At this mont, Li Gang probably truly regrets, just doesn’t know if he will still rember this when he passes by the gaming house again.
Zhao Zhuangshi kicked him hard in the chest, knocking him to the ground.
"Stop kneeling to my mom and crying now, what were you planning earlier?"
Zhao Zhuangshi had wanted to beat Li Gang for a long ti, but everyone told him not to act rashly; and just when he finally showed up, he hadn’t even managed to squeeze in.
Fuming inside, Zhao Zhuangshi’s kick was particularly vicious.
Li Gang was kicked so hard that he almost passed out, gasping for air on the snowy ground for a long ti, unable to get up again.
He looked up at the dark sky and shouted, "Cuixia! Cuixia, co out! I was wrong! I really was!"
"If you dare call little sister again, I’ll pull out all your teeth!"
Zhao Zhuangshi rolled up his sleeves ready to advance.
Widow Zhao pulled him aside, telling him to stay put.
Before, it was okay to fight because everyone thought there was a thief in the village, but now they couldn’t hit him, or it would be intentional assault.
Zhao Zhuangshi, gritting his teeth, stepped aside and pointed at Li Gang cursing, "Shut your mouth, if you wake my niece, I’ll set off firecrackers under your house walls every midnight!"
Li Gang, not beaten up, felt relieved and ignored Zhao Zhuangshi’s threat, continuing to shout.
Inside, Zhao Cuixia watched from the window, frowning deeply, "Sister-in-law, I’ll go out and check."
"Why would you go out? Just stay put. He wouldn’t dare try anything with soone else. What if he accidentally hurts you?" Yu Xiangqin grabbed her, not letting her go out.
"But him making such a fuss..." Zhao Cuixia looked worried, paused for a mont, then muttered softly, "He wasn’t like this before..."
"That’s because he used to pretend!" Yu Xiangqin snorted coldly, pulling Zhao Cuixia back onto the kang bed, "Alright, let’s think of a new na for Baobao."
Baobao’s current na was given by Li Gang. Widow Zhao found it distasteful and said that after the divorce, her surna and na should be changed altogether.
Looking at her daughter’s serene sleeping face, Zhao Cuixia said, "I want Nianhe to choose her na, she’s Baobao’s lifesaver."
Yu Xiangqin looked up, her gaze very complex.
Zhao Cuixia didn’t notice her sister-in-law’s unusual look, still gazing at her daughter. They had stuffed her ears with cotton balls early in the morning, and despite the loud commotion outside, the child slept peacefully.
Yu Xiangqin, unusually thoughtful before speaking, said subtly, "Huahua, listen to my advice... blindly picking a na from a book is better than asking Lin Nianhe!"
Zhao Cuixia was puzzled, unable to find an answer imdiately; anwhile, a decision had been made outside.
This decision was sothing the villagers had agreed on early—Li Xiaoshan drove, and Feng Wei personally took Li Gang to the police station.
It wasn’t about imprisoning him as such actions wouldn’t lead to a sentence, but detaining him served two purposes.
One was to show the Ten Miles Team the determination of the Old Li Family;
The other was for Feng Wei to uncover the location of the gaming house.
Such harmful scourges must be eradicated!
With the issue resolved, the crowd dispersed.
The villagers were all happy, as it was rare to have a chance to stretch their muscles during idle farming periods.
Many took this opportunity to educate their children:
"See? If you dare gamble, I won’t need anyone else to move; I’ll directly chop off your hands, then see what you can gamble with!"
Lin Nianhe happily walked with everyone towards the Educated Youth Corps, catching only Zhao Zhuangshi’s enthusiastic performance.
"It’s not that I’m criticizing you, but you all lack enthusiasm in beating people, there’s a serious problem with your thinking!"
"Right, right, right, you’re the capable one, usually lumbering along, but now you’re quicker than a rabbit."
"Hey, that’s just gathering energy for a burst..."
...
Nine-mile Team, Li family.
Li Gang’s mother’s hair had turned mostly white by now, and she was sitting at the edge of the kang, making head ornants under the dim light of the kerosene lamp.
"Why hasn’t Gang co back yet?" she nudged Mr. Li, "Could sothing have happened?"
"What could happen?" Mr. Li turned over, "It’s actually good he hasn’t co back yet, he’s probably staying at his mother-in-law’s."
Li Gang’s mother thought it over and felt her husband made sense, she sighed with relief and continued her work.
After a while, she yawned and asked, "How much money have we managed to scrape together?"
"Eight hundred and sixty," Mr. Li sighed heavily, sat up, and added tobacco to his pipe, "We’ve borrowed from all the relatives... it’s fortunate we have a factory job this year, people have so surplus money. Otherwise, I’d rather just drop dead."
"Why say such things," Li Gang’s mother whispered, "Let’s not talk about that for now, I think our eldest and the others are hinting at splitting the family, you see..."
"Thud Thud Thud!"
"Old Li!"
He Aimin’s voice ca from outside the courtyard.
Mr. Li quickly responded, clambered out of the quilt, threw on his clothes, and went outside.
"What’s the matter, Captain?"
He Aimin, shivering with cold, directly said upon seeing him co out: "Your son Li Gang was caught by Public Security officers trespassing and stealing from Old Zhao’s Family in the middle of the night, they took him to the police station."
"What?" Mr. Li’s eyes widened in astonishnt, "That, that... that’s his mother-in-law’s house, how can it be called stealing?"
"Heh," He Aimin gave a cold laugh, "Old Zhao Family clearly stated the other day that they want a divorce! Also, what was he doing climbing over the wall in the middle of the night at his mother-in-law’s house?"
Mr. Li beca anxious and made to go outside, "I’ll go talk to Old Zhao Family, how can they bully people like this..."
"Just stop!" He Aimin pushed him back, "If you go there, this will never end! Trust , just stop your family from going to Ten Miles Team. I’ll inquire about it tomorrow."
"That, that..." Mr. Li then rembered the warning from Li Da the other day, and, with furrowed brows, said, "Alright then!"
He Aimin didn’t say anything more and hurried back ho.
Mr. Li turned around, only to see his eldest son and daughter-in-law appearing at the west room door.
Soon after, Laosan and Laoer’s families erged as well.
"What are you all doing?" A foreboding feeling rose in Mr. Li’s heart.
"Dad, the ss Gang has created has disturbed the peace of our entire family. Now even my son has no children to play with in the village, you tell what to do." The eldest son of the Li family spoke up, "He’s not young anymore, it’s not like we can keep bearing the burden of his debts."
"What do you an?"
"Let’s divide the family."
...
Li Gang never anticipated that just after spending one night outside, he would return to find his family already divided.
The Li family now had no money; the only thing left to divide was the house.
With only those few rooms, there really wasn’t much to divide.
His brothers’ stance was very clear—they could forget about the money given out, Li Gang could keep living in his room, but a wall had to be built to separate his portion, to avoid troublemakers trying to collect debts from affecting them.
As for the elderly couple, from now on, each of their three sons would give ten yuan a month for their parents’ allowance. If one day the old couple decided they no longer wanted to cover for Li Gang’s debts, they could choose to live with whichever son they wanted.
Saying it was a family split didn’t capture the whole picture; it was more like kicking Li Gang out of the house.
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