Linxia

Chapter 4, Dead Man

The next morning, Xiaohe Village continued on its journey of escape.

Among the hundreds of villagers, those with better conditions pushed wheelbarrows, while those with less conditions could only carry their luggage on their backs and walk on the muddy road. The road was difficult, with mud up to the ankles in some sections; in some sections, one had to roll up their trousers and wade through the water; in some sections, even wading through the water was impossible and the only way was to take a detour.

The transportation was extremely bad, and the food was scarce. Those with better conditions could only manage a simple breakfast in the morning, while most people skipped breakfast to save food. Basically, everyone was listless, and under all these adverse factors, they could not travel fast at all.

Uncle Fang was carrying most of the Fang family's belongings. After half an hour, his face turned slightly pale, and his coarse linen clothes on his back were soaked with sweat and stuck to his back. He still didn't say a word.

"Boss, you take a rest and let us do it!" Fang Sun said, calling Tian Xuan to come and carry it.

Soon, Tian Xuan's steps began to shake. Amid Fang Sun's scolding of "useless", Fang Lin insisted on taking turns with Tian Xuan.

It is difficult to travel light on such a muddy road, let alone carrying heavy objects?
After a while, Fang Lin felt as if his legs were filled with lead. He could only hold on by walking and resting, and relying on willpower.

Apart from that, other conditions are not very good either, such as urination and defecation. Urine is fine, but what about defecation?

The villagers who are not particular about materials simply use local materials, as long as they don’t encounter any pine forests. The more particular families use toilet tokens.

Toilet sticks are made of bamboo, which can be washed after use and reused, which is very convenient. But it also has a big disadvantage - it scratches the butt!
Think about it, if you have diarrhea, it will be hot and sour, and then use a toilet stick to scrape it, how sour and refreshing will it taste? Moreover, some toilet sticks are not handled cleanly and have burrs left. Whoever uses it will know that the chrysanthemums will bloom.

When there were leaves, Fang Lin was determined not to use the toilet stick.

In addition, he tried to find joy in suffering and discovered an interesting phenomenon: no matter whether adults or children, men or women, old or young, in the village, after going to the forest to defecate, they would have strange expressions, deformed movements, and limp when they came back, which was extremely funny - it was easy to understand, the better ones in the village could still eat coarse rice, while the worse ones started eating grass seeds, so it was naturally difficult for them to defecate and use leaves and toilet sticks, which would definitely not be a good experience.

All these things also gave him a more real sense of this world, beyond the intrigues and struggles for survival he witnessed last night.

After finally making it to noon, they passed by a mushroom patch and Muramasa announced that he had walked here in the morning. This immediately caused cheers, and women from every household perked up and swarmed to collect mushrooms.

There were a lot of mushrooms in this area, but there were more people in Xiaohe Village, so they were all picked up quickly.

"You two, the mother-in-law and the daughter-in-law, are really different. You picked so many!" Geng's daughter-in-law passed by with envy on her face.

"You have quite a few at home, too!"

Fang Sun also had a proud look on her face, but after a pause, she continued, "Guihua is amazing, she is very nimble, she can do the work of two people, she has more than us!"

After picking the mushrooms, they need to be sorted. Fang Sun and Tian Xuan threw away those that they were not sure were edible, and added some wild vegetables to the pot to cook together. Even without adding any seasoning, the fresh aroma that rushed out was enough to make one's mouth water.

When the meal is ready, serve it in bowls according to the amount you want and start eating.

I have to say that this wild vegetable and mushroom soup is indeed much better tasting than the coarse rice and wild vegetable soup. After drinking it, the whole body feels warm, and the fatigue from a whole morning of traveling is dispelled. The soul also feels a great sense of satisfaction as the stomach is full.

Such a sumptuous meal made the usually taciturn Fang Shuyou talkative. "This time it's a flood, so we can eat more on the way. If it's a drought, that would be hard. Tree bark and grass roots are good things... There's no green anywhere people pass by..."

