Chapter 73: Hindsight
In the west cave, Wu Yuetang had just bolted the door when she heard the sound of someone banging on it, with such force that it seemed to shake down the stone wall.
"Who is it?" Wu Qingeng clenched the hatchet in his hand.
Wu Yuetang sneered, "Who else could it be? Wang Xiaobin. Liu Linlin didn't get what she wanted, so he's here to act wildly."
"Open the door?" Wu Yongqiao asked.
"What?" Wu Yuetang added a piece of wood to the fire pit, sparks flying. "Let him knock. This cave is made of stone. Can he knock out any flowers?"
Wang Xiaobin knocked more and more urgently, his frozen hands pounding against the wooden door, the pain numbing. He called out several times, "Wu Yuetang, come out!" but there was no sound from inside the cave. A surge of anger surged through his head, and he turned around and searched for a stone to smash the broken door open. He was already embarrassed anyway, so he might as well make a big scene and let the whole village see how heartless the Wu family was!
But just as he bent down to pick up a frozen stone, a hand like an iron clamp grabbed the back of his neck.
"What do you want to do?"
The sound was as cold as the ice outside the cave. Wang Xiaobin was so frightened that he loosened his grip. The stone hit the snow with a "thud", splashing snow foam. He turned around suddenly and met a pair of hawk-like eyes - it was the boy taken in by the Wu family, Ye Jingchen.
Ye Jingchen had just returned from the mountains, carrying a frozen wild boar on his shoulder, with icicles still hanging from his temples. The chill he felt was heavier than the snow outside the cave. As he reached the cave entrance, he saw Wang Xiaobin raising a stone to smash the door, and a layer of frost instantly formed in his eyes.
"I... I want to talk to Wu Yuetang!" Wang Xiaobin stiffened his neck, his calves trembling. He had seen Ye Jingchen hunting, where a single arrow could pierce a tree trunk three meters away. Now, being stared at by him, he felt like a rabbit being targeted by a wolf.
"Talk about it?" Ye Jingchen let go of his hand and threw the wild boar on his shoulder into the snow. "Use a stone?"
The wild boar made a dull thud as it landed. Wang Xiaobin glanced at it, his throat churning. The pig must have weighed at least a hundred pounds, enough for the family to eat for half a month. The greedy thought just surfaced when Ye Jingchen's eyes forced it back.
"My family is starving to death. What's wrong with asking her to share some food?" Wang Xiaobin's voice was weak, but he still shouted, "We are all in the same team. Why does she have the right to watch us die without helping?"
Ye Jingchen said nothing, simply bending down to pick up a stone from the ground and weighing it in his hands. The stone was roughly the size of a bowl, yet he held it like a toy. Suddenly, with a flick of his wrist, the stone flew outward, brushing past Wang Xiaobin's ear and crashing into the stone wall next to the wooden door. It cracked in two with a snap.
Wang Xiaobin was so scared that he collapsed in the snow, his ears buzzing, and he was stunned for a long time.
"Get lost." Ye Jingchen spat out a word, his voice was not loud, but it was filled with unquestionable ruthlessness, "If I see you making trouble at this door again, next time it won't be stone that's broken."
After he finished speaking, he picked up the wild boar and reached out to push the door. The wooden door creaked open. Wu Yuetang poked her head out and saw Wang Xiaobin lying in the snow. She then glanced at Ye Jingchen, whose ears were red from the cold, and reached out to brush the snow off his shoulders. "Are you back?"
"Yeah." Ye Jingchen's voice softened. "I ran into a mad dog. I dealt with it."
Wang Xiaobin watched the door close again in the snow, the orange flames blocked inside, only a little warm light leaking through the crack of the door. He wanted to get up and make a scene again, but the back of his neck was still burning where he had been pinched. When he thought of Ye Jingchen's eyes, his legs became weak and he couldn't move them.
Finally, he could only get up dejectedly and drag his frozen legs towards the cave. In the snow, the two steamed buns he had thrown away had long been trampled into mud, mixed with ice chips, just like his face at that moment.
The firelight in the cave flickered, illuminating the complex faces of the people. Wang Xiaobin dragged his frozen legs back, his cotton pants stained with slush, and the red mark on the back of his neck was particularly conspicuous in the dim light. Seeing him like this, everyone swallowed their words and retreated to their tents. They had just hoped to get some light, but now they felt a chill down their spines.
"Tsk, it looks like we've hit a hard wall." Someone muttered.
"With Ye Jingchen's personality, it's strange he can get away with anything." Another person continued, glancing at the Wang family's tent. "This is a complete falling out."
Liu Linlin had been waiting at the tent entrance. Seeing Wang Xiaobin's state, she moved her lips, but ultimately didn't dare to speak. The two elders of the Wang family rushed out of the tent. The old man supported his son, while the old woman spat toward the cave entrance: "This is too much! Do you really think our Wang family is easy to bully?"
Old Man Wang touched the red mark on the back of Wang Xiaobin's neck, his hands shaking: "Did Ye Jingchen do it?"
"No... I didn't do anything, I just threw a stone..." Wang Xiaobin's voice was weak, but the old man glared at him fiercely: "How could I scare you like this without doing anything? Think about the time when your father and I..."
"That's enough!" The old woman interrupted him, looking towards the Wu family with red eyes, "I just don't believe it! Why do they have such good food and drink? Don't I know that girl Yuetang? A few years ago, she was chasing Xiaobin around, a lazy and gluttonous girl who couldn't even sew properly. Now she's so capable! I think..." She lowered her voice, her eyes were sly, "Maybe she's not the same person anymore!"
Old Man Wang was stunned for a moment, then his brows knitted into a knot: "What nonsense are you talking about?"
"I'm talking nonsense?" the old woman protested. "Think about it, she used to be a quiet person. When did she become so capable? Her personality has completely changed! And that cave, how could they have built it so solidly with just their family? There must be something fishy going on!"
Wang Xiaobin felt a chill in his heart, yet he also felt a faint sense of truth in it. Liu Linlin pursed her lips, not daring to respond. Old Man Wang, with a sullen expression, dragged the group back to the tent, slamming the curtain shut. The murmurs within grew fainter, only occasionally escaping with phrases like, "We can't just let this go like this," and "We need to find a way."
In a corner not far away, Wu Houfu puffed on his pipe, the sparks flickering in the bowl. His wife, Liu, sat beside him, twisting a piece of torn hemp rope in her hands, her eyes fixed on the Wang family's tent.
"Tell me...did we do something wrong?" Liu suddenly spoke, her voice hoarse. "If we hadn't been so clear about it back then, and let the eldest brother's family live in a tiled house too..."
"What kind of place do you want to live?" Wu Houfu knocked his pipe against the sole of his shoe, sparks flying on the ground. "Shouyi is going to get married, so he must have a decent house. The eldest son is the eldest son, so what's wrong with giving in to his younger brother?" Although he spoke toughly, his Adam's apple rolled - he remembered that his eldest son Wu Shoutian always secretly gave him roasted sweet potatoes when he was a child, and remembered that Yuetang, a girl with pigtails, would chase after him and call him "Grandpa".
But as soon as these thoughts came to mind, they were suppressed by the snoring of his second son, Wu Shouyi. The boy was sleeping curled up on the haystack, drooling at the corners of his mouth, as if the sky falling had nothing to do with him.
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