Chapter 182 Awakened by Crying
Yes, if her father were still alive, Song Chunxue would definitely not have suffered so much.
At least, she can do less work.
No one in the village dared to bully her.
With someone in the family to share the burden, she won't suddenly look incredibly old at forty.
If her father could stay with her until old age, she could comfortably ask him to pour her a glass of water during those days when she was lying on the kang (a heated brick bed).
Song Chunxue comforted him, "The dead cannot be brought back to life, Sanwa. Your father will definitely be able to see you. You looked especially handsome reading in your long gown."
Sanwa nodded.
"Is the second son of the Cheng family here? Have his family members given you any trouble?"
Sanwa was silent for a moment, then said, "Because the second son of the Cheng family is still in the county jail, they were trying to make things difficult for me, so I cursed them back."
Song Chunxue looked at him with satisfaction; the third son had grown up.
"You're going to school tomorrow, so send the fourth brother along. Tell him not to cause any trouble, since it's someone's funeral. If they try to make things difficult for you, just don't bother them and bring them home."
"Yes, I'll talk to the fourth brother," Sanwa said, glancing at the booklet on the table. "Will Mother be able to read tonight?"
"Yes, we need to acknowledge it."
She'd already made that promise, so even if she didn't want to, she'd grit her teeth and learn a few more words.
What's more, she dreamed of understanding the booklet her senior brother left her.
It took Song Chunxue almost half an hour to learn several more characters, and Sanwa even corrected the characters she had misremembered in the past few days.
As people get older, they tend to forget things. If they don't write things down several times over a long period of time, they will still forget them.
Sanwa went to sleep; she closed the door and climbed onto the kang (a heated brick bed).
She pulled the blanket over herself, but after a few moments, she felt too hot to sleep.
Why is this kang (heated brick bed) so hot tonight?
It was so hot it hurt my heels.
Song Chunxue opened the window and asked Sanwa, "Did you add some kang (heated brick bed) tonight? Did you add sheep dung? Why is it so hot?"
Sanwa opened the door. "No, I didn't add any."
The fourth son's voice came through, "Mother, I added it."
Song Chunxue had a bad feeling.
"What did you add, and how much did you add?"
"Sheep dung, a whole basketful."
Song Chunxue took a deep breath. "Wasn't it mixed with soil?"
"No, I'm afraid it won't be warm enough." The fourth brother opened the window. "Should I go and open the hole in the kang (heated brick bed)?"
"Hurry up and hurry up, do you want to burn your mother to death?"
The large baskets used for adding fuel to the kang (heated brick bed) are all woven from willow wood. They are particularly large, and if filled, they can hold the contents of two backpacks.
She suddenly smelled something burning.
Oh no, the mat must have caught fire.
Song Chunxue quickly jumped onto the kang (a heated brick bed) and rolled up the bedding on it.
Huh? Goodness!
The mat was not only charred black, but also smoking, and the wool felt had turned yellow from the smoke.
She quickly pulled the mat forward.
Luckily, she went to bed late. By the time she fell asleep, the blankets were already on fire.
That fourth child, he's always causing her trouble.
He never adds fuel to the kang (heated brick bed), so why did he suddenly remember to do it today?
Could it be that he's trying to curry favor with her?
"Puff puff puff!"
She blew on the mat with a pained expression; it was very expensive, bought by her husband when they got married.
The fourth brother, wearing a coat, nervously pushed open the door and asked, "Is the kang (heated brick bed) lit?"
"Yes, why didn't you tell me you were adding extra beds?"
The fourth brother touched his nose. "I'm sorry."
Song Chunxue was both amused and exasperated. "Alright, alright, go to sleep. I'll put a bucket of water on the kang (heated brick bed)."
"I'll go get it." With that, the fourth brother dashed off in a flash.
Compared to the eldest brother, the fourth brother at least knows how to do things and make changes.
The eldest brother, however, only ever talked a good game. After giving her two buckets of IV fluid, he wanted to keep taking advantage of her.