"Yes!"

Fang Sun continued, reminiscing: "When I was seven years old, there was a severe drought, so I followed my mother and sister to escape the famine..."

Fang Lin listened quietly without saying anything, because he was so tired that he didn't want to move a finger.

After dinner, the family left their dishes alone and did not clear them away. At this time, even Fang Sun no longer scolded Tian Xuan to wash the dishes and pots. The family sat quietly and comfortably, enjoying the rare and brief peace.

Frankly speaking, when we were rushing on the road in the morning, our clothes were wet and dry again due to the sweat on our bodies, and the smell was not pleasant, but there was nothing to be disgusted with on the road of escape, so we just leaned against each other and bathed in the afternoon breeze.

The golden crow hangs high in the sky, and the scorching sun shines across thousands of mountains and rivers, silhouetted against the little happiness of the moment.

But this comfort and ease did not last long as it was broken by a sudden scream.

"Dead!"

The direction from which the sound came was Old Chen’s house!
"Go over and have a look."

Fang's father and mother stood up, followed by Fang Lin and Tian Xuan, and other people who heard it also started to move over.

When he got closer, Fang Lin saw his grandfather Fang Zuwang, grandmother Fang Yu, and his eldest uncle, second uncle, and younger uncle's families, all of whom had come over. He nodded and greeted them, but did not talk much. After all, one can chat at any time, but it is not often possible to dine on melons.

In fact, the Fang family was relatively far away. At this time, many people had gathered around them, talking in a chaotic manner, as if they wanted to vent their suppressed emotions from the fatigue of the journey.

Fang Lin looked towards the center and saw Chen Daqiang, whom he had seen last night, foaming at the mouth and with dilated pupils. Beside the corpse, old woman Chen had a ferocious expression on her face. She grabbed Sister Guihua's hair and cursed her as a "death star". The young girl Chen Ye tried to stop them but was knocked to the ground.

"The dead one is Chen Daqiang. It looks like he ate poisonous mushrooms?" said Fu's wife.

"What's going on? Why did Old Lady Chen catch Sister Guihua? Could it be that Sister Guihua poisoned her?" You Chaodong from the You family speculated maliciously.

"Don't talk nonsense without any evidence!"

Fang Sun scolded: "Osmanthus is a person that everyone in the village admires. How could she do such a thing?"

……

"Muramasa is here!" someone suddenly said at this time.

A square-faced man in his fifties walked towards this side. When the crowd saw him, they made way for him and the originally noisy voices disappeared all of a sudden - this is prestige!

Xiaohe Village was established a hundred years ago by people fleeing famine. There are people from all walks of life in it, and there is no single dominant family. To be the village chief, one must be fair and just and make people trust him.

In fact, Qiaocunzheng did a good job and was recognized by most people in Xiaohe Village.

"what happened?"

Qiao Cunzheng walked in, glanced at Chen Daqiang lying on the ground, and asked hurriedly, "Daqiang ate poisonous mushrooms, didn't you drink boy's urine to induce vomiting?"

"It's too late. I'm out of breath."

Seeing Qiao Cunzheng coming, Old Lady Chen seemed to lose all her strength at once. She let go of Sister Guihua and slumped to the ground. Her eyes were lifeless and her figure was desolate. It was hard to bear to see her like this. She was just a pitiful old lady, but in just a moment, her face showed a fierce look again, and she cursed Sister Guihua: "It's all because of you, this unlucky star, who killed my son!"

"Wow!" Sister Guihua just cried, her heart-wrenching cry was too heartbreaking, she was so grief-stricken that she couldn't utter a word.

"Osmanthus, what's going on... Alas!"

Qiao Cunzheng naturally would not believe Mrs. Chen's one-sided story, but since Sister Guihua was crying like this, it was not convenient for him to ask her.

