Neither Li Hongmei nor Wong Mudan had gotten any advantage over one other. The corner of Wong Mudan’s mouth was bleeding and Li Hongmei’s hair was in a mess.
However, Li Hongmei was still up for a fight. She was not allowed to attack others physically but she could do it verbally. “Come, come everyone, you be the judge. I’m a widow from Daliang Village. My daughter-in-law and I had gone to a lot of effort and finally made a type of tasty cold jelly, so we began to sell it in town. We were doing very well but my elder-sister-in-law was so jealous of us…
“This thick-skinned woman actually stole our secret recipe and asked her young brother to sell cold jelly in town, right next to our stand. The original price for a bowl of cold jelly was two coins and he sold it for one coin. What’s more, he ended up selling two for the price of one. Everyone, you be the judge; what do you think of my elder sister-in-law? How could she do such a thing to her relatives? You can be the judge of that…”
Li Hongmei was like a burning firecracker and bombarded her with a series of accusations. Since Mr. Zhu was present, Li Hongmei then pulled on the fringe of his clothes and asked him to be the judge as well. “Mr. Zhu, please say something. Isn’t it a mean thing that Wong Mudan has done to me? Huh? Isn’t it mean?”
Wong Mudan was scolded and finally became so embarrassed that she wished there was a hole she could crawl into.
Finally Mr. Zhu felt sorry for Wong Mudan so he turned to Li Hongmei. “This time your sister-in-law was indeed going too far, but being family you may want to give her another chance.”
Mr. Zhu then turned to face Wong Mudan. “Elder Mrs. Xiao, you’d better not do such things in the future. The second household is leading a pretty hard life. You at least have a husband who works as an attendant in the government office but the second household, well…their children are still young. What is the point of you fighting with them over such things? What do you have to say?”
“Sir, I…I…” With so many people watching and Li Hongmei being so justified and confident, Wong Mudan was on the verge of crying. Her face was red and her eyes filled with tears. “I don’t know what got into me back then. I won’t do such things from now on.” It took quite some time for Wong Mudan to confess.
Mr. Zhu was just trying to smooth things over and since Wong Mudan was willing to admit to her mistake he turned to Li Hongmei again. “Second Mrs. Xiao, now that your elder-sister-in-law has made an apology you should go easy on her as well. What is that idiom? One should not pursue broken rebels, isn’t it? The game is about to start, don’t you want to watch it?”
When Mr. Zhu said, ‘one should not pursue broken rebels’, Scholar Wong in the surrounding crowd coughed slightly.
The moment Li Hongmei thought about Xiao Baoshan’s game she then tied her hair up quickly, as if nothing had happened, and shouted, “Really? Is it on? Little Ye, Baozhu and Baofeng, come here quickly, the game is on!”
Ye Xiaoxian was awed by the speed with which Li Hongmei changed her attitude.
However, Xiao Baozhu did not follow them. She was keeping an eye on Scholar Wong the whole time and walked by his side.
…
It was no doubt that Daliang Village at last won the tug of war. Mr. Zhu was the most excited and once Daliang Village had won he then danced and rushed through the crowd, appearing to be more excited than a student who had finally passed the provincial civil service examination after ten-years of failure.
He went to hug Xiao Baoshan for a moment and then ran to the front of the other village heads. “You always said that we didn’t have strong men in our Daliang Village and that we only had sick men, hahaha, but have you now all witnessed the strength of our village?
“Ah, Mr. Shi, did you not make a remark that your Shiwo Village would surely win? But why could you not mange it today? Did their performance misfire this time? Should I let my boys teach them how it’s done?”
“…”
The other village heads found Mr. Zhu terribly disagreeable. It was the first time that they had won in many years and look how boastful he was being. If he could fly he’d have rocketed up into the sky by now.
…
When the tug of war contest had ended the villagers could go home first and return after lunch. Others with some money could just buy their meals from the nearby stir-fried noodle stalls.
After Xiao Baoshan finished the game he was soaked in sweat so he had to go home to get changed. Since Li Hongmei had been fighting her hair was in a mess and her clothes were torn so she had to go back to tidy up.
Ye Xiaoxian was not used to the local food and just found it tasteless so she decided to cook a meal back home.
Xiao Baozhu and Xiao Baofeng were following along so they went back with their families.
As Xiao Baoshan won the game, Xiao Baofeng looked so excited. He bounced and danced around Xiao Baoshan. “Second brother, my classmates were so envious of me for having such a strong brother.”
Xiao Baoshan just smiled and did not care about that kind of thing at all, while Xiao Baozhu felt a bit at a loss.
After the activities in the morning she asked Scholar Wong, “Will you still come in the afternoon, Sir?”
Scholar Wong just said faintly, “It depends.”
Xiao Baozhu could not tell what was on his mind.
She would surely come back in the afternoon so if she was lucky enough to bump into Scholar Wong then they could chat again.
The whole family was heading to Daliang Village, but when they reached a crossing they saw several people standing there. These people were blocking their way on purpose and looked tough enough not to be trifled with.
Seeing that they were standing right in their way some honest villagers dared not go near them. After a while the area around the crossing was full of people.
“Who are these guys?”
“I have no idea. They look fierce. Are they going to rob us?”
“It’s broad daylight and it’s not the right time for a robbery.”
“Or maybe they’re seeking revenge. I wonder who has provoked them.”
“…”
When Ye Xiaoxian and her families reached the crossing they also paused.
Those people in front were not very tall but with very sturdy figures. Judging from their expression and behavior they did not look like honest villagers but had something to do with the underworld.
Ye Xiaoxian felt that they must try their best to avoid them so she pulled on Li Hongmei beside her. Li Hongmei was someone who had seen much of life, so when she saw these people in front she also got an ominous sensation.
In the underworld, their principle was to put the saddle on the right horse, so as long as others did not provoke them they would not cause trouble first. Therefore, Li Hongmei asked her family to wait for a while and once those people had found their horse, they would make way for others. However, the person in the middle was all the time staring at Xiao Baoshan.
Xiao Baoshan noticed this. Whether the gang were focused on him or not, he wouldn’t chicken out. If they were, he could not possibly avoid them and if they were not then why couldn’t he walk on this road?
“I heard that you’re called Xiao Baoshan?” asked Third Xing, standing in the middle and staring at Xiao Baoshan.
“I am. What can I do for you? If there’s nothing you want, please make way for us.”
Third Xing took several steps forward. “I just saw your strength when you pulled the rope and I think you’ve practiced martial arts. I suggest that we have a fight. If you can beat me, I’ll let you pass through here on foot but if you can’t, you have to crawl through on your belly. How does this sound?”
The crowd became quiet all of a sudden.
So they were actually here looking for Xiao Baoshan and wanted a fight?
Aren’t they too cocky?