Chapter 30: Unexpected Fighting Power

Outside the Shen family home on the village path stood a crowd of people. At the front, with her hands on her hips and angrily scolding, was a woman with slightly prominent cheekbones—a big auntie. When Shen Mo’er and the others left, she was still shouting.

When the Shen family built their new house, they had also enclosed the courtyard with a wall. Before, the villagers complained that they were wasting bricks, spending too much on the wall.

But today, the benefit of having that wall became apparent. The crowd was blocked outside by the wall, forced to stand on the village path glaring at her home. Otherwise, they probably would have charged inside.

As they reached the gate, Shen Yinyin tugged on Shen Mo’er’s arm and whispered, “That’s Tian Cui. When she was young, she often came to our brigade looking for Tian Fang. I’ve seen her a few times. That shameless woman dares to come here and cause trouble. Don’t lose your temper, wait and see if I don’t slap her dead!”

Shen Mo’er didn’t immediately remember who Tian Cui was but saw Wang Jinbao standing behind her and then recalled—this was probably Tian Fang’s younger sister and Wang Jinbao’s mother.

Aunt Chen glanced at the overturned cart that had been leaning against the courtyard wall and quickly told her little grandson to quietly go into the village to call for help.

Usually, the neighboring brigade’s office would have people during the day, but it was lunchtime now, a hot day. After eating, everyone usually rests at home, so there really weren’t many people at the village entrance at this moment.

“Tian Cui, you shameless woman! Keep your mouth clean, or I swear I’ll tear you apart if you keep talking nonsense!” Shen Yinyin shouted angrily.

Tian Cui recognized her and spat, “I was wondering who it was. Just some mountain girl from a poor valley, coming here to show off.”

Then, Tian Cui noticed Shen Mo’er standing behind Shen Yinyin and thought to herself that this young girl was indeed quite pretty—no wonder Jinbao liked her.

Originally, Tian Cui was determined to fight back after hearing her son had been hit. But after arriving at Yangliu Brigade, first seeing the new brick and tile house the Shen family had built, and now seeing Shen Mo’er, her thoughts began to shift.

This girl wasn’t a worker or a cadre, which was a downside, but there were advantages too. She was the only child in her family, and after marriage, wouldn’t everything belong to Wang Jinbao? If Shen Laoqi (Shen Old Seven) handed over the kiln factory job to Jinbao, Jinbao could even get into the commune as a worker.

Even if Jinbao only found a job as a worker or a cadre, the family might have brothers who would share jobs. But an only daughter had many more benefits.

Of course, that was only because Shen Laoqi was a worker now and life had improved; otherwise, Tian Cui wouldn’t have cared.

With these calculations in mind, Tian Cui stopped insulting and said, “So what if I curse a bit? I’m perfectly justified. Who have you ever seen get beaten up just for matchmaking? Our Jinbao was pampered and protected by the whole family since he was little. He’s never even been touched. But now he comes here to meet your family for a match and gets beaten? How could I not be angry as his mother?”

Shen Yinyin looked at her coldly. She didn’t believe Tian Cui’s sudden softened attitude—there was definitely something behind it.

Sure enough, Tian Cui continued, “Normally, if you beat my Jinbao, I wouldn’t let it go so easily. But Jinbao is a good kid—he convinced me to let it go. He really likes your Shen Mo’er. I think she’s just average, but we always spoil our children. If the child likes her, then as adults, we can only go along with it. Now that Laoqi’s house is built, we might as well arrange the marriage for these two kids, double happiness, a double celebration.”

Shen Yinyin scoffed and almost laughed from anger.

She forced herself to keep calm, twisted the corner of her mouth, and said, “So, according to you, your child is really quite good. Who is he? Come here so I can take a good look.”

Tian Cui proudly said, “Of course, my Jinbao is the team leader of the production brigade, very capable.”

She then called her son, “Jinbao, this is Shen Mo’er’s aunt. Come, let her see you.”

