Fake Divorce Turns into Murder Case (2)

Chapter 54

Tong Jin and Tang Chao felt that this was the most relaxing period of their careers so far. It felt a bit unethical to say so, but their ease stemmed from the fact that the suffering was currently being borne by their colleagues in the Court and the Procuratorate.

As police officers, their role at this time was to maintain order.

Maintaining order meant not allowing the defendant to kneel before the presiding judge, not allowing the plaintiff to kneel before the presiding judge, and controlling the scene when someone shouted, “Your Honor, this humble citizen has been wronged!” to ensure they did not lunge toward the judge’s bench.

Finally, it meant not allowing the defendant to hit the presiding judge if they lost the case, not allowing the plaintiff to hit the presiding judge, and not allowing the defendant to hit the public prosecutor.

Many things were common sense to city residents, but to the people in these remote areas, such procedures were unheard of. They could only rely on what they had learned from theatrical stories and various hearsay to fill the gaps in their knowledge.

In the past, most stories in Tonglin Town were about ancient judicial cases. People could only use the outdated knowledge learned from ancient plays to deal with modern situations, which naturally led to many absurd occurrences.

This Mobile Court session broke through those limitations. Given the level of gossip in Tonglin Town, people would likely be talking about these cases every day for a while. As they gossiped, bits of legal knowledge would find their way into everyone’s lives.

Overall, this legal awareness campaign was very effective. They could have promoted the law a hundred times in the villages and on the streets, and it wouldn’t have compared to these few days of the Mobile Court.

The Mobile Court was scheduled for a total of four days. The first day was held on the playground of Tonglin Town Middle School, and from the second day onward, it moved into the villages.

The first stop in the countryside was Group Four of Sanli Village. The temporary court was set up under a large banyan tree at the village entrance.

The people of Sanli Village hadn’t expected the Mobile Court to actually come into the mountains. Villagers who originally couldn’t go to town because of household chores or farm work were now being accommodated.

Sanli Village wasn’t far from the Great Reservoir. The Old Lady who guarded the reservoir got up early in the morning, and while she was patrolling the reservoir, her goddaughter arrived.

“Mom, the court has arrived at Sanli Village. Do you want to go down and take a look?”

Yesterday was when the old woman had wanted to go most. Once that moment passed, her enthusiasm had waned. Today, she didn’t feel quite as motivated.

“You go ahead. I’ll stay here and keep watching the reservoir.” The old woman had a nightmare last night. She dreamed that one of the two men who came yesterday had died, falling right into the reservoir. The water was completely filled with blood…

“I can watch it for you. I happen to have nothing to do today.” The goddaughter wasn’t just saying it; she had brought a back-basket, planning to patrol the reservoir while picking up pinecones along the road.

“Just go. It’s rare for them to be in Sanli Village, and it’s so close. There will definitely be more cases later. Weren’t you particularly curious when you heard me talking about it yesterday?”

The Old Lady was tempted. More importantly, she actually wanted to see who those two men from yesterday were.

They hadn’t gone to the town to see the Mobile Court yesterday. Today, the court was in the village. If they… if they were still alive, they would surely go to watch, wouldn’t they?

“Then I’ll go. I should be back in a little while. If you’re hungry, go inside the house and find something to eat. You have the key.”

“Go on, go on.” Seeing her godmother agree, the young woman was very happy.

The old woman changed into some cleaner clothes and walked down toward Sanli Village.

She encountered people all along the way: men carrying hoes, older children carrying infants on their backs—everyone was going to watch the spectacle.

Those who had already gone to watch yesterday told the people behind them to be quiet once they arrived and not to make a loud racket, or else the judge would get angry.

The old woman nodded along, recalling everything her daughter had said yesterday. She even thought to herself that if someone tried to hit the judge this time, she would have to help pull them away.

By the time she arrived, the area was already surrounded by layers of people. A few ten-year-old boys even took advantage of a lapse in attention to zip up the large banyan tree in the back.

Two police officers quickly plucked the children down, and then another officer was stationed to guard the tree.

There were too many people. The old woman was at the back of the crowd, and since she was short, she couldn’t see the front at all. She could only catch vague snatches of sound.

The old woman pricked up her ears to listen for a while, but the voices were like loaches, always slipping past her ears. Every time she tried to catch a word, she couldn’t hold onto it.

After listening for ten minutes, it was all like this.

She didn’t have that much patience, so she stopped listening. She began to search among the people on the outskirts for the two men she had encountered yesterday.

She recognized most of the older people, but she hardly knew any of the younger ones.

“Old Lady Yuan, you came down to watch the excitement today?”

