Several elderly women briskly ran over, their eyes lighting up at the sight of two young women in a brawl.
“Oh my! Wang Xiaohua and Lin Xiaocao are fighting!”
Old lady Wang sharp eyes caught sight of Luo Yecheng, who was sweating nervously and trying to sneak away. She quickly darted forward and grabbed him.
“Luo Zhiqing, what’s going on here?” Her keen eyes bore into him.
“I don’t know! I have no idea what this is about!” Luo Yecheng stammered, shaking his head vigorously. “I need to go; I have something to do—”
“Brother Yecheng!”
Both women, in the midst of their fight, shouted in unison.
Luo Yecheng froze in place, realizing there was no escape. The elderly women encircled him, pinning him with their curious stares.
“They’re calling you, aren’t they? What’s your relationship with Xiaohua and Xiaocao?” one of them asked, her voice brimming with intrigue.
“I have no relationship with them! None whatsoever!” Luo Yecheng denied vehemently, panic creeping into his voice.
He looked pleadingly at the two women. “I was just passing by!”
Wang Xiaohua and Lin Xiaocao, disheveled and bruised, opened their mouths as if to speak but hesitated when they saw the desperation in his eyes.
“Then why were you two fighting?”
The elderly women, sharp as ever, weren’t about to let the matter drop. It was clear something was amiss.
Wang Xiaohua snapped, “What business is it of yours why we’re fighting?”
This response didn’t sit well with the women.
“How rude! We’re just trying to help you resolve this, and you act like we’re meddling?”
Luo Yecheng sighed in relief, hoping the distraction would allow him to slip away.
But as he turned, he was met with a sharp slap across the face.
Standing before him, eyes red and tear-streaked, was Jiang Xiaowan.
His pupils shrank as dread settled over him.
“Xiao… Xiaowan, when did you get here?” Luo Yecheng forced a smile, trying to regain his composure.
Jiang Xiaowan stared at him, disbelief and pain etched across her face. If she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes, she never would’ve believed the refined, talented young man she adored was a fraud.
Though her love had clouded her judgment, Jiang Xiaowan wasn’t entirely naive.
“Luo Yecheng, we’re done!”
With that, she turned and ran, tears streaming down her face. Luo Yecheng scrambled after her.
The elderly women, sensing the drama had come to an end, sighed wistfully.
“I guess it’s over between Xiaowan and Luo Zhiqing,” one muttered.
“I was looking forward to the wedding feast tomorrow. Everything was ready; now this mess happens,” another chimed in.
“She should come out and explain what happened,” one woman suggested.
“I bet it has something to do with Wang Xiaohua and Lin Xiaocao. Xiaowan probably overheard something.”
“Were those two really fighting over Luo Zhiqing? Oh, if only we’d arrived earlier!”
Luo Yecheng, meanwhile, was surrounded by the gossiping crowd. His face burned with humiliation, but he couldn’t afford to leave; doing so would seal his fate.
“What’s going on here?”
The crowd parted as Jiang Xiaowan’s father, the village party secretary, arrived with his wife.
“Clear out! Don’t you all have something better to do?” the party secretary scolded, waving them away.
He shot Luo Yecheng a stern look. “Come inside.”
The secretary initially thought it was a minor spat. But hearing his daughter sobbing inside her room, he and his wife quickly realized the gravity of the situation.
Jiang Xiaowan’s mother stormed into the room to comfort her daughter and uncover the truth.
Outside, the elderly women refused to give up. One of them, living next door, offered a solution.
“Come to my place! My house shares a wall with theirs.”
The group eagerly accepted, sneaking into the neighbor’s yard to eavesdrop through the thin wall.
“Shh! I hear something!”
Jiang Xiaowan’s mother’s enraged voice boomed through the wall:
“Luo Yecheng, you shameless scumbag! My daughter was about to marry you, and you’re out there fooling around with other women? Do you think we’re easy to bully? I’ll make you pay!”
Though embarrassed by the situation, Jiang Xiaowan poured out everything she’d overheard. Her mother, upon hearing the details, exploded with fury.
Grabbing a fire poker, she stormed outside.
“Mother-in-law, please let me explain! I’ve done nothing wrong to Xiaowan! I genuinely love her and want to marry her!” Luo Yecheng pleaded desperately.
“Liar!” Jiang Xiaowan’s mother roared. “Xiaowan heard everything! You and that tramp Wang Xiaohua—she heard every filthy word you said!”
The party secretary’s face darkened.
“Luo Zhiqing, I thought you were an honest city man, even if you’re weak and incapable of farm work. But now I see you’re nothing but a morally bankrupt scoundrel. Did you think our daughter and our family were easy prey?”
The next-door yard echoed with sounds of a fight. Luo Yecheng’s cries of pain were loud and pitiful.
Back in the neighboring yard, the eavesdropping women were ecstatic.
Song Wei felt immense satisfaction hearing Luo Yecheng’s suffering, while the elderly women reveled in the juicy gossip.
“I knew something was off with Xiaohua and Xiaocao!”
“Luo Zhiqing really outdid himself, stringing along three girls in one village. Disgusting!”
“He’s just a skinny little thing! Sure, he’s pale and clean-looking, but he’s probably useless in bed!”
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