Time Travel: My Comfortable Life After Going to the Countryside

The next evening, Liu Xiangyang carried a cloth bag and went alone to the empty room behind the brigade headquarters.

When Wang Lixin's nephew saw him, he stood up and greeted him, "Inspector Liu."

"Okay, I'll go in and take a look to see what's going on. You stay outside and keep watch." Liu Xiangyang nodded.

Pushing open the creaking wooden door, the room was tidier than last night. Gu Xiaoyu was sitting on the edge of the wooden bed and looked up when she heard the noise.

The redness and swelling on his face had subsided considerably, though the bruises remained. However, the emptiness and ruthlessness in his eyes had faded, replaced by a hint of wariness and a barely perceptible expectation.

Liu Xiangyang placed the cloth bag on the broken table: "I brought you some things: a towel, soap, some biscuits, and a change of old clothes."

Gu Xiaoyu put down her needlework, stood up, and without looking at the other items, looked at Liu Xiangyang: "Inspector Liu... are you here to arrest me?"

"Why do you say that?" Liu Xiangyang sat down on the only rickety stool in the room. "I came to see you and hear your thoughts."

"When they return in a few days, the brigade will hold a mediation meeting to settle this matter."

Gu Xiaoyu pursed her lips tightly: "Will you hand me over to them?"

"That depends on you." Liu Xiangyang looked at her calmly. "I'd also like to hear what you think."

Gu Xiaoyu lowered her head, twisting the hem of her clothes with her fingers. She remained silent for a long while. When she looked up again, there was a glimmer of tears in her eyes, but she held them back tightly.

"Inspector Liu," her voice trembled slightly, but she tried to speak clearly, "when my parents sold me to them for the bride price, I had no intention of living."

"The Li family is a hellhole, and Li Kaixuan is a beast. Yesterday, if it weren't for those scissors, I might have been beaten to death."

She took a breath, took a small step forward, and moved a little closer to Liu Xiangyang.

"I said last time that I'm willing to do anything to escape this hellhole."

She paused, a resolute blush rising on her face, her voice lower but clear: "I have nothing to repay you with. Just... just this person. If you like him, take him."

"I'm still clean. Li Kaixuan didn't manage to touch me. I'll do whatever you want, and I'll never cause you any trouble."

After speaking, she seemed to have used up all her strength, her eyes lowered, her shoulders slightly tense, awaiting the verdict.

Liu Xiangyang didn't speak, but looked her over. She was young and pretty, and her scarred face had a kind of broken beauty. Her eyes showed a desperate ruthlessness, as well as a hint of shrewdness and resilience.

She is not as virtuous and generous as Xue Bingbing, nor as purely dependent as Le Qi and Le Yao, nor as grateful and attached as Luo Lan.

She was someone who had rolled in the mud, struggled to climb out, and then, without hesitation, wanted to grab the only vine in front of her.

"Following me might not be easier than staying with the Li family," Liu Xiangyang finally spoke. "I can't give you a proper title."

"I don't care!" Gu Xiaoyu interrupted urgently, raising her head with burning eyes. "I don't care about titles, or what's inside or outside! I just want to be with you, to have a way to live, to have some dignity! Li Kaixuan won't do, but I'll give myself to you, I'm willing!"

Liu Xiangyang looked at her and knew that this was the truth. It was the most thorough and practical promise that a woman who had been driven to the brink of despair but saw a glimmer of hope could make.

"Remember what you said today." Liu Xiangyang stood up. "I'll handle Li Jianjun's situation. You can stay here for now."

Gu Xiaoyu nodded vigorously, tears finally streaming down her face, but a relieved and even hopeful smile appeared on her face: "I remember! Brother Xiangyang, I will listen to you from now on."

Liu Xiangyang didn't respond to the address again, but simply pointed to the cloth bag: "Put your things away." Then he turned and left.

