Chapter 183: Imprisonment

Chapter 183: Chapter 183: Imprisonment

After scolding her daughter, Li Hongying turned and hurriedly apologized to Jiang Dahai. "Xiao Qing is just being foolish. Please don’t hold it against her."

How could Jiang Dahai not be angry?

He might not have said anything, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t furious about his stepdaughter stealing his own daughter’s marriage prospect.

Fortunately, his own daughter had the luck of a fool and had caught the eye of Zhang Jia Ming’s superior.

Otherwise, his daughter would have probably been sent down to the countryside by now.

The slap from Li Hongying, however, seemed to knock some sense back into Jiang Qing, reminding her of why she had returned.

"I can leave and never come back, but only if Uncle Jiang either arranges a job for me or gives me 50 yuan to get settled."

Without waiting to see Jiang Dahai and Li Hongying’s shocked expressions, she picked up her bowl, finished the rest of her food, and went back to the spare room.

The room had originally belonged to Jiang Peng and was fully furnished with a bed, a wardrobe, and a desk.

Li Hongying was a diligent cleaner, so the room was spotless despite having been unoccupied for two months.

She could faintly hear the sound of Li Hongying crying and talking in the living room.

Jiang Qing lay numbly on the bed, her eyes vacant as she stared at the ceiling.

She knew full well that her behavior was shameless and despicable.

But she was at a dead end.

’When you got right down to it, Jiang Moli is even more shameless, and isn’t her life going great?’

The next day, Jiang Qing woke to find Li Hongying sitting at the foot of the bed, her eyes red as she watched her.

She pursed her lips and sat up. Looking out the window at the bright, beautiful day, she felt a wave of pure comfort wash over her.

’It feels so good to eat your fill and get a good night’s sleep.’

"Xiao Qing, here’s five yuan. Take it and go back, please. Just be good."

Staring at the five yuan Li Hongying held out, Jiang Qing’s shame turned to anger. "What am I supposed to do with five yuan? Is he trying to shoo away a beggar?"

Li Hongying stared at her, stunned, her expression a mixture of shock and helplessness.

She couldn’t seem to understand how the daughter who had always been so sensible could become so caustic and selfish.

"This money isn’t from your Uncle Jiang; I had to borrow it. Your Uncle Jiang has treated you well. He gave you a sixty-six-yuan bride price when you got married, so how can you have the nerve to ask him for more money?"

Jiang Qing refused to listen. "I told you. Either get me a job or give me fifty yuan. Otherwise, I’m staying here and not leaving."

"You..."

Just as Li Hongying was about to reprimand her, someone started pounding violently on the door.

Li Hongying had no choice but to answer it.

"Where’s Jiang Qing?"

Recognizing Jin Yulan’s voice, Jiang Qing’s face fell. She was about to dive under the bed to hide when one of the relatives spotted her.

"Over here!"

Jin Yulan stormed in. The moment she saw Jiang Qing, her face contorted as if she were looking at a mortal enemy. She lunged forward and gave her two hard slaps. SLAP! SLAP!

"You goddamn jinx! You still have the fucking nerve to come back! Run! Why don’t you run now!"

The scolding wasn’t enough to quell her rage, so she raised her hand to slap Jiang Qing again.

Jiang Qing instinctively tried to fight back, but the relatives Jin Yulan had brought with her grabbed her by the arms, holding her in place.

The sharp sound of slapping echoed one after another.

Jiang Qing screamed as her cheeks quickly swelled into puffy mounds.

"Stop hitting her! Please, stop! We can talk this out!"

Blocked outside the door, Li Hongying was frantic, tears streaming down her face.

"Since you can’t discipline your own daughter, our Zhang family will do it for you. You just stand aside and watch," a relative shouted while pushing Li Hongying further away from the door.

Inside, Jiang Qing struggled with all her might, but the village women, accustomed to farm work, were as strong as men. They had her pinned down completely.

All she could do was glare at Jin Yulan with eyes full of hatred.

"What do you want?"

"Still glaring? You want me to gouge your eyes out?"

Terrified, Jiang Qing squeezed her eyes shut. "Help me—MMMPH!"

SLAP.

Jin Yulan slapped her right across the mouth.

Jiang Qing broke down completely, sobbing, "Mom! Mom..."

Trapped outside, Li Hongying paced back and forth in a panic.

