Chapter 54: Chapter 45: Going to Court
A little while later, Mo Shuixia’s grandma and younger siblings returned. Granny Shuixia kept muttering, "What a sin," shaking her head and sighing. Mo Shuixia’s brother, Mo Yuanzhi, and her sisters, Mo Shuiyun and Mo Shuiyue, gathered around the two older girls, chattering away as they reported what happened next at the Mo Family Courtyard—
Urged on by the elders, Mo Guoqiang—his legs weak with fright at the sight of his daughter’s blood-soaked face—quickly hoisted Mo Xiaofeng onto his back. Liu Fengying followed behind, sobbing as she helped support her. The other children, Mo Xiaosu, Mo Xiao Zhi, Mo Xiaoneng, and Mo Xiaohua, all went with them to the brigade clinic. The courtyard was suddenly deserted.
Mo Shuiyun said to Xiao Man, "Sister Xiao Man, none of them are home now. You should hurry and go back. If they come back and see you, they’ll beat you again!"
Mo Shuiyue nodded as well. "That’s right! A moment ago, I saw Mo Xiaoqiang carving a bamboo knife. He said you blinded Xiao Feng and he’s going to kill you for revenge!"
Mo Shuixia and Xiao Man exchanged a glance. Mo Shuixia raised her hand and rapped Mo Shuiyue on the forehead. "Revenge for what? Xiao Feng was hurt by her own mother. If he wants to kill someone, he should go after his mom! What does this have to do with Xiao Man? If Xiao Man hadn’t dodged, she’d be the one who was injured and blinded. Who would she get revenge from then?"
Mo Shuiyue rubbed her forehead where she’d been hit and muttered, "I was just letting you know. It’s not like *I’m* the one who said he wanted revenge."
Mo Yuanzhi ran to the courtyard gate to take a look, then came back. "I noticed that just now, too," he said. "Mo Xiaoqiang didn’t go with everyone to the brigade clinic. He might know Xiao Man is at our house! Xiao Man, you’d better not take the main road, just in case he sees you! You can get through the fence in our back vegetable garden and into Wang Fang’s garden. Once you leave her garden, you’ll be on a different path. You can get home that way. It’s just a bit of a detour!"
Mo Shuixia said, "Right, right, let’s do that! Our back garden fence is made of bamboo, so we can make an opening. I’ll go get the wood chopper and cut a few stalks..."
Mo Yuanzhi quickly interrupted, "No need to cut anything! I-I’ll take you. I know a spot where you can squeeze through!"
Mo Shuixia glared at Mo Yuanzhi, who just chuckled sheepishly. "Well, you know, we have to stay vigilant at all times, right? What if the enemy attacks? If the devils come from the front, we can all retreat through the backyard! We’ve opened up several routes. There’s one to the west that connects to Granny Han’s vegetable garden, and from Wang Fang’s garden you can get to Lin Yuanbo’s place over there, and then to Mo Shengjun’s house... It’s just like tunnel warfare! We can get through anywhere!"
Mo Shuixia continued to glare at Mo Yuanzhi. Seeming to sense what was coming, he raised a hand to his forehead.
The courtyard was quiet except for Granny Shuixia clucking for her chickens. Xiao Man was biting her lip, trying hard not to laugh. Just as Mo Yuanzhi turned to bolt, Mo Shuixia sprang into action. She showed her little brother no courtesy, rapping him repeatedly on the head—THWACK, THWACK—while roaring, "Mo Yuanzhi, can’t you show a little promise? If the devils came, you’re supposed to fight them off, not just think about how to escape! Are you that much of a coward?"
Mo Yuanzhi ducked, covering his head and protesting loudly, "I’m not a coward! I... We don’t have a big army, so how are we supposed to fight? We’ve already surveyed the terrain so we can wage guerrilla warfare... What the hell do you know!"
"What the hell do I know? What do *you* know? If you’re so smart, then stop running! Let’s see what you really know!"
The two siblings, one chasing and one fleeing, ran two full laps around the courtyard, scattering all the chickens Granny Shuixia had just painstakingly gathered. Furious, Granny Shuixia cursed, "You little terrors! Sent here to collect my debts!" She threw down the chopped feed mixed with rice bran, picked up her bamboo chicken-herding pole, and gave each of them a good whack. Then she assigned chores to all the children and shooed them out, forbidding them from idling at home.
