The moment the door closed, Zhao Guilan dropped to the ground and burst into loud sobs.
"No! My son's a fine young man. How can he marry that old widow? That bitch Liu Chunlan is old enough to be his mother..."
Chen Haichao drove the knife in deeper. "It's fine. From now on, Liu Chunlan can call you Mom too."
Zhao Guilan's wailing stopped dead. Her mouth fell open, and she looked ready to faint.
Li Zhengjun gloated. "You'll soon have an experienced new daughter-in-law to help you with the work. You can sit back and enjoy yourself from now on."
Someone else chimed in, "You might even get a buy-one-get-one deal and have a grandson to hold before you know it."
Wang Laosan glared at the speakers, his expression dark.
"What are you glaring at? We haven't even asked you for compensation yet. You nearly gave us styes!"
"The wicked accuse others first..."
"Who are you calling wicked? A whole bunch of us pushed the door open together and caught them in the act. Who are you calling wicked?"
The people who had first pushed their way in to catch the lovers all stepped forward too. The scene descended into chaos at once, with a great crowd shoving one another and hurling curses.
Just as they were about to come to blows, the office doors opened again.
Brigade Captain Wang and Party Secretary Lin came out together and shouted for them to stop.
"What are you doing? Why are you making such a racket in the middle of the night? Do you all want to be locked up and have your work points deducted too?"
"Wang Laosan, your family has corrupted the village's morals. Instead of tucking your tails between your legs, you dare cause trouble? Do you want your whole family punished and the offense put on record?"
"No, no, I'm not causing trouble. These people went too far with what they said."
"Too far? Everyone was just congratulating your family on the coming happy occasion. You'll have a new daughter-in-law through your door soon."
Li Zhengjun shot Wang Laosan a sidelong glance, snorted, and rubbed his nose with his index finger.
The crowd immediately chimed in. "That's right!"
Party Secretary Lin raised a hand to quiet the crowd. "Everyone, please settle down. Since you're all so eager to know the decision tonight, there's no need to wait until tomorrow morning."
"We discussed it and decided that dirty laundry shouldn't be aired in public. We can't let the other production teams laugh at us, so we'll handle it within the village."
"Given that the two people having the affair were both willing, and to salvage their reputations, if they marry tomorrow, we'll simply classify them as husband and wife and deduct some work points as punishment."
"If they refuse, refuse to take responsibility, refuse to become a proper couple and refuse to clean up this scandal, that shows they have a rotten mindset..."
The village party secretary's voice dropped, and his tone grew sterner. "They'll be dealt with severely for corrupting the village's morals and engaging in decadent behavior."
"First, we'll hold a village-wide criticism meeting. Both of them must write a self-criticism and submit to criticism and education."
"Second, Wang Zhiwen and Liu Chunlan will have all their labor work points for the year deducted, and they'll be disqualified from all awards for exemplary performance. This stain will also be entered in their records. From now on, both families will be disqualified whenever the village recruits workers or fills vacancies, and they'll all fail political background checks for further education or military service."
Those words were as good as cutting off both families' prospects. Whose children didn't go to school? Who didn't hope to be recruited for a job in the city, become a worker and eat rationed grain, instead of toiling with their faces to the yellow earth and their backs to the sky?
"Third, the entire matter will be recorded in the brigade's accounts and submitted to the commune for the record."
Brigade Captain Wang added, "The village was supposed to be up for selection as a model civilized production team this year. Now there's no chance of that."
"Brigade Captain, I agree to my mom marrying Wang Zhiwen... Our family has no objections..."
Someone in the crowd laughed, and then everyone burst out laughing.
Party Secretary Lin looked at the grim-faced Wang Laosan and Zhao Guilan. "Liu Chunlan's family is willing to marry her off. Is your family willing to take her as a bride?"
Their faces turned ashen, and their eldest daughter-in-law answered for them.
"Our family agrees..."
Zhao Guilan slapped her. "Since when is it your place to make decisions for this family?"
"Wang Zhiwen did something this shameful, so do we have to suffer for him? I want to split the household. Otherwise, we might as well stop living like this and get divorced, so my children won't be dragged down by him too."
"What are you arguing about? If you don't agree, they'll be punished with a major demerit, lose a full year's work points, and have the stain kept in their records."
The Wang family argued among themselves some more. In the end, the two sons decided for their parents that Wang Zhiwen would marry Liu Chunlan.
Wang Laosan and Zhao Guilan looked so miserable they couldn't speak.
