Chapter 3: Save My Mother
The village chief glared coldly at Old Mrs. Bai and Liu.
The pair realized Bai Zhi hadn’t come back from the dead—she had never died in the first place. No longer afraid, they both scrambled up from the ground.
Old Mrs. Bai said to the village chief, "This is a private matter for the Bai Family. It’s nothing serious, so there’s no need to trouble you."
The village chief roared, "You call this nothing serious? Someone was nearly killed! Do you have any idea that murder is a crime punishable by death? It’s lucky that Bai Zhi, that girl, didn’t die today. If anything had actually happened to her, the two of you would be rotting in jail!"
A wave of fear washed over Old Mrs. Bai. She quickly forced a smile and said, "You must be joking, Village Chief. Doesn’t every child get sick or have a few scrapes now and then? Are you saying every family who’s lost a child has to go to jail?"
Standing up, Bai Zhi said coolly, "That’s only because no one files a report, so the officials don’t get involved. If I had died and my mother went to the county government office to report you, do you really think you could have escaped?"
The village chief raised an eyebrow as he glanced at Bai Zhi. ’This girl is sharp,’ he thought. ’She knows quite a bit.’
"Bai Zhi is right. That’s exactly how it works," the village chief said with a nod.
Old Mrs. Bai and Liu exchanged a look, their eyes filled with fear. ’Thank goodness that wretched girl pulled through,’ they both thought. ’Otherwise, we would have been in serious trouble.’
Bai Zhi saw Mrs. Zhao stir slightly on the ground, but she didn’t wake up.
Her eyes darted back and forth as an idea took shape. She quickly looked up at Old Mrs. Bai with a pitiful expression. "Grandma, my mother is badly injured. I’m begging you, please get a doctor for her."
Old Mrs. Bai’s brow furrowed, her face turning cold. "Get a doctor? If the Bai Family had that kind of money to spare, how would your father have died? You wretched girl, you sure have some nerve. She’s a worthless wretch who took a few blows from a stick, and now you want to spend money on a doctor? In your dreams!"
Her answer surprised no one. When Bai Laosan had been injured in a fall, Old Mrs. Bai had been too stingy to hire a doctor. She’d allowed a minor wound to fester into a major one until, in the end, it cost him his life.
If she could be so heartless toward her own son, how could she possibly show any kindness to a daughter-in-law from another family and a granddaughter she had merely picked up? One could only imagine what kind of life the mother and daughter led in that house.
Bai Zhi turned to the village chief and pleaded, "Village Chief, my mother is dying! Please, save my mother."
The village chief had a real soft spot for Zhi. He had personally seen Bai Laosan carry her back from the mountains as a child. Old Mrs. Bai had been against the adoption back then, and it was he who had single-handedly mediated, putting in a great deal of effort and persuasion to finally allow Bai Laosan and his wife to have their wish.
’But that old hag has gotten more and more outrageous,’ he thought. ’If I don’t use this opportunity to teach her a good lesson, there’s no telling what kind of trouble she’ll cause next.’
His mind made up, the village chief turned to Old Mrs. Bai and said, "Get a doctor for this mother and daughter, now! If anything happens to them, the blame will fall squarely on you and your daughter-in-law!"
Old Mrs. Bai stubbornly jutted out her chin and didn’t move. The village chief’s face darkened. "Everyone here saw you beat that woman half to death with their own eyes. If either of them fails to pull through, you won’t be able to escape responsibility. When the government office comes to make arrests, all of us will be witnesses."
Old Mrs. Bai was filled with rage and resentment. She was furious with the village chief for being such a busybody and hated that the mother-daughter pair were so fragile. She hadn’t intended to beat anyone to death. After all, one was already twelve and would soon fetch a good price. The other was in her prime, an excellent worker both inside the house and out. Losing this pair would do her no good at all.