"Jieshi is back!"
Hearing the shout, both Chuntao and Wang Xiaoming were stunned, their minds unable to process it for a moment.
It wasn't until someone ran to the melon shed entrance and called out, "Jieshi's back, hurry home and see!" that Chuntao seemed to jolt awake from a dream, her body trembling imperceptibly.
Her heart felt as if suddenly pricked by a needle, first an empty panic, followed by an indescribable surge of resentment.
Resentment that he had abandoned her on their wedding night to elope with someone else, resentment that he had made her unable to hold her head high...
Yet hidden within this resentment was a flicker of agitation she herself was unwilling to acknowledge, like grass roots surviving a bitter winter, quietly sprouting.
But this newly sprouted shoot was quickly suppressed by a wave of coldness.
Wang Jieshi had eloped on his wedding night, gone for four years without a single word, and now he suddenly returns?
What does his return really mean? Could it really be as Zhou Zhijun said, that he's come back with a wife and child?
Just to make things completely clear with her, to make her leave the Wang family?
All these years she had been steeped in bitter hardship, the taste of bitterness long soaked into her very bones.
Hadn't she wanted to leave? Begging or even dying would be better than staying here.
The reason she gritted her teeth, swallowing tears she dared not shed, was all for her brother, so he could have a proper life.
Now that Wang Jieshi was back, if he really had brought back a wife and child, she could leave the Wang family. Liu Cuilan would have nothing to say, and Wang Lanhua wouldn't divorce her brother either.
Thinking this, Chuntao's lips couldn't help but curve upward.
She was like someone walking in darkness who, after countless nights, finally sees a sliver of light. No matter what the road ahead holds, there's finally a glimpse of hope.
She took a deep breath, trying hard to suppress the emotions surging in her heart, but her eyes still grew blurry.
She raised a hand to wipe the corner of her eye, her expression calm, only a trace of something unusual hidden deep in her gaze.
Hope? Numbness? Grievance? Or relief? She couldn't tell herself.
She stood up from the bed, her whole body trembling slightly, but didn't move. She just stood inside the melon shed, staring outside.
"Sister-in-law!"
Wang Xiaoming, having snapped out of his daze, saw Chuntao standing motionless and reached out to support her arm, calling softly.
"Hmm!" she responded and walked towards the outside of the melon shed.
Meanwhile, up in the bean field weeding, Liu Cuilan also heard the villagers' shouts.
At first, she couldn't believe her ears, then she ran frantically towards the village.
Four years. Wang Laohan wasn't sick when Wang Jieshi left, but now when he returns, the man is long gone.
"You unfilial son, you finally remember to come back? I'll teach you a lesson..." she muttered through gritted teeth as she ran.
Wang Haichao, carrying a hoe on his back, followed far behind Liu Cuilan, his heart uneasy.
Wang Xiaoming supported Chuntao as they walked along the bumpy ridge between fields.
This path they had walked countless times now felt exceptionally long and difficult.
Wang Xiaoming glanced at Chuntao, seeing her expressionless face and vacant stare, and felt his own heart wrenched with pain.
"Sister-in-law, cry if you want to, don't hold it in and make yourself sick... When I see him, I'll definitely give him a piece of my mind for you..." His voice was hoarse and choked.
Chuntao's nose stung, the pooled tears nearly overflowing. She tilted her face up slightly, sniffed, and forced them back fiercely.
Wang Jieshi had eloped and been gone for four years; he must have a child. He's brought his wife and child back, so she can be free too.
She looked at Wang Xiaoming and pulled a smile uglier than a cry. "Why cry? I should be laughing!"
Wang Xiaoming also sniffled, the corner of his mouth twitching, but no smile came. He just said in his hoarse voice, "Right, sister-in-law, you should laugh!" As he spoke, he turned his head and quietly wiped the tears from his face.
They walked for a long while before reaching the village entrance. From afar, they could see many villagers gathered in the Wang family courtyard.
In those days, anything happening in any household was like a movie, attracting everyone's attention.
"You unfilial son... I'll beat you to death today... Why did you run away... You heartless wretch..."
From the crowd came Liu Cuilan's heart-wrenching sobs, mixed with the buzzing murmur of the onlookers.
"Ah, disabled so young, how will he live from now on?"
"In this state, the Cao family girl won't want him either..."
"Retribution..."
"Li Chuntao waited four years, only for him to come back in this condition. Better if he hadn't come back at all..."
"Being neither dead nor properly alive is even more suffering..."
Chuntao's mind went blank. She didn't hear a single word of the surrounding chatter, letting herself be led by Wang Xiaoming into the crowd like a puppet.
When they saw the scene in the courtyard, it was as if struck by lightning. Their legs felt heavy as if filled with lead, unable to lift.
In the center of the courtyard, on the ground, lay a grass mat. A gaunt man lay on it, one pant leg empty from the thigh down.
This man was Wang Jieshi, who had fled his wedding four years ago. When he left, he had all his limbs intact; now he was like this.
The gazes of the onlookers instantly shifted to Chuntao, and the murmuring quieted.
There were looks of sympathy, heartache, curiosity, schadenfreude, and veiled mockery.
Thinking of every bit of those four years, Chuntao's eyes reddened. Her body stiffened like a tightly drawn violin string, as if it might snap the next second.
Liu Cuilan turned and saw Chuntao. Her wailing ceased abruptly. She scrambled up from the ground and lunged straight at her.
"You jinx! Evil star! It's all your fault!"
Like a mad lioness, she grabbed Chuntao's braid with one hand, the other flailing wildly at her body.
"If it weren't for you, this evil star, Laohan wouldn't have died, and Jieshi wouldn't be like this! Today I'll beat you to death!"
Caught off guard by the assault, her braid yanked painfully, Chuntao staggered and began to crumple to the ground.
Wang Xiaoming, quick as lightning, seized Liu Cuilan's flailing wrist and shouted, "What are you doing? Stop it!"
His face flushed red. He stepped forward, his other hand trying desperately to pry loose Liu Cuilan's grip on the braid.
Bystanders also rushed forward to pull Liu Cuilan away, finally managing to separate them.
"Sister-in-law, none of this is your fault!"
Chuntao felt as if all her bones had been removed. Her legs gave way, and she was about to collapse.
Wang Xiaoming quickly caught her from behind and, with the help of several aunties, helped her sit on a stone stool.
A woman fetched a gourd dipper of cool water from the kitchen for her to drink, while others comforted her, "Cuilan is just heartbroken, don't take it to heart..."
Chuntao seemed frozen all over, icy cold, feeling nothing but the chill.
She bit her lip, her eyes fixed dead on the ground, her face showing no ripple of emotion, not a single tear.
Perhaps this is how one looks in the depths of extreme pain.
Liu Cuilan sat on the ground wailing, her mouth still spewing curses.
Wang Xiaoming's eyes were frighteningly red, his face dark enough to drip water.
He slowly walked up to Liu Cuilan, pointing at her and roaring, "Stop crying! Blaming every bad thing on my sister-in-law, have you no sense of reason?"
My brother ran off right after my sister-in-law entered the family. All these years, she's worked from dawn till dusk, never eating her fill or dressing warmly, and you're always picking fights. She's endured it all!
Now, with my brother in this state, you come to blame her again. Do you have any conscience left?"
"Stop arguing... it's all my fault... I'm the one to blame... I've wronged you all..."
Lying on the straw mat, Wang Jieshi's chest suddenly heaved violently. A rasping sound came from his throat, and then he began to sob wretchedly.
