Chapter 47: The System Sees Educated Youth Qiu, Who Wants to Have Pups for the Old Jiang Family

Liu Jinhua’s mouth twitched again. She had a lingering feeling that this little head would end up carried on a pole atop her courtyard wall in the near future.

The little girl had barely finished speaking when a pair of hands grabbed her small arms and lifted her down from the stack of firewood.

Jiang Xiazha turned her head and saw her eldest brother, second brother, and little sister all being led back by her second aunt. Her grandfather had gone out with his hands clasped behind his back, leaving only her uncle and second uncle.

"Second one, go inside and help your wife!"

Seeing Jiang Cheng gazing fixedly at his daughter-in-law as if glued to her, Jiang Hua found the sight utterly unbearable.

After dispatching her second son, Jiang Hua turned a disapproving gaze toward her third son, who was still lingering at home. Before she could even open her mouth, Jiang Jing immediately started defending himself, "Mom, I'm wounded! A wounded man!"

As he spoke, Jiang Jing pointed to his head, "If I don't stay home and run around outside instead, people are definitely going to notice!"

"You're always full of excuses!" Jiang Hua withdrew her scathing look, shifted her gaze, and landed it on Jiang Xiazha, who was looking up at her with big, pleading eyes. "I can let you come along, but no hitting people at will!"

Jiang Xiazha obediently grabbed her hand. "I'll listen to Grandma!"

While the old woman and the little one were talking, Liu Jinhua had already regrouped, marching aggressively and purposefully toward the educated youths' compound.

Her pace was so fierce and fiery that the wind she whipped up felt like it could slap someone across the face.

Jiang Dalin, who was out for a stroll, felt his heart skip a beat and muttered a secret bad word when he saw this formation.

The farm work in the fields had just ended; shouldn't everyone be exhausted to the point of collapse, unwilling to even step out their doors? How was it that these village matrons had more energy than the men?

He had barely managed to placate Han Dahua yesterday; he desperately hoped nothing else would blow up today.

Especially since he had just spotted Auntie Hua taking the little girl Jiang Xiazha along with her. He prayed they wouldn't pull another stunt like walking around carrying a severed head—his nerves simply couldn't take such torture.

Jiang Dalin quickened his pace, not forgetting to turn around and instruct the son trailing behind him, "Go quickly and call Grandpa Zhuguo over here!"

If a real fight broke out, having Uncle Zhuguo around would at least keep the situation under control.

By the time Jiang Hua and Jiang Xiazha reached the educated youths' compound, Liu Jinhua had already raised her voice and started cursing at the top of her lungs.

"Where did this little cheapskate crawl out from? If you want to teach children, go give birth to your own! Why are you grabbing other people's kids and teaching them nonsense?"

"Calling yourself an educated youth, thinking you're all high and mighty just because you read books in the big city! What kind of filth are you stuffing into these little kids' heads? Teaching them to curse soldiers into dying, teaching children to despise their own families for being poor, and even teaching them to send the old granny at home to get shot by a firing squad! Is this what city-educated youths learn?"

"You heaven-forsaken wretch—you—"

Before Liu Jinhua could even spit out the mouthful of saliva she had gathered, Jiang Dalin strode up from behind with a dark expression. He stepped ahead of her and said, "Auntie Jinhua, what are you making a fuss about here? You can't go around spouting these feudal superstitious remarks nowadays!"

Liu Jinhua suddenly realized her previous words hadn't been entirely appropriate. Just as she opened her mouth to explain, the educated youths inside the compound saw Jiang Dalin arrive and instantly rushed out in a swarm.

One of the young men, named Li Zhaosheng, wore an expression of righteous indignation and shouted loudly, "Team Leader, ignorant people like Liu Jinhua who still harbor feudal thinking should be tied up by the production brigade and sent to the Education Committee! It's high time she receives some proper re-education!"

He even began to rally the others, "Comrades, let's charge together! We must thoroughly root out anyone in our ranks who still clings to the dregs of backward ideology!"

