The Educated Youth 03

But Wei Xiangyang went too far, even bringing Zhang Qingqing home to live. Wei's parents didn't say anything about it; instead, they showed great care for Zhang Qingqing. Whenever this happened, Fang Xiaoxia would lower her head, her heart full of grievance, looking at Zhang Qingqing with eyes full of hatred.

Her stubbornness also provoked Wei Xiangyang's dissatisfaction. Because Fang Xiaoxia stubbornly stayed at the Wei house, Wei Xiangyang couldn't marry Zhang Qingqing. Thus, a drunk Wei Xiangyang laid hands on her for the first time. She stubbornly didn't make a sound; in the countryside, husbands beating their wives was a common occurrence.

"Do you think I want to bring you along? If I hadn't said I was bringing you, would your father have let me go? Pah! Look at your rustic appearance! Do you even deserve to be compared to Qingqing?"

After that day, whenever Wei Xiangyang encountered anything unpleasant, he would punch and kick her. It wasn't that she hadn't thought about telling her father, but what good would that do? She endured everything herself. Anyway, her attitude was firm: as long as she was still here, Zhang Qingqing could not enter this door!

Precisely because of this, Wei Xiangyang's abuse became more severe each time, until he accidentally beat Fang Xiaoxia to death.

To cover up the crime, Wei's parents helped Wei Xiangyang throw her body into the river, publicly claiming that she had been pestering Wei Xiangyang and then, unable to think things through, jumped into the river.

Then came the hasty cremation.

During this period, to prevent Fang Zhiyi from causing trouble, Wei Xiangyang continued to pretend to be a good son-in-law, successfully deceiving Fang Zhiyi, the fool who thought his daughter was living well and wholeheartedly defended his son-in-law.

"Hiss..." Fang Zhiyi drew in a sharp breath of cold air.

"Quite stubborn. She could have just left," Little Hei muttered.

"You don't understand. For women of this era, they follow the rooster if they marry a rooster, and follow the dog if they marry a dog. This deep-seated obsession cannot be erased; even in the future, people will still have such thoughts."

"I don't understand it."

"Of course you don't understand." Fang Zhiyi stood up and went out the door. "I can understand him wanting to return to the city, and I can even understand him abandoning his wife to return to the city, but he did something that was basically asking for death."

Little Hei gloated a bit, "Too late, someone's going to have to bear the pent-up frustrations from the last world."

At this moment in the fields, Wei Xiangyang was slowly hoeing the ground. In front of him, Fang Xiaoxia was working hard swinging her hoe, occasionally stopping to look back at him.

"Your grip on the hoe is wrong, you need to hold it further back," Fang Xiaoxia said.

Wei Xiangyang smiled, "I'm really just not used to this kind of work."

Looking at Wei Xiangyang's smile, Fang Xiaoxia was momentarily captivated. How could this male educated youth be so handsome? Losing her focus for a second, she happened to trip over the hoe Wei Xiangyang had resting on the ground and fell straight toward him. Wei Xiangyang reached out to catch her. In the original plot, it was exactly this intimate gesture that made Fang Xiaoxia fall for him.

But just as Wei Xiangyang was about to catch Fang Xiaoxia, a figure approached rapidly, and then Wei Xiangyang felt a heavy blow, sending his entire body flying through the air.

After kicking him, Fang Zhiyi even freed a hand to pull his daughter back. After steadying herself, Fang Xiaoxia looked in confusion at the kicked-away Wei Xiangyang, then turned to look at Fang Zhiyi.

"Dad, you..."

Fang Zhiyi took a deep breath.

"You were brought here to do manual labor, yet you actually dare to act like a hooligan!"

Wei Xiangyang grimaced in pain, his face full of anger. Before he could lash out, he heard these words and immediately looked at Fang Zhiyi in bewilderment.

Fang Zhiyi's voice was not quiet, and the nearby villagers gathered around upon hearing the commotion.

"Dad, what are you saying?" Fang Xiaoxia lowered her voice. She was naturally a bit shy, and suddenly hearing Fang Zhiyi say such an out-of-the-blue remark made her blush. Wei Xiangyang wasn't acting like a hooligan, was he?

"Stay out of this," Fang Zhiyi said, then righteously pointed at Wei Xiangyang, who was still sitting on the ground. "Good thing I saw it! Otherwise, who knows what else you would have tried to do!"

"Acting like a hooligan?" a villager asked in confusion, then glanced at the panicked Wei Xiangyang.

"I saw it with my own eyes!" Fang Zhiyi began to gesture wildly. "Just now, Xiaoxia was standing here, and this kid kept glancing at her with bad intentions in his eyes! He was just about to grab and hug her!"

"You, you're talking nonsense! It was clearly her who accidentally tripped! I was just..."

"I'm talking nonsense?" Fang Zhiyi directly cut him off. "Xiaoxia! Tell them why you fell!"

"Ah? I, I..."

"Xiaoxia, speak boldly. We're all here. I refuse to believe that our Xiashan Village can't handle a hooligan!" A villager glared at Wei Xiangyang. People were always like this; in any situation, they would first side with their own people rather than reason.

"I, I just saw him working so slowly and wanted to help him a bit, but the hoe in his hand swept against my foot, and that's why I..."

Fang Zhiyi waved his hand. "Hear that? You're quite scheming, aren't you? You deliberately tripped my daughter?"

This claim was honestly a bit of a stretch.

However, the onlookers, consisting of villagers and other educated youths, made Wei Xiangyang's face flush red. The pride of a worker's son was also provoked. "Nonsense! It was an accident!"

"How can you prove it was an accident?" Fang Zhiyi asked.

"I, I, I just didn't mean it!"

Looking at him, Fang Zhiyi sneered. "You hooligan, you've got a lot of tricks up your sleeve. I think there's something wrong with your mindset! You're just coveting my daughter's beauty!"

Fang Xiaoxia's face turned bright red. Her father's words were somewhat shameless; she still had some self-awareness.

The people around began to whisper among themselves. Some felt that Fang Zhiyi was being a bit too extreme, but clearly, more people were just there to watch the drama unfold. After all, there weren't many forms of entertainment in this era.

Wei Xiangyang suddenly jumped up as if he had been poked in a sore spot. "Nonsense! Her? Me, taking advantage of her? This dark-skinned country girl? She's dark and ugly! Even if I were a bachelor for the rest of my life, I wouldn't look twice at her!"

Little Hei clapped its hands. What a brilliant move!

Sure enough, as soon as these words came out, the scene quieted down. Fang Xiaoxia's already dark face darkened even more, tears welling up in her eyes. "You stinking hooligan! You're insulting me!" She turned around and ran away. At this moment, her heart was full of resentment toward Wei Xiangyang. What girl would be willing to be called ugly in public?

Fang Zhiyi watched his daughter run away, knowing that the trap had been successfully sprung, but he had no intention of letting Wei Xiangyang off the hook.

"Country girl? Are you looking down on us country folks?"

With a single sentence, Fang Zhiyi changed the nature of this conflict born from a misunderstanding, even dragging the other villagers directly into his own camp.

"Hey, this little brat, you think coming from the city makes you so great, huh?"

"Apologize! What gives you the right to insult people like that?"

"You're pale, so what if you're pale? I think your heart is completely black!"

Fang Zhiyi knew exactly how to mobilize the crowd's emotions. Sure enough, almost all the villagers present began to verbally attack Wei Xiangyang. Even more combative aunties opened their mouths to spew vulgarities, scolding Wei Xiangyang so harshly that he couldn't even open his mouth to explain.