Chapter 178: Rebirth in the Nineties: The Tyrannical Flower, Chapter 178: Shattered Glass

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Protagonist:

Chai Mi

"Sister... you're back!" Chai Xiu's small head poked out from under the West Wu Zi's door curtain, still heavy with sleep, her eyes glistening with drowsy tears.

Chai Mi gave a soft reply.

After cleaning the fish, Chai Mi went inside to change her clothes and take off her shoes. She put on clean clothes, soaked the clothes she'd worn to catch fish in a basin, added plenty of laundry detergent, planning to wash them clean after dawn, otherwise they'd be covered in fish slime and hard to wash.

The shoes were soaked too.

After a quick wash-up, she went inside.

"It's late, go to sleep." Chai Mi said, then leaned against the wall by the kang head, preparing to nap for a bit.

"Sister... I was just saying it back then, you actually went to catch fish." Chai Xiu said guiltily: "If Mom finds out, she'll scold me."

Chai Mi sighed, patted Chai Xiu's head, felt sorry for her little sister for three seconds, then said: "It's not like it's just for you to eat alone, don't get too full of yourself..."

Chai Xiu: "......"

The promised deep sisterly bond, moved for less than half a minute...

"The food's been pretty bad lately, I figured I wasn't too busy, so I'd catch a few fish—one, to satisfy my craving; two, in a few days when Mom comes back, make her soup to drink, to replenish her milk." Chai Mi said faintly.

After all, Mother was an older mother now, a woman in her forties, and weakness after childbirth was unavoidable. The family had no money for nutrition products, so they could only use free fish to nourish her body.

"And this time I didn't catch many, didn't bring any tools. I'll stew two tomorrow, and the remaining two big ones, I plan to send to Eldest Aunt, keeping two big ones to dry for Cun Ma. So, now planning to stew two, you, me, and Old Man—how do you say we should split them?"

Chai Xiu hung her head, wronged: It's over, just now I could still eat a couple bites, now you're giving me a big lesson in filial piety plus moral kidnapping...

Is this my real sister?

"Then Sister and Dad can eat them, I don't like eating fish..."

Chai Mi looked at Chai Xiu's pitiful appearance, rubbed her little head: "Hurry up and sleep, if you sleep too late you'll be tired, and tomorrow morning you might wet the kang."

Chai Xiu's face turned red instantly, muttering under her breath that she was already so old, then pulled the blanket over herself and went to sleep.

Chai Mi rested a while, estimating the time was around one-thirty, Chai Xiu had long fallen asleep, and Chai Youqing next door was snoring loudly.

Chai Mi tiptoed out of the house, casually found a fertilizer bag, put some soil in it, then took two or three red bricks and put them inside.

Doing good deeds needs someone to teach you; doing bad things, this is human talent.

The Laozhai was almost directly in front of Chai Mi's house, and the back wall of the Laozhai was right at Chai Mi's doorstep.

The Laozhai's wall was different from other people's.

In this era, other people's walls were mostly stone or earth, or stone on the bottom and earth on top.

Actually, everyone knew that whether stone or earth, it was hard to build a wall with—once it grew tall, it would collapse on its own.

But limited by conditions, they could only use stone locally.

In the sixties and seventies, Wuhu Mountain above Sanjiacun had once developed a marble factory, but it went bankrupt after operating for over a year...

Ask and they'd say it was poor management...

Don't ask and it was that villagers from many villages blocked the road to prevent mining, saying Wuhu Mountain was their holy mountain, similar to some place's Paektu Mountain.

If they mined marble, wouldn't that ruin the feng shui?

Although these villages had good feng shui for the past few hundred years, and the biggest official to come out might just be the Village Chief, that didn't stop them from preventing marble mining...

The mine went under...

But the villagers volunteered to go up the mountain to quarry stone, to build houses and walls.

Chai Mi's father had also gotten a lot of stone to build a wall back then. Of course, although it was marble, it wasn't processed—just messy small pieces.

The advantage was there was a large quantity.

To prevent the wall from collapsing while building, they used better large pieces of marble at the bottom, then put small gravel on top.

And the walls were generally very thick, mostly sixty centimeters or seventy or eighty centimeters thick, and generally wouldn't fall.

Some families didn't have that much stone, so they used the locally abundant red earth, mixed with water and millet straw, stirred evenly, and slapped it on the wall.

The local red earth was a kind of clay, very sticky, very suitable for making crafts like ceramics and zisha...

But this era was most suitable for opening a brick factory to produce red bricks.

The quality was top-notch.

Unprocessed red earth mud, with some millet straw added—similar to putting steel bars in concrete—exposed to wind and sun for ten-plus years, there'd be no problem.

