Chapter 50: The Adulterer
Bai Zhi supported her mother toward the front courtyard. Seeing her daughter’s lips pressed tightly together and her grim expression, Zhao Lan knew she was furious. She forced a smile. "Zhi’er, I’m fine. I’m really fine."
Bai Zhi was a doctor. She could tell at a glance whether Zhao Lan was truly hurt. Only someone as resilient as Zhao Lan could have endured it. Any other woman would have fainted from the pain long ago.
Bai Zhi shook her head. "Mom, don’t say anything. I understand."
Zhao Lan nodded and fell silent. The piercing pain in her arm made her break out in a cold sweat, and she had no energy left to speak. She gritted her teeth and bore the pain, not wanting her daughter to worry.
Bai Zhi helped Zhao Lan to the front courtyard and found a chair for her to sit on.
Bai Dazhu was howling in agony nearby. One moment he was threatening to kill Hu Feng, the next he was vowing to report him to the authorities and have him thrown in jail.
The village chief walked up to him, looked him over, and asked, "Dazhu, did Hu Feng do this to your arm?"
Bai Dazhu bellowed, "Who else could it be? Plenty of people here saw it! How can he deny it?"
The village chief glanced at the calm, impassive Hu Feng, then said, "Hu Feng hasn’t tried to deny it. Let me ask you: why did he break your arm?"
"Isn’t it obvious?" Bai Dazhu, naturally, wouldn’t tell the truth. "Hu Changlin and Zhao Lan are an old adulterous pair, and Hu Feng and that damned girl, Bai Zhi, are a young one! He was just stepping in to defend his lover!"
When Zhao Lan heard this, she was so angry she nearly fainted. "You—you’re talking nonsense!" she said, her voice trembling. "Brother Hu and I are innocent! And Zhi’er and Hu Feng don’t have the kind of relationship you’re implying! Stop trying to ruin our reputations!"
"Exactly," the village chief chimed in. "Dazhu, watch your words. You claim they’re an adulterous pair, but do you have any proof? Without proof, you can’t just make baseless accusations. A woman’s reputation is more important than her very life."
Bai Dazhu was wailing in pain, with no strength to say more. But Liu, who stood by her husband, picked up where he left off. "Do we even need proof? It’s as plain as day! Haven’t you seen it, village chief? If there wasn’t something sordid going on between Hu Changlin and Zhao Lan, why would he step in to defend her time and again? It hit me yesterday. Huangtuo Village is huge, with over a hundred households, so how come no one else offered to take Zhao Lan in? Only Hu Changlin. If there’s nothing between them, who would believe it?"
"I would," the village chief said at once. "Who in Huangtuo Village doesn’t know what kind of person Zhao Lan is? If she were the type to sleep around, would she have spent ten years as a widow in your Old Bai Family? For the past decade, she’s slaved away for you like an animal. Her entire day was nothing but work. It’s not as if no one tried to find her a match, but has she ever once shown any interest in finding a man? The entire village has seen this with their own eyes. What, are you all blind?"
"You talk as if you can read her mind," Old Mrs. Bai sneered. "So what, you think you know everything she’s thinking? How would you know if she was secretly fooling around with some other man behind everyone’s backs?"
Bai Zhi was furious. Pointing at Old Mrs. Bai, she yelled, "You old hag! If you spout one more word of nonsense, I’ll rip your mouth off!"
Old Mrs. Bai froze for a moment, then wailed, "Did you hear that? Did you all hear that? She dares to scream at me, an old woman, right in front of you, village chief! If you weren’t here, there’s no telling what she’d do to me!"