Chapter 172: Three Mace of Strychnos

Cui Yulan employed her old routine: weeping, making a scene, and threatening self-harm, relying entirely on the onlookers to side with her and offer sympathy.

However, once Chen Huajiang shifted the rhythm into the dynamic of "watching a play and offering critiques," that support transformed into the role of "judges" giving "scores." Instead of mainly backing her up, the crowd was now primarily engaged in spectating.

She had never experienced this fundamental shift in perspective before, and naturally, she had no idea how to handle it.

"Is it over? I'll give her a six out of ten; my eldest aunt's performance was passable. The deduction comes from all thunder and no rain—her stage presence falls short at the crucial moment, failing to elicit genuine empathy from the audience."

Seeing that she had stopped her dry wailing, Chen Huajiang curled his lip and said with disdain.

Prompted by his words, the gathered crowd also began to chime in with their evaluations.

"She's nowhere near as good as Wu's wife. Now, Wu's wife is truly formidable—loud voice, able to wail with all her might, and you can hear her halfway across the village."

"You said it. Speaking of Wu's wife, that’s genuine acting talent. Not only does she bring thunder, she brings rain too; once she starts crying, those tears just pour down and won't stop."

"No kidding, of course. I'd dare to cross anyone in this village except Wu's wife. Last time, Jianye's family offended her, and she stood right outside their front gate, cursing them day and night for three full days straight, until Jianye's family had no choice but to bow and apologize."

The crowd entered full critique mode. Lacking Chen Huajiang's modern experience with a formal scoring system, they resorted to direct comparisons instead.

Naturally, when making comparisons, they used the most formidable "actors" available as benchmarks. Before long, Aunt Wu was brought up, and the moment her name was mentioned, everyone lit up with excitement, chattering endlessly.

After all, Aunt Wu was a legendary figure in the village. Having lost her husband early in life, she had faced immense hardship raising her children alone in the village environment.

If she hadn't been sharp-tongued and fierce, she probably would have been bullied to death by people in the village. Her fierce disposition was a matter of survival, making her incomparable to the average village matron.

Even the village men—not to mention local loafers and vagrants—were terrified of Aunt Wu. She was genuinely capable of kicking up a massive storm and cursing outside someone's door for a whole week without stopping for breath.

Hearing everyone talk about Aunt Wu, Chen Huajiang sighed inwardly. He remembered that woman well, though her fate had been quite tragic.

About a decade or so later, after Aunt Wu had raised her son to adulthood and he had gone off to the city for work after graduating high school, Aunt Wu finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel, enjoying two or three years of a happy, peaceful life.

Regrettably, unpredictability is the norm in human life. Her son had an accident at a construction site, and although they eventually received a compensation payout, Aunt Wu could not bear the devastating blow and suddenly lost her mind.

After that, Chen Huajiang had no further memories of her; most likely, she had passed away.

"You—you bastards! You're all bullying me together!"

Eldest Aunt Cui Yulan finally stopped her theatrical wailing and flailing. She stood up, swept a resentful gaze across the surrounding crowd, and harbored a deep grudge against everyone present.

Only then did the onlookers snap out of it, standing up one by one with awkward expressions on their faces.

They had no idea how it had happened; somehow, they had inexplicably gotten swept up in "watching the show" and managed to offend Cui Yulan in the process.

In psychology, this is known as collective psychological phenomenon, also called the herd effect. It is most commonly seen in multi-level marketing, where a leader starts shouting slogans about getting rich or performing ritualistic gestures, and others unconsciously follow along and imitate them.

The same psychological effect is also at play when people queue up to buy things.

"Aunty, you've made enough of a scene, haven't you? Since you're done making a spectacle of yourself for others to laugh at, you should go inside and clean up."

"You don't look anything like an intellectual right now; you're even worse than the uncultured mud-legged peasants. At least mud-legged peasants only have dirt on their legs while keeping their clothes clean."

Seeing that she was no longer causing a ruckus, Chen Huajiang stood up as well and said indifferently, tossing a handful of empty melon seed shells into a nearby trash can.

Cui Yulan glared at him with eyes full of bitter resentment, though a hint of wariness and fear had also crept in.

In her mind, her tactics were absolute killer moves—unbeatable once deployed, and honed through the long-term practical evolution of many generations before her. Yet, they had completely crashed and burned right here against Chen Huajiang, turning her into a total laughingstock.

How could she not feel wary after that? But at the same time, her hatred for Chen Huajiang only intensified.

Soon, everyone went inside the grandmother's house and set to work helping with a thorough spring-cleaning.

Afterwards, they gathered in the main hall, cracking melon seeds and chatting. That was all there was to celebrating the New Year—boasting to one another, eating, and drinking.

"Chen Huajiang, I heard you were fired from the Red Flag Factory! You're not a factory worker anymore!"

Cui Yulan said deliberately and loudly, her eyes sweeping over the crowd.

Chen Huajiang nodded slightly, knowing that Cui Yulan was about to launch her next move.

Exalting the successful, stepping on the down-and-out, and gossiping endlessly about family affairs were indispensable items for any group gathering during the New Year.

Who made a fortune, who fell on hard times, whose husband was cheating, and whose wife was having an affair—these were all traditional, preserved customs.

"Hmph, I could tell long ago that you were no good. Being a factory worker is an iron rice bowl job; how could an honest, hardworking person ever get fired by a factory?"

"Only loafers, vagrants, and petty thieves get kicked out of factories."

Sure enough, Cui Yulan opened fire, slapping a heavy and damaging label onto Chen Huajiang.

In this era, that mindset was deeply ingrained. It was equivalent to being a civil servant in later times; unless you resigned voluntarily, being fired meant your personal character was fundamentally flawed.

That mindset would only begin to shift during the massive wave of layoffs later on, when so many workers lost their jobs that people eventually changed their perspective.

Even so, in the eyes of many older generations in later times, working in a factory was still considered more grounded and stable than delivering packages or takeout, which was arguably a continuation of this very ideology.

"Oh? In that case, since my cousin can't even get into a factory, does that mean he's even worse than a loafer or a vagrant?"

Naturally, Chen Huajiang had no intention of arguing within the confines of her logic, as that would only play right into her hands.

As soon as he said this, the surrounding crowd burst into sudden laughter, clearly not expecting Chen Huajiang to make such a comparison.

Cui Yulan was left dumbfounded. She had already rehearsed her speech, waiting for Chen Huajiang to offer all sorts of defensive excuses so she could keep firing away.

Yet none of it was useful now; she certainly couldn't claim that her own son was even worse than a village loafer.

"Nonsense! Your cousin is—he's—"

"He just hasn't thought about entering a factory yet. He possesses medical expertise and runs a pharmacy to cure the sick and save lives, which isn't any different from working in a factory."

Cui Yulan argued sophistically.

"Oh, is that so? Three qian of nux vomica can cure a cold, cure athlete's foot, and treat rheumatic arthritis."

"Cousin truly has brilliant medical skills; he's a master at healing the sick and saving lives."

Chen Huajiang said dismissively.

At these words, Cui Yulan turned scarlet with rage, her eyes turning red with fury.

"Haha, three qian of nux vomica? I wouldn't dare let your family's Huai treat anyone in my family."

"You said it. His medical skills are just meant to fool outsiders anyway; no matter what illness it is, the prescription is always three qian of nux vomica."

"Yulan's argument makes no sense at all. I refuse to believe that if a factory were hiring and wanted your Huai, your Huai wouldn't jump at the chance."

The crowd burst into loud laughter, instantly hitting the punchline of Chen Huajiang's remark.