Chapter 26: Chapter 26 Robbery Chapter 26: Chapter 26 Robbery Zhao Xiaomei said with some displeasure, “Luo Qiao, don’t forget that in this village, only our Zhao Family has some ties with you. What’s wrong with borrowing a few things from you?”
Having said that, she hugged the items and headed out. The Zhao Family Sisters just wanted to hurry and take the items back home, and they didn’t even notice several villagers coming down the slope.
They thought that as long as the items were in their house, they could just deny everything. What could Luo Qiao, an orphan girl, possibly do to the Zhao Family?
But they were wrong. Luo Qiao wasn’t about to let them get away with this behavior. When they had run out of the gate and walked two or three meters further, Luo Qiao raised her voice and shouted, “Robbery, they’re stealing!
The Zhao Family won’t let people live, everyone come and see, the Zhao Family Sisters are stealing things, they won’t even leave an orphan girl alone!”
Luo Qiao had previously found a small piece of green onion in her space, squeezed out the juice in her hand, closed her eyes, and smeared it on. The tears came streaming down.
At this moment, the brigade leader was sending off a cadre who had come down to the village for official business. They both stopped in their tracks when they heard the shouting.
Luo Qiao’s voice was high-pitched enough to sing soprano. With her shouting, the villagers working on their private plots all gathered around to watch the commotion,
Now the Zhao Family Sisters were in a quandary, neither advancing nor retreating, and faced the gathering crowd with a feeling of utter shame.
Among those coming down from the mountain was big-mouth Li Xiulan. Li Xiulan was the sort who couldn’t stand to see others doing well. Just the other day, the Zhao Family’s son had been taken away, but they had also received two hundred yuan, which left her feeling indignant.
So she blurted out, “The Zhao Family’s daughters are really something. Luo Qiao already said she wouldn’t lend them anything, and they were about to run off with her things while insisting that in this village, only their Zhao Family has some sort of relationship with Luo Qiao. ‘What’s wrong with borrowing a few things?’ you said?
You really have some nerve, bullying an orphan girl like that.”
All Luo Qiao had to do was keep pretending to cry. With that pungent scent on her hands, the tears just kept coming more and more – she was really committed.
The brigade leader and the commune cadre came over as well, and Gao Jiefang asked, “What exactly happened here?”
Li Xiulan didn’t hesitate to speak up: “The Zhao Family’s daughters went over to Luo Qiao’s place and took a liking to her newly bought enamel basin and Jiefang shoes. They asked to borrow them outright, but Luo Qiao told them that she had bought them precisely because she had nothing, so she couldn’t lend them.
But the Zhao Family’s daughters said she was being stingy and mentioned their family’s supposed relationship with her, then just ran off with her things. Wouldn’t that make anybody anxious?”
Angered, Zhao Xiaomei retorted, “Auntie Xiulan, you stick your nose into everything. It was Luo Qiao who lent them to us.”
No pushover, Li Xiulan snapped back, “You pull off such a shameful act, and you still won’t let others stand up for what’s fair? It wasn’t just me who heard it; a whole group of five or six of us heard her refuse to lend to you.”
An auntie standing next to Li Xiulan also chimed in, “If she didn’t want to lend, you sisters shouldn’t have just snatched them and run. Isn’t that outright bullying?”
The brigade leader approached Luo Qiao, who was crying uncontrollably, and said, “Luo Qiao, stop crying for now. Tell us what really happened?”
Luo Qiao wiped her face with her sleeve and, holding back tears, explained, “I had just come back from the commune not long ago when Zhao Family Second Sister showed up. She asked if I needed any help tidying up my private plot, which is in view from my house. I really didn’t understand Zhao Second Sister’s intentions.
So I just told her the truth that I had already taken care of it. Then Zhao Second Sister asked if I had been to the commune, and without waiting for my consent, she went into my house. As soon as she entered, she saw the Jiefang shoes on the kang bed and said she wanted to borrow them.”