The 1960s: The Story of a Country Girl's Journey to the City

Aunt Zhang thought she had been frightened, and was even a little smug. She turned to Director Yang and said:

"Director, don't listen to her nonsense. This Lin Baoya is the troublemaker. Before she came to this area, we didn't have so many problems."

Bao Ya ignored her and turned to the crowd of onlookers behind her, saying:

"Dear aunties, uncles, and elders, you all saw what happened today. I just want to ask you one question: if that hooligan had encountered your daughters or wives, would they have chased him away like I did?"

And then there's this old hag. Her nephew acted like a hooligan, not only refusing to admit his mistake but also blaming her. Considering her usual behavior, do you think she's suitable to stay on the neighborhood committee?

After hearing Bao Ya's words, everyone looked at each other in bewilderment, and for a moment, the room and the surroundings were completely silent.

At that time, the neighborhood committee had a lot of power, managing the rental of public housing in the area, and various units would directly allocate job quotas to the neighborhood committee.

To ordinary people, the neighborhood committee members are considered officials, but in the eyes of Bao Ya, who transmigrated from the future, the neighborhood committee is nothing.

"Bao Ya is right. This morning I saw Zhang Ye touching Yan San's wife inappropriately. She was so scared that she ran home without even washing her clothes."

An aunt was the first to speak up. She had a daughter and a daughter-in-law, and wondered what would happen if they ran into Zhang Ye someday. Her family were all honest children, none of them as fierce as Bao Ya.

Besides, it's always the women who suffer in these kinds of situations. Although everyone initially condemns the perpetrator, after a while they'll start saying the girl is immoral, and the criticism can be overwhelming.

"Because Aunt Zhang lives here, that Zhang Ye comes over and hangs around from time to time. It makes our place quite messy."

"That's right, that old woman is unfair. Whoever is nice to her gets more matchbox pasting work..."

"All he does is try to smooth things over; he doesn't know how to handle problems at all. He has no leadership qualities whatsoever."

Once someone spoke up, others followed suit. It wasn't that they had no complaints about the neighborhood committee; it's just that raising their concerns alone wouldn't get them resolved and could even lead to retaliation. Now that everyone was speaking out, they naturally became bolder.

Bao Ya had long disliked this old woman surnamed Zhang; whenever something happened, she was the first one they'd conscript. Now that she had the chance, she was determined to get rid of her.

"Everyone, please be quiet, please be quiet."

Seeing that everyone had said enough, Bao Ya stretched out her hand and pressed it down on everyone. Turning to Director Yang, she said:

"Director Yang, you've heard what everyone's saying. We're demanding that the neighborhood committee dismiss Aunt Zhang. If you can't do that, we'll report it to higher authorities."

By the way, let me tell them that you guys are idle all day long, and you even hire a temporary worker to do the work. You have no sense of serving the people at all.

This is like hiring a lackey to do the work, and you're going to ride roughshod over the people.

Bao Ya pointed at the members of the neighborhood committee with her finger and said, "The meaning is clear: if you don't fire her, we'll fire you all."

Seeing her posture, the others shrank back. They really didn't have much to do, and who would want to go out every day in this freezing weather? If Aunt Zhang wanted to show off, let her be.

Anyway, she's a temporary worker, and no matter how much she tries to stand out, she can't surpass me.

Director Yang had no doubt about what Lin Baoya said. Regardless of whether she had connections, Jiang Yuan's older brother was a regimental commander in the army, a comrade-in-arms of the meat processing plant director, and also had comrades-in-arms in other government departments. It would be easy for him to get rid of them.

"Yes, she should have been fired a long time ago."

"Exactly, we've put up with her for a long time. How did someone who can't even read a single word manage to get into the neighborhood committee?"

Everyone took this opportunity to voice their grievances against the neighborhood committee. Director Yang, unable to smooth things over, could only say that the matter needed to be reported to higher authorities and promised a satisfactory response within three days. Before the results were announced, Aunt Zhang was punished by being made to clean the toilets.

