The villagers pointed and gestured at the man and woman, who were nearly bursting with shame and anger.
"My heavens, isn't Widow Liu already in her thirties?"
"Almost forty, isn't she? Her son's already twenty, only a year younger than Wang Zhiwen!"
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, even those two could get together?"
"Wang Zhiwen actually got together with Widow Liu, who's old enough to be his mother? My heavens, if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I'd never have believed it."
"Come to think of it, Widow Liu's skin really is quite fair. The sun can't even tan her, and she really doesn't look old. Hahaha..."
"A twenty-year-old young man got together with a widow in her thirties? Good lord, what does he see in her..."
"She's older, experienced, and knows how to take care of a man, of course. I always thought she was no decent woman. She even wears all those bright colors to work, puts on perfume, and keeps her hair so long without cutting it."
"Give me my clothes, quickly. We can talk this out..." Furious, Wang Zhiwen tried to snatch his clothes back but couldn't get them. Bare-chested, he was both frightened and remorseful, his guts green with regret. If only he'd known, he wouldn't have come out tonight.
Widow Liu hid behind him with both arms crossed over her chest, head bowed and body curled in on itself. She no longer dared show her face.
"I'm begging you, let us put our clothes on first. We can talk this out."
A villager shouted, "You dared do it, but you don't dare let people see? Fair enough. Having an affair with an older woman really is something out of the ordinary."
"Wang Zhiwen's so young, but who would've thought his tastes were so heavy? He likes older women..."
When Chen Haichao and the others arrived, this was the scene they found. It looked as though the commotion had been going on for a while.
"Make way, make way. Let us through."
He left Chen Xiaoqi at the back and forced his way in with his parents.
Wang Zhiwen's parents stepped forward before them, and his mother, Zhao Guilan, landed a resounding slap across Widow Liu's face.
"You shameless old widow, how dare you seduce my son? You shameless old loose woman, I'll beat you to death!"
His father kicked Wang Zhiwen, then stepped forward to help snatch the clothes back. "We can talk this out. Let them get dressed first..."
Mother Chen also took advantage of the chaos to shout a few words. "Well, well, you shameless Liu Chunlan! Every day you say the government owes you a chastity arch. Pah! What a joke! If they really gave you one, you'd have to be hauled off and beheaded now!"
"Just a few days ago, someone even introduced Wang Zhiwen to my third daughter. Thank goodness it didn't work out, or she'd have been ruined."
Other women, sharing her indignation, said, "Shameless old slut! No wonder she never remarried. Turns out she found herself a younger man in his prime. A pair of adulterers carrying on an illicit affair, and they aren't afraid their guts will rot away."
"So he likes older women, not young, pretty ones."
Mother Chen made a loud fuss, pinning labels on them. How could something so filthy and foul even think of marrying her daughter?
After tossing out a few curses and distancing her family from them, she settled down to watch the spectacle and listen to the others curse. Her family had nothing to do with them, and her daughter was entirely innocent.
Still, she and her husband had really thought highly of Wang Zhiwen. He had graduated from middle school and was educated, and they had heard he had some connections too. After the new year, he was going to work in a factory in the neighboring town. Just last night, as they lay in bed, the couple had still been very pleased at the prospect of having a factory worker for a son-in-law, discussing how much bride price to ask for and how much of it to send with their third daughter.
If Haichao hadn't told them about this scandal, their third daughter might really have married into a pit of fire.
The thought made Mother Chen angry all over again. She went forward and secretly pinched Zhao Guilan, getting a sly jab in at her for raising her son so badly.
Father Chen also cursed angrily in the crowd. "I must've been blind! Fuck your mother, Wang Zhiwen is really no good. He actually got together with an old widow. It surely didn't start just a day or two ago..."
Chen Pandi's eyes were full of excitement. Heavens, they really had caught them in bed!
A thirty-nine-year-old widow and a twenty-one-year-old young man!
Chen Sidi looked utterly shocked. "Whoa, no wonder you didn't fancy him. He was actually having an illicit affair. A few years ago, he'd have been hauled off to a struggle session."
Someone beside her chimed in, "Isn't that the truth? A few years ago, they'd have been paraded through the streets."
At the mention of a struggle session and a public parade, Wang Zhiwen's legs went weak, and he almost fell to his knees. He hurriedly begged for mercy. "It's a misunderstanding, all a misunderstanding. There's nothing between us..."
Chen Haichao cursed, "Do you think everyone's blind? What kind of misunderstanding would make you two come here, strip naked, and roll around together? You had an illicit affair and still won't admit it."
"No such thing happened. It must be a misunderstanding. Everyone, disperse for now, disperse. We'll handle this ourselves..."
Wang Zhiwen's father looked grim. He stiffly tugged the corners of his mouth up at the crowd, producing an expression uglier than a cry. He wanted to send everyone away first, then settle the matter themselves.
"Don't crowd around here. There's nothing to see. Go home and get some sleep."
No one had seen such a spectacle in ages. The crowd only grew, and nobody was leaving. A whole group held flashlights and kerosene lamps, their light falling on the utterly disheveled pair amid the packed crowd. Their shameful state had nowhere to hide under everyone's eyes.
"Wang Laosan, do you think we're all blind? Your Zhiwen wasn't sleeping in the middle of the night, but hiding at the educated youth station with Widow Liu, both of them naked. You call that a misunderstanding?"