She didn’t recognize many people, but quite a few recognized her.

She had rarely lived in the village over the years, mostly staying over by the Great Reservoir. She could remember every tree next to the reservoir, but she really didn’t know who was who among the newly grown adults in the village.

So, she simply said, “Yes, my daughter came by today and said it was so lively, she told me to come see for myself. She’s watching the reservoir for me.”

“That daughter of yours is truly filial.”

She exchanged a few words with people while continuing to circle the crowd, looking for the men from yesterday.

She hadn’t seen them yet, and she couldn’t squeeze into the front of the line, so she simply backed out.

“Old Lady, you came down to watch the excitement too.” A voice came from behind her.

She turned her head and saw the short man from yesterday.

Old Lady Yuan had guessed correctly. The man had gone fishing at the reservoir yesterday and missed the excitement. Today, he had made a special trip to see it.

The Old Lady hadn’t confiscated his fish yesterday. His family had a fine meal of fish last night, and two of them had been made into salted dried fish, hanging over the fire pit to be smoked for later.

As soon as the man arrived, he saw the old woman who guarded the reservoir. He naturally greeted her, already calculating how to get on her good side so he could go fishing there often in the future.

The Old Lady also said, “Yes, I just came to see the excitement.”

The man said, “Then there won’t be anyone at the reservoir. Do you want me to go keep an eye on it for you? I happen to be free today.”

“My daughter is up there watching it.”

“…”

The two of them really had nothing to talk about. After all, the man didn’t actually know how to build a rapport with an old woman, and it wasn’t easy for the Old Lady to ask: Who are you? Who was that tall man fishing with you yesterday? Is there some conflict between you? Did he want to kill you?

And so, after a few awkward words, the two went their separate ways. As soon as they parted, the Old Lady found an elderly acquaintance and asked, “Which family does that man over there belong to? He looks a bit familiar, but I can’t recall whose son he is.”

She had lived in the village in the past and was quite familiar with the older generation.

“Him? You don’t recognize him?” The person Old Lady Yuan asked whispered, “The Yang family from Jinshan Village. That’s Yang Laowu, the fifth son.”

Jinshan Village, the Yang family.

Old Lady Yuan understood who he was immediately.

When she lived in the village before, she lived in the third brigade¹ of Sanli Village. Jinshan Village was on another mountain, but she had heard of this Yang family.

It was something from twenty years ago. At that time, collective production had ended and the system of household responsibility for farmland² was implemented. It was originally a joyous occasion; Old Lady Yuan still remembered how the whole village was brimming with happiness, and every household was delighted.

But soon, something happened over in Jinshan Village. It started as a small matter: two families were fighting over a prickly ash tree³. They said the large tree grew right on the ridge of a field, but the field above and the slope below the ridge didn’t belong to the same family. Consequently, both families felt the prickly ash tree was theirs.

One of those families was the Yang family. After the village officials inspected the site, they awarded the tree to the other family.

The Yang family felt they had been wronged and went to argue with the village officials. The officials stated that according to the regulations, it indeed belonged to the slope below.

The Yang family was indignant. At the time, the Yangs had five sons, while the other family had only two daughters, aged eight and six. The Yangs felt their family couldn’t suffer such a loss. One evening, taking advantage of the darkness, they pulled up all the crops in the other family’s fields.

The next day, that family came to apologize, saying they didn’t want the prickly ash tree anymore.

But the Yang family didn’t want the tree either; they simply wanted to target that family. When the village officials came, the Yang family claimed they knew nothing. If asked a few more questions, the sons would start surrounding them with hoes in hand.

That family truly couldn’t endure it any longer. They offered gifts and apologies, but this only made the Yang family more arrogant. They still wouldn’t let them be, and before long, the family moved away.

Word of this naturally spread. Everyone felt angry but dared not speak out, looking down on the family in private. However, the Yang family remained proud of the incident. Later, when the eldest son was looking for a wife, a girl’s family looked down on them, so the Yangs harassed them constantly until the girl was forced to marry away to Yulan Town.

Everyone in the village hated them, but what could be done?

Recalling these events and thinking back to yesterday, Old Lady Yuan suddenly felt that she was old. The grudges and debts of the younger generation were things an old woman like her couldn’t manage, simply couldn’t manage.

On the other side, Yang Laowu tried to squeeze in to see the excitement, but the crowd was like a solid iron barrel; he couldn’t get in at all. He saw someone he knew a bit further inside and called out their name, wanting them to come out so he could get in.

To his surprise, the person replied, “That won’t do. Brother Yang, don’t talk. The judge might get angry in a moment.”

This display of complete disregard for him infuriated him.

