Chapter 11: Rural Absurd Past Events Chapter 11: Shangou Village 11

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Protagonist:

Li Xiulan

The county town's hospital was filled with the smell of disinfectant.

Li Xiulan carried one child on her back and led another by the hand, walking in with a face full of panic.

This was the first time in her life she had come to such a large hospital; she hadn't even gone to a hospital this good to give birth.

Her worn-out clothes, cloth shoes stained with mud, and those two dusty-gray children made her image somewhat out of place with the people coming and going in the county town's hospital.

Under the arrangement of Town Police Station Chief Guo Fuqiang, Li Xiulan was to come today and discuss a settlement with Yang Dafu.

Because there was no one to look after the two children, Li Xiulan could only bring them along.

"Yang Dafu says he wants to talk with you before he can decide whether or not to issue a letter of understanding for Wang Zhanggen."

Guo Fuqiang had been mediating these past few days; after all, this matter could very well destroy two families, and that was something he, as a police station chief, was very unwilling to see.

Li Xiulan walked into Yang Dafu's ward, only to see Yang Dafu already unrecognizable, especially the stitched wound over ten centimeters long on his face, which was shocking to behold.

"Letting Wang Zhanggen off the hook isn't impossible. I have three conditions: first, you bear full responsibility for my medical expenses; second, you admit it wasn't me raping you, but you seducing me; third, you attend to my daily needs until I'm discharged."

Yang Dafu put forward his demands.

Li Xiulan immediately found it unacceptable, especially the second condition — wasn't that reversing right and wrong?

"Yang Dafu, asking me and my husband to pay medical expenses, I accept that condition, but it was clearly you who raped me, yet you want me to say I seduced you — how can you lie through your teeth?"

Yang Dafu gave a heh-heh laugh:

"So there's nothing to talk about? These are my three conditions; you can't refuse a single one, otherwise we can't talk."

Yang Dafu had his own calculations.

His own losses in this matter weren't small either.

The town side had already decided to remove him from his post as Shangou Village's Women's Federation Director, because whether it was Li Xiulan seducing him or him raping Li Xiulan, the nature was extremely vile and the influence extremely bad, so naturally it was impossible to let him stay in that position.

Additionally, his wife, after learning of this matter, had already planned to divorce him.

This was also the reason why, during this period of hospitalization, he had never seen his wife come to take care of him.

"Yang Dafu, you're being utterly unreasonable!"

Li Xiulan was on the verge of crying from anger.

How could she agree to Yang Dafu's conditions?

If she agreed, she would be labeled promiscuous — how would she face people afterward?

But if she didn't agree, her husband Wang Zhanggen would likely have to go to prison!

"I'm just being unreasonable, what can you do about me?"

Yang Dafu had the look of a dead pig not fearing boiling water; he had already gone all-in with nothing left to lose. He hated Li Xiulan to death in his heart — if it weren't for Li Xiulan being too beautiful, constantly tempting him until he couldn't help but make a move on her, he wouldn't have ended up in this predicament, losing his job, ruining his family, and sustaining a disabled body full of injuries.

"Yang Dafu, don't be too arrogant!"

Even Guo Fuqiang, standing to the side as a mediation witness, couldn't stomach Yang Dafu's shameless face at this point.

"After days of investigation, we police have obtained solid evidence proving you attempted to rape Li Xiulan, yet you still want to reverse black and white?"

The police investigation these past few days had indeed obtained solid evidence.

After days of inner struggle, He Dazhu decided to step forward as a witness to prove Li Xiulan was indeed attemptedly raped by Yang Dafu, because that night He Dazhu happened to be going to Li Xiulan's house to find her, and coincidentally witnessed the whole process.

Additionally, on Li Xiulan's torn clothes, some of Yang Dafu's hair remained, which could also serve as physical evidence of attempted rape.

"Anyway, I'm already a dead fish; not a single one of the three conditions can be missing. If Li Xiulan doesn't admit she seduced me, don't even dream of me issuing a letter of understanding!"

Facing Police Station Chief Guo Fuqiang's questioning, Yang Dafu first froze guiltily, but then immediately put on a shameless, rogue-like face.

This man was extremely cunning; if he was to issue a letter of understanding, he would definitely minimize his losses.

If he issued a letter of understanding for Wang Zhanggen, he'd still have to go to prison for attempted rape — wouldn't that be a losing deal?

A losing business, Yang Dafu would never do.

In the end, this mediation came to nothing.

Neither side could make the other yield.

"If Yang Dafu insists on not yielding, and you and your husband also insist on not yielding, then the final result should be that both Yang Dafu and your husband go to prison."

On the way back, Guo Fuqiang said this one sentence to Li Xiulan.

Li Xiulan's face was full of dejection.

She didn't know how to choose.

She deeply knew how important innocence was to a woman; if she lost this innocence, not only would she be drowned in village gossip, she might even be suspected and despised by her husband Wang Zhanggen.

"Why don't you discuss it with your husband and see what he chooses."

Guo Fuqiang brought Li Xiulan to the town's police station, where she saw her husband whom she hadn't seen in a long time.

In just a few days apart, Wang Zhanggen's face was full of fatigue, his beard unkempt, aged a great deal.

"Wife, when can I get out? I only asked for three days off, and five days have already passed. If I don't go back, the factory will probably fire me."

Wang Zhanggen was still worried about his job.

After all, the whole family's living expenses depended on this one job of his to support them.

"Husband, wait a little longer, wait a few more days and you'll be able to get out."

Li Xiulan's eyes brimmed with tears as she grasped Wang Zhanggen's hands, speaking with deep self-reproach:

"It's all my fault, I'm the one who harmed you."

Wang Zhanggen gave a bitter smile:

"Don't say such things. You're my wife; protecting you is only natural."

Li Xiulan's tears flowed unbidden.

She very much wanted to tell Wang Zhanggen about Yang Dafu's conditions for issuing the letter of understanding, but she hesitated, at a loss for how to begin.

In the end, Guo Fuqiang spoke for her.

"Yang Dafu says that not only must you all pay his medical expenses, but your wife must also admit that she seduced him, and your wife must go to the hospital to take care of his food and daily needs until he is discharged, before he will issue you the letter of understanding. See what you think."

Hearing Guo Fuqiang's words, Wang Zhanggen was immediately furious:

"What? That bastard Yang Dafu—I'll admit to paying the medical expenses, but he almost raped my wife, and now he actually claims it was my wife who seduced him, and even wants my wife to take care of him! How can he be so shameless! I'd rather go to jail than agree to these disgraceful conditions he proposed!"

Wang Zhanggen's attitude was very firm.

Because he knew very well in his heart that once his wife voluntarily admitted that she had seduced Yang Dafu, how much village gossip would follow—enough to drown a person.

He absolutely could not, just because he didn't want to go to jail, let his wife bear such a stigma!

"Wife, you absolutely cannot agree to the demands made by that beast Yang Dafu. I'll go to jail if I must—it's no big deal! Time will pass quickly, and I'll be out soon. Just wait for me outside!"