Lin Xiaoyu relaxed at once when she saw that her mother hadn’t misunderstood, wasn’t angry, and was even holding her arm as they walked home together.

After they had walked a while, Li Shuping finally spoke:
“Xiaoyu, you’re still a student right now. Your main task is to study — you know that, right?”

“Mom, I know,” Lin Xiaoyu quickly explained again. “There’s really nothing between me and Zhang Tiejun — we’re just ordinary classmates.”

Li Shuping nodded. “Mom knows. I’m sure you just treat him like a regular classmate. But tell me honestly — is he the one who likes you and is chasing after you?”

Lin Xiaoyu nodded slightly. “But I really don’t have any feelings for him. I don’t like him at all. Right now, I just want to study hard, get into university, find a good job, and let you live a good life, Mom.”

Zhang Tiejun was one of the underachievers in their class, always hanging out with a few other boys who didn’t study, playing tricks on the girls.

Lin Xiaoyu was often one of his targets.

She found him really annoying.

But once, during PE class, it was especially hot, and she was incredibly thirsty.

Many classmates had bought popsicles, but she didn’t have any money and could only watch them and swallow her saliva.

Zhang Tiejun had bought a popsicle and offered it to her.

She wanted to refuse at first, but she was just too hot, too thirsty, and wanted that popsicle so badly — so she accepted it.

The classmates saw and immediately started teasing, saying Zhang Tiejun liked her.

After that, Zhang Tiejun began to hover around her often, and every time the classmates saw, they would start teasing again.

Although she didn’t like Zhang Tiejun, whenever the classmates teased her about him, she would blush shyly, feeling both embarrassed and oddly flustered — a feeling she couldn’t explain.

Gradually, even though she clearly found Zhang Tiejun annoying, she began to feel he wasn’t so unbearable after all, and even started to notice him more.

But ever since she made up her mind to focus fully on her studies, get into university, and give her mother a good life, those feelings completely disappeared.

Now, facing Zhang Tiejun’s pestering, she only felt annoyed.

“Mom believes you.” Li Shuping patted Xiaoyu’s hand. “But if Zhang Tiejun keeps pestering you and does anything out of line, you must tell Mom and your teachers. I don’t want you to be hurt in any way.”

Lin Xiaoyu nodded firmly, then affectionately leaned her head on her mother’s shoulder and said sweetly,
“Mom, you’re the best.”

She decided she would find a chance to tell Zhang Tiejun clearly: stop bothering her, because she would never like him.

——

After sending off Zhang Kexin’s family, Gu Zhenyuan was about to head back when he saw Xiao Liu getting a basket out of the police car.

It was filled with vegetables.

“Where did that come from?” he asked.

Xiao Liu said, “This belongs to Comrade Li Shuping. She left it in the police car.”

“Li Shuping…” Gu Zhenyuan recalled — she had mentioned going to the river to pick wild vegetables, planning to make dumplings with shepherd’s purse and egg filling.

“Did you leave her address?”

Xiao Liu nodded,
“Yes, I did. I think it’s No. 23, Lihua Lane.”

They had just asked earlier, so Xiao Liu still remembered.

“Give it to me,” Gu Zhenyuan said, holding out his hand.
“My home is not far from Lihua Lane — I can drop it off for her on the way home.”

Xiao Liu handed over the basket.

——

Li Shuping, holding her daughter’s arm, walked into the courtyard of No. 23.

“Tonight, Mom will make sweet and sour pork for you,” she said with a smile.

Meanwhile, Liu Mingxiang and several women from the courtyard were gathered together gossiping. When they saw Li Shuping and her daughter return, one of them signaled with her eyes.

There was no doubt — they had been gossiping about Li Shuping.

Liu Mingxiang, who had found out why Li Shuping had moved from the steel factory’s family compound to their courtyard, had gathered the local gossips together to talk.