Gu Xiaoyu stood in the gradually darkening room, looking at the closed door, then at the cloth bag on the table, slowly walked over, buried her face in the brand-new towel that smelled of soap, and her shoulders began to tremble violently.

This time, it was an outpouring of pent-up emotions after being suppressed for too long, along with the relief of surviving a disaster and the resolute determination to grasp at a straw.

In the afternoon, Liu Xiangyang went to the brigade headquarters and found Zhang Tiejun and Wang Lixin.

Liu Xiangyang: "Uncle Zhang, Captain Wang, I'd like to discuss with you how to resolve Li Kaixuan's matter."

Wang Lixin: "Li Kaixuan is a real bastard! But Gu Xiaoyu went way too far..."

Zhang Tiejun frowned: "This is difficult. Li Jianjun only has one son, and now that he's injured like this, do you think he'll let it go? If things really escalate, it'll be troublesome. Xiangyang, what are your thoughts?"

Liu Xiangyang lowered his voice: "Uncle Zhang, Captain Wang, my idea is that it's precisely because this is difficult to handle that we can't let him cause trouble. Think about it, if we try to smooth things over by treating this as a family dispute, Li Jianjun definitely won't stand for it. He'll definitely try to ruin Gu Xiaoyu, and even demand that she be brought to justice."

"But once it's reported to the commune or county as intentional injury, and the police get involved and investigate, the fact that Li Kaixuan attempted to rape Gu Xiaoyu and beat her to death will be impossible to hide."

He paused, looking at the two of them: "When the time comes, the case file will clearly state in black and white that Li Kaixuan, a member of Dongsheng Village, attempted rape, resulting in injury to the victim who resisted."

"If word gets out, what will other villages say about Dongsheng Village? 'Dongsheng Village produced a rapist!' From now on, when our village's young men go out to find wives, won't the girls' families be terrified as soon as they hear he's from Dongsheng Village? Who would dare marry their daughter here?"

These words struck like a hammer blow.

Zhang Tiejun's expression changed completely. He still had two sons who weren't married yet. Wang Lixin also gasped. His youngest son would be of marriageable age next year.

Liu Xiangyang added: "Therefore, this matter must be resolved within the village, and the nature of the offense must be carefully determined: Li Kaixuan committed a serious error, and Gu Xiaoyu acted excessively in self-defense."

"The best way to handle this is to appease Li Jianjun's anger while preserving the village's reputation. The best solution is to have Li Kaixuan admit his mistake, have Gu Xiaoyu receive education, and have the two separate."

"To the outside world, say it was a fight between the couple that went wrong, they've been reprimanded and educated, and they've separated to calm down. We absolutely cannot let the words 'attempted rape' get out!"

Zhang Tiejun took a deep breath and slowly nodded: "Xiangyang, you see things clearly. That makes sense. If this gets out of hand, all the young men in the village will have to take the blame."

Wang Lixin gritted his teeth: "Damn it, Li Kaixuan brought this on himself, almost dragging the whole village down with him! We can't let him succeed!"

Liu Xiangyang: "So, when Li Jianjun comes back, we need to hold a mediation meeting. At the meeting, the women's director needs to criticize Li Kaixuan from the perspective of protecting women, and the militia company commander needs to emphasize the severity of his behavior from the perspective of public security."

"Uncle Zhang and Captain Wang need to communicate in advance about all of this. We need to agree on one thing: protect the village's reputation, suppress the Li family, and give Gu Xiaoyu a way out, but we also need to make her bear some responsibility. Only in this way can we save face and make Li Jianjun possibly be forced to accept it."

Zhang Tiejun and Wang Lixin exchanged a glance, both seeing the determination in each other's eyes. For the sake of the village, the feelings of Li Jianjun's family had to come second.

"Okay!" Zhang Tiejun made the decision. "Lixin, you go and talk to the women's director. I'll go and discuss it with the militia captain. We'll proceed according to this plan."