The 1960s: The Story of a Country Girl's Journey to the City

"What do you mean by 'people died'? They were already dead."

Niu Yi, the eldest son of the Niu family, told Feng Shuangxi that he was the first to rush in. That ghostly thing was terrifying, with disheveled hair, which startled him.

"What do you mean she died? That's my wife."

Feng Shuangxi jumped up and down anxiously, pushed through the crowd, picked up the upper body of the person on the ground, and pulled her hair back.

Upon seeing the person's face clearly, everyone gasped in surprise again.

It really was his wife, Li Yan. For a moment, the courtyard was completely silent.

"Yanzi, Yanzi, wake up, wake up, Yanzi..."

Feng Shuangxi held Li Yan's body and began to wail uncontrollably, leaving everyone looking at each other in bewilderment. How could this have happened?

"You guys are really going too far! Breaking into my house and beating me up in the middle of the night! This isn't over! I'm going to report you to the police!"

Normally, Feng Shuangxi is so quiet he'd never utter a word, but now he's pointing at everyone and accusing them, threatening to report them to the police.

Everyone panicked. They didn't know it was his wife. The people who arrived later, having missed the initial scene, also joined in the accusations against the first people to arrive.

The most embarrassed were the Niu father and sons, who were the first to rush in. Neither of them were good with words, and for a moment they didn't know how to retort.

"What does this have to do with us? We only came because we heard the shouting. Who was yelling outside just now?"

Xie Laidi, who was hiding in the back row, quickly squeezed into the crowd. She seemed to hear someone shout "There's a ghost!" and she was the first to wake up Lao Niu.

However, she was scared and didn't dare to go in front. She only dared to hide behind the crowd and watch secretly.

"Who shouted that just now?"

"I don't know, the voice was distorted, who knows who it was?"

Everyone chimed in, each trying to find the first person to speak up.

"It was Jiang Yuan who shouted that just now."

Faced with everyone's questions, Niu Yi hesitated and said that he was worried that Jiang Yuan might take the opportunity to beat him up if he revealed Jiang Yuan's identity.

"Yes, I heard Jiang Yuan shouting too, saying that someone broke into Feng Shuangxi's house. We thought your house had been burgled, so we rushed in."

Niu San also realized that they meant well, thinking that the Feng family had been robbed, which was why they came to help.

The Niu brothers both said it was Jiang Yuan who shouted it. The crowd couldn't find Jiang Yuan in the crowd, so they all looked towards Jiang Yuan's house.

His house was quiet, with only the east room lit. After calling out several times without response, Granny Zhou's eldest son, Zhang Jianwen, climbed over the wall and knocked on the door.

"Jiang Yuan, are you home? Was it you who called out just now?"

Jiang Yuan heard someone calling him from outside. He calmed Bao Ya down, wrapped her up in two blankets, and then went out of the house.

Upon hearing Zhang Jianwen's explanation of his purpose, Jiang Yuan immediately flew into a rage, rushed to the base of the wall, and nimbly vaulted over it.

"Sigh, you..."

Zhang Jianwen looked at the courtyard gate, then at the wall, hesitating about which way to go. Finally, he resigned himself to his fate and climbed back over the wall.

When he arrived at the west courtyard, he found Jiang Yuan grabbing Feng Shuangxi and swinging his fist.

"You fucking have nothing better to do than play ghost games in the yard in the middle of the night. If anything happens to my wife, I'll make your whole family pay with their lives..."

"No, Jiang Yuan, listen to me, we didn't mean it, oh dear, I know I was wrong..."

Feng Shuangxi, who had initially threatened to call the police, was now begging for mercy after being beaten, repeatedly saying that they hadn't done it on purpose.

Everyone was furious. Who was it that said they'd call the police? They probably thought they were easy to bully and wanted to extort money from them.

That night, Bao Ya started to have a high fever and felt dizzy. Over the next few days, she kept waking up and falling asleep, and didn't have time to ask what exactly happened that day.

Jiang Yuan took a few days off and took her to the hospital for IV drips every day. It was a week later before she was fully recovered.

When Granny Zhou came to visit her, she learned that the female ghost in the west courtyard that night was Li Yan, Feng Shuangxi's wife.

Li Yan was beaten half to death by the Niu family father and son, breaking three ribs, and is still lying in the hospital.

The Niu and Feng families are currently arguing over compensation, and the Niu family is waiting for him to recover so they can testify for them.

Bao Ya felt something was wrong. That thing was very tall, about the same height as Jiang Yuan, or even taller, but Li Yan was not as tall as herself.

"That's what the Niu family members who were the first to break in that day said too; they did indeed beat Li Yan."

After saying that, Granny Zhou looked out the window again, then leaned closer to Bao Ya mysteriously and said:

"Did you see that stone table in their courtyard? I reckon when you saw Li Yan, she was kneeling on that stone table again."

"Why were you kneeling on the stone table? It was past one in the morning."

Bao Ya became increasingly confused. Who would kneel on a stone table like a wooden stake in the middle of the night, dressed in such a ghostly manner? She was almost scared to death. Could Li Yan be mentally ill?

"You don't know this, do you? In the old society, there were many ways for mothers-in-law to torment their daughters-in-law. This is nothing."

That old woman, Granny Feng, in the west courtyard seems quiet and reserved; she might be a cunning old fox.

"Li Yan has been married into her family for so many years, and there's not a single sign of pregnancy. How could she not have any objections?"

As she spoke, Granny Zhou glanced at Bao Ya's belly. Bao Ya had been married for almost a year, but her belly showed no signs of pregnancy.

Bao Ya didn't notice Granny Zhou's expression; she tilted her head and thought of Granny Feng in the west courtyard.

This person is indeed quite strange. I rarely interact with them and they are not curious about anything.

She would just smile and nod when they met, and she never participated in the gossip.

Compared to her, my gossipy nature is several levels stronger.

"Didn't Aunt Feng say anything after all that commotion that day?"

"Tsk, I don't think I saw that old woman Feng come out that night, and I didn't hear her say anything either."

Granny Zhou stopped what she was doing, tilted her head and thought about what happened that day. It seemed that she hadn't seen Granny Feng at all.

Logically speaking, this shouldn't be the case. Even if you don't like your daughter-in-law, you can't just stay silent after being beaten.

If it were me, I would have already blocked the Niu family's door and tried to extort money from them.

Bao Ya felt increasingly uneasy. Their family didn't interact with their neighbors, and that old woman Feng stayed at home all day without going out. She wouldn't say a word when something happened at home. Any other woman on this street would have been arguing with the Niu family long ago.

With a seed of doubt planted in her mind, Bao Ya became even more attentive to what was happening next door.

Jiang Yuan wanted to raise the wall between the two houses, but Bao Ya stopped him, as he had to take a closer look at it every day.

She was restless and anxious until she got to the bottom of things.

Bao Ya stared blankly at the west courtyard again. His house was too quiet. Li Yan had already returned from the hospital.

Normally, one should rest after being discharged from the hospital with a rib fracture, but from the day she returned home, she was busy with all the housework.

Then there's that old woman Feng, she's always like she's in postpartum confinement, it seems like she eats, drinks, and relieves herself all inside the house.

This person is not yet old enough to be unable to move; he is about the same age as Granny Zhou and Shi Zhenxiang, but his back is straighter than theirs.