Cui Guiying subconsciously wanted to check if the other end of the string was being tugged by Li Juxiang, but as soon as she raised her head, she saw Li Juxiang in great pain with her mouth wide open, then suddenly "plop" she knelt on the ground, leaning forward, as if someone was pressing her to kowtow.
Liu Jinxia looked at her own daughter with heartache, yet did not slow down her speech or her hands.
Li Juxiang painfully rolled onto her side on the ground, her arms wrapped around herself as she rolled, feet kicking wildly, saliva spilling from her mouth, eyes wide open, face turning blue.
Cui Guiying stood by, worried about her grandson, and concerned that something might happen to Li Juxiang.
However, after the peak of pain, Li Juxiang gradually calmed down, and eventually, she was lying spread-eagled on the ground, gasping for air.
Liu Jinxia also stopped, her body swaying, and Cui Guiying quickly reached out to support her.
"Go get a basin of hot water, to wipe down the child."
Cui Guiying immediately did so, took a basin, opened the cover of the small stove in the middle of the kitchen, and scooped out hot water with a wooden spoon.
After dampening the cloth, she began to wipe the incense ash off Li Zhiyuan.
What was wiped off was not only the incense ash but also the two purple handprints, which dissolved like paint.
Cui Guiying also specifically looked at the cloth, noticing that no purple stains were left behind.
"Sis, is the child... better now?"
Liu Jinxia pulled out a cigarette, lit it, took a deep breath, and then coughed violently, with tears and snot both flowing down, choked by her own smoke.
However, although Cui Guiying did not receive an immediate reply from Liu Jinxia, she noticed that her grandson, who had been unconscious, was slowly opening his eyes.
"Little Yuanhou, Little Yuanhou you're awake!"
Li Zhiyuan looked around at Cui Guiying with some confusion, glanced around, and finally called out in a hoarse voice, "Granny."
"Yes, you're finally awake, the Bodhisattva is protecting you, the Bodhisattva is protecting you."
Beside her, Li Juxiang got up from the ground, took a clean bowl herself, poured some water, and sipped it.
Li Zhiyuan reached out his hand to grab Cui Guiying's arm, shifted slightly, wanting to be in his grandmother's embrace.
Cui Guiying quickly picked Li Zhiyuan up into her arms, coaxing him: "My dear boy, my Little Yuanhou, my good dear boy..."
Liu Jinxia: "You take care of the little one, let him sleep a bit more, he'll be fine once he wakes up."
Li Juxiang came over, supporting her mother as they left the house.
Cui Guiying spoke up: "When Hanhou comes back, I will talk to him..."
Liu Jinxia waved her hand: "We'll talk after the child is completely well, we are heading back home now, no need to see us out."
Cui Guiying truly couldn't see them out and continued holding her grandson.
At that moment, Li Zhiyuan, finding solace in his grandmother's embrace, began to fall asleep again, but this time his sleep was much more peaceful, not like before with his lips clenched and eyebrows furrowed, which was heartbreaking to see.
On the way back in the tricycle, Liu Jinxia half knelt, pulled open her daughter's collar to look at the circle of bruises, and asked:
"Mum, sit down properly, don't fall off."
Liu Jinxia sat back down, and after a while, slapped her thigh and cursed:
"Damn it, are my daughter and I truly born to be lowly!"
Li Weihan hadn't returned for a while, and Cui Guiying sent Hu Zi and Shitou to Li Sanjiang's house to look for him. When Hu Zi and Shitou came back, they reported that the servant at Li Sanjiang's house said he was out for a paper burning ceremony, and Li Weihan had gone to find him.
Cui Guiying understood, Li Sanjiang was performing a paper burning ritual, and according to custom, the main family would host a meal, and with his liking for alcohol, who knew how long it would take before he returned, and her spouse had gone to urge him.
For dinner, Cui Guiying asked several of the older children to help out, but Li Weihan still hadn't returned after the meal, so Cui Guiying arranged for the children to sleep in the inner room.
She herself slept on a board set up in the kitchen with Li Zhiyuan, who slept soundly.
Cui Guiying fanned her grandchild while tearfully relishing her love for him, lamenting that the child really had suffered this time.
She also thought about her daughter who had just gone through a divorce, not knowing how she was faring now.
