Chapter 2
She,
So beautiful.
The gentle ripples of the water, twisting and folding the light and shadows just right, and matching the posture and movements of the little yellow warbler, made it look as if a filter had been applied.
Li Zhuiyuan had also been taken by his parents to see unit literary performances before and had seen many professional singers and dancers, but yesterday he was no less shocked by the little yellow warbler’s performance than his brothers.
Under his parents’ education, he was always very rule-abiding and kept to the rules, yet in that simple shed, the little yellow warbler showed him another kind of wild charm.
It was seductive, it was wanton, it was rustic, it wasn’t presentable, but that smell, it was so good.
She came over, closer and closer, like a person from a painting, stepping out of the painting and walking back into the painting.
At this moment, Li Zhuiyuan had already forgotten his situation, as if he no longer remembered that he was still in the water, ignoring the panic of being unable to breathe and the continuous choking of water in his mouth and nose.
Until,
She stretched out her hand.
Yesterday, when he was squeezing in front with his brothers to watch the performance, the little yellow warbler, twisting her waist and singing, came up to him and even specifically reached out to touch his face, because Li Zhuiyuan, among that group of children, was fair and clean like a porcelain doll.
Originally, Li Zhuiyuan still expected her to touch him again.
But,
This time she stretched out both hands.
Both hands grabbed Li Zhuiyuan’s shoulders.
“So cold… so painful…”
In an instant, the sense of atmosphere was twisted and torn, and that strange, inexplicable fascination disappeared.
In Li Zhuiyuan’s eyes, fear finally appeared, like a person whose anesthesia had worn off and who finally regained the sense of pain.
He wanted to struggle, to avoid, to escape, but those hands gripped him tightly, and no matter how he thrashed, he couldn’t break free.
At this time, a force came from behind.
Li Zhuiyuan felt himself being pulled, like playing tug-of-war at school before, but this time he was the rope.
Finally, accompanied by some kind of detachment, Li Zhuiyuan was pulled up.
In his vision, he floated up, higher and higher, and the little yellow warbler below became more and more distant and smaller.
Her arms were raised towards him, and between the two of them, an abyss that was originally impossible to appear gradually separated them.
“Hey yo!”
Fortunately, his grandson had a bamboo basket on him, and Li Weihan just grabbed this bamboo basket and pulled upwards.
It sank, that kind of dead, heavy sink, clearly just a child, but Li Weihan felt like he was competing with an angry plow ox.
Below, there was a force that wouldn’t let his grandson come up.
Lei Zi also came over to help at this time, hugging Li Weihan’s waist and pulling backwards.
Finally,
“Splash!”
When the grandson was pulled out of the water, that force suddenly disappeared, and Li Weihan, Lei Zi, and Li Zhuiyuan, who had just been pulled out, fell onto the boat together.
“Quick, go!”
Li Weihan didn’t have time to get up and just roared at Pan Zi.
Pan Zi didn’t mess up this time, using all his might to pole, quickly moving towards the other side.
“Grandpa, she’s coming, coming!”
Lei Zi pointed towards the front in a panic.
Li Weihan looked in that direction, only to see that as the boat moved, the clump of black hair on the water surface actually followed towards them.
She was chasing!
“Lei Hou, go help Pan Hou pole the boat, quick!”
“Okay, Grandpa.”
Lei Zi got up and ran, and the two brothers shouted slogans and worked together, the boat’s speed accelerating further.
Li Weihan then picked up a fishing rod, his expression solemn. After discovering that the clump of hair was actually shortening the distance with the boat, Li Weihan shouted loudly, and stabbed the fishing rod into the water a little ahead of that clump of hair.
The fishing rod entered the water, it should have hit something but didn’t receive the slightest resistance, instead, a huge force appeared, pulling the fishing rod downwards continuously.
“Oh…”
Li Weihan exclaimed, fortunately, he released his grip on the fishing rod in time, otherwise, he would have been dragged into the water by this terrifying force.
The hair, closer now.
Standing on the edge of the boat, Li Weihan could see the figure of a woman in a black cheongsam under the water in front of him.
