Chapter 21: My Mother's Story, Just Like Chunni's...
Chu Yanxi followed behind Wang Erzhu and silently walked back to the low mud-brick house.
The sun rose, adding a touch of warmth to this remote mountain village, but Chu Yanxi still felt as if she were soaking in ice water, the cold seeping into her bones.
Chu Yanxi took her pulse and shook her head inwardly. Alas! After the miscarriage, her qi and blood were severely damaged, blood stasis remained, and her uterus was damaged. In addition, she had walked a lot of mountain roads after being sold, resulting in a lack of nutrition. This body desperately needs to be recuperated.
Fortunately, she was well-versed in various subjects and had a good memory. Chu Yanxi retrieved a prescription from her mind, which required five Chinese herbs: Angelica sinensis, Ligusticum chuanxiong, peach kernel, prepared ginger, and prepared licorice root. The prescription was used to remove blood stasis, promote new tissue growth, and replenish deficiencies.
With the mud-brick house in sight, Chu Yanxi asked Wang Erzhu, "Who do people in our village go to when they get sick?"
Wang Erzhu walked forward with his head down: "Getting sick? Rural people aren't that delicate; they all bear it themselves."
Chu Yanxi could tell that Wang Erzhu was a lazy man who would only budge after being hit, so she patiently pressed him for details: "What if you really can't take it?"
Wang Erzhu pointed to a thatched house at the foot of the mountain at the east end of the village: "There, find Granny Miao, she has herbs."
Chu Yanxi memorized the location and planned to go to the sorceress later to buy medicine to brew. As for money, Lu Zhe had given her all the money he had on him before leaving; it should be over three hundred yuan, which should be enough.
As soon as they got home, Wang Pozi, who had been dragged and pulled by Wang Lao Er, plopped down on the threshold of the courtyard, slapped her thigh, and started cursing, her spittle flying in the dim oil lamp light.
"That damned outsider! That childless bastard! And that old hag who pretends to be a shaman! She talked a good game when she was taking the money, but when it came down to it, she was completely useless! What a waste of my two old hens!"
As she was cursing, her triangular eyes darted to the side, and she saw Chu Yanxi quietly move into the courtyard. Her anger suddenly found a new outlet.
"And you! You jinx!" Granny Wang suddenly stood up, her finger almost poking Chu Yanxi's nose. "You dare to spout nonsense in the ancestral hall on your very first day here! Did you conspire with that Lu woman? Huh? Saying that Chunni didn't kill anyone? I think you're in cahoots with her! You're up to no good!"
Wang Lao Er stood to the side, head drooping, not daring to utter a sound.
Chu Yanxi stopped in her tracks, her face expressionless. She knew that any explanation or confrontation at this moment would only provoke a more frenzied outburst.
She lowered her eyelashes slightly, her voice carrying just the right amount of weakness and grievance: "Mom, please calm down. I just saw my older brother die and blurted things out in a moment of madness. What could a newlywed like me possibly know?"
She paused, then subtly changed the subject, her gaze seemingly unintentionally sweeping over Wang Lao Er: "Besides, in that situation, I think Wang Lao Er was terrified too. If I didn't say anything and let everyone beat Chun Ni to death on the spot, what if the police really came and investigated? Wouldn't Lao Er be implicated as an accomplice? I was just worried that Lao Er would suffer."
These words immediately touched Wang Lao Er's heart.
So, his new wife cared about him this much? He recalled the villagers with red eyes and gleaming hoes in the ancestral hall, and then thought about what Lu Zhe had said about hooliganism, and couldn't help but feel a little scared.
—It's all thanks to my wife's compassion. Dazhu and I are brothers; if I were to take the law into my own hands, the villagers would definitely drag him into it. Chunni was drowned, and my mother was satisfied, but if the police were to come, would they let me off the hook?
Granny Wang was also stunned, and the curse stuck in her throat.
She was so preoccupied with the grief of her eldest son's death and her intense hatred for Chunni that she forgot she had another son.
