"Wensheng, are you really going to divorce Sister Autumn Moon? I'm actually not in a hurry. Look at Sister Autumn Moon, lying in bed so helplessly. Maybe... let's wait a little longer?" Jiang Hongye, sobbing pitifully, clutching her belly, threw herself into the man's arms.
The confession moved Zhou Wensheng. She had always been a kind and understanding woman.
"We can wait, but the child can't. I don't want our newborn to bear a label of an unknown father.
Be good and wait for me here. I'm going to find a lawyer and soon I will give you and the child a home." Zhou Wensheng kissed Jiang Hongye on the cheek before reluctantly leaving the hospital room.
Watching Zhou Wensheng leave, Jiang Hongye quickly changed her deceptively pitiful demeanor and now looked malicious.
"Autumn Moon, I know you're awake. Since you're on your deathbed, ask anything you'd like. I'll take it as my final act of kindness, and you can die with peace," she murmured.
Wu Qiuyue was indeed awake, her blood boiling with fury as she watched the pair.
"Why? I thought you were my best friend. I took care of your kid and found you a job, and now you betray me, get involved with Wensheng. Can you face your conscience?"
"Tsk tsk, still so naive even on your deathbed, Wu Qiuyue. You're so stupid, no wonder Wensheng wouldn't like you."
Jiang Hongye gave a sinister smile. "Why did you think I needed help with the child? It's Wensheng's kid anyway, of course he should be the one to raise it." She blinked and swiftly continued,
"I almost forgot, it was your tea I laced with saffron when you were five months pregnant. You lost so much blood after the miscarriage, I almost pitied you." But Jiang's provocation was far from over. She continued,
"Do you remember ten years ago, the day when your second and fourth brothers met with an accident?"
"Wheezing" Wu Qiuyue gasped for air, her skeletal fingers deathly white as they clenched onto the sheets, her eyes filled with anger.
"It was you! You caused the death of my brothers. They were buried alive."
With much difficulty, the sentence sounded like it was squeezed out from between her teeth and filled with a deep-seated vengeance.
Jiang Hongye curled her lips in smug satisfaction, chuckling lightly, "Then you clearly have me wrong. I was merely an ordinary 'sent-down youth' at the time, with no way to acquire explosives, much less increase their potency. Of course, this was all at the hands of the scorekeeper who gathered the explosives in advance. And the scorekeeper of the Daoping Brigade was none other than the one you persistently promoted. How does it feel, knowing your second and fourth brothers were killed by Zhou Wensheng, who you recommended? Regretful? Guilty? Perhaps even wanting to die?"
"Zhou Wensheng, you beast...puke!" Wu Qiuyue spit a mouthful of fresh blood onto her oxygen mask. Her voice was as hoarse as a bellows, and she coughed up more and more blood, a pallor of death spreading over her paper-thin face.
"That's correct, your dear husband Zhou Wensheng. How pleasurable is it to marry your own sworn enemy! Do you know why Zhou Wensheng had them killed? It's all because of you. When your two brothers saw me kissing Zhou Wensheng in the grove on the hill, they beat him severely and warned him that if he dared to be two-faced with you again, they would report him for lechery, pushing Zhou Wensheng into action." Jiang Hongye's joyful tone screamed of arrogant pride.
After listening to this, Wu Qiuyue felt as if her chest was wrapped in a blade, every movement a brutal stab into the bone, unbearably painful.
She subsequently scoffed bitterly at herself.
The man she married was the murderer of her second and fourth brothers.
The child she raised with love was the illegitimate product of her husband's infidelity with her enemy.
The best friend whom she wholeheartedly treated with sincerity not only poisoned her but also harmed her child.
All this while, behind the life that she was so proud of, she was besmirched with the lives of her two brothers.
Wu Qiuyue felt her life ebbing away. She weakly turned her head and said, "Jiang Hongye, come closer. I have a secret to tell you."
Jiang Hongye stayed in her spot, not going forward.
Wu Qiuyue, shaking, took off her oxygen mask. "What's the matter? Are you scared of me?"
Jiang Hongye, looking at her adversary in defeat, strode forward fearlessly. "It's funny to think that I would be afraid of you. If you have something to say, say it as soon as possible. Once you breathe your last, you won't even have the chance to say anything!"
"Come closer!" Wu Qiuyue beckoned with her lips, now stained red with fresh blood.
"If you have something to say, then say it. Don't...ah! Wu Qiuyue, let go let go." Just as Jiang Hongye leaned closer to hear, Wu Qiuyue bit down on her ear hard. From somewhere, she had procured a scalpel, and with all her strength, she stabbed it into Jiang Hongye's stomach.