Clearly, the river was flowing east, but she was moving against the current.
She was walking, she was really walking by herself!
“Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!”
The boat began to shake, and it got more and more intense step by step.
Li Weihan found it hard to imagine what the consequences would be if the boat flipped and he and his grandsons fell into the water. This was no longer a matter of whether the water was good or not, this death was truly evil!
At this moment, Li Weihan’s gaze swept over the fishing net under his feet, and without thinking more, he immediately grabbed the fishing net and threw it down towards the hair, which was now less than two meters away from the boat.
The fishing net first covered the water surface, and soon half of it sank.
Initially, the fishing net on the water surface was still being dragged forward, but gradually, its speed slowed down, and finally, it stopped.
It worked, it tripped her!
Li Weihan rushed to the stern of the boat, reached out and snatched the bamboo pole: “You go see Xiao Yuan Hou!”
“Okay, Grandpa.”
Pan Zi and Lei Zi were just older children after all, and the previous intense poling had already exhausted the two boys. After Li Weihan took over, they immediately ran to Li Zhuiyuan’s side.
“Yuan Zi, Yuan Zi? Yuan Zi, wake up, wake up quickly!”
“Grandpa, Yuan Zi won’t wake up.”
Li Weihan poled the boat while continuing to look back at the gradually distant fishing net, shouting: “Is he breathing!”
“Grandpa, he’s breathing!”
“Pat Xiao Yuan Hou’s back.”
The two brothers immediately followed the instructions, one helping Li Zhuiyuan sit up and the other patting his back with his hand.
But after a long time, Li Zhuiyuan still didn’t wake up.
“Grandpa, it’s no use!”
Li Weihan didn’t answer, just gritted his teeth and continued to pole, not daring to wipe the sweat that flowed into his eyes.
Finally, the boat reached home. Li Weihan threw the bamboo pole aside, didn’t bother to tie the boat rope, picked up Li Zhuiyuan and jumped off the boat. But he was already very exhausted, and his body staggered when he jumped down. In order to protect his grandson in his arms, he could only use his knee to resist the bluestone steps below.
“Hiss…”
His knee was cut open, but the next moment he forced himself up, carried the child into the house:
“Gui Ying, Gui Ying!”
“You’re back so early?” Cui Guiying was just cleaning ash behind the stove. Hearing the sound, she stood up and saw her old partner carrying a child, and immediately shouted anxiously, “What, what, what’s wrong with the child?”
Li Weihan first carried the child to a mat in the inner room. There were many children at home, and they might not fit on the bed. It was summer at this time, so they all slept on the floor at night.
Cui Guiying held up Li Zhuiyuan’s head and gently patted his face, but found that the child wouldn’t wake up no matter how she called, and immediately cried:
“Oh, my child, my child, what’s wrong with you?”
“Don’t howl!” Li Weihan kicked Cui Guiying’s calf, “Quick, change the child into a set of dry clothes.”
Cui Guiying quickly wiped the corner of her eye, got up and went to get clothes.
“Pan Zi, go call Zheng Da Tong!”
“Okay, Grandpa.”
Zheng Da Tong’s real name was Zheng Hua Min, and he was the doctor at Siyuan Village clinic, also a barefoot doctor. Because he liked to deliberately scare children with a big syringe, the children first gave him this nickname, and after a long time, the adults also called him that.
“Lei Zi, go call Liu Xia Zi.”
“Okay, Grandpa.”
Liu Xia Zi’s original name was Liu Jin Xia. Her parents died early, and her uncle made the decision to arrange for her to marry over from Si An Town. The first year she was married, her in-laws successively fell ill and died, which made who knows how many daughters-in-law in the village envious and cry.
As a result, the second year, her husband went to the toilet drunk at night, fell into a manure pit and drowned, leaving only a newborn daughter.
At that time, the village was just rumor about Liu Jin Xia having a hard life.
It was difficult for a widow to raise a child, so Liu Jin Xia, in addition to managing farm work at home, also did business helping people calculate fortunes and ward off bad luck. Her rumors spread more fiercely, and the people who believed in her ability increased.
