Li Xiuhua’s bottled-up fury finally found an outlet.
At that moment, she had eyes only for Wang Chunhua, desperate to vent all the humiliation she had just suffered straight onto Wang’s head. She completely missed what Xiao An had just said.
“I’m going to tear you apart! My son isn’t even dead yet, and you’re already trying to snatch his wife—aagh! Which son of a bitch just kicked me?!”
Li Xiuhua took a hard tumble, going down face-first and planting herself flat in the hard dirt.
Where Chen Jinyou found the burst of energy nobody knew, but he moved with the speed of a young man in his prime. Charging over to Li Xiuhua, he launched himself into a leap and planted a brutal kick square in the small of her back, sending her sprawling uncontrollably back down into the ground.
Chen Jinyou’s voice cracked in a panic, rising to an ugly shriek: “Shut your damn mouth! All you know how to do is flap your gums! Our son… our son is gone!”
The moment he roared those words, Chen Jinyou collapsed into a squat, burying his face in both hands. The raw, heartbreaking wail of an old man mourning his child echoed through the air, carrying a strange, sorrowful sting.
Li Xiuhua abruptly snapped back to reality. Turning furiously on herself, she began raining slap after slap across her own face with brutal force, hitting herself so hard that blood began to gush from her nose.
“My son! My precious boy, Mama misses you so much! If only you were still alive…”
Xiao An sneered inwardly: That performance is practically Oscar-worthy.
Xiao Changzhu offered a word of comfort to Xiao An beside him: “An’an, Xueqiang’s mother is just talking nonsense because she misses him so much. You… you should let it go too. Why don’t you… just go to Kyoto with that soldier comrade and get away from this heartbreaking place?”
Xiao An feigned a look of deep, crushing sorrow. “Maybe… maybe Xueqiang really is still alive? I… I think I heard someone say they saw Xueqiang up in the back mountains…”
Chen Jinyou, still squatting on the ground, froze. Fortunately, he still had his face buried in his hands, so nobody caught the sudden terror that flashed across his features.
Though Xiao An’s words sounded like a casual murmur to herself—spoken just loudly enough to carry—they managed to drift straight into the ears of several people nearby.
The speaker might have sounded casual, but the words instantly sowed seeds of doubt in the listeners’ minds.
“I remember… someone did say they saw Xueqiang and his mother up in the back hills last year…”
“Now that you mention it, I think I heard that too.”
Panicking, Li Xiuhua wailed even harder to cover her tracks: “My boy! Have mercy on me, a gray-haired mother burying her child!”
Chen Xuelan was completely dazed. Could her brother actually still be alive?
If her brother was still alive, there would be another breadwinner in the house, her future wouldn’t look so bleak, and she’d have someone to back her up when the time came for her to marry.
She lunged toward Li Xiuhua. “Mom! Is my brother really still alive?!”
Li Xiuhua genuinely wanted to slap this stupid girl into next week.
She and her old man had been howling up a storm precisely to bury this entire mess. Just as they were about to get away with it, this brainless wretch had to come over and dig up a corpse!
“I wish your brother was alive too, but… your brother… your brother’s really gone.”
“Then… what about what they said… that someone saw you and my brother in the back mountains last winter? Is that true?”
Li Xiuhua had originally thought that since she and Chen Xueqiang had met up in the dead of winter before dawn, nobody would ever cross paths with them. She had no idea that some people really were crazy enough to wander around outside in the freezing cold.
“If your brother were still alive, wouldn’t he come home? Don’t you think your father and I would want nothing more than for him to be alive?
Last winter, your uncle took ill and your cousin came by to borrow some money. I was afraid your father would throw a fit, so I handled it behind his back… thank goodness your cousin already paid the money back this year.
Nephews take after their uncles; your brother happens to look a bit like your cousin, so it’s only natural people mistook him for your brother.”
The glimmer of hope in Chen Xuelan’s heart was smashed to pieces, and the sorrow twisting her features was genuine enough.
Li Xiuhua’s cover story sounded airtight, and the villagers readily bought it.
It doesn’t matter, Xiao An thought to herself. As long as this seed of doubt is planted, the moment Chen Xueqiang’s survival is ever brought to light, the fallout will be impossible to ignore.
With her eye sockets burning red, tears pooling in her glossy eyes and finally spilling over her lashes, Xiao An looked at the village chief. “Uncle, do you think… could Xueqiang really be alive, and he just… developed a change of heart, didn’t want to marry me anymore, and that’s why…”
“An’an, Xueqiang gave his life; he’s a hero. You… you really should just go to Kyoto with that soldier comrade.”
Xiao An raised a hand to wipe away her tears haphazardly, turning to Li Xiaogang. “Comrade, you should head back. Please thank Grandpa Pei for his kind intentions on my behalf, and tell him I’m going to live a good life. If I ever truly want to go to Kyoto, I’ll get there on my own two feet.”
A look of hesitation crossed Li Xiaogang’s face. “Xiao An, won’t you… reconsider?”
“No, Comrade. Kyoto is terribly far from here, and with the state our household is in right now, I couldn’t possibly invite you to stay for a meal. I’m awfully sorry.”
