Chapter 13 The Second Storm
I thought my threat had worked.
But I had underestimated how shameless some people could be.
A week later, she came to make trouble at school again.
She sat at the school gate in a thin coat, hair disheveled, slapping her thigh as she wailed,
"My heavens, what a miserable life I have! How did I give birth to such an ungrateful wretch!"
"I kindly brought her little brother to see her, and she threatened to call the police on me!"
"Found some rich relatives and now she doesn't want her poor, useless mother anymore. What sin did I commit in my last life!"
She never said my name, but every sentence pointed straight at the "full-scholarship, grade-top student."
Soon rumors spread across the entire campus.
Walking down the hallway, I could feel the pointing fingers and whispers behind my back.
"That's her, right? Looks quiet, but turns out she's that kind of person."
"Hard to tell. Ditches her own mother— what's the use of being good at studies?"
"Whoever has money becomes her parents. So young and already so calculating!"
I had no way to defend myself.
My homeroom teacher talked to me. Her tone was gentle, but suspicion lingered in her eyes.
Just when I felt I couldn't hold on any longer, Aunt arrived.
She brought several familiar big-sister vendors from the market.
That afternoon, right at the school gate, Aunt and the others faced off against her.
The moment she saw Aunt, she immediately started crying and playing the pitiful mother act.
Aunt didn't waste words. She reached into her market basket, grabbed a handful of wilted vegetable leaves, and threw them straight at her face.
"Pah! You shameless trash—how dare you come here to ruin my niece's reputation!"
"Acting pitiful? Want me to broadcast over the whole school loudspeaker what you did with my brother's compensation money—how you lived it up?"
Aunt stood with hands on hips, her voice louder than any market megaphone.
"You still have the nerve to show up?! You took my brother's blood money and threw your own daughter away like garbage to me! Now that the child's grown and can be your cash cow, you come knocking? Pah! This is extortion!"
"You think no one knows? Ask anyone on this street—they all remember exactly what you did back then! Want to make it big? Fine! I'll make the whole city see what kind of person you really are!"
The women behind Aunt chimed in:
"Exactly! Your reputation is already rotten through and through, and you're still putting on an act!"
"Everyone knows you took your husband's death money, remarried some punk, and get beaten every day!"
"Now that life is hard, you remember to squeeze your daughter? Shameless!"
"A woman like you doesn't deserve to be called a mother—pah!"
One after another, they exposed every detail of what she had done back then.
Her face turned from pale to flushed under everyone's scornful stares. Finally she fled in disgrace.
Aunt stood like a victorious general. She turned to the stunned security guard and teachers at the gatehouse and bellowed,
"Keep a better eye on your gate from now on! If this mad dog comes back to harass my niece, I'll sue the whole school along with her!"
That day, the setting sun stretched Aunt's shadow long.
She stood fierce among the crowd, hands still on her hips as the market women cheered behind her.