Healing His Paranoia

chapter 04 : the widow's death

Seemed to be heard through a layer of water, faintly hearing the vicious insults.

“If it weren't for you, I wouldn't have been kicked out of the hospital and wouldn't have to come back to this crappy village!”

“It's better to raise a dog than to raise you, at least it can wag its tail!”

“What they said is right, you are a natural monster, with eyes like that!

Turn around, don't let me see that thing, or I'll smash you to death with a hammer and poke your eyes out with chopsticks!”

Atin woke up in a daze, hearing the sound of the cane cutting through the air.

“Come here, come here.”

The yelling on the other side of the wall suddenly turned into a gentle voice, “Let me tell you a story.”

“Do you know what happens to people with cursed eyes?”

“We use boiled needles to gouge out their eyes.

If their mouth has sinned, we cut their tongue into small pieces.

Why don't you speak?

Why do you commit so many sins?”

“Don't look at me with those disgusting eyes!”

The hysteria came suddenly and left suddenly.

The woman switched to a clear, calm tone, and said with very standard pronunciation:

“What do you want to say?

Ask me why I treat you like this?

I am your mother, I carried you for ten months.

But for more than a decade, I've been regretting, why didn't I kill you?

Who taught you to cling to my belly?

When I abandoned you at the train station, who taught you to hold onto my finger and not let go?”

Accompanied by the sound of punches and kicks, Lin Xuechun in the outer room cursed angrily:

“You bastard, if you make another peep, I'll skin you alive!”

With such a loud and powerful voice, it almost shattered the roof tiles.

The woman next door finally quieted down for a moment, her low sobbing barely audible.

Ating completely woke up, slipped on her slippers and walked out the door, only to be stopped:

“Where are you going?”

“To the bathroom.”

“Isn't there a chamber pot in the room?”

Ating rarely lied, her throat was trying to concoct a lie, when Song Yuqiu suddenly got up in silence, donning a short-sleeved linen shirt.

Seeing this, Lin Xuechun closed her eyes and grumbled:

“That widow, I'll settle accounts with her tomorrow morning.”

The stairs creaked, Song Yuqiu went down first, Ating followed carefully at a neither long nor short distance.

Taking off the latch of the gate, Song Yuzhou stood with his hands in his pockets, paused by the side of the communal toilet.

Attin didn't really need to use the toilet, but she couldn't quite explain what she wanted to do either.

She stood inside for a while, then came out and noticed that the door of the adjacent room was slightly ajar.

“You heartless creature, after all the hardships I went through, I gave birth to a monster like you, reincarnated from a white-eyed wolf!

I threw you into the river back then, how come you didn't drown, you calamity?!”

Another round of wailing and cursing began.

The hoarse and desperate reprimands echoed against the mottled walls.

The closer she got, the stronger she could smell the stench of complete decay.

It was like an ancient tree falling down with a loud crash, roots and stems severed, the stench hitting her face.

Attin unconsciously walked towards it, but her young shoulders were gripped by someone behind her.

She turned around and looked up at him with her dark eyes.

In her deep gaze, there was a childlike confusion, asking why he caught her.

And deep in her eyes, there was still a hint of anticipation.

The cracked lips of Song Yuzhou moved slightly, and he whispered two words in a low voice:

“Go inside.”

He coldly and swiftly pushed Attin into the house, and he followed, latching the door and blocking everything outside.

Attin was forced back onto the wooden bed, pulling up the rough cloth at the window to block the light, only to find that it was pitch black outside.

The moon was covered by dark clouds, and the stars were all dimmed.

It was a thoroughly rotten night.

Holding her legs, chin buried in her knees, her eyelids blinked and her eyelashes touched and separated.

She listened for a long time, but never heard a sound from the boy.

Not even a groan.

And in the outer room, Song Yuqiu's heart was filled with bitterness.

Under the thin blanket, he gently rubbed the small piece of his pinky finger that was left, memories flooding his mind.

Finally, he closed his eyelids, hiding the weary eyes.

The village gradually returned to tranquility until the faint light of dawn at four o'clock, when the village head's house let out a earth-shattering scream.

The widow was dead.

Apart from being chased for debts, Atin saw so many people for the first time.

Men, women, young and old gathered in the small courtyard, pointing fingers and talking, spewing out all sorts of words.

“There must be something dirty between the village head and her, otherwise why would so many people die in front of his door?”

“Hanged?”

“Exactly.”

The middle-aged woman narrowed her eyes, her expression both disgusted and excited.

“I saw it all.

A head with black and white hair, reaching down to her ankles.

She was wearing a big red dress, her head hanging in a long white cloth.

Her feet were still wearing the red embroidered shoes left by her grandmother...”

“You're giving me chills.”

The woman next to her hurriedly waved her hand, interrupting her.

“Is the village head's wife okay?”

“Is this really okay?

If it were you, would you be fine?

It scared the life out of me!”

Emphasizing once again, “I saw it with my own eyes.

The village leader's wife came out holding a wooden basin, looked up and saw Ah Xiang's face, her entire face turned pale, she sat down on the ground, wiping tears and shouting at her own husband.

Then the wind from the river blew by, and Ah Xiang accidentally bumped her knee against the wife's foot, and she immediately fainted with her eyes rolling back.”

“The village leader's wife usually carries herself in a sophisticated manner, I thought there was something extraordinary going on.”