But in the end it was a poor person's makeshift solution...

Chai You De had money; his family's wall was a red brick wall.

Other families were reluctant to use bricks when building houses, but he used bricks to build a wall.

Building a wall with bricks had two advantages... one was suitable for Chai Mi to climb over, a while later to do bad things.

One was suitable for Chai Mi to run away after finishing bad things a while later...

It was late at night and quiet; Chai Mi strolled over, first tossing the urea bag containing soil and bricks onto Chai You De's back wall for later use, then walked quickly a few steps, heading east.

Unexpectedly, just as she reached Front Street, she ran into Song Qiushui.

Song Qiushui was dressed more normally now. Tight pants and sneakers, short sleeves with her hair tied in a high ponytail...

She wore a headlamp on her head, the kind that was blazingly bright...

Riding a bicycle, whistling, left hand holding a slingshot, right hand gripping the bicycle handle...

She came all the way...

All the dogs in the village followed barking...

Chai Mi was stunned, quickly telling Song Qiushui to turn off her headlamp: "Aiya, Eldest Sister! Is this an omen of failure? You're making such a commotion, all the dogs in the village know—are you afraid Chai Zhongxiao won't know it was you who broke the glass?"

"Heh—" Song Qiushui dragged out an extremely long tail sound, then said with disdainful disregard: "That old codger, what can he do? He doesn't even open his dog eyes to see who I, Song Qiushui, am?! I—Song Qiushui, the legitimate daughter of Sanjiacun's rich family, let's put it this way, in ancient times the Song family would be a rich and powerful clan, an aristocratic family. I'm a legitimate daughter, my father is still the village accountant, holding great power. He dares provoke me? I'll lend him a few gallbladders!!!"

Chai Mi stared dumbfounded: "Uh... can we speak human speech?"

"Aiya... I'm riding a bicycle, running fast. That old codger of yours, Grandfather, fundamentally can't catch up to me. Chai Mi, you just put a hundred hearts at ease."

Chai Mi could only say okay...

"In a bit you use the slingshot to smash a few more pieces of the old house's glass, then you smash the main gate... you must ensure the old man and old woman are both drawn out by you. I'll go sneakily block the chimney."

Song Qiushui made a "you watch" gesture: "Rest assured, rest assured. If your grandfather and grandmother don't come out, I'll curse their eight generations of ancestors..."

Chai Mi always felt something wasn't quite right about the approach, but couldn't figure it out.

Afterwards Chai Mi and Song Qiushui split up and acted separately.

Sanjiacun deep in the night, tonight different from past nights.

Of course, every night is a new night.

Only tonight the wind is black, the moon high; tonight dog barking doesn't cease.

Chai Family Old Wu Zi.

Wang Huirong, sleeping inside the room, was violently startled awake by the sound of dog barking. She rubbed her bleary eyes, looking at the moonlight outside the window, white to a frightening degree.

Perhaps it's nearly the fifteenth, the moon is relatively round.

But, under tonight's moonlight, outside the door seems not peaceful.

"Old man, you listen, all the dogs in the whole Yingzi are barking. Is there some major event in the village?!"

Chai Zhongxiao didn't pay Wang Huirong any heed, turned over and continued sleeping soundly.

Wang Huirong helplessly pushed Chai Zhongxiao: "You get up and go out to look. There must be something! If there's nothing, the village dogs wouldn't bite like this."

Chai Zhongxiao sighed, angrily scolded: "What could there be? Either some old person in the village passed, or the gamblers just dispersed. What else could there be?!"

What the old person said was that some people died. Generally the word 'death' in the countryside is very taboo. Only when cursing people do they curse it. Normally they don't say it. Although it's particularly contradictory, people are just this strange a creature. When someone dies they say 'old person passed', or directly say so-and-so is gone.

As for midnight gambling, in Sanjiacun it's also quite common.

This era doesn't have especially many entertainment facilities. There are neither mobile phones nor televisions, nor novels or short videos to scroll. After tea and meals, people just play cards and such.

Playing cards naturally has wins and losses to be interesting. But they all play quite small. Generally just one or two cents. Just a token gesture.

Neither hurting harmony, nor making anyone lose even their underwear...

"Which family plays cards until past two in the morning before dispersing?!" Wang Huirong said displeased: "Besides, I hear that dog barking comes from up above. Up above there aren't several households that gamble! Doesn't sound like gamblers just dispersed..."

"Then it's some family's old person passing..." Chai Zhongxiao was sleeping soundly, not wanting to get up at all, even less wanting to go out.