He was fuming. He wouldn’t watch it then. What kind of rubbish was this? What was so special about it? He wasn’t watching!

He stomped back in a rage, just as his wife was heading toward the river with their young daughter on her back and a bucket of clothes in her hand.

“Didn’t you go to see the official from Xiangjin Town judge the case?” The woman, named Huixiang, asked.

He got even angrier. Couldn’t this woman see he was walking back?

“What official? This isn’t the Qing Dynasty anymore! They’re called judges.”

Huixiang said, “Wasn’t I just saying it that way? Why is your temper so flared up? Who gave you a hard time?”

“It’s you!” His eyes fell on the little daughter on her back, and his anger flared even more. “These people are clearly bullying me because I don’t have a son.”

“No son, always talking about having no son. I really don’t understand, why must you have a son!” Huixiang was also full of resentment when this topic came up.

She was from Baihe Town. Her family was poor, and her parents’ character wasn’t very good, which made it difficult for her to find a decent husband’s family in Baihe Town. At that time, a matchmaker told her about Yang Laowu, saying he had many brothers to help out, and that he was clever and had a good personality.

Only after she married into the family did she realize how silver-tongued the matchmaker had been. “Many brothers to help out” meant the brothers helped each other. Regarding her giving birth to two daughters, those older brothers had even sent their wives to lecture her.

The man continued to ramble on about the necessity of having a son.

He didn’t say why; he just insisted they must have one. He said he hadn’t felt it as much when he was younger, but now that he was getting older, he felt more and more that having a son was essential.

He only had two daughters. Every time he saw other families with several sons, he felt uneasy and miserable.

He was born in the seventies and was the youngest in the family, with four older brothers above him. At that time, in their village, his parents walked with their heads held high.

If anyone offended their family, the five brothers would certainly make sure that person had a hard time.

He still remembered the family that tried to steal their prickly ash tree. They probably thought the Yangs would swallow their pride, but that night, the brothers went and uprooted all their crops and gave them a beating in the dark. He still remembered how that family came to beg his father, and how happy he and his brothers had been.

But that happiness had lasted only until he had his first daughter, and then his second. He began to panic.

Huixiang sighed and said, “I don’t want to give birth anymore.”

“Registering the child means paying a fine, so where are we going to get the money? Our eldest daughter is about to start school soon, and that costs money too.” With two children already, she felt completely exhausted.

The man remained silent.

Seeing his silence, Huixiang knew he had already made up his mind. She continued crossly, “If you absolutely insist on having another, then we should get a divorce. After the divorce, the two girls stay with me, and you’ll have the quota to have more. Then you can find another woman to give you a child.”

She didn’t actually want a divorce; she was just trying to scare the man. A divorce would bring even more trouble. Her family back home wouldn’t agree to it, and besides, she had already given up her fields there. Currently, she had no land of her own at her husband’s home. If they truly divorced, she and her two daughters would be left with nothing but the cold wind to eat.

The man looked at his wife and said, “Don’t say that, this actually is a way.” It would be difficult for him to find another woman to have a child with, but the idea of divorce was correct; it was a viable method.

“What do you mean? You actually want a divorce?”

“No, listen to me. Right now, we really can’t have another child. But if the two of us get a divorce and the kids stay with me, you can marry someone we trust. You’ll be a fake couple. Once you have the marriage certificate, you’ll have a quota again. Privately, we’ll still be a real couple, and then you can have another one.”

Huixiang could hardly believe it. This was… too terrifying. She felt as if the man she had lived with for so long had suddenly become a stranger.

Yang Laowu was stung by her gaze. Feeling uncomfortable, he began to shift the blame. “This is all your fault anyway. If you had listened to me when our second daughter was born and put her name under my cousin’s Household Registration, we wouldn’t have to go through all this trouble now. You were the one who insisted on putting her Hukou in our own family.”

Huixiang wanted to argue, but following his logic, it almost felt as if she really was the one in the wrong.

The more Yang Laowu thought about it, the more he felt this method was excellent. He continued to follow his train of thought.

If the first child born was a daughter, her Hukou could be registered with his cousin. He had a cousin who only had one daughter, so there was a quota available there anyway.

They could just keep having children until they finally had a son.

As for who to choose.

He already had a candidate in mind, which was why he had come up with this idea.

The person was an honest and decent man. Yesterday, Yang Laowu had asked him to go fishing at the reservoir. In the end, the man hadn’t taken a single fish from the half-bucket they caught, giving them all to him.

“Brother, you keep the fish. You have a big family, unlike me. I’m a bachelor; when I eat my fill, the whole family is fed.”

Translator’s Notes