Seeing Li Shuping, Liu Mingxiang raised her voice, her tone dripping with sarcasm:
“What kind of proper, decent woman gets divorced? Living in the same courtyard as a woman who divorced and abandoned her husband and kids — I feel embarrassed! She’s probably going to ruin the good atmosphere of our No. 23 courtyard.”

Hearing someone talk about her mother like this, Lin Xiaoyu frowned and was about to step forward to argue.

But Li Shuping stopped her, shaking her head slightly to signal, Let me handle this.

“Oh? You feel embarrassed living in the same courtyard as a divorced woman like me? Then why don’t you move out yourself? And you’re talking about me ruining the courtyard’s atmosphere — was there ever a ‘good atmosphere’ here at No. 23?”

The crowd fell silent — honestly, they had never really had a “good atmosphere” in this courtyard.

In fact, No. 23 was practically the tumor of Lihua Lane.

Liu Mingxiang choked for a moment, then sneered,
“Why should I be the one to move out? If anyone should move, it’s you.”

Li Shuping just spread her hands and smiled. “I’m not embarrassed to live with you, so why should I move?”

Liu Mingxiang snorted,
“I’ve never caused a scene at my son’s wedding. I’ve never been beaten by my husband at my son’s wedding. And I’ve certainly never abandoned my husband and children in divorce. I’m not as shameful as you — so how can you dislike me?”

Li Shuping wasn’t angry at all.

She straightened up and said proudly, “Yes, I caused a scene at my son’s wedding. And why? Because the bride’s little brother deliberately embarrassed me, the groom’s mother. I felt humiliated, so I stood up for myself and smacked that little brat. How is that shameful? What’s really shameful is when someone is humiliated but doesn’t dare stand up for themselves and still has to smile and bow to the other side.”

At that moment, Gu Zhenyuan had parked the police car at the entrance of the lane and, carrying the basket, walked through the gate of No. 23 courtyard.

Hearing Li Shuping’s voice, he unconsciously slowed his steps.

The courtyard gossips: …That actually kind of makes sense.

Li Shuping continued, “Yes, I was beaten by my husband at my son’s wedding — but not because I was wrong. That old man couldn’t tell right from wrong. And by the way, I hit him back — I didn’t let him get the upper hand!”

Old Lady Yuan, who had been sitting nearby stitching shoes, couldn’t help but sneer,
“Shuping, you think it’s something to be proud of, hitting your own husband? In the old days, a woman like you would’ve been kicked out by her in-laws.”

“That’s why I’m grateful for the new society and the new China,” Li Shuping declared passionately.
“It’s thanks to them that we women can stand up for ourselves — that I was able to leave behind a man who didn’t know right from wrong, who only knew how to bully and hit his wife.”

Old Lady Yuan’s face twitched furiously — was she seriously calling both beating up her husband and getting divorced something to be proud of?

Liu Mingxiang looked at Li Shuping as if she were crazy, “Ha! So you think getting divorced is something to be proud of?”

“Of course I’m proud,” Li Shuping said firmly. “Why does the state allow people to get divorced? Why, when a couple can’t agree to divorce, does the law let one side sue the other in court?

Because it’s telling us — if you’re unhappy in your marriage, if you’re treated unfairly, if you’re betrayed, if you’re subjected to violence or oppression, then you can leave and start a new life.

I was unhappy in my marriage, I was mistreated, I wasn’t respected, and I didn’t want to keep being his unpaid housemaid — so I chose to divorce.

The state’s laws and regulations support me. I dared to resist. I dared to walk away from an unhappy marriage. Of course I’m proud.”

Li Shuping looked around at them and said, “You all say divorce is shameful? But when a woman is treated like she’s less than human by her own husband, beaten and scolded all the time, yet still swallows her pride and serves him — isn’t that even more shameful?”

Of course it was.

Otherwise, why did so many women, when they were beaten, shut the doors and windows tightly, terrified of anyone hearing or seeing?

Why, when they were hit, did they cover their faces to avoid visible bruises, afraid others would discover they were being abused?