Unlike other families that favored sons over daughters, Cui Guiying and her husband cherished this delicate daughter the most.
The daughter wanted to study, and she did well, so they had always supported her, no matter what others said about it being useless for girls to study and better to marry off early, they remained unmoved.
This affection towards their daughter naturally extended to the grandson.
Li Zhiyuan had a dream where he was in class at the Youth Class, and the old professor on the lectern closed his book and said, "Alright, class is over."
He followed his deskmate out of the classroom, walking among a group of tall adults.
They both entered the bathroom and stood on the steps of the urinal.
His deskmate had already unzipped and started peeing, then urged him:
"Zhuiyuan, pee as well, what are you waiting for?"
Li Zhiyuan nodded, just as he pulled down his zipper, he suddenly woke up with a start.
The dream ended, and he opened his eyes; by the moonlight from outside, he saw his grandmother sleeping beside him, still holding a palm fan in her hand.
That was close; he almost wet the bed.
Li Zhiyuan's memory of the day was already a bit blurry; he got up quietly, preparing to go pee.
The toilet was a separate little house far from the main house, with a pit dug underneath and a large urn buried in it. On top of the urn was a hollow wooden seat; when Li Zhiyuan first saw it, it looked to him very much like the emperor's throne in the movies.
Hence, the locals referred to going to the toilet as "sitting on the porcelain urn."
Initially, Li Zhiyuan also went there to pee, but after sharing experiences with his brothers, he finally understood that as long as he stepped out of the house and courtyard, he could mark his territory anywhere.
Heading out the front door would mean crossing the courtyard, which was a bit far, so Li Zhiyuan chose to go out the back door and headed to the river, which was closer.
Just as Li Zhiyuan was getting ready, he suddenly heard a "thump... thump... thump..." sound.
He looked down and saw that it was their own boat by the bank that was shaking.
In Li Zhiyuan's mind, some images surfaced—hadn't he gone out to catch fish with his grandfather and brothers during the day?
Then, whether they caught any fish and what they ate for dinner, why couldn't he remember any of it?
"Thump... thump... thump..."
The boat kept shaking, but there were no waves on the river, nor was there any wind.
Finally, Li Zhiyuan recalled the events of the day, remembered the black hair, his own fall into the water, and what was below the water... Fear resurfaced along with these memories.
Li Zhiyuan's knees gave way; he stumbled and sat down on the ground, instinctively reaching out to touch his shoulder, as if a pair of cold hands was still clutching it.
It was this sitting action that changed his perspective, allowing him to see the bottom of the boat, which was previously out of sight.
"Thump... thump... thump..."
There was someone under the water; her head would occasionally emerge, bump against the bottom of the boat, and then go back down, continuing to peek out and bump, tirelessly repeating the cycle.
All of a sudden, the thumping stopped, and the boat ceased swaying.
That head surfaced once more, not continuing to bump against the bottom of the boat but slowly turning around. Accompanied by wet black hair endlessly sliding down to the sides, revealing part of a heavily made-up woman's face.
Her face was very pale, so pale that it seemed to dissolve under the moonlight at any moment.
Now, it looked as though she had found the person she was searching for, the corners of her mouth slowly drew into a smile.
Her lips remained bright red, somewhat glaring in the tranquility of the night.
Li Zhiyuan rubbed his eyes hard, but when he looked again, he saw the other party's upper body had emerged from the water, with both arms hanging down by her sides.
Not daring to delay any longer, Li Zhiyuan scrambled up and ran towards the house, tripping over the door threshold but managing to steady himself by grabbing the door frame.
Looking back for a brief moment, Little Huang Ying, who had been in the river with only half her body visible, was now standing on the lowest stone step by the bank.
Li Zhiyuan ran to the edge of the wooden bed, pushing and shaking Cui Guiying, but she continued to sleep soundly, holding the palm fan.
"Grandma, wake up, grandma, wake up!"
Li Zhiyuan kept calling, but Cui Guiying showed no sign of waking.
"Drip-drop... drip-drop... drip-drop..."
The sound of water droplets came from behind him.
Li Zhiyuan turned around, first seeing a pair of red high-heeled shoes, then the fair and swollen ankles. The black cheongsam tightly wrapped around her body, with water droplets continuously falling along the hem of her dress and the tips of her hair.
stood there rigidly on the doorstep!