Seeing that they had decided, Party Secretary Lin brought the hammer down. "Once you've agreed, there's no going back. The brigade will issue the necessary papers first thing tomorrow, and I'll take the two of them to get their marriage certificate. As for whether you hold a wedding banquet, that's up to you."
"Can you let my son come home now, then?"
"No. They committed a scandalous act and corrupted public morals, so they must be punished too. They'll be locked up for the night. Tomorrow morning, after a public notice of criticism, they can go home once they've gotten their certificate."
Zhao Guilan collapsed to the ground.
"All right, the matter's settled. Everyone go home and get some rest."
Now that they had an answer, everyone was satisfied and would be able to sleep that night.
As they dispersed in twos and threes, their spirits were still high. They excitedly described what they had seen to the people beside them, shaking their heads and making a few comments along the way.
Li Zhengjun and Xiaoqiang came over to say goodbye to him too.
"It's late. We're going home to sleep."
Xiaoqiang leaned over and whispered in Chen Haichao's ear, "Satisfied? Remember our cigarettes."
"No problem." Chen Haichao gave them a thumbs-up. "Killing with a borrowed knife. Impressive."
"Of course. We couldn't go charging out like idiots to catch them in the act and draw their hatred. They'd obviously hold a grudge against us. Once the villagers arrived, we rushed in with the crowd, and then it had nothing to do with us."
"Brilliant! Absolutely brilliant!"
"We're off."
As Chen Haichao's family walked together, they too voiced their disgust and cursed the pair.
Even Father Chen couldn't help exclaiming over it again and again. "I never thought Wang Zhiwen, who looks so refined and proper, would get involved with someone that much older. If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I really wouldn't have believed it."
"There's plenty more you wouldn't believe. And to think we thought that young man was decent back then. We must have been blind. Good thing I turned the matchmaker down when she came this afternoon. Otherwise, everyone would have had something to gossip about with Third Daughter too." Now that Mother Chen had seen the spectacle, all she felt was relief.
The fire of gossip still burned in Chen Sidi's eyes, and she clicked her tongue. "You can know a person's face but not their heart. No wonder he didn't mind that my sister was two years older. He even likes someone eighteen years older, so what's a mere two years?"
Since the fire hadn't burned their own family, everyone had watched the spectacle with particular enthusiasm and didn't mind that it had cut into their shrimp-catching time.
Chen Haichao was thinking about the three sacks of shrimp by the sea. "Let's hurry to the shore. We should still be able to catch a few more. Once the tide's all the way out, we'll have to go home and sleep."
Chen Sidi suddenly noticed Chen Xiaoqi following beside them. "Whoa, what are you doing here? Wait, you came to the shore to call us earlier. How did you know to come get us there?"
Chen Xiaoqi looked innocently at the several pairs of eyes on him. "Big Brother told me to."
"You had something to do with it?" Chen Sidi asked him curiously.
"I heard it from a friend too. He said Wang Zhiwen and Widow Liu seemed to have something going on, so while the production team had the day off, they went to stake out his place tonight and see what happened. I wanted to go too, but I was thinking of helping the family catch more shrimp, wasn't I? So I sent Xiao Qi to keep watch, and if anything happened, he could come call me over to watch the show."
Mother Chen patted Xiao Qi on the head and praised him. "Good thing you came running to tell us. Otherwise, with something this big happening in the village, it would've been a shame to miss such a good show."
"Hehe, Big Brother, give me my reward!"
Chen Haichao kept his promise and handed him a mao. "Don't let Xiao Liu know."
Chen Xiaoqi hopped with joy. He had earned money!
"Should we take Xiao Qi back? We should have let him go home with Eldest Uncle and Auntie just now. The wind's strong by the sea, and it's almost New Year. We don't want him catching a cold."
He thought it was unsafe to go to the shore in the dark, and cold too. If they took him back, he could keep Xiao Liu company, and they could sleep with Grandma that night.
"No, I'm not cold! I want to go with you. I'll listen, I'll be good, and I won't go near the water. I'll wait for you on the shore, and I can hold the flashlight for you too."
Chen Xiaoqi clutched his hand tightly, forcing himself not to sniffle for fear of being sent back. Going with Big Brother was so much fun!
Mother Chen said, "Then let him come. Taking him back now would hold us up too much. Keep him farther from the water and have him sit and hold the flashlight for us. As long as he stays away from the water, he should be fine."
"All right, then. Let's hurry." Chen Haichao picked him up.
P.S. A recommendation for Mizhi Ji's new book, "Are You Also My Future Girlfriend?" Blurb: everyday campus romance with three female leads-"Future Diary" + "hearing each other's thoughts" + "soul swapping."