This year, even digging food in the fields could only fill their stomachs, and they needed to rely on other businesses to make a living. Liu Jin Xia relied on this business and managed to find a son-in-law for her daughter Li Juxiang.
As a result, the second year this son-in-law entered the family, he said he had sudden heart disease and died while planting seedlings in the field, just falling headfirst into the field.
Leaving behind Li Juxiang and her equally newborn daughter.
This time, not to mention the village, even the people in these four li and eight townships all affirmed that Liu Jin Xia’s branch had a bad fate, and Liu Jin Xia’s business consequently improved.
She also simply rented out her fields to others to cultivate, and let her daughter buy a tricycle from town. Wherever there was business, she would let her daughter Li Juxiang ride the tricycle and carry her there.
In previous years, Liu Jin Xia developed cataracts and her eyes couldn’t see clearly, which also completed her personal business image.
Here, Cui Guiying had just finished changing Li Zhuiyuan’s wet clothes when she saw her old partner take a ladle of well water and rinse the blood on his knee, then open the lock cabinet and take out three packs of cigarettes from inside.
He threw one pack to Cui Guiying first, instructing: “When Zheng Da Tong comes, tear one open and pull out one stick, and pull out another stick when he leaves. Hang the medicine fee on the account.”
Immediately, Li Weihan threw over another pack: “Give Liu Xia Zi a whole pack, don’t say anything else.”
Cui Guiying reminded: “I heard that Liu Xia Zi charges a lot for one job now.”
Li Weihan shook his head: “She may be blind in the eye, but not in conscience.”
Liu Jin Xia’s husband grew up playing in the mud with Li Weihan. In the few years after her husband passed away, it was difficult for the widowed family, and Li Weihan often sent some relief and helped out during busy farming times. Therefore, Li Weihan was also often talked about at that time.
Although they didn’t interact much now, if Liu Xia Zi dared to accept money from his family, he Li Weihan would dare to spit on her face.
The last pack was put into Li Weihan’s pocket.
Cui Guiying was surprised: “Are you going out?”
Li Weihan nodded: “I’m going to find Uncle Sanjiang.”
“What! What are you all doing?”
Li Weihan swept his gaze around the children and glared at his old partner: “I’ll tell you when I come back.”
With that, Li Weihan pushed his 28-bar bicycle out the door.
Cui Guiying sat back on the mat edge, gently stroked Li Zhuiyuan, and continuously called his name.
A little granddaughter asked curiously: “What’s wrong with Brother Yuan Zi?”
Hu Zi immediately said: “I know, Brother Yuan Zi met a water monkey and was pulled down as a substitute ghost!”
For a time, the children around them all showed fearful expressions on their faces and retreated in a flock.
“Pa!”
A slap mark appeared on Hu Zi’s face.
Cui Guiying scolded: “Pah, you crazy kid talking nonsense, go outside and see if the people you invited have arrived, quick, go!”
“Hey! I’m going!”
Hu Zi wasn’t pretentious either, although the slap hurt, he didn’t really take it to heart. He grabbed Stone and several others and ran out to look for people.
Cui Guiying instructed her eldest granddaughter Ying Zi to help her get a bowl of water and a needle. She took the needle, scratched Li Zhuiyuan’s forehead and the top of his head several times, then placed the needle flat in the bowl.
There was such a custom in the local area, if someone at home had a headache, fever, or was uncomfortable, they would use this needle to ‘call’ it.
Not long after, a sound came from outside: “Zheng Da Tong is here, Zheng Da Tong is here!”
Zheng Da Tong entered the house with a wooden medicine box on his back.
“Doctor Zheng, take a look at the child, take a look at the child.”
Cui Guiying took out the cigarettes, opened the seal, pulled out one stick and handed it over.
Zheng Da Tong received the cigarette, clipped it on his ear, squatted down, looked at Li Zhuiyuan, and asked: “What’s wrong with the child?”
“He fell into the water and hasn’t woken up yet.”
“Fell into the water?” Zheng Da Tong first pried open Li Zhuiyuan’s mouth and nose, then opened his eyelids to look, and then took out a stethoscope from the box and listened carefully.
