Chapter 4

Punishing Mrs. Liu

Zhou Qing was a man who had the ability to see the broad picture compared to Mrs. Liu. He had never treated Li Wei Yang too wickedly because his principle was to leave himself a route to retreat for all types of situation. Consequently every time he returned home, Li Wei Yang would have several days of peace and tranquility.n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

Having finished cooking, she extinguished the fire. Li Wei Yang opened her eyes, which was blurry from the steam. After a while of contemplation, she gradually stood up. She was about to massage her tired limbs when a voice flew in from the doorway.

“You damn lass, you’re being lazy again. Hurry up and clean up the kitchen! I’ll come back later to see if you’re still being lazy!”

Li Wei Yang slowly glanced over the young girl, standing at the door, with her arms on her hips, glaring at her. This young girl was only older than her by a year but was taller than her by a head. Her face was pretty but the sour attitude had ruined her natural beauty.

Zhou Lan Xiu was filled with jealousy as she stared fixedly at Li Wei Yang’s delicate features. She scoffed inwardly then turned around and left. She instructed over her shoulders, “Remember to thoroughly clean the pots. Also, the floor should be cleared of puddles. The miscellaneous items on the stove should also be organized!”

Li Wei Yang stood in the tiny kitchen, her eyes on the girl’s back then promptly grinned. Half an hour later, she finally finished cleaning the pots, hunched her back and began to clean the floor.

At this moment, Zhou Lan Xiu poked her head through the window and said, “It’s not going to be clean if you do it like that. You have to kneel down and clean! How can you not know! Oh and the water tank is empty. After you finish, fill up the water tank. Did you hear me?”

Li Wei Yang wiped off the perspiration on her forehead and chin. Then she continued on with the chores.

It had always been like this. As the daughter of a farmer family, Zhou Lan Xiu had to work as well but she would constantly think of ways to dump all the chores onto Wei Yang. Afterwards she would claim all the credits for the housework. She would go out and proclaim how busy and tired she was too, claiming that she had to take care of the spoiled xiaojie who didn’t know how to do anything. Not only that, every day when it was time for Wei Yang to eat, all that was left were two cold buns and a little bit of soup. Before, Li Wei Yang would cry while she worked but now, she didn’t care about anything. Despite how exhausting the chores were, she could still endure it.

At night, Zhou Qing didn’t stay home for dinner. He was invited for dinner by the village head. A groundskeeper like him was plenty a dime at the Li’s in Ping Cheng but in this small village, he was a highly regarded person.

Li Wei Yang knew that Zhou Qing had an amazing tolerance for alcohol. Each time he would drink until midnight before coming home, thus giving her a very good opportunity. She calculated the time, waiting until it was peaceful at midnight. She silently picked up the red fabric that she had purposely kept hidden when she was doing the laundry earlier in the day. Standing up, she opened the doors and walked up next to the fence. She hooked the red fabric onto the fence and stared at it for a long time, softly chuckled and quickly returned to her room.

In the middle of the night, there was the abrupt sound of the front gates being opened. Li Wei Yang strained her ears and listened attentively. There was the sound of commotion and then she pretended she didn’t hear anything.

Right at this moment, a drunken Zhou Qing returned and saw in his chamber was the tall and broad silhouette of a man. He turned grim and immediately awakened from the drunken stupor. He went to retrieve a knife and with a bam, kicked open the door.

This simple sound had startled everyone inside the house, except for Li Wei Yang who still had both eyes closed but was silently listening to the happenings outside.

Abruptly there was a smacking sound, as if someone had just been harshly slapped in the face. Following it was Zhou Qing’s yelling.

“You slut, you waited until I’m not home to call over another man! You have no shame! What? You don’t know? I clearly saw a male figure running out from your room! You dare to be so shameless and say you don’t know anything. If one day someone kills me, I’m afraid you’re going to say you don’t know either.”

Once the words were spoken, it was followed by two more slaps. It was obvious the person being chastised was Mrs. Liu.

Not waiting for a defense from Mrs. Liu, Zhou Qing shouted again, “Quickly kneel down! I want you to clearly explain who that man was! If you stay silent, tonight will be your funeral!”

Then there was the sound of Mrs. Liu sobbing and pleading. “I’m innocent! How can I do something so humiliating?”

