Chapter 138 It hurts so much here...
Once everyone had run out, the anxious, almost tearful expression on Jiang Wanxia's face vanished instantly.
She slowly straightened up and looked around the house.
This should have been her home!
And Zhao Wenchang, that man, should have been her man too!
If she hadn't been so blinded by greed and believed Jiang Wanqiu's lies about how wonderful life was in the city, giving up her rural marriage to Jiang Wanqiu, she, Jiang Wanxia, would be the one enjoying the good life as the battalion commander's wife!
She was seething with hatred.
Especially when she thought about the huge sum of ten thousand yuan that her sister had, which was originally Zhao Wenchang's money, she realized that it had all gone to that bitch Jiang Wanqiu by some twist of fate!
On what grounds?!
That money, that man, should all belong to her!
Jiang Wanxia grew angrier the more she thought about it, her eyes darting around the room.
The two old fogies of the Zhao family didn't give their sister much money in their past life, but they gave it all to her in this life. If she hadn't given her man to Jiang Wanqiu, Jiang Wanqiu wouldn't have gotten any of the money!
The money my sister had should have been hers!
She can't get the money in this lifetime, and she can't let her sister benefit from it!
Thinking of this, Jiang Wanxia began rummaging through drawers and cabinets in the house, searching for the money that "should have belonged to her."
In the courtyard of village chief Zhao Weimin's house, Zhao Xiaohua rushed over anxiously: "Weimin! Wanqiu is also missing! Can you find more people to go up the mountain to help look for Wanqiu?"
Zhao Weimin was squatting by the door, repairing a plowshare with a small hammer. Hearing this, he stopped what he was doing and looked up in surprise: "What? Another one is missing? We still haven't found Ping'an, and now Wanqiu is missing too? What's wrong with your family!"
Despite saying this, the village chief didn't dare to delay and immediately went to the village's broadcasting room to summon the villagers to come up the mountain again through the loudspeaker.
This time, however, everyone was clearly less than happy.
"Why are there so many accidents during the Chinese New Year?"
"That's right, we searched all night yesterday, and the soles of our feet were almost frozen off. We've only just caught our breath..."
No one in the village was willing to go up the mountain to find another wheel.
Zhao Weimin listened to everyone's discussion and looked troubled.
He sighed at Zhao Xiaohua: "Zhao family, it's not that I don't want to help you. It's almost New Year's Eve, and every household has to prepare for the New Year. Everyone has already done their best last night. We can't let the whole village not be able to celebrate the New Year because of your family's situation."
"If no one's going, I'll go myself!" An old man's voice suddenly rang out behind him.
Zhao Weimin turned around and saw Ma Jinhua walking in shakily, leaning on her cane. "My daughter-in-law is nowhere to be found, dead or alive. If you won't go looking for her, I will! Let me tell you, when I was young, I was a revolutionary fighter! Back then, I fought the Japanese with the army, and the snow-capped mountains we crossed were no steeper than this back mountain!"
Zhao Xiaohua became anxious upon hearing this: "Mother! How can your health compare to when you were young? Don't cause any more trouble! What if something happens and Wenchang has to come looking for you again!"
Just then, a woman's voice rang out lazily.
"Oh, Aunt Ma, please don't say that." Zhao Hui lifted the curtain and came out of her house, a faint smile on her face, and a gloating glint in her eyes. "Who hasn't lost someone in the mountains? If you can't find them, just let it go. It's better not to risk losing a living person for someone who's probably already frozen to death!"
She was overjoyed when she heard the news this morning.
If Jiang Wanqiu dies, won't Brother Wenchang be single again?
No matter how you look at her fiancé, he's not even as good as one of Zhao Wenchang's fingers!
"You heartless girl! Who are you cursing!" Ma Jinhua trembled with anger and raised her cane to strike.
A young man dressed in a clean Zhongshan suit quickly stepped forward and stood in the middle; it was Li Qingfeng from the village.
He first tried to comfort Ma Jinhua, saying, "Aunt Ma, please don't get angry."
He then turned to Zhao Weimin with a pleading look on his face: "Village chief, count me in. I went to the next village yesterday to deliver couplets and didn't search the mountain. I'll help go up the mountain to look for people today too."
Seeing this, Zhao Hui scoffed and glanced at him sideways: "Li Qingfeng, you're such a pushover! You're from the city, do you even know the ways of the mountains? Be careful you don't end up as prey yourself, then nobody will be there to collect your corpse!"
"Zhao Hui!" Zhao Weimin shouted sternly upon hearing this, "You brat, watch your mouth during the New Year! Don't curse people here!"
Zhao Hui stiffened her neck and retorted defiantly, "Am I not telling the truth? Don't you know how dangerous it is in the mountains? Is it worth risking another life for two people who might already be dead?"
Inside the house, the people were still arguing about whether or not to go up the mountain, while outside the sky had completely cleared up.
The mountain wind howled, but it was no longer as violent as it had been the night before.
The pale sun hung in the sky, offering little warmth, but at least it illuminated the snow-covered mountains and forests clearly.
Zhao Wenchang's tall figure moved through the woods as if he never tired.
He returned to the place where he had found Jiang Wanxia the night before, his military boots crunching in the ankle-deep snow.
