Chapter 207 - 195: A Disgusting and Horrifying Night
Chapter 207: Chapter 195: A Disgusting and Horrifying Night
A deeply unpleasant lunch finally came to an end.
In the afternoon, Mo Guoqiang took Mo Xiaoneng up the mountain to carry back firewood. Liu Fengying bustled about, helping Tang Yaxuan get her things ready for school the next day. Tang Yaxuan, in a foul mood and bored to tears, wandered out of the courtyard gate alone. She ambled along the village road, looking this way and that, wallowing in sentimental grief and self-pity. She even resentfully considered running off to confront Mo Xiaoman again. But after walking only a short distance, she saw a fierce-looking mother dog lying in the middle of the road and quickly turned back, not daring to challenge it for the path.
For once, the trio of Mo Xiaofeng, Mo Xiaozhi, and Mo Xiaohua were unusually quiet. They stayed cooped up inside the house and didn’t come out to bother Tang Yaxuan.
When Mo Guoqiang and Mo Xiaoneng returned in the evening, Mo Guoqiang presented Tang Yaxuan with several brilliant golden wild lemons he had picked. Tang Yaxuan was about to refuse, but when she saw Mo Xiaozhi’s and Mo Xiaohua’s eyes light up as if they were about to snatch them at any second, she took them. A moment later, she threw them all into Mo Laoer’s cattle pen, which infuriated Mo Xiaozhi and Mo Xiaohua to no end.
Since Tang Yaxuan was leaving for the commune middle school the next day, Liu Fengying had specially killed a chicken for the occasion. She also steamed a plate of cured meat and stir-fried some tofu with scallions. When it was time for dinner, it took a great deal of coaxing, but she finally dragged Tang Yaxuan to the table for a family reunion meal. Of course, Mo Xiaoqiang wasn’t allowed to join them; they would just save a few pieces of meat for him.
While Liu Fengying was busy chopping the chicken and bringing dishes to the table, Mo Xiaozhi diligently scooped the rice. She specifically asked Liu Fengying for the white porcelain bowl reserved for Xuanxuan. She then made a show of scalding it in hot water from the pot before walking over to the rice pot to fill it.
Mo Xiaohua also grabbed her bowl and squeezed in to stand next to Mo Xiaozhi, scooping her own rice.
’A meal like this was actually nothing special for the Mo family. Before the incidents with Mo Guoqiang and Mo Xiaoqiang, they ate this well often. Back then, they had subsidies from the city and could spend money as they pleased; when it ran out, more would come. Life was so carefree. All they could do was hate that detestable Mo Xiaoman! Not only could they not get rid of her, but she had even managed to thrive, getting into a school in the county town and then finding a godfamily in Wancheng. Ultimately, she was the one who brought the Tang Family here and destroyed everything!’
’The good life was gone. Instead, several members of her own family were now injured and disabled, and her precious biological daughter had been sent back to the countryside. Liu Fengying’s guts were twisted with regret: If I’d known it would come to this, I should have just strangled Mo Xiaoman as a child! How wonderful that would have been!’
’Now look at this mess—paying court fines, covering the medical bills for a few hooligans, the fees for the "fake Mo Xiaoman," and more. The family was drowning in debt. Mo Xiaoqiang was so badly injured, but they didn’t even dare to keep him in the hospital. They were terrified of the cost.’
’During the New Year, she had to seize the chance when her own family was slaughtering their pig for the festival. She ran back, crying and begging, just to get thirty jin of meat on credit. They’d used it to render some lard and make a little cured meat. They couldn’t even bear to kill a chicken, but now, for Xuanxuan, they had been forced to slaughter one.’
Watching Mo Xiaoneng, Mo Xiaozhi, and the others stare at the chicken and cured meat with gleaming eyes, Tang Yaxuan snorted in contempt. She then began to elegantly nibble on the chicken wing and drumstick Liu Fengying had put in her bowl.
’The countryside cured meat really is fragrant, but a bit greasy,’ she thought. ’The tofu is pretty good too, especially mixed with rice. It tastes even better that way! Hmm? Why are there black beans in this white rice? And why do these black beans taste a bit strange when I chew them?’
Tang Yaxuan picked out a "black bean" with her chopsticks and showed it to Liu Fengying. "I don’t think this black bean is cooked properly. It has a rank smell!"
