Chapter 30: Chapter 20: Granny Hua Gets Beaten (2)

When Matchmaker Wang saw He bring her livelihood into it, she grew anxious. She wanted to argue that she had good intentions and hash things out, but seeing Zhang Huai glaring daggers at her, she had second thoughts. ’This isn’t my village, after all,’ she thought. ’I’d better not go too far.’ So she swallowed her words, grumbled a couple of reluctant remarks, and turned to leave, her large rear swaying as she walked.

Meanwhile, Zhang Huai had clenched his fists and was glaring viciously at Granny Hua. His expression was a terrifying, ferocious mask she had never seen before, and it scared her so badly she immediately turned to flee.

Just as she turned, she saw her old man, Li Laoda, standing right behind her with a dark, sullen face. Caught off guard, she almost crashed right into him.

She shot him a disdainful look and said, “What are you standing here for? Go home!”

For the first time ever, Li Laoda didn’t obey Granny Hua and head home. Instead, he raised his arm and slapped her hard across the face, cursing, “You damn homewrecking old hag! You do nothing useful all day! This family is going to be ruined by you sooner or later!”

Granny Hua was so dizzy from the blow that she spun in a circle before managing to steady herself. She looked up, a clear red handprint on her left cheek and a bright red trickle of blood running from her nose down past her lips.

An expression of disbelief appeared on her face. ’That damn old man… he actually dared to hit me?’

In that instant, Granny Hua went berserk. She lunged at Li Laoda, grabbed the front of his shirt, and screamed, “You dare hit me? I just said a few words and you hit me!”

But her usual, time-tested tactic didn’t seem to work today. Li Laoda, filled with newfound machismo, grabbed her arm, gave it a powerful yank, and threw her to the ground, where she landed hard on her bottom.

And that wasn’t all. Li Laoda pointed at her nose and cursed, “You want to cause more trouble? Cause any more trouble and I’ll divorce you, you hag! You believe me? Drag your mother home, lock her in her room, and don’t let her out without my permission!” Li Laoda commanded his eldest son, Li Changming, who had just rushed out of the house.

The tall and sturdy Li Changming, his face tense, was surprisingly cooperative. He grabbed his mother, half-pulling, half-dragging her back toward the house.

Li Laoda clasped his hands behind his back, shot a fierce glare at the neighbors who had gathered to watch the spectacle, and headed home as well.

He had lived for decades and had had enough of that woman’s attitude. Just the other day, he’d been ridiculed by Shorty Zhou and Li Gengdi. Even the village chief had criticized him for not keeping his wife in line, saying she was a troublemaker who poisoned the village atmosphere—referring mainly to the incident a while back when she’d provoked Juhua into jumping into the lake.

How could he endure it any longer? He’d been looking for an excuse to teach that woman a lesson, and here she was, gossiping about their own villagers with an outsider right under his nose. If he didn’t deal with her now, and something were to happen to Juhua, Changhe and his wife would surely come to their door looking for blood. Didn’t Zhang Huai just look like he was about to start a fight?

’It’s better to beat my own wife myself. Letting someone else beat her would be a huge loss of face, wouldn’t it!’

All the way home, Granny Hua’s shrill cries and screams could be heard. Once they were inside, the sounds turned to muffled sobs, and then silence. The door to their house slammed shut with a BANG, blocking the prying eyes and straining ears of the crowd.

Zhang Huai had been so angry he was about to step forward and beat the old hag himself, but Li Laoda’s outburst left him with his jaw on the floor. He never would have imagined that Li Laoda, who had been a pushover for decades, would finally show some backbone.

He snorted and turned to go inside, still not fully satisfied. “He should have dealt with that woman long ago,” she said. “She never has a good word to say about anyone!”

Zhang Huai’s father, Zhang Dashuan, was sitting at the dinner table. He had also been listening intently to the commotion outside—it just wasn’t his place, as a man, to get involved.

Now, with a grim face, he said, “If it were me, I’d have beaten her to death. Hmph. Let’s see if Li Laoda can stay tough this time. I’m afraid he’s all start and no finish, and in the end, he won’t be able to handle that old hag!”

His younger son, Zhang Yang, was hunched over the old, peeling, square table, focused on his food. He chewed on a pickled cowpea with a loud CRUNCH. Hearing his father’s words, he looked thoroughly unimpressed and secretly rolled his eyes.

Huai Zi’s mother served some of the only non-vegetarian dish on the table—scrambled eggs with chives—to her younger son. She sighed and said, “Agh! Aunt Zheng must be furious this time. She dotes on Juhua the most. That poor child, to be slandered like that!”

Zhang Dashuan banged his chopsticks in his bowl and said loudly, “Who cares what other people say? As long as Changhe and his wife don’t yield, what can they really do to Juhua? These people have nothing better to do than meddle in others’ business!”

Huai Zi’s mother complained, “Easy for you to say. If this were happening to me, I’d be furious enough to die. That Liu Family from Liujiatang is really something else, just awful. What does the brother getting married have to do with his sister? If you’re not happy with the arrangement, just say so. Why say the girl is a hindrance? Taking a huge step back, even if Juhua never gets married, would she just be a freeloader? She’s so capable, can’t she earn her own keep?”

Zhang Dashuan said with a huff, “They’re all a bunch of shortsighted fools. That family will regret this sooner or later—that boy Qingmu is going to have a great future.”

Huai Zi’s mother said, “Isn’t that the truth! I heard he’s about to start school soon! Aunt Zheng really does have foresight, sending Qingmu to learn how to read at his age!”

Zhang Dashuan slammed his chopsticks on the table with a CLAP! “Changhe and his wife are doing the right thing,” he declared. “Huai Zi, you’re going to school too. Study hard for a couple of years, so you can become literate. We’ll forget about matchmaking for now. What’s the rush? Li Laoda’s two sons are over twenty and they’re not married yet, are they? Learning more will broaden your horizons. We can’t stay this poor forever. If our lives truly get better, will we have to worry about finding a wife? I bet they’ll be lining up at our door to ask!”

Huai Zi’s mother said excitedly, “Yes! We’ll scrimp and save, and both of you boys can go to school. Huai Zi, don’t be in a rush to get married. We’ll talk about it again when you’re twenty. So what if it’s a little late? I’m not going to put up with that kind of humiliation again!”

Zhang Dashuan slammed his hand on the table again. “Then it’s settled!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep