Lijuan stammered for a bit, then she yelled at the old lady, “I’m here to ask for some foodstuff! Old lady, give me some!”
“This girl, what’s wrong with you? At a young age, if you don’t want to work on your own to earn foodstuff to eat, why do you just ask someone else for it? This kind of habit of getting for nothing is not good.
“Go away, don’t get in the way here in my yard, I still have to work!”
The old lady firmly drove Lijuan away.
But Lijuan bit her lower lip, unwilling to leave just like that.
After taking a look in the yard, she found that there seemed to be no one but the old lady. She grabbed the cloth bag on the ground, which contained corn kernels that had not been taken out for drying, then ran out of the yard.
When the old lady saw what Lijuan did, she was stupefied for a moment, then she immediately reacted. She chased after Lijuan, grabbed the corner of her clothes, and prevented her from leaving.
“Girl, what are you doing? How could you just steal my family’s foodstuffs? Hurry up and give them back to me!”
Lijuan frowned, pushed the old lady away, and cursed her, “Old fart, fuck off!”
The old lady was pushed and fell to the ground. She couldn’t get up because of the pain.
Lijuan hurriedly took the foodstuff and fled from the old lady’s yard.
After she got some foodstuff, she could now go back and could still look good in front of Xiulan.
She had no choice but to think of stealing, otherwise, she probably wouldn’t be able to get any foodstuff even if it got dark.
***Original translation is from enchantesstranslations.com. Please read it on the translator’s website.***
The old lady hurriedly shouted in a loud voice, “Help! Catch the thief! Someone had stolen my foodstuffs!”
With such yelling, all the neighbors rushed out at once and soon blocked Lijuan’s way. She was caught right away.
These days, the folk customs were relatively simple and only a few people would steal things. Lijuan’s behavior, in addition to breaking the law, was also morally condemned.
She was severely beaten, but the old lady’s family was unwilling to stop there.
A girl who didn’t study well, bullied the elderly, and steals things, must be criticized and educated, and they had to talk to her parents.
At this time, Xiulan’s family had just finished their work for the day, and when they returned home, they found that Lijuan hadn’t come back yet.
Yumei had been looking around outside worriedly for a long time and kept looking in the direction of the road, but she hadn’t seen Lijuan’s figure yet.
She muttered worriedly, “Sigh… Could it be that something happened to my Lijuan?”
Lijuan was very dear to her heart. Although she was a girl, she was her biological child after all, so there was no way not to worry about her.
Seeing this situation, Weiguo frowned worriedly. “Xiulan comes back early every time she goes to the county seat. So, why hasn’t Lijuan come back yet?”
“Oh, what should I do…” Yumei stomped her feet anxiously.
Weiguo comforted her, “Let’s wait a little longer. Lijuan is not young anymore and it is reasonable to say that she can handle it herself if something happens.”
The two had just finished talking and after waiting for two minutes at home, Lijuan came back, and three tall men also came back with her.
The three men were holding her and all their complexions were dark and gloomy. Lijuan had a lot of injuries on her face, her hair was messed up into a chicken coop, and her clothes were torn. Her whole look was embarrassing.
When Yumei saw her appearance and then saw the three men who came with her, she immediately assumed that these men had bullied her daughter, so she stepped forward angrily and scolded them, “Who are you? Why did you beat my daughter?”