Chapter 34: Nirvana
Wang Heyao clearly harbored ill intentions, but Shen Min, locked in the room, did not show the fear he used to in the past.
Seeing the man leave the courtyard, he returned to the bed and lifted a corner of the bedding. From it, he retrieved a tattered piece of paper, half red and half white, with the red side still showing half of the character “福” (fortune), obviously torn from a Lunar New Year couplet that had been pasted on the door.
Shen Min took out the charred firewood stick hidden behind the cabinet and sat by the oil lamp, slowly recalling what was written on the white side of the paper.
When he was young and his family was better off, he had studied for two years in a private school. But after so many years had passed, he could no longer remember many characters.
For those he couldn’t recall, he substituted similar sounding characters or simply drew pictures. It took him quite a while to write this short passage.
After finishing, Shen Min hid the firewood stick back behind the cabinet and carefully folded the paper, keeping it close to his robe.
Next, he placed his usual pillow on the table and decisively tore open a hole in the worn-out fabric, extracting a small cloth bag from inside.
As he lifted the bag, there was a faint clinking sound of copper coins.
He poured the coins onto the table, counted them, then put them back into the bag and placed it beside the paper, keeping both close to his body.
Shen Min then put the pillow back in its place, not bothering to repair the torn side. He simply tidied it up a bit and turned it over so that the damaged part was not visible.
After this, he adjusted his hair bun and robe, then sat on the edge of the bed, waiting.
Sure enough, after about half an hour, there was a sound at the courtyard gate, with footsteps indicating more than one person entering the yard.
A male voice, somewhat familiar, said, “Look at what you’ve turned your husband into. He dares to ask me for five taels a night, more expensive than the courtesans in the town brothels. Wang Heyao, let me tell you, I’ll give you at most one tael. If not, I’m leaving.”
Wang Heyao’s tone was mocking as he replied, “Leizi, if you really didn’t want to do this, you wouldn’t have come. Now that you’re bargaining at the last minute, when I married Shen Min, I saw you drooling over him. Besides, can those women outside compare to him? If you want it cheap, wait a while longer. By then, this slut might have been with countless men!”
Leizi’s heart was pierced by these words, feeling somewhat annoyed but not leaving. He continued bargaining, “How about four taels, no more!”
Wang Heyao gritted his teeth.
“Fine, four taels. Deal!”
The outer door opened and closed again, and footsteps halted at the inner room door, followed by the sound of a key unlocking.
Shen Min heard all the commotion outside clearly. He sat quietly on the bed, not moving, clutching the hem of his trousers tightly with his fingers.
When the lock clicked open, Wang Heyao peered cautiously inside from outside.
Seeing Shen Min looking at him, he awkwardly smiled and said, “Wait a moment,” before entering and remembering to lock the door behind him.
Rubbing his hands, Wang Heyao walked up to Shen Min and chuckled, “Still not asleep, huh?”
Even if he had no shame, doing such things made him somewhat embarrassed.
Of course, it was only for the moment.
Seeing that Shen Min didn’t respond and didn’t react as violently as usual, he leaned closer, bent down, and whispered softly, “Leizi’s here. You’ll accompany him tonight. Tomorrow, I’ll buy you a pig’s trotter and stew it just for you. Is that alright?”
Shen Min still said nothing.
Wang Heyao felt a bit uneasy. He reluctantly suppressed his anger and spoke kindly, “Don’t blame me. This family is on the verge of not having enough food to eat. I have to think of a way. Don’t worry, once I earn enough money for seeds and fertilizer, we won’t do this anymore. Those people won’t dare to speak out, and no one will know.”
Shen Min lowered his eyelids, refusing to look at him.
Wang Heyao took this as agreement. Feeling relieved, yet still somewhat aggrieved, he wanted to say something more but couldn’t find the words.
He stomped his foot, gritted his teeth, and said, “I’ll let him in.”
With that, he turned and opened the door, allowing a middle-aged man of average build and slightly chubby stature to enter the room.
From the doorway of the other room in the outer house, there was a slight click. Wang Heyao glanced over and saw a figure passing by the window paper. He knew his mother had been awakened and witnessed the scene, but apparently had no intention of intervening.
Feeling somewhat reassured, he fawningly smiled and welcomed Leizi into the room, introducing him to Shen Min who was sitting by the bed, “This is Leizi. He visited us when we got married and even had meals at our house a few years ago.”
Leizi stood at the door, carefully examining the man sitting on the bed. He noticed the scars on the man’s face and how thin he looked, almost no flesh on his body. He frowned slightly, feeling that four taels of silver might be too much and regretted it for a moment.
However, when Shen Min stood up from the bed and slowly walked towards him, the warm yellow light of the oil lamp shining on him, Leizi recalled how stunning he had been the first time they met and how he had been infatuated with him for the past three or four years.
Thus, Leizi made up his mind, no longer hesitating.
