Like a fighting rooster with its neck stuck out, Li Xiuhua marched toward Xiao An’s old family house, intending to kick the wooden door open and give Xiao An a good scare. But when she reached the entrance, she found the front door wide open.
She put her hands on her hips and cleared her throat loudly, “Ahem, ahem…”
Yet Xiao An didn’t come out to greet her.
As she stepped into the courtyard, she started, “Xiao—”
Before she could even get the “An” out, a basin of dirty, muddy water mixed with grimy ash splashed straight down over her head.
Her hair plastered against her forehead as streams of black sludge dripped down, blinding her eyes and filling her nose with the pungent stench of dirty water.
“Xiao An, are you blind—” Li Xiuhua roared with her eyes squeezed shut.
Plop.
Another basin of filthy water came flying from the main room doorway, drenching Li Xiuhua all over again.
This time, not only her head and face were soaked, but her upper body clothes were also dripping with black water.
“Xiao An, how dare you splash me with water! I’ll—” Screaming with rage, Li Xiuhua stormed straight toward the main room.
She had barely taken two steps when yet another basin of dirty water came flying out.
“Ah… you little wench, I’ll kill you!”
Overwhelmed with emotion and with her eyes still blinded by the black water, Li Xiuhua failed to notice the raised threshold of the main room. With a heavy thud, she crashed hard onto the floor.
Holding a kitchen knife, Xiao An stood off to the side, quietly watching as Li Xiuhua lay there, paralyzed by pain for a moment or two before rolling back and forth. It took a full five minutes before she finally managed to pull herself up.
Just as Li Xiuhua hauled herself to her feet, she found herself face-to-face with the kitchen knife in Xiao An’s hand. Xiao An was looking at her with an eerie, dark gaze.
The look made Li Xiuhua’s hair stand on end; her arrogant bluster vanished entirely as her voice trembled. “Xiao… An… An… what are you doing with that knife?”
Xiao An parted her lips slightly. “Cleaning up the house. I don’t know why the knife was left in the main room, so I was just about to take it to the kitchen.”
Though she said this, her eyes carried a spine-chilling smile.
Backing up slowly, Li Xiuhua retreated out of the main room and glanced around at the wide-open courtyard gate.
She let out a long sigh of relief. Thank goodness the gate was wide open.
Xiao An surely wouldn’t dare to actually cut her with a knife.
“You… Xiao An, you used to be so filial and obedient. Everyone in the village envied the Chen family for having such a good daughter-in-law. And now you’re splashing dirty water on your mother-in-law? That’s unfilial! Aren’t you afraid of people in the village pointing fingers at your spine behind your back?”
Holding the knife handle in one hand, Xiao An gently brushed the pad of her finger against the blade, slowly stepping closer to Li Xiuhua. The movement frightened Li Xiuhua into taking another quick step back.
“Your family hid my letters and embezzled my things—none of you were afraid of people pointing fingers at your spines! I was just cleaning and throwing out dirty water; your own eyes weren’t watching where you walked and you deliberately dove right into my dirty water. What does that have to do with me?
“Ah, I get it now! You did this on purpose, you’re staging a bitter-tear act to ruin my reputation… Quick, everyone come look! Come help me reason this out, someone is trying to ruin my good name!”
Brandishing the kitchen knife, Xiao An shouted toward the wide-open doorway.
Li Xiuhua tried to lunge forward and pull her hand away to shut her up, but with Xiao An holding a knife, every time Li Xiuhua got close, Xiao An would pivot slightly and extend her arm, letting the knife slide leisurely past Li Xiuhua’s front. Li Xiuhua never managed to lay a finger on her.
Panicking, Li Xiuhua yelled, “Alright, stop shouting! It was… it was me, I accidentally walked into your dirty water, you didn’t throw it at me on purpose!”
Li Xiuhua had originally planned to use her usual brawling and shameless tactics to force Xiao An into handing over the things she had bought, make her come back home, and continue serving their family like an unpaid servant.
By now, however, she realized that the present Xiao An was practically a completely different person.
The formerly quiet and meek Xiao An had somehow turned louder than her, and even wielded shameless tactics more skillfully than she ever could.
Since hardball wasn’t working, she decided to follow her old man’s advice: play soft.
“An’an, Mom… Mom just came to call you home for dinner…”
“An’an… what’s going on here?” Tian Weiying, the village chief’s wife, pushed a handcart through the gate, the basket filled with the belongings she had previously helped Xiao An bring back.
