CH 13

Chapter 13.1 – Chest Assault

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Early the next morning, Uncle Wen went down the mountain and coughed all the way to Zhang Xing’s house.

Just as he stepped into the courtyard door, he bumped into the students sitting and painting in the courtyard. The students turned successively to look at him as soon as he entered the courtyard.

Zhang Xiuxiu was drawing Teacher Li, who was sitting under the eaves reading a book.

Wearing a black shirt, the man sitting there was carefully flipping through a book, with a gentle temperament of his own style.

Seeing her grandpa entering into Zhang family’s courtyard with coughs, Xiuxiu immediately put aside the pencil in her hand and rushed over to grab the corner of her grandpa’s clothes. Tilting her head up, she asked him, “Grandpa, what’s wrong with you? Are you feeling unwell?”

Xiuxiu has not seen her grandpa for several days already. And now seeing her grandpa hunching over with coughs, the rims of her eyes reddened with distress.

A little boy also rushed over and stood still in front of his grandpa.

Uncle Wen reached out to stroke the girl’s head and urged in a low voice, “Good Xiuxiu, go attend class with your little brother while I talk to the Village Chief.”

“En.”

Zhang Xiuxiu was very obedient and pulled her little brother back to their seats to continue with the lesson.

During the whole process, Li Chuan only looked up and nodded politely at Uncle Wen.

**********

When Uncle Wen entered the house, Zhang Xing was looking through the genealogy record and counting the men in the village.

Recently a circular was sent out from the county to all major villages, requiring each member of every household to apply for the ID card. As transportation in Zhangjia Gorge and the nearby Lijia Village are inaccessible, the villagers rarely leave their villages.

Only those young people who want to go out to work will apply for the ID card. Since mountains are high and rivers are far, very few government officials come to these remote mountain villages, hence very few people in the villages have gotten their ID cards.

It takes four days to travel to and from Tuling Township police station to get an ID card. Since the journey is long, very few villagers are willing to spend four days traveling for the sake of the documents.

Hence, the government implemented an incentive plan.

As long as the village chiefs successfully urge the villagers to apply for the documents, a reward of 50 yuan per person will be given. Without doubt, the person who applies will also receive the 50 yuan as incentive fee.

In order to obtain the reward money, Zhang Xing was adding up the number of men who could go out of the mountain.

Coming in from outside, Uncle Wen called out to Zhang Xing.

Zhang Xing looked up and was shocked to see it was him, “Yo, Uncle Wen, why did you come down the mountain? Who is guarding the temple?”

“Oh, Lin’wa just went up the mountain to deliver food and I asked him to help keep watch for a moment while I came down to ask for leave.” Uncle Wen coughed in between his words. As his body was very thin, every time he coughed, it eventually gave the illusion that his bones were going to fall apart.

Li Yunzhen came out from the kitchen and poured a bowl of tea for each of them.

Uncle Wen coughed violently and added, “Ai, I’m old and my body is really useless. Wasn’t this just sleeping a few days on the mountain and I caught a cold. Village Chief, see if you can arrange another person to go up the mountain?”

Li Yunzhen and Zhang Xing looked at each other without saying anything.

Uncle Wen glanced at the children and Li Chuan who were in the courtyard, then whispered, “Yunzhen, close the main room door. I have a few words to say to the Village Chief.

“Okay.” Li Yunzhen went to close the two-panel door of the main room and inserted the door bolts.

Uncle Wen sat next to Zhang Xing and spoke something close to his ear. He then coughed again before the volume of his voice resumed to before, “Xing’wa, I won’t talk about you but how could you dare to have ideas on Teacher Lin? Ai, it’s useless to talk about this now. The current situation ah, is to conceal this from Teacher Li and make Teacher Li leave our village as soon as possible.”

“I got it.” Placing his hand on Uncle Wen’s shoulder, Zhang Xing patted him and urged, “Uncle Wen, don’t tell the villagers about this beforehand. Tonight, I’ll let my mother keep guard at the mountain temple and you can go back to rest properly.”

“En.” The old man coughed a few more times and appeared very weak.

In the afternoon, Li Yunzhen brought a tool up the mountain temple.

She entered the mountain temple and changed shifts with Lin’wa. Once Lin’wa left, she bolted the main hall door then gazed over the three girls cowering in the corner and walked straight towards the woodshed in the backyard.

Bringing a bullwhip into the backyard, Li Yunzhen pulled Lin Xiaoyin out of the woodshed and dragged her to the main hall before whipping her severely.

Huddling on the ground, Lin Xiaoyin screamed terrifyingly and cried, begging her not to whip her anymore.

Li Yunzhen was trembling with anger as she cursed and swore, “Who let you run away, who let you run away, see if I don’t break your legs!”

Saying that, the whip lashed out again.

Lin Xiaoyin wailed. Pulling the bottom of her trousers, she begged her, “I won’t run, won’t run anymore. You don’t hit me, don’t hit me.”

In the corner, Wen Mei felt alarmed seeing this when she grabbed Su Qin’s elbow and asked, “Su-su, should we help her?”

“Wait till it gets dark. The whip at most let her suffer a little physical pain and won’t crippled her.” Su Qin looked at the sky outside which gradually darkened yet not completely.

In the main hall, the mountain gods have cordial countenances while the candlelight flickers on the altar table.

The sky darkened not long after, and it was probably about 7.30pm where no one would come up the mountain.

Li Yunzhen was also tired by the beating as she sat on the bench, panting for breath.

Su Qin winked at Meng Sisi and Wen Mei, who both grasped intuitively and each clutched a hatchet and a rock in their hands respectively.

Getting up to pour a cup of water for Li Yunzhen, Su Qin’s voice was soft, “Aunt Li, have a drink of water. Don’t get angry, it’s not good for your health.”

Li Yunzhen took the tea bowl from her hand and turned to look at her.

The girl was thin with a cloth wrapped around her head, revealing only a pair of eyes. She was surprised, “You are the Fool’s wife?”

She nodded her head and hmm, “Thank you Aunt Li. If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t have met such a good husband like Feifei.”

Li Yunzhen turned her face away and gulped a mouthful of water to moisten her throat before she spoke to Lin Xiaoyin who was cowering and trembling on the ground, “When the Fool’s wife first came here, she was much more sensible than you. If you have been obedient and listened to us, would I be inclined to beat you up?”

With tousled hair, Lin Xiaoyin hugged her head as she looked at the girl and Li Yunzhen through the messy strands of her hair.

Pursing her lips, she dared not speak nor dared she even to breathe loudly while every inch of her body was burning with pain.

Su Qin poured another bowl of hot water for Li Yunzhen and said, “Aunt Li, when can we go home ah? I ….. miss Feifei.”

The girl’s voice was soft with girlish shyness.

Being someone with experience, how could Li Yunzhen not understand the girl’s words? She ‘aiyo’ and looked askance at her, “This only how long have you been with the Fool? Missing him already? You these little girls, tsk tsk … “