Mo Xiaofeng froze, her chopsticks hovering, her dead-fish eyes wide with anticipation. Mo Xiaozhi sprayed out a mouthful of soupy rice. Mo Xiaohua was too busy gnawing on her allotted chicken leg to pay attention. Mo Xiaoneng craned his neck to peek into Xuanxuan’s bowl, then used his chopsticks to poke around his own. He burst out laughing. "You scared me! I thought I had some in my bowl too! What black beans? Are you stupid? Those are mouse droppings! You were eating rice mixed with mouse droppings! BLECH! How disgusting!"
Only then did Liu Fengying and Mo Guoqiang look closely at Xuanxuan’s bowl, and they too were stunned silent.
Tang Yaxuan slammed down her chopsticks and ran outside, vomiting violently. She heaved until only yellow bile came up. Her limbs grew weak, her body was drenched in a cold sweat, and she couldn’t recover for the entire night.
Meanwhile, Mo Xiaofeng, Mo Xiaozhi, and Mo Xiaohua banged on their bowls, clapped, and cheered loudly, looking as if they had finally gotten their revenge and felt utterly vindicated.
But what awaited them next was a whipping from Mo Guoqiang.
By the time Liu Fengying had boiled water and helped Tang Yaxuan wash up, it was late into the night. Tang Yaxuan burned with the desire to get revenge on her wretched, hateful sisters, but unfortunately, they had already gone upstairs, and she lacked the strength to climb the movable bamboo ladder.
Her heart roaring with grief and indignation, Tang Yaxuan could only obey Liu Fengying and return to her room. Without taking off her clothes, she crawled onto the side of the bed against the wall to sleep. ’Once I wake up, I can finally leave this filthy, disgusting house and these hateful, detestable people!’
After lying down for a moment, Tang Yaxuan felt that something was wrong. ’Why is there a damp, foul smell in the air? It feels like something is poking me from underneath... and my hand just touched something...’ She felt it, then grabbed it... Goosebumps erupted all over her body. She felt further down with her hand... then explored with her feet... An incomparably shrill scream suddenly pierced the entire house. Accompanied by wails even more tragic than the midnight howls of Mo Xiaoqiang and Mo Xiaofeng, Tang Yaxuan ran out of the room barefoot, her hands sticky and covered in mouse blood. She collapsed to the ground and once again began to vomit uncontrollably...
Up in the small wooden loft, the faces of Mo Xiaofeng, Mo Xiaozhi, and Mo Xiaohua peeked through a gap in the floorboards. The three sisters once again cheered their victory. Their triumphant laughter and joyful expressions made them look like a gang of female bandits who had just captured a new mountain stronghold.
Liu Fengying ran out from the kitchen, pointing upstairs and screaming curses. She then turned to tend to Tang Yaxuan, but Tang Yaxuan was not so easy to placate this time. Sobbing, she cried out:
"If you don’t punish them harshly, I’ll never forgive you! I’ll never speak to you again, and I won’t acknowledge you as my mother!"
Liu Fengying was counting on her eldest daughter to rescue her from her current predicament, so of course she had to do as she was told. She immediately went back inside, pointed upstairs, and ordered her three daughters to come down. Not only did Mo Xiaofeng and Mo Xiaozhi refuse to descend, they even pulled the bamboo ladder up after them, blocking Liu Fengying from climbing up.
But they had underestimated Liu Fengying. They might be the "local snakes" able to bully the "mighty dragon" Tang Yaxuan, but they were too green to take on their mother. Liu Fengying marched directly to the cattle pen in the backyard, hauled another bamboo ladder over, and climbed up. Grabbing a bamboo switch, she whipped them one by one, beating Mo Xiaofeng, Mo Xiaozhi, and Mo Xiaohua until they shrieked relentlessly, their frantic jumping making the floorboards THUMP and RUMBLE.
Still not satisfied, Tang Yaxuan screamed at Liu Fengying, "Hit them! Keep hitting them! Hit them until they can’t cry or jump anymore!"
Mo Xiaoqiang, his sleep schedule already completely reversed, was woken by the commotion and started crying out as well. In the dead of night, the entire house was filled with ghastly wails and shrieks, a scene of utter misery.
When Liu Fengying returned to the room to clean the bed and lifted the quilt, she saw more than a dozen mice of all sizes, wet and mangled into a bloody pulp, lying on the sheet. Even she couldn’t suppress the urge to vomit.
The mouse droppings in the rice bowl would have been easy to procure. But these mice, big and small, were clearly an entire nest, and it wouldn’t have been easy to dig them up. Mo Xiaozhi and Mo Xiaofeng couldn’t have managed it on their own. It definitely had to be Mo Xiaoneng’s handiwork. But Mo Xiaoneng was a crafty one; he had fled the moment Mo Guoqiang brandished his whip at the dinner table and hadn’t come home to sleep that night.