Chapter 30 – Hitting someone
Seeing that Li Man was going to ignore her and walk away, Second Shun’s wife immediately became angry and grabbed hold of Li Man’s arm to stop her. “Yo, younger sister, we’re both women. There’s no need for you to be in a hurry to leave just from seeing me, right? How should I put it? Compared to other women, we should naturally feel closer to each other. Don’t you agree?”
Li Man didn’t know what her peculiar sounding words meant, but that woman’s unsubtle gaze truly made her feel vexed.
Little Five felt so anxious that his face reddened. He scratched Second Shun’s wife’s wrist as hard as he could and forced her to take her hand away from Li Man.
Little Five’s scratch had broken the skin on Second Shun’s wife’s snow-white wrist. She immediately angrily said, “You rotten brat. How dare you scratch me?”
“I won’t let you bully my older sister.” Even though he was still young, he knew that Second Shun’s wife hadn’t been saying nice words to Li Man.
Second Shun’s wife stopped being angry and laughed instead. “Little Five, do you really dare to say these words?”
Little Five felt furious. He looked just like a small, bristling calf. He suddenly charged and knocked Second Shun’s wife to ground.
“Aiyo, you rotten brat. You dared to hit this old mother. Help, someone come grab him for me!” Second Shun’s wife called out like she was about to slaughter a pig.
Little Five was struck dumb. He had never hit someone before.
Seeing this, Li Man grabbed Little Five’s hand and took him with her as she ran. “Hurry, let’s run away.”
—
Li Shu had been pushing the small cart that had been loaded with rocks down the mountain when he saw two running figures below. It was Little Five and Li Man. He shouted, “Little Five, why are the two of you running?”
Li Man had also seen Li Shu, so she approached him with Little Five.
“Third brother.” At the sight of Li Shu, all of Little Five’s timidity fled.
“Look at you, you’re covered in sweat from running. Are you being chased by wolves?” Li Shu parked the cart and helped his younger brother by wiping his sweat. Without being consciously aware, his gaze drifted towards Li Man. Her forehead was covered in sweat too.
Little Five falteringly narrated what had recently happened.
After hearing the story, Li Shu’s eyes turned red. “Where’s that rotten woman?”
Little Five pointed in the direction they had come from. “She was recently over there and cursing at us.”
“Let’s go.” Li Shu grabbed the basket from Li Man, flung it into the cart, and resumed pushing the cart. Steaming mad, he headed down the path that would lead to the village.
Li Man was left feeling a bit stunned. She hadn’t gotten food for the piglets yet. But, seeing that Little Five was helping out by pushing the cart, she went to the side and also started to help.
Li Shu looked at her from the side. She wasn’t very tall. At most, the top of her head only reached to his shoulder. Walking by his side, she looked almost as young as Little Five.
She looked very delicate. With her slender, snow-white hands pressed against the cart, it made him wonder; how much strength did she have? Looking at her furrowed brow and tightly pressed lips, she was clearly using all of her strength.
Still, she was trying her best to work. Li Shu pursed his lips and smiled. The strength he was using to push the cart increased.
Honestly, it wasn’t that hard for him to push this cart that was fully loaded with stones by himself. Now that there were two people here to help him, he was like a tiger that had grown wings. The cart was pushed down the road like it was flying. Not only was Li Man unable to help out, she had to start running just to keep up. In the end, she couldn’t keep up and could only let her hands fall off the cart.
On the way down, they hadn’t seen Second Shun’s wife. Li Shu thought that woman had gotten smart and ran away. But, to his surprise, when they arrived home, he saw that woman leaning against his home’s entrance as if she was waiting for them.