When Zhou Wensheng rushed in upon hearing the screams, he saw Wu Qiuyue, looking like a demon walked out from hell, biting one of Jiang Hongye's ears in her mouth, covered with blood. As he came in, her eyes burst with intense hatred and unwillingness.
"I'll wait for you... in hell..."
If there's another life, she won't let her beloved second and fourth brothers suffer.
If there's another life, she would tear this scum man and cheap woman apart with her own hands.
If there's another life...
...
"You lazy lot, can't you hear the rooster's third crowing and still not get up? Are you all expecting this old woman to serve you tea and wash your face? Roll out of bed now. You all just eat for nothing, I must’ve been cursed for generations to end up with such burdens."
"I'm coming, I'm coming.” The second daughter-in-law, Li Erni, buttoned up her last button and came forward. "Mom, I was just combing Li'er's hair. You wake up really early. Have a drink of water and take a rest, I'm about to start making breakfast."
She entered the kitchen in a frenzy, adding water to the pot, leading her way: "Xiaomei will be awake soon, I'll heat up the water for her, it will be just right for use in a while."
The second daughter-in-law may have only two daughters, but she is capable and speaks sweetly, knows how to please, plus she is a distant relative of the mother-in-law’s elder sister, naturally, the mother-in-law is very satisfied with this daughter-in-law.
"Yes, yesterday, the second and fourth brothers brought back quite a lot of elm money, I will rinse it with water, beat an egg, and make elm money egg cake for Qiuyue to eat in her room. I heard her coughing yesterday, she needs to nourish up."
"Ah, Mom, I understand." Li Erni swiftly nodded in response. The favoritism of the old lady is famous throughout Taoping Village. Who can blame her when the two clans of the Wu family only produced a precious daughter like Wu Qiuyue?
Wu Qiuyue's parents are the second child of the Wu family, her father is Wu Tiezhu, and he, with her mother, Chen Yulan, produced four sons, much like a string of locusts.
The eldest son of Wu family, Wu Xiangdong, joined the army when he was sixteen. After serving for ten years and reaching the rank of company commander, he married a medical staff member Wei Hong from the army and had two sons, the older named Wu Guotai and the younger named Wu Min'an.
The second son Wu Xiangxi, graduated from junior high school, married Li Erni from Daliushu Village, and the couple stayed home to take care of their parents. They had two daughters, the older named Wu Yingzi and the younger named Wu Lier.
As for the third sibling, Wu Xiangnan, he had a deep interest in carpentry and went into the city at the age of fourteen to learn from old Zhao. The Zhao family had only one daughter and planned to attract a son-in-law. Later, Zhao Xiaotao took a liking to Wu Xiangnan.
The Wu family wasn't so poor that they couldn't afford to eat. They wouldn't agree to their son go live as a son-in-law elsewhere. They then thought of a compromise where, once the couple had a child, they could choose a son to carry on the Zhao family name.
A year and a half after their marriage, their beloved son Zhao Tianbao was born.
Once the Zhao family had someone to carry on their lineage, Old Zhao gladly handed over his shop in the city to Wu Xiangnan to manage. The elderly couple stayed at home to help care for their grandchild.
The fourth sibling, Wu Xiangbei, just turned twenty this year. He is closest to his sister, Wu Qiu Yue, as there are just three years difference between them. He spoils her the most, always willing to share any tasty treats or fun toys with her.
The fifth sibling is Wu Qiu Yue. When Granny Chen was thirty-nine, she was pregnant with her. When she was forty, she gave birth to her darling daughter.
The eldest of the Wu family is named Wu Fugui. He is the village head of Taoping village, who had five sons in succession but not a single daughter.
With only one girl between the two families, they treasure her deeply.
Whatever she desires, her brothers strive to fulfill. She throws a tantrum at the slightest provocation. This has cultivated her stubborn nature where she sticks to her decisions.
Initially, when she wanted to marry Zhou Wensheng, her entire family expressed their disapproval and tried to dissuade her. This only stirred up her rebellious spirit. She felt that her family neither loved nor liked her anymore. Eventually, she married Zhou Wensheng, but it came at a great sacrifice for her brothers.
Wu Qiu Yue sat trembling on her bed, hearing her biological mother instructing her second sister-in-law in the courtyard. Her pale face exhibited a mix of horror and joy, with traces of tears, even vowing that if this were a dream, she wished she would never wake up.
