Chapter 14: Guiding Public Opinion

Zeng Yanne was shaken awake by Wang Chunhong. She was a little slow to react, rubbed her head, and slowly sat up.

“You child, what are you doing lying here instead of going home to sleep? The wind by the sea is strong, and it’s easy to catch a chill sleeping outside. Your head wound hasn’t healed; you’ll only make it worse and end up with a chronic illness that’ll plague you later on,” Wang Chunhong said, her words coming out like a machine gun. Her tone was scolding, but her intent was full of concern.

Zeng Yanne opened her mouth to explain. “They took my house key away, and I can’t get in. My head feels weird, so I just wanted to lie down for a bit.”

“After the meeting at the village office yesterday, the village leader specifically told me to inform your parents that he was picking you up from the hospital today. Do they have pig brains? How could they forget in just one night?” Liu Xiuhong, the women’s leader of the first team, was furious.

Someone scoffed. “The family was fined because of Yanne. It’s not that they forgot; they must be deliberately making things difficult for the child.”

“They deserve to be fined. Hu Sifeng is the kind of person who’d skin a dead person alive. She wanted to eat for free at the gold mine, not afraid of breaking her teeth.”

The Zeng family had recently become a public enemy, all because of the steel-hulled boat. The steel-hulled boat was not only the village leader’s concern but also something everyone in the village yearned for. Life was not easy for the coastal production team. The fishing quotas were heavy, and the waves were rough during autumn and winter. It wasn’t unheard of for people to never return from a fishing trip. Everyone was tired of living in fear; a good boat would at least provide a little more security.

This year’s evaluation was the most crucial. Was there any production team with over a thousand people that had people more unruly than the Zengs? Yes, there were. But even scoundrels like Wang Sanlaizi and Zhao Guangtou had been on their best behavior, keeping a low profile. Yet, this family, not knowing any better, dared to provoke the gold mine. That was a provincial-level unit; even the county couldn’t do anything about it. It was a blessing that this incident wasn’t reported to the commune.

They had been fined, yet the Zengs hadn’t changed their ways. What, did they want to kill this child?

Half the people went home to cook, but a lot of others, fueled by curiosity, stayed behind, waiting for the Zeng family to come down the mountain to ask them directly if they wanted to continue the meeting.

Zeng Yanne spoke softly. “My room isn’t fit for living. It’s so comfortable sleeping here. I don’t even want to go home tonight.”

“They didn’t even leave her a key; how would they think to open a window for ventilation? Yanne’s room must be so damp that mushrooms are growing in it,” an old woman with bound feet shook her head.

“My room doesn’t have a window, and it smells bad,” Zeng Yanne said, her words trailing off as if she was hesitant to continue.

“No window? And it smells bad? Where exactly do you sleep, child?” Liu Xiuhong was shocked.

Although she was the women’s leader for the team, she didn’t like to gossip and didn’t visit other people’s homes. They usually just chatted on the road whenever they met. She rarely got involved in other people’s family matters unless it got out of hand, so she genuinely didn’t know about Zeng Yanne’s living conditions.

“The lean-to next to our chicken coop… that’s where I sleep. I’ve been sleeping there since I was a child.”

The crowd went silent for a moment before exploding. “A lean-to? Is that a place for a person to live? The Zeng family isn’t without a house! They have so many rooms. Why can’t they find a place for their daughter to sleep?”

Even the Zeng family’s immediate neighbors didn’t know that Zeng Fugui made his daughter live in a lean-to. The matter was kept well-hidden for two reasons. The original host was like a turtle, enduring everything without ever speaking up. She only ever spoke highly of Sun Jiazhi. It’s tough for outsiders to notice this kind of hidden abuse when the victim intentionally keeps it secret.

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The other reason was that Sun Jiazhi was often checked out of reality and was completely out of place in village life. She didn’t interact with others, and very few people ever came to their home. If no one visited, no one would see.

Everyone was shocked, and their eyes filled with pity. They hadn’t noticed before, but now that they were looking closely, they saw that the little girl had a big head on a thin, scrawny neck. Her small face was pale, completely drained of color. She didn’t look like a teenager; her complexion was worse than an eighty-year-old’s. This child had been abused right under their noses for so long.

Someone raised a question. “I won’t even mention Zeng Fugui, but Sun Jiazhi doesn’t seem like such a cruel person, does she?”

“That Sun Jiazhi’s heart is full of holes. She’s a master at sweet-talking people; Zeng Fugui is proof of that. To make a dress for herself instead of her daughter, while making her daughter live in a shack and work herself to the bone for her—yeah, that sounds exactly like something she would do,” a sharp-tongued aunt whom Zeng Yanne didn’t know well asserted.

Many women in the team had long been fed up with Sun Jiazhi. She didn’t work in the fields, just sat at home looking proper, and her husband still treated her like a precious jewel. How did she get so lucky?

Seeing that the mood was just right, Zeng Yanne looked anxious and voiced her suspicions in front of everyone. “Aunties and Uncles, Grandpas and Grandmas, I never understood it before. I just kept all the hurt and the suffering bottled up inside. To be honest, even foundlings live better than me. Can you help me figure something out? Am I really a child of the Zeng family? Or am I the child of their enemy?”

“What?” Everyone was stunned by her question.

“Maybe you were their enemy in a past life,” someone who liked to joke around quipped, earning them a glare from the others.

No one could give her an answer, but the more they thought about it, the more they felt it was possible. How could a fifteen-year-old girl who could earn full work points be treated like this? To put it bluntly, the animals in the team worked hard, but they were treated a hundred times better than this Yanne girl.

They wanted the horse to run, but they wouldn’t feed it. What if it was their own horse?

Zeng Yanne didn’t need an answer. She only wanted to plant a seed of doubt in their minds. Public opinion was a matter of seizing the moment; a person with integrity would be supported by many, while a person without it would find few allies.

“What are you all doing here instead of going home to eat?” The village leader came stomping down the mountain path, his face full of fury, followed by the bruised and battered Zeng family.

Everyone saw them and was amused. Zeng Laonian only had two sons, and each one of them had their own agenda. That was probably why they had separated their households so early. It seemed they hadn’t been pushed hard enough before, but just a few days of clearing land had made them so exhausted that they started fighting.

Hu Sifeng, Zeng Fuzhen, and Sun Jiazhi were also injured. Wu Jingui couldn’t beat her brother-in-law, so she turned on the three women. Her strength was too much for them; their hair was pulled, and their faces were scratched raw.

The family continued to fight until Zeng Laonian couldn’t stand it anymore and called for them to stop. They were so busy fighting that they had neglected their work. When the village leader got off work, he led people to Mao’er Mountain for an inspection. Seeing that less than half of the day’s land clearing had been done, he was livid.

He had only intended to give them a slap on the wrist, but they were forcing him to make the punishment a reality. Their willingness to fight meant they weren’t tired yet, and there were several other mountains that needed to be cleared.

Without Zeng Yanne having to say a word, Liu Xiuhong stepped forward and explained the situation to the village leader. Zeng Fumao’s anger grew. He raised his hand and gestured to everyone, “Everyone, come with me to the Zeng family’s house!”