Chapter 190: Elder Brother’s Gift
Deep in Shangqiu Temple.
It was overgrown with weeds.
There were piles of broken Buddha statues and broken bones.
If one had forensic experience, one would discover that many were the bones of young girls.
Small bone age, female.
It was not far from the place where incense was burned and Buddha was worshipped.
In front was the quiet land of Buddhism, behind was the forbidden land of Buddhism.
Hell and the Buddhist gate had no barrier, separated by a single line.
The grass grew the same everywhere.
The scene made people feel very uncomfortable.
Even Meng Shaoxia, a young married man from the capital who had spent time in military camps, followed his Father to war, and traveled half the world, felt somewhat uncomfortable.
He had seen more of the prosperity and wealth of the capital.
When he saw the three people locked in his Father-in-law’s cellar, he still felt his Father-in-law’s methods were a bit too cruel.
Looking at such a beautiful person, the methods were so fierce, it made his heart crawl.
Then, with the accidental death of Judge Yu, he actually felt it was a bit too hasty.
Judge Yu was not the type to fall off a cliff on his own.
Finally, the siege of Shangqiu Temple.
The truth was revealed.
The Father-in-law’s goal was Shangqiu Temple.
By now, everyone should have understood.
Official Yu was just a stepping stone to Shangqiu Temple.
As far as Meng Shaoxia knew, Judge Yu’s actions meant he did not die unjustly.
He was in charge of penal law, yet he was corrupt, murdered innocent people for money, and released real evildoers.
This kind of greed was ten thousand times more disgusting than his Father-in-law taking gifts for his son’s birthday.
But he shouldn’t have died like this.
If he died this way, without criminal law, without rules, if everyone followed suit, this world would surely fall into chaos.
Yet he had followed from beginning to end and found no problems.
Upon arriving at Shangqiu Temple, he actually wanted to persuade his Father-in-law.
After all, it was an important Buddhist site; if this precedent were set, he would inevitably be reviled by ten thousand people.
But before he could open his mouth to persuade him, wave after wave of people came up to persuade him.
This made Meng Shaoxia shut up instead; there must be something fishy in this, there was a problem.
They brought so many people, yet the gates of Shangqiu Temple remained tall and tightly closed, the bells inside ringing incessantly, the incense burning endlessly, showing no fear at all.
The problem was huge, and they had no scruples.
According to official rules, they should leave.
But knowing there was a big problem, to just leave like that felt very unwilling.
Meng Shaoxia experienced that dilemma.
Suffocating and helpless.
Until he saw the thick smoke in the temple.
The Father-in-law said he would take them inside to save people and put out the fire.
Then they looked into Shangqiu Temple and saw heaven, and also saw hell.
Saw the Buddha and also saw ghosts.
The scene inside made Meng Shaoxia, a model youth, want to vomit. If he hadn’t been wearing a mask, worried about vomiting into the mask and being even more disgusted, he would have held it in.
He had always known about people drowning baby girls; in some poor places, they didn’t want girls, so they drowned them upon birth.
But there weren’t as many broken limbs and arms as in the backyard of Shangqiu Temple, those fingers so small, so slender.
Returning to Jiang Mansion.
He went to find Jiang Yu first.
Jiang Yu had been lying down for most of the day.
Having her period at this time, the main advice was to lie down and rest; generally, it felt like losing blood, so one needed to lie down and rest more, and then supplement afterwards to make up for it.
Meng Shaoxia returned, changed his outer robe, and lay down beside Jiang Yu.
Jiang Yu turned over and felt another person beside her, a familiar scent.
Her hand habitually reached out, and her leg also hugged him like a spider, but then she remembered she was on her period and pulled her leg back, just letting her arm touch him.
“Why is the smell of blood stronger than mine? What did you do today?”
Meng Shaoxia didn’t say what he did, just asked: “Jiang Yu, do you believe in Buddha?”
Jiang Yu was sleeping groggily and yawned before saying: “I do. My Buddha is everywhere. When I was young, I would pick up nice-looking stones, put them on the windowsill, and pray, hoping the stones would protect me. When I saw big trees, I would also pray, hoping the big trees would protect me. Because I had never been to a temple, Mother said going to the temple to burn incense was expensive and far away. Anyway, I pray to everything. Whether it protects me or not, I don’t know, but I’ve prayed anyway.”
Meng Shaoxia heard Jiang Yu say she prayed to everything and found it funny, yet also felt it was just the kind of thing his Jiang Yu would do.
“Does Brother Meng believe in Buddha? Did you go to worship Buddha today?” Jiang Yu asked curiously.