Chu Yanxi caught the momentary hesitation in Granny Wang's eyes and the lingering fear on Wang Lao Er's face, and continued to add fuel to the fire in a gentle tone: "Mom, I know you feel sorry for my eldest brother and are heartbroken. But now that the police are involved, we have to follow their rules. The most important thing for us right now is to avoid getting into any more trouble. My eldest brother is gone, and this family... will all depend on my second brother to carry on the family line from now on."
"To establish a household?" Granny Wang repeated the phrase unconsciously, her gaze falling on Wang Lao Er's submissive appearance, a strange sense of irritation and resentment rising in her heart.
Both are sons, but the eldest was so powerful when he was alive; he made all the decisions at home. When the family property was divided, he got all the valuables, and when they bought him a wife, they chose the most honest and hardworking one. Then look at the second son—he's practically useless, and the wife he married was someone else's discarded trash…
This stark contrast gave Granny Wang's long-suppressed favoritism an outlet. She stopped berating Chu Yanxi and instead turned her ire on Wang Lao Er: "Rely on him? Look at that coward! If he had even half his elder brother's abilities, would our family be in this state? When the eldest son was alive, who dared bully us? Now, with his body barely cold, outsiders are already riding on our necks! You useless thing, all you do is hide in the back!"
Wang Lao Er's face turned pale and then red as he was scolded.
From childhood, he had grown accustomed to his mother praising his older brother and belittling him, and he had become numb to it. But today, his older brother was dead, and he had almost been implicated. Instead of offering a word of comfort, his mother scolded him for being useless. A surge of resentment and bitterness welled up inside him.
"I'm useless? Yes, only my older brother was useful. If he was so useful, why did he drink himself to death? And he didn't even leave a son behind? How much money did the family spend to get him a wife and pay off his gambling debts and drinking expenses? Now that he's gone, aren't we still paying off the debts? You only ever side with him, when have you ever thought about me?!"
"You! How dare you talk to me like that?!" Granny Wang was so angry that she trembled and rushed forward to hit her second son, who was usually so obedient.
Chu Yanxi cried out "Ouch!" at just the right moment, clutching her lower abdomen and leaning against the wall with a pained expression.
Her shout successfully interrupted Granny Wang's actions. Wang Lao Er also reacted, recalling Chu Yanxi's earlier words of "pleading for him," and seeing her weak appearance, he felt a rare surge of protectiveness. He stiffened his neck and said to Granny Wang, "Mom! Haven't you made enough of a scene? Isn't it chaotic enough? She...she's not well, can't you just calm down!"
Looking at the two who were "of one mind," Granny Wang felt a lump in her throat, almost fainting. She reached out and slapped the second son across the head: "I'll beat you to death, you useless thing! Your elder brother is dead, so you should stand up and argue with the clan chief. But you, instead, are on the same side as outsiders, and you dare tell me to shut up!"
Wang Erzhu could no longer tolerate his mother's favoritism: "Yes, yes, I'm useless! Then why didn't you go with someone useful? Let me tell you, now your eldest brother is dead, he's dead!"
Chu Yanxi silently walked into the corner of the kitchen, skillfully started a fire to boil water, opened the cupboard to take out eggs and a bag of hardened coarse sugar, cooked herself some sweet egg soup, and then slowly drank from the bowl, coldly observing the farce. The argument ended badly for both sides. Granny Wang, exhausted from cursing, went back to her house crying. Old Man Wang, on the other hand, was seething with anger, squatting at the gate of the courtyard, smoking silently, not even glancing at Chu Yanxi.
This was exactly what Chu Yanxi wanted.
With no one paying attention to her "sickly" state anymore, she finally got a rare chance to have some peace and quiet and recuperate. After this commotion, Wang Lao Er subconsciously felt that this bought wife was always thinking of him, so he stopped keeping such close watch on her and even tacitly allowed her to move freely in the yard, as long as she didn't leave the gate.
At the same time, Lu Zhe felt as if a huge rock was pressing down on his heart.
After the ancestral hall was empty, he immediately found the village chief, Wang Fuguo, and solemnly said, "Village Chief Wang, the crime scene must be protected. This is crucial evidence that the police will need to investigate when they arrive. It would be best to have two people guard outside the house to prevent unauthorized personnel from entering and damaging the evidence."
