Madam Zhou's coffin was placed in the middle of the main hall, and familiar families came to pay their respects. If an elder of the same generation as Madam Zhou arrived, a string of firecrackers would be set off at the door, and then Zhou Jie would come out to greet him personally.
When the two met, their eyes were filled with tears. When a person dies, it is like a light going out. They will always cry. At first, it was fake crying, but later, the people around them also started crying. As they cried, the fake crying turned into real crying.
Mrs. Zhou took the initiative to shoulder the burden of the family and took her daughter to the backyard to accompany the female family members.
Zhou Jingyi stood behind Mrs. Zhou, following her like a shadow, learning her movements and expressions, and observing her language and manners when dealing with people.
Half a month ago, she was still following her mother to learn how to be a housekeeper. Half a month later, she was following her mother to learn how to take care of her grandmother's funeral.
Zhou Jingyi rubbed her aching shoulders. Madam Zhou came in, took her hand, and said earnestly, "Jingyi, your grandmother's funeral is in the hands of your father and I. In the future, your father and I will handle the funeral rites. You must follow the ancestral rules and regulations and make no exceptions."
Zhou Jingyi leaned on Mrs. Zhou's shoulder and cried bitterly. Mrs. Zhou patted Zhou Jingyi's shoulder and said, "Cheer up, there are still many days to come."
Old Madam Zhou was in good health and could have lived to her seventies without any illness or disaster. But now she passed away early. The culprit was the tomb robbers who were envied by God and hated by the people.
If they had not secretly dug up the Zhou family's ancestral tomb, my mother would not have become ill from anger, and would not have passed away so early.
Zhou Jie was holding back his anger, and his concubine at home did not dare to make him angry, so as soon as Mrs. Zhou's funeral was over, he rushed into the prison to find trouble with Yao Wenyuan.
The whip soaked in pepper water was whipped on Yao Wenyuan again and again. After a month in prison, Yao Wenyuan was so thin that his bones were visible. He looked like a skeleton and hardly looked like a human.
If Zhou Jie had not issued a death order not to allow Yao Wenyuan to commit suicide, Yao Wenyuan would have died a thousand times already.
They used every kind of torture instrument in the prison, but they kept him on his torso, torturing him alive.
A long whip as thick as a thumb whipped his face, arms, and back, making crackling sounds of skin and flesh being torn apart.
The red-hot iron pieces were burned on the skin, and white smoke came out of it, making a sizzling sound like barbecue on a stone slab.
Yao Wenyuan still refused to say anything. Zhou Jie laughed in anger, "Okay, very good, you won't say anything, right?"
"Come here, throw him out, throw him at the entrance to the East Street Market."
Yao Wenyuan was knocked unconscious. Two jailers put a sack on his head, one lifted his feet and the other lifted his arms, and then threw him onto a cart with force. They then pushed the cart to the vegetable market, poured the sack onto the ground like water, and walked away.
The old woman who was picking up rotten vegetable leaves stepped forward to untie the sack. The person in the sack suddenly moved. The old woman was so scared that she fell to the ground. Someone she knew helped the old woman up.
A face with hideous wounds appeared in the sack. The street antique dealer took a deep look at the person in the sack and hurriedly ran to inform Yao Dayang.
People at the market pointed at Yao Wenyuan and said, "He was beaten like a monster. He was so cruel."
No one came to claim him until dark. A kind-hearted person brought a quilt to cover Yao Wenyuan. It was already very late at night. The sky was twinkling with stars and the smell of food wafted from around the market.
In a simple brick house, there is a square paulownia wood table, and on the table is a pot of chicken soup. The chickens used in the soup are free-range chickens that usually eat grass in the grassland and have firm meat. A lot of mushrooms, green bamboo shoots, and wild green peppers just picked from the mountains are added to the chicken soup.
The two children were lying on the table, drooling over the chicken soup without even touching their chopsticks. The children's mother was wearing a newly made red dress. The three of them were looking forward to Yao Dayang's return.
Suddenly, the wind blew outside. The eldest son hurried to close the window, and the youngest son went to open the door to look. It was pitch black outside, and no dog barking could be heard.
"Mom, when will godfather come?"
The widow looked embarrassed and disappointed. "I can't say for sure."
The widow took a plate and covered the chicken soup. The two children were growling with hunger. The widow took out a spoon and offered the two children some soup, but they sensibly refused.
After a long time, the chicken soup became cold and the two children fell into a drowsy sleep.
Yao Dayang finally came back, his clothes were stained with blood, redder than the widow's red dress.
"Dayang, eat."
"No, I came to say goodbye to you."
"Ocean."
"I'm afraid I won't be able to come back this time, so you keep this money."
Yao Dayang left a bag of money and then walked into the night. He came and went in a hurry, like a dream.
The widow sat alone at the table and began to drink her soup. The congealed fat on the chicken broth looked like a hideous wound. Life had to go on, and she had to eat. She couldn't fall down. She still had two children to raise.
Yao Dayang couldn't give up his family affection after all. Seeing his elder brother getting closer and closer to him, Yao Wenyuan urged Yao Dayang to leave quickly.
"Yao Dayang, are you crazy? You're falling into this obvious trap."
"Let's go, let's go quickly."
Yao Dayang did not retreat but advanced, "Brothers, we share life and death, and hardships together."
Yao Wenyuan picked up a stone from the ground and threw it at Yao Dayang, "Get out! Get out!"
"Sister-in-law is still waiting for you. If you are arrested, how will the orphans and widows survive?"
The two brothers hugged each other and cried bitterly, but Zhou Jie was impatient to watch them act out the drama of brotherly love. With a command, the archers who were ambushing near the vegetable market drew their weapons, and the two Yao brothers died under a hail of arrows.
The two brothers of the Yao family were criminals. The people in the charity cemetery did not dare to collect their bodies. They simply rolled them up with a straw mat and threw them into a mass grave, intending to be eaten by wild dogs.
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