The Lucky Farmgirl

All the adults in the village were teaching their children not to talk nonsense outside, reminding them that Manbao was indeed a child of the Zhou Family. As for the reason such rumors surfaced, it was of course because Dawei’s grandmother didn’t get along with Manbao’s mother, so she concocted lies to deceive Dawei.

The children believed it because the adults often talked about things without evidence, like when the woman from the Dong family had her vegetables pulled up. She didn’t see it happen, but she would curse at the Xi Family, convinced they were the thieves.

The atmosphere at Zhou Dayuan’s house was particularly oppressive. The family ate their dinner in silence, and after they had finished, Ms. Zhang shook herheads and said to her grandson with frustration, "Don’t you ever repeat what’s said at home, do you understand?"

Zhou Dayuan put down his chopsticks with a smack and exclaimed, "What are you shouting at the child for? If you hadn’t been blabbering at home, would the child have blabbered outside?"

"But what I said was true," Ms. Zhang opened her mouth to retort, but Zhou Dayuan glared at her with widened eyes and angrily whispered, "If you want to die, don’t drag the whole village down with you."

Ms. Zhang couldn’t help but mumble, "The government doesn’t exercise collective punishment..."

Zhou Dayuan slapped her with a smack, and Dalv stood up, startled, and couldn’t help but cry out,

"Dad!"

Zhou Dayuan turned and glared at him, saying, "Don’t forget who gave us the food that allowed our family to survive back then. The elders have said that a person must not forget kindness received!"

Dalv lowered his head.

Ms. Zhang, covering her face, felt both ashamed and angry, and pushed the table away before storming back to her room.