Chapter 28: Mother’s Secret
“Chirp~~~”
“Chirp~~~”
The sound of birds was intermittent.
Qin Luoxia went deep into the dense forest again.
She knew it was dangerous here.
Even though she had just promised her husband that she would never come to take risks again.
But today, after her husband left the house, she still came.
She was illiterate and could not describe her own emotions.
Anger, resentment, hatred, pain.
Last night was so long.
As she kept watch by Fenger’s side, her mind was actually occupied by thoughts of the money at home, wondering if it was enough to buy a coffin.
Buying a coffin was her obsession.
Because her Mother had nagged in her ear since she was little: “When your Father died, his body wasn’t even found in one piece. Scattered everywhere, no complete corpse. Your Father couldn’t be reincarnated; he could only be a lonely ghost.”
Later, when her Mother was dying, she only breathed her last after seeing that she had bought a coffin.
She had spent all the money prepared for her own dowry and even borrowed a lot of debt to buy the coffin.
Her Mother closed her eyes in satisfaction.
She became an old maid who couldn’t get married.
A coffin was very important.
Qin Luoxia held her spear, shuttling through the dense forest.
Her pace grew faster and faster, her tall figure becoming increasingly agile.
If there were rocks blocking her, she jumped over them; if there were wide ravines, she leaped across; if there were rock walls, she climbed over them. She was like a nimble gorilla, completely at home in the deep forest.
But the feeling of distress in her heart still couldn’t be released.
She had seen her husband spit blood.
She was afraid.
Her Mother had also spat blood before she died.
Back then, when she went to find a doctor for her Mother, the doctor said to take the gall of a ferocious python to supplement the heart blood.
At that time, she was just a little girl, at most a little girl stronger than other girls in the village. She was even afraid of ordinary snakes, so where could she find a ferocious python?
Her Mother had brought her to settle in this village, telling outsiders that they were refugees from the north.
Because she had an unusually tall stature, she was often bullied as a child. There were always people behind her back saying her Mother had been violated by outsiders, which was how she came to be—that she was a half-breed.
She herself believed this deep down, too. Because she was just much taller than other little girls.
But during the time before her Mother died, she kept muttering that her Father was an invincible hero, a peerless fierce general who had charged into armies of thousands alone.
She thought her Mother had gone senile from illness.
She never dared to believe this claim.
Sometimes when she thought about it, it felt like a dream, like her Mother’s beautiful fantasy before death.
Her Mother was actually quite pretty, while she was relatively ordinary. Unlike her Mother, she probably took after her Father.
She felt that the luckiest thing in her life was being able to marry her husband.
In her eyes, her husband was like an immortal, treating her extremely well. When she did something wrong, her husband would patiently teach her, unlike the people in the village who often beat and scolded their wives.
Her husband didn’t mind her tall stature either. She felt that when her husband hugged her, he truly liked her.
Her husband said he felt at ease holding her.
When her husband held her last night, many scenes flashed through her mind.
Because she didn’t dare to think about Fenger, didn’t dare to think about anything related to Fenger.
She tried hard to fill her mind with other things.
So she tried hard to think about the scenes of her coming to the dense forest to hunt wild boars during the day.
The image of the entire dense forest truly appeared in her mind. The places she had walked through—originally she had just walked through them, but upon recalling them, she could actually remember bit by bit: where the trees were, where the rocks were, where the gullies were, and even where there might be birds and beasts. She seemed to recall everything bit by bit.
At that moment, she thought, she believed what her Mother said before she died—that her Father was a peerless fierce general, a great general—it was true.
Otherwise, how could she have such a detailed overview of the dense forest in her mind?
At that moment, the entire dense forest felt like a battlefield in her mind.
She wanted to go and conquer it.
Until she thought of Fenger also having been to the dense forest, all scenes came to an abrupt end, dissipating with the weeping.
It was as if everything just now was only a hallucination caused by her extreme grief.
Just like her Mother, before dying, imagining her Father was an invincible hero.
But now, she still came.
Whether her Mother was delirious or she was having hallucinations, she had to come.
She couldn’t live without her husband; she had to hunt a python.
She entered the dense forest and was pleasantly surprised to find that it was not a hallucination.
