After the village had been in an uproar for several days, the victims still went to Ye Yaohong's home every day to curse him, but the spectators had quieted down considerably. After all, they still had preparations to make for the New Year.
Some of the victims were actually relatives. They cursed him, but they really could not bring themselves to do anything too extreme. Besides the villagers, there were also people taking advantage of the chaos among those who came to make trouble at his door, which made things seem all the more disorderly.
But he had already been arrested, and cursing alone did no good. After several days of it, everyone went back to their own business. Ye's eldest cousin's wife, however, did not dare come out even after she could get out of bed, and neither did anyone else in the family.
Apparently, even the children would get beaten by others their age when they went out. Every day they ventured outside, they returned with bruised, swollen faces and mud all over them, as though they had rolled through it.
Ye Yaodong was helping his wife lay out dried sweet potatoes when Ye Chenghai came back and gave a vivid account of how Ye Yaohong's two younger children had been beaten.
Lin Xiuqing paused in slicing the sweet potatoes and shook her head. "The adults did wrong, yet the children have to suffer along with them."
"Why else would people say a son pays his father's debts?"
"I wonder what sentences they'll get. I heard the detention notices have already arrived, and even Second Cousin has been arrested. Eldest Aunt's cried her eyes swollen. Eldest Uncle said he was going to the county to see whether he could visit them. A perfectly good family has been put