It was the little girl Chen Ye who started to explain: "Mom came back from picking mushrooms, and Aunt Bai asked Mom to go to help, so Grandma cooked the mushrooms for Dad... When Mom came back, Grandma started to beat her..."

After hearing this, everyone suddenly understood.

"I said it couldn't be Osmanthus, and that's what happened." Fang Sun said. "It's a bit unreasonable for Old Lady Chen to blame Osmanthus, but it's understandable, after all, her son died." Song Liu said something fair.

"Old Lady Chen lost her son, but Guihua also lost her husband!" Some people felt sorry for Sister Guihua.

……

The villagers were talking about it in a bustling atmosphere, as if all the fatigue from the morning's journey had been dissipated in the chattering.

What made Fang Lin laugh was that Fang Sun was also having a heated discussion with a group of aunts and grandmas, and Tian Xuan was listening attentively at the side.

Woman, your name is gossip!

"Everyone, be quiet!"

Qiao Cunzheng stopped everyone and looked at Sister Guihua: "Guihua, why did you mix the poisonous and non-poisonous mushrooms you picked together without separating them?"

Sister Guihua was crying so hard that she hiccuped. After hearing this, she managed to calm down and said with a sob, "My family is almost out of food. I borrowed food from everywhere yesterday and only borrowed five taels of rice. I saw mushrooms this afternoon and I had to rush to pick them. How could I take the time to sort them? I wanted to come back and divide them before putting them in the pot, but Sister Bai called me away to help. Who knew that mother would do it herself."

The eldest daughters-in-law and old maids, led by Fang Sun, nodded one after another, indicating that this was the case and that everyone would pick the fruits first and then divide them up slowly.

After hearing this, Old Lady Chen screamed, "How can I tell whether something is poisonous or not? You bitch, you did it on purpose!"

Hearing this, everyone looked strange. They couldn't tell which mushrooms were poisonous, but they knew which ones were not. This was a basic skill. Old Lady Chen didn't know how to do it, or she doesn't know how to do it now, probably because Sister Guihua had taken such good care of her over the years.

"When we were in the village, the Chen family had a hard time. Old Mrs. Chen and Chen Daqiang were greedy, but Guihua was filial and often went up the mountain to pick mushrooms, quickly and efficiently. Everyone knew about this, but there was never any problem. Let me put it bluntly, if Guihua really wanted to harm people, she would have done it long ago. Why would she wait until now?" said Geng's sister-in-law.

Geng's sister-in-law was a recognized honest person in the village. Her words were well-reasoned and convincing, and everyone around nodded in agreement.

Mrs. Song Liu also spoke up: "Osmanthus didn't know that Mrs. Chen would not wait for her to come back and cook the mushrooms herself, and would not wait for her to come back to eat. If she had waited a little longer, would this have happened? Even more so, Xiao Ye Zi was still there, wouldn't she be afraid that he would eat her too? Osmanthus would not even harm her own child!"

"Yes, it was clearly old lady Chen's fault. She killed her son, and yet she has the nerve to blame Guihua." The person who spoke had a sarcastic tone that made old lady Chen's face turn green, and she almost fainted from anger.

……

Snapped!Snapped!
Qiao Cunzheng clapped his hands to get everyone quiet, and then asked one of the culprits in this incident, the Bai family's daughter-in-law who had called Guihua away, "Bai family's daughter-in-law, why did you suddenly call Guihua away to help?"

"I……"

The Bai family's wife was speechless for a moment, and said subconsciously: "I have always done this!"

'How shameless!'

This was the thought that came to the villagers' minds when they heard the answer from the Bai family's wife.

When Fang Lin heard this, he also remembered that when he came here last night, the daughter-in-law of the Bai family borrowed firewood in the name of borrowing but actually robbed it.

