37. 037 Breaking the Game
"I killed someone?" Er Ya took a step back, watching the blood flow down her pants to the ground. The man lying on the ground kept groaning. She reached out to grab the sickle.
"Get out, don't touch me." Old Xu trembled in pain. He shouldn't have taken off his thick cotton-padded trousers today. If he hadn't taken them off, he wouldn't have had his buttocks cut by the sickle.
"Go and get someone to take me to the hospital," he ordered through gritted teeth.
Er Ya panicked and didn't know what to do. Just then, Ping An walked over, clutching his stomach, with Xiao Yuan beside him, tugging at his clothes.
"Hehe." Seeing Xiao Yuan's uncle in such a miserable state, he was happy and his head, which had been banged on the ground, no longer hurt. "Now he's really a turtle bastard, he can't get up now, hee hee."
"What about him?" Er Ya asked, her hands trembling. She was the one who injured him. She wasn't afraid when she was wielding the sickle to attack him, but now that he was hurt, she was starting to get scared. She didn't have the money to pay compensation, and she was also afraid that he would call the police and arrest her. Her mother wouldn't forgive her either.
"I'm going to find my mom. You two stay here and watch over him." Ping An didn't know what to do either; they didn't have any money to send him to the hospital.
"Oh my god, you got kicked by him, I ran to find my mom." Xiao Yuan stopped calling the person who kept cursing them "uncle" and said, "You sit down, and when Mom comes, she'll take you to the hospital too."
As soon as Xiao Yuan finished speaking, he took off running towards the town. He rushed to the cannery and went straight to the logistics office to find someone.
"Mom, Mom, come out, I need to talk to you," Xiao Yuan called out, panting heavily and his lips trembling.
Su Yu knew something was wrong as soon as she saw him like this, and said to her colleague, "Something came up at home, so I have to go back first. If any leaders need to see me, please ask for leave for me."
"Okay, you go back first." They all guessed that the two children had fought, because the child was covered in dust and his hair was messy.
"What happened?" Su Yu went out to ask.
“My uncle came to find me and asked me to go back with him. When I refused, he carried me away. Ping An and Er Ya helped me. Ping An got kicked, and Er Ya used a sickle to stab my uncle’s butt until it bled profusely.” He took a breath and glanced at his mother. “When I left, the sickle was still stuck in my uncle’s butt.”
"This..." Su Yu didn't know what to say for a moment. "Let's go, I'll go take a look."
It was so sudden. Su Yu hadn't figured out what to do as she walked out of town. She wished Ning Jin were home right now.
Su Yu and Xiao Yuan wandered further and further away from the road. It was already evening, and there was no one left on the road. Worried that Ping An and Er Ya were scared, she pulled Xiao Yuan, who was breathing rapidly, and started running.
"Mom, over here." Ping An stood up and called out when she heard footsteps.
When Su Yu arrived, she first checked if the two children were alright. Er Ya's clothes were clean, but Ping An still had some ash on his hair. "Does it hurt?" she asked, rubbing the right side of his head. Thankfully, he hadn't hit the back of his head.
"It doesn't hurt, Mom, he's not screaming anymore." Ping An didn't care about the pain; he only became scared when the person on the ground stopped screaming.
"What's your purpose in stealing Ping An's property?" Su Yu grabbed the man's hair, forcing him to face her.
"Pah, you wicked woman, get me to the hospital right now, you fucking wait, none of these three bastards will get away with this." Xu Laosan cursed with his lips turning blue. He was shivering from the cold, especially his lower body, where his buttocks were soaked with blood. He was only wearing a single pair of trousers, and he was so cold that he could hardly feel the pain.
“My child acted in self-defense, don’t worry. I will definitely call the police. You’re trying to kidnap my child, that’s human trafficking. If you try to sell my child, you’ll be shot.” As soon as Su Yu finished speaking, she saw the man on the ground’s face change. “You really want to sell Xiao Yuan?”
"Stop talking nonsense, take me to the hospital right now. If I die, you'll all die with me," Xu Laosan threatened.
Su Yu gripped the sickle handle, and blood flowed out again as she moved it slightly. She glanced at it and saw that the sickle tip hadn't cut too deeply, and his buttocks were thick-skinned, so there was no danger to his life.
"That's only if someone knows you're dead." She ignored his grimacing howls. "Look at the place you chose, the weather. Even if I pulled out the sickle right now and slit your throat, then dug a hole in this wilderness tonight and bury you, who would find you?"
As soon as she finished speaking, she pulled the sickle out of her buttocks. "Ouch, a cut as deep as a finger. I wonder how long it will bleed before someone dies." This man was a coward who was afraid of pain. If he had been able to steel himself and pull the sickle out, he definitely could have run away.
"Ah... Ouch... Blood, so much blood." He instinctively touched his buttocks after pulling out the sickle, his frozen hand covered in warm blood. "Let me go, this is all, I won't pursue it anymore." He compromised.