The sounds of the beating, shouting, and crying soon attracted the neighbors from upstairs and down, who gathered around the Jiang family’s apartment in a thick crowd.

Jin Yulan dragged Jiang Qing out for all to see. "Everyone, come and look! This jinx, with her vicious lies, got her father-in-law beaten until he was blinded in one eye!"

"She abandoned her duties as a wife and ran off, just to spread rumors and cause trouble, only to get chased back here! What an absolute disgrace!"

"My Zhang family must have had eight generations of bad luck to end up with a homewrecker like her!"

Facing the pointing fingers and scornful looks of the neighbors, Jiang Qing was mortified, wishing the ground would swallow her whole.

Li Hongying was dumbfounded.

’My daughter really made so many mistakes? She was actually chased back here?’

"Hongying," Jin Yulan said, "your daughter is a real piece of work, but since she married into our Zhang family, she’s our problem now. I’m taking her back. Let’s go!"

Without another word, Jin Yulan and her sisters-in-law forcibly dragged Jiang Qing away.

Li Hongying was powerless to stop them and could only run to find Jiang Dahai.

"Dahai, please go talk to Tiesheng! Ask him to tell Yu Lan to stop hitting Xiao Qing! She’s pregnant! What if she beats her and something happens to the baby?"

But Jiang Dahai’s heart had grown cold from his stepdaughter’s callous selfishness. He wanted no more part in her affairs.

"Don’t worry. Xiao Qing is carrying the Zhang family’s own flesh and blood. My sister-in-law knows her limits."

He paused before adding, "Besides, the things Xiao Qing has done are outrageous. She deserves to be taught a lesson."

Li Hongying sobbed uncontrollably.

She knew her daughter deserved it, but she was her own flesh and blood. She couldn’t bring herself to be so heartless as to abandon her.

...

All along the way, Jiang Qing begged everyone she saw for help.

Most of the passersby simply watched with cold indifference. The few kind-hearted souls they encountered were too intimidated by Jin Yulan’s ferocity to dare get involved.

Jin Yulan wasn’t afraid. If anyone dared to try and stop her, she would just list out all of Jiang Qing’s transgressions.

The fact that she had caused her father-in-law to be beaten and blinded was enough to strip her of any right to sympathy or pity.

By the time they got back to the village, other villagers had dropped their hoes and carrying poles to watch the spectacle.

In front of the entire village, Jin Yulan gave Jiang Qing another vicious beating to vent the last of her hatred.

She wailed and sobbed, but no one stepped forward to plead on her behalf.

More than the physical pain, it was the humiliation of this public punishment that made Jiang Qing break down completely, filling her with a shame so profound she wished for death.

In her panic, her eyes suddenly fell upon the face of her father-in-law, Zhang Tiesheng.

Zhang Tiesheng’s face was expressionless. His left eye socket, now empty after the eyeball had been removed, was a deep, sunken pit that twisted his entire face into an ugly mask.

She froze as if struck by lightning.

Ever since she’d learned that Zhang Tiesheng had lost an eye, she had been comforting herself with the fact that she hadn’t done it on purpose.

’It was a bizarre twist of fate, a stroke of Zhang Tiesheng’s own bad luck.’

But now, seeing the terrifying reality of his blindness with her own eyes, she couldn’t help but feel a pang of fear and regret.

THUD!

A large cucumber, thrown from somewhere in the crowd, struck her squarely in the head and knocked her unconscious.

When she woke, she found herself in the mud-brick house where she used to live.

Fighting a splitting headache, she forced herself to sit up, only to hear a RATTLE.

Following the sound, her eyes fell upon an iron chain that hung from the ceiling, fastened securely to her left ankle.

She stared at the chain for a long moment before it dawned on her: the Zhang family had imprisoned her.

...

"Teacher Shen!"

Shen Yanzhi turned, offering Lu Tingting a somewhat resigned smile. "Teacher Lu, can I help you?"

Lu Tingting eyed him. "Are you getting tired of me?"

"I admit I am a bit... troubled," Shen Yanzhi said honestly.

"Then just say yes to me, and I’ll stop bothering you."

Shen Yanzhi adjusted his glasses. "Actually, it’s not that much of a bother."

Lu Tingting pouted and huffed, "I’m leaving after the Mid-Autumn Festival. This is the last time I’m going to ask you!"