Chapter 30: Chapter 30: The Most Malicious Human Heart Chapter 30: Chapter 30: The Most Malicious Human Heart Yao Cong went to look and indeed there was a baby fist-sized stone.
Chiang Xiao also walked over, squatted down, and pointing at the mark on the ground said, “This is from when I trod on the stone,” she stood up and demonstrated, “At that time, I almost twisted my ankle, and then Ji Desheng caught me. Don’t ask me why he was standing here, he ran over after seeing me, he wanted to tell me it was getting late and I should head home.”
She stepped on the stone, teetered as if she was about to fall backward, and Yao Cong instinctively reached out to grasp her arm.
“Ding Dani, is this not what you saw at that time?” Chiang Xiao didn’t let Yao Cong let go, turning her head to look at Ding Dani.
“You were already grabbing and pulling at each other!” Ding Dani yelled.
Chiang Xiao snorted, “Just say whether it was or wasn’t.”
Ding Dani replied reluctantly, “It was.”
At that, Chiang Xiao hastily shook off Ji Desheng’s hand and then turned and ran towards the creek. “Yong Cong Brother, you don’t have to follow me. At that time, Ji Desheng suddenly heard someone calling him from afar, he looked at me once more, didn’t say another word, and ran in that direction. Ding Dani, isn’t that so?”
Ding Dani felt these were all trivial matters, there was no need for lies, she was focused on what happened afterward, so she didn’t hesitate and just affirmed whatever Chiang Xiao said.
Chiang Xiao glanced at Guiying.
No one knew why she had to prove all these details again, only she knew, these details were more important than the incident where she was later pushed into the water.
In her past life, she hadn’t paid attention to these details and timings; therefore, when the rumors engulfed her, she had no witness and was utterly incapable of rebuttal.
Later, the owner of the sweet potato field found out that someone was performing shameful acts there, ruining half a row of sweet potatoes, and furiously searched the entire village for the shameless pair. That despicable woman Guiying immediately pushed her forward, also claiming that the man rolling around with her in the sweet potato field was Ji Desheng.
Back then, Ding Dani actually wanted to defend Ji Desheng. She didn’t know what Guiying said to her, but she immediately changed her story, claiming she saw Chiang Xiao and Ji Desheng coming to the creek to wash their hands and faces after engaging in indecent acts in the sweet potato field and was going to accidentally fall in when she rescued them.
In the 80s, issues of propriety between men and women were taken very seriously, especially when they were all so young?
The thirteen-year-old Chiang Xiao and her grandparents were almost drowned in malicious verbal abuse, powerless to defend themselves.
Within a few days, Ji Desheng’s mother Widow Liu came with ten eggs to ask for a marriage, saying her house was small, and after their families were connected through marriage, she would move in with the Chiang family along with her son.
At that time, Ho Laidi could be heard shouting over the wall, implying in her loud tirade that Widow Liu was too desperate for a man after being untouched for so long, and she was setting her sights on the Chiang men.
In just two days, rumors in the village became more unbearable, alleging that Widow Liu had taken a liking to Chiang Songhai and wanted to become sisters with Ge Liutao, living under the same roof, and serve as Chiang Xiao’s Second Grandmother.
The gossipy women and lazy men in the village would, upon seeing Chiang Xiao, ask her sleazily if she was going to call Widow Liu grandmother or Second Grandmother.
Ge Liutao nearly went insane from the rumors.
This was the darkest period Chiang Xiao had ever endured and the most venomous, ugly side of human nature she had witnessed. From then on, she had been afraid of rumors.
It was because of this that in her past life she was desperate to leave Siyang Village and those terrifying people. When Deng Qingjiang offered to send her to the city for education, she agreed without a second thought.
This life, she was going to twist everything back into place, step by step.