Summer originally makes sleeping difficult. Hardly had the second half of the night turned cool and he fallen asleep. He didn't want to fuss.

"Old man, you say—could it be the Old Song Family's old person? That one... our in-law's mother, over eighty, nearly ninety. Been bedridden over ten years. Maybe she's gone." Wang Huirong analyzed: "That old woman I feel many years hasn't left the room. Always bedridden on the kang. Eating, drinking, defecating, urinating—can't care for herself. Gone would be going to enjoy blessings."

Wang Huirong speaking thus, suddenly shifted tone: "It's all that scoundrel Song Qingshan creating bad karma, sending his mother off. This dog thing, actually because the second son's idiot daughter-in-law, came to our house making such trouble... you still blocked him, wouldn't let the second son beat her. That kind of bitch should be beaten to death... Now it's good, their Old Song Family suffers vengeance. People act, Heaven watches..."

"You quickly say a few sentences less." Chai Zhongxiao annoyed beyond measure.

Suddenly...

Crunch!

The glass on the window shattered in response...

Glass shards just right smashed Wang Huirong, who had just sat up, full in the face...

The Wang Huirong who was cursing the previous second, the next second covered her face and wailed miserably: "My face..."

Fortunately the glass shards didn't pierce her eyes, otherwise tonight Wang Huirong would be blind.

But those broken glass shards still sliced several cuts on her face. Blood poured down in a rush...

Not waiting for Wang Huirong's cry to end.

The next piece of glass also went crunch and shattered...

Then the third piece, the fourth piece...

Then the West Wu Zi, Chai You De's room...

Glass cracking and smashing...

Speed so fast, aim so accurate, completely beyond imagination.

Chai Zhongxiao not startled but enraged: "Which dog-born son of a bitch, bullying to our house, I'll fucking hack him to death!"

Chai Zhongxiao cursing all the while put on clothes and shoes...

Wang Huirong also furious stood on the window sill and began loudly cursing: "Which dog-born son of a bitch, living impatiently, middle of the night running to our house to provoke! You don't even sprinkle piss to take a picture of yourself..."

Crunch!

Glass shattered all over the floor again!

Before Chai Zhongxiao finished putting on his shoes, this room's glass, all shattered...

Clean, not a piece left!

Chai Zhongxiao carrying an axe, exited the room, knocked on the West Wu Zi's window.

Actually no need for Chai Zhongxiao to knock the window. Chai You De had already long since hopped out on one leg with a limp... Che Lianyun and Chai Dajun also ran out.

Daytime actually differs from nighttime.

Like Sanjiacun side's customs, no matter how big a matter, generally all done in daytime. Rarely any done at night.

Two families fighting, also all daytime fighting. Nighttime quiet.

Nighttime, that purely counts as retaliation.

Smashing glass this kind of thing... harmfulness not great, insulting nature extremely strong!

In the Northeast, the big fellows all care about face.

This glass, is the house's facade. This house is the person's facade. Smashing glass and slapping a face, nature about the same.

Although not causing much economic loss, it definitely makes the other party lose huge face.

It was just like...

A few days ago, Wang Huirong was beaten by her daughter-in-law...

Now all the glass at Wang Huirong's house had been smashed by someone...

From the tone, one could tell that smashing the glass carried even more atmosphere...

Now, in the middle of the night, everyone in Old Chai's family had their faces slapped until they rang cracklingly; as Head of Household, how could Chai Zhongxiao not be angry?

Chai Zhongxiao's face turned iron-green with rage; he held an axe and called to his family: "Damn it, whoever smashed the glass today, I'll split them!!! Who dares to break ground on the head of Tai Sui, I see he's tired of living..."

Wang Huirong stood by cursing, saying whatever was most unpleasant.

Chai You De looked blankly, looked outside, looked at his father and mother, yawned, and was sleepy...

He hadn't sobered up yet...

Che Lianyun followed Chai Zhongxiao out, cursing under his breath...

The most excited was Chai Dajun; this kid held a kitchen knife, shouting "ao ao ao" as he rushed out...

And Song Qiushui, who had already smashed all the glass at Chai Family Old Wu Zi, curled her lip disdainfully: "Heh. A bunch of idiots! Watch Song Qiushui's methods!"

Song Qiushui didn't know why she was talking so much now...

She held half a bag of soybeans, scattering them directly outside the main gate of Chai Zhongxiao's house, then rode her bicycle and started running away in the opposite direction of her own home...

After running a few steps, she picked up a brick again and smashed the neighbor's main gate...

After running a few more steps, she smashed another family's main gate...

Suddenly the whole Sanjiacun fell into chicken flying dog jumping!