Now that Xie Hong had recovered, his grandmother should have been happy.
So why was she crying so hard that she could barely breathe?
Zhu Mingyue was still young and did not understand.
But the old woman understood very well.
A real recovery happens gradually.
Just like medicine—it takes time to work.
Someone who suddenly becomes completely healthy overnight is usually not truly healed.
It is often a final burst of energy before death.
Many dying people appear unusually healthy the day before they pass away.
That was exactly how Xie Hong looked now.
The old woman had only just arrived at the Xie house, but after seeing him, she immediately wiped away her tears and hurried home.
As she left, she nearly bumped into Zhu Mingyue.
This time she acted as though he did not exist and rushed away.
Zhu Mingyue watched her disappear into the distance.
Only when Xie Hong called for him did he return to the house.
Xie Hong felt completely healthy now.
His body felt comfortable, and his appetite had returned.
For more than ten days he had eaten nothing but porridge.
He was tired of it.
So he ordered Zhu Mingyue to cook a pot of rice and prepare two meat dishes.
This immediately created a problem.
There was still some rice left in the storage jar, enough for one meal.
But there was no meat in the house.
“How about scrambled eggs?” Zhu Mingyue asked.
Eggs were valuable food in poor farming families, almost as precious as meat.
Xie Hong became angry.
“No! I just recovered from a serious illness, and you want me to eat eggs? Figure out a way to get some meat. I want meat!”
He already ate two eggs every day.
No matter how good they were, they could not compare to fatty pork.
Then he suddenly asked,
“Where’s that bastard?”
He meant Xie Pei.
“Go ask him for money. Buy plenty of meat.”
Xie Hong knew Xie Pei secretly had money.
In the past, he had searched Xie Pei’s room many times.
Although he could never find the hidden money, he often used the belongings left behind by Xie Pei’s mother to force him to hand some over.
As Xie Pei grew older and smarter, he learned to hide part of his savings.
Still, he always gave Xie Hong something.
Zhu Mingyue did not want to ask Xie Pei for money.
The two rarely spoke.
Whenever they met, Xie Pei always wore a cold expression.
It was obvious he did not like him.
Besides, if they bought meat, Zhu Mingyue doubted he would get even a spoonful of soup.
Thinking about it made him even less willing to ask.
So he wandered around the yard, pretending to look for Xie Pei.
His plan was simple.
If Xie Hong asked later, he would just say he could not find him.
Unexpectedly, the person he did not want to see appeared on his own.
A thin figure flashed past the window.
The next moment, Xie Pei was standing behind him.
Zhu Mingyue jumped in surprise.
When he realized who it was, he relaxed.
For once, Xie Pei did not look completely cold.
His expression was still serious, but much gentler than before.
Then he stretched out his hand.
A large pile of copper coins rested in his palm.
There had to be at least thirty or forty coins.
“Take this,” Xie Pei said.
“Go to the village chief’s house and buy two pounds of cured meat.”
Without hesitation, Zhu Mingyue accepted the money.
Privately, he was shocked.
Xie Pei was already so thin he looked half-starved.
Yet he was still willing to spend money on meat for his brother.
Two pounds of it.
What kind of person did that?
Still, since someone was offering money, there was no reason to refuse.
The weather was warm that day.
The sun felt pleasant.
Many villagers were outside drying blankets and clothes.
Families sat together chatting while keeping watch over their belongings.
As Zhu Mingyue walked farther from the Xie house than ever before, many people noticed him.
“Who is that?”
Someone asked.
Another person laughed.
“Are you blind? You ate at Xie Hong’s wedding feast not long ago. That’s the husband he bought.”
“What? I thought some rich young master from the city had come to our village.”
“No wonder Xie Hong spent all his savings to marry him. Look at that face.”
Someone else added,
“That’s why Xie Hong hid him from everyone. He probably couldn’t stop staring at him.”
Then another voice spoke from behind them.
“Yeah. He almost died because of him.”
Everyone turned around.
The speaker was Wang Erniu, the neighbor next door to the Xie family.
He wore a mysterious expression.
Immediately, people became curious.
“What do you mean?”
Wang Erniu proudly lowered his voice.
“Xie Hong really is close to death.”
“But not because he’s obsessed with his husband.”
