sinovels Chapter 1: Someone Was Killed
Chapter 1: Someone Was Killed
"Someone's been blown up..."
The shouts came from outside the courtyard wall.
Chen Shi suddenly opened his eyes.
dead?
Where did he die?
A clinic?
Before he could fully clear his mind, the first thing that popped into his head was the few benches, medicine cabinet, and acupuncture kits at the entrance of the clinic, along with an absurd thought: the winds of doctor-patient conflict had finally reached the circle of traditional Chinese medicine practitioners.
wrong.
Above were dark, gnarled beams, from which hung two strings of dried chili peppers and a few ears of old corn. The window paper billowed and deflated in the wind, and the old newspapers pasting the windows rustled loudly.
The kang (heated brick bed) was still a bit warm, and the room was filled with the smell of firewood and sweat from being wrapped in blankets.
He pulled his hand out from under the covers.
Although she has chilblains on her hands, she doesn't have age spots and looks very young.
Chen Shi stared at his hand for a while, clenched it, and then let go.
He is back.
Back in January 1983, the lunar calendar was still the twelfth month of 1982.
Back to Kaoshantun.
Let's go back to the day Han Changgui was killed in the bombing.
Someone outside shouted again, "Over at Old Han's place! At the edge of the village! Go get the team leader! Someone's been killed in the bombing!"
"Chen Shi, your brother-in-law has been bombed! Come out quickly!"
Han Changgui.
Chen Shi silently repeated the name in his mind.
His brother-in-law. The one who dragged his sister, Chen Xiulan, into misery.
In his past life, it was also a December day like this when Han Changgui died at the edge of the wasteland near the old South Ditch by the village.
The villagers said that he secretly buried Xiang'er in the middle of the night, intending to kill wild animals, but ended up killing himself. He didn't die at the time, but after returning, for some unknown reason, he smothered his newborn son to death.
Later, the village spread the word that detonators had been left on that land in the past, and whoever touched it would be unlucky.
The village didn't report it to higher authorities at first.
In the spring, land is divided into plots: forest edges, wastelands, and private hills. Every family is calculating which plot is near water and which is shady.
If someone dies at this time, and it leads to the discovery of illegally buried detonators and old detonators, if the commune comes down to investigate, every family will be afraid of getting their hands dirty.
But in the end, the truth still got out.
The one who caused the trouble was Tian Guizhi, a widow from the east end of the village.
When Han Changgui was alive, he would earn money but wouldn't bring it home; instead, he would often go to her room. He bought her plenty of floral fabrics and red headscarves.
After Han Changgui died, she didn't get any benefits and was afraid of being implicated, so she went to the commune.
Later, the old village chief Zhao Defa took on all the responsibilities he could, and his sister Chen Xiulan, knowing that the old village chief had little to do with the matter, stepped forward and took the blame for him.
At that time, she had just given birth a few days ago, leaving behind a little girl, and there was no one to prepare a hot meal for her.
Chen Shi was only seventeen or eighteen years old. He stood blocking the courtyard gate, unable to speak coherently, and could only hold Ya Ya's hand and shed tears.
He never dared to think about his older sister and Ya Ya in detail, even in his old age.
"Shizi! Chen Shi!"
The courtyard gate was pounded on loudly.
The voice of their neighbor, Aunt Wang, came through the door: "Are you still sleeping? Something terrible has happened! Your brother-in-law has died. Your sister just gave birth a few days ago, don't let this fright cause anything bad, go and check on him quickly."
Chen Shi threw off the covers and got off the kang (a heated brick bed).
He slipped his feet into the cotton shoes, and the cold made him shiver. He hadn't worn such cold shoes in years. He grabbed a patched cotton hat from the wall and put it on.
As soon as the door opened, the wind lifted the curtain against the wall, and Xue Mozi slapped him in the face.
Aunt Wang, wrapped in a cotton-padded coat, her nose red from the cold, still kept talking, "What a tragedy! In the dead of winter, blood was everywhere, I heard it was from an explosion..."
"Second Aunt, where's my sister?"
Aunt Wang was taken aback.
Chen Shi asked again, "Are you awake or unconscious?"
Aunt Wang opened her mouth, and it took her a while to reply, "I didn't have time to look. When there was a noise over there, everyone ran to the road. Your sister's house is nearby, she must have been scared."
Chen Shi lifted his foot and walked away.
Behind them, Aunt Wang muttered, "This child seems different today than usual."
Kaoshantun is a small village, with a few dozen households nestled at the foot of the mountain, their chimneys emitting plumes of white smoke.