“My jeep is parked at the edge of the village. Why don’t… let me at least drive you and your uncle to the township first,” Li Xiaogang offered, realizing he couldn’t talk her round.
Xiao Changzhu stepped in. “The road to the township goes in the exact opposite direction of the drive back to Kyoto. We’ll take the shortcut on foot—it won’t take long at all. Don’t trouble yourself, soldier comrade; I’ll take good care of An’an.”
With no other choice, Li Xiaogang had to leave on his own.
Xiao Changzhu turned to the crowd of onlookers. “All right, show’s over! Scatter, everyone go on home!” He then looked over at his wife. “Mother of my children, take those local specialties of An’an’s that the Chen family hasn’t ruined yet and bring them over to our place. Once An’an and I get back from town, she can pick them up over there.”
With that, he and Xiao An set off together.
The two of them took the narrow winding footpaths out of the village.
Along the way, Xiao Changzhu asked, “An’an, were you serious back there about wanting to remarry?”
“Remarry? I haven’t actually thought about it yet. I just threw that out there on purpose to completely cut ties with Chen Xueqiang’s parents. I finally see them for who they are—they aren’t sad to lose me as a daughter-in-law, they’re just furious to lose a beast of burden working for their precious Li family.”
Xiao Changzhu nodded approvingly. “You’re right not to rush into marriage, but you will need to keep your eyes open for a good, reliable match eventually. The moment you remarry, the old Li family will lose any legal right to latch onto you ever again.
Actually, if you ask me, you really should have taken that soldier up on his offer and gone back to Kyoto. To speak bluntly, with the influence those high-ranking people wield in Kyoto, setting you up with a stable life there would be child’s play.
You and your grandfather are cut from the same cloth—far too proud for your own good.
Considering the help your grandfather gave those people in the past, whatever they do for you now is a drop in the bucket. You really don’t need to be so stiff about owing favors.”
A faint smile touched the corner of Xiao An’s lips. “Uncle Chief, don’t worry. I have my own plans.
To tell you the truth, I wanted to take the college entrance exams back then. Xueqiang said he was enlisting and worried nobody would be around to look after the household, and coupled with Grandpa’s failing health at the time, I ended up letting go of that dream.
Once I finish dealing with this mess, I’m going to head into the county seat and ask if I still have a chance to take the exams.”
Deep wrinkles creased around Xiao Changzhu’s dark, weathered eyes as he smiled. “I remember you always aced your schoolwork. It’s all this backwater’s fault for being so poor—only the county town has junior and senior high schools. Add in everything that happened with the family over the past few years, and you were tied down hand and foot.
Well, things are different now. You’ve got nothing holding you back, you’ve got money in your pocket, and you’ve got time. You go on and put your mind to your studies.”
Chatting and laughing as they walked, the two of them reached the outer boundary at the tail end of Shanghe Village, when a large crowd suddenly came into view up ahead, swarming around a flash of olive green.
“Are you going to jump in and save her or not?! Are you even a soldier?!”
“Hurry up and go in! If you don’t… don’t blame us for pushing you in ourselves!”
“What kind of people’s soldier are you supposed to be? Have you no shame wearing that uniform?! Sitting by and watching someone drown—I’m going straight to your military unit to report you!”
“My daughter! My poor daughter is drowning…”
Following the commotion, Xiao An blinked in surprise and turned to Xiao Changzhu. “Uncle Chief, looks like something’s happening over there?”
Xiao Changzhu dismissed it with a wave of his hand. “Just the usual old tricks from Shanghe Village. Only heaven knows which poor soul drew the short straw this time.”
Confused, Xiao An asked, “What do you mean?”
“Our neck of the woods is poor, and poverty breeds all sorts of crooked, twisted schemes. Take Shanghe Village—they’re nothing more than a pile of stinking dog turd around here.
Last year, a regular factory worker from the county seat was invited by a relative to attend a wedding in their village, only to get drugged and framed into sharing a bed with one of their local girls during the celebration, forcing him into a shotgun marriage.
Deliberately framing innocent people and coercing them into forced marriages—despicable, conscience-robbing trash like that is a proud old tradition in Shanghe Village.
The people in their village are completely shameless, which is why everyone in Zhonghe Village and our Lower River Village refuses to have anything to do with them.
God knows which unlucky bastard got caught in their trap today.
An’an, where do you think you’re going? Don’t go sticking your nose into other people’s business!” Xiao Changzhu barked in a panic as he watched Xiao An break into a sprint toward the crowd.
Running full tilt, Xiao An glanced back to explain: “Uncle Chief, I saw that person is wearing a military uniform! They protect our homes and our country—we can’t just let these bad people trap him…”
With a look of sheer exasperation, Xiao Changzhu hated sticking his nose into trouble—especially since Shanghe Village was notorious for being entirely unreasonable—but fearing that Xiao An might come to harm, he had no choice but to pick up his feet and run after her.
Regardless of the cursing and shouting swirling around him—even when a few individuals deliberately shoved him from behind—Pei Zhiheng stood as steady as a pine, resembling an expressionless stone statue, completely unmovable.
Yet his hawk-like eyes never once left the figure of the young woman struggling in the water.