“Let me out! Is anyone there? Someone help! Help!”

A series of desperate cries came from inside the woodshed.

Shen Zhuxi wiped her tears, composed herself, and said with concern:

“Why did you keep him here?”

“Didn’t you want to know what happened to Sister-in-law Zhou? Ask him and you’ll find out.” Li Wu said.

With a sense of dread, Shen Zhuxi followed Li Wu to the woodshed door. Li Wu kicked open the wooden door, and Zhou Zhuang — who had been pressed against the door crying out for help — went tumbling down into the narrow space barely large enough for one person to lie in.

The stacked firewood came rolling down everywhere, and Zhou Zhuang was pelted all over his body and face by the rough, heavy logs, yelping and wailing.

Li Wu stepped forward and, with one hand, hauled him out of the pile of firewood as easily as picking up a small chicken.

Li Wu had Zhou Zhuang by the collar, and his back slammed with a crack against the hard mud wall, making him grimace in pain.

“Speak. What happened to Sister-in-law Zhou?” Li Wu said.

“My mother… she went back to her family’s home…” Zhou Zhuang gave a dry laugh. “Haven’t I said that already?”

“If she went back to her family’s home, then why — when I was in Qingniu County — did her family tell me she had never come back at all?”

“She said she was going there, but how would I know if she really went to Qingniu County. Maybe she ran off with someone — Aaah! Aaah!”

Zhou Zhuang let out a shriek.

Li Wu released Zhou Zhuang’s right arm, and that arm drooped down like cotton, completely limp.

Li Wu said without expression: “You still have a left arm, and two legs — that gives you three more lies. On the fourth, I’ll snap your neck. Understood?”

Zhou Zhuang stared at him in terror.

“I’m asking you again: where did your mother go?”

Zhou Zhuang’s eyes shifted away: “I… I don’t know——Aaah! Aaah!”

Li Wu cleanly and efficiently dislocated his second arm. Now both shoulders hung with two limp pieces of cotton. Even Shen Zhuxi’s knuckles ached just watching it.

“Did you kill your mother?”

The question Li Wu asked next made Shen Zhuxi’s expression change dramatically.

Yet what was most unexpected was not Li Wu’s appalling question, but the look of guilty fear that crossed Zhou Zhuang’s face upon hearing it.

“Say nothing and I’ll cripple your legs.” Li Wu drew the dagger from his belt.

“I’ll talk, I’ll talk!” The dagger had barely turned in Zhou Zhuang’s direction before he screamed in utter terror: “I did it! I killed her!”

Shen Zhuxi felt as though she had been struck by lightning, her mind ringing with a dull roar.

“When did you kill her?” Li Wu asked.

“It was… just over a month ago…” Zhou Zhuang cast a trembling glance at Shen Zhuxi and said, “The last time she came to my house to visit… it was that day…”

Shen Zhuxi swayed on her feet, only catching herself on the doorframe before she fell.

Li Wu turned to look at her calmly: “Do you still want to hear this?”

“Let him speak…” Shen Zhuxi’s tears welled up. “Let him finish!”

“Your father hasn’t shown up in a long time either. Did you kill him too?” Li Wu asked.

“…”

The moment Zhou Zhuang fell silent, Li Wu’s dagger stabbed into his thigh, its tip giving a sharp twist——

A gush of blood surged out, and Zhou Zhuang let out an agonizing shriek like a pig being slaughtered.

“It was me! It was me! I killed them both!” Zhou Zhuang sobbed wretchedly.

“Where did you bury them?”

“Buried? I…” Zhou Zhuang hesitated, earning him Li Wu’s instantaneous withdrawal of the blade. Before it could reach his other leg, Zhou Zhuang was already howling at the top of his lungs: “I’ll say it, I’ll say everything!”

“Say it——” The blood-slicked blade pressed against his neck.

Zhou Zhuang wept as he spoke: “I… I didn’t bury them… where would I get the strength to bury two grown adults…”

“Then where did you throw them?”

“I… I just hacked them up a bit…” Zhou Zhuang’s voice grew smaller and smaller, his gaze shifting more and more evasively. “There were pigs in the house, and dogs outside…”

A powerful force rose from Shen Zhuxi’s stomach and surged up toward her throat. She covered her mouth, turned without looking back, and fled the woodshed.

She crouched under the osmanthus tree, her stomach heaving and churning. She wanted to vomit but couldn’t. A wave of revulsion swept through her entire body, and goosebumps spread from her arms all the way to her back. She clutched the tree trunk, crying until she couldn’t catch her breath, tears and mucus covering her face in a wretched mess.

