Gu Qingyao could not accept what she was seeing.

She had lived in the doting embrace of her family since she was young.

Be it her father, her grandparents, or even her aunts, uncles and numerous older cousins, they had all doted on her. Although she had been through so much, and others had despised her, they were all outsiders.

For a moment, she could not understand why the Li family was treating her younger aunt like that.

When she saw the bone-deep contempt in Old Madam Li's eyes, she suddenly understood.

Landlord!

Bad element!

Old Madam Li had a bone-deep contempt of people from their background. She felt that anyone from a landlord family was just a slave and a bad element. They should be bullied in order to re-educate them.

Now that she had encountered this situation, Gu Qingyao's mind grew clearer. Even though her younger aunt, Gu Yunshuang, was in such agony she could not speak, she still clutched tightly to Gu Qingyao, to prevent her from losing her temper.

Now Gu Qingyao remembered what her family had said about her younger aunt in her previous life. They said that the Poplar Brigade really despised landlords and bad elements. They absolutely hated them.

Old Madam Li was related to the brigade leader of the Poplar Brigade, so she had no fear.

Also, in these times, no one dared to say anything when people acted viciously towards landlords and bad elements.

During the years that her younger aunt had lived with the Li family, she had led the life of a slave.

She wanted to resist, but did not know how to do so, and also could not do so.

She clutched Gu Qingyao's hand even more tightly.

As she looked at Gu Qingyao's furious glare, Old Madam Li propped her hands on her hips and bellowed, “What's the matter? How dare a little b.i.t.c.h like you glare at me! Look, everyone! Come and look! This girl from a landlord family is so great! She dares to throw her weight around here. Landlords like them are all terrible people, they specialize in bullying ordinary people like us. Look, everyone! Come and drag her away…”

Gu Yunshuang was ashen with fear. “Mother… we didn't… didn't…”

Only then did Gu Qingyao understand that this was not the Qing River Brigade. The Qing River Brigade leader, w.a.n.g Mingtao, had gone to school with the youths from the Gu family, and the Gu family had been kind to him. He had always remembered the Gu family's kindness. Although he did not appear to be close to the Gu family at all, he had secretly protected them for many years.

But things were different here.

The people in the Poplar Brigade were very poor, and the brigade leader had been a vagrant and an extremely poor peasant. He had gotten to his position by suing and reporting others.

The previous brigade leader had been brought down by these methods.

As she was shouting, a man's voice could be heard, yelling from nearby. “What's all this noise? Why are all of you here instead of celebrating the new year at home? Don't you have anything better to do? Don't you know that in this new era, work is glorious? Look at all of you, as leisurely as capitalists. Be careful, or I'll report you. Then we'll see if you behave yourselves!”

When they heard that, everyone's expression changed. The more timid left, running for home.

Those who remained backed away, looking frightened.

The newcomer was called Li Aiguo, and he was the brigade leader of the Poplar Brigade.

He used to be a vagrant and spent his days loafing around the brigade. He was still unmarried at the age of forty, and later on, a group of people had arrived to look for landlords.

There were no landlords in the Poplar Brigade, so the brigade leader at that time had been put forward. Their previous brigade leader had been a rich farmer, and was doing better than the others.

At that time, it was Li Aiguo who had been the most vigorous in clamoring for blood.