Chapter 25: He Comes from Hell
“Gugu-oh.”
“Gugu-oh.”
“Gugu-oh.”
The rooster crowed.
“Waa…”
“Waa…”
“Waa…”
Jiang Changtian vomited blood.
Jiang Feng vomited.
Jiang Mianmian spat up milk.
Dawn burst through the door in an instant.
It arrived aggressively, causing a flurry of chaos.
In that moment, everyone came back to life.
Jiang Mianmian had just heard Father’s suppressed weeping; she couldn’t bear it, and perhaps having been restless all night, she had caught a chill or was simply too anxious, causing her to spit up milk.
Father Jiang Changtian had vomited a mouthful of blood; the pent-up anguish in his heart had finally been purged through that act of vomiting blood.
The older brother had vomited, a messy, sputtering affair that smelled a hundred times worse than Jiang Mianmian’s poop.
It was a malicious, putrid stench.
Upon smelling that odor, Jiang Mianmian, who was already spitting up milk, couldn’t help but retch again, until only sour bile remained in her stomach.
Yet, seeing Mother and Father happily helping to clean up and wipe everything down…
They didn’t mind it at all.
Elder sister Jiang Yu helped tidy up Jiang Mianmian.
She changed her into new clothes but didn’t dare to wipe her down.
Perhaps in this day and age, without water heaters or hair dryers, wiping down an infant was a recipe for disaster.
Jiang Mianmian could still smell a faint, sour odor on herself.
Jiang Feng had vomited several buckets of black liquid, looking inhuman.
Yet at this moment, the Jiang Family couple didn’t find it strange; they only felt relieved.
Perhaps even if their son had turned into a monster, they would still be happy, as long as he had come back to life.
Their hearts and eyes were filled only with joy.
Feeling the joy of recovering what was lost, the couple looked at each other, feeling more determined and composed.
No one knew that they had embraced in the darkness.
Embraced before the child they thought had died.
What they had thought, what they had endured.
If their rage and resentment could be materialized, the destruction of an entire city would not be enough to contain it.
That was the most simple, profound love of a Father and a Mother.
Jiang Feng looked blankly at what was before him and spoke weakly: “Did Mianmian poop on me? Why does it smell so bad?”
Jiang Mianmian: “Iya yaya.” (Hey! Don’t slander my innocence out of thin air!)
Hearing her son say this, Qin Luoxia laughed until tears welled up in her eyes.
“Don’t talk nonsense. Your sister smells lovely. Are you hungry? Mother will go get you something to eat.”
“Father, I’m so hungry. I want to eat beef.” Jiang Feng’s voice was still weak, but the content was as annoying as ever.
If it were normal times, he would certainly be scolded; Mother and Father would surely have said a thing or two to him.
Asking to eat beef—where could ordinary commoners afford to eat beef? Why didn’t he just ask to fly to the heavens?
Unexpectedly, Father Jiang Changtian replied: “Alright, we will eat beef tomorrow. You have just recovered today, so you need to rest a while longer.”
Jiang Feng looked at Father with great surprise.
Jiang Feng lay there, but suddenly smiled again.
Day had broken.
Qin Luoxia went to cook.
Jiang Changtian moved a bamboo chair into his son’s room, lay down, and fell asleep instantly.
Snoring sounds began to ring out.
Jiang Yu, being young, had also stayed up for most of the night, though she had slept a few times during the night. Now, she was in her older brother’s room, staring wide-eyed at him.
She wanted to speak, but her older brother made a gesture for her to be quiet.
She had no choice but to stare wide-eyed at her older brother, and after staring for a while, she actually fell asleep.
She fell asleep while sitting, and quite cleverly wedged her head against the back of the chair so she wouldn’t fall.
Jiang Feng looked at his younger sister, then at Father.
He had had a long, hazy dream.
Last night, when he lay down, he felt very uncomfortable; his whole body ached, he wanted to vomit, and he thought that perhaps sleeping would make it better.
Mother and Father both had to work the next day, so even though he felt terrible, he thought he could just endure it and it would pass.
Besides, he had taken medicine and drank meat broth in the evening; he was already doing much better.
Just like that, he drifted into a hazy coma.
But being in a coma was not easy.
In the middle of it, he vaguely had some sensations, but he simply couldn’t open his eyes.
