Chapter 678 - 586: Mangy Dog
Chapter 678: Chapter 586: Mangy Dog
Guan Ailan frowned. "A human life is at stake. Why didn’t anyone report it?"
"Report what? Nowadays, none of the adults in the village are willing to set foot in Liu Fengying’s yard. Screams of murder and abuse, along with constant crying and wailing, are considered normal over there. No one on the outside really knows what happens. Liu Fengying takes the body out and buries it herself. Even if the children see something and kick up a fuss, by the time they do, several days have gone by and there’s no evidence left. Besides, nobody wants to meddle in her family’s business."
"That venomous woman, Liu Fengying, clearly hasn’t suffered enough. Wasn’t Mo Xiaohua her own daughter? And yet she harbors and protects a murderer like Wu Qin."
Mo Shuixia couldn’t understand it either. "That’s the strange part. Liu Fengying doesn’t seem to care about Wu Qin’s hygiene, yet she’s completely indulgent, letting her do whatever she wants and run roughshod over the household. She won’t even let Xiao Zhi and Xiao Neng fight back against her. Mo Xiaohua was so young and weak, of course she was the one who suffered. Now Mo Xiaoqiang and Mo Xiaofeng have been sent back by their aunt, and Wu Qin said she didn’t want to see ’those two cripples,’ so Liu Fengying just locked them straight in the backyard pigsty. Whenever Wu Qin gets upset, she grabs rocks and clumps of dirt and throws them into the sty, and the two inside just howl and cry. On top of that, you have that little delinquent Mo Xiaosu in the same courtyard, and when she throws a fit, it’s awful. The place is in a constant, ungodly uproar. It’s like a torture chamber."
Mo Linghui said with disgust, "It’s all because of that vile Liu Fengying. She’s a menace with a rotten heart to begin with, and then she birthed a litter of little menaces. She’s single-handedly corrupted the good name of our Gongdao Village. It would be better if she just dropped dead. A scourge lasts a thousand years!"
Xiao Man said nothing; she simply listened. ’Liu Fengying and Wu Qin would naturally come to a bad end. But death is easy. Why should they just get to die? They had to be kept alive—living like dogs, spat on by everyone. They had to be forced to watch with their own two eyes as the person they tried to crush into the dirt lived a life of unrestrained joy and happiness. Let hatred, resentment, jealousy, and bitterness slowly corrode and slice away at their greedy, vicious hearts until they were finally tortured to death by madness and despair. That was the retribution they deserved.’
The next day, Gu Shaoqin went into the mountains with Da Zhi, Dapeng, and a few other boys, including their back neighbor Qiu Xiaohu. He had come to the countryside to explore the deep mountains and to capture the beauty of nature. Influenced by Tang Qingshan, he too had become a photography enthusiast and looked quite the part with a camera slung over his back. The southern winter landscape had its own unique charm. It lacked the vast, snow-white expanse and bleak cold of the North; green mountains and turquoise waters were still the dominant theme. The deeper one ventured into the mountains, the more colors appeared, until the scenery was a vibrant tapestry. The frost-kissed trees were red, yellow, brown, purple, and gold. In between, great patches of snow-white reed catkins drifted like light feathers, extending up from the valleys in distinct, stunningly brilliant layers. Coupled with the magnificent scale of the endless mountains and ravines, no nature lover could help but be entranced.
Xiao Man wanted to go out with them, but Grandma wouldn’t allow it. Grandma completely ignored the fact that Xiao Man knew martial arts and was in robust health, dead set on raising her like a pampered young lady. She said that after a full day of travel by plane and car, Xiao Man needed a good rest to recover her energy. If she really wanted to go play in the mountains, they could talk about it after she’d rested for a day or two.
Xiao Man could only obediently stay home. She also took the opportunity to walk around the village, visiting various relatives. Xinghua would have gladly kept her company, but Brother-in-law Jiang was also home on holiday, and Xiao Man didn’t want to separate the couple or be a third wheel. So when she went out, she only took Qiuyan with her.
Today was the village market day. Xiao Man and a few of her young friends rode their bicycles for a trip to the market and back. After Guan Ailan and the others took their household purchases home, Xiao Man went with Qiuyan and Jiang Xuehua to the medicinal herb garden on the small hill to pick fruit. In the woods on the slope behind the herb garden were several fruit trees where pomelos, oranges, pears, and kumquats still hung heavy on the branches, having survived the frost. Her family had specially saved them for Xiao Man and Zheng Shaolian and his brothers to pick when they came back.
After picking fruit, they played in the herb garden for a good long while before heading out. That’s when they saw Wu Qin sitting on the concrete ground at the garden entrance, a puddle of muddy water spreading out from under her. With tangled hair and filthy clothes, she looked like a mangy dog that had just crawled out of a pond. It was a wonder she didn’t feel the cold in the dead of winter.
Qiuyan quickly stepped in front of Xiao Man, while Jiang Xuehua turned to run. "I’ll go get Grandpa!"
It wasn’t that they were afraid of Wu Qin; they were disgusted by her filth and stench, worried she would befoul Sister Xiao Man. Wu Qin would often crawl to Grandpa’s front gate and howl and wail at the door. Whenever this happened, the young girls refused to go near her, only shouting for Grandpa or Mo Jiabao to come and deal with her. It had become a routine.