Wang Fuguo was preoccupied with the road repair project, and he was quite polite to the writer brought by Li Wenshu, so he nodded in agreement and sent a young boy to look after Wang Laowu's dilapidated house.
After stabilizing the situation, Lu Zhe began the second step of his plan—to find out the truth. Under the guise of "interviewing local customs and collecting writing materials," he casually strolled around the village, trying to strike up conversations with the villagers.
However, progress has been difficult.
When Wang Laowu and Chunni are mentioned, the villagers either remain tight-lipped, waving their hands repeatedly saying "I don't know" or "There's nothing to say," or they unanimously condemn Chunni as a "poisonous woman" and "deserve to die." The silent women, in particular, are like frightened rabbits, avoiding him at the mere sight of him.
As evening fell, Lu Zhe encountered two thin, small figures under the old locust tree at the village entrance—Chunni's daughters, six-year-old Daya and four-year-old Erya. The two children huddled together like frozen kittens, the older one holding the younger one, their faces still streaked with tears, looking timidly at him, a stranger.
Logically, as the biological grandmother, Granny Wang should have taken care of and raised the two children. However, Granny Wang considered them a burden and, being Chunni's offspring, harbored resentment and found them annoying to look at. Chu Yanxi, a new bride, had no say, and in the end, it was Wang Erzhu, her uncle, who gave them some steamed buns and told them to go outside and play.
Lu Zhe squatted down, trying to keep his smile gentle and harmless, and took out two fruit-filled candies from his pocket: "Little friend, would you like some candy?"
Daya watched him warily, protecting her younger sister even tighter. Erya looked at the colorful candy wrappers and swallowed hard.
Lu Zhe put the candy on the ground, pushed it over, and asked softly, "Don't be afraid, Uncle isn't a bad person. Do you... miss your mothers?"
One sentence shattered the child's fragile facade. Er Ya burst into tears. Daya's eyes also reddened; she bit her lip tightly, trying to hold back her tears.
"Mom is a good person!" Daya said, her voice barely audible as she sobbed. "My dad goes crazy when he drinks. He always beats Mom with a stick, he chokes her, and he often doesn't give us food..."
The fragmented, fear-filled narrative pieces together a hellish picture. Wang Laowu is an alcoholic and gambler; when he loses money, he takes it out on Chunni, routinely burning her with cigarette butts and beating her with a rolling pin. Chunni's body is always covered in old wounds, new ones appearing before they've healed. This time, simply because Daya accidentally broke an egg, Wang Laowu threatens to sell her to an old bachelor in the neighboring village who had beaten his wife to death.
“Mom knelt down and begged him, but he wouldn’t listen and even kicked Mom…” Daya’s tears finally rolled down her cheeks. “Mom said… I can’t sell my sister, I can’t sell her.”
As Lu Zhe listened, his heart felt as if it were being gripped tightly by an invisible hand. The children's innocent and fearful voices overlapped with the image of the thin boy deep in his memory, hiding behind a crack in the door and watching his mother being beaten by his father. He seemed to smell the nauseating stench of cheap alcohol and violence in the house, and hear his mother's suppressed, desperate sobs.
He stood up abruptly, his back to the children, his shoulders trembling slightly.
He needed to gasp for breath to suppress the churning pain in his chest and the roar that almost escaped his lips. Why? Why do such tragedies keep repeating themselves? Why must the weak always suffer like this?
The midday sun shone directly overhead, and smoke rose from every chimney. The village roads were deserted. He wanted to find a quiet place to clear his mind, but his feet unconsciously led him toward the east end of the village—to the house of Wang Dazhu, the place where a murder had occurred and which everyone avoided like the plague.
The Wang family's low, dilapidated mud-brick house stood alone in the shadows at the foot of the mountain, its windows dark and gaping like the open mouths of monsters, and a faint, almost imperceptible, smell of blood seemed to linger in the air.
The boy sent by the village chief had long since disappeared to play somewhere; all around was deathly silent, with only the howling of the wind.
Lu Zhe stood outside the courtyard gate, hesitated for a moment, then pushed open the half-closed gate and went inside.
