VHBF -Chapter 109 Village Bully Daddy (End)

This Third Great-Uncle was an elder of the Old Qin family, from the same clan—Old Master Qin’s paternal cousin. When he was young, he had the good fortune of apprenticing at a medical clinic. Later, when war broke out, the clinic collapsed. By chance, he ended up fleeing together with soldiers who were rescuing the wounded, following them through several places and helping the army doctors handle some simple injuries and illnesses.

He didn’t return until his thirties or forties, already no longer young. By then, his parents had long passed away, and his brothers had all split off into their own households.

He stayed single his whole life and refused to accept any arrangements from above. Even when the villagers tried to introduce matches, he declined them all. Instead, he claimed a small plot of land, built a little wooden house, and lived alone. When he had nothing to do, he would see villagers for their ailments. He didn’t charge much—everything was left to people’s conscience. Those without money would bring a bundle of greens, a few eggs, some white flour—whatever they had.

Because of this, he held quite a bit of prestige in Dahuai Village. Everyone respected him, and the production team also took good care of him. He didn’t need to work in the fields; he just carried the title of a small clinic. Treating villagers also earned him grain rations.

This was the person Chen Qiuhua thought of immediately—the remarkable, distantly related little uncle. With her quick feet, she fetched him in no time.

Qin Yuli’s room wasn’t big or small, about twenty square meters. The bed and cabinet took up half the space. On the innermost bed lay a tiny little dumpling.

Her face was flushed, her lips a little dry. Qin Yuli sat by the bed, clumsily and carefully feeding his child a little water from time to time.

Qin Yuli thought to himself: that beating at noon still wasn’t harsh enough—he’d have to go make it up later.

The dumpling’s brows were tightly furrowed. Her mouth moved now and then as if she were saying something, but no sound came out. Third Great-Uncle took one look, then felt her pulse and said, “She’s trapped in a nightmare.”

Chen Qiuhua asked anxiously, “Then can we wake our girl up?”

Third Great-Uncle shook his head. “You can’t wake her up like that. You might frighten her soul. She’s still little. She was scared and threatened during the day—her spirit isn’t stable. You can’t rashly wake her.”

He stroked his beard and looked at Qin Yuli. “Third boy, this is your daughter. She’s closest to you. When we all go out, you sit by her side. Pat her back—slowly, gently—and talk to her for a while. Within half an hour, she’ll wake up.”

“Elder sister-in-law, have a boy come with me to gather some herbs. We’ll put them in a clay pot and boil them. Half an hour and they’ll be ready. When the child wakes up, feed it to her. And from now on, don’t use words to provoke a child anymore. Kids are young and don’t understand much—it’s easy to hurt them.”

Chen Qiuhua answered immediately, “Uncle, we’ll remember everything you said. Don’t worry. Our girl is the treasure of our hearts—if anyone dares scare her, I’ll make sure they pay dearly!”

After saying that, Chen Qiuhua ground her teeth. “This is all that dead old woman from the Wang family’s fault! Picking on our three-year-old girl for no reason, using such wicked words to stab her—absolutely hateful! Next time I see her, I’ll beat her again, that woman—”

“Enough, stop talking. Hurry up and get things done.”

In her dream, Yinyin dreamed that that bad woman didn’t want her anymore, scolded her for being a burden, and threw her into a shabby little house. Later, when the rent was due, the landlady aunt chased her out and threw all her things outside.

Yinyin hugged her broken doll and sat by the roadside, lost and not knowing where to go. Then Daddy came, picked her up, took her home, and treated her very, very well. But later, Daddy disappeared, and she was alone again…

Yinyin ran anxiously, running and running. She wanted to find Daddy, but no matter how hard she ran, she couldn’t get out. She wanted to shout loudly, but no sound would come out.

Qin Yuli saw his daughter whimpering and crying. Her mouth opened as if she wanted to speak, but she couldn’t—no sound at all. She looked like a poor little fish about to suffocate.

Qin Yuli felt awful. His big hand gently patted her back, lifting the child halfway into his arms. He lowered his head and spoke, “Don’t—don’t be afraid. Daddy’s here.”

