"Madam, give me a pack of Zhonghua cigarettes." The man's voice was rough, but his eyes scanned the store sharply.
Sister Hong secretly pushed Feng Yulan, signaling her to go to the back door, and then she went to meet him: "Sorry, big brother, our shop doesn't sell high-end cigarettes..."
Feng Yulan slipped into the kitchen and climbed out the window to the backyard, her heart pounding like a drum. As she reached the door of the hut, she heard Zhang Shumin's sharp voice from inside: "Who?"
"It's me!" Feng Yulan lowered her voice. "Something happened!"
She briefly explained the wanted notice and the strange man. Zhang Shumin remained surprisingly calm, her coat already on, her handbag slung over her good right shoulder. "What did Sister Hong say?"
"She asked us to hide at her sister's house."
Zhang Shumin nodded: "Is it credible?"
"I find it... believable."
"Let's go then." Zhang Shumin handed Feng Yulan a fruit knife—she hadn't seen it from somewhere—"Just in case."
As the sky darkened, Sister Hong's nephew—a boy of sixteen or seventeen—appeared at the mouth of the stream in a small boat. The mother-in-law and daughter-in-law hunched over and boarded the boat. The boy, without a word, skillfully rowed the boat away from shore.
The boat glided silently along the winding stream, with reeds growing on both sides, perfectly concealing their whereabouts. Feng Yulan held Zhang Shumin's hand tightly, and both of them could feel the cold sweat on each other's palms.
"We're here," the young man suddenly whispered, pointing to a few lights in the distance. "Hong Gu is waiting for you."
When the boat docked, a slightly plump woman was already waiting on the pier. In the moonlight, Feng Yulan recognized that she bore a striking resemblance to Sister Hong, though with a hint of sadness between her brows.
"Come in quickly," Hong Gu said briefly, "the people chasing you have already moved into town."
The simple fishing village hut was even more shabby than Sister Hong's backyard, but it was warm and dry. After swallowing a bowl of hot fish soup, Feng Yulan realized that she hadn't eaten all day.
Hong Gu waited until they finished eating before speaking: "My husband came back from fishing and said that the ferry and the road are guarded, so you can't leave for the time being."
"How long can you hide?" Zhang Shumin got straight to the point.
"It depends," Hong Gu said honestly. "People in the fishing village are xenophobic, but money can make anything happen. If those people offer a high price..."
Zhang Shumin understood what she meant. "We won't get you into trouble. We'll only stay one night and figure out a solution tomorrow."
In the dead of night, Feng Yulan lay on her narrow wooden bed, listening to the croaking of frogs outside the window. Zhang Shumin slept beside her, breathing evenly and gently.
"Mom," Feng Yulan asked softly, "Are you asleep?"
"without."
"I...I saw the wanted poster today."
Zhang Shumin was silent for a moment: "As expected."
"Is there really no way out for us?"
Zhang Shumin turned around and looked Feng Yulan straight in the dark. "Yes. Two choices: keep running away, or..."
"Or what?"
"Fight back." Zhang Shumin's voice was as cold as ice. "Old Jin won't let us go because he knows too much—about Zhang Shuo, about his father, about... me."
"Mom, how did Zhang Shuo's father die?"
Moonlight filtered through the window paper, casting mottled shadows on Zhang Shumin's face. She took a deep breath, as if she had made up her mind.
"It wasn't a work-related injury," she finally said, her voice so soft it was barely audible. "He was silenced because he discovered Lao Jin's drug production line. I... saw it with my own eyes."
Feng Yulan felt as if she had fallen into an icy cave. For twenty years, she had believed her father-in-law had died in a factory accident, and Zhang Shuo had always told her so...
"Why didn't you call the police?"
"Call the police?" Zhang Shumin smiled bitterly. "Old Jin was already a district People's Congress representative by then. I tried, but the result was..." She touched the wound on her shoulder. "This bullet, and a psychiatric diagnosis."
Feng Yulan suddenly understood where her mother-in-law's strength and vigilance over the years came from - it was the armor a woman forged for herself after losing all protection.
"So you trained Zhang Shuo to study law..."
"I hope he can overturn the verdict one day," Zhang Shumin said, her voice choking. "In the end, he went back to his old ways, or even worse."
Feng Yulan held her mother-in-law's hand in the darkness. The two equally rough, equally trembling hands clasped tightly together, conveying silent comfort.
"Go to sleep," Zhang Shumin said finally. "Tomorrow...we have to make a decision."
Feng Yulan closed her eyes, but she couldn't sleep. Thoughts flooded back like a tide—Hong Jie's kindness, Zhang Shumin's secret, the photo on the wanted poster... and the fruit knife hidden in her handbag.
Fight back. The word echoed in her mind. Do they really have the ability to fight against a vicious force like Lao Jin? But if they continue to flee, when will it end?
Outside the window, a full moon rose to the zenith, and the cold moonlight sprinkled on the stream, like a silver road, leading to nowhere.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
