Chronicle of the 70s
Chapter 33 - 033 Brought Up Again

Chapter 33: 033 Brought Up Again

Following this, the brothers from the Li Family learned of the entire incident and their expressions turned extremely unpleasant. Especially Li Erfu, he simply couldn’t believe that his wife could be so cunning, colluding with her natal family to traffic their own daughter.

The Wang Brothers completely denied any involvement in a conditional marriage. There was no written evidence, only verbal testimonies.

Li Jianwen had an entirely different story, claiming he had been kept in the dark about the deal between his mother and Teacher Wang the entire time. He explained that on the third day of the new year, he truly believed he was taking sheep to Teacher Wang’s house, only to find it was his sister instead. Pressured by his mother’s incessant pleading, he felt obligated to reluctantly agree to keep quiet. Li Jianwen’s account made him sound like a deeply wronged individual, merely a dutiful son forced to comply for the sake of filial piety.

Li Dafu shook his head at Li Erfu and said, "Second brother, your second child has been led astray by that foolish woman Ge Sanmei!"

The outcome of the incident was quickly decided. The Wang family compensated the Li Family one hundred yuan for nutrition expenses for Li Xianglu. Since this matter involved relatives and was not a simple case of human trafficking, and current criminal law did not have specific regulations for this scenario, Ge Sanmei could only be subjected to a moral education critique.

Li Dafu chatted on and on, thanking He Chongguang profusely before leaving. He Chongguang smiled and had the big truck started up to send everyone back to the Li Family Village Production Team.

However, no one paid any attention to the Wang Brothers.

The entire county had become aware of the Wang family’s attempt to buy a bride for their intellectually challenged younger brother.

Wang Aijun was fine, but Wang Xiwang faced some troubles, as in administration, personal morality and political image are of utmost importance. Thus, he was deeply concerned that this situation could impact his career.

After everyone from the Li Family returned to the Production Team, it was already dark.

Li Dafu had his waiting wife Liu Aidang and daughter directly take their niece, Li Xianglu, back to their own house.

On one hand, Li Dafu expressed his gratitude to the fellow villagers who came to help, then he asked Li Erfu to bring the whole family, young and old, over to his courtyard.

Nevertheless, everyone basically understood what had happened. On the second day of the new year, Ge Sanmei took her daughter and second son to her natal family at the West Town Production Team. During lunchtime on the second day, she drugged her daughter with sedative-laced dumplings and then early on the third day, sent her to Wang Xiwang’s house at the Wei River Production Team, where they also recorded a marriage certificate.

According to Ge Sanmei’s testimony, the Wang family had promised Li Jianwen a job quota for a transportation team in exchange for marrying the youngest daughter of the household to the Wang family’s intellectually challenged man in his thirties who had never been married, Wang You.

The Li Family members were completely unaware of these matters. Ge Sanmei bore all the blame, but was unrepentant and insistent, believing that as the children’s mother, she had the right to decide on their marriage. However, the police merely scoffed at her saying that it was a new society without arranged marriages. If Ge Sanmei insisted on arranging the marriage for her children, she should have a good explanation for the public security bureau.

This scared Ge Sanmei into silence about the matter, but inwardly, she didn’t take it seriously. Traditionally, parents have always had the final say in their children’s marriages and although the new society had new marriage laws, no household would arrange a marriage without the parents’ approval.

A group of people all arrived at Li Dafu’s house, and Old Mrs. Wu had already gotten a rough idea of what happened from her returning son Li Jianqing, and she was utterly shocked. She couldn’t imagine, not in the least, that her second daughter-in-law could have such sinister scheming.

Old Mrs. Wu was furious. The reputation of the entire Li Family Village Production Team was being tarnished. To trade one’s own daughter for a job and marry her to a simple-minded man in his thirties, could this still be called maternal love?

After everyone entered, Li Erfu unexpectedly kicked Ge Sanmei in the lower back while no one was on guard, sending her tumbling to the ground. He proceeded to brutally kick her several more times, eliciting wailing cries from Ge Sanmei.

No one tried to stop it. Li Jianqing turned his head away stubbornly, refusing to watch. His Mom had done something terribly wrong this time, deciding to marry his sister off to an idiot; she deserved a lesson.

Ge Sanmei had already been beaten by Li Erfu once at the Wei River Production Team, and she was still in pain. Now being hit again, she howled in agony, "Ouch, San’er, big brother, save Mom, your Daddy is going to beat me to death..."

Her sons were just quietly watching the scene unfold. An Cuicui stood by the wall, gleefully smirking and covering her mouth, thinking how she had long wanted to fight with that cruel old hag. If only she wasn’t afraid of Li Jianye taming her.

All of Li Erfu’s anger and humiliation exploded out. He was so out of breath from the beating that he seated himself next to Old Mrs. Wu on the kang bed. She furrowed her brows and said, "Alright, Er Fu, sit down. We’ll talk about this later. If Ge Sanmei doesn’t want to be our Li family’s daughter-in-law, then we will deal with it accordingly."

Her words made Ge Sanmei, who was rolling on the ground, suddenly freeze in disbelief. She looked at the Li Family people and burst into boisterous laughter like an old hag, "Fine, every single one of you, who am I doing this for? Isn’t it for the Li Family? To ensure Er Fu gets a secure job in the city, where did I go wrong? It’s just a girl, she has to marry someone sooner or later, what’s wrong with doing it now? You’re all blaming me, blaming me!"

Li Erfu, seeing his wife remain unrepentant, asked in disbelief, "Ge Sanmei, are you even human? This is your own daughter. How could you bear to drug her and give her to an idiot? You talk as if you’re doing something noble. Why don’t you marry an idiot yourself? Are you even human? You’re worse than animals, even animals cherish their young. And you, you..." Li Erfu struggled to speak as a sharp pain suffused his chest, as if a knife was being twisted inside his ribcage.

Li Jianqing was the first to notice his father’s distress and rushed over to half-drag him onto the kang bed.

Old Mrs. Wu, terrified, hurriedly crawled over, and Li Jianqing called out to Daddy while gently resting a hand over Li Erfu’s chest.

It wasn’t long before the man caught his breath, exhaustion engulfing Li Erfu as he gasped for air.

Ge Sanmei on the ground was also panic-stricken as she watched, not understanding what had suddenly caused the man such excruciating pain that he fainted.

Old Mrs. Wu pounded her thigh incessantly, cursing, "How cruel, how cruel, oh God, you really want this old woman to not survive this."

As she spoke, Old Mrs. Wu burst into uncontrollable weeping, her tears flowing freely. Having become a widow at thirty and not remarried, she single-handedly raised her two sons to adulthood, to marry and have children. Just when she thought life would get better, her second son’s family threw everything into chaos.

Old Mrs. Wu, consumed with hatred, wailed, "It would have been better if I’d given Xiang away for adoption, saving her from a mother who wasn’t seen as human, ohhh."

Unintentionally uttering these words, they were heard by the recovering Li Erfu, which struck a chord with him. He promptly sat up on the kang bed and grabbed his older brother’s hand, pleading, "Big brother, adoption, quickly, let’s give Xiang away for adoption. That way, no one can ever harm her again, big brother."