Shen Mo’er’s biological mother had long passed away, and Shen Laoqi wasn’t the kind to stand up for things. Tian Cui thought Shen Yinyin was here to act as a matchmaker for Shen Mo’er’s marriage.

Shen Yinyin saw a short, narrow-eyed young man step out from behind her and immediately felt pain in her eyes just looking at him.

Her biological mother was quite decent-looking, so she and her brother Laoqi were quite good-looking. Especially Laoqi—he took the best features of their parents and, in his youth, was quite handsome. Even now, nearly forty, he still looked like a young man.

As for the wife Laoqi married, she was even better looking.

At first, when she ran away here, her hair was cut very short, looking like it had been chewed by a dog, and her face was covered with dirt and grime, looking more like a boy. After she got familiar with Laoqi and cleaned up, he realized she was a pretty girl.

Given that these two gave birth to Mo’er, how could she be ugly?

Mo’er as a child was carved from fine jade. It was only after her biological mother died, life got worse, and she became too thin and tanned from hard work that she no longer looked as pretty.

But even this tanned and skinny Shen Mo’er wasn’t someone this ugly thing deserved, especially now that Laoqi’s family’s life had improved and Mo’er was clearly getting better cared for.

Shen Yinyin really felt that this Jinbao and his family were just shameless and clueless—like a toad looking at swan meat. They had no sense of shame whatsoever.

Though disgusted, she kept a straight face and waved her hand, “Young man, come here. Auntie wants to talk to you.”

If it were anyone else, Wang Jinbao might have ignored her, but since she was Shen Mo’er’s aunt, he walked over. But as soon as he got close, Shen Yinyin directly hit him—two slaps to the face. Before he could react, she grabbed his hair and slammed his head a few more times.

“Before you left the house, did you even look in a mirror? If you don’t have a mirror, at least pee on your hand and look at yourself. You’re so ugly it hurts my eyes. You’re a toad, yet you dare to set your sights on my Mo’er? What dogshit is in your head?!”

Shen Yinyin hit and scolded him with heavy blows, ruthless and merciless.

Despite Wang Jinbao being a young man, he was no match for her at all.

Tian Cui was stunned, standing there dumbfounded for a long moment before she finally snapped out of it and screamed, “Ahhh! What are you doing? You shameless woman, how dare you hit my son! I’ll kill you, I swear I’ll kill you…”

She charged straight at Shen Yinyin. Shen Yinyin quickly threw off Wang Jinbao, then very smoothly and fluently grabbed Tian Cui by the hair and without any mercy slapped her hard four times in a row.

“You shameless woman, trying to steal my brother’s future! The whole capital probably heard those slaps! Look at how ugly your son is — he’s so hideous he could blend right into a cesspit! And yet you dare to set your sights on my Mo’er? Hah! You just want to bring your son here to ruin Mo’er’s reputation, don’t you? You despicable wretch! If I don’t slap you dead today, I’m not a Shen!”

Shen Yinyin was fierce and ferocious. Tian Cui, who looked a bit bigger but was no match for her, was completely overwhelmed.

Wang Jinbao, his hair standing on end in anger, shouted, “You old hag, how dare you hit me!”

He wasn’t really trying to save his mother but was furious at being slapped in front of everyone. He rushed toward Shen Yinyin to fight her, but Zhao Zhengyang punched him square in the face, leaving him with panda eyes.

“Hey, hey, hey! Why are you guys hitting people? Are you bullying us because there’s no one in our Shashan team?”

Some people from Shashan team who had come with Tian Cui hurried forward wanting to help.

They had heard that Wang Jinbao had been beaten at Yangliu team and had come over demanding an explanation. But after listening to the whole story, they realized things didn’t match what the Wang family had told them. It sounded like the Wang family was shamelessly trying to cling to someone else’s daughter. This made many of them hesitate.