He felt Mother and Father force-feeding him medicine.
He heard Mother and Father crying.
But no matter what, he couldn’t open his eyes or speak.
It was as if he had truly died.
He was panicked; he couldn’t die. If he died, what would happen to the family?
His younger sister was still so small, and Jiang Yu was so foolish she would surely be tricked. Father’s health was poor, and Mother had never enjoyed a single day of happiness because of him; he could not die.
But the harder he struggled, the more difficult it became.
He felt as if he had been changed into new, colorful clothes, then placed into a coffin and buried in a dirt pit.
Mother had dug the pit herself, and Father and Jiang Yu had buried the soil together.
He didn’t want to stay in the darkness alone.
He wanted to climb out.
He missed Father, Mother, his younger sister, and Jiang Yu.
But he couldn’t climb out; he could only stay in the darkness, watching his own body slowly rot away.
Then, one day, another pit appeared beside him.
A familiar feeling; there was another coffin, a small one.
He saw it—his youngest sister, so small, eyes closed, lying in the pit beside him.
He saw Mother and Father digging the pit, but he didn’t see Jiang Yu.
Father’s hair had turned white, Mother had many wrinkles, and it was cold in the earth; it was winter.
He had really, really wanted to climb out because he saw Mother and Father.
But there was a very, very small younger sister beside him, and he was worried she would be scared; she was so tiny.
He could only stay here to keep her company, watching his own body rot even more severely, watching himself fall apart.
Later on, he turned into bones, and his younger sister also turned into bones.
It was strange; they were both ugly bones, not white.
The quality wasn’t very good either; they were brittle.
Later still, another pit appeared beside him, and he saw Father.
Father was digging the pit; Mother wasn’t digging, because this pit was for burying Mother.
Jiang Yu was still not there.
Jiang Feng saw Mother, the Mother he had longed for. He was just bones now, but in that moment, the bones felt as if they could shed tears and feel pain.
Because he saw Father digging the pit alone, burying her alone.
That day, he heard someone crying outside the soil, crying for a very, very long time.
Just one person.
He wanted to keep them company.
He thought that since his younger sister had Mother to keep her company, she shouldn’t be afraid anymore.
He wanted to climb out again, to climb out and keep Father company. He also missed Jiang Yu; he didn’t know where she had been tricked into going.
But he couldn’t climb out. Time flew by, and Mother also turned into bones. Mother’s bones were very white and beautiful, but the bones in her neck were shattered.
He often heard crying outside.
Or perhaps it was the sound of the wind.
He couldn’t bear this sound; later, he couldn’t distinguish between the wind and the crying.
His bones decayed, slowly turning into powder. He suddenly looked at himself and forgot what he was.
He only knew that he couldn’t bear the sound of crying.
Especially the crying of a man.
This crying was so noisy; it had bothered him for a very, very long time.
But suddenly, one day, the crying stopped.
It didn’t happen for a long time.
No one cried anymore.
He began to miss it again.
He missed it very much.
He forgot why, but he just missed it.
Then, he heard the sound of crying.
Very close, very close, right by his ear.
He opened his eyes.
He saw flesh and blood; he touched Father and Mother.
He saw Jiang Yu and Jiang Mianmian.
Then he vomited.
He vomited wildly.
He didn’t know what he had vomited out; it was like rotting soil. He vomited a lot of black liquid, and he had come back to life.
He was still alive.
His younger sister was also alive, Jiang Yu was still right before his eyes, Mother was also alive, and Father was there too.
His whole body trembled, his eyes bloodshot.
He had come back to life.
He had climbed out.
He tried to speak.
“Did Mianmian poop on me? Why does it smell so bad?”
He heard a response.
“Iya yaya.”
He was certain he had climbed out because, while in the soil, he had spoken many words to his younger sister, but she had never responded to him.
“Don’t talk nonsense. Your sister smells lovely. Are you hungry? Mother will go get you something to eat.”
Mother’s voice.
Mother could also respond now.
Jiang Feng’s eyes welled with tears.
He continued: “Father, I’m so hungry. I want to eat beef.”
Father also responded: “Alright, we will eat beef tomorrow. You have just recovered today, so you need to rest a while longer.”
Jiang Feng lay down, a smile on his face.
He had climbed out.