Su Yu didn't speak. She untied the scarf and tied the man's hands behind his back. She stepped on his back and wiped the sickle on his arm. "Tsk, if you cut someone's neck like you're killing a chicken, the blood will probably gush out."
Xu Laosan stubbornly refused to bow his head, cursing under his breath, until the metal sheet touched his neck and his voice stopped abruptly.
"Second sister-in-law, we're all relatives, don't be impulsive." Xu Laosan shrank back, raising his neck and not daring to move. "It was my mother who sent me to snatch my nephew. If I don't do as she says, she'll... she'll give my second brother's house to my eldest brother."
He moved erratically, and the flesh on his neck cut into the sickle, dripping blood. Su Yu was terrified. "Don't move! If you move again, I won't be polite!" she stopped him from moving.
"Am I bleeding? I won't move, and you shouldn't move either." Xu Laosan felt the pain in his neck and became obedient, repeatedly telling Su Yu not to move. "Second sister-in-law, ask me anything you want to know, and I'll tell you everything I know."
"Why did you come to rob Xiaoyuan?" Su Yu pressed down on the blade of her sickle, threateningly saying, "Tell me the truth."
“I said, don’t move around. My mother wants to raise Xiao Yuan in the village so she can see him from time to time and prevent her from growing distant from him.” Xu Laosan hesitated, considering Su Yu’s words about human trafficking.
"I think you won't shed a tear until you see the coffin." Su Yu switched hands to hold the sickle, turned around and pecked at his intact buttocks, cutting a gash more than an inch long.
"Mother!" Xu Laosan convulsed, his hands tightly bound, and he could only grit his teeth and endure the pain until it subsided. Seeing that it was getting darker and darker, and no one had passed by yet, he dared not harbor any more illusions. That wicked woman, Su Yu, was incredibly reckless; she would strike without warning.
“Second sister-in-law, let me tell you. It’s Cai Xiaohua’s younger brother who can’t get an erection and is childless. He wants to adopt a son for 300 yuan and they can still visit each other as relatives. That’s why my mother wanted to trick Xiaoyuan into going back home. She got sick after you sent her home. It just so happens that my second brother’s mourning period is the day after tomorrow, so she asked me to take Xiaoyuan back alone. Cai Xiaohua’s younger brother is waiting at my house.” Xu Laosan wanted to live, so he confessed everything honestly. At the end, he said, “That’s really all. That’s all I know.”
"You heartless bastard! You'd sell your nephew for three hundred yuan! You can't bear to see your own child suffer, so you're ruining my son. If you're short of money to live, you should sell yourself to be a prostitute." Even though Su Yu had already guessed what was going on, she was still furious to hear Xu Laosan say this. This bastard had already taken Xiao Yuan's father's money to save his life, and now he was trying to take advantage of Xiao Yuan.
Su Yu grabbed his hair and slapped him a few times, then pressed his head to the ground and said to Xiao Yuan, "Come on, hit him. He used your father's life-saving money and now he wants to sell you. Xiao Yuan, from now on you will only have your mother, no grandparents, uncles, or aunts. Now hit him, hit him however you want."
Xiao Yuan walked over and stomped on his back a few times. "That's too light, Xiao Yuan, stomp on his butt instead," Ping An urged from the side.
"Hit him with your hands, not with your feet." Su Yu also encouraged him. He was too gentle. To put it nicely, he was soft-hearted; to put it bluntly, he was hesitant and indecisive. Su Yu wanted to change this habit of his.
The painful "Aww--" was muffled in the soil, along with some indistinct curses. Su Yu slapped him on the head a few more times and called for Er Ya and Ping An to hit him too, partly to get revenge and partly to vent their anger. Of all the children, Ping An was the bravest, and Er Ya was probably quite frightened today.
If someone accidentally knocks someone down, the person who knocked them down will be shocked and panicked. But if they are encouraged to knock down the same person again, they are very likely to no longer be afraid of him and will become bolder. The next time they encounter a similar situation, they will not be so nervous that they will feel dizzy.
Ping An took off his shoe and smacked Xu Laosan twice on the back of the head with the sole of his shoe, and kicked him in the lower back as well. Er Ya kicked him twice. They looked at the man who had scared them earlier, who was lying on the ground like a dead dog, and laughed.
"Alright, it's getting dark. Er Ya, you go home first. Don't tell your family about this. Just pretend nothing happened. If I don't come looking for you these next few days, don't come looking for me either," Su Yu said.
"Then... I cut him." She hesitated and pointed to the wound on the man's buttocks with concern.
"It's alright, I'll handle it. Remember, you didn't see Xiaoyuan or Ping'an today, and you didn't see this person either," Su Yu instructed, telling her to go back quickly and not to come out no matter what noise she heard.
