This year, the middle school students had two extra evening study sessions after their daily classes.

Students didn’t have to pay for these two evening sessions, and the school didn’t force them to attend. The teachers received the same salary as before, yet they were working over two hours extra.

But even so, the teachers eagerly vied to teach these classes, especially for the ninth-grade classes. They were practically fighting over the chance to teach everyone.

And not a single student or parent decided against attending because it was too dark out.

You couldn’t find a single child in the entire school who skipped the evening study sessions.

Whether their grades were good or bad, every single student attended.

This was a bit easier for the kids from town, who could leave school together in groups since they didn’t live very far.

But it was a different story for the children from the villages.

They had to leave home before dawn and couldn’t head back until it was completely dark.

The few children from the same grade could only walk together. Most of the time, the boys walked with boys, and the girls walked with girls.

This was the very situation that led some bored-out-of-their-minds loafers from the neighboring area to gather at night and harass the girls walking home.

Now, cloaked in darkness, the villagers of Shili Gou had all tacitly dressed in black or other dark colors, making them inconspicuous in the night.

Not only that, but they also wore face-covering scarves or hats.

In addition, they were uniformly armed with either weapons or flashlights.

An Ning was in this crowd. To blend in perfectly, she had ditched her dazzling yellow scarf and instead wrapped a piece of black cloth around her entire head. She had just cut two holes for her bright, blinking eyes.

This getup made Jiang Xia, who had come with her, suppress a laugh in admiration.

She was just too dedicated.

An Ning was in the middle of the crowd, following Sun Dazhuang’s directions.

The group arrived at the designated location: a road leading to town, lined with willow trees on both sides.

In the pitch-black darkness, Sun Dazhuang gave a hand signal, and the villagers quickly dispersed, each one finding a hiding spot.

An Ning was impressed. So many people moving without making a sound.

An Ning followed orders, hiding in a large tree... up in it.

Jiang Xia, who had been following behind An Ning, had a clear view of her nimbly scrambling up a branch like a monkey and expertly squatting down.

Jiang Xia could only hide behind the large tree, smiling to himself in the dark. ’Her movements are way too practiced.’

「The night was silent.」

By around eight o’clock, the village had fallen nearly silent.

Except for the occasional bark or meow and the wind rustling the branches, it was so quiet you could hear your own heartbeat.

Of course, that might have just been from the excitement.

An Ning patted her chest to calm her heart down.

Around 8:10, six girls walked down the road in two rows.

The six girls, unaware of the village’s plan, walked with trepidation.

They held hands, gripping their bookbag straps tightly, and kept their heads down, wanting to quickly pass through this area they dreaded.

"Hey—where ya goin’?"

"What’s the rush?"

"Stay and chat a while."

The swaggering voices of seven or eight boys emerged as they rushed out from a few meters away, preparing to surround the six girls.

The six girls huddled together in fear, squeezed into a tight clump.

"Let us through!"

"Move!"

The girls shouted, but the fear in their voices only made the boys even more delighted.

"Heh heh... Scared..."

"Now!"

The powerful cry, like the sound of a bugle charge, startled everyone.

Before the boys could react, the villagers, moving strategically, ganged up on them, with three or four people grabbing each boy.

There were eight boys in total. An Ning leaped down from the tree, but she didn’t even get a chance to join the first wave before all eight were pinned to the ground.

At that moment, several flashlights switched on, illuminating the small area.

The girls’ shocked expressions hadn’t even faded. Seeing their familiar uncles, aunts, fathers, and mothers, their noses tingled with emotion, but mostly, they felt a profound sense of satisfaction.

"Old Seventh, take the kids home first."

"That’s right, you all go home now. Go home and do your homework!"

"You’re not needed here!"

The six girls were shooed away by the adults and left reluctantly.

It was a real shame they couldn’t see how it ended.

But the children were obedient and headed back to the village first, escorted by a few of the mothers.

After the children were a good distance away, the boys pinned to the ground started wailing and protesting.

"Let me go!"

"What are you doing?"

"Is there no law anymore?"

"If you don’t let go, I’m calling the police!"

The boys weren’t heavy, but they were full of defiance.

Each one of them looked like they feared no one, as if they were the baddest under the heavens, and they struggled relentlessly.

Too bad each one was surrounded by four grown men. Forget breaking free—they’d have trouble just spitting.

"The law? You punks know what the law is?"

Sun Dazhuang snorted and went up to deliver a kick.

"You little bastard! Who the hell do you think you’re talking to?"

"Cut the crap, let’s just beat them up first!"

A few of the fathers standing by could no longer hold back.

The sounds of WHAM, THUD, fists meeting flesh, and feet connecting with bodies, made An Ning, who was watching from the back, itch to join in.

Too bad she couldn’t get a turn.

After the beating was done, Sun Dazhuang yelled, "Bring out the gear! We’ve been bullied. We can’t just let that slide, can we?"

"No!"

An Ning craned her neck and shouted along with the villagers, pulling a gong from inside her clothes and a mallet from her sleeve.

Jiang Xia was amazed by this act.

"How did you even hide that?"

"How could you climb a tree with a gong that big?"

An Ning found a moment to look back and say, "You have to set the right mood."

"DONG—"

An Ning struck the gong with all her might. Ahead of her, people were banging on basins, playing suonas, and strumming erhus. Those without instruments just clapped their hands.

In short, they played, strummed, plucked, and sang, raising a huge ruckus.

Sun Dazhuang led the way, marching noisily all the way to Five Mile Fort to demand justice.

The eight young robbers were tied up tightly with hemp ropes, guarded from front and back, and forced to walk in the middle of the procession.

The long procession looked very much like a parade of convicts on their way to autumn execution.

A commotion this big was noticed the moment they entered the village.

The people who came out to watch the excitement took one look and realized something was wrong. ’Why is my son in there?’

Some of them went up to ask what was happening. After learning what their sons had done, they took off their shoes and started beating them right then and there.

In the Northeast, boys are only supposed to fight other boys. If you lose a fight, you get a beating at home.

If a boy fights a girl, he gets a beating at home, win or lose.

Not to mention this was a gang of seventeen- and eighteen-year-olds, several years older than the girls, and a whole group of them bullying girls at that.

That was a recipe for a beating to within an inch of their lives.

"You little bastard, you’ve brought shame all the way to our doorstep!"

"Let me go! Just see if I don’t beat him to death today!"

The scene grew even more chaotic.