"Li Baoying, open the door!" The sound of heavy pounding on the door was accompanied by Old Lady Wang's furious voice.
A huge crowd of people had gathered in the courtyard.
Li Baoying was startled when she opened the door.
She turned around, picked up a shovel, stood in the doorway, and demanded, "What do you want?"
Old Lady Wang pointed at her eldest grandson's dirt-streaked, tear-stained face and shouted, "What do I want? Li Baoying, don't you have any idea?"
Li Baoying gave a faint smile and replied, "What idea? Your grandson has nothing to do with me."
At that moment, a big man squeezed through from the back. It was Wang Da, Liu Cui's husband. Wang Da was heavily built and usually a fine worker, except that, just like his wife, he hated putting in any real effort.
"Li Baoying, stop playing dumb! Was it you who just used a big broom to chase my wife and son away? And your son even said my family are all beggars! Didn't he?!"
Wang Da's voice was booming, as if he were ready to come forward and fight to the death.
His wife had been insulted like this, and he simply couldn't swallow his anger.
Zhang Jinlin shrank back in fright.
Zhang Jintian and Zhang Jinhe stood beside Li Baoying, glaring at the unfriendly visitors in the yard.
"I did chase your wife and son away! Who told her to start by calling me inhuman? Your wife has some real nerve coming to my house to demand food from my youngest son, and when she didn't get it, she started cursing! Why don't you ask her if that happened?"
"She's an adult picking on a little child!"
Li Baoying stood her ground, holding the shovel without retreating an inch.
Wang Da hesitated and turned to look at Liu Cui.
Liu Cui met his gaze, stepped forward, and said, "Li Baoying, why did I curse? Wasn't it because your son said our family are all beggars first?"
"How would a little kid know those words? The adults must have taught him!"
"Jinlin didn't say that. He said your family is even poorer than ours," Zhang Jintian argued.
"My parents would never teach Jinlin to curse. We can all vouch for that."
"You're her son, so your testimony counts? If I beat you up and then my friend vouches for me and says I didn't hit you, would you believe it?" Wang Da pressed aggressively.
Outside the courtyard, a circle of neighbors who had been out for an after-dinner stroll had already gathered to watch the commotion. A few friendly ones hurried off to find Zhang Jiandan, who was out walking.
"Jinlin, get over here! Tell them what you said and why you said those things!" Li Baoying turned and shouted at Zhang Jinlin. There was no reason for everyone else to be at the front while he hid away to watch the show.
Zhang Jinlin was scared to death. So many people from the Wang family had come, and he had never seen a scene like this before.
"Are you coming or not? If you don't come, you can forget about going to school!"
"I'm coming, I'm coming!"
Zhang Jinlin immediately hurried over and stood by Li Baoying.
Li Baoying reached out and pinched his back, putting a good ninety percent of her strength into it.
"Tell them what Liu Cui said and what you said."
Zhang Jinlin shivered with pain, tears streaming down his face. His mother was truly ruthless.
Weeping and sniffling, he told the whole story from beginning to end.
Zhang Jinlin had one strong point: an incredible memory. He could repeat conversations others had with him over the past two days word for word, mimicking the voices and roles to perfection.
This time, he re-enacted the entire exchange between Liu Cui and Li Baoying.
"Auntie, it's me!"
"Auntie, having dinner?"
"Oh my, Auntie, your family is already eating meat?"
...
After listening to his role-played performance, the crowd broke into mocking smiles.
Among neighbors, who didn't know Liu Cui's character?
The expressions of the older couple from the Wang family turned somewhat awkward. All the kid's mother asked him to do was explain how the matter started—why on earth did he have to go into character acting?
Switching back and forth between his natural voice and a woman's voice was absolute torture!
Li Baoying felt that her youngest son was truly a treasure of a boy; he could do anything, and even when acting like an unfilial son, he still managed to get praised by others.