Mo Yuanzhi, being the boy, had to go up the mountain to cut firewood. Mo Shuiyun had to gather pig feed, and Mo Shuixia was to take their youngest sister to the river to wash clothes. After finding the textbook and giving it to Xiao Man, the siblings, without telling Granny Shuixia, grabbed their things and ran to the backyard, all scrambling to be the first to test out Mo Yuanzhi’s "retreat route."
The vegetable garden behind Mo Shuixia’s house had once been a large bamboo grove. They had later cut it down and tilled the soil to make the garden, leaving some bamboo to serve as a fence. They would occasionally take a few stalks to weave baskets or for other uses. As Xiao Man passed through their backyard, she took the opportunity to carry off two long bamboo poles, each as thick as her wrist. She planned to set them up in her own courtyard, where they would be very convenient for airing out quilts.
Grandpa could have carried some back from the mountain, of course, but it was a long way. Since Xiao Man could do it herself, she did.
After what had happened, Mo Shuixia didn’t feel comfortable letting Xiao Man walk home alone, so she and her siblings walked with her to the main road. Only then did they part ways to do their chores.
When Xiao Man entered the courtyard, Grandpa was already back, sitting and talking with Grandma under the pear tree. Seeing Xiao Man carrying the bamboo poles, Grandpa hurried over to help her with them. He immediately started looking for a place to prop them up, asking her whose bamboo she’d brought home and whether she had asked the adults for permission.
Xiao Man said the bamboo was from Mo Shuixia’s home. Hearing this, Grandma asked, "What were you doing at Shuixia’s house? You didn’t let Liu Fengying see you, did you?"
"Grandma, you and Grandpa have to hear this. I just went to Shuixia’s house to borrow her textbook, and something happened again!"
With that, Xiao Man pulled Grandpa over to sit beside Grandma and told them everything that had happened that morning at the Mo Family Courtyard from start to finish.
"She hurt her eye? With blood all over her face? That must be serious, then!"
Grandpa was the most shocked by the news. After all, they were all branches of the same family tree. He had raised Mo Guoqiang and his brothers, watched them get married and have children of their own—children who all called him Grandpa. Even though the families had formally split and gone their separate ways, he still wished in his heart for all the Mo descendants to be safe and well.
Grandma reached out to stroke Xiao Man’s thin shoulders. "I told you to stay far away from them," she sighed. "Why are you so disobedient?"
"Grandma, school is starting soon. I wanted to borrow Shuixia’s textbook to review my lessons. Besides," Xiao Man said, her voice full of grievance, "am I supposed to spend the rest of my life hiding from them?"
Xiao Man felt terribly wronged. "I wasn’t trying to start anything, really! Isn’t the production team harvesting rice right now? All the commune members are so busy, how was I supposed to know their family would all be home? Don’t they need to work for their work points? I even ran when I passed by their gate, but of course, Mo Guoqiang had to walk out and see me. He grabbed me viciously and dragged me into the courtyard. Then Mo Xiaosu and Mo Xiaofeng followed us, making sarcastic remarks, and Liu Fengying came running out with a red-hot fire poker and swung it at me... If I hadn’t dodged, it would have been my eye!"
Grandma’s hand tightened on Xiao Man’s shoulder. She pressed her lips together, her face hardening. She turned to Grandpa and said, "Old man, you can’t blame Xiao Man for this! It’s all on Liu Fengying and her venomous heart. She who tries to harm others ends up harming herself! And Guo Qiang—what was he thinking, grabbing our Xiao Man? Huh? She’s just a little girl! What kind of blood feud could they possibly have with her? Back when she was legally their child, no one knew they were abusing her, so no one said anything. But she has nothing to do with them now. She’s not their birth daughter, so why are they still trying to hurt her? Old man, you decide what to do. If they dare come looking for trouble with Xiao Man, I’ll... I’ll take them to court!"
"Alright, alright! I get it. I’m here, aren’t I? I’ll take care of this. I won’t let them hurt Xiao Man!"
"Our Xiao Man is the victim in this whole affair. We’ll wait for the authorities to handle it. You are not to go over there!"