Some of them were good friends of the Wang family and would naturally side with them no matter what. But many others felt loyalty to their own team and couldn’t bear to see their team members bullied by outsiders. Seeing the situation, they were at a loss.

Still, no matter what, they had come together from Shashan team and couldn’t just stand by while their own people were being beaten, so they forced themselves to step in and help.

However, Chen Zhuangzhuang and his group quickly blocked them.

“This is Yangliu team’s territory. If you want a fight, do you think you few can take on our entire team? You’re causing trouble on our turf, so if we hit you, it’s your own fault.”

Chen Zhuangzhuang pushed one of the Shashan people aside and said, “You just heard them. That mother and son were looking for trouble and trying to ruin that girl’s reputation. Beating them up isn’t too much.”

The Shashan people hesitated immediately.

“Ahhh! Let go of my son! Jinbao, Jinbao! Ahhh! Let him go! I’ll fight you all!”

Although Wang Jinbao didn’t care much about his mother’s situation, Tian Cui, who was nearly beaten senseless by Shen Yinyin, struggled to help her son, screaming pitifully, “Ahhh! Why won’t you help? We’re all from the same team! Are you just going to stand by and watch my Jinbao get beaten? You damn killers…” Her desperate cries rallied the others.

You couldn’t really blame the Shashan team. Tian Cui knew Shen Lao Qi’s family lived right at the village entrance, and she thought it was just a matter of finding one widower and one orphan girl to cause trouble, so she didn’t call for many people—only seven or eight showed up.

What she didn’t expect was that Shen’s family was currently hosting a banquet, and everyone helping out was there, so their numbers far exceeded those of the Shashan team.

So even if those people didn’t hesitate, they weren’t really able to help and were blocked by Chen Zhuangzhuang and his group.

Seeing the situation going badly, Wang Jinbao quickly flopped down and played dead. When Tian Cui saw this, that her precious son was lying on the ground, she became even more frantic trying to fight back but was suppressed even harder by Shen Yinyin.

“Stop it! Everyone stop!”

Team leader Zhou Mancang, accountant Ding Shouchang, squad leader Zhou Peijun, and some other villagers hurried over.

In fact, the only ones still fighting were Shen Yinyin and Tian Cui. Upon hearing Zhou Mancang’s voice, Shen Yinyin threw off Tian Cui, who fell to the ground with a cry and started wailing, “No justice left! Yangliu team is bullying people! Jinbao, my Jinbao—”

She cried as she crawled toward where Wang Jinbao lay.

Shen Yinyin frowned and looked at her son. “You knocked him down?”

Zhao Zhengyang rolled his eyes. “I just punched him once. Didn’t even try very hard.”

Shen Yinyin: “…”

Zhou Mancang angrily said, “Looks like you all have too much free time because there’s not much work in the fields lately. One by one you’re just causing trouble. You—”

He looked toward the main scene, but suddenly choked up and couldn’t finish his sentence.

Because he suddenly realized, none of those fighting were from their Yangliu team!

He had heard that people from Shashan team came looking for trouble, so he guessed the mother and son on the ground must be them. After all, they were yelling that Yangliu team was bullying people.

But those fighting? Oh, Shen Yinyin used to be part of their team, but she had married out decades ago and was now with the Beishan’ao team. The two young men beside her were obviously not from Yangliu team either, and Zhou Mancang guessed they must be Shen Yinyin’s children, so they definitely belonged to Beishan’ao team.

Since neither “side” fighting was from Yangliu team, what was Zhou Mancang supposed to say as their team leader?

After a long pause, Zhou Mancang finally asked, “So, what exactly happened?”

Shen Yinyin then briefly explained the whole situation.

The people from Yangliu Brigade, upon hearing that this was the nephew whom Tian Fang had arranged for Shen Mo’er’s blind date last time, couldn’t help but take a closer look. After seeing him, they all thought, no wonder Shen Yinyin lost her temper. What kind of ugly, cracked melon was this, yet he wanted to marry the best-looking girl in their Yangliu Brigade?