Inside the room, Zhou Qing spit onto Mrs. Liu’s face and said, “Innocent? Who is trying to implicate you? There’s no one here who resents you to implicate you!” He began beating her again.

Mrs. Liu wasn’t going to give up. She held onto Zhou Qing’s sleeves and fought back.

Zhou Qing continued to berate, becoming even more infuriated. With one hand, he pulled Mrs. Liu’s hair and dragged her across the floor, hitting and admonishing simultaneously. “You have sullied the Zhou’s honour!”

In fact, Mrs. Liu did have a lover but they only met up when her husband and son were not home. Hooking the red fabric onto the fence was their secret code. Tonight she didn’t hang up the red fabric but for some reason, her lover had come by. She was in the middle of opening the backdoor to let her lover out but unexpectedly, her husband had returned.

Right now her chest felt like it was being punctured by a million arrows and there was no way to avoid it as Zhou Qing continued to beat her. She mustered up all the strength to escape.

Zhou Qing roared, “You slut, come back here!”

He chased after her into the courtyard and managed to grab a hold of her hair. Mrs. Liu moaned and fell to the ground.

Zhou Qing was about to hit her again but Zhou Jiang ran out and said, “Father, father! Stop it, stop it! Mother won’t do something like that! Let’s go back into the room and talk it out! Let’s talk it out!”

Mrs. Liu heard it and instantly understood her son’s meaning. She burst out into sobs again, wanting to create an even bigger uproar so that Zhou Qing would have to think twice. “You came home drunk and were seeing things! And now you want to wrongfully accuse me!”

Zhou Qing laughed coldly. “Wrongfully accuse you? As if! Tonight I drank half a liter of wine. It’s not enough to intoxicate me to the point I can’t differentiate between a man and a woman! I can’t believe you’re already this old and can still do something like that. These past few years when I’m not home, who knows how many times your lover has visited! Why are you still pretending to be prim-and-proper in front of me?”

“Fine, you don’t believe me then I’m going to kill myself! Even if I die, it’s because you Zhous forced me to!” Mrs. Liu was a contemptuous woman. She jumped up with intentions of banging her head against the wall.

However, Zhou Qing had quick reflex and grabbed both of her arms. “You dare to threaten me with suicide?” He threw her onto the ground and drover his foot into her chest. The more he thought about it, the angrier he became. He turned around, grabbed the door latch, and proceeded to repeatedly beat up Mrs. Liu.

Mrs. Liu’s cries were like the sound of slaughtered pigs, echoing into the distance.

Li Wei Yang shifted her body, the corner of her lips slightly curved upwards. This is what they call the evil we bring upon ourselves are the hardest to bear.

Upon hearing the upheaval, the neighbours opened their gates and stepped out.

Mrs. Ma and Zhou Lan Xiu, who were in their respective rooms, had long heard it but Mrs. Ma was the daughter-in-law and thus, did not dare to intervene in her in-laws’ affairs. Zhou Lan Xiu had wanted to help her mother, but when she saw how murderous her father looked through the window, she couldn’t move an inch.

Zhou Jiang looked at the surrounding and quickly interrupted Zhou Qing. In a loud voice, he said, “Father, you’ve drank too much. It’s already very late, let’s not cause a commotion and wake up our neighbours.” Saying so, he walked forward and snatched the door latch and pulled Zhou Qing to the side. He whispered, “Father, let’s slowly talk it out. Even if you want to use your fists, we should still go inside. It’s awkward to let the neighbours see.”

Zhou Qing glared at Mrs. Liu. He had beaten her up to the point she was gasping for breath. Nonetheless his anger was still not appeased as he brutally kicked Zhou Jiang. “I’m not home and yet you can’t guard the house either! How humiliating and shameful! Bring her in!”

Zhou Qing swallowed down his anger and supported Mrs. Liu, who was beaten to the point of trauma. Mrs. Liu was a haughty woman. Despite being beaten nearly to unconsciousness, she kept on insisting her innocence. She didn’t stop crying either.

Moments later, Zhou Qing’s berating could be heard. “Shut up! It’s late, why are you wailing like it’s someone’s funeral!”

Instantly the world was peaceful.

Hearing this sentence, Li Wei Yang couldn’t hold it in anymore and guffawed.