Chapter 38: To Gain Benefits

Having been angered outside, he naturally didn’t have a good face when he returned to the village.

Jiang Nian was the first to be notified. He casually said, “Xiaoju, go to the intellectual’s quarters and tell everyone there to go to Li Rui’s place. I have something to talk to you all about.”

“Oh.”

He stubbornly called her Xiaoju. After Jiang Nian’s guidance, Ye Zhiqiu no longer corrected his address.

After he left, Ye Zhiqiu whispered, “Master, did Grandpa Village Head just get into a fight somewhere? He looks so angry.”

She wasn’t necessarily looking for an answer, she just felt that way.

Jiang Nian snorted in annoyance, “That’s very possible. It’s probably because of Li Rui’s article. I’ll go to Li Rui’s place first. You go to the intellectual’s quarters and call everyone.”

After all, this was about speaking out for women’s rights. Since you’re protecting the rights of one group, you’re bound to harm the interests of another group. There’s bound to be some conflict.

Jiang Nian wasn’t surprised. She had anticipated this day when she persuaded Li Rui to publish the article.

Li Rui only had one small house, so the meeting could only be held in the courtyard.

As the saying goes, “The first bird to fly gets shot.” Everyone was tacitly silent.

Village Head Zhou’s eyes, which were usually half-closed, were wide open and sharp. He scanned the crowd and snorted coldly, “Why isn’t anyone speaking? Aren’t you all very capable? Everyone around here knows that the intellectuals in our Zhoujia Village are all troublemakers. You’re all very capable!”

His sarcastic tone clearly showed that he had been scolded a lot outside.

“You can’t say that. We’re all trying to respond to the call of the country, to improve the rural landscape, to contribute to the future of our country, and to make our own contributions.” Niu Aixiang was quite smart, except when it came to dealing with Zhao Heiping.

Village Head Zhou was even angrier, “Yes, yes, yes. You’re all capable people. You all have your own ideals and aspirations. You’re all great people who are contributing to the country. But I beg you, great people, I’m the village head of this village, and you’re the intellectuals in our village. Could you please discuss things with me before you do anything? So that I can be mentally prepared? Don’t wait until you’re being scolded by others before I even know what’s going on. I can’t even find the words to defend myself!”

Niu Aixiang wilted. She stuck out her tongue quietly, “Well, you can’t blame us for that.”

She glanced at Li Rui as she spoke. She knew that the village head couldn’t do anything to them. He could only vent his anger. So, she wasn’t worried. She was more amused.

“But Li Rui is pretty amazing. How come I didn’t think of that?” Niu Aixiang said, “Speaking of this, Uncle Zhou, you can’t blame us entirely. It’s not like your village hasn’t done anything wrong. Look at what they’ve driven people to. A life was lost, and your attitude is just ‘it’s gone, so it’s gone.’ What’s the use of just criticizing Zhou Shugen? He’s still alive and well. He has a wife and children, and they’re living happily ever after. He even chased away his firstborn child and sold her. Look at what they’ve driven Ye Zhiqiu to! If Jiang Nian hadn’t helped her and been willing to teach her skills, she would have ended up like her mother. That would be two lives lost.”

She became more and more upset as she spoke, “Human life is really worthless in your village!”

“You…” Village Head Zhou was speechless in the face of the rebuttal. He knew that Xiaoju and her mother were pitiful. When Xiaoju’s mother divorced, she had made a big fuss, and several elders in the village had helped her. But she herself was not strong enough and didn’t persist. She agreed to the divorce.

Zhou Shugen was very shrewd. In order to make the divorce legitimate, he had specially gone to the street to get a marriage certificate, just to prevent her from denying it later.

After all, in those days, only a few people got marriage certificates. Most people believed in common-law marriage.

But the divorce certificate was real.

At that time, because of this, several elders in the clan who had spoken up for her were embarrassed. Everyone sincerely helped her and spoke up for her, trying to save the family and the marriage. But in the end, she embarrassed them all. She quietly got the certificate and left, leaving all the elders who had helped her with no face.

Now, eight or nine years had passed since the divorce. Now she was making a fuss about justice. How could anyone help her? Who would dare to help her?

Besides, no one expected that she would hang herself!

“You intellectuals are still young and inexperienced. You can’t even manage your own lives. How can you expect others to help you?”

Others could help her reason, but she herself didn’t hold on and got divorced. Her husband’s family took her in for eight years. It could be said that they had done their part.

No matter what promises Zhou Shugen had made to her when he tricked her into getting a divorce, those were private promises to coax her. No one else knew.

If you had to blame someone, you could only blame her for being too easily coaxed.

People with weak willpower would make others hesitant to help. After all, it wasn’t their own business. Who wouldn’t be afraid of getting involved and getting into trouble?

Jiang Nian had already heard about these things from Ye Zhiqiu, so she had told Li Rui to use the story of Zhou Xiaoju and her mother as a prototype to fight for the rights that women deserve.

Perhaps she always felt that if Xiaoju’s mother had had a place to go after the divorce, whether it was the collective on her mother’s side accepting her or the collective here allowing her to live independently and participate in labor distribution rights, even if she was inherently weak, at least she would have had another choice when facing despair.

“Uncle Zhou, since we came to this village, you have not only taken good care of us, but you have also actively supported and encouraged our various ideas. I have always felt that you are an open-minded leader. It’s true that Li Rui didn’t handle this matter properly. He didn’t explain the situation to you beforehand. But please understand that he is still young. Young people are impulsive. It’s inevitable that they will make some mistakes. But he wasn’t doing this for himself. As a man, he can see the suffering of women and carefully discover the policy flaws in this. It’s enough to show that he is a kind and courageous male comrade. We also hope that you can put aside your prejudice and let us all work together to contribute to the construction of the countryside. The slogan ‘Women hold up half the sky’ is not just a slogan. Women comrades have been working hard to make their contributions. But if there is only contribution and no reward, that’s called oppression. So, we should also understand the situation of women. Protecting women’s rights is not an excessive demand. The main point of this article is that when women are at their wit’s end, they hope that society can give them a chance to continue living, not just the option of hanging themselves or jumping into a river. What do you think?”

Jiang Nian’s logic was clear, leaving Village Head Zhou speechless.

“Yes, that’s it.” Li Rui also said, “Uncle Zhou, Village Head, although we are men, we can’t just focus on our own interests and ignore the suffering of others. Otherwise, wouldn’t that violate the policy of gender equality?”

Ye Zhiqiu also cried and said, “When I tried to persuade my mother to leave, she also said that she had nowhere to go. My grandparents thought she was a disgrace and wouldn’t let her go back. Even if she remarried, at her age, she could only marry a widower and become a servant to raise his children. It would be better to endure it here. Even if she suffered a little, at least she was raising her own child, and it wouldn’t be so difficult. But staying here, she could only rely on her grandparents’ reputation. Otherwise, after the divorce, she wouldn’t be considered a member of this village, and she wouldn’t be eligible to participate in collective labor.”