Yes, the best-looking girl.

Everyone’s eyes weren’t blind. Ever since the family’s life had improved, the once always-downcast Shen Mo’er, who hardly had any presence, had not only become increasingly cheerful but also looked better and better.

Moreover, this guy’s ridiculous words had already been spread around by the village old women. Now, hearing Shen Yinyin repeating Tian Cui’s words, everyone’s fists clenched involuntarily.

Not only was there zero restraint — a toad wanting to eat swan meat — but he also came boldly to cause trouble, trying to ruin Shen Mo’er’s reputation and force her to marry into their family.

Zhou Mancang’s face darkened terribly. This family’s behavior was really shameless. Moreover, bringing people over like this showed they didn’t respect the Yangliu Brigade at all.

But with autumn harvest approaching, Zhou Mancang didn’t want to cause trouble. After thinking for a moment, he said, “You yourselves didn’t handle things properly. You can’t blame the Shen family for fighting back. Since it was a one-on-one fight and both sides hit each other, and no one was seriously injured, I think this matter ends here. Marriage is about mutual consent. Our brigade’s girls don’t fancy your boys, and you can’t resort to such dirty tricks. If it happens again, I will report this to your brigade leader and the commune.”

What he said was actually quite reasonable, but Tian Cui and Wang Jinbao refused to listen.

Seeing the brigade leaders had arrived and no one dared to hit them anymore, Wang Jinbao stopped pretending and directly got up from the ground: “My conditions are so good. I even gave up marrying a worker or a cadre. I promised a bride price! What’s she still unhappy about? She just wants more bride price, right? I can add a few more bucks! And they even dared to hit me! When we get married, my grandma will make sure to put her in her place.”

Tian Cui also got up with a thud: “Pah, bride price my ass. Just because she has such a fierce aunt, she can’t even get a bride price.”

Zhou Mancang: “…”

Others: “…”

You two really deserved to get beaten up!

Honestly, who could listen to this and not want to hit you?

Shen Shaoyuan stood in front of his own courtyard, looking coldly at Tian Cui and her son. He turned his head and quietly said a few words to Zheng Jiamin standing beside him. Zheng Jiamin nodded and quickly ran off.

Tian Cui and her son kept babbling loudly to themselves. The others watched them with complicated expressions, increasingly doubting whether this mother and son had any brains. Even the people from the Shashan Brigade were starting to lose patience and felt somewhat embarrassed.

Not long after, Zheng Jiamin returned with people from the Shen family’s second branch.

Oh, and behind them were people from the third branch, with Cao Mei leading the way, her face full of schadenfreude.

“Second sister-in-law, last time you told me to marry Mo’er off to the Wang family, saying they only have one son. You told us not to ask for a bride price first, and once married, you and Mo’er would work together to trick all their property away. You even said you didn’t want anything else but just wanted me to pay you back for the money used to buy the green brick tiled house. I clearly remember I refused you then. I said I only have this precious daughter. No matter if others offered me mountains of gold and silver, I wouldn’t agree. I also said my daughter is an especially upright person; she only does things honorably and would never resort to crooked means.”

Shen Shaoyuan’s voice was calm yet gentle: “Second sister-in-law, I thought I had explained everything clearly to you. Didn’t you explain it clearly to the Wang family?”

Tian Fang, who had just arrived, looked dumbfounded: “What? When did I ever say that…”

“Damn it, Tian Fang, you two-faced snake! You caused my Jinbao to get beaten, and now you want to trick us out of our property? I’ll fight you—”

Before Tian Fang could figure out what was happening, Tian Cui rushed over, grabbed Tian Fang’s hair, and slapped her three hard slaps.

Shen Yinyin had beaten her like this, and Tian Cui immediately copied the moves and put them into practice on Tian Fang.