When he put away the stethoscope, Cui Guiying came over and asked: “Doctor Zheng, how is it?”
Zheng Da Tong frowned, helped Li Zhuiyuan up, and Cui Guiying quickly reached out to help.
After patting the child’s back, and observing for a while, Zheng Da Tong put the child back down, took the cigarette from his ear and bit it in his mouth.
Cui Guiying quickly got up and went to the stove to get matches, but saw that Zheng Da Tong had already lit it himself and took a few drags.
“How is it, doctor?”
Zheng Da Tong looked at Cui Guiying: “How long has the child been in the water?”
Cui Guiying looked at Pan Zi.
Pan Zi: “Just a little while, Grandpa just pulled Yuan Zi up after he fell.”
Zheng Da Tong frowned again, took a big drag of his cigarette, and after exhaling a smoke ring, said: “Auntie, the child didn’t drown, nor did he choke on water, there’s nothing wrong.”
“Then why hasn’t he woken up?” Cui Guiying asked.
“Take the child to the town health center for another check, it might be another problem.” Zheng Da Tong packed his things, stood up, he was helpless.
Cui Guiying pulled out another stick of cigarette and handed it to him.
“No smoking, no smoking.” He said, while taking this stick of cigarette and clipping it on his ear.
Immediately, after smoking the cigarette in his mouth down to the filter, Zheng Da Tong threw the cigarette butt on the ground and stepped on it, saying in a low voice: “Did you ask Liu Xia Zi to come?”
“Ah, we did.” Cui Guiying was a little embarrassed.
Zheng Da Tong nodded. Pan Zi had told him something on the way here. At this time, he just instructed: “If he’s still not awake by evening, send him to town early tomorrow morning.”
“Okay, okay, thank you for your trouble, trouble.”
At this time, Lei Zi ran in, wiped the sweat from his face with his hand, and said to Cui Guiying: “Liu Xia Zi is here.”
Cui Guiying reprimanded: “You brat, no respect for elders, you should call her Grandma Liu.”
Zheng Da Tong knew he should make way and walked out the door, just seeing a tricycle being ridden over in the distance, with an old woman sitting on the car.
“Heh…”
Zheng Da Tong suddenly remembered the various new medicines that were being promoted in the newspapers recently, wasn’t he just participating in that, hey, what was it called?
Oh, right…
Combination of Chinese and Western medicine.
Lei Zi ran home first to notify, Li Juxiang was pedaling the tricycle behind, complaining a little: “Mom, you shouldn’t dawdle like this, you should have come earlier.”
Earlier, someone from the neighboring Shi Gang Town came to discuss the arrangements for her old mother’s afterlife. Originally, she could have let the person wait at home and come here first, but her mother insisted on finishing that person’s matter first and then dawdled after going to the toilet.
Sitting on the small stool in the back, Liu Jin Xia exhaled a smoke ring, not in a good mood: “Why hurry, anyway, we can’t accept money from his family again.”
“Mom, are you really good enough to accept it?”
“Pah, if he gives it to me, I’ll accept it.”
“But I remember when I was little, Uncle Han helped us a lot.”
“He has four sons, why didn’t he send one to me?” Liu Jin Xia flicked some ash from her cigarette, “They’re all not marrying in, I don’t want his family’s dowry either, he didn’t even want me to give him a daughter-in-law for free, heh!”
“You can’t blame Uncle Han for that.”
“I’m telling you, Xiang Hou, no matter how much other people talk nonsense about us, we are mother and daughter. After all, mouths grow on people’s faces, why do you want to belittle yourself like this?” Li Juxiang pursed her lips.
“Xiang Hou, Xiao Cui Hou is still young, your mom doesn’t have many years left to live. Xiao Cui Hou will still need you in the future. What if there’s no man? I, Liu Jin Xia, just want to prove that without a man, our mother and daughter can also eat well, drink spicy, and live better than others!”
“We’re here, Mom.”
The tricycle rode onto the dam and came to the old Li family’s door.
