Cheng You smacked her lips and craned her neck, trying to see inside.
Her hand unconsciously rested on Qi Chengyan’s arm, but she couldn't see them fighting.
Other than Old Man Zhou throwing Zhao Yunlin out at the very beginning, no one had been hit since.
This was naturally not what Cheng You wanted to see.
Zhang Yunmei voiced Cheng You’s thoughts precisely: “The people from the Zhou family are too cowardly. Why aren’t they hitting anyone!”
Cheng You nodded in agreement. Why weren’t they hitting anyone?
Soon, she heard Cheng Tao scream.
“It has nothing to do with me. My mother-in-law did it. It has nothing to do with me!”
Immediately after, she was also thrown out.
Old Madam Zhou roared, “Where’s Wang Hongxia? Get out here, you old hag!”
Zhao Yunlin helped Cheng Tao up from the ground. “Auntie, my mother is sick. Because of my elder brother and sister-in-law’s affairs, my parents are so distressed they’ve fallen ill.”
Cheng You frowned, and she and Zhang Yunmei beside her said in unison: “Who believes that.”
After speaking, Cheng You’s eyes widened, and she quickly covered her small mouth.
She had actually said it out loud.
She looked at Qi Chengyan with a guilty conscience, but what she said was the truth.
Old Madam Zhou spat fiercely, “If your parents want to be turtles hiding their heads, fine! Then trouble you to tell your father and mother that from now on, Zhao Jianguo will be our live-in son-in-law. He said the child in the belly will take the Zhou surname, not the Zhao!”
As soon as these words were spoken, Wang Hongxia and Zhao Yongqiang could no longer remain calm.
They scrambled out of the house one after another, flustered.
“Absolutely not!” Wang Hongxia shouted.
No matter how much she favored her other children, Zhao Jianguo was her son, the eldest son of the Zhao family.
If the eldest son were to become a live-in son-in-law, people would laugh.
Old Madam Zhou snorted coldly, her voice harsh, “Not possible? It’s not up to you to say no. We’ve already brought them home! My daughter is pregnant. You made her do all the household chores. The last child was lost because you made her wash clothes in the cold winter. If you haven’t learned your lesson this time, do you want it to happen again!”
Wang Hongxia’s guilt made her voice louder, “Which daughter-in-law hasn’t been through this? When I was pregnant with Jianguo, I still worked in the fields!”
“Bah! Then why doesn’t your second daughter-in-law have to do it? So Cheng Tao is a treasure, but my daughter is just a blade of grass? How many times has my daughter told you she was pregnant, and you didn’t believe her, even said she was lying, and beat her when she went to see a doctor to get medicine! She was black and blue all over and almost miscarried. Wang Hongxia, you’ve gone too far!”
Old Madam Zhou became angrier the more she spoke, feeling that just scolding wasn’t enough, so she started fighting with her.
She wasn’t as big as Wang Hongxia, but she was strong.
Now, as if exploding, she knocked Wang Hongxia down.
Zhao Yongqiang naturally couldn’t just watch her get beaten, but the men of the Zhou family were all burly. He didn’t dare to act.
Not far away, Cheng You was extremely excited, “Hit her! Beat her to death!”
Qi Chengyan sighed helplessly and covered her clenched fist with his large hand.
“Quiet down.”
Cheng You pouted, feeling guilty as if she had been caught.
She whispered in his ear, “I’m not gloating.”
She had a strong sense of justice.
Qi Chengyan replied perfunctorily, “Mm, you’re not gloating.”
Cheng You stopped talking. How could she get distracted during such a tense situation!
Soon, Old Madam Zhou, having had enough of hitting with her hands, grabbed a rolling pin.
“Is this what you used to hit my pregnant daughter? Let me show you what it feels like!”
Facing her furious onslaught, Wang Hongxia had no power to fight back, rolling on the ground, clutching her head.
At first, she begged for mercy, but as she shouted, she realized begging was useless.
“I’m calling the police! I’ll report you to the police station!”
Old Madam Zhou kicked her, her face contorted, “Fine, go to the police station! You beat my daughter so badly she almost miscarried, and I want to see how many years the police station gives you!”
She threw down the rolling pin. “Let’s go to the police station. Anyone who doesn’t dare to go is worse than a pig or a dog!”
Zhao Yongqiang finally panicked.
Even knowing that Zhou Yunru had been beaten to the brink of miscarriage, he hadn’t panicked, thinking at most it would just hurt their reputation.
But he didn’t want Wang Hongxia to go to jail!
“In-laws, please, let’s talk this out. There’s no need to make a scene at the police station!”
Wang Hongxia, however, was defiant, “Let’s go! I don’t believe it, there’s a heaven and earth where a mother-in-law beats her daughter-in-law and has to go to jail!”
She had always focused on mother-in-law conflicts. Would the police arrest her for this?
Old Madam Zhou was truly disgusted by her.
They say a daughter-in-law eventually becomes a mother-in-law. But after being tormented like this, why would you inflict your own pain on others?
In her eyes, such a person was evil, rotten to the core!
“Very well! Then we’ll settle this at the police station. If marriage becomes a shield for crime, I don’t believe anyone in this world would want to get married!”
If Zhou Yunru had no relation to Wang Hongxia, and was beaten to the point of almost miscarrying, would the police ignore it?
Then why should she be easily let off just because she had the title of “mother-in-law”?
“If the commune police station is unreasonable, I’ll go to the county public security bureau. If the county doesn’t rule in my favor, I’ll go to the city! If the city doesn’t work, I’ll go to the capital! I refuse to believe there’s no place in this world where one can get justice.”
Seeing her determination, Wang Hongxia’s confidence deflated like a pricked balloon.
She was just putting on a brave face and didn’t really dare to go to the police station.
Wang Hongxia looked at Zhao Yongqiang, this coward, who wouldn’t say a word for her.
However, Zhao Yunlin ran in. “Auntie, my mother knows she was wrong, she really knows she was wrong! We’re all neighbors, and for so many years we’ve been in-laws. We can talk things out. There’s no need to go to the police station!”
Old Man Zhou sneered, “Talk things out? Fine, let’s talk! Listen carefully, Zhao Jianguo has decided to become a live-in son-in-law. This is his own decision. The children he has in the future will take the Zhou surname, they will be grandchildren of my Zhou family!”
Cheng You secretly giggled, covering her mouth. “This is how it should be! To anger them to death!”
Zhao Yunlin was naturally unwilling. If one person less earned money at home, when would he be able to build a house in the commune?
If he was unwilling, let alone Zhao Yongqiang and Wang Hongxia.
Zhao Jianguo was the main labor force at home; he earned most of the work points.
If he left, the family would lose work points and have two fewer mouths to feed, and the grain ration would be significantly reduced!
But under the current circumstances, did they have any room to back out?
Wang Hongxia stammered, “I disagree. I want to see my eldest son. I want him to tell me himself!”
“Nonsense! Fellow villagers of Wujing Village, you tell me, is this fair? My Zhou family isn’t without sons, we have plenty of sons, and we don’t need someone else’s son to come live with us. We never intended for our daughter to marry a live-in son-in-law from the start! But I like Jianguo. He’s honest, capable, filial to his parents, friendly to his brothers, dotes on his wife. There’s not a single fault to find. Don’t you agree?”