"This is an illicit affair and hooliganism. The eyes of the masses see clearly."
Wang Zhiwen's whole body was rigid, his face white as paper. He clutched the only shorts he had on, his head tucked down and his back hunched.
Liu Chunlan was even more collapsed in on herself. She squatted on the ground, covering her face tightly as she stifled her sobs, her shoulders shaking again and again. She didn't dare lift her head and face anyone.
Wang Laosan's face was livid, veins bulging on his forehead. His scalp tingled as he pleaded, "We're all neighbors here. The children didn't know any better. Please be merciful, don't make this..."
Mother Chen, who never thought a spectacle could be too big, said, "It's glorious to obey the law and shameful to break it. This is a matter of personal conduct. Don't let it drag our whole village's reputation through the mud."
Brigade Captain Wang and Party Secretary Lin arrived belatedly with coats thrown over their shoulders. They squeezed into the crowd, and both their faces turned livid at the sight of the man and woman with their arms and legs exposed.
Party Secretary Lin pointed a finger at them, his hand trembling with rage. "A young man who can't exercise self-discipline, doing nothing but this filthy, despicable business! Every day, the brigade calls for fostering upright conduct, stamping out wicked practices, and obeying the law. You've utterly disgraced our brigade!"
Brigade Captain Wang also said angrily, "If word gets out, how can our brigade show its face?"
"The educated youth station used to be a place where the educated youth studied and bettered themselves, and helped the village with its development. Now you two have gone and soiled it."
The more Party Secretary Lin heard, the angrier he became. "A perfectly good collective space, and you used it for your illicit business. You've corrupted public morals and let down the collective."
Seeing that the two heads of the production brigade had both come to speak, Chen Haichao was extremely pleased. He had done a beautiful job today, exposing it twenty years early, venting his third sister's anger from his previous life, and sparing other girls from being harmed.
He chimed in to back them up, casting the matter in the gravest terms. "Brigade Captain, Party Secretary Lin, we can't just let this go today. Those two have tarnished our collective's image. I'm sure it'll spread through every village for miles around by tomorrow morning. What will other people think of our production team then?"
"Will the young men and women from other production teams still marry people from ours? Once word gets out, everyone in our production team will lose face."
"If you go to a meeting in the county or the town and people ask about it, the disgrace will follow you out there. They'll think everyone in our production team is corrupt and immoral."
The villagers also chimed in. "We can't let those two ruin our village's reputation."
"We've only just solved the problem of getting enough food and clothing, and already their thinking has gone wrong. They have to be punished."
"They should be made to wear placards and be paraded through the streets..."
"A young man of twenty carrying on with a widow-I'm ashamed just to say it..."
The more the two listened, the harder their chests heaved. They glared fiercely at the young man and older woman who had corrupted the village's morals.
Xiaoqiang joined in. "Exactly. This sort of thing has to be punished severely, or others will defy the rules and commit hooliganism too, corrupting our village's simple, honest ways and affecting the villagers' marriage prospects."
Wang Zhiwen's mother, Zhao Lanxiang, dropped to her knees. "You can't parade him through the streets! Zhiwen knows he was wrong. Village secretary, brigade captain, please be merciful and spare him this once. He certainly won't dare do it again. He was tricked by this old woman too."
A woman cursed, "Pah! If he hadn't wanted to, who could've forced him to sleep with her? They even managed to sneak over here together. It surely didn't start just a day or two ago."
"I knew Liu Chunlan couldn't stand being lonely. Turns out she likes finding younger men. She wanted someone young and strong..."
The brigade captain's head ached from their arguing. "What kind of things are you all saying? Stop arguing. Tie those two up first and lock them in the production team office. Let them freeze a little and clear their heads properly. We'll deal with them tomorrow morning. It's late now, so everyone go home and get some rest."
The village secretary said angrily, "We shouldn't have given you time off early. In past years, we worked right up until before New Year's Eve without anything going wrong. This year, the production team met its target early, so we gave you a few days off early, and trouble broke out as soon as the holiday started. We should never have let you have time on your hands."
Chen Haichao soothed him. "Party Secretary Lin, people of bad character can always find a loophole. It certainly wasn't the first time for those two, so it has little to do with our production team getting time off early."
"Otherwise, why is everyone else behaving themselves, while those two alone are committing hooliganism? This is a question of their thinking and moral character."
"It's rare for us to have met our production target early this year. It shows that all of us are hardworking and honest, follow instructions, and obey the law."
"It's just that people eat all kinds of grains, so there are always differences among them. People of bad character damage our collective's image."
The other villagers voiced their agreement one after another.
"That's right. The rest of us are all behaving ourselves, honest and upright. It's those two rat droppings that have spoiled our collective's reputation."
"Don't let this interfere with us competing for honors and excellence next year!"
"Our production team hasn't had a scandal like this in many years. It must be their own problem-they're people of poor character."
"We can't parade them through the streets. If we do, our village's reputation will be ruined along with theirs."
"He was just about to start discussing marriage, and yet he was carrying on with an old widow. Both of them need to be properly punished to set public morals right."
Party Secretary Lin gave the order. "Tie them up and take them to the production team office to be locked up. We'll announce how they'll be dealt with tomorrow morning."