It was dark last night, so he couldn't see clearly. Today he wants to see it clearly.
The footprints here were messy, some were Jiang Wanxia's, some were his and the militia's, and some were... He squatted down, stretched out his big, red, frozen hands, and gently brushed away a layer of fresh snow.
Under the snow, Jiang Wanxia's footprints stretched all the way towards the distant cliff...
At the bottom of the cliff, in a sheltered rocky hollow.
Jiang Wanqiu opened her eyes, her long eyelashes still covered in frost.
She staggered out of the ravine, her thick cotton-padded coat torn in several places by dry branches, revealing the dusty cotton inside.
Cold, bone-chilling cold.
But what bothered her even more than the cold was the throbbing pain in her lower abdomen.
She leaned against the cold stone wall, her delicate brows furrowed tightly, her usually charming face now as pale as snow.
She instinctively reached out and gently placed her hand on her stomach.
She rolled down that steep slope last night, thankfully without breaking any bones, but her stomach... she had a bad feeling that her internal organs might have been damaged, otherwise why would she be experiencing intermittent pain?
She looked around and saw nothing but white expanse, with steep snow slopes blocking almost all exits.
The water droplets seeping down the cliff face froze into icicles, hanging there in rows like upside-down fangs.
Jiang Wanqiu withdrew her gaze, but the pain in her lower abdomen made her groan again, and her slender fingers instinctively covered her stomach.
A faint sound came from behind.
She turned around, and there, in the ravine, Ping An struggled to his feet, staring straight at her.
The child was wrapped in several camel-colored woolen coats, with novel styles and crisp materials, which seemed out of place in this mountain valley in Northeast China in the 1970s.
Last night, she rolled down the snow slope and was completely disoriented. The first thing she saw when she recovered was a small figure buried in the snow not far away.
It was completely dark by then, and the beam of her flashlight could only reach a limited area, so she didn't dare to wander around.
It was as if she was destined to survive; she found this sheltered rocky hollow by groping her way through.
Moreover, the wind and snow at the bottom of the cliff were much less than those at the top.
She gritted her teeth and used all her strength to drag the frozen Ping An inside.
The good thing is that her social media profile has all sorts of random things, which came in handy at this time.
He lit the liquor with a lighter, which then ignited the red nanmu furniture he had stuffed into his spatial storage during the ransacking, along with a dozen candles and several pieces of silk clothing.
The ingredients were extremely luxurious, and the fire cooperated, bursting into flames with a "whoosh," its orange-red light illuminating her pale face and finally dispelling some of the deadly chill.
Ping An was dressed too lightly, and his lips turned purple from the cold. She simply pulled out several designer wool coats from her spatial storage and wrapped them all around him.
The fire burned all night, and she didn't dare close her eyes for a second.
The noises in the mountains were terrifying. First came the howling of wolves, and later that night, she even heard the cracking sound of a bear breaking tree trunks and the deep roar of a tiger.
She was so frightened that her heart was in her throat. She kept adding firewood to the fire, making it burn brightly. The wild animals, perhaps afraid of the light, didn't dare to come closer.
Now, looking at Ping An's still somewhat numb little face, Jiang Wanqiu's anger flared up again.
But she didn't react; she just asked in a slightly hoarse voice, "Are you hungry?"
Ping An remained silent.
Jiang Wanqiu twitched the corner of her mouth, too lazy to ask any more questions.
She turned her back, fiddled with her hands inside her cotton-padded jacket, and when she came out again, as if by magic, she had two golden-yellow sponge cakes in her hands.
She shoved the cake into Ping An's hands with a curt tone: "Eat it."
The child hasn't eaten all day, and he's at a crucial stage of growth; how can he withstand hunger?
Smelling that sweet aroma, he couldn't resist any longer. He grabbed the cake and stuffed it into his mouth, eating it quickly and hurriedly, but his eyes inexplicably turned red.
When dawn broke, the pale sun finally peeked out, illuminating the snow-covered forest.
Jiang Wanqiu walked a few steps away, surveying the terrain outside.
Steep, despair.
Apart from the long snow slope they rolled down, the surrounding area was almost entirely vertical stone walls.
But now it's simply impossible for her to climb any higher.
If she were to try to find another way out, Jiang Wanqiu feared that she wouldn't know the way and would get completely lost in the mountains.
She suddenly turned around, her beautiful eyes fixed on Ping An, and asked abruptly, "How old are you this year?"
Ping An shuddered at her gaze, her mouth still full of cake, and mumbled, "...After the New Year, I'll be ten years old."
“Ten years old,” Jiang Wanqiu nodded, her voice devoid of emotion, “that’s a big kid now.”
Finally, she added, "Since you're a big kid, what else can you do besides run away and hide if something happens?"
Ping An's hand holding the cake froze instantly.
Jiang Wanqiu didn't give him a chance to react, bombarding him with words like a machine gun: "Your father and mother were martyrs, soldiers who defended their country! They were warriors who dared to fight the enemy to the death on the battlefield! And you? Look at you! When faced with even the slightest trouble, you just desert, you coward, you wimp!"
"I'm not!" Ping An retorted loudly, "I'm not a coward!"
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