and be done with it. You have to teach Yun Feng a lesson. Otherwise, she’ll keep stirring up trouble between the uncles and their children.”
Then First Aunt-in-law turned to the crowd of onlookers: “Fellow villagers, tell me—am I right? If a young woman’s heart is crooked, she’ll easily go astray. While she’s still young enough to be taught, her parents have to put in the effort! Otherwise, with the way Yun Feng is now, if she marries that regiment commander fiancé of hers, she’ll ruin a comrade in the People’s Liberation Army!”
Speech after speech, layer upon layer—she gave no one a chance to react.
By the time everyone processed what they’d heard, First Aunt-in-law had already completed her performance.
Second Uncle Yun was livid at this turn of events.
His eldest sister-in-law, of all people—the stingiest woman around—dared to say that he and his wife were good at putting on a show? Hah! He wanted to shout back. But seeing the villagers watching him like hawks, he quickly came to his senses and realized there were things he couldn’t say out loud.
What Yun Feng had done was dragging their entire family into the mud.
In all the fishing villages around here, families stuck together. Not sticking together—especially brothers from the same ancestors, the same parents—would make people talk behind your back.
In fact, Second Uncle Yun didn’t even get a chance to speak.
Because the villagers had already started scolding, one after another.
“Your family’s upbringing really isn’t right.”
“No matter how capable she is, Yun Feng stirring up trouble between uncles like that is unacceptable.”
“I never would have thought Yun Feng was this kind of person. Before, people said she was the one who pushed Yun Su into the sea, and we didn’t believe it. We thought only someone like Hu Chunhua would do something so wicked.”
Everyone talked at once, a loud buzzing racket.
But Yun Su, sitting in her own yard eating her snack, was extremely satisfied—utterly, completely satisfied.
Before this, although many people had suspected Yun Feng was behind Yun Su falling into the sea, first, there was no evidence, and second, Yun Feng was a master at playing innocent. In the end, most of the village still didn’t believe Yun Feng would be so black-hearted as to harm her own cousin.
Some rumors even spread that jealous people had made up the story because they envied Yun Feng’s capability.
At the time, Yun Su felt that Yun Feng was no different from an indestructible cockroach.
Now that First Aunt-in-law had personally come out to hammer her, all those old suspicions that had been suppressed would spring back like a tightly coiled spring—the more they’d been pressed down, the harder they’d rebound.
Hadn’t people already started bringing up the incident of Yun Su falling into the sea?
—
Inside the house, Yun Feng had been panicking ever since First Aunt-in-law appeared. Hearing those words—every sentence, every word condemning her without a single curse—she trembled with rage.
That useless old woman. Such a good job, and she didn’t even have the sense to snatch it. And then she had the nerve to come and tattle on her.
Yun Feng was furious. In that moment, First Aunt-in-law became her sworn enemy. She told herself to endure, to hold on a little longer. After she married Gu Zhengrong, she would be a regiment commander’s wife. Then she would make the eldest branch of the family pay dearly.
But before she could endure it for long, Liu Zhaodi, unable to bear the villagers’ pointed remarks any longer, stormed into the house and dragged Yun Feng out into the yard.
In the wide yard, the surrounding villagers stared at her with hawklike eyes. The pressure was suffocating.
What made it even more suffocating was Liu Zhaodi grabbing her by the braid and cursing, “Talk. Tell me. Is what your First Aunt-in-law said true?”
Yun Feng gritted her teeth against the sharp pain radiating from her scalp, knowing that no matter what, she could never admit it.
“No, I never said those things. I did call First Uncle. But it was only to ask about Yun Huaikang’s arrangements for going to the countryside. I would never say anything about snatching a job. What good would that do me?”
That’s right, that’s right. Aside from her and First Uncle, no one had heard their conversation. If she refused to admit it, no one could do anything to her.
The villagers heard this and thought it made some sense.
But if that were true, why would the eldest branch of the family want to sling mud on the second branch? The two branches had long since separated their households. There was no conflict of interest.
