Chapter 19 Ayu raised her head first...
Ayu first raised her head and cautiously peeked at Wei Yin: "Second Brother, that lady is asleep..."
Ah Lang glanced at Wei Yin, and seeing that she didn't react, he hummed in relief.
Ayu's eyes reddened, and she whispered to Alang, "Second Brother, Father and the others are going to do something to Sister..."
Ah Lang frowned, and quickly stopped her from saying anything more in a low voice: "Stop talking, have you put the things away?"
"I've put it away." Suddenly interrupted, Ayu completely forgot what she was about to say. She quickly reached under her pillow and pulled out a small thing about the size of her palm. She carefully showed it to her brother: "I hid it away when Father wasn't looking."
In that tiny hand, a small, rough teapot, no bigger than the palm of your hand, lay quietly.
Ah Lang gently lifted the lid of the teapot, revealing a small pot of tea inside. He glanced at it before instructing Ah Yu, "Keep it safe and don't let Father find out."
Ayu nodded, then hesitated for a moment before speaking again: "Second brother... Father said that Afu almost drowned himself the night before last..."
Upon hearing this, Ah Lang's hard little face seemed to suddenly remember something, and then an extreme disgust appeared on his face. He quickly said in a tough voice, "Have you forgotten what he did to my sister? He brought that on himself. Don't mention it."
Looking at the disgusted and cold expression on her brother's face, Ayu also recalled some painful memories, and her little face gradually turned pale. She stopped talking and slowly came to her senses. Seeing that Ayu's little face was wrinkled, he turned to look at Ahu, who was already fast asleep beside him. He reached out and touched Ayu's hair, and said in a soft tone like an adult, "Ahu is asleep, you should go to sleep too."
Ayu took Alang's hand and said obediently, "Second Brother, go to sleep too."
The twins spoke in hushed tones, like the buzzing of ants, so soft that no one could hear them. Not long after they lay down, a loud knocking came from outside the door. The siblings knew that the noise would soon wake Hu Datian and Wei Yin inside, so they quickly closed their eyes.
Wei Yin suddenly sat up from the rattan chair, staring intently at the direction outside.
Hu Datian, who was guarding the outer room, seemed to be startled awake by the sound, and the pipe fell to the ground with a thud.
They all thought it was Ah Zhu who had returned.
However, what came from outside the door were Hu Dali and Liu's shouts.
"Big brother! Something terrible has happened—"
Wei Yin was stunned, and Hu Datian in the outer room was also stunned for a moment. After a while, he got up to open the door.
Wei Yin walked out of the inner room and saw that it was indeed Hu Dali and Liu Shi standing outside the door. They had returned, carrying their son Afu in their arms. Afu was only wearing a white undershirt that he should be wearing for bedtime. His two chubby little arms were wrapped around Liu Shi's thick, short neck. His eyes looked a little dazed, staring blankly at everyone, as if he had not woken up yet.
Liu looked completely bewildered, as if she had seen something extremely terrifying. As soon as she saw Hu Datian, she started shouting incoherently, "Big brother, this is terrible, this is terrible!"
Wei Yin frowned as she looked at her, while Hu Datian was even more bewildered. He asked Hu Dali, who had followed Liu Shi in, "Dali, what's going on with your wife?"
Hu Dali was slightly better off than Liu, but his ugly face was still deathly pale. Seeing Hu Datian, he calmed down a little and said tremblingly, "Brother! I was just going back with Afu's mother when we were almost home. We saw Afu, who was already asleep, come out alone. At first, Afu's mother and I thought he had run away to play, so we went to pull him back inside. Who knew—"
He swallowed nervously before mustering the courage to finish his sentence.
"That child was like he was possessed; no matter how we pulled him, he wouldn't budge. He was incredibly strong, staring intently at his mother and me, constantly trying to cross to the other side of the river. It was truly terrifying. His mother and I dragged him for ages before we finally pulled him back—"
No sooner had Hu Dali finished speaking than Liu Shi cried out in a hoarse voice, "It must be that damned girl Azhu who led Afu to his death! Brother!"
Hu Datian felt a pang of sadness upon hearing Liu's words to Azhu, but he remained silent and lowered his head. He hadn't expected that Azhu had just gone to bother Afu again.
"Yes, brother!" Hu Dali seized on Liu's words and said urgently, "This Ah Zhu is probably really a vengeful ghost. She's going to kill all of us Hu family members. She's still a Hu family member, how can she be so ruthless? I'm afraid that after Ah Fu and the other children are killed, it will be our turn soon, our turn!"
Hu Datian listened to the couple's conversation with a confused mind, not knowing what to say. His gaze drifted to Afu, so he quickly asked, "Where's Afu? How is Afu? Let's put Afu in the inner room to sleep first."
Only then did Liu remember Afu in her arms. She hurriedly went into the inner room, where all the children were awakened and got up to look out. Except for Ahu, who was sleeping soundly, he had not woken up.