“If it weren't for the old village chief calling for a meeting, I would've definitely taken you all to see for yourselves!”

The elderly man in front looked at the silent house and asked with uncertainty, “Doesn't Ah Xiang have a child?”

“Yes, yes, his eyes are yellow-orange, always hanging out with the cats.”

The child protested with determination, “That's the strange cat!”

And then he received a slap on the head, “You're the strange one!

Go home and eat.”

The woman continued energetically, “Ah Xiang was poor when she was young, at the age of fifteen, she was sent to the big city to work odd jobs.

Somehow she managed to study...”

The fragmented words gradually pieced together into a complete story.

The woman who hanged herself was named Ah Xiang.

From a young age, she held onto books, and through fortunate encounters while working, she became one of the few university students in the 1960s.

Later, because of her good family background, she also obtained a job as a nurse in the military.

She used to be the pride of the whole village.

In the late 1970s, Ah Xiang returned to the village with a boy of about ten years old, initially claiming that she had kindly taken in the child.

It wasn't until she went insane one night and unintentionally revealed the truth:

he was her biological son.

No one could figure out what she had been through all these years, who the father of her child was, and how the mother and son had survived the catastrophe of the past decade.

The village elders and officials took turns interrogating her, the ancestral hall was opened time and time again, but Ah Xiang always bit her lip and refused to reveal anything.

Ah Xiang's unwed motherhood and her mysterious son should have been reported to the authorities.

However, Ah Xiang's mother brought out all her possessions and went door to door, begging and pleading.

The village had been closed off for generations, with close blood ties among neighbors.

Out of consideration for Ah Xiang's mother's hard work, Ah Xiang and her son became a secret shared by the whole village.

Even when the eye mask was removed, revealing Ah Xiang's son's eerie eyes; even when Ah Xiang's mother passed away, even when Ah Xiang became increasingly mentally unstable, the villagers still, without

coordination, guarded this secret.

As the story progressed, someone called out, “The old village chief and the village councilor are here.”

Immediately, everyone's attention was diverted.

The old village chief, with his white beard, walked in front, followed by the village councilor with a dirty face.

Behind them, people carried a bamboo pole with a white cloth draped over it.

There was no need to ask, it naturally covered Ah Xiang's body.

The village councilor noticed the strange look in everyone's eyes and angrily exclaimed, “Why are you all staring at me like that?”

“Ah Xiang asked me a few days ago to handle some matters for her.

She insisted on getting her son's household registration done and changing his surname to Lu.

The household registration is not something I alone have the final say on, and she wouldn't even tell me who the child's father is.

What's the point of doing it then?

I refused, and she threatened to find someone else.

Who the hell knows who she will go to?”

His face turned red and he slammed his hand on the table, “Listen up, none of you are allowed to conspire against me and Ah Xiang behind my back.

If I hear anything, there will be consequences!”

“So that's what happened.

Is it really just like that?”

The old village chief cut off all the vague speculations.

“We all know what happened to Ah Xiang's family.

I understand that you all didn't get along with Ah Xiang, but at the very least, we are all villagers of Ri Mu Village.

Now that she's gone, I was thinking that those who are capable can contribute some money, and those who are strong can offer some help, so that we can handle the funeral together.”

The old village chief leaned on his cane and said, “I'll start with five dollars, is that acceptable to all of you?”

Ri Mu Village values seniority, and the old village chief is the most respected person.

Whether it's for face or for the sake of good relations, everyone nodded and agreed.

The old village chief turned his head to look at the village secretary and asked, “What's Ah Xiang's son's name?...

Lu...

and what else?”

The village secretary hesitated and wrote down a character in the sand.

Everyone looked left and right, but they couldn't recognize the character, only feeling that the strokes were mysterious.

The old village chief stroked his beard and turned to his own son, saying, “Go inside and see if Lu is there.”

His son pouted and didn't want to move.

“Not going?”

The cane hit the ground twice, and the village chief's son scratched his head, muttering, “You still care about Mom and me, aren't you the child's father?

You're still messing around at this age, aren't you afraid of being laughed at...”

But in the end, he went inside.

The roosters and hens are crowing, and the dozens of households are silent, only hearing the cries coming from inside.

Without much effort, the village chief's son runs out, his arms covered in bloody scars.

“Damn that little devil!”

He cries out in pain, venting his anger at the old village chief.

“Without a word, he attacked me.

Is this something a human would do?

I told you this kid was trouble, but you didn't believe me and insisted I go in.

You only have one son, and you want to risk his life on the widow's son?”

Whispers arise from the crowd.

“It was Ah Xiang's son who caught him?”

“He bit and scratched, even fiercer than the wolves in the mountains!”

“That kid stole fruit from my house!”

“Where did you get the fruit?

From the mountains?

The mountains don't belong to you!”

“That kid even beat up my son!”

“He moves so fast, always followed by a dark and strange cat.”

“It's a weird cat!”

“Black?”

“When did our village ever have a black cat?”

“This kid might be some dirty creature reincarnated,” said the villager with confidence, reaching the conclusion that the troublemaker should be dealt with.

The old village chief rested his hands on his cane and shook his head, “After all, he is a child from our village...”

But how should they handle the situation?

He fell silent, lost in thought.

Suddenly, a voice emerged from the crowd, “Why not ask Lin Chunxue for help?”