Zhou Jinzhu watched the crowd, smiling: "What's going on? What's happened? Is there a performance coming?"
"Not a performance, your wife has died!"
Zhou Jinzhu was stunned and looked at everyone incredulously: "What did you say?"
"Your wife has died!"
"Yes, Sun Chan died from exhaustion while working in the field!"
Zhou Jinzhu was someone you couldn't mess with. Everyone used to keep their distance from him, not saying unpleasant things. But now that Sun Chan was dead, people couldn't hold back. Some were merely watching the spectacle, some expressed pent-up resentment, and some just thought the more dramatic the better, talking about how hard Sun Chan had it, how pitiful she was, dying tragically.
The implication also condemned Zhou Jinzhu. He felt no affection for Sun Chan; she was just a woman, a wild child by the well whose parents nobody knew. Plenty was paid for the bride price back then, and now that she's dead, so be it. Nothing to be done about it.