Walking right alongside Tian Weiying were villagers who had rushed over to watch the commotion after hearing Xiao An’s shout—among them was Li Xiuhua’s good friend, Widow Liu.
Tian Weiying parked the handcart in a corner of the courtyard, fixing a cold, piercing glare on Li Xiuhua. “An’an, is she coming to give you trouble again? Auntie will help you beat her out of here.”
Hearing the word “beat,” Li Xiuhua felt her scalp tingle all over again; she certainly didn’t want her hair pulled out by Tian Weiying.
She quickly forced a grin at Xiao An. “Mom’s just telling you to come home for dinner. With the sun going down, An’an, you can’t possibly sleep out here in the open.”
“Call me home for dinner? Is your family’s stove… fixed yet?” Xiao An asked with wide, pretty eyes.
Those clear, beautiful eyes made it look as though she wasn’t the one who had smashed the stove to pieces in the first place.
Li Xiuhua’s face froze; she couldn’t come up with an answer.
Tian Weiying let out a cold snort. “You call An’an back for dinner when the stove’s completely broken? That’s not inviting her for dinner, that’s trying to get her back home to do chores!”
Li Xiuhua wished she could leap forward and tear apart the mouths of both Tian Weiying and Xiao An—especially Xiao An.
Ever since Xiao An got together with her son, when was there ever a day she hadn’t served Li Xiuhua comfortably, never even raising her voice?
Today must have been cursed; the girl was just acting completely unhinged.
Li Xiuhua told herself she had to endure it. If she couldn’t coax Xiao An back, forget about all the messy chores around the house that needed doing; come farming season, all the field work and labor points would fall squarely on the three members of their family, making them break their backs in the dirt.
And as for food…
If Xiao An didn’t come back, how could they possibly eat well?
“I really am calling An’an home to eat,” Li Xiuhua explained to Tian Weiying, before shifting her gaze back to Xiao An. “An’an, Mom was wrong earlier. Mom just loves you too much, and she was worried you’d remarry after Xueqiang died… Mom couldn’t bear to lose you, which is why she withheld your things. Please… just forgive Mom this once and come back home with me…”
Fake crying, Li Xiuhua wiped the corners of her eyes with her sleeve, though not a single tear fell.
“While Xueqiang was alive, I could call you Mom. But Xueqiang has been dead for over two years now, and I’ve observed mourning for him for over two years while serving your family for two years. I think I’ve done more than enough. From now on, let’s just be pleasant neighbors, shall we?”
“No way!” Li Xiuhua shrieked. “If you leave, who’s going to earn the work points for the household?”
Having let her true colors slip before hiding her tail, Li Xiuhua yelled it out instinctively, only realizing right after that her mouth had run faster than her brain.
Tian Weiying snapped at her, “Get lost! If you don’t get out of here right now, don’t blame me for throwing you out.”
Stiffening her neck to muster some courage, Li Xiuhua retorted, “I’m talking to my daughter-in-law, I’m not talking to you! She might refuse to acknowledge me as her mother-in-law, but I still acknowledge her as my daughter-in-law.
“An’an, come back home with Mom. You and Xueqiang were always so close, how can you just walk away like this? Who knows… maybe Xueqiang will come back looking for you someday…”
Li Xiuhua tried to use Xiao An’s past affection for Chen Xueqiang to trick her into coming back, but the Xiao An standing here now was no longer the Xiao An of her past life.
“Auntie, you really ought to watch what you say,” Xiao An countered. “What do you mean by ‘Xueqiang coming back to look for me’? Xueqiang is already dead. Feudal superstitions aren’t tolerated these days; is my sister-in-law trying to host a spirit-medium ritual or something?”
Hearing this, Li Xiuhua’s expression changed dramatically. Darting her eyes about, she turned tail and scurried off, muttering under her breath as she went, “I… I didn’t say anything! I… I didn’t say a word!”
The moment Li Xiuhua left, Widow Liu sidled right up to Xiao An. “Xiao An, it’s not that Auntie’s trying to nag you, but you just got that money back from your former mother-in-law and you’re already spending it on all these things. You really don’t know how to live within your means. With you throwing money around like this, what man in the future would ever dare marry you…?”
“My business is none of your concern, Auntie. Why don’t you focus on finding yourself a man instead? That way you won’t be dying of boredom and sticking your nose into other people’s lives.” Xiao An stared at Widow Liu with a tight, joyless smile.