Memories of her daily encounters with Sister-in-law Zhou rose one by one before her: her bright, hearty laugh, her clean clothes, her nimble and industrious hands, the faint scent of soap powder that always clung to her.

“When you have time, come to your sister-in-law’s place. I’ll teach you a few dishes I’m particularly good at…”

Those past days were vivid before her eyes, but the person was no longer there.

How could Zhou Zhuang have had the heart to do it? She was his own mother! Sister-in-law Zhou had spent her whole life being warm and generous, hardworking and dedicated. In the end, she hadn’t even been allowed to keep her body whole — and the one who killed her was the very son she had never stopped worrying about!

She had spent her entire life thinking of her husband, her son, and even the unmarried sisters in her mother’s family. She endured in every direction, gave way in every matter. She upheld the duties of a married woman, hoping that her husband and son would eventually have a change of heart. And what had she gotten in the end?

A powerful wave of nausea rose over Shen Zhuxi, and she retched over and over, but nothing would come up.

Those repulsive things had filled her body — impossible to swallow down, impossible to bring up. Invisible malice clung to her spine like a cold, slithering viper.

“You’re already married — whether it’s a pig or a lamb, you just have to accept it.”

Sister-in-law Zhou’s words echoed in her ears again.

How alike she and Sister-in-law Zhou had once been. Had she not put on the wedding phoenix crown and embroidered cape with the same mindset, preparing to marry an unpredictable man?

It was something that couldn’t be helped.

This was the fate of a princess.

This was every woman’s fate.

Had she not accepted the arrangements made by her parents with the very same thought, drifting along in a daze?

A familiar large hand came down on her back. Li Wu stood silently behind her, gently patting and rubbing her back.

“I know you are very sad,” Li Wu said, “but there’s no extra time for grief right now. Du Yanlong will surely come back. We need to be ready before that happens.”

Shen Zhuxi silently wiped her tears, and once her breathing had steadied, she said: “What do you need me to do?”

“I need you to go stay at Fan Sanniang’s house for the night. Don’t go anywhere, and wait for me to come get you after I’ve dealt with this.”

Shen Zhuxi nodded: “Alright.”

She didn’t ask what would be done with Zhou Zhuang. She trusted that Li Wu would handle it in the most appropriate way. She never wanted to hear that name again for the rest of her life — just the thought of breathing the same air as him made Shen Zhuxi sick to her stomach.

Li Wu said: “You don’t need to worry about Sister-in-law Zhou’s affairs anymore. I’ll find a way to see that she has a proper burial.”

Shen Zhuxi knew she would be no help and simply let him arrange it. As it happened, Li Kun in the main hall had woken up. The two of them went back to the inner room together, and Li Wu pried open his eyelids to look, then asked: “How are you feeling?”

“I feel…” Li Kun mumbled, “hungry, so hungry… I want to eat some of Big Brother’s noodles…”

Li Wu raised his fist and made as if to strike him, and was immediately grabbed back by Shen Zhuxi.

“He just woke up — why are you hitting him?”

Li Wu said irritably: “Hungry can wait! When it’s light out, eat all you want!”

Li Kun closed his mouth with an aggrieved expression.

Li Wu told Li Kun to rest and recover his strength, then personally escorted Shen Zhuxi to the door of Fan Sanniang’s house.

Fan Sanniang, upon learning their reason for coming, immediately agreed to take Shen Zhuxi in without hesitation.

Shen Zhuxi quietly observed the familiarity between the two of them and couldn’t help but sigh inwardly: as they say, even a single day as husband and wife carries a hundred days of affection… even in such a difficult situation, Fan Sanniang didn’t hesitate for a moment.

“I’m leaving. Just wait here for me to come pick you up. Don’t wander off, absolutely do not wander off. If you dare to wander off——”

“I won’t wander off!” Shen Zhuxi said, cutting him off in irritation. “I haven’t been wandering off anymore!”

Only then did Li Wu let it go. He turned to look at Fan Sanniang behind Shen Zhuxi and said: “…Take good care of my wife.”

“Do you still doubt me? I’ve taken care of you, and I can’t take care of your wife?” Fan Sanniang said with full force.

A breath lodged itself in Shen Zhuxi’s throat, going neither up nor down. She stared wide-eyed at the two of them.

The way they spoke — did they have absolutely no consideration for the person standing right there? How could they have absolutely no sense of deco——

Li Wu turned to look at her, and Shen Zhuxi sucked in a sharp breath, immediately looking up at the empty night sky. The stars, it seemed, had also turned red with embarrassment and buried themselves deep in the clouds.

