Chapter 99 : A newborn calf is not afraid of a tiger

Wang Xiutao had been slapped to the ground, her head buzzing and dizzy. With the help of the others, she finally managed to stand up, though it took her a while to fully recover.

She glared at Yun Siying furiously and shouted, “You little bitch…” Before she could finish, she gasped sharply ‘hiss!’the side of her face that had been slapped was throbbing painfully. Still, she gritted her teeth and forced out a final threat. “Just you wait!”

Wang Xiutao didn’t dare confront Yun Siying head-on again. That slap made it very clear, she wasn’t a match. But she had backup. So, she stomped off quickly to the neighboring village.

“Yun Siying, you’re in big trouble now,” one of the aunts nearby said with a look of sympathy. Wang Xiutao’s family wasn’t exactly the type you could reason with.

“Auntie,” Yun Siying asked, “why is her family such a handful?” She passed a handful of melon seeds to each of the women standing nearby, hoping to hear more about what made them so notorious.

The women munched happily on the fragrant seeds and suddenly became much more friendly and talkative. One of them spoke up, “She depends on her thirteen brothers. And she herself had seven sons, all of them built like oxen. That’s why she’s always pushing people around and bullying others. No one dares to stop her.”

Yun Siying was speechless for a moment, then laughed. “Her mother must be really fertile, huh? Imagine giving her so many brothers!”

“Hey, not one mother,” an aunt corrected her, chuckling. “That’s from several of her mother’s brothers. She has five biological brothers herself, but they’re really united. Anytime something happens, they come running to defend her first thing.”

The aunt was slightly surprised by Yun Siying’s reaction. Shouldn’t she be worried about how to deal with this family now? Instead, she was thinking about whether someone’s mother was fertile or not. The aunt didn’t know what to say and just sighed.

“Thanks for the warning, aunties. I haven’t been home in days, I need to go clean up the house,” Yun Siying said, and quickly took her leave, not seeming to take any of it to heart.

When she returned to the Youth house, she noticed the dustpan under her window and remembered, she had forgotten to bring in the mushrooms she left out to dry. Where had they gone?

She went back into her room first, finally feeling at ease. Being in her own home brought real comfort. As the old saying goes: ‘A golden nest, a silver nest, none of them compare to your own humble doghouse.’

After resting briefly and tidying up the house, she resumed reading the medical text her master had given her. She’d been too busy the past few days and hadn’t had the chance. Now was a good time.

She brewed a cup of tea, sat at the desk by the window, and began reading. She took notes as she went, completely absorbed, pausing only occasionally to sip her tea.

Until ‘knock knock’ someone knocked on the door. “Comrade Yun, are you home?”

Yun Siying immediately recognized the voice, it was her next-door neighbor, Wang Panpan. As she tucked her medical book and notes into her storage space, she called back, “Yes, Comrade Wang.”

She quickly came out of the inner room and opened the door. “Comrade Wang , come in and have a seat.”

Wang Panpan stepped in and handed her a bag. “These are the mushrooms you were drying. I noticed you forgot to bring them in, so I went ahead and collected them for you.”

“Comrade Wang , thank you so much.” Yun Siying was truly grateful. ‘This is what it means to have a good neighbor.’ She took the bag, then prepared a jar of malted milk for her guest. “Have some water first, I’ll go get your bag and return it.”

“Okay,” Wang Panpan replied. She caught a whiff of the sweet aroma of malted milk, looked down, and saw the enamel cup was filled to the brim. ‘Yun Siying is really generous,’ she thought. In these times, being able to serve sugar water to a guest was already the highest form of hospitality.

She glanced around the room and sighed inwardly ‘It’s nice to be well-off.’ Yun Siying’s house had everything. The furniture was placed casually, but comfortably. It felt like a single room had been smartly divided into two separate living areas.

“Comrade Yun, your home is really well-furnished.”

“You know my situation,” Yun Siying replied calmly, without the slightest hint of embarrassment. “Even if one day the educated youth are allowed to return to the city, I don’t really have a place to go. I might be living here long-term, so I need to be well-prepared.”

“You’re right,” Wang Panpan agreed, then added, “but have you ever thought about getting married?”

“Getting married?” Yun Siying was a bit surprised by the sudden question. “I’m still young, I haven’t thought about things like that. Besides, what’s so great about marriage?”

“Well, when you’re married, you have someone to lean on. You can build a life together, support each other, and have a companion in old age.”

“You’re not wrong,” Yun Siying said. “It’s clear you and Comrade Guo have that kind of relationship. But not every man is like your Guo.”

She shook her head and continued, “Look at some of the women in the village, those aunts and young wives. They work all day in the fields, then come home to fetch water, wash clothes, cook, feed pigs and chickens, look after the children… and what are the husbands doing? Sitting at the doorstep doing nothing. And worse, the money they earn goes straight to their in-laws. They can’t even save a penny. If they fall ill, there’s no money for medicine. That kind of life is terrifying.”

Just then ‘Bang!’ the door to the Youth Courtyard was kicked open. A crowd stormed in, with a group of villagers trailing behind.

The remaining educated youth in the courtyard were startled by the commotion and rushed out of their rooms. Yun Siying and Wang Panpan stepped outside as well.

“There she is! That bitch hit me!” Wang Xiutao shouted, pointing directly at Yun Siying, her eyes full of rage. She had brought nearly thirty burly men with her.

When the Wang family saw Yun Siying, they hesitated for a moment. But as soon as they remembered what had happened to Wang Xiutao, their expressions turned dark. One of the men asked coldly, “You’re the one who hit our sister?”

“What did you do to offend the Wang family? They’re not to be messed with,” Wang Panpan said anxiously, whispering to her. “Don’t confront them head-on, just pay them off and avoid trouble!”

“Don’t worry, I’m not afraid of them. Step back, you’ll get dragged into this if you stay near me,” Yun Siying replied calmly, gently pushing Wang Panpan aside so as not to implicate her or the other members of the Youth Farm.

She took a few steps forward, stood tall, and looked at the group with a composed expression. Then she pointed to Wang Xiutao and said firmly, “If that aunt is your sister, then yes I was the one who hit her.”

There was an audible gasp from the gathered villagers and youth. ‘Yun Siying is fearless,’ they thought. ‘Such courage!’

After all, Wang Xiutao hadn’t just called her brothers she had also brought her nephews and sons, over thirty men in total. Faced with such a show of force, Yun Siying didn’t back down. Instead, she calmly admitted everything.

“Good. Since you admit it, kneel before my sister, let her slap you fifty times, and hand over a hundred yuan. Then we’ll consider the matter settled,” one of the burly men said, glaring at her. Even so, he couldn’t help but have some respect for her. Normally, just their presence was enough to make people tremble in fear but this girl wasn’t afraid at all.