Chapter 583
“You marry a wife, and she bears children, manages the household for you. If you feel wronged, then you could have chosen not to marry. But you wanted to marry my mother-in-law because she’s younger by a decade and good-looking, and in the end, you want her to be grateful to you? To put it bluntly, both of you just used each other.” Su Xiaoxiao, noticing Aunt Guo’s pale face and even Jiang Yexun’s discomfort with her words, boldly pushed back.
Her words, though somewhat harsh, had a point. But they couldn’t directly mention the word “divorce” just yet. If they openly talked about it after returning home only a few months ago, with Jiang Guoli’s sharp mind, he’d certainly figure out that something was wrong.
“What do you mean? I helped her, and my two sons grew up without their real mother, and now you’re turning your back on me!” Jiang Guoli glared at Su Xiaoxiao with venom.
“Stop pretending to be so righteous. If you really had a conscience, you wouldn’t have abandoned your wife. When you came to find my mother-in-law, we all know what you wanted. Don’t come now demanding this and that,” Su Xiaoxiao retorted, rolling her eyes.
Now that they had decided to expose the truth, there was no reason to care about the village’s gossip. After all, in these times, no matter who proposed divorce, it would always be the woman’s fault. Since they would be criticized anyway, she decided to ignore it all.
Aunt Guo, realizing Su Xiaoxiao was going all in, gritted her teeth and joined in.
“Of course, it wasn’t just you who wanted to marry me. I could have chosen anyone, but I chose you. Don’t you know why?” Aunt Guo’s words pierced Jiang Guoli, and his expression darkened further.
Back in the day, Guo Hongxiang was well-known for her beauty in this area. If not, why would a military officer want to marry her during the land reforms? But Guo Hongxiang didn’t want to drag anyone down, so she chose someone from a family of three generations of poor farmers. It was only because of Jiang Guoli’s family’s large numbers and subtle threats that he managed to marry her. Without them, he’d never have won her.
The surrounding villagers, noticing Jiang Guoli’s darkening expression, began to stir.
“Yeah, Old Jiang, how did you manage to marry Hongxiang? You should tell us so we can judge for ourselves,” they said, egging him on.
Jiang Guoli’s face turned from blue to purple, then to black in anger.
“Stop talking nonsense! We’re discussing this house now. I’m your father-in-law, so why can’t we come in?” he switched the topic abruptly.
Su Xiaoxiao smirked, “Just because I’m the one who paid for it.”
“This is our Jiang family’s land!”
“This is Jiang Yexun’s land!”
“He’s my son!”
“He’s also an independent person, and the land is allocated to every male villager.”
Su Xiaoxiao shot back, sharp-tongued, with each retort making Jiang Guoli more furious, nearly causing him to faint from rage.
But Su Xiaoxiao wasn’t done; she kept pressing.
“We agreed that if I left the village, the house I built would be returned. If you want to steal from me now, I’ll go straight to the Educated Youth Office and let every woman in the educated youth program know—don’t ever marry into a village like this, or your property will be taken by your father-in-law and his relatives, and everything you have will no longer belong to your little family.”
Hearing this, some of the villagers immediately intervened, trying to pacify her.
“Yexun’s wife, don’t be angry, we never thought like that. It’s just Jiang Guoli and his family, they don’t behave well. We didn’t have any such ideas.”
While the villagers often criticized city-born educated youth for not being good workers, they still hoped their sons could marry someone from a better background. After all, many families had suffered from famine over the past few years, and there were far too many girls starving to death or dying from illness. But they didn’t want to anger the Educated Youth Office, which would prevent the village from getting new resources like tractors and fertilizers.
Seeing that the villagers weren’t supporting them, Jiang Guoli’s family was visibly upset, but he knew he couldn’t anger the masses.
“We just want to sit in the house, is it really necessary to make such a big deal of it?” Jiang Guoli grumbled, trying to backpedal.
“I’m making a big deal out of it. If you don’t like it, you can sue me! Let’s see if not letting you into my house is a crime,” Su Xiaoxiao taunted, clearly enjoying the confrontation.
Jiang Guoli glared at her with venom, but there was nothing he could do. He had no leverage over her.
Jiang Guangzong, seeing he couldn’t win the argument, angrily cursed and charged at Su Xiaoxiao, attempting to slap her. But before he could get close, Jiang Yexun kicked him hard, sending him flying.
Jiang Guangzong screamed, crashing to the ground. His aunt, Aunt Zhou, rushed to him, crying out in alarm.
“Guangzong! What happened to you? Don’t scare me!”
Jiang Yexun’s uncle glared at him, clearly displeased, but before he could speak, Jiang Yexun warned in a low, chilling voice: “You’d better keep your hands to yourselves. If any of you dare lay a finger on my wife or mother, don’t blame me for cutting off your entire family!”
Even those watching from Hong Feng Production Team, who had gathered just to see the spectacle, gulped nervously at his words. No one doubted that Jiang Yexun was serious.
Over the years, he had built a notorious reputation in the village for being a troublemaker. Not only did he have a few brothers skilled in hunting, but even without weapons, he could easily take on seven or eight burly men.
Taking down an entire family without a trace would be a piece of cake for him.
Jiang Guoli, embarrassed in front of everyone, glared at his son but didn’t dare to say anything.
He didn’t dare provoke Su Xiaoxiao either, because every time he clashed with this girl, he ended up with nothing but humiliation.
In the end, he could only glare at Aunt Guo and snarl, “You, woman, just took off without a word and stayed away for months. Why don’t you go back already?”
“Why don’t you speak properly? If you hadn’t messed things up all these months, maybe I would’ve reconsidered. But now, you can continue to reflect on your actions,” Aunt Guo shot back at him, wrapping her arm around Su Xiaoxiao and heading toward the house.
Furious, Jiang Guoli reached out to grab her, but before he could, Jiang Yexun kicked him backward, forcing him to stagger several steps. His eyes widened in disbelief.
“I’m your father, and you dare lay a hand on me?” Jiang Guoli gasped.