Chapter 12: Various Rumors in the Village and the Nan Family's Fight

Zhou Nan Shi continued, "Your Shuang Er will be taken care of by my granddaughter, so life won't be too hard. It's also a blessing for your Nan Jinping to meet such a kind-hearted person like my granddaughter, ensuring a peaceful end to her life..."

Miao Shi, usually so gentle, trembled with anger, her lips pale.

Spotting a broom by the wall, Miao Shi grabbed it and swung it at Zhou Nan Shi, shouting, "Get out! Get out of my house and never come back!"

Zhou Nan Shi was hit several times, her face scratched by the broom, and she cried out in pain, "Nan Dalang, Nan Dalang, are you just going to watch your wife hit me? Aren't you afraid I'll report you for being unfilial?"

Nan's father, trembling with anger, retorted, "What kind of elder are you to me? Reporting me for being unfilial? You're giving yourself too much credit! Everyone, hit her!"

The Nan brothers rushed forward, roughly dragging Zhou Nan Shi out of the house, and said rudely, "Don't come to our house anymore; you're not welcome here!"

With a bang, Nan Dalang closed the fence gate.

The commotion at the Nan household had already drawn the villagers out to watch. Seeing Zhou Nan Shi being driven out, their eyes lit up like dogs spotting a bone, and they crowded around to ask questions.

Zhou Nan Shi, not feeling at all in the wrong, still believed she was doing a good deed, and she rattled off the story.

Finally, Zhou Nan Shi said, "Everyone, come and judge for yourselves. Do you think the Nan family knows what's good for them? This is clearly a great opportunity. If it weren't for my family's kindness, seeing their Shuang Er in such a pitiful state, thinking to give their Shuang Er a way out, such a good thing would never come to their lowly Shuang Er."

"I'm putting it out there today, their lowly Shuang Er, if not for my granddaughter's dowry, would never get married in this lifetime!"

"Living a miserable life, growing old with no one to care for them, starving to death without anyone knowing, their body rotting and attracting flies and rats, only then would they be discovered!"

After Zhou Nan Shi's outburst, regardless of the truth or whether the Nan family had agreed to the marriage, Nan Jinping was now associated with being a concubine in everyone's minds.

Now, even some poor old bachelors who couldn't find wives and had some wandering thoughts looked down on Nan Jinping.

Li Shi, with her arms crossed, spoke in a condescending tone, "I was originally thinking of doing a good deed by arranging a marriage for Nan Jia Xiao Geer. There's an old bachelor in my hometown village, fifty years old this year, who recently broke his leg and is now disabled. Living alone is inconvenient, and he wanted someone to take care of him. I thought it would be perfect for Nan Jia Xiao Geer, giving him a good home. But after all this, forget it."

Zhang Li Shi added, "I was also thinking of helping Nan Jia Xiao Geer find a disabled old widower to marry. They were considering it, but after this incident, they immediately refused."

Zhao Wang Shi said, "Given Nan Jia Xiao Geer's gender, it's already hard to marry. Marrying a disabled man would have been a peaceful end. But after this, forget about marrying. He might end up being a nameless concubine."

"What concubine? That's just a polite way of saying prostitute!" Wang Shi sneered, "If Nan Jia Xiao Geer really becomes a prostitute, we must have the village head expel the Nan family from the village. Our Shanghe Village can't have a prostitute. Otherwise, how will our young men and women marry? What respectable family would want to marry into our village? It would bring shame to the whole village!"

Li Shi added, "Besides, those prostitutes are shameless. Having such a person in the village, are you all comfortable? Aren't you afraid he'll seduce your husbands?"

Zhang Li Shi immediately said, "My family isn't afraid. My husband has no money, not a single penny. All the money in the house is in my hands. He can't go even if he wants to."

Li Shi sneered, "You think having no money is safe? I've heard that those people, ridden by thousands, pressed by tens of thousands, are already addicted to that. They can't go a day without a man, and one man isn't enough; they need several. When the addiction hits, they don't even need money."

"Really? What should we do then? Isn't my husband in danger? No, I must keep an eye on my husband and make sure Nan Jinping doesn't see him!" Wang Shi looked terrified. Her husband was over fifty, with few teeth left, and could barely walk without panting, more than ten years older than Nan's father.

The villagers gossiped openly at the village entrance, not hiding their words, and anyone passing by could hear.

Nan Jinping and the Nan family, coming down from the mountain after digging for wild vegetables, overheard everything.

Having grown up hearing such things, Nan Jin Ping had heard even worse when he was seven or eight years old.

Back then, some older boys in the village had made him strip for their amusement.

Nan Jin Ping's heart had long been scarred, now fortified like a steel wall. Though these words hurt, he could face them calmly.

But the Nan family couldn't bear it. Miao Shi charged into the group of women, fearless against five or six, slapping each one.

"I'll kill you gossipy women, always spouting nonsense, I'll rip out your tongues!" Miao Shi fought like a madwoman, her appearance that of a lunatic.

At first, the women were caught off guard and were slapped a few times by Miao Shi before they could react. Being caught gossiping about the main subject in public, although they felt a bit guilty, they wouldn't just stand there and take the beating. Once they recovered, they fought back together.

Though Miao Shi was in a frenzy, driven by a reckless determination to scratch and grab, she managed to leave several women with injuries. However, outnumbered and outmatched, with the women joining forces, Miao Shi quickly found herself at a disadvantage.

Seeing their mother at a disadvantage, Nan Jinping and the Nan brothers rushed forward.

Nan Dalang grabbed Li Shi's hair and pulled her back, dragging her away from Miao Shi, and then slapped her twice across the face.

"I'll teach you not to gossip, not to talk nonsense, and not to hit my mother!"

Nan Dalang, a robust teenager, easily overpowered two or three middle-aged women.

Seeing that the Nan boys seemed genuinely enraged, as if they were about to beat someone to death, the villagers advised Nan's father, "You should stop them, what if they really hurt someone?"

Nan's father had been holding back his anger, but as a man, he couldn't rush in to fight a few middle-aged women, so he paid no heed.

Finally, the villagers couldn't stand it anymore. Some went to call the families of those involved, others went to fetch the village head, and some other villagers stepped forward, eventually separating the parties.

The Nan family fought like mad, and Li Shi and the others didn't fare well. Some had their faces swollen from the slaps, while Li Shi and Wang Shi, who had been the most vicious in their gossip, had several clumps of hair pulled out, leaving bald patches on their scalps, like unsightly patches of alopecia on a wall, looking quite grotesque.