He smiled and bowed to Shen Min, saying, “Madam Wang, I’m disturbing you late at night.”
Shen Min stood in front of him, silent, just quietly looking at him.
Wang Heyao looked back and forth between them, feeling uncomfortable only now. After suppressing the urge to explode in anger, he said nothing, turned and left the room, slamming the door shut.
Inside the room, Leizi reached out to Shen Min with open arms, smiling, “Could Madam Wang please help me change clothes?”
Outside the door, Wang Heyao pressed his ear against the door panel, listening to the hustle and bustle inside. His teeth were almost ground to pieces.
When he heard Leizi say, “These past few days, I’ve been sleeping too much in the kiln. It’s hard to lift it up for a while. Could Madam help me out a little with your mouth?”
Wang Heyao’s head buzzed with anger. He cursed silently in his heart and decided that once Leizi left, he would beat that slut who seduced an outsider.
After a moment of silence in the room, just as Wang Heyao was gnashing his teeth outside, there was a loud clang from inside, as if something heavy had fallen to the ground, followed by a tragic scream from Leizi, who sounded nothing like a living person.
Wang Heyao shuddered violently. With a bang, he kicked open the door. Before he could see clearly, a disheveled figure rushed towards him.
A faint smell of blood accompanied the figure as it pounced. Wang Heyao let out a loud “Ah!” and only when the person reached the door did he see that it was Shen Min.
His robe was disheveled, his long hair covering half of his face. In the seams of his hair and mouth, there was blood.
As he rushed up to Wang Heyao, Shen Min stopped, and moonlight shone on his face. He grinned strangely at Wang Heyao.
Wang Heyao’s eyelids twitched, feeling nauseous. He saw that Shen Min’s mouth was a large piece of flesh and blood. When he realized that Wang Heyao had already seen it, Shen Min vigorously chewed and swallowed the meat.
Wang Heyao was so scared that he was on the verge of collapse, and the door behind him
His mother, who had been peeking all along, was scared back.
On the ground in the room, Leizi held his bloody shoulder and rolled around, constantly rolling to Wang Heyao and shouting, “Quick, catch him!”
It was only then that Wang Heyao reacted, struggling to get up. But the scene just now, like a demon eating a person, scared him so much that his hands and feet were soft for a while.
When he finally struggled to get up from the ground, Shen Min had already crossed the courtyard in the dark. He hurriedly caught the man’s shoulder, but Shen Min suddenly became very strong.
The robe was torn, and he went crazy to break free from him. When Wang Heyao took back his hand, he found his fingernails full of flesh and blood.
At this time, the courtyard door banged, and Shen Min had disappeared without a trace.
Wang Heyao’s mind went blank. He trembled back, the tragic scream in the room had turned into a panting grunt, and he stepped heavily into the room, just to see Leizi releasing his hand from covering his shoulder and looking there, the shoulder was missing a large piece of meat, only leaving a continuous bleeding blood hole.
…
In the dead of night, a frail figure dashed through the deserted, dark streets.
His gasping breaths echoed like an old, wheezing bellows. His thin legs occasionally tripped over each other, causing him to crash violently to the ground. His knees, elbows, and chin were scraped and bleeding, yet he seemed oblivious, immediately getting up and continuing to run with unsteady steps.
He didn’t know how long he had been running, how many times he had fallen. As his legs grew weak and he couldn’t muster strength, he walked for a while, then resumed running whenever he could.
His clothes were tattered and stained with blood, both from others and his own. His knees, elbows, and chest were caked with mud. Blood splatters on his face had dried to dark, sticky patches, mingled with disgusting bits of flesh.
His eyes were bright and tearless, devoid of any expression. He ran as if it were the sole purpose of his existence, as if all he had to do in this life was to keep running.
He crossed the entire Liuxi Village, passed through the winding mountain paths outside the village, and traversed a cemetery, hearing the cries of unknown beasts from the surrounding mountains.
Finally, he saw a small village at the foot of the mountains in the moonlight.
Entering the village, he found the familiar gate of the Shen family that he hadn’t entered in several years.
It wasn’t until then that Shen Min felt the unbearable fatigue, and his legs gave way as he knelt down outside the gate with a thud.
After catching his breath for a moment and the dizziness gradually subsiding, he raised his hand into a fist and knocked on the gate, shouting hoarsely, “Dad, mom, Xiao Min is back, please open the door for me!”
Inside the courtyard, all was dark behind the windows and doors, no response.
Shen Min knocked again and shouted, “Dad, mom, Xiao Min wants to see you, please open the door for me!”
At this moment, there was finally a response from inside the house. A faint light seeped through the window paper, followed by the sound of the door opening.
An elderly man’s voice asked, “Who is it at this hour?”
Shen Min leaned against the door, urgently saying, “Dad, it’s me, Xiao Min. I want to see you and mom.”