Cui Guiying proactively stepped forward to support Liu Jin Xia off the car. Liu Jin Xia patted the back of Cui Guiying’s hand and said: “Oh, how can I let you support me? Your family’s Han Hou is my benefactor.”
“Child’s grandma, come quickly and see the child, the child hasn’t woken up yet.”
Liu Jin Xia: “I heard Lei Hou say, is it something from the water?”
Cui Guiying: “Child’s grandpa has already gone to invite Uncle Sanjiang.”
Hearing this, Liu Jin Xia’s heart tightened, she grabbed Cui Guiying’s hand tightly and urged: “Quick, take me to see the child.”
Earlier, when Lei Zi came to deliver the message and call for help, he also said something, but at that time, they thought it was just a brat exaggerating. Now that Li Weihan had actually gone to find Li Sanjiang, this matter was really serious!
She, Liu Jin Xia, still remembered Li Weihan’s kindness from before.
Entering the house, she heard a group of children chirping. Liu Jin Xia’s vision wasn’t good, and she felt like she had walked into a duck’s nest. At that moment, she waved her hand and scolded:
“Let those brats all get out, don’t be noisy, you’ll disturb the stove god!”
Cui Guiying quickly called the older children to take all the younger children out and closed the door.
“Where is the person?” Liu Jin Xia asked.
“In the inner room.” Cui Guiying prepared to take her in.
“Bring him to the kitchen, there’s a stove here.”
“Okay, I’ll just go and hug the child out.”
With Li Juxiang’s help, Li Zhuiyuan was placed on the kitchen rice table.
Liu Jin Xia’s old hands first touched Li Zhuiyuan’s legs, then all the way up to his face. After touching his face, she stopped at the child’s shoulders and gently pressed.
Her hands, because of the smoke stains in the finger joints from smoking and her usual habit of soaking them in vinegar for maintenance, had a more pungent smell.
People standing beside her could smell it, if someone sniffed it up close, an ordinary coma might actually be smoked awake.
Liu Jin Xia felt for a while and asked: “Gui Ying Hou, did you call over?”
“I did, I did.” Cui Guiying immediately brought over the bowl of water with the needle, and then she scared herself with a sound, “Ah!”
The needle in this bowl was not only rusted, but it had red rust, and a patch of rust had spread around the needle at the bottom.
Li Juxiang, who was beside her, saw the situation and immediately came to her mother’s ear to describe it.
Liu Jin Xia finished listening, took a deep breath, and said solemnly: “Sister, this child is under a curse.”
“Ah?” Cui Guiying was startled again and immediately pleaded, “Save him, save him, that daughter of mine only has this one child, nothing can happen to him while he’s being raised here.”
Saying that, Cui Guiying took out that pack of cigarettes from her pocket and put it in Liu Jin Xia’s hand.
Liu Jin Xia pushed it away, turned and sighed.
Cui Guiying: “You smoke first, we’ll make up for the money later…”
Liu Jin Xia interrupted Cui Guiying: “I won’t accept anything from your family, I won’t.”
“I say, Sister, don’t say that. This child of mine…”
Liu Jin Xia turned her head to her daughter, a bitter smile on her face: “Did you hear? He’s the son of Han Uncle’s most beloved daughter.”
“He’s Lan Hou’s son.” Li Juxiang paused and added, “Lan Hou used to be very good to me.”
Lan Hou’s name was Li Lan, and she was Li Zhuiyuan’s mother.
At that time, people in the village all thought Liu Jin Xia’s family was unlucky, and the family elders would instruct their children not to play with Li Juxiang, so Li Juxiang’s childhood was lonely and she couldn’t run around everywhere like other children, because she would be given white eyes by other adults when she went to their homes.
Li Lan wouldn’t care about this and often invited her to play together. This kind of friendship continued until Li Lan went to college and left the village.
Liu Jin Xia closed her eyes, silent.
Li Juxiang looked at Li Zhuiyuan and said to Cui Guiying: “This child is really good-looking, and he looks very much like Lan Hou.”
Cui Guiying responded twice, her attention still on Liu Jin Xia. She wasn’t sure whether Liu Jin Xia was really refusing or playing hard to get.