When Bao Ya came out of the neighborhood committee, Jiang Yuan caught up from behind. Seeing that she was alright, he followed her home.

"You're really bold, why did you go and provoke him?"

As soon as they entered, before Jiang Yuan could even speak, the monkey following behind him spoke first.

The two didn't notice that this guy had been following them the whole time.

"What? Is he some kind of Heavenly King himself, someone we can't mess with?"

Bao Ya was in a bad mood and got angry whenever she saw him.

The monkey glanced helplessly at Jiang Yuan, whose face was grim, as if he were plotting something. The monkey continued:

"Zhang Ye's aunt is Zhang Cuifeng from the neighborhood committee, and Zhang Cuifeng's brother-in-law is Wang Jianjun, the deputy director of the factory."

Bao Ya raised an eyebrow. Zhang Cuifeng was indeed Aunt Zhang. She finally understood why this illiterate woman could get into the neighborhood committee.

Before anyone could speak, the monkey continued talking to itself:

"Zhang Ye has been hanging out with a bunch of thugs lately. The leader of those thugs has hooked up with a leader, I think he's from the Revolutionary Committee. You'd better be careful."

When she heard that Zhang Ye might be involved with the Revolutionary Committee, Bao Ya's brow twitched. The situation had been getting increasingly tense lately, but she knew that the most tense phase was yet to come.

If Zhang Ye really manages to infiltrate the Revolutionary Committee, there's no guarantee he won't come looking for trouble one day.

He originally thought that as long as he got rid of the female lead, his life would be smooth sailing, but now it seems that's not necessarily the case.

Even into the evening, Bao Ya was still troubled by Zhang Ye's matter. Today, she had even brought people to force Director Yang to fire Zhang Cuifeng, and she had now formed a grudge against the Zhang family.

Jiang Yuan noticed that Bao Ya remained silent and assumed she was frightened by what had happened that day.

When I got closer, I noticed her eyes were glazed over, and her teeth were grinding together. I quickly cupped her face and pried her mouth open, afraid she would break her teeth or bite her tongue.

Jiang Yuan sat down beside her, pulled her into his arms, and whispered comforting words:

"Don't be afraid, it's okay. I'm here, no one will dare to cause you any trouble."

Bao Ya seemed not to hear what he said, and instead gritted her teeth and said:

"You bastard, I'll put a sack over his head sooner or later."

The next few days went by as usual, except that the neighborhood committee posted a notice on the bulletin board informing everyone that Zhang Cuifeng had been dismissed.

Bao Ya thought the matter was over, but unexpectedly, after they finished dinner that day, Jiang Yuan stopped her from washing up, saying that he had something to do later.

Jiang Yuan waited until after 10 o'clock before carrying a sack in one hand and pulling his wife along with the other as they went out in the dark.

Everyone was mostly asleep by now, and it was pitch black outside, so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. As the saying goes, a dark and windy night is the perfect time for murder and arson.

Bao Ya vaguely guessed what Jiang Yuan was taking her to do, but she didn't expect this guy to be so efficient.

They walked along, stumbling and turning several corners, until they came to the base of a wall. Jiang Yuan told Bao Ya to squat down and wait there.

There was a dim streetlamp not far from where they were crouching. The two of them remained silent, quietly hiding in the shadows and watching the corner.

After waiting for about half an hour, a furtive figure came from another direction. The person was wearing a half-sized cotton-padded coat and kept looking around.

Seeing that no one was around, he walked to a door and knocked lightly a few times. The door opened from the inside, and he slipped inside.

"Is it him?"

Bao Ya was so focused on chasing and hitting Zhang Ye that day that she didn't pay attention to his physical features. From a distance, she really couldn't recognize him.

"It's him, no doubt. I'll go over first, and you follow behind."