Liu put Afu on the bed. Summers in the countryside are much colder, and people need to cover themselves with blankets when they sleep at night. Afu was dressed in thin clothes and felt cold all over from the night wind. Liu saw that the blankets were all covering Alang and the others, and without thinking, she took the better blanket from Ahu and wrapped it directly around Afu.
Ah Lang and Ah Yu frowned secretly, glancing at Hu Datian beside them. Hu Datian was intently watching Ah Fu, completely ignoring Ah Hu, whose bedding had been taken away by Liu Shi. Ah Lang's gaze grew colder and colder. He looked down and saw Ah Hu searching for bedding in his sleep, so he had no choice but to move his own bedding onto his younger brother.
Hu Datian then went to the kitchen and quickly brought over a bowl of hot ginger soup.
Liu fed the dazed Afu the drink, and Afu's pupils gradually focused. After waking up, the child stared at Liu for a moment, confused, and asked, "Mother?"
"My son, you've finally woken up!" Liu cried with emotion.
When Hu Datian saw that his nephew had woken up, he asked Afu what had happened, and Afu told him the truth.
He said he was sleeping in his room when he heard a voice calling him. He felt a heavy feeling in his head and followed the sound outside, but he didn't know why he went out. He didn't remember much after that, but he thought the voice calling him sounded a lot like Sister Azhu's.
Before Liu could finish listening, she shouted, "This is calling back the soul! It's a ghost calling back the soul!"
Hu Dali also cried out in a strange voice, just like Liu: "Big brother, it's Azhu! Azhu is calling for Afu's soul!"
Hu Datian frowned in pain: "It's my fault. If she has a grudge, she should take it out on me... take it out on me... Why did she have to hurt these children? Afu has no grudge against her..."
Just then, Ah Lang, who had been watching silently for a while, suddenly spoke up.
"Is that so? When my older sister was taking care of Afu, if she accidentally went against Afu's wishes, he would grab whatever was at hand and start hitting and biting her. When she told my second aunt, my second aunt scolded my older sister for not being considerate of Afu. It turns out that in my father's eyes, Afu was actually quite good..."
Hu Datian suddenly looked at his second son. The boy's tone seemed to be deliberately barbed, and he felt his cheeks burning. He glanced at Liu Shi and Hu Dali beside him. The couple were glaring angrily at A Lang. Hu Datian couldn't help but frown again and scolded softly, "This is just children playing around. A Fu is only a little kid..."
Upon hearing this, Ah Lang's lips curled into a cool smile, and he silently lowered his head.
Wei Yin's gaze lingered on Ah Lang for a moment. Hu Datian had truly gone to great lengths for Hu Dali's family. After all, it was their family matter, and Wei Yin couldn't really interfere.
With Wei Yin present, Hu Datian was unwilling to continue talking about his family matters, so he said to Hu Dali and Liu Shi, "You don't need to worry. This lady will take care of Azhu. Don't go back tonight. Rest here. Afu can sleep with Alang and the others."
When Liu heard that Azhu was to be taken in, she instinctively wanted to tell Wei Yin to kill Azhu, this vengeful ghost who had harmed people. But then she remembered that Hu Datian still pitied this daughter, so she dared not say anything more. However, she was finally relieved.
Hu Datian asked Hu Dali and his wife to go to the outer room to keep watch, just like him.
Afu stayed in the inner room.
The child was about the same age as Ah Hu, equally ignorant, unaware that he had just almost drowned Ah Zhu again. He lay carelessly on the bed, and when he saw Ah Lang and Ah Yu yawning and wanting to come over to sleep, he glared at his cousins like Liu Shi did, and rudely pushed them away: "You are not allowed to come over, it's too crowded, I want to sleep alone!"
The bed in the inner room is just right for the three children to sleep together, but now with one more child, it will be a bit crowded.
Ah Fu lay down in Ah Lang and Ah Yu's spot, but wouldn't let them come over to sleep.
Ayu immediately became unhappy, "How could you do this? Where will my second brother and I sleep then?"
Ah Fu didn't care, "You all go sleep underground!"
"You!" Ayu exclaimed angrily, "This isn't your bed, why can't I and my second brother sleep here!"
"I said no, and that's final!" After saying that, Afu suddenly lay down on the bed and rolled around, yelling, "You and Alang bullied me! Bullied me! I'm going to tell Uncle!"
"Go if you want, it's clearly you who's being unreasonable!" Ayu's eyes reddened with anger, and she was almost crying, but she realized that Wei Yin, an outsider, was still in the room, so she held back her tears. "I'm going to talk to Father too!"
"Alright, Ayu."
Ah Lang grabbed Ah Yu's hand, sighed and said, "It's no use. Father doesn't want to fall out with Second Uncle and Second Aunt. He'll just want you to give in to him. You're a girl, you can't sleep on the floor. Go and squeeze in with Ah Hu. Don't let him take Ah Hu's bedding again later."
"And what about you, Second Brother?"
"I'm not sleepy, so I can go read a book for a while."
"Second brother..."
Ayu choked up.
A note from the author:
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