Song Sihai knew Old Mrs. Wang’s weakness all too well and immediately retorted:
“If you dare lay a hand on my parents, I’ll go make trouble at Song Weimin’s in-laws’ place.”
In the past, he hadn’t dared to talk back because his parents had been muddle-headed, always siding with his cousins.
But now that his parents had come to their senses and started standing up to his grandmother and the first and second branches of the family, if he continued to play dumb, he wouldn’t deserve to be their son.
“You little brat, how dare you threaten me! Come out if you have the guts, and I’ll beat the shit out of you…”
Old Mrs. Wang hurled every curse she had ever learned at Song Sihai.
“I won’t listen, I won’t listen, the turtle’s chanting.” Song Sihai covered his ears, looking as stubborn as a pig that fears no scalding water.
He couldn’t say he hated this grandmother, but he certainly disliked her.
Like his parents, she had always favored his cousins since they were young, saving all the good food and treats for them.
Meanwhile, he and his siblings were often conveniently forgotten.
He still remembered how, when they were kids, Old Mrs. Wang would often sneak his cousins into her room behind their backs to give them candies and sesame cakes.
Once, he caught her red-handed. He pushed the door open, walked into the room foolishly, and stretched out his hand to ask Old Mrs. Wang for candy.
Instead, he got a slap across the face and a curse:
“Why don’t you just die of greed!”
That day, his mouth was swollen from the slap.
When his mother found out, she tearfully made him a cup of sugar water and then hid in her room, crying for a long time.
From then on, he never craved anything from Old Mrs. Wang again.
“You damned brat, how dare you call me a turtle…”
Old Mrs. Wang was so furious she kicked the door.
Suppressing a laugh, Song Sihai told Song Wuhu to bring a table and block the door. Then he turned around, lazily yawned, and prepared to go to bed.
“Fourth Brother, aren’t you afraid Mom and Dad will come back and beat you up later?”
Through the crack in the door, Song Wuhu saw Old Mrs. Wang’s face had turned as purple as liver, and he grew instantly worried.
“Afraid of what?” Song Sihai shrugged indifferently. “I’m just following Mom and Dad’s orders. They have no reason to beat me.”
Song Wuhu glanced at Song Erhe, tied up in the corner, and felt a mix of emotions.
“Second Brother, don’t blame me. Fourth Brother said we’re just following Mom and Dad’s orders.
If you want to blame someone, blame yourself for not being able to stay idle and enjoy a comfortable life at home, insisting on going to work in the fields.”
Song Erhe’s head was buzzing. These two brats really had the nerve.
He had only wanted to take a stroll in the fields, but as soon as he mentioned it, these two brats had tied him up like a pig.
“Untie me right now!”
“Wuhu, ignore him. Go read your book.” Song Sihai rolled over and soon drifted into dreamland.
…
The closer they got to Yongfeng Meikuang, the more uneasy Shen Xiuzhen felt.
Sitting sideways on the bicycle’s rear seat, she clung tightly to Song Shulin’s waist, her mind filled with the memory of the last time she had seen her eldest son in her previous life.
He lay on a stretcher, covered in blood. One glance was all it took for her to faint.
Later, she heard from Liu Zhaodi that the child’s head had been crushed out of shape, his brains spilling out like tofu pudding, all over the ground.
For a long time after that, she dreamed of her eldest son’s tragic death.
Her Dajiang, such a good child—how could he have met such a tragic end?
At this thought, Shen Xiuzhen raised her hand and slapped herself.
The crisp sound of the slap startled Song Shulin.
He hurriedly stopped the bicycle and looked back at Shen Xiuzhen.
“Xiuzhen, what’s wrong with you?”
“I really deserve to die! It’s my fault that Dajiang ended up like this.” As she spoke, Shen Xiuzhen raised her hand to slap herself again.
Song Shulin held the handlebar with one hand and tightly grasped her hand with the other.
“Xiuzhen, don’t be like this. Those things haven’t happened in this lifetime. We still have a chance to make it up to the children, don’t we?”
It took him quite some time to comfort her before Shen Xiuzhen’s emotions stabilized.
A little past ten in the morning, the couple finally arrived at Yongfeng Meikuang.
Song Dajiang had gone down into the mine, and the guard told them to wait outside.
They waited for four hours.
As soon as Song Dajiang emerged from the mine, a fellow villager who was about to go down told him that his parents had come.
Without bothering to clean himself up, his face still covered in black grime, he ran toward the entrance.
“Dad, Mom, why are you here?”
Seeing the familiar figures, Song Dajiang was both surprised and delighted.
“Dajiang!” Shen Xiuzhen’s throat seemed to be choked with something. After calling out her eldest son’s name, she couldn’t say another word.
Song Shulin took over, “We came to take you home. Go pack your things. We’re leaving now.”
“Dad, did something happen at home?” Song Dajiang asked with a serious expression.
Song Shulin shook his head, “Nothing happened. Everything’s fine at home.”
Song Dajiang didn’t believe him and suddenly thought of something. He said, “Mom, Dad, did you come for money? My salary hasn’t been paid yet. Once it is, I’ll have someone bring it back.”
“No, we don’t want your money.” Song Shulin didn’t know how to explain it to his son and looked helplessly at Shen Xiuzhen, who was standing beside him with tear-filled eyes.
Shen Xiuzhen sniffled, “Dajiang, last night I had a dream. I dreamed the coal mine collapsed, and you were buried underneath…”
As she spoke, Shen Xiuzhen broke down in tears again.
Song Dajiang wanted to pat his mother’s back to comfort her, but when he reached out, he realized his hands were filthy and had to withdraw them.
“Mom, you said it yourself—it was just a dream. Don’t worry, nothing will happen. Our coal mine is very safe. Foreman Cao even said I’m doing a good job and wants to raise my salary.
It probably won’t be long before we can pay off all the family’s debts. You and Dad can relax a bit then.”
Song Dajiang grinned, his white teeth showing, his expression honest and kind.
“The debts at home, your father and I will find a way to pay them off. You must quit this job today and come home with us.”
Seeing his mother’s cold and firm tone, Song Dajiang panicked and quickly looked at his father.
“Dad, talk to Mom. If I lose this job, how will our family survive in the future?
Weimin needs money to get married; Yaozhong and Dabao need money for school; and there’s the betrothal gifts for Hongxia and Xiaoxia—at the very least, that’ll be two or three thousand yuan.
Even if you and Mom farm for the rest of your lives, you won’t be able to save up that much money!”
In his eldest son, Song Shulin saw the shadow of himself and his wife from their previous life, and a wave of bitterness instantly rose in his heart.
Two or three thousand yuan wasn’t nearly enough. In their previous life, these people had sucked hundreds of thousands out of them, and even that wasn’t enough for them.
Suppressing the anger in his heart, he said calmly, “Listen to your mother!”
“But…”
Song Dajiang wanted to argue further but was cut off by Shen Xiuzhen’s scolding.
“Are you Song Weimin’s father, or Song Yaozhong and Song Dabao’s father? Their own fathers don’t even interfere in their children’s affairs, so how can you, as a mere cousin, overstep your bounds?”
Song Dajiang’s face flushed crimson with the scolding. “Mother, what’s gotten into you today?”
It was as if she had swallowed gunpowder—her words were unusually harsh.
Wasn’t the reason he worked so hard to earn money precisely to lighten their burdens a little?