He reached out and wiped the tear tracks from her face. Qin Yuli’s brows knit tighter and tighter—why was she crying even harder?

Remembering Third Great-Uncle’s words, he kept talking nonstop, softening both his voice and movements again and again. After about ten minutes, the little one in his arms finally calmed down. She groggily opened her eyes, about to look for Daddy—and saw Daddy holding her, wearing a deeply troubled expression. The dumpling’s eyes lit up. In her hoarse little milky voice from fever and dehydration, she cried out happily, “Daddy, I heard you calling me!”

Right after that, she scrambled up from the bed and threw herself into Qin Yuli’s arms, bursting into loud, cathartic sobs.

“Waaah… the bad auntie said you don’t want me anymore…”

“Yinyin isn’t a burden… Yinyin is good…”

“Waaah—!”

The dumpling cried loudly, accusing in broken phrases, venting her emotions. Qin Yuli didn’t interrupt her, letting her wipe her tears and snot all over him.

She cried so hard her words were jumbled, but piecing things together, Qin Yuli could still understand. The more he listened, the worse he felt. In all his life, this was the first time Qin Yuli realized he might be a bit… soft-hearted? Anyway, watching his daughter cry hurt more than losing a fight. It hurt terribly—the kind of pain that made him want to uproot trees and hit people.

“Da—Daddy, don’t go… Yinyin can’t find you, waaah…”

Qin Yuli frowned and comforted her. “I won’t go, I won’t go. I’m not going anywhere.”

Qin Yuli thought: he’d never said he was going anywhere. Could it be that trip before New Year’s, when he drove out and came back too late, breaking his promise and making her remember it until now?

He etched this into his heart, realizing that kids are young and treat their father as their whole world. They remember every word you say, unlike adults—adults forget after speaking, but children keep it in their hearts.

No matter how many years passed after that, Qin Yuli always remembered this incident. He never broke his word to his daughter again—not even over the smallest thing.

Chen Qiuhua stood at the doorway, listening to the childish cries inside and her third son’s clumsy attempts at comforting. She smiled with relief. Her third son had grown up—he knew how to love his daughter now!

She stood there a while, then went back to the kitchen. From the cupboard, she took out two eggs and a few red dates. She was going to make a bowl of red-date brown-sugar egg water for Yinyin. The little uncle had said it nourished the spirit and replenished the body.

Later, it was said that Wang the Eldest fell while chopping firewood in the mountains, breaking his leg. He had to lie in bed and recover for quite some time.

Misfortune never comes alone. Not long after, the Wang family’s eldest daughter-in-law finally gave birth.

She gave birth to a girl—skinny and wrinkled. Old Madam Wang wanted to drown the baby in a urine bucket on the spot, but Granny Jiang, the midwife, stopped her, scolding her for committing a sin.

Wang the Eldest’s eldest daughter secretly ran out, rushed to the Qin household, and found Qin Guoshu, crying that her grandma was killing someone—trying to drown her newborn little sister.

No matter what grudges existed between the families, a newborn was always innocent—a fresh life. Qin Guoshu immediately gathered people and rushed over, scolding the Wang family soundly.

That poor newborn girl—her grandparents, father, none of them wanted her. Her father even shouted that his wife had deceived him, that what was inside wasn’t a son but a money-losing girl!

He said he would divorce her and make her take the child and get out of the Wang family. The old Wang couple nodded along, looking perfectly justified.

It left the villagers who came to watch and help utterly stunned. Shameless people like this were truly rare these days.

Frankly speaking, the Wang family’s daughter-in-law wasn’t exactly a good person either. She was also someone everyone disliked. While working in the production team, she loved bullying the honest ones, was two-faced, liked stirring up trouble—a real troublemaker.

Leaving aside everything else, just the matter of bullying the Qin family’s daughter was despicable enough. The villagers had despised her in private for a long time. The child had been frightened into sickness and fever, and Doctor Qin had to be called to treat her. Luckily, she was saved—otherwise, that woman would really have committed a grave sin.