Li Juxiang continued: “Before Xiao Cui Hou came, there was a brother named Xiao Yuan Hou who gave her chocolate to eat and went to the stream with her to pick up stones.”
Li Juxiang was always isolated when she was young, not to mention her daughter Li Cui Cui now. Usually, her daughter could only stand at a distance and watch other children play together.
Cui Cui didn’t dare to get close, because if she got close, the children would say that their adults had told them not to play with her, and then they would scatter in a commotion.
The day before yesterday, Cui Cui was very happy at home, saying that a good-looking brother had played with her all afternoon. Other children told him not to play with her, but that brother didn’t care and even gave her chocolate.
Liu Jin Xia opened her eyes, looked at her daughter with helplessness and heartache, then turned her head towards Cui Guiying:
“Sister, let’s be honest with you too.”
“Okay, tell me.”
“Normally, for a twenty-yuan job, fifteen of them are actually nothing. I just go through the motions, and people just seek peace of mind.
Among the rest, four of them look like they have some matter, but in the end, they are still nothing.
So, at most, one is something, it’s just a little bit sticky, but it’s not difficult to wipe away.
I’m not accepting your money, one reason is that your family’s husband indeed helped us mother and daughter before, I can’t accept it; the second reason is that the money for going through the motions usually, there’s no need to accept it in front of this kind of matter.”
“This, this, child, he, you must save him, Sister.”
“I’ll help him.” Liu Jin Xia smiled and said, “Give me some stove ash.”
“Okay.”
There were many concave grooves in the local earth stove. One groove was generally opened in the back of the stove, with the stove god painted above it, and a small incense burner placed inside the groove.
Cui Guiying brought down the incense burner and sent it to Liu Jin Xia.
Liu Jin Xia grabbed a handful of ash, held it in her hand, and chanted.
She didn’t understand what she was chanting, anyway, she chanted for a while.
Liu Jin Xia: “Cover it well.”
Before Cui Guiying understood, Li Juxiang had already used her hand to cover Li Zhuiyuan’s mouth and nose.
Liu Jin Xia smeared the ash on the child’s neck and shoulders, wiping and wiping, like wiping prickly heat powder.
But gradually, a frightening scene appeared, and Cui Guiying directly covered her mouth.
Because she saw that on her grandson’s shoulders, two purple marks suddenly appeared, looking like, like two palms!
Liu Jin Xia: “So fierce… Daughter, start.”
“Okay.”
Li Juxiang responded, went out to the tricycle and brought some things back. She first put an empty bowl and a brush in Liu Jin Xia’s hand, poured ink into the bowl, then took out a ball of red thread from her pocket. It looked very much like knitting yarn, but after untying it, it gave off a fishy smell, and Li Juxiang’s palms were also stained with a lot of red.
Next, Li Juxiang tied one end of the red thread to her wrist, and the other end to Li Zhuiyuan’s wrist. After separating a distance, she stood firm.
Liu Jin Xia dipped the brush in ink and then continuously drew circles on Li Zhuiyuan’s forehead, chanting something in her mouth while drawing circles.
Initially, everything was as usual, nothing happened.
But as Liu Jin Xia’s speech and hand speed became faster and faster, the red thread actually began to tremble.
Cui Guiying subconsciously wanted to see if the other end of the thread was being pulled by Li Juxiang, but just as she raised her head, she saw Li Juxiang open her mouth in pain, then kneel on the ground with a “thud”, her upper body tilting forward, as if she was being pressed to kowtow.
Liu Jin Xia glanced at her daughter with heartache, but didn’t slow down her speech and hand speed.
“Ah… ah… ah…”
Li Juxiang lay on the ground in pain, writhing, hugging her arms, her feet kicking wildly, her mouth continuously overflowing with saliva, her eyes wide, her face turning green.
Cui Guiying stood beside her, both worried about her grandson and worried that something would happen to Li Juxiang.
However, after the pain reached its peak, Li Juxiang gradually calmed down. Finally, she lay on the ground spread-eagled, gasping heavily.
