Chapter 573 - 572: Attracting Attention (Part 2)
Many people call men who beat and kick their own wives scum, but after the scolding is over, it’s over. It has no real impact on the abusers.
They just continue the beatings. No one can stop them.
Beating your wife and kids is perfectly natural.
This was the mindset of many abusive men, and also the prevailing view of many people at the time.
When a man beats his wife and children, for neighbors and passersby, stepping in to stop it for a moment was already doing more than enough.
Anything beyond that was their family’s private business. It wasn’t for outsiders to manage or interfere.
At the time, there were no anti-domestic violence laws. There was no widespread sentiment against it, no ideology of protecting women by encouraging divorce in cases of abuse, and certainly no awareness that one should call the police.
And it wasn’t as if the police could do anything about such "family matters" anyway.
In such a climate, no one was paying attention to this phenomenon and its associated problems. News reports were even rarer.
But Su Li reported on it.
Using Sister Yu’s tragic experience as a starting point, she reported on the issue, incorporating a great deal of survey data.
The data was horrifying.
According to statistics compiled from various districts in the Imperial City, targeting women of all ages and occupations, over 40% admitted to having experienced domestic violence, differing only in degree.
Of that 40%, one-fourth—or 10%—had only been beaten occasionally.
"Just once or twice a year. During an argument, I might get slapped or hit on the head. Some pushing and shoving, but nothing that leaves too many marks."
For two-fourths—or 20%—the situation was more serious.
"I’ll be beaten several times, maybe a dozen times, a year. Sometimes I get injured, but it’s not a daily beating, and it’s usually not too severe."
And for the remaining 10%, their situation was like Sister Yu’s.
Beatings were a daily occurrence. Whenever the husband was home, if he was in a bad mood, he would lash out. The only question was how badly he would beat them.
"...It’s not uncommon to have a leg broken or your hands and feet injured."
This last group included women with partners like Sister Yu’s husband.
The survey didn’t just target women; it also included men.
Over thirty percent of men admitted to having hit their spouses.
And of those who admitted it, over eighty percent saw nothing wrong with beating their wives.
It came back to that same old saying: Beating your wife and kids is perfectly natural.
If it’s perfectly natural for them to beat their wives and children, is it also perfectly natural for women to be beaten and suffer?
In her report, Su Li raised this question—or rather, demanded an answer—through Sister Yu’s story.
Sister Yu had suffered a miscarriage with massive blood loss, on top of a broken leg. They barely managed to save her, but due to the blood loss, she had lost all hope. Though she appeared to be alive, she was, in reality, a walking corpse.
"...I protected my baby for so long. I just wanted to give birth to her safely, but in the end..."
"But maybe it’s better she wasn’t born. Now she won’t have to suffer with me..."
Sister Yu seemed not to feel the pain. She was numb. In a hospital ward where everyone else was groaning, she, the most grievously injured, wore a wooden expression, as if she had no sense of pain at all.
The nurse caring for Sister Yu had red-rimmed eyes—from anger, from heartbreak, from helplessness.
Sister Yu lived nearby. This wasn’t her first visit; she had been a regular at the hospital for a long time.
The nurse had seen all the wounds, big and small, on Sister Yu’s body. To say they were too horrible to look at was no exaggeration.
Besides the miscarriage and the broken leg, her body was covered in black and blue bruises, a constant tapestry of contusions and lacerations. The corners of her eyes and mouth were bruised, and her other leg showed signs of a fracture.
Despite Sister Yu’s wretched state, her husband only glanced at her, muttered, "Good, you’re not dead," and left.
He then went to sleep soundly in the hospital corridor, completely indifferent.
Because the miscarried fetus had been a fully-formed girl, he felt no regret at all. He even muttered, "A little girl. Best she wasn’t born."
The harm he had inflicted on his wife, Sister Yu, over the past decade-plus could have landed him in prison for several years.
But because he was her husband, he had no such worries. As long as he didn’t beat her to death, he had nothing to fear.
Of course, even if he did beat her to death, he probably wouldn’t be afraid.
If the damn hag died because she couldn’t take a beating, they’d just carry her out and bury her. No one would investigate or hold him accountable.
It wasn’t as if things like that had never happened before.
So much blood and cruelty, yet besides the woman’s own family crying over her tragic fate, no one paid it any mind.
When Su Li left the hospital that day, her entire body was trembling.
The sound of Sister Yu’s husband cursing and grumbling followed her, and it took all her strength to keep from screaming at him.
Su Li took an hour to calm down before she started writing. The article flowed from her in a single, fluid effort. The data was already etched into her mind, and the message she wanted to convey had been churning in her heart countless times.
Because her professor took her to submit the article, it was accepted immediately and published the very next day.
It was news as fresh as it could possibly be.
One can only imagine the shock of those who saw the news and the accompanying photos taken by Su Li.
The newspaper’s layout was limited, so the photos Su Li had taken were shrunk down. They were also in black and white, nothing like high-definition images, but that didn’t diminish their impact.
The contrast between Sister Yu’s lifeless form on the hospital bed and her husband’s utter lack of remorse was stark.
How could such a story, with such data, not attract attention?
Around sixty percent of the people who read the newspaper were drawn to the article, and more than half of them began discussing it.
On the day it was published, while Wu Qihua was bragging to her neighbors, people began to arrive in dribs and drabs at the hospital where the subject of the article was staying.
Some came just out of curiosity, but most were genuinely concerned and wanted to see how Sister Yu was doing.
Over the next two hours, as more and more people arrived, the hospital staff finally realized that the story had been in the papers.
The nurse was mentioned in the article, though not by name.
Many hot-headed people who saw the husband wished they could go over and give him a beating. No small number of people spat in his direction.
By noon, the director of the district’s Women’s Federation arrived with a delegation to visit Sister Yu and confirm if things were truly as the newspaper had reported.
That was when Sister Yu’s husband finally realized he was in the newspaper. Seeing so many visitors, he was furious. Right in front of everyone, he struck Sister Yu viciously. Then, regardless of her physical condition, he started dragging her, intending to take her home so she would stop "embarrassing" him in public.
His actions instantly triggered public outrage.
Even setting aside the women, who saw her as a fellow sister, the men present couldn’t stand him either.
The director of the Women’s Federation was trembling with rage. While the hospital nurses and doctors shielded Sister Yu, she and her people grabbed the man and restrained him.
Seeing the man was relentless, they finally called the police in a fit of anger.
The police officers also had daughters, mothers, and sisters. When they saw the situation, they were appalled and arrested him on the spot.
So much for not interfering in "family matters." If they didn’t act, the woman was going to die.
It didn’t matter if they were husband and wife; they couldn’t ignore something that could lead to a person’s death!
The incident blew up, drawing more and more attention.
The newspaper office was soon flooded with calls from the public, all asking about the case.
The phones rang off the hook, and they were sure many letters were already on their way.
Su Li’s report had successfully drawn serious attention.
When the newspaper’s editor-in-chief received the news, it was both unexpected and, in a way, entirely expected.