Gu Zhentang finally understood. He recalled the Village Chief, Zong Guangye, mentioning at the ancestral hall that when he had gone to the town magistrate to report the bandits raiding the village, the Village Chief of Wangjia Village had accompanied him. It seemed that several people had died in Wangjia Village during that raid. He had not expected the names Wang Jufen and Zhou Changsheng to be among the dead.
That evening, Wang Jufen had packed her belongings and, taking the last of her family's savings, returned to her maiden home with Zhou Changsheng. Upon arriving at Wangjia Village, Wang Jufen began blaming Gu Zhentang, claiming he had divorced her for the sake of his foster daughter, forcing her and Changsheng to seek refuge in her parents' home.
Wang Jufen’s sister-in-law was not about to tolerate two extra mouths to feed. She began to ridicule Wang Jufen, pressuring her to return to her ex-husband’s family, the Zhous. But Wang Jufen was determined never to return there. After her first husband died, she had remarried instead of observing mourning rites; she knew the Zhou family would never welcome them back, and even if they did, she would be treated like a beast of burden and left to starve.
Chapter 58