Further north, the air is thick with the sounds of crows, the pine trees are laden with snow, and the wind blows down from the forest, stinging one's face.
My sister's house is on the edge of the village, a little distance away.
That house was built for him by his father, Chen Mancang, when he was alive.
Han Changgui was an outsider. Years ago, he collapsed in a snowdrift and nearly froze to death.
Chen Xiulan was soft-hearted, so she dragged him back to the village road, made ginger soup, and found an old coat. She managed to save him by taking care of him bite by bite.
Back then, Chen Mancang was still alive and was the most skilled mountain herder in Kaoshantun. He looked down on Han Changgui, disliking his shifty eyes and unreliable actions.
He couldn't stop his daughter from being so stubborn and believing Han Changgui's nonsense about "repaying a life-saving debt with one's body," and insisted on marrying him.
Having no other choice, Chen Mancang built two mud-brick houses for them on the edge of the village.
Not long after, Chen Mancang died in the mountains.
As soon as Chen Mancang fell, Han Changgui's expression changed.
He drank, gambled, cursed, and beat his wife. The more Chen Xiulan tolerated him, the more he felt that the Chen family had no one to rely on.
Later on, even a five or six-year-old girl like Ya Ya would hide whenever she heard him enter the courtyard.
Chen Shi hurried forward through the snow.
A crowd had already gathered in the distance. The explosion occurred on the small road leading from my sister's house to Lao Nangouzi.
That road is rarely used, and it's lined with pine trees, making it even more deserted in winter. Only people like Han Changgui, who are never home, would take that route back.
Someone saw Chen Shi and quickly reached out to stop him, "Shizi, don't go any closer, your brother-in-law doesn't look good!"
"How did it go?" Chen Shi asked.
"He's breathing and can make noise. To be honest, he's in pretty bad shape. He's beyond saving. Let's see how long he can hold on."
Chen Shi didn't go over, but listened to them discussing how to clean up a room to carry Han Changgui back.
Remembering the child who was smothered to death by his own father in his previous life, Chen Shi stopped him.
"It's too warm inside, so the blood flows faster. It's better to keep it cool; it stops the bleeding and relieves the pain."
After saying that, he turned into his sister's yard and didn't look back again. In the twelfth lunar month in Northeast China, he was practically dead if he wasn't already.
The door to the outer room was half-open, and the sound of a child crying came from the inner room, making everyone feel flustered.
"Mother, Mother, don't sleep..."
Upon hearing this, Chen Shi rushed into the inner room.
Chen Xiulan leaned against the pile of quilts on the kang (a heated brick bed), her face completely pale, and her hair at her temples was wet and stuck to her face.
Ya Ya knelt beside her, her little face streaked with tears, her hands gripping Chen Xiulan's sleeve tightly.
In the swaddling clothes at the end of the kang (a heated brick bed), a newborn baby, its face flushed, cried so hard it could barely breathe.
Chen Shi picked up his eldest nephew and rocked and coaxed him.
"uncle......"
When Ya Ya saw Chen Shi, tears welled up in her eyes again. "Whenever there's a noise outside, my mother stops talking. Does that mean Dad's going to hit someone again?"
"No, Yaya, don't cry. Your little brother is still small; if he hears you cry, he'll cry too."
Ya Ya nodded, sniffling.
Chen Shi sat down on the edge of the kang (a heated brick bed) and put his hand on Chen Xiulan's wrist.
Based on his past life's experience, he knew exactly what to do with just a touch of his finger.
She was depleted after childbirth, frightened, and chilled.
The pulse is thin and rapid.
It's not too bad yet, but if she doesn't take good care of herself afterward, postpartum illnesses, heart palpitations, and headaches could plague her for the rest of her life.
Chen Shi glanced at the window crack, then at the stove.
"Ya Ya, go and close the outer room door tightly, and make sure there's dry firewood in the stove, add two more pieces."
Ya Ya wiped her face, climbed off the kang (a heated brick bed), and ran outside.
Chen Shi took Chen Xiulan's hand, wanting to examine her pulse closely.
He was stunned when he saw it.
Chen Xiulan had old, bruised marks on her wrists. Han Changgui was ruthless in his beatings; she must have many such injuries on her body.
There was still some black dirt under my fingernails. Just a little bit, at the base of the nail.
Chen Shi stared at the mud without saying a word.
Chen Xiulan's eyelids twitched, but she didn't dare to look at Chen Shi. She just slowly pulled her hands back into the quilt.
It was still a mess outside the window, with all sorts of noises.
Chen Shi put her hand back, covered her with the blanket, and patted her hand through the blanket.
"Captain! There's a trail of shoe prints on the snow here!"