Chapter 71:
“Mother, why does Aunt always ignore Miaomiao?”
They soon arrived by the well, and Miaomiao suddenly asked curiously on the way.
It was just a child’s offhand remark, something she asked casually,
“Miaomiao, did Aunt ignore you before too?”
There was no memory of Xiao Zhou Shi’s attitude toward Miaomiao, which meant she usually didn’t pay much attention to her own daughter.
“Yeah, once before Miaomiao secretly went up the mountain with Liuliu to pick thorn fruits, Miaomiao slipped and fell into a gully by accident, and Aunt saw but didn’t care about Miaomiao.”
“And before, when Miaomiao was hungry and crying and went to her, she had food but only gave it to Muqing Yunliang…”
Luo Zhi’er did have a bit of memory of this in her mind, because that time was very serious.
She was probably around four years old and still very small, and Miaomiao seemed to be lost.
Until nightfall, Li Sanmao came back from hunting and searched the entire village, even dragging the well!
Zhou Shi said she was playful and had fallen asleep somewhere.
Old Li Tou suspected a wild animal in the mountains had dragged her away…
Later Liuliu couldn’t hold back, secretly ran out and told Li Sanmao, saying she saw where Miaomiao had gone…
Li Sanmao lit a torch and scrambled to find that place, where she was lying in the gully, and Miaomiao had cried herself unconscious.
There were scrapes on her elbow, and later her thigh and back were badly injured, it was very serious that time.
So she had some impression…
“So that time, Aunt saw you fall in but coldly walked away?”
“Yeah… anyway, she just coldly stared at Miaomiao like earlier, then walked away, and Miaomiao shouting at her was like she didn’t hear!”
“Miaomiao waited and waited until it got dark, there were wild wolves howling on the mountain, it was so scary!”
Luo Zhi’er was angry, so furious she regretted buying writing supplies for her and Muqing Yunliang, wanting to go back and throw them in the river right away.
She finally saw what kind of person Xiao Zhou Shi was, not only a petty person, a cold-blooded animal, but also extremely vile.
She suddenly no longer pitied her, thinking she deserved it!
She knew how hard it was for Luo Zhi’er to give birth to Miaomiao, knew how much Li Sanmao valued Miaomiao, yet she could still favor sons over daughters…
Never mind if outsiders would help when they saw, how could she ignore the life of her direct young niece?
Or, losing Miaomiao, did she think that would make Luo Zhi’er and Li Sanmao down and out forever, Third Child’s Family unable to compete with her, and that would make her happy?
“Miaomiao, did you tell your father about this?”
“Mother, Miaomiao didn’t remember anything at the time, only vaguely later, Father is so hardworking, Miaomiao didn’t want to worry him, so I didn’t tell Father!”
Miaomiao was both shocked and scared at the time, so small, terrified and forgot that whole incident, had nightmares for a while after.
Li Sanmao later deliberately never mentioned it in front of her, also afraid she’d remember that past event!
No wonder Xiao Zhou Shi wouldn’t let Liuliu play with Miaomiao, was she afraid Liuliu would tell? Or afraid Miaomiao would remember and slip up?
Deliberately making their relationship bad, no interaction.
She didn’t think it was guilt…
Luo Zhi’er carried the buckets all the way unhappy, arrived by the well and dropped the water bucket, took the well bucket to draw water…
Her face gloomy, Miaomiao tugged her sleeve, “Mother, what’s wrong?”
“Miaomiao, stay away from your Aunt from now on.”
“Oh, got it, Mother…”
Miaomiao nodded, anyway she didn’t like Aunt either!
“Keep some distance from Liuliu too!”
“Oh!”
Luo Zhi’er became alert, feeling some things had to be stopped in moderation.
Xiao Zhou Shi was a very complicated person, that earlier look was cold with a hint of hatred, yes, hatred!
What did she hate her for?
This time she helped her once, gave her things once, what about next time?
Next time if Yunliang Muqing needed writing supplies and came to buy from her, or begged for help with other things, if she didn’t give, would it stir up the evil in her heart?
If she gave, would she think it wasn’t enough, even get jealous, hateful?
Li Ergou followed Li Sanmao and the others all the way up the mountain to under the big pine tree…
It took nearly two hours climbing the road, he was exhausted to the point of spitting blood, occasionally hearing them mention something about a blind one on the way…
He secretly sighed they finally arrived, quietly hid behind the tree branch, night had fallen, Li Sanmao lit a big torch, looked around.
“San Mao, is this the place?”
Old Li Tou shivered and said.
“Gugu!”
“Haha!”
“Boom!”
“What? What? Is it… a yaksha?”
It was an evil ghost, soul-reaper… old folks around eighty-four were most afraid of that…
“Dad, it’s a nightjar…”
Li Sanmao said flatly, a kind of wild cat owl…
“Oh!”
Old Li Tou didn’t know what was going on, broke out in cold sweat, sat on the ground and lit his tobacco pouch to smoke, the glow flickering in the dark night to bolster his courage!
He always felt there might be other black bears here.
That earlier cry was like that terrifying soul-reaper, hoped they finished quickly and left…
“San Mao, hurry up!”
“Should be about done!”
Li Sanmao’s eyes lit up, walked to the stone mound as the wife described, stopped, sniffed the smell…
He vaguely saw signs of disturbance here, removed the cogongrass and branches she mentioned, sure enough, under the stone a black bear’s head appeared!
Eyes wide open, staring at them in horror with blood-red eyes!
Li Daqiang’s eyes showed shock, swallowed, if not for thinking of the children at home needing silver for school, he wouldn’t have come no matter what.
“Dad, Big Brother, let’s do it!”
“Okay!”
The two dropped what they were carrying, helped him throw off the leaves and branches, Li Ergou curiously stuck his head out to look.
At the foot of the stone mountain, suddenly appeared a huge black black bear, back against the stone, one bear paw missing, covered in blood… very bloody…
“My god! Sister-in-law and Miaomiao really picked up a life!”
“Gugu, haha!”
A miserable weird laugh came again from the distant deep mountain gully, making one’s scalp tingle!
It scared Li Ergou trembling too!
What the Li family father and sons did next made him tremble even more.
Li Sanmao first took a knife and cut an incision from the head, skinned the black bear…
Then these few took cleavers and started chopping and hacking, thud thud, blood and water splattering everywhere…
Was that a black bear?
Damn, it scared him to death…
Black bear meat was similar to wild boar pork, just those few paws and the gall were valuable, so Li Sanmao had hunted a black bear!
Truly terrifyingly awesome, too ruthless! Who in the village would dare have ideas about that thing?
Li Sanmao went to the mountain every day seeking death for silver, and his wife even made him go hunting too!
Bullshit!
Crazy for money! Did he still want his life?
But this Li Sanmao seemed mild-mannered and polite usually, who knew he was so ruthless up close?
His eyes turned, he turned and went back first!
Alive he couldn’t get, but dead, there were plenty of ways!
“Dad, Big Brother, let’s move faster, lest the bloody smell attract other fierce beasts to come eat…”
Hunters all knew, jungle law and all, some wild game mainly ate meat, if tiger leopard jackal wolf came it would be bad.