In the latter half of the night, Song Chunxue fell asleep by the kang (a heated brick bed), and covered herself with a quilt to prevent herself from falling off.
The next day, the fourth brother obediently went to work, and he did the heavy and tiring work very diligently.
Song Chunxue didn't expose his little scheme.
Day three.
The third son of the Cheng family has been buried.
That night, Song Chunxue couldn't fall asleep for a long time.
Because she knew she would be woken up in the middle of the night.
She sat cross-legged on the kang (a heated brick bed) and began to meditate.
An hour and a half later, at the quarter-hour of midnight.
A woman's crying interrupted her.
Cheng San's wife was Li Tang's older sister. She cried all the way from her husband's family home to her parents' home, and then from her parents' home to her husband's family home. She had to pass by the path behind the Jiang family's courtyard.
In the silent night, her desperate and heart-wrenching cries woke many people from their sleep.
The fourth son, who was sleeping in the east room, heard it most clearly.
He must have been suddenly startled awake from his sleep, and without even putting on his shoes, he threw on a coat and ran to Song Chunxue's room.
"Mother, can you hear who's crying outside?"
The fourth brother was terrified. Like a startled rabbit, he jumped onto the kang (a heated brick bed) and pressed himself against the wall.
He pricked up his ears. "Mother, can you hear that? Is there a woman crying?"
“Yes, Cheng San’s wife is crying. Her husband has passed away, and she probably can’t accept it.” Song Chunxue sat by the window, opened it, and looked out at the dark night. “Her world has collapsed, and no one can help her. It’s good that she’s crying.”
"That's terrifying! Why can't she just cry at home? Why does she have to come out and scare people?" The fourth brother's hair almost stood on end. "I almost thought someone was crying in my ear just now. It was like a ghost. I was so scared I almost lost my soul."
Song Chunxue knew that Cheng's third son's wife probably thought she might run into him if she went out at night.
"Did you call out to your spirit?" Song Chunxue asked softly. "If you're scared, you should call out to your spirit."
"Mother, aren't you afraid?"
"What's there to be afraid of? It's just a woman crying. She can cry without being criticized. I actually envy her."
The fourth brother was completely confused. What was he envious of?
Although no lamps were lit, the faint moonlight shone on Mother, and she looked out the window with a sorrowful expression.
Belatedly, the fourth brother remembered that his mother had been through the same thing; after his father passed away, she became the youngest widow in the village.
Cheng Laosan's wife was already over thirty years old.
His mother was only twenty-seven years old at the time.
“Go sleep with Sanwa, you’ll definitely snore.” Song Chunxue closed the window. “She’ll come down twice more, and she won’t stop crying until she’s cried for an hour.”
The fourth brother hesitated, wanting to say something but stopping himself. He actually wanted to say that he was too scared to go into the yard.
But he was also afraid of seeing his mother cry, and he didn't know how to comfort people.
Fine, he gritted his teeth and got off the kang (a heated brick bed), found his mother's old shoes, and went to Sanwa's room to sleep.
Sanwa was also startled awake, but he lay there without moving.
Sure enough, before long, the woman's crying grew closer and louder.
That loud, unrestrained crying was truly terrifying.
Back then, Song Chunxue didn't even have the courage to make a sound.
Although Cheng San's wife wasn't a particularly formidable figure, her husband's family was powerful, and her own family was the Li family, a prominent clan. People in the village would protect her.
When she cried so loudly, no one criticized her or blamed her for scaring people at night. Everyone just felt sorry for her, that she had lost her man at such a young age.
Song Chunxue, however, was all alone and helpless; she could only cry under the covers.
Oh, she almost forgot, she actually ran to the ditch and cried at night.
There was no one in the ditch, so she could cry without restraint and without disturbing anyone.
But she forgot that there were wolves in the ditch.
As she was crying her heart out, she looked up and saw several wolves standing on the path by the cliff in the distance, their green eyes staring at her.
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