Chapter 51: Watching the Drama — A Battlefield of Mud People
It was the end of the workday, and since no one had anything else to do, the moment they heard there was a “big show” happening over by the reservoir, they all dropped their farming tools and rushed over. Even some who had planned to go home and cook dinner decided against it — watching the drama was far more important.
That’s just how it was in the countryside: there weren’t many forms of entertainment, so the moment there was gossip or excitement somewhere, news spread fast and far. In less than half an hour, the entire production team knew about it.
Word of mouth did its job — more and more people learned about the situation, and the crowd heading toward the reservoir grew larger and larger. Men and women, young and old, all joined in. It was estimated that over half of the villagers were on their way.
Sure enough, as Ning Xiyue walked toward the reservoir, she saw more and more people excitedly running in the same direction. As they ran, they chatted animatedly, their faces full of anticipation — the classic “popcorn crowd” expression of people eager to watch a spectacle.
She overheard one auntie saying, “I heard from my second granduncle that it even involves one of the female educated youths from the team. Don’t know if it’s true, but if it is, oh boy, this will be really exciting.”
Another immediately chimed in, “It must be true! I also heard that Li Jiandang completely lost his temper this time. We’d better hurry or we’ll miss everything — what a shame that would be.”
“Right, let’s stop talking and run. We can chat while we watch.”
And with that, the group of aunties quickened their pace, afraid they’d miss the show if they were too slow.
The others didn’t know exactly what was going on, but seeing them speed up triggered classic herd mentality — they all started running faster too.
Hearing the aunties talk made Ning Xiyue even more interested. The more people involved, the more complicated the relationships, the more varied the identities — the juicier the drama would be.
She picked up her pace too. Like that auntie said, it would be miserable to run all the way there only to find the show was already over. Hearing about it secondhand wouldn’t be nearly as satisfying as seeing it unfold before her eyes.
When she finally arrived at the reservoir, she realized just how many people loved to watch a commotion — the place was packed. People were layered three and four rows deep around the center where the chaos was happening. Even the small boats on the water had people sitting in them, and every bit of dry ground around the reservoir was occupied. The scene was noisy and chaotic.
“Xiyue, over here! Come quick!”
A bright, excited voice called out to her.
Looking in the direction of the voice, Ning Xiyue saw Li Xiuxiu sitting in the branches of a huge banyan tree with a trunk so thick an adult’s arms couldn’t wrap around it. She was smiling and waving. There were quite a few others perched on the tree as well — even Aunt Qiuju was sitting on a branch nearby.
Aunt Qiuju pointed to a large branch between herself and Li Xiuxiu. “Little Xiyue, come on up. We saved you a good spot.”
Ning Xiyue glanced up at the branch, three or four meters off the ground. That’s okay… you didn’t have to save me a spot up there.
But Aunt Yangliu was delighted and grabbed Ning Xiyue’s hand. “Come on, Xiyue. Let’s go up. The view’s great from there — you can see everything clearly.”
Once pulled along, Ning Xiyue realized the back side of the banyan tree had a gentle slope with footholds almost like a staircase, making it easy to climb.
After settling herself on the branch, Aunt Qiuju pulled out a handful of roasted pumpkin seeds from her pocket and handed them to Ning Xiyue. Li Xiuxiu also offered her a handful of pine nuts she had picked up from the mountains.
Ning Xiyue accepted them and tucked them into her pocket. From up here, the view really was excellent — she could see everything happening by the reservoir clearly, and she could even hear the crowd’s conversations below.
The two people in the center were covered head to toe in black mud, making it impossible to tell who they were. One was even half-sunken into the silt, with a few people struggling to pull them out.
“Did they all roll around in the mud or something? Who are they?”
Li Xiuxiu, excited, began explaining what had happened before Ning Xiyue arrived. “You missed the best part. It was amazing — they were actually fighting in the mud.”
“See that one over there, with the least mud on her and sitting by the edge? That’s Chen Yechu from your educated youth courtyard. She’s the toughest — she fought several people all by herself.”
Following the direction of her pointing finger, Ning Xiyue saw Chen Yechu sitting alone, deep in thought. Beside her stood Yu Zhiyu and Xia Zhipeng, both with traces of mud on them, and Wang Mengmeng, whose face was full of displeasure.