“Well, sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. There is a Buddha hall in the house. If my grandfather, or Father, or I am fighting abroad, Mother and Grandmother will light incense in the Buddha hall all day, praying for safety. Because there’s nothing else to do, we can only burn incense. To seek peace of mind. But when I fight abroad and encounter people and things, I always feel there is no Buddha in this world. If there were a Buddha, perhaps we would need a Fighting Buddha to kill and turn things upside down, to return a bright and clear world.”
Jiang Yu asked curiously: “There is such a Buddha? Specifically for fighting and killing? Doesn’t Buddha not kill?”
“There is. Next time I’ll take you to visit the temples in the capital. There are many Buddhas there, all kinds.” Meng Shaoxia rubbed Jiang Yu’s belly.
“Does it still hurt?”
“It doesn’t hurt. Brother Meng, if you go to war in the future, I won’t pray to Buddha or burn incense. I will just wait for you at home, guard the house for you, and it will be enough if you return early.”
“Okay.”
“Today, gifts were also sent to Father, Mother, Grandmother, and Grandfather in the capital. The letters you wrote were sent together, and I wrote letters too,” Jiang Yu remembered to say.
“Okay.”
Meng Shaoxia fell asleep next to his wife.
He let out a steady snoring sound, a bit loud.
In front of Jiang Yu, he slept very peacefully and securely.
Dinner was noodles again.
But tonight’s noodles were slightly different.
They were made by Father.
Meng Shaoxia was actually a bit confused.
During the day, he saw Father raising a knife to hack people, like chopping melons, regardless of gender, without mercy.
At this moment, he saw Father holding a small knife, cutting garlic there.
Gently, the garlic stalk seemed too old and wouldn’t cut off.
He handed the knife to Mother.
Mother chopped the garlic stalk off in one stroke.
He returned a smile.
Then he plated it.
Jiang Mianmian protected her bowl: “Father, I won’t eat it, I don’t like garlic.”
“Eating some garlic is good for your health, not easy to catch a cold,” Jiang Changtian explained.
Jiang Mianmian shook her head and refused.
Jiang Changtian didn’t force it and distributed it to others.
Jiang Feng was in good spirits, with no discomfort. He was responsible for the cleanup. Having just returned, eating noodles, he tasted the soup and laughed: “It’s Father’s craft. The noodle soup Father makes is a bit lighter.”
Meng Shaoxia didn’t taste the difference. He didn’t like noodles very much and really didn’t taste the difference. But hearing that eating garlic could prevent colds, he picked up a chopstickful for Jiang Yu, hesitated for a moment, then picked up a piece and ate it.
Spicy, burning, nose sour, eyes wanting to tear up. The taste of raw garlic, so spicy.
He quickly took a big bite of noodles to suppress the spicy taste.
Eating a bite of raw garlic, then a big bite of noodles.
He seemed to have suddenly mastered the way of eating noodles. Everyone laughed.
After dinner, the family would drink some tea or noodle soup.
Jiang Mianmian washed her hair today, and her hair was fluffy.
As soon as Elder Brother arrived, he scrubbed it hard, feeling like he was pressing down the fluffy hair.
She tried hard to dodge, but couldn’t.
Wuwu, her fluffy long hair, her egg-yellow long skirt.
Probably feeling that his younger sister was truly angry, Jiang Feng said in a good-tempered way: “I’ll braid your hair, I guarantee it will look good.”
He actually took out a box of tools.
He had bought them specially on the street before coming home today.
He bought many things that young girls needed.
His sister was at home, one sister was married and at home. There was also a younger sister who was still small.
He remembered before, giving a red string, dismantling it into three parts, Jiang Yu, Mother, and Mianmian all had some.
Jiang Yu would happily show it off all over the village.
He bought a full box of various hair flowers, fine combs, wide combs, and hair ties.
Night.
It was cool.
Gathered around the stove, Jiang Feng was combing his sister’s hair very seriously.
The movements were very light, very light, but occasionally still pulled out a hair.
The sister’s hair was soft, her head was warm, and she moved from time to time.
He pressed his sister’s forehead, combed very seriously, and tied several flowers.
Mianmian turned her head, and Jiang Feng laughed.
Full of flowers, still very good-looking.
Jiang Mianmian grabbed the comb and wanted to tie Elder Brother’s hair.
She combed heavily, pulled several of Elder Brother’s long hairs, tied braids for him, wore hair flowers, and then laughed “gaga”, very proud.
Mother watched the siblings mess around.
Father drank tea.
Brother-in-law fed his wife roasted dates.
The flames burned, and the aroma of the dates drifted up.
Thank you for reading + listening 🙂 I hope you all liked my translations. If you enjoyed my work, please consider buying me a Ko-Fi 😉