Liu Jin Xia also stopped, her body swaying, and Cui Guiying quickly reached out to support her.
“Go get a basin of hot water, wipe the child down.”
“Okay, okay.”
Cui Guiying immediately did as she was told, took a basin, opened the small stove cover in the middle of the stove, and scooped out hot water with a wooden spoon.
After wetting the cloth, she began to wipe away the ash from Li Zhuiyuan.
What was wiped away was not only the ash, but also the two purple palm prints, which melted away like pigment.
Cui Guiying even specially looked at the cloth and found that no purple had come off on it.
“Sister, is the child… alright?”
Liu Jin Xia took out a cigarette, lit it, took a deep drag and then coughed violently, tears and snot falling down, she was choked by her own smoke.
However, although Cui Guiying didn’t get Liu Jin Xia’s answer in time, she found that her grandson, who had been in a coma and wouldn’t wake up, actually slowly opened his eyes.
“Xiao Yuan Hou, Xiao Yuan Hou, you’re awake!”
Li Zhuiyuan looked at Cui Guiying somewhat blankly, then looked around, and finally shouted in a hoarse voice: “Grandma.”
“Oh, you’re finally awake, thank goodness, thank goodness.”
Beside them, Li Juxiang climbed up from the ground, took a clean bowl herself, poured some water for herself, and sipped it slowly.
Li Zhuiyuan stretched out his hand, grabbed Cui Guiying’s arm, tilted his body a little, wanting to go into his grandma’s embrace.
Cui Guiying quickly hugged Li Zhuiyuan into her embrace and coaxed him: “My child, my Xiao Yuan Hou, my good child…”
Liu Jin Xia: “You take care of the child, let him sleep for a while longer, he’ll be fine when he wakes up.”
Li Juxiang came over and supported her mother out the door.
Cui Guiying opened her mouth: “Wait until Han Hou comes back, I’ll talk to him…”
Liu Jin Xia waved her hand: “Wait until the child is completely well, then we’ll talk. We’ll go home first, don’t see us off.”
Cui Guiying indeed had no way to see them off and could only continue to hug her grandson.
At this time, Li Zhuiyuan, who was comforted in his grandma’s embrace, began to fall asleep again, but this time his sleeping posture was much more peaceful, not like the worried look with his lips tightly pursed and brows furrowed from before.
On the way back on the tricycle, Liu Jin Xia half-squatted, pulled open her daughter’s collar to look at the bruised circle, and asked:
“Does it hurt?”
“Mom, sit properly, don’t fall.”
Liu Jin Xia sat back down, and after a long while, she slapped her thigh again and cursed:
“Xiang Hou, our mother and daughter’s lives are really cheap!”
…
Li Weihan didn’t come back late, Cui Guiying sent Hu Zi and Stone to Li Sanjiang’s house to find him. After Hu Zi and Stone came back, they informed her that Li Sanjiang’s servant said he was out walking the paper, and Li Weihan had gone to look for him.
Cui Guiying understood, Li Sanjiang had gone to deliver paper money. According to custom, the main family would leave a meal, and he also liked to drink, waiting indefinitely, her old partner had gone to urge him.
For the evening meal, Cui Guiying let several older children help out. After the meal, Li Weihan still hadn’t come back, so Cui Guiying arranged for the children to go to the inner room to sleep.
She herself brought Li Zhuiyuan separately to the kitchen and set up a door board to sleep on. Li Zhuiyuan slept very soundly.
Cui Guiying fanned the child with a palm-leaf fan while wiping away tears with heartache. The child had really suffered this time.
She also thought of her daughter who had just divorced, and she didn’t know how she was living now.
Unlike other families who valued sons over daughters, Cui Guiying and her husband loved this fine daughter the most.
Their daughter wanted to study, and she was good at studying, so they always supported her, no matter what others said about girls studying being useless and marrying early being better, they were not moved.
This favoritism towards their daughter naturally also extended to their grandson.
Li Zhuiyuan had a dream, dreaming that he was in his youth class, and the old professor on the platform closed his book and said: “Okay, class dismissed.”
He followed his desk-mate out of the classroom, walking among a group of tall adults.
