Chronicle of the 70s

For a moment, both groups became eerily quiet. Wang Xiwang watched with a malevolent expression as the rangy teenage boys across from him bared their teeth in grins, feeling a hint of confusion. These young men didn't seem like typical rural folk at all, especially the slightly plumper one who spoke the local dialect with a tinge of Mandarin, was eloquent, and even appeared knowledgeable about the local administration. Could he be the child of some leader?

But at this critical moment, he couldn't afford any mistakes. Otherwise, the accusation of kidnapping women would fall on his family. Although his brother had assured him that this family had significant influence, valued sons over daughters, and saw girls as nothing more than commodities, incomparable to sons. They had even planned for all possible scenarios. But what was happening now? Wang Xiwang felt a headache coming on.

As he looked at the onlookers, Wang Xiwang's eyes darted around before smiling slyly and gesturing towards some people holding sticks nearby.

The seven or eight young men standing behind him, with the leader bearing a 70-80% resemblance to Wang Xiwang, noticed his signal and didn't hesitate to shout to the people beside him: "Brothers, beat them up for me!"

Without any caution, they charged forward and began fighting.

These people, armed with sticks, had no problem dealing with the six unarmed boys, who immediately found themselves on the receiving end. Thankfully, their attackers weren't hitting too hard, targeting the meatier parts of the back and buttocks. Seeing this, Li Jianqing started dodging and running through the crowd, calling out, "Everyone, rush to the yard! Rescue my sister first!"

With these words, he began rushing towards the yard recklessly. Qin Family's Fatty, who was pain-stricken from the beating, hurriedly started moving, shouting as he ran towards the yard, "Help! Help! Wang Xiwang is murdering to silence us! Wang Xiwang is a human trafficker! He kidnapped a girl to marry off to his idiot!"

With this revelation, the previously retreating crowd enclosed even tighter, drawn by the commotion. In these days, rural villages didn't have much entertainment, so gossip about who had a lazy daughter-in-law, a harsh mother-in-law, or a troublesome young auntie was common, but such explosive news about human trafficking was rare. Thus, unable to control their inner gossipers despite the cold, they stomped their feet and crowded around the yard.

For a time, the Wang family's yard was bustling with chaos. The Wang family's relatives also came out to help. Li Jianqing hadn't even reached the entrance of the cave dwelling when he was blocked by several muscular middle-aged men who dragged him away to the side of the yard.