Chapter 24 She Was the One Who Hit Me

Past experience taught Song Nanting that being soft-hearted wouldn’t make life any easier; on the contrary, it would only give others a handle to exploit and, at worst, cost her life. When they got off in Yu Province, Xu Shichang deliberately tried to get someone to accuse them of buying tickets illegally. She remembered that very clearly. Now it was 1974, and if it hadn’t been for the quick reactions of the three of them—swiftly turning suspicion toward Xu Shichang—they all might have been finished. Speculating and profiteering was considered undermining socialism, and at worst, it was treated like a serious offense. But back then, they had no chance to act, and if they hadn’t met Xu Shichang again, it would have been fine. Now that they had run into him, and he still wanted to cause trouble for them, she wasn’t going to let it slide.

Just like she told Auntie Song, hitting someone didn’t have to be done openly and straightforwardly. If it was, you’d end up with a whole mess of trouble yourself. But now, late at night, besides the rattling of the train, there was no other sound.

Song Nanting had directly beaten Xu Shichang up and then went back to sleep.

Around four or five in the morning, a scream pierced the air.

Woken up early in the morning, some people couldn’t help but complain loudly.

“Who the hell’s screaming at this hour? Your father’s dead or what?”

“Yeah, can’t even get a moment’s peace early in the morning.”

Conditions on the train were bad, and sleep was always poor; being woken up like that only made everyone irritable.

Song Nanting opened her eyes and glanced down. “What’s going on?”

“Seems like some commotion. I’ll go check it out.” Li Guihua was already putting on her shoes, excitedly asking Auntie Song, “Little sister, you coming to see the fuss?”

Before Auntie Song could reply, she peeked out and saw a crowd gathered. “Let’s go.”

The two old ladies weren’t picky about their bunks; they’d slept well enough and were in good spirits as they went to check out the scene.

Comrade Han was reading on the lower berth when he heard this and smiled helplessly. “Xu Shichang probably wanted Li Guihua to come and mess with us and fight with us, but didn’t expect Li Guihua to get along so well with Sister Song.”

Song Nanting laughed. “Exactly. That’s called ‘losing your chicken while trying to steal the eggs.’ But yesterday evening, I saw him seemed to buy another sleeper ticket—he’s really loaded.”

“Yeah, he is,” Comrade Han agreed. People these days didn’t like traveling much; tickets were expensive—sleeper tickets often cost dozens of yuan. If it weren’t for Comrade Han traveling on official business and being reimbursed, he wouldn’t have dared buy a sleeper ticket either. Xu Shichang lost one ticket and still managed to buy two more—that made you think.

Song Nanting sat for a while before getting up to wash. The commotion seemed to have died down, and from a distance, she saw someone being carried away.

Auntie Song and Li Guihua returned with smug looks, gesturing excitedly as they described what they saw.

“Oh my, it was that Xu Shichang from yesterday—he got beaten up.”

Song Nanting feigned surprise, “Really? That happened?”

“Of course!” Auntie Song was delighted. She had wanted to tear Xu Shichang apart back in Yu Province, and now seeing him get beaten up made her very happy.

“Oh my, the poor guy was all bruised and battered. Looked kinda pitiful.”

Though they said that, there wasn’t a trace of sympathy—more like schadenfreude.

Song Nanting felt pleased too. “Serves him right. But since we have conflicts with him, I’m just worried it’ll drag us into trouble.”

Sure enough, before long, the train police arrived. Xu Shichang claimed he got beaten on the train and suspected the four of them of the assault.

Auntie Song and Li Guihua immediately denied it. “What do we have to do with this? We’re loyal and hardworking poor and lower-middle peasants. Why would we beat him up in the middle of the night? We were just lying quietly, sleeping soundly till morning.”

“Exactly. What evidence do you have that we did it?”

The two old ladies started arguing, making the train police headache. “We’re not saying it’s definitely you, but you have to come with us and cooperate with the investigation.”

The old ladies kept protesting until Song Nanting tugged their sleeves. “Auntie, the police just want to understand what happened. We’ll go back and explain. Even if we have problems with Xu Shichang, if we didn’t do it, we didn’t do it. The police won’t accuse us without evidence, right?”

The train police nodded. “What this comrade says makes sense.”

Actually, from the police’s perspective, Xu Shichang must have offended someone at some point. Right now, the suspects were these four—a couple of elderly ladies, a young woman, and a skinny cadre-looking guy. None seemed likely to be the type who could handle Xu Shichang.

The four followed the police to the duty office.

Xu Shichang was sitting on a chair, getting his wounds treated by a train doctor.

When he saw the four come in, his eyes locked onto them, scanning back and forth as if trying to figure out which one had hit him.

Li Guihua and Auntie Song couldn’t help but spit, “Must have done something bad to deserve getting beaten. Serves him right.”

“If you ask me, he deserved it,” Comrade Han said helplessly, explaining to the police, “None of us left the compartment last night. We all stayed quietly on our bunks sleeping. Among us, there are two old ladies, one young lady, and me—a man. Do you really think I could have beaten him up?”

At night, there wasn’t much else to do but sleep.

Xu Shichang was stubborn, “I got beaten on your train, so you need to find the person who did it. Or when I get back to the Capital Committee, I’ll make sure to investigate your railway department thoroughly.”

The police frowned. “It’s the middle of the night. No one saw anything, and you didn’t see who did it either. Where are we supposed to find this person?”

Xu Shichang’s face darkened. His eyes swept across the four, finally resting on Song Nanting. He pointed at her.

“It was her who hit me.”

Everyone in the room looked at Song Nanting.

She blinked, somewhat incredulous. “Are you sure it was me who hit you?”

“Yes, it was you,” Xu Shichang said, breathing heavily in anger. “I bought another sleeper ticket, and only you saw me yesterday evening. It couldn’t have been anyone else.”

He touched the wound on his face, which made him look fierce.

He insisted, “It was her, Song Nanting. I remember it clearly.”