Aunt Zhou’s face changed drastically. She cried out anxiously, “Something’s happened! That was Xiaohong’s voice!”
Zhou Hongxia’s heart tightened, and the sorrow she had been feeling vanished in an instant.
She released Aunt Zhou’s hand and hurriedly grabbed her clothes, pulling them on.
Zhou Zhiguo and Zhou Xiaowei had gone to the neighboring village to watch a movie and weren’t home.
Wang Haiying had been carrying Jianshe to visit a neighbor. She had just stepped out of the courtyard when she heard Wang Xiaohong’s cries and immediately turned around and ran back.
The whole family didn’t even have time to close the door. They rushed after Wang Xiaohong toward her house.
As soon as they entered the courtyard, they heard a dull crash from the inner room, followed by Wang Jieshi’s suppressed, agonized roar.
When they pushed open the door, the sight before them made everyone’s scalp prickle.
Wang Jieshi was curled up on the floor beside the bed. His body convulsed violently, foam spilling from his mouth. His eyes bulged wide, while his stiffened hands and feet thrashed wildly. A strange “huh-huh” sound came from his throat.
The bowl of unfinished gruel had spilled across the floor, and the porcelain bowl lay broken in two.
“Brother! Brother, what’s wrong with you?”
Wang Xiaohong threw herself beside him and reached out to help, but the force of his convulsions flung her away.
Wang Jieshi often slammed himself against the wall when his legs hurt, but this clearly wasn’t ordinary leg pain.
Wang Xiaoming had gone to the neighboring village to watch the movie and wasn’t home.
Zhou Hongxia hurried from house to house calling for help, but every door in the village was tightly shut.
Wang Haiying handed Jianshe to Chuntao, then hurried back to the Wang family’s house.
No matter how despicable Wang Jieshi was, he was still Xiaohong’s brother. As a neighbor, she couldn’t just stand by and do nothing.
She turned and ran straight to Zhao Qingjiang’s house.
Zhao Qingjiang arrived and immediately recognized that Wang Jieshi had been poisoned.
Wang Jieshi had been paralyzed for two years, living a life worse than death.
Now that Chuntao was gone and Liu Cuilan had been arrested, the entire burden of caring for him had fallen on Wang Xiaohong and her brother.
If he had truly lost the will to live and decided to end his life, it would have made perfect sense.
Zhao Qingjiang sighed and pulled Wang Xiaohong aside. “Your brother’s symptoms indicate that he’s been poisoned with something highly toxic…”
He didn’t finish the sentence before Wang Xiaohong understood.
“Uncle Qingjiang, please save my brother! He’s suffered so much!”
She clutched Zhao Qingjiang’s arm and begged through her tears.
“There’s nothing I can do!” Zhao Qingjiang gently pushed her away. “Get him to the clinic immediately. He might still be saved!”
“To the clinic! We have to save him!”
Wang Xiaohong rushed frantically to the barely conscious Wang Jieshi, bent down, and began dragging him.
Zhao Qingjiang helped load him onto a handcart. Wang Xiaohong pulled it while Zhou Hongxia desperately pushed from behind.
But they had barely left the village when Wang Jieshi stopped moving.
“Brother… Brother…”
Wang Xiaohong collapsed onto him, crying out. Her wails mingled with the eerie laughter of an owl coming from the eastern ravine, sending chills across the skin.
“Xiaohong!”
Zhou Hongxia stood to one side. She felt little sorrow over Wang Jieshi’s death, but Wang Xiaohong’s heart-wrenching cries made her feel a pang of sympathy.
Just then, Wang Jieshi suddenly clamped his hand tightly around Wang Xiaohong’s.
His eyes bulged wide, his eye sockets sunken deep like two black holes. In the darkness, they seemed to gleam with a sinister light.
“Zhou Zhijun… Li Chun Tao… Even if I become a ghost, I won’t let you go…”
As if using the last of his strength, he ground his teeth and shouted the words out one by one.
The sudden sight terrified Wang Xiaohong into stiffening all over. Her sobs caught in her throat, her body trembled uncontrollably, and her upper and lower teeth chattered together.
Before Wang Jieshi could finish, another violent spasm of pain racked his body. His grip on her hand slowly loosened, and it fell limply to his side.
Only then did Wang Xiaohong come back to herself. She threw herself onto Wang Jieshi and wailed bitterly.
She could clearly feel his body growing colder and stiffer by the moment.
He had died carrying his venomous hatred for Zhou Zhijun and Chuntao with him.