They walked into the toilet and stood on the urinal step.
His desk-mate had already opened his pants and started peeing, then urged him:
“Zhuiyuan, pee too, what are you waiting for?”
Li Zhuiyuan nodded, just pulled down his zipper, and he suddenly became alert.
He woke up from this dream, opened his eyes, and by the moonlight outside, saw his grandma sleeping beside him, still holding a palm-leaf fan in her hand.
That was close, he almost peed the bed.
Li Zhuiyuan’s daytime memories were already somewhat blurry. He quietly climbed up, preparing to go pee.
The toilet was a separate small house far from the main house. A pit was dug underground, and a large jar was buried in it. A hollow wooden seat was placed above the jar. The first time Li Zhuiyuan saw it, he felt it was very much like the dragon chair in movies.
Therefore, local people generally called going to the toilet “going to the porcelain jar.”
Initially, Li Zhuiyuan also went there for minor conveniences. Later, under the sharing of his brothers’ experiences, Li Zhuiyuan finally understood that as long as he was outside the range of the house and yard, he could mark anywhere.
Going out the front door meant going out onto the dam again, which was a bit far, so Li Zhuiyuan chose to go out the back door to the river bank, it was closer here.
Just as Li Zhuiyuan was getting ready, he suddenly heard a “dong… dong… dong…” sound.
He looked down and saw that it was their boat parked on the shore that was shaking.
Images flashed in Li Zhuiyuan’s mind, it seemed he and his grandpa and brothers had gone out fishing in the boat during the day?
Then, did they catch fish or not, what did they eat for dinner, how come he had no impression?
“Dong… dong… dong…”
The boat was still shaking, but there were no waves on the river surface, and there was no wind.
Finally, Li Zhuiyuan recalled the events of the day, recalled the black hair, recalled falling into the water, recalled the underwater… and along with it, fear.
Li Zhuiyuan’s body softened, his feet stumbled, and he sat on the ground, subconsciously reaching out to touch his shoulders, as if there was still a pair of ice-cold hands grabbing him there.
It was precisely this sitting down action that changed his height, making the bottom of the boat, which he originally couldn’t see, fall into his sight.
“Dong… dong… dong…”
Originally, there was a person under the water surface, her head would occasionally float out of the water surface, hit the bottom of the boat and then go down again, then continue to probe out, hit again, in a cycle, seemingly tireless.
Suddenly, the hitting sound stopped, and the boat no longer shook.
That head floated out of the water surface again, not continuing to hit the bottom of the boat, but slowly turning over. As the wet and slippery black hair continuously slid down to both sides, it barely exposed the lower half of a beautiful woman’s face.
Her face was very white, so white that it seemed it would melt open under the moonlight at any time.
At this moment, she seemed to have found the person she was looking for, the corners of her mouth slowly curved outwards, gradually revealing a smile.
Her lips were still red and bright, somewhat dazzling in this quiet night.
Li Zhuiyuan rubbed his eyes hard and looked again, only to find that the other party’s upper body was already out of the water at some point, both arms hanging down at her sides.
He didn’t dare to delay any longer, Li Zhuiyuan scrambled up quickly and ran towards the house, he stumbled when crossing the threshold, but fortunately, he grabbed the door frame and stabilized himself.
He glanced back and saw that the little yellow warbler, who had only exposed half of her body in the river, had already left the river surface and was standing on the lowest bluestone steps.
“Grandma, grandma!”
Li Zhuiyuan ran to the edge of the door board bed, reached out and pushed Cui Guiying, but Cui Guiying was still holding the palm-leaf fan and sleeping soundly.
“Grandma, wake up, Grandma, wake up!”
Li Zhuiyuan continued to shout, but Cui Guiying still showed no sign of waking up.
“Drip… drip… drip…”
The sound of dripping water came from behind him.
Li Zhuiyuan turned his head back and first saw a pair of red high heels, then a white, tender, swollen ankle. A black cheongsam tightly wrapped her body, and water drops continuously dripped along the hem of her clothes and the tips of her hair.
She,
Just stood straight on the threshold!
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