The people of Zhu Family Village were once again dumbfounded.
After breaking off her engagement, the eldest daughter of the Tang Family had injured all three members of the Da Shazhu family, and then reported both her biological parents and the Da Shazhu family to the Public Security Bureau. Now, she actually had the audacity to return to the village to divide the household registry and claim a housing plot!
She had truly grown fearless; no one had ever seen a girl like her.
Amidst their shock, Tang Ning quickly handled the paperwork and had already begun repairing the drafty shack.
She brought her bedding and daily necessities from the Tang Family, and of course, her share of the food—a small bag of sweet potatoes.
It was only after the public security officers searched the place that she understood why Tang Xingfa and Zhang Miao had tried to sell her off for just half a bag of grain: in private, they had actually taken fifty yuan from the fool's family!
Naturally, this money now belonged to her as well. Lin Shengwen must have had his reasons for having both families pay compensation to her.
Tang Ning appreciated the gesture, and if an opportunity arose in the future, she would repay it.
Right now, the most critical issue was survival. The weather was getting colder by the day, and winter here brought heavy snow. Her top priority was to fix up her living quarters before the snow fell and to store enough food to last through the harsh winter.
The feeling of hunger in her stomach grew heavier by the day. Since it was impossible to grow vegetables in this season, Tang Ning went to the mountain every day to set traps and forage for anything edible.
After all, two sweet potatoes a day wouldn't sustain her for long. The villagers looked at her as if she were a freak; no one would trade anything with her, nor would anyone come to help.
She was like an outsider who had broken the established rules and infringed upon the vested interests of the majority, which was why she was being ostracized.
At first, a few people wanted to teach her a lesson, but they were scared off by the sickle she carried everywhere.
Coupled with Zhu Fugui's stern warnings and the constant investigations by the county Public Security Bureau, everyone could only dare to gossip behind her back, terrified of getting mixed up with her and bringing bad luck upon themselves.
Every day, Tang Ning went up the mountain to chop tree branches and gather firewood, plastering her shack layer upon layer until it was completely sealed tight.
Using ropes, discarded wire, stalks, and branches, she densely fortified the precarious little shack against the cold wind. Tang Ning even made a door; it would take an ordinary person quite a bit of effort to open it from the outside.
She divided the interior into two rooms. For the sake of warmth, she had to maximize the temperature of the sleeping area, while the outer room served as her kitchen and living space.
Like an ant moving its home, she labored unceasingly, working from early morning until dark. While the people of Zhu Family Village waited to laugh at her, she pieced her life together bit by bit.
A rumbling stomach was the norm. Her staple food of sweet potatoes was almost gone, and every day she tried her best to forage for some wild herbs to boil into a soup with a pinch of salt to supplement her body's energy.
The weather grew gloomier. With farm work at a standstill and food scarce, the villagers huddled in their homes, sharing a single kang bed rather than heating two, and refusing to step outside unless absolutely necessary to minimize calorie consumption. Two meals a day was standard, and some households could barely manage one.
On this day, the moment Tang Ning opened her eyes, she heard the crying of an infant.
She got up and pushed open the door. A child wrapped in tattered swaddling clothes was wailing loudly. He had been left on the frozen, rock-hard ground, his legs kicking instinctively to unwrap the ragged quilt, and his face was already purple with cold.
Tang Tianbao.
Though much thinner and in a much more wretched state than before, Tang Ning recognized him at a glance.
The person who abandoned the child probably hadn't gone far. She glanced toward the edge of the woods not far away, completely ignored the child, closed the door, and went back inside.
The woman behind the tree widened her eyes and nudged the man beside her. "She's just ignoring him? She's just going to watch her own younger brother freeze to death at her doorstep?!"
"Bah, what a heartless wretch! She can harm her own parents and slash people with a sickle—what does freezing her own younger brother matter? Let's go, let's go home."
"Then what about Tianbao? Are we really just leaving him?"
The woman still felt a bit reluctant. After all, she had raised him for a month; although she hadn't put much effort into it, compared to the man who was washing his hands of the whole thing, she still felt a lingering emotional attachment.
"Raise him? Raise what?" the man snapped in a low voice. "We agreed on grain, but that reckless girl took everything the Tang family had, and those two aren't coming back anytime soon—I heard they're going to be executed by firing squad! Does our family have extra grain or money? We've done enough by raising him this long. We aren't being ruthless here; his own sister is just standing by watching him freeze to death... Oh, come on, let's go."
As it turned out, the woman was on good terms with Zhang Miao. When Zhang Miao was arrested, she had temporarily entrusted the child to her and given her food rations.
But in times like these, even adults were weak with hunger, and every winter many elderly people in the village failed to survive the season. Who could they blame?
Just as the couple was about to leave, the makeshift little door opened again.
Tang Ning had put on her thick clothes and wrapped her head in a scarf. She walked right past the wailing baby without even glancing at him.
The two of them stared dumbfounded as Tang Ning walked in the direction of the village. Not knowing what she was up to, and momentarily forgetting about the wailing Tang Tianbao on the ground, they hurried after her.
Tang Ning walked straight to Zhu Fugui's house and came face-to-face with Zhu Fugui, who was just about to step outside.
"Uncle Fugui, can I borrow your bicycle?"
Zhu Fugui's brow twitched; his intuition told him this girl meant trouble. "What are you going to do?"
"Take a trip to the county Public Security Bureau. Didn't Officer Lin say last time that any further cases of human trafficking or child abuse must be reported promptly?"
Tang Ning said calmly, her face expressionless.
Zhu Fugui's hand trembled, and he almost dropped his cigarette.
"You... what have you discovered this time?"
"Our village has a murderer."
Just as Tang Ning finished speaking, two cries of alarm came from behind her—it was the couple who had secretly followed her.
"Dali, what are you two up to?" Startled, Zhu Fugui looked up and saw Zhu Dali and his wife acting sneakily, and rebuked them loudly.
"It's them, Uncle Fugui."
Tang Ning pointed behind her. "I saw them abandon a child. In this freezing weather, stripping off the baby's swaddling and leaving him on the ground—isn't that murder? By now, that child might already be frozen to death, and the two of them are murderers! Uncle Fugui, I'm rushing over to ride the bicycle to the county Public Security Bureau to report this."
She pushed past Zhu Fugui, heading straight for the bicycle parked in the courtyard.
Zhu Dali and his wife were scared out of their wits, their jaws hanging open like headless flies, not knowing what to do.
This was completely different from what they had imagined!
"You..." Zhu Fugui felt a sharp pain in his chest from anger. "Did you abandon a child? Where did you leave it?"
"Uncle, my dear uncle, you mustn't let her go report this..." Zhu Dali was so scared he started crying, and his wife collapsed onto the ground, wailing, "I'm not a murderer! I don't want to face a firing squad!"
"A bunch of cowards!"
Glancing at Tang Ning, who was about to leave, and knowing she was a ruthless person who would drag everyone down with her if pushed, Zhu Fugui gritted his teeth, grabbed the broom from behind the door, and lashed out at the couple.
"Where did you leave him? Go pick him right back up! If that child freezes to death, you two are murderers!"