Wang Xiaohong wept until she was nearly unconscious.
She regretted everything, but it was already too late…
Wang Xiaoming found a small scrap of paper from a packet of rat poison on the bed.
Wang Jieshi had died after ingesting rat poison. The villagers all said it was probably for the best—at least he no longer had to suffer through life.
For Wang Xiaoming and his sister, it was a good thing as well.
Chuntao sat on the bed holding Nuannuan in her arms, listening to the chaos next door. She couldn’t tell whether she felt happy or sad.
The next day, members of the Wang family rolled Wang Jieshi up in a torn straw mat and prepared to carry him up the slope for burial.
Just then, several police officers suddenly strode over. Their voices were stern.
“We received reports from the villagers that Wang Jieshi’s cause of death is suspicious. Homicide cannot be ruled out, so we are officially opening an investigation.”
Everyone present froze.
Wang Jieshi had clearly taken his own life. How could it possibly be murder?
Wang Jieshi was serving his sentence outside prison, and the local police station had already registered the matter. Naturally, they knew that he had been locked in a deep conflict with Zhou Zhijun and Li Chun Tao.
After questioning Wang Xiaohong and her brother about the situation, they went next door to investigate.
Zhou Zhijun was working on the reservoir at Banqiao, while Chuntao rarely even stepped outside her home. The police found nothing suspicious and ultimately ruled out the two of them as suspects.
Taking into account the accounts given by Wang Xiaohong, her brother, and the neighbors, the police reached their conclusion: Wang Jieshi had indeed grown tired of life and taken his own.
Most people accepted the result.
Only those who had hoped to use the opportunity to frame Zhou Zhijun and Chuntao were furious enough to grind their teeth.
That day, Wang Xiaohong seemed to have lost her soul. She neither cried nor spoke, neither ate nor drank. Her eyes stared blankly ahead.
Zhou Hongxia didn’t try to persuade her. That night, she simply stayed beside her and silently kept watch.
Aunt Zhou had originally gone to the Zhou family’s house that night to discuss Hongxia’s marriage, but Wang Jieshi’s death delayed her for two days.
On the third day, she finally found the time to go to Zhou Zhiguo’s house.
In front of her granddaughter, she didn’t beat around the bush. She came straight to the point.
“Hongxia, Mingliang is a good young man. He’s steady and honest, and you work together, so you already know each other well. You’re not getting any younger. It’s time to find a husband. You need to seize the opportunity and not miss out on a good family.”
Zhou Hongxia had seen long ago that her grandmother wanted to bring her and Li Mingliang together. But there was already someone in her heart. Even if she and that person could never be together, she still couldn’t let him go.
“Grandma, I know. Don’t worry about me. I know what I’m doing.”
Only then did Aunt Zhou relax. She reached out and patted Hongxia’s arm.
“That’s right. Spend some time getting to know each other. If you really aren’t compatible, we won’t force you into anything.”
During the few days Zhou Hongxia took off from work, she helped her family with chores during the day and went to keep Wang Xiaohong company at night.
On the last evening before she returned, she told Wang Xiaohong everything in her heart.
“Xiaohong, Brother Mingliang and I are only coworkers. I told you long ago that the person I love is Han Wenke. In this lifetime, I’m afraid I’ll never be able to love anyone else besides him…”
“Who you love is your business. It has nothing to do with me.”
Wang Xiaohong knew very well that even if Zhou Hongxia and Li Mingliang had never been involved, she and Li Mingliang had long since become impossible.
How could Zhou Hongxia not understand the knot in her heart? Seeing her cold expression, she changed the subject.
“Xiaohong, no matter what happens, life has to go on… What are you planning to do from now on?”
While Wang Jieshi had been alive, Wang Xiaohong had imagined countless times that once this burden was gone, she and her brother would have many possibilities ahead of them.
Now that he was truly gone and the weight on the siblings’ shoulders had been lifted, she should have been able to make plans for the future.
Instead, the stone in her heart felt heavier than ever.
She couldn’t eat. Every time she closed her eyes, she had nightmares. Even when she went out to work in the fields, she found herself constantly distracted.
She felt as though she was about to break…
“Sis—”
Early one morning, Wang Xiaoming got up to fetch water. When he came back, Wang Xiaohong still hadn’t gotten up.
Wanting to let her sleep a little longer, he didn’t wake her.
Only after he had finished making breakfast did he walk to the doorway of the inner room and call out to her. When there was no response after several calls, he suddenly yanked aside the door curtain.
The moment he saw what was inside, his feet froze in place.