Seeing this, Jiang Dalin's expression turned intensely ugly.

Earlier, when he scolded Liu Jinhua, he had mostly just been putting on a show, but now he was genuinely furious.

He knew very well that the Education Committee was no place for humans; normal people who went in usually peeled a layer of skin off by the time they came out, and quite a few ended up mentally unstable. Liu Jinhua was an elderly woman—if she were really dragged in there, how was that any different from taking her life?

Jiang Dalin had always thought the educated youths assigned to their Xiangyang Production Brigade were law-abiding, but it now appeared they were no different from the trouble-making youths in other villages.

With that thought, Jiang Dalin stepped forward, glared coldly at Li Zhaosheng, and demanded, "Li Zhaosheng, since when is it your turn to issue commands in our Xiangyang Production Brigade? Would you like me to hand over my position as Team Leader for you to sit in?"

"Team Leader, you're playing favorites! You're shielding the guilty! We're going to report you to the commune!"

Looking at the stern-faced Team Leader, Li Zhaosheng showed not a shred of fear. He puffed out his chest, putting on the posture of someone fighting evil forces to the bitter end.

"Before you report anyone, can you first let Educated Youth Chou come out? I have words for her!"

Jiang Hua took Jiang Xiazha forward, yanked Jiang Dalin behind her, and glared coldly at Li Zhaosheng.

"Granny Jiang, are you going to shield them too? As a military dependent, siding with them to cover for one another—such bureaucratic behavior is something I will resolutely fight to the end! I—"

Before Li Zhaosheng could finish his sentence, Liu Jinhua slapped him hard across the face. "You plague-bringer, are you deaf to human speech?"

"You—you dare hit me?"

Li Zhaosheng's eyes turned bloodshot as he glared furiously at Liu Jinhua. "Fine, very well! So this is the simple-minded hospitality of Xiangyang Brigade! Resorting to violence and hitting people, and even—"

Jiang Xiazha stood quietly beside her grandmother. Ever since her grandma had asked her question earlier, this man named Li Zhaosheng had completely ignored her grandma, running his mouth incessantly without anyone knowing what babble he was spewing.

If Granny Jinhua hadn't slapped him, the System wouldn't have been able to control its itchy little feet from wanting to kick him.

"Forget it, let's just go inside!"

Without sparing Li Zhaosheng another glance, Jiang Hua looked at Liu Jinhua and said, "This man's brain is broken; there's no reasoning with him."

With that, she took Xiazha's hand and walked right in.

Behind them, Jiang Dalin immediately pinned down Li Zhaosheng, who was still trying to yell.

Liu Jinhua followed behind Jiang Hua, cast a hesitant glance at her, and asked in a low voice, "Should we still send this little girl back? Once we go inside—"

With a little girl standing nearby, she would have to carefully weigh whether her curses contained anything unsuitable for children's ears before she opened her mouth.

Jiang Xiazha clutched her grandmother's hand tightly, casting a guarded look at Liu Jinhua.

Just as Jiang Hua was about to say something, the door to the female educated youths' room swung open.

A thin, gaunt woman stood in the doorway, staring at them with heavy, sunken eyes.

When Jiang Xiazha noticed the woman's gaze land upon her, the gloomy yet suspicious look in those eyes made her take an involuntary half-step back in discomfort.

Jiang Hua's expression darkened. She scooped Jiang Xiazha up into her arms and locked her eyes on the woman standing before them. "Educated Youth Chou?"

"Auntie Hua!"

Chou Youyou's raspy, hoarse voice was even deeper and rougher than that of women who had raised children of their own, sounding gratingly unpleasant to the ear.

"Educated Youth Chou, there's something I'd like to ask you!" Jiang Hua stared at Chou Youyou. Though she was only a girl of eighteen or nineteen, her eyes held the profound exhaustion and weariness of a middle-aged matron. "Does Educated Youth Chou have someone serving in the military? Or do you have connections inside the Education Committee? What makes you so certain that my youngest son is going to sacrifice his life?"