The villagers muttered among themselves: with such wickedness, if she didn’t give birth to girls, who would?

Despising her was one thing, but everyone felt that the three from the Wang family had gone too far. The woman had given birth to three children for them, and now, just because they were all girls, they wanted to kick her out?

Even without merit, there was still hard work, wasn’t there? She’d married into the Wang family for over ten years—worked the fields by day and handled all the housework after, gave birth to three daughters. She was still lying in bed from childbirth, and they already wanted to throw her out?

“Old Wang, what you’re doing isn’t right. We have to act with conscience. Wanting to kick someone out right after childbirth—if this gets out, it’ll disgrace Dahuai Village!”

“Exactly! Captain, say something—this is too immoral!”

Qin Guoshu’s square face darkened like charcoal. “If this isn’t something she willingly agrees to, then forget it. At least for one year, it’s not allowed. Otherwise, if everyone follows suit, who would dare marry into Dahuai Village in the future? Wouldn’t this place turn into a bachelor village?”

The villagers listened—and realized the consequences were far more serious. In the countryside, aside from food, reputation was everything. If a village had a bad reputation, no one would consider marrying there.

Even villagers who hadn’t planned to speak up now joined in. “We all support the captain. Whatever the captain says goes. Wang family, you can’t do such immoral things. Listen to the captain—kicking someone out right after childbirth is not allowed. Wait at least a year before talking about anything.”

The three from the Wang family were dumbfounded. Wasn’t this their own family business? Why was everyone interfering?

The most pitiful of all was the newborn child. When Wang the Eldest’s wife heard she’d given birth to a girl, she fainted on the spot. After waking up, she didn’t care about anything—she didn’t want the child. When her mother-in-law said she wanted to drown the baby, she didn’t say a single word.

Now, hearing her in-laws and husband talk about divorcing her and kicking her out, with the villagers speaking up for her, Wang the Eldest’s wife felt pleased and said a few polite words.

But when the captain talked about properly taking care of the newborn girl, she became unhappy again. In her eyes, this child had been brought to her by that money-losing girl from the Qin family. This wasn’t her child—it had almost caused Dazhuang to divorce her. No matter how she looked at it, she disliked the baby.

Facing a situation like this, the production team didn’t dare let the Wang family raise the child, fearing they might deliberately let her die.

In the end, they found a village family who wanted a girl to adopt her, and that settled the matter.

For Wang the Eldest’s wife, this extra year was not a blessing but a torment.

She eagerly hoped to get pregnant again and give birth to a boy. If she could get pregnant again within this year, she wouldn’t fear being kicked out by her in-laws.

But who knew—her husband grew increasingly displeased with her and somehow picked up the habit of domestic violence. He beat her every few days, while her in-laws stood by silently.

Sometimes, her mother-in-law would even deliberately egg her son on. Life was hard for her and her two daughters—she wasn’t allowed to eat her fill and was beaten.

She reported it to the production team. The Women’s Federation came several times. The captain came several times. Each time, her husband and in-laws admitted their faults with good attitudes in public, only to beat her again afterward. Even the child she had finally managed to conceive was lost—a fully formed baby boy.

Because of this miscarried boy, Wang the Eldest’s wife and the Wang family completely fell out.

Later, she divorced and left that sick, twisted household.

When she left, she thought of the Qin family’s little girl—delicate and lovely, pink and jade-like, obviously cherished and spoiled.

People might not believe it, but a woman in her thirties was jealous of a three-year-old girl. Both were “money-losing girls”—so why did that child live so well?

Thinking back now, she felt that everyone had their own fate. Back then, it really hadn’t been worth it—not worth it at all.

When Qin Yuli returned once again, laden with bags, there sat a beautiful little dumpling at the Qin family gate. She sat on the steps, chubby little hands propping up her plump chin, staring ahead in boredom.

When she saw him, her eyes lit up like they held starlight. She scrambled to her feet and ran toward him from afar like a little firecracker, calling out in her milky voice, “Daddy’s back!”

Qin Yuli’s lips curled into a wild smile. He set down his things, bent over, and caught this ball of life’s joyful burden.