Chapter 56: Joining forces to cause trouble
Torrential rain tore through the night outside the cave, but inside, the torches lit it up like daylight. In the days after the riots subsided, Wu Yuetang and Ye Jingchen would return from their muddy hunts, always bringing back rabbits and wild ferns, which barely fed the survivors in the cave.
The villagers who had followed the two men out hunting, now seeing them returning soaked but with a full load, just lowered their heads and ate their meals in silence - the heavy rain outside the mountain was enough to overturn trees as thick as bowls, and they didn't even see the shadow of prey in the wind and rain, let alone come and go as freely as these two men.
The three Wu brothers, taking advantage of their free time, spruced up their two hidden caves. The eldest, Wu Qingeng, wove a dense fence with vines. The second, Wu Yongqiao, spread cleaned animal hides on the floor. The third, Wu Zhiyun, cut the hides of hunted wild deer into thick door curtains. Whenever their sister returned, exhausted, she would find her little world warm and secure.
However, the peace lasted only ten days. That afternoon, the old man and woman from the Wu family, the head of Maiduo Village, were supported by Wu Shouyi and his grandson Wu Qingtian as they approached the Wu family.
At first, old lady Liu smiled and held Li's hand, saying kindly, "We are all family, please lend me some rice and flour for emergency."
But when she learned that Wu Yuetang was out, her face instantly fell, her cloudy eyes rolled, and she suddenly slapped her thigh and howled, "You are going to starve our own parents to death! Shoutian, you unfilial son, I almost lost my life when I gave birth to you, and now you can't even bear to give me food?"
Wu Shoutian's face flushed the color of liver, and his hands trembled. His father, Wu Houfu, also responded sarcastically, "Our darling grandson is going to be the top scholar, and he's so precious! You uncles and aunts, don't even have this little filial piety?" As soon as these words were spoken, the onlookers began to whisper, and a few who didn't understand the situation began to point fingers.
Li was so angry that she was shaking all over. Just as she was about to retort, Liu's legs suddenly gave way and she collapsed to the ground, her gray hair covered in mud. "Oh my God! You're going to kill me, an old woman! You gave birth to such a heartless person!"
She beat her chest and stamped her feet, as if her heart had been cut out.
Just then, hurried footsteps were heard outside the cave. Wu Yuetang, carrying a bamboo basket full of wild vegetables, and Ye Jingchen, carrying three wild rabbits on his shoulders, rushed in, all wet.
Seeing Liu rolling on the ground and her father blushing, Wu Yuetang sneered and slammed the bamboo basket down. Water droplets on the leaves splashed and landed on the backs of the hands of Old Lady Wu and Liu.
"Hey, what's going on?" Wu Yuetang stood with her arms folded, a cold glint in her eyes. Ye Jingchen silently handed the prey to Village Chief Wang and turned to stand beside her.
In the corner, everyone in the Ye family was still watching. Seeing the chaos in the Wu family, Mrs. Li from the Ye family suddenly wiped her tears and rushed out with her son and daughter.
"Son! You're finally back!" Li rushed to Ye Jingchen with tears and snot, "Since you left, our family hasn't had a full meal! Look at your parents, we're starving and cold, and we're all sick, but you're here, eating and drinking delicious food..."
Her cries intertwined with Liu's wails, and the cave instantly became a chaotic mess. Some of the onlookers shook their heads and sighed, some gloated over the misfortune, and a few quietly peered into the cave where Wu Yuetang had stored the grain.
Wu Yuetang watched the farce unfold before her and suddenly burst into laughter. The sound was crisp yet chilling, causing water droplets to fall from the cave ceiling.
"What a filial piety! Since we're talking about rules, let's make it clear—" Her eyes were like lightning, sweeping across the distorted faces of Liu and Li. "How did you kick my father out of the house back then? How did the Ye family torture Ye Jingchen? Now you're thinking of family affection?"
The cave suddenly became silent, with only the heavy rain beating against the cave entrance, as if it wanted to rush in to find out what was going on in this dangerous place.
Wu Yuetang's questioning was like a hammer hitting her heart. Liu froze in place with her mouth open, her cloudy eyes moving around in panic. After a long while, she shrilled and retorted, "You are slandering me! It was your father who wanted to leave on his own back then. He refused to serve me no matter what..."
"Serve?" Wu Shoutian suddenly spoke hoarsely, his calloused hands clenched tightly, his knuckles turning white. "I've been herding cattle for our family since I was five. At thirteen, because I ate a piece of meat more than my second brother, my father broke two ribs. When I got married at twenty, I didn't even get half a thatched cottage! After the family division, they gave me four acres of meager land! And they've never cared about me since then! Now that I need food, I think of filial piety?"
His voice was filled with the trembling of years of suppression, which startled the crowd and made them take a step back unconsciously.
Ye Jingchen and Wu Yuetang watched Liu's performance coldly. Suddenly, Ye Jingchen's mother Li rushed over and grabbed his trouser legs tightly.
Ye Jingchen bent down and reached out to rip her hand away from his clothes. This action made Li stumble and fall to the ground. She immediately kicked her legs and cried out, "Look, folks! This is the son we carried for ten months! He's going to starve to death!"
Seeing this, everyone in the corner of the Ye family knelt in a row. The elderly father Ye even pretended to take out a dusty handkerchief to wipe his tears.
"Enough!" Wu Yuetang suddenly pulled out the short knife from Ye Jingchen's waist. A cold light flashed, and the blade was accurately nailed into the rock wall. "If you want to make trouble, go outside the cave! If you have the guts to leave, don't come back in!"
She turned to look at the gathered villagers, her gaze sweeping past the evasive looks. "Do you remember who bandaged your wounds when you were trapped in the cave? Who risked your life hunting animals? And now you have the leisure to watch them slaughter each other?"
There were sporadic discussions among the crowd.
A woman holding a child suddenly spoke up: "What Wu said makes sense. If it weren't for her, we would have been drowned in the flash flood."
Several men who had followed him on the hunting trip also nodded, with embarrassed looks on their faces.
However, these sounds were soon drowned out by Liu's cries. She rolled and crawled towards the cave where the grain was stored, clinging to the rock wall with her skinny hands and roaring, "If you don't give me food today, I'll die here!"
Just as the atmosphere was tense, Village Chief Wang squeezed in, leaning on a bamboo cane. The venerable old man glanced at the mess on the ground and suddenly coughed loudly: "Has everything been done?"
His cloudy eyes swept over the troublemakers one by one. "The girl from the Wu family and the boy from the Ye family saved over 300 lives, and now they're criminals?"
Village Chief Wang pointed tremblingly outside the cave, "We don't know how long this rainstorm will last. Instead of fighting here and getting your heads broken and bloodied, you might as well think about how to survive!"
Liu was about to throw a tantrum, but Wu Qingeng, quick-witted and quick-handed, grabbed her by the collar. The burly man said with a sullen face, "Go back to your Maiduo Village and make a scene! If you dare touch a grain of rice from our house again, don't blame us for being rude!"
Before he finished speaking, Wu Yongqiao had picked up an axe and stood in front of them. The cold and shining axe blade made everyone's faces pale.
Seeing that the situation was not good, the Ye family members tried to slip away quietly. Ye Jingchen suddenly spoke, his voice as cold as ice: "Wait."
"You keep saying I'm your son, raised with great difficulty? Then I'd like to ask what my birth date was. Was I born in the morning or evening? And which midwife in the village delivered me?!"
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