As if reading the villagers’ confusion and Yun Feng’s sense of relief, Yun Su’s First Uncle, who had barely spoken since arriving in the village, finally stirred.
“Exactly. I also can’t figure out why Yun Feng would try to instigate my wife and me to steal Minzi’s job. There’s no benefit in it for her. Even now, I still don’t understand it. But this much is true: my wife and I are not so despicable as to frame our own niece. That wouldn’t benefit us either.”
As First Uncle said this, Yun Feng’s face still held a trace of secret glee.
But then First Uncle’s next words sealed her fate completely.
“However, when I received that phone call, several of my colleagues were right there beside me. Our office phone has a problem—it’s not very soundproof. Whatever the person on the other end says can be heard clearly by everyone in the office. So, the call Yun Feng made that day wasn’t heard by only me. Several people in our office heard it too. If no one believes me, you can come with me to the commune and ask for yourselves.”
At these words, Yun Feng, who had just been so self-righteous, suddenly collapsed limply to the ground. In her heart, she thought: It’s over.
What followed was a deluge of condemnation from the villagers and fury from Second Uncle Yun and his wife.
Everyone pointed at Yun Feng and blamed her.
The only mercy was that no one laid a hand on her.
But that gave Yun Feng no comfort at all.
Because the next moment, she spotted a tall, upright figure among the onlookers.
He was carrying bags and parcels—clearly on his way to her house.
But when his eyes met hers, he shook his head in disappointment, turned, and walked away without hesitation.
Seeing this, Yun Feng’s expression completely crumbled. Ignoring everyone else’s reproaches, she pushed through the crowd and chased after the departing figure.
—
“Oh my, isn’t that Yun Feng’s regiment commander fiancé?”
“What a tragedy. She got caught doing something bad right in front of her fiancé.”
“This probably won’t work out anymore. Just look at how things have turned out…”
The villagers watched Yun Feng’s fleeing figure, all sorts of comments flying.
Yun Su had been keeping an eye on the unfolding drama across the way, so she had noticed Gu Zhengrong’s arrival long ago.
In fact, she had anticipated that Gu Zhengrong would come today. He had been away on a mission for so long and had just returned to Family Courtyard No. 5 yesterday. After resting a day, it was only natural that he would visit his girlfriend today.
Because she had foreseen this, she had asked First Aunt-in-law to start the scene at Second Uncle’s doorstep early in the morning, tearing off Yun Feng’s mask.
What Yun Feng desired most was Gu Zhengrong, wasn’t it? She had used every means to appear kind, hardworking, and brave in front of him.
So Yun Su would tear away that face Yun Feng cherished so much—right in front of the man she most wanted to keep it for.
As for how things would develop between them after this, that was none of her concern.
After all, today’s spectacle was deeply satisfying.
Too bad Ji Xiangtian had to work and couldn’t witness it firsthand.
—
With Yun Feng gone, the crowd at the door gradually dispersed. But the gossip didn’t stop. Surely, before noon, the entire Yun Family Hollow Brigade—and even the surrounding villages—would know about Yun Feng’s “good deeds.”
As for the eldest branch of the family, the three of them smiled sheepishly and walked into Yun Su’s yard.
“Xiao Su… about what I did…”
Yun Su raised her hand to stop whatever came next.
“First Aunt-in-law, you can discuss Kangzi’s situation with my parents.”
She wasn’t going to get involved in the rest. Yesterday, Yun Su’s parents had said they would handle the discussion about looking after their nephew directly with the eldest branch. Exactly how much care and to what extent—these things needed to be agreed upon in advance to avoid hard feelings later.
Yun Su wasn’t idle. She left home and headed to the supply depot to open up.
Walking along the country path, she ran into villagers from time to time. Each one who saw her cast her a sympathetic glance. Clearly, no one would believe the old lies about what a good person Yun Feng was anymore.
She didn’t say anything. Whenever someone asked, she simply put on a resigned look.
And so Yun Su quickly arrived at the supply depot. But she didn’t open the door. Because she noticed that at the bend where the village path met the main road, Yun Feng was clinging to Gu Zhengrong’s leg, refusing to let go.
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