Chapter 63 - All of them were enraged: Who did that?! (2)
Huang Xianglan had taken time off from the government-operated restaurant and went over to visit her cousin in the city.
Tears rolled down her cheeks when she saw her cousin. “Your husband….. is an animal!”
Su Xiuying was beaten again after she had returned from the hospital. Her entire face was swelled up.
Huang Xianglan checked and make sure there none of the He’s were around when she said to her cousin in a low voice, “Cousin, Comrade Tong say she can help you. She asked me to deliver a message to you.”
She repeated what Tong Xuelu had said to Su Xiuying.
Su Xiuying’s eyes beamed after she listened to Huang Xianglan but was quickly troubled again.
“Cousin, I think Tong Xuelu’s method will work. What are you struggling about? Do you really still think that your husband might change?”
Looking at her cousin, even someone as weak as Huang Xianglan felt that Su Xiuying needed to help herself.
She had looked forward to getting married in the past but, seeing how her cousin was now, she starting finding marriage intimidating.
Su Xiuying shook her head lightly. “No, I don’t think that anymore. I don’t even know why I still can’t make up my mind.”
Her life was a mess. She only worried that she would be in a worse situation if she left.
Huang Xianglan wanted to say some more but she heard footsteps from the outside and stopped herself.
He Baogen came from the outside and shouted at her, “How much longer are you going to stay in bed, hmm? How many days have you worked this month? How much do you think you will make this month at this rate?”
He only noticed Huang Xianglan after he had finished shouting. Regardless, that did not make him feel embarrassed at all.
Hearing his shouting, Su Xiuying’s whole body started shaking uncontrollably. “I, I’ll go in this afternoon.”
It wasn’t that she didn’t want to go but that her back was injured from being kicked and it was so painful that she’d break into cold sweat every time she tried to stand up.
Besides, she didn’t want all the bruises on her face to bee seen by others.
He Baogen sneered and said, “Stop with the acting already. Get up and make dinne!”
Having said that, he didn’t even greet Huang Xianglan before he turned and left.
Huang Xianglan was so angry that she was shaking. “That, that was outrageous!”
Tears rolled down Su Xiuying’s cheeks.
He would at least hold back a little in the past. But when he saw that her family never stood up for her, the beatings had been getting worse.
There was silence in the house and even Huang Xianglan didn’t know what else to say.
Su Xiuying worried that He Baogen would yell at Huang Xianglan too so she quickly said to her, “You be on your way now. I will give it some thought!”
Huang Xianglan sighed and left.
Su Xiuying watched her cousin took off and her hands, resting on both sides of her, started clenching into fists.
***
Over the next few days, the members of the Tong family from the old village could not have been happier.
They had fish and meats every day and would head over to the government-operated restaurant from time to time. They made all the other people in the compound jealous.
They had talked about taking over the two positions at the factories immediately at the beginning but Tong Xuelu told them that they should take a break first. They would not be able to take time off once they started working.
Sun Guilan figured that make sense. The positions, after all, belonged to their family and nobody could take that away from them anyway.
They had lived such a rough life in the village. It was only right for them to enjoy themselves a little now.
What still baffled them was why did the others in the compound didn’t like hanging around with them.
The women and children, in particular, would turn and run away when they saw them.
Those from the home town enjoyed a few happy days.
Tong Xuelu’s plan was to wait for a couple more days before she acted but she saw Tong Xuelu with Tong Mianmian in his arms as he stroked her on her face when she returned from the factory.
Her face dropped immediately.