“I’m going.” Li Wu said.

“Be careful.” Shen Zhuxi blurted it out without thinking, not bothering to keep up appearances, and said her words of concern right in front of Fan Sanniang.

Li Wu grinned: “…Alright.”

……

After Li Wu walked out of Fan Sanniang’s gate, the smile on his face disappeared. He glanced at the still, desolate small road disappearing into the thick darkness, then turned back toward his own home, now burned down to charcoal.

Li Que was already back, standing in the courtyard. The moment he saw Li Wu, he came forward to meet him: “Big Brother…”

Li Wu didn’t even look at him. He walked toward the inner room with an expressionless face:

“Come inside.”

Li Que was silent a moment, then followed Li Wu into the inner room.

The unlighted room was dim, lit only by the bright moonlight streaming in from outside through the window. After Li Que entered, he dropped to his knees facing Li Wu’s back with a thud.

“Big Brother… I was wrong.”

Li Kun, sitting on the bed, looked at one of them, then the other, thoroughly at a loss.

Li Wu turned around, his eyes cold. “Where did you go wrong?”

“…I should not have disregarded Second Brother’s life.”

Li Wu was silent a moment, then said: “Have I not told you before — as long as a person is alive, there is always a chance to rise again?”

“…You have.”

“Then why did you use Li Kun’s life as a wager?”

“…Big Brother, I was wrong.”

“No — you still don’t know where you went wrong. If you did, the person you would be apologizing to right now would not be me.”

Li Wu’s cold words fell across the inner room. For a long while, no sound came from inside. Even Li Kun, who was at the center of the conflict without being aware of it, held his breath involuntarily.

“I only thought that he wouldn’t be willing to gamble with his own life.”

“And if Li Kun had died because of it?”

“…In case I released him and he refused to give up the antidote…”

“Li Que, I am asking you——” Li Wu said coldly. “If your second brother — because of your stubbornness — had died, then what?”

“…”

Li Que lowered his eyes to the floor and said nothing for a long time.

“Dead is dead, isn’t it?” Li Wu said. “You have never truly treated him as your second brother.”

“Big Brother——” Li Que raised his head, and a flash of pleading showed in his eyes.

Li Wu ignored his entreaty and continued.

“You look down on him for being a fool. Though he has great strength, he is always clumsy and always making trouble for you to clean up. You show him respect on the surface, but inside you actually hold him in contempt. All of this — I know.” Li Wu said. “In the past I pretended not to know, because I cannot demand that everyone treat Diao’er the way I do. But this time——”

Li Wu was expressionless, and the look in his eyes was colder and more transparent than the moonlight pooled in still water: “Li Que’er, you crossed the line.”

“Big Brother…” Li Que’s voice trembled.

“Diao’er burned his mind to save my life. He ended up this way all because of me. I swore long ago: as long as I, Li Wu, have a mouthful of wine, he will have a bite of meat. As long as I, Li Wu, can live for one day, he will not live for only half a day——”

Li Wu looked at Li Que kneeling on the ground and said, word by word:

“Since you cannot truly treat him as a brother, there is no need to treat me as a brother either.”

“Big Brother!” Li Que was alarmed, and said in a panic: “I know I was wrong, Big Brother — do not drive me away! This is a critical time and a dangerous hour. Please forgive your younger brother just this once and let him redeem himself through his deeds!”

“I have no use for brothers who are only outwardly in accord.” Li Wu said, his expression grim. “Go.”

“Big Brother!” Li Que called out. “Though I have wronged Second Brother, I have always been completely loyal to Big Brother with no second thoughts! If it had been Big Brother who was poisoned today, I would have given my own life to bring back the antidote for you——”

Li Que was agitated, his eyes red — half pleading, half imploring — as he looked at the unmoved Li Wu.

“There’s no need.” Li Wu cut him off and said coldly: “If you cannot treat everyone the same, then the brotherhood wine we drank back then was nothing but a joke. This sworn brotherhood — it’s better we dissolve it.”

Li Que froze in place, tears flickering in his eyes. Li Wu didn’t even look at him but turned to Li Kun on the bed and said: “Time to get to work. If you want meat, come with me.”

Li Kun jolted and hurriedly got out of bed to follow. As he passed Li Que, he stopped and looked in surprise at Li Que, who remained kneeling on the ground without moving.

“Third Brother, aren’t you coming?”

Li Que wiped his tears, paid no heed to Li Kun’s call, climbed out the window, and left from the rear courtyard.