In fact, the only man in the Chen family, Chen Daqiang, is paralyzed, and there is no one to support the family. Sister Guihua is also weak-willed. Some people in the village deliberately bully Sister Guihua, asking her to help this and that, and giving her a little compensation that is not commensurate with her value. The most excessive is the wife of the Bai family, who often orders Sister Guihua to help for free, and even robs her in the name of borrowing money like what she did last night.

Fang Sunshi referred to these people as "shameless people who bullied Sister Guihua".

The villagers also knew about these things, but they didn't bully their own families. At most, they would talk about them behind their backs. People like the Bai family's daughter-in-law gradually got used to it over the years and took it for granted.

Human nature is selfish, and people will find excuses to shirk responsibility. Originally, after listening to the villagers, Mrs. Chen began to blame herself for killing her son, but now that she had a different target, she immediately pushed all the responsibility onto the wife of the Bai family. Her emotional outburst changed her previous nature of "being fierce at home and cowardly outside", and she rushed up to scratch and claw at the wife of the Bai family.

The Bai family's daughter-in-law knew she was in the wrong and did not dare to fight back in public. Soon her face was covered in blood and looked horrible.

"Serves him right!" Many people thought.

Those who had taken advantage of Sister Guihua in the past were frightened after seeing this scene and decided to restrain themselves in the future.

In the end, it was Qiao Cunzheng who spoke up and had someone pull Old Lady Chen away.

"Okay, everything has been clarified. What happened to Chen Daqiang was a coincidence!" Qiao Cunzheng characterized the matter.

In fact, as the village chief, he knows the affairs of the village like a mirror. He knows the answers to some questions without asking, but knowing it in his heart is not enough, so it is necessary to ask some questions. This is also to get everyone to endorse him, and to reduce the responsibility in case of problems.

"However, although it was a coincidence, the Bai family's daughter-in-law has an unshirkable responsibility and needs to compensate the Chen family..."

Under the negotiation of Qiao Cunzheng, the Bai family compensated the Chen family with five acres of inferior highland.

Although Xiaohe Village is flooded now, the water will eventually recede. We can go to the county's reserve warehouse to eat for half a month or a month, and then we can go back after the water recedes. This is an old precedent.

Regarding this handling, the Chen family thought that since their man had died, such a small amount of compensation was too little; as for the Bai family, on the one hand, they thought that after all, it was a life and it would be better to end it as soon as possible; on the other hand, they thought that a paralyzed Chen Daqiang was not worth so much, and they would rather give up saving the Bai family's daughter-in-law.

In short, neither family was very satisfied, but they were both within the bottom line of acceptance.

……

The matter was settled, and the villagers dispersed, still discussing the matter with great interest.

They were indeed very excited - after eating melons, they saw that the Chen family was suffering more severely. In comparison, each family suddenly felt that their own lives were not so bad and the journey was not so hard after all.

"The Chen family is weird. From Guihua's eldest daughter to Chen Wanglong, Old Man Chen, and Chen Daqiang, accidents happened one after another." Song Liu said in a low voice.

"Old Chen bullied Guihua, and God couldn't bear it. This is retribution!"

"Yes, the Chen family has done evil. When Guihua married into the Chen family, it was just..." The man didn't continue speaking, as if he was very secretive about it.

"Chen Daqiang was paralyzed, but he died in exchange for five acres of land. It was worth it." This is a sour and sarcastic remark.

……

The Fang family was also talking about the Chen family.

"Osmanthus has a hard life!"

Fang Sun sighed and said, "Rumor has it in the village that Guihua married into the Chen family because she was framed by old Mrs. Chen and became a stepmother after she got married... The first daughter after marriage died before she was a year old... The son left by the ex-wife was disobedient and drowned in the river... Not long after, her father-in-law died and her husband became paralyzed... If it were anyone else, they would have run away long ago, but Guihua stayed with them, and the Chen family treated her like a mill worker..."

Chatting about family matters, washing dishes and pots, and taking a rest.

In the afternoon, we continued our journey. Needless to say, it was very tiring and hard work.

……

(End of this chapter)