There was silence in the courtyard for a moment.
Then the old man spoke, “Xiao Min, go back. Once married, a son is like water thrown out of a bucket. Go back and listen to your mother-in-law and husband. Don’t come here to cause trouble again. Go and live your life quietly.”
With that, the sound of his footsteps retreated.
Shen Min quickly knelt up and continued knocking on the door, saying, “Dad, please let me see mom once. I’ll leave right after seeing her. I don’t want anything, and I won’t cause you any trouble,” he paused, then added, “I just miss my mom.”
Inside the courtyard, the old man stopped in his tracks, sighed deeply, and said, “Xiao Min, don’t blame your dad and mom for being harsh. We have no choice.”
With that, he ignored the cries of his own son outside, gritted his teeth, and entered the house, slamming the door shut.
Once inside, he first took a candle and went to the door of another room, peered inside, saw the person on the bed breathing steadily without any sign of waking up, and only then did he relax.
He then went to his own room. Inside, the old lady sat on the edge of the kang, tears streaming down her face. The knocking and shouting from outside hadn’t stopped yet.
She said to the old man who had just come in, “Old man, can’t you let Xiao Min in for a while? He might have had a hard time at the Wang family’s house and could only come back to us.”
The old man glared at her fiercely and said, “You’re confused. Do you know who Wang Heyao is? In recent years, he’s come to our door several times demanding the betrothal gifts from years ago. Every time, he only leaves after causing a scene. If we let Xiaomin in now, he’ll keep coming back whenever he can’t bear it anymore. Wang Heyao will undoubtedly come, causing trouble again. The betrothal gifts were long used up for Xiaotang’s medicine. Where do we have money to give him?”
“If you want to blame someone, blame Xiaomin for his bad luck. At his age, he hasn’t been able to give the Wang family a son or daughter. It’s no wonder others criticize!”
The old man lowered his voice, afraid of waking their son in the next room who had been bedridden with a chronic illness.
The old lady cried even harder, saying, “My poor Xiaomin!”
Sitting on the edge of the kang, the old man’s eyes were cold and filled with determination.
“We owe Xiaomin in this lifetime. It’s better to let him suffer alone than to drag down our whole family. Let him knock if he wants. Let’s go to sleep!”
With that, the old man blew out the candle and lay down on the bedding, tightly closing his eyes.
The old lady covered her face and ears with the blanket, silently crying inside her quilt.
The knocking outside gradually subsided. Surely, the neighbors nearby had heard, but they knew well enough not to interfere.
After a while, it finally became completely quiet outside.
Not a sound could be heard.
…
The frail figure staggered to his feet. He hadn’t cried all night, but now tears finally streamed down his cheeks.
Shen Min raised his hand and touched the familiar door panel in front of him. After a last glance, he turned around and began his journey back.
Once again, he passed through the cemetery, walked along the mountain path, crossed the entire Liuxi Village, and arrived at the gate of a house on the west side of the village.
From his robe, he took out a carefully preserved piece of paper and a bag of copper coins, squatting down to press them flat and slide them under the door crack.
After that, he stood up, looked at the faint light beginning to appear in the sky, and after a moment’s pause, Shen Min straightened his robe and hair, walking towards the center of the village.
…
Just as dawn was breaking, Qiu Henian and Qingyan got out of bed, preparing to start a fire for breakfast.
Suddenly, they heard someone shouting outside, “Something’s wrong, there’s trouble!”
Qingyan wanted to go out and see, but Qiu Henian saw he was dressed lightly and stopped him, going out himself.
Qingyan paced anxiously in the outer room, feeling something was terribly wrong.
Not long after, Qiu Henian returned from outside, holding something in his hand.
But Qingyan was too preoccupied to notice what it was, because as soon as Qiu Henian entered the room, Qingyan hurriedly grabbed his outer robe and said urgently, “Someone just jumped into the well. I need to see what’s happening!”
Qiu Henian’s heart sank, saying, “I’ll go with you!”
He helped Qingyan into his outer robe, and the two of them rushed out together.
Their house wasn’t far from the well. They arrived in less than half a quarter-hour.
Breathless, Qingyan stopped in his tracks, seeing a crowd gathered around the well. Someone was shouting excitedly, “He’s coming up, make way, make way!”
The crowd parted, and Qingyan saw a water-soaked figure with no color left in his face being pulled up from the well by a rope.
His eyes were closed, his chest no longer rose and fell, and his face and limbs were pale and bluish.
Once laid on the ground, his head turned to the side, almost touching the ground.
The imprint of a slap on his face was still visible.
Qingyan’s heart skipped a beat as he recognized the person.
The man pulled out from the well was none other than Shen Min.
Spoiler for the Next Chapter:
Qingyan looked at Qiu Henian, and the two silently looked at each other for a while. He slowly leaned his forehead against Qiu Henian’s shoulder and sighed softly.