“He’s being cursed to death by him.”
The crowd gasped.
Wang Erniu continued dramatically.
“Yesterday I saw Xie Hong’s grandmother visit him. She kept calling him a disaster.”
“This morning she came again and cried her eyes out.”
The villagers were shocked.
But none of them doubted the story.
Stories about people bringing bad luck to their spouses were common.
There were even two widows in their own village who carried such reputations.
One struggled to survive while raising a child.
The other had been rejected by both families and forced to live alone in an abandoned cowshed.
After discussing it, the villagers reached a conclusion.
Zhu Mingyue was definitely cursed.
And because he was a male spouse, the curse was supposedly even stronger.
Instead of marrying a beautiful husband, Xie Hong had married a living King of Hell.
Meanwhile, Zhu Mingyue arrived at the village chief’s house.
It was the only house in the village with gray roof tiles.
The village chief’s eldest daughter-in-law answered the door.
At first she looked confused.
But after hearing he was from the Xie family, her expression immediately changed.
Her eyes filled with contempt.
“Our cured meat uses a lot of salt. Twenty coins per pound.”
Even if she had overcharged him, Zhu Mingyue would not have known.
He had never bought meat before.
So he simply handed over forty coins.
After all, it was not his money.
And he probably would not get to eat any of the meat anyway.
Carrying two pounds of cured pork, he headed home.
Along the way, he noticed something strange.
People seemed to move farther away whenever he approached.
Parents pulled their children closer.
Nobody allowed their children near him.
Before he could think too much about it, he remembered he needed to start cooking.
When he returned home, the front gate was tightly closed.
He pushed it gently.
The yard was completely silent.
Apparently, the old woman was gone.
Xie Pei was not around either.
Fortunately, the gate was not locked.
After pushing harder, he got inside.
Something felt wrong.
Even when Xie Hong had been sick, he always called out whenever he heard movement in the yard.
He was constantly worried Zhu Mingyue would run away.
But today there was no sound at all.
Maybe Xie Hong finally trusted him?
Holding the cured meat, Zhu Mingyue sniffed it.
Immediately—
“Ugh!”
The smell was so strong it nearly made him vomit.
As he walked toward the storage shed to find a basket, he passed Xie Hong’s window.
A small hole had been poked through the paper screen.
Probably made by Xie Hong’s friends when they tried spying on the wedding night.
Curious, Zhu Mingyue stood on tiptoe and peeked inside.
One look was enough.
His voice disappeared in shock.
The healthy-looking Xie Hong from this morning was gone.
Now he looked like all his life had been drained from his body.
He sat half-reclining against the bed.
His head hung low.
He looked barely alive.
The good news was that he was not coughing blood anymore.
The bad news was that blood was simply dripping continuously from his mouth.
Without thinking, Zhu Mingyue rushed inside.
He reached out a finger to check for breathing.
“Don’t bother.”
The door slammed shut behind him.
Xie Pei’s calm voice sounded from the doorway.
“He’s not breathing.”
Zhu Mingyue turned around.
A chill ran through his entire body.
Xie Hong was dead.
Yet Xie Pei still held a bowl of medicine.
And there was a faint smile on his face.
That ordinary smile suddenly became terrifying.
In less than a second, Zhu Mingyue understood what it meant.
For the first time, he hated how quickly his mind worked.
He stepped backward.
Xie Pei stepped forward.
He retreated again.
Xie Pei followed.
Eventually, Zhu Mingyue’s back hit the wall.
His legs felt weak.
“Such a waste.”
Xie Pei raised the bowl slightly.
“There’s still half a bowl left.”
He looked at Zhu Mingyue and smiled.
“Why don’t you drink it, Sister-in-law?”
Zhu Mingyue: …
Since arriving at the Xie family, he had never received a bite of meat.
Yet now he was being offered half a bowl of medicine that might kill him.
Was he really that easy to bully?
Unfortunately…
Yes.
At this moment, he was extremely easy to bully.
Even though he suspected the person in front of him was a murderer, he forced a smile onto his face.
“Thank you.”
“I don’t like drinking medicine.”
After speaking, he gently pushed the bowl away.
It did not move at all.
His smile finally collapsed.
His voice trembled.
“I really don’t like drinking it.”