Tsk… what a battlefield. The male lead, the female lead, the female lead’s husband from her past life, and the supporting characters — all present and accounted for. Looks like they’re all involved in this mess.
Interested, Ning Xiyue cracked open a pumpkin seed and pointed to the two mud-covered figures surrounded by the crowd. “And those two in the middle?”
One of the figures looked a little familiar.
“Oh, that’s Ning Xiaoxiao from your courtyard. Poor girl — not only did she get beaten up, but she rolled around in the mud several times. The one next to her is Wu Zhigang, also from your courtyard. You can’t even recognize them anymore, can you?”
Indeed, they were unrecognizable — only a pair of rabbit-red eyes peered out from beneath the mud. Even her own aunt wouldn’t recognize her daughter in that state.
Seeing Ning Xiaoxiao’s miserable condition made Ning Xiyue crack her seeds with even more enthusiasm.
Her gaze shifted to another group of people. The mud-covered figure there was probably Li Jiandang, while Aunt Wang was standing nearby, hurling curses at the group trying to pull someone out of the mud.
Li Cuihua was wailing at the top of her lungs by the reservoir’s edge, but that didn’t stop her from yelling insults back.
One moment: “You rotten-hearted, rotten-livered, rotten-assed bastard!”
The next: “Oh my poor daughter! Xiuli, don’t worry, Mama’s coming to save you…”
The person stuck in the reservoir was clearly Wu Xiuli.
“She’s the most miserable one in this fight. What’s that phrase… oh yeah, the ‘target of everyone’s arrows.’ She got beaten the most and sank the deepest into the mud. She stepped into a hollow and sank in up to her waist. If she weren’t tall, she’d probably be done for.”
“Mom, hurry! Hurry up, my legs are numb! Wah, I’m scared… Mom… waah—!”
Ning Xiyue nodded in agreement at the sight of Wu Xiuli sobbing hysterically, her hair a disheveled mess like a madwoman.
“Yeah, she’s definitely the most pitiful. Several people have tried to pull her out and still haven’t managed it. If this were pulling up radishes, they’d have harvested a whole row by now.”
“No kidding. But she deserves it — she couldn’t stop at provoking one person and had to stir up several. Who knew she’d run into people who don’t mess around.”
Aunt Qiuju spat out a seed shell and continued, “I just didn’t expect that new educated youth, Chen, to be so ruthless. She looked so quiet and gentle, but she sure doesn’t hold back when she fights.”
“Auntie, I saw the team leaders down there. Why aren’t you with them?”
Ning Xiyue was curious — all the brigade leaders were below, yet Aunt Qiuju, the women’s director, was sitting in a tree with them, immersed in the show.
Aunt Qiuju waved nonchalantly. “No rush. I’ll go when someone calls me. They’ll need a while to get Wu Xiuli out anyway. And this isn’t their first mess — I’m too lazy to say anything anymore. Might as well sit here in peace. Whether I go or not doesn’t matter; there are plenty of leaders down there.”
After thinking for a moment, she added, “Later, they’ll make everyone involved explain what happened one by one. If you want, you can follow me and listen up close.”
Li Xiuxiu smiled and declined, suggesting instead, “Auntie, let’s just stay here. It’s too crowded down there and not nearly as comfortable. Why don’t you have them come over here later? We’ll hear everything just as clearly and see even better.”
Cracking more seeds, Ning Xiyue nodded. “She’s right. It’s actually quite nice up here. There’s a breeze, it’s not hot, and the view is wide open. We can even see everyone’s facial expressions down below.”
“Exactly! Aunt Qiuju and I picked the perfect spot. We knew right away this was the place to be.”
Li Xiuxiu and Ning Xiyue bantered back and forth, and with Aunt Yangliu chiming in too, Aunt Qiuju glanced down at the wide, flat ground below and laughed.
“Alright, alright. I’ll listen to you girls. I’ll make sure they bring the people over here so you can hear everything clearly and see it all with your own eyes.”
“Thanks, Auntie. Now let’s keep eating these seeds.”
Ning Xiyue sat there, munching seeds, eyes scanning the scene while her ears picked up bits and pieces of conversations from the crowd. She learned quite a lot that way, though most people didn’t know the exact cause of the fight.
Suddenly, Li Xiuxiu excitedly patted Ning Xiyue’s hand. “Look, Wu Xiuli’s out! The real show is about to start!”