The main room was dark and messy, filled with a strong, nauseating stench of blood, alcohol, and some indescribable putrid smell. The curtain to the inner room hung low, behind which lay Wang Laowu's corpse. Even Lu Zhe felt a chill run down his spine and his heart race.
Just then, he heard extremely faint footsteps behind him. He turned around abruptly and saw Chu Yanxi standing silently at the door, her slender figure appearing exceptionally thin in the twilight.
"Why are you here?" Lu Zhe asked, both surprised and anxious, almost blurting it out. His voice was filled with tension and reproach that he himself was unaware of. "This is not a place for you! You are not well yet, and the smell here is too strong. It's not good for you!" He subconsciously took a step forward, trying to shield her behind him, as if something behind the curtain might rush out and hurt her.
Chu Yanxi's face appeared even paler in the dim light, but her eyes were unusually calm. She gently pushed away Lu Zhe's hand, which was trying to stop her, and said in a low and steady voice, "It's safest when no one comes. Corpses can't talk, they can't harm people, I'm not afraid."
As she spoke, she walked straight to the low-hanging curtain, lifted a corner of it, and calmly peered inside. The room was dimly lit, and the dark stain and raised outline on the kang (a heated brick bed) were vaguely visible.
At that moment, Lu Zhe watched Chu Yanxi standing at the entrance of the gloomy and terrifying crime scene. Her slender back was straight, as if she could not feel the filth and horror around her, and as if she had completely forgotten that she had just miscarried and was so weak that she could be blown over by a gust of wind. An indescribable heartache suddenly gripped Lu Zhe's heart, making his eyes swell with bitterness.
What has she gone through to maintain such extreme calmness and focus in such an environment? And why should she endure all this? Time travel, being sold, miscarriage, and now she has to face all this...
"Chu Yanxi!" he couldn't help but call out to her, his voice hoarse and tense from the emotional turmoil.
Chu Yanxi turned around, her eyes questioning.
Lu Zhe's Adam's apple bobbed, a thousand words stuck in his chest, but in the end, they only turned into a pleading whisper: "Don't get too close. You look terrible. Go out for some fresh air first. If you find anything, tell me and I'll go check it out."
He couldn't imagine the agony of having her, with her frail body, confront that bloody scene of death. He would rather bear that discomfort himself than add even the slightest burden to her.
Chu Yanxi seemed to be taken aback for a moment, then shook her head slightly: "I saw it very clearly last time, this time I'm just confirming that the scene has not been disturbed."
After saying that, she took a step back, which was a way of accepting his clumsy concern.
She quickly and quietly recounted the information she had gleaned from the argument between Granny Wang and her son, and expressed her concerns: "Chunni is still in danger, so you need to keep a close eye on her. Granny Wang bribed the sorceress with two chickens, and she's determined to kill Chunni; judging from Chunni's reaction, she's probably already contemplated suicide and has no intention of living at all."
Listening to her calm narration and looking at her pale, paper-white profile, Lu Zhe felt an overwhelming mix of heartache, pity, and a strong desire to protect her.
An unprecedented urge to confide welled up inside me.
In this haunted house filled with the aura of death, facing this calm yet resilient companion, he felt for the first time an intense urge to tear down the barrier in his heart.
His voice was low and trembled slightly: "Chu Yanxi, I understand Chunni's feelings, I understand that despair. When I was little, my mother was just like Chunni..."
His words were fragmented, each syllable burning his tongue like embers. Though he hadn't finished speaking, the profound pain he felt was clearly conveyed.
Chu Yanxi listened quietly, without interrupting or showing excessive surprise. In the dim light, her eyes softened for a fleeting moment. She didn't offer any words of comfort, but calmly added after he finished speaking, "So, you need to find a chance to see Chunni and give her the courage to live."
These words instantly brought Lu Zhe to his senses and made him resolute. Yes, wallowing in pain was useless; action was the only way out.
“I understand.” He nodded, his gaze sharpening again. “I will keep at it.”
The two agreed on a time to meet again, and Chu Yanxi left quietly. She still needed to see the sorceress to recuperate. Once she regained her strength, there would be many more things she could do.
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