"Forced... to marry?" Fang Dingwu was completely stunned.
The man exhaled a puff of white smoke and shook his head. "I wouldn’t say forced, but... how should I put it? Brother, think about it. She’s a woman without a man taking care of the house, and she was married into Niujia Ping from outside. She still had to find a way to live, after all..."
Fang Dingwu quickly grabbed the man’s hand. "Brother, please tell me the truth. Has my sister-in-law suffered?"
The man patted Fang Dingwu’s shoulder. "Don’t worry, brother. Listen to me and I’ll explain... Wang Cuihong was always very beautiful. When Brother Dayong married her, many people were envious.
"Later, when the news of Brother Dayong’s death came back, she was left all alone. She couldn’t hunt and didn’t have any farmland, so how could she survive? It just so happened that Niu Geng, the son of the village elder, had taken a liking to her looks.
"He proposed to marry Wang Cuihong. The thing is, since Niu Geng already had a wife and Wang Cuihong had been married before, he said she could only be his concubine."
Fang Dingwu slammed his fist onto the table. "That’s taking advantage of her suffering!"
The man cast a glance at Fang Dingwu. "In this poor backwater village, there’s no such thing as taking advantage of someone’s suffering. Wang Cuihong herself didn’t want to marry him, but what choice did she have? She was a widow, and life was hard. Later, when Niu Geng approached her again, she eventually agreed to marry him."
"Then..." Fang Dingwu suddenly thought of something. "Did Brother Dayong have any children?"
The man gave Fang Dingwu a surprised look. "Brother Dayong didn’t tell you? He married Wang Cuihong shortly before he left to join the army. He was stationed at the border for years and never had children with Wang Cuihong. It’s precisely because of this that Niu Geng agreed to marry her. Otherwise, who here would want to raise someone else’s child?"
Fang Dingwu gritted his teeth. "I see... Thank you, brother, for telling me the truth."
At that moment, the man’s wife brought over two bowls of water and placed them on the table. Fang Dingwu picked one up and took a sip.
The man watched as his wife entered the inner room, then hesitated, a look of uncertainty crossing his face.
Fang Dingwu was skilled in reading other people’s expressions, so he immediately sensed his host was holding something back. He probed gently, "Brother... is there more to the story? I see you as family. Feel free to speak your mind."
The man sighed. "There is something else, but I’m not sure if it’s true, so I don’t know if I should mention it."
"Go ahead." Fang Dingwu pressed on. "Even if it’s just a story, I’ll treat it as a joke to pass the time."
The man grinned, leaned forward, and lowered his voice. "Here’s the thing... Wang Cuihong has been receiving letters from a courier every month. At first, they were naturally letters with money that Brother Dayong sent from the frontlines. However, the letters didn’t stop after Brother Dayong’s death.
"No one knows who’s been sending them. Later, as a widow, she couldn’t hunt or farm, so logically, she shouldn’t have had any income. Yet, she managed to scrape by. Some suspected she was getting by with what she got in the mail...
"Then came Niu Geng’s proposal to marry Wang Cuihong. Many people believe it wasn’t her beauty he was after but the silver from those letters. Don’t laugh at us, brother. Niujia Ping is a small and poor place. Even the meat from a mosquito could count as a meal here... And who knows how much meat we’re talking about?"
"What do you mean by that?" Fang Dingwu asked curiously.
The man took a sip of water to moisten his throat. "Think about it. In a place like ours, going to Dongyuan City to sell animal hides and bones can barely support a family.
"But Wang Cuihong doesn’t hunt or farm. When she runs out of food, she uses silver to buy from neighbors and even has meat to eat sometimes! Even though she seems to live modestly, who really knows how much money she has?"
The man chuckled. "No one knows how much money Wang Cuihong has. But not long after she married Niu Geng, the village elder had his family's ancestral shrine renovated. You can see it now—the most impressive house at the far end of the village. That’s theirs."
Fang Dingwu nodded thoughtfully.
"So—" The man stood up and patted Fang Dingwu on the shoulder. "Brother, let me give you some heartfelt advice: don’t go looking for Wang Cuihong. No matter how she’s doing now, it’s her own business. Niu Geng isn’t the most open-minded man. If you visit her, you might end up getting her in trouble despite your good intentions."
Fang Dingwu stood up as well. "Thank you for the advice, brother. I’ll be taking my leave now."
The man saw Fang Dingwu out the door.
Fang Dingwu quickly jogged back to where Ye Beizhi and Chi Nanwei were waiting because he knew he had been away for a while.
Rejoining Ye Beizhi and Chi Nanwei, Fang Dingwu recounted everything in detail, leaving nothing out.
The two stared intently at Ye Beizhi, waiting for him to make a decision.
"So, should we still go?" Fang Dingwu asked.
"Dummy, say something," Chi Nanwei added.
Ye Beizhi froze for a moment, only then realizing they were waiting for him to decide. Puzzled, he asked, "Why wouldn’t we go?"
"But..." Chi Nanwei hesitated. "She remarried, after all..."
"I’m just going to see Wang Cuihong," Ye Beizhi said as he started walking, "Not her husband."
In a place like Niujia Ping, which couldn’t even be considered a proper village, there weren't any officials recognized by the government. The only people with authority here were the elders of the clan. These elders wielded immense power—so much so that they could control the life and death of the villagers.
A woman accused of infidelity might be drowned in filth in a pigsty; a thief might have their hands broken; someone disrespecting their ancestors might be forced to kneel in front of the ancestral shrine until they died. The list went on and on.
The house at the far end of the village stood out starkly from the surrounding homes.
"Even the red lacquer on the doorposts hasn’t faded yet—" Fang Dingwu touched the doorpost. "You can tell at a glance it has just been built. If they didn’t strike it rich, I wouldn’t believe it."
Chi Nanwei suddenly remembered something. She turned to look at Ye Beizhi’s profile and hesitantly asked, "Dummy... I think I've seen you... mailing money to someone?"
Ye Beizhi nodded slightly. "Yes... I sent it."
"You mean—" Chi Nanwei pointed to the door in front of them.
Ye Beizhi nodded again, remaining silent.
"Damn them!" Fang Dingwu’s face immediately filled with rage. "What a filthy bunch, blinded by money! I’ll smash this ancestral shrine today if it’s the last thing I do!"
Ye Beizhi patted Fang Dingwu on the back and shook his head at him.
At that moment, the door opened, and a woman stepped out.
"Who... are you looking for?" The woman’s gaze swept over the group, a hint of wariness in her eyes.
Ye Beizhi studied the woman’s face for a moment before saying in a deep voice, "Wang Cuihong."
The woman’s attire was far from elegant or refined. She was dressed like an ordinary farm wife in coarse clothes and cloth shoes, her hair tied in a simple bun and wrapped with a piece of burlap cloth.
The woman looked surprised when she heard Ye Beizhi’s words. She instinctively stepped back two paces. "I... I am Wang Cuihong."
"Then you’re the one I’m looking for."