Clearly, Tian Fang had come with people looking for trouble, but not only did she fail to assert herself, she even got beaten up. Especially seeing her precious son’s eye socket bruised, Tian Cui, already on the verge of madness, became even more furious upon hearing Shen Shaoyuan’s words. Her anger was now unstoppable, and she exploded.

She didn’t doubt what Shen Shaoyuan said because it was exactly what Tian Fang would say.

When Tian Fang advised her before, she used the same rhetoric. Tian Cui now suspected Tian Fang had been targeting their family all along. After Shen Lao Qi refused, Tian Fang started inciting them to ruin them.

Their sisterly relationship was decent, but everyone was selfish and naturally more loyal to their own family and children.

Tian Cui was just such a person, so she didn’t doubt Tian Fang was like that.

She couldn’t beat Shen Yinyin but beating Tian Fang was easy. Tian Fang always pretended to be weak and nice, not fierce at all, and had no fighting experience. Tian Cui was stronger in this regard and had also “stolen” a few moves from Shen Yinyin just now, so she quickly took the upper hand.

“Second aunt, why are you hitting my mom?”

Shen Lingling also came over. Seeing her mom’s hair all messed up from being beaten by Tian Cui, she rushed over to help.

Wang Jinbao didn’t care about hitting women. Seeing Shen Lingling approaching, he grabbed her hair: “What are you doing? You want to hit my mom?!”

“Ouch, ouch, ouch! Brother, sister-in-law, please help!” Shen Lingling screamed.

Shen Jianye and Shen Jianshe hurried over: “Jinbao, let go of Lingling! We’re all relatives. Let’s talk it out calmly—”

The two sides started pulling and pushing. Suddenly, Shen Lingling screamed sharply and broke free from Wang Jinbao, slapping him hard: “Pervert!”

Tian Cui, who had the upper hand, immediately let go of Tian Fang and rushed over: “You little prostitute! How dare you hit your cousin!”

She grabbed Shen Lingling and slapped her wildly.

“Ahhh! Why are you hitting my daughter? I’ll fight you!”

Tian Fang, seeing her daughter being hit and hearing her call someone a pervert, didn’t care whether she could win or lose and rushed in to join the fight. She also shouted for help: “First big family, second big family, are you all dead?!”

Originally not wanting to get involved, the wives of Jianye and Jianshe had no choice but to join the fight.

“Third Uncle Jinbao, Fourth Aunt Jinbao, are you just going to watch us get bullied?!” Tian Cui screamed, shaking people for help.

A few people who had close ties with the old Wang family and good relations with them reluctantly stepped forward to “break up the fight.”

Previously, it was obvious that Tian Cui and her side were in the wrong. Plus, Chen Zhuangzhuang and the others had blocked them, so subjectively they didn’t want to join the fight, and objectively they really couldn’t.

But this time, hearing that Tian Fang had apparently tricked Tian Cui, and with Tian Fang’s side having more people, if they didn’t help, Tian Cui would really suffer a loss. So they had no choice but to get involved.

The scene immediately became even more chaotic than before.

Zhou Mancang shouted several times for them to stop fighting but found that no one was listening. He could only throw his car keys to Zhou Peijun and tell him to hurry to the commune and call the police.

Luckily, their brigade was indeed not far from the commune. Zhou Peijun sped off like a flash, and soon returned with the police.

When the police arrived, both sides were still grappling, but it was clear the fight was basically winding down. Everyone was exhausted, and their struggling was weak. Both sides had bruised faces, almost looking like pig heads.

The lead police officer’s surname was Chang. Officer Chang looked at the two groups with their swollen, pig-like faces and couldn’t help but say, “Why didn’t your brigade stop this fight earlier?”

Zhou Mancang expressionlessly replied, “They are biological sisters.”

Officer Chang immediately understood. People who are closest often are the hardest to pull apart because if handled improperly, they might just reconcile and unite against outsiders.