Wang Er, the second son of the Wang family, had already taken his wife and daughter and slipped away quietly since his two daughters still needed to find husbands.
"Brother Wang, Sister-in-law, look at what you've scared my youngest son into! He's a big boy now, but he's crying worse than Wang Yuheng. What do you plan to do about this?" Li Baoying said, giving Zhang Jinlin another pinch.
Zhang Jinlin wailed out loud.
Liu Cui wanted to make her own son cry too, but the boy was in his grandfather's arms; the moment she made a move, her parents-in-law would definitely notice.
"What do I plan to do? We're all neighbors! As the boy's grandmother, the moment the child walked in, you hid all the good food away. You clearly had white rice and meat dishes, yet you wouldn't let him eat. Doing that makes you in the wrong!"
"How old is my child anyway? How much rice and meat could he possibly eat?" Liu Cui retorted stiffly. As long as she could prove that Li Baoying's family still had good food left, she wouldn't be in the wrong.
Old Man Wang and Old Lady Wang also felt this made sense. How much could a child eat? Was there any need to hide and hoard it?
"Jinhe, go bring the vegetable pot and the rice pot out for everyone to see!"
Zhang Jinli immediately turned around and brought over the two pots, which were scraped completely clean.
"Take a look, Liu Cui. Is there any good food left in these two pots? Nowadays, every household is as poor as a church mouse. I sold the vegetables from my private plot just to exchange them for a little meat to satisfy the kids' cravings, and you're already eyeing it?"
"It wasn't enough for you to come to my house and curse; you had to drag your whole family here to abuse me. Aren't you afraid of ruining the marriage prospects of the third son and your two sisters-in-law? Which family would let you cross their threshold once they know what kind of eldest daughter-in-law you are?"
"Besides, even if my family did have good food, why should I give it to your son? Even if your son calls me grandma, we don't have a single drop of blood relation, do we? Is it wrong for me to save it for my own biological son?"
When she said this, the surrounding neighbors chimed in one after another.
"Exactly. Every family is poor, and people only save enough to buy a tiny bit of meat for the New Year."
"Liu Cui is just picking a fight because she couldn't take advantage of them."
"Old Man Wang, your third son still needs to find a wife. Pay attention to your reputation—don't ruin it just for a bite to eat..."
Liu Cui was furious and opened her mouth to argue further.
"Wang Da, keep your wife in line!" Old Man Wang had figured it out by now; this whole affair was most likely started because his eldest daughter-in-law hadn't gotten to eat any meat and wanted to pick a fight.
"Baoying, we were in the wrong this time. We came over without getting our facts straight. Sister-in-law apologizes to you. From now on, our third son still needs to find a wife, and our two daughters need to get married. Be the bigger person and let this page turn!" Old Lady Wang said with a thick skin, even changing how she addressed her.
Having a daughter-in-law who loved taking advantage of others didn't look good when word got out. Their family was already poor; if their reputation was ruined on top of that, it would be even harder to find wives for their sons or a good match for their daughters.
Li Baoying gave her youngest son another pinch, and listening to his miserable wails, she said, "Look here, Sister-in-law, it's not that I don't want to let this matter go—it's that my son doesn't want to! Crying like this, there's no telling what he might say about your Liu Cui at school!"
Upon hearing this, Wang Da glared straight at Zhang Jinlin, scaring the boy into crying even harder. He really wouldn't talk nonsense—please stop glaring at him!
When Old Lady Wang saw this, she understood immediately. She felt around in her pocket, fished out a cloth bundle, and unpeeled the layers of fabric to reveal a few tiny one-cent and two-cent coins inside.
Liu Cui's eyes popped out—her mother-in-law had money and wouldn't even give it to her!
Old Lady Wang hesitated, took out two cents, and said, "Here, buy some candy for Jinlin. He was wronged today."
Zhang Jinlin beamed and instantly stopped crying. But before he knew what was happening, his mother pinched him again.
He let out a howl and started crying all over again!