Chapter 136 Without Any Trace
Su Jiuyue was full of curiosity to see how badly Xia Mingyi and his mother would be beaten, but suddenly her eyes were covered by a big hand.
She immediately tried to keep it off, "What are you doing?"
Wu Xiyuan said, "Children can't see it."
Su Jiuyue had nothing to say.
"You can't, either."
"I'm closing my eyes," Wu Xiyuan was assured.
And then, Su Jiuyue took him away from the crowd.
Wu Xiyuan was still frightened and patted his chest, "Yang Liu is vicious."
Su Jiuyue snorted, "She's not vicious to you. What are you scared of?"
She then loosed his hand and stepped towards their home.
Wu Xiyuan didn't know why she was angry. He scratched the back of his head and ran after her.
"Honey, don't leave me alone. I'm not vicious. I'm adorable."
...
Actually, Su Jiuyue was not angry anymore. But she found it interesting when Wu Xiyuan did something stupid to amuse her.
She was washing clothes while Wu Xiyuan was playing in the yard. Tian Xiuniang was back soon.
She hurriedly walked towards Su Jiuyue, "Jiujiu, why do you leave without telling me? I was looking for you."
Su Jiuyue continued washing clothes, "I saw you were very focused, and I couldn't go near you. So I didn't tell you and came back."
Tian Xiuniang moved some woods and sat on them beside Su Jiuyue. She gossiped, "Jiujiu, did you see it?"
"What?"
"Yang Liu have their legs broken. It's quite cold outside now, and the bones are also brittle. When the stick hit on their legs, they let out a horrible scream..." Tian Xiuniang shrunk her neck and keenly shared it with her.
Su Jiuyue was terrified, "That's enough. Stop it. It sounds too scary."
Tian Xiuniang laughed hysterically when seeing her action, "Look at you. You are as timid as a hare. But honestly speaking, it's really a release of hatred since Xia Mingyi and his mother treated Yang Liu too badly before."
Su Jiuyue agreed with her and added, "And Yang Liu's mum, she treated her daughter badly, too. She had suffered a lot all her life but she still wanted her daughter to follow her path."
Su Jiuyue thought of her own parents. They were not rich, they had never beaten her, though.
"Exactly. Yang Liu's mother thought it normal to be beaten, so she agreed to let Xia Mingyi marry her daughter. If I'm beaten, my mum will risk her life to protect me."
Tian Xiuniang was speaking proudly. The way her parents treated her directly influenced her personality. Although her parents were poor, she was always the apple of their eyes. In return, she sometimes gave money to her parents after she got married.
"Our mother-in-law is also nice to us. No daughter-in-law in our village is freer than us," Su Jiuyue commended.
Tian Xiuniang curled her lips but she didn't retort.
Other daughters-in-law in their village had to do farm work even in summer while in winter, they had to dig wild vegetables in the mountain.
However, their mother-in-law was quite capable and they always had enough food in winter. So, they could stay at home and did nothing. Moreover, she never asked them to work under the burning sun in summer. They were just asked to help men to do farm work in the early morning or at twilight because it was cool then.
Although Tian Xiuniang thought her mother-in-law was partial, frankly, their life was much easier compared with other daughters-in-law.
As Tian Xiuniang praised her mother-in-law inwardly, she saw her come out of her room. Liu Cuihua scolded, "You are the fastest onlooker but lazy to work. Go and see how the vegetables are. The Spring Festival is approaching, and it's time to worship the Kitchen God(who is in charge of family affairs in Chinese mythology) tomorrow. You'll have to load the vegetables in the cart and sell them in the town. We can also get a good price before the Spring Festival."
They had been very busy taking care of the vegetables these days and it was time to sell them to earn money, so they were all very excited.
"No problem. I'll go and see. Mum, do you get the candies for the Kitchen God ready?" Tian Xiuniang was trying to excuse herself.
Liu Cuihua didn't really blame her. There was seldom something interesting in the village, so she could understand why Tian Xiuniang was so keen on it.
"I'll go to Daqing's house to buy candies as we do every year. It's quite convenient. Daqing is good at making candies, and I'll pay him some coppers."
"Mum, could you buy more candies? Guo likes it," Tian Xiuniang pled.
Liu Cuihua chuckled, "Guo likes it? You like it."
Tian Xiuniang stuck out her tongue and said nothing. She escaped, "I'm going to water the vegetables."
The next morning, Liu Cuihua asked to load the cart with many boxes of vegetables. Her sons would go to Yongzhou to sell these vegetables.
It was said that there was no longer conscription in Yongzhou now. So, Liu Cuihua allowed her sons to go there.
However, she didn't allow them to enter the city. She asked them to set up a stall at the entrance of the city. If there was something wrong, she told them to get rid of the cart and ran away.
Su Jiuyue didn't go to Yongzhou with them. She just helped to push the cart out of the village. Her sister-in-law, Tian Xiuniang, went there with them.
She didn't go back until the cart was in distance.
She suddenly saw something on the ground when passing by the willow at the entrance of the village.
She walked towards it and picked it up out of curiosity.
Her face changed as soon as she saw what it was.
She was terrified and anxious.
It was a black jade pendant with two snakes having four claws respectively. The snakes were ferocious-looking as if laughing at her foolishness.
She turned it over and there were two characters on it.
Su Jiuyue's heart jolted. She looked around but nobody was there.
She didn't know whether to take it back home this time for Da had said that the jade might bring misfortune to her family.
But on second thought, she had lost the jade pendant. And it was sent back now, perhaps they had been spotted.
She frowned and held the jade pendant tightly in her palm.
It seemed that she was unintentionally involved in a crisis again. These people could come and leave without any trace. It must be quite easy for them to ruin her family.
She was in a panic at thought of it and didn't know what to do. She then gathered up the hemline of her dress and ran to her home hurriedly.
She shut the gate in a rush as soon as she entered, "Mum, where are you?"