Read Novel Full Chapter 192
Chapter 192: Trouble
The advantage of having a settlement of over a hundred people near the Zhou family was that Shen Lie and his group no longer needed to detour to pick up the Zhou and Zheng families for hunting. With the addition of the Feng family youths and Gan Erlang, the number of people was sufficient to make farming, collecting, and trapping pheasants in that area manageable.
Shen Lie and Chen Dashan began exploring another direction outside the village with the villagers from the outer village.
As the yams started to be harvested, the autumn harvest in the valley, delayed due to the lack of sunlight, also commenced.
At that time, the outer villagers were busy digging yams, and the autumn harvest in the valley was managed by those who stayed behind, with everyone pitching in regardless of whose fields they were. Besides the elderly and women, the children also proved to be helpful; even the younger ones like Shen Jin and Shen Yin contributed to the best of their abilities.
It was a lively and prosperous scene, but no one expected that Shen Jin fetching a bamboo tube of water for the old man Lu in the fields would trigger a disturbance.
It all started when the community was harvesting the Lu family’s rice fields. The valley residents, being closest to the Lu family, found the elderly man tiring after working for hours. Shen Jin, tasked with lighter duties, saw that the old man’s bamboo tube was nearly empty and offered to fetch water, naturally heading to the Lu family’s place.
Shen Yin, seeing this, asked Old Man Chen, Mrs. Chen, and Mrs. Xu if they needed water as well. Everyone was tired and thirsty, so the two brothers each took two bamboo tubes and left.
Since Wang Chunniang was present, the Lu family had someone to help with the harvest.
While Shen Jin was filling the water, Wang Chunniang helped. It was just a matter of filling the water and leaving, but Wang Chunniang, who had been confined in the cave for some time, glared at Shen Jin and suddenly sneered, “You two brothers sure are quick to switch allegiances.”
Shen Jin glanced at her, remembering Shen An’s instructions, and ignored her.
But Wang Chunniang, having harbored resentment for days, couldn’t hold back any longer. Seeing that even the children of Shen San and Mrs. Li paid her no attention, her pent-up frustration exploded.
“You’re enjoying life with your good elder brother and sister-in-law now, huh? Don’t you remember how your parents and sister died?”
Shen Jin’s face visibly darkened, while Shen Yin’s turned pale.
Seeing their reactions, Wang Chunniang felt satisfied. “This valley is so good, why did your family end up so miserable? Now they help you, but where were they when you needed them? If they had taken you along, would you three brothers have become orphans?”
At this, both Shen Jin and Shen Yin turned pale. Even Wang Chunniang’s daughter, Lu Danniu, looked stricken and shouted, “Mother, what are you saying?”
Separated by a wooden fence, Lu Danniu could only try to stop her verbally, as she didn’t have the key to silence her mother.
“What am I saying? I’m just telling the truth. If I were Shen San or Mrs. Li and had sons like you, I’d crawl up from the grave to strangle you.”
With a loud thud, Shen Yin dropped the bamboo tube he was holding, and Shen Jin angrily threw his bamboo tube at the wooden fence confining Wang Chunniang.
Lu Danniu was startled, her hands trembling as she tried to calm Shen Jin. “Xiao Jin, don’t listen to my mother’s nonsense.”
Shen Jin’s face was grim, breathing heavily, staring intently at Wang Chunniang. Without turning his head, he said to Shen Yin beside him, “Xiao Yin, go outside.”
Shen Yin’s eyelashes were already wet with tears, unable to move. Shen Jin said to Lu Danniu, “Take my brother outside.”
Lu Danniu didn’t dare to leave. Shen Jin shouted, “Get out!”
Despite being two years younger than her, Lu Danniu was genuinely frightened. Realizing her mother was locked up and seeing Shen Yin scared and crying, she hurried to pull Shen Yin away.
Wang Chunniang was also startled by Shen Jin’s shout. Turning to look at him, she swallowed, trying to suppress the fear she felt. Seeing Lu Danniu taking Shen Yin out, Wang Chunniang sneered, “What, did I say anything wrong?”
Shen Jin stepped closer to the fence, his eyes fixed on Wang Chunniang. There was something in his deep black eyes that made Wang Chunniang feel uneasy, instinctively wanting to retreat.
The small cave offered little space for her to move. She sat on the bed, just a couple of steps from the fence.
Shen Jin stared at Wang Chunniang. “You know our family suffered, but do you know how?”
“Do you know how my parents and sister died? Do you know how they died?”
He spoke methodically, his voice even calm, but beneath that calmness, Wang Chunniang sensed a terrifying madness.
Indeed, he was mad. He started crying while laughing, silently, only his chest trembling. Tears streamed down his face; it was neither pure laughter nor pure crying. Such an expression on a child’s face was more unsettling than either laughter or tears alone.
Laughing and crying, clutching his chest, he eventually spoke, his breathing heavy, “I’ll tell you. The food was gone, the crops were destroyed, everyone was herded into the city like ducks, and there was nothing to eat.”
“Do you know what happens when people starve for too long?”
“They eat human flesh. Have you seen that?”
As he spoke, his own breathing grew heavier, chest tight, pressing a hand against it, his reddened eyes locked onto Wang Chunniang. “Do you know how my sister died? Huh? And you dare say such things?”
His emotions becoming increasingly uncontrollable, he continued, “The city was full of people eating others. If you couldn’t eat others, you’d eat your own children. If you couldn’t bear to eat your own children, you’d smother them and give them to others to eat, trading for meat.”
“Have you experienced that? And you dare say such things?”
“My sister died at my father’s hands. My mother killed my father, and my father stabbed her back, killing her. Did you know? If Shopkeeper Xu hadn’t saved us, the three of us brothers would have been chopped up and boiled.”
“So, are you satisfied? Do we not deserve to live? Huh? Do we not deserve to live?”
“Did my big brother and sister-in-law rescue us only to become our enemies? Huh?”
With this question, Shen Jin threw the last bamboo tube through the gaps in the fence, hitting Wang Chunniang on the head and face.
Shen Jin clutched his chest, overwhelmed with pain, nearly collapsing if not for the support of the fence.
“Why? Why do you get to tear open our wounds? Why can someone like you hide here safely, living so comfortably?”
As he spoke, he collapsed outside the fence, gasping for air, tears and snot streaming down his face. The nightmares that had haunted him on countless sleepless nights seemed to resurface, overwhelming him.
Lu Danniu had rushed to call her grandparents as soon as she left the cave. The fields were only a few steps away from their home, so when Old Man Lu and the others arrived, they saw this scene.
Shopkeeper Xu and Shen Lie had never detailed the deaths of Shen San, Mrs. Li, and Tianya. But now, the truth was laid bare.
Lu Shanzhu, the most fearful of his mother causing trouble, lived the closest. He had heard Shen Jin’s words as he rushed towards the cave, and those last few sentences stopped him in his tracks.
His grandmother’s previous words, combined with Shen Jin’s anguished cries of “why can someone like you hide here safely, living so comfortably,” hit him hard.
Mrs. Chen arrived a moment later and found Shen Yin curled up in a corner of the cave entrance, trembling uncontrollably.
In the last few days in Qiyang County, Shen Yin had been so starved that he was often unaware of his surroundings. He vaguely knew something was wrong with his parents’ deaths, but he had never known that Tianya had died like this.
He had always thought Tianya had been stolen away.