After Er Ya left, Su Yu took out a handkerchief to wipe her hands, wrapped a wad of weeds inside, stuffed it into Xu Lao San's mouth, and pressed it against his buttocks. Seeing that he was groaning in pain but had to swallow it, she felt relieved.
"Mom, what do we do next?" Xiao Yuan asked worriedly.
"I have a way, don't be afraid." Su Yu comforted him, then glanced at Ping An and saw his excited face. She slapped him and said, "Keep your expression to yourself. You've got a lot of recklessness in you."
"Hehe." Ping An laughed, squatting down to poke Xu Laosan's wound.
It was getting completely dark, and the wind was blowing hard outside. On nights like this, nobody would usually be out wandering around. Su Yu dragged Xu Laosan to his feet, holding a sickle in her hand, and pulled him back. If he resisted, she would give him a whack on the buttocks with the sickle.
As they approached the alley, Su Yu told Ping An and Xiao Yuan to walk in front. "If anyone comes, cough once. If anyone asks, say you had dinner at Grandma's house and came back from there. Your uncle brought you back."
Fortunately, they didn't encounter anyone along the way. Su Yu dragged Xu Laosan into the house, and Xiao Hei barked wildly at the smell of strangers and blood. Su Yu tossed Xu Laosan under the eaves, not in the mood to cook. She boiled half a pot of water, and the three of them ate some biscuits. While soaking their feet, Su Yu instructed the two children: "I will call the police tomorrow. You two forget about today. You didn't see Xu Laosan today. He went for a stroll outside town after school and came back. Don't say anything else. If you get pressed, just cry."
"that's all?"
"That's it." Su Yu tucked the two children into bed. Half an hour later, after they had fallen asleep, she put on Ning Jin's shoes, gently opened the door, picked up a few bricks outside the courtyard wall, placed them under the wall, stepped on the bricks, grabbed the top of the wall with her hands, pushed off the wall with her feet, flipped onto the wall, and then jumped over the wall, leaving two thin shoe prints on the ground.
She stayed inside the house, and when the tin clock struck 1:30, she came out of the bedroom, pulled the thing out of Xu Laosan's mouth, picked up a sickle and made a cut on his leg. The smell of blood filled the air, and Xiao Hei started barking wildly again, but this time Su Yu didn't scold it.
Five minutes later
"Help! Someone's stealing my child!" She opened the door to the two boys' room and kept shouting until someone knocked on the door. She untied the silk scarf tied to Xu Laosan's hand and ran to the front door to open it.
"Uncle, come in quickly! A thief broke into my house and tried to steal my child." More and more people gathered. With the help of her sixth aunt's husband, Su Yu retied Xu Laosan to the chair and gagged him with a rag. Clutching her disheveled cotton-padded coat, she sobbed, "I was awakened by the dog barking, and then I heard noises in the yard. I didn't dare turn on the light, so I hurriedly dressed, grabbed a sickle, and went out to see this man opening my son's door. I recognize him; he's Xiao Yuan's uncle. Xiao Yuan's grandmother came before, wanting to take Xiao Yuan away, but I refused. Now this man is trying to steal my son at night. If it weren't for my dog, I would never see Xiao Yuan again."
Xu Laosan stared in shock at the woman spouting nonsense, kicking his legs wildly on the ground and making incoherent noises.
Su Yu lunged at him and kicked him repeatedly, yelling, "You heartless bastard! After Xiao Yuan's father died, you took all the compensation money, job, and house he received as compensation. Now you're trying to steal my son. Tell me, are you trying to sell him?"
Aunt Wu came over and hugged Su Yu. "Don't cry, don't cry. The child is fine. He got his just desserts for looking like this. You chopped him so badly that he's covered in blood. Don't do that, you'll scare the child."
Su Yu threw herself onto the old woman and wept bitterly, lamenting her misfortune. She then shouted that she would call the police at dawn and make the child-stealing bastard be shot. Sure enough, her words silenced the "peace-loving" neighbors. Later, some advised her to calm down, saying the child was fine, while others suggested leaving the man out in the yard to freeze overnight and dealing with him the next day.
Su Yu kept yelling that she would call the police and that he should die, refusing to budge. The neighbors had nothing to say, since it was a family matter. They arrived and left noisily less than half an hour later.
As darkness fell, no one noticed the nearly dried bloodstains on Xu Laosan's pants, nor did anyone see the handprint on his face. Seventy percent of the traces Er Ya left in this incident had disappeared. Tomorrow, Xu Laosan would try to explain and tell the truth, but all the victims would deny it to the death. There was no forensic examination and no physical evidence. Tonight, she still had so many witnesses, so the remaining thirty percent wouldn't have much of an impact.
Snatching someone by scaling a wall at night is completely different from taking his nephew back during the day to attend Xu Lao Er's mourning ceremony.
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