“Alright, all of you, come to the commune police station!” Officer Chang sighed, “Our commune is lucky to have a police station; many don’t. If you have fights this big, how are they supposed to handle it?”

Several officers then gathered the fighters to follow them to the commune.

Tian Cui noticed that the police didn’t call for Shen Yinyin and the others and immediately protested, “They also hit people! Why aren’t they going?”

Shen Yinyin let out a cold sneer and said, “Officer, those mother and son didn’t behave themselves. I just pulled some hair and slapped once or twice. That’s not really fighting, right?”

Officer Chang looked at Tian Cui’s pig-like bruised face—this wasn’t something a few slaps could cause. He asked others around to understand the cause of the conflict between Tian Cui and Shen Yinyin. After confirming that Shen Yinyin had only slapped Tian Cui a few times, he said, “Since Brigade Leader Mancang has already handled this, we won’t take you to the station. Consider this a verbal warning—no repeats. Even if the other side is wrong, disputes should be resolved legally.”

He was quite disgusted with Tian Cui and her son’s behavior but said no more and directly took away the fighters.

With a rush, a large group was taken away.

Actually, many people felt the scene was somewhat familiar.

Oh yes, last time the Shen family’s young men stole bricks from their uncle’s place and were also taken by the police like this.

Speaking of which, those caught then still hadn’t come back, and now the second Shen family already had so many people taken to the police station again.

Really…

People whispered among themselves. Zhou Mancang’s face grew even darker.

Embarrassing again—Yangliu Brigade was embarrassed once more!

He could already imagine what the commander of the Songshu Brigade would say at the next meeting.

The onlookers gradually dispersed. Standing at her own gate, Shen Mo’er’s expression was somewhat subtle. She really hadn’t expected that when Shen Yinyin told her not to pull hair, she would actually be given no chance to pull any.

At first, when she heard many people from Shashan Brigade had come, Shen Mo’er thought she might have to reveal her real combat strength today.

Who knew Shen Yinyin’s fighting ability was so strong!

She didn’t give her even the slightest chance to make a move.

Shen Mo’er had actually noticed that her father was so angry he almost wanted to take matters into his own hands, but he really didn’t find many opportunities to do so.

Shen Shaoyuan had calmed down and politely invited Zhou Mancang and the others inside their home to sit.

Zhou Mancang politely declined and pulled Shen Shaoyuan aside. “If the Shashan Brigade comes again, don’t get involved. Let the brigade deal with it. That way it won’t affect your daughter Mo’er’s reputation.”

Shen Shaoyuan thanked him.

Zhou Mancang was silent for a moment, then changed the subject, asking, “I saw you’ve been mostly in the brigade recently. Aren’t you still working at the kiln?”

Shen Shaoyuan raised an eyebrow slightly and said, “I’m mainly responsible for writing slogans and making paintings. Recently, tasks were concentrated, so I worked overtime and finished everything. Now, since my family is building a house, the section chief gave me some time off.”

Zhou Mancang nodded thoughtfully and asked cautiously, “If you’re not going to work, does the factory still pay your salary?”

Shen Shaoyuan said, “I’ve done the work I’m supposed to. Of course, the salary will still be paid. My job is different from others, and whenever there’s work, if they call me, I have to go back immediately.”

Zhou Mancang: “… That’s actually pretty good.”

Seeing him hesitate as if he wanted to say something, Shen Shaoyuan directly asked, “Commander, do you have some thoughts on this?”

Zhou Mancang sighed and said, “I just heard you’re doing well at the kiln. Later I asked around, and people said knowing how to write and paint is very useful. They said the county’s ceramics factory prioritizes hiring people who can paint. I thought, the big boss said the school should be established at the doorstep of poor and lower-middle peasants. This school can teach kids to read and write, but it can also teach them to paint.”

Saying this, he looked at Shen Shaoyuan full of hope: “Old Seven, what do you think?”