She had really only been here once, yet she remembered it clearly in her mind. She even knew in advance where there were rocks and where there were cliffs. She ran very fast, as if she were on flat ground.
She shuttled through the dense forest and arrived at the location of the mountain stream from last time. The images and experience in her mind told her that a giant python was most likely under the mountain stream.
An inconspicuous plant she had seen in the mountain stream before surfaced in her mind.
At that time, she had only glanced at it while butchering the wild boar meat. But when she recalled it again, she could actually think of it in detail.
Years ago, the old doctor had said that there would be a kind of grass near where the ferocious python lived, with leaves that looked like tongues. She actually remembered it.
The image and the language overlapped.
She concluded that there was a giant python under this mountain stream.
Then she ran over in one breath.
The mountain stream was originally halfway up the mountain; the water from above fell to become a waterfall, and below it was like the bottom of a cliff. Even at noon, it emitted a chill, extremely deep and secluded.
Qin Luoxia was certain that the giant python must be below, because pythons were afraid of heat and would look for cool places.
Her husband seemed to have said that too. Her husband was very knowledgeable and understood everything.
And below, there was that grass that looked like a tongue, with thick stems. She seemed to see a scene of a giant python coiling around that grass and moving.
The black rocks had some wet traces, as if the giant python crawled out day after day.
Qin Luoxia sat by the mountain stream.
Last time, she sat here and butchered the wild boar meat. That was also yesterday.
She was pleasantly surprised by her luck, happy that her family had meat to eat, and also a little worried about being criticized by her husband. In short, she was full of energy.
But now, it seemed like something was different.
After experiencing her son almost dying last night and her husband spitting blood, Qin Luoxia sat by the mountain stream, blowing the mountain wind, occasionally with water droplets splashing on her.
Looking into the distance was the dense forest, and looking down was the deep cliff.
She couldn’t compose poetry, nor did she dare to shout at the distance. She just rubbed her spear against the cliff wall, stroke by stroke. Stroke by stroke, deep marks soon appeared on the hard cliff wall.
She didn’t know what she was thinking about.
In fact, her mind had always been simple: to be well-fed and clothed, to let her whole family be well-fed and clothed.
When the deep marks on the cliff reached the seventh one, Qin Luoxia moved.
She jumped down along the cliff wall.
At this moment, she was like an eagle spreading its wings.
It looked like she was jumping straight down, but she used clever force. One foot tapped the cliff wall, her body flew out, then she grabbed the vines in the middle, and used the force of the vines to leap forward.
Her huge figure disappeared in a few moves. It was as if she had merged into the deep bottom of the cliff.
“Chirp~~~”
“Chirp~~~”
Occasional bird calls passed by.
“Drip-drop~~~”
“Drip-drop~~~”
The sound of water hitting rocks.
“Thud~~~”
“Thud~~~”
The sound of water droplets falling into the deep pool.
“Rustle~~~”
The sound of wind blowing leaves to collide and sway.
Natural sounds.
Quiet and peaceful.
It is said that listening to such sounds makes it easy to fall asleep and can treat insomnia.
But this sound covered up the sounds of slaughter in the dense forest.
Covered up the essence of the law of the jungle.
The weak were killed, the sound of blood flowing was also trickling; it would drip when it hit rocks, and ding-dong when it fell into the deep pool.
The sound of gasping one’s last breath was also thin, chiu chiu chiu, small.
Knife cutting meat, if the knife was fast, it would also make a rustling sound. When encountering bones and hard scales, there would be light clashing sounds.
When the sun was slightly slanted.
Qin Luoxia dragged a giant python and climbed up the mountain stream.
She was covered in blood.
Like returning from hell.
But the confident smile on her face was more like a soldier returning in triumph. Her ordinary appearance was shining at this moment.
Familiar place.
Using the water flow to wash, she began to butcher the giant python.
She also had many wounds on her body, but it couldn’t hide her liking and joy.
She had done it.
She could do it.
In the past, she had felt inferior because of her tall and strong stature, thinking she was different from others, shameful, and always tried to make herself the same as others. Even in a crowd, she would subconsciously want to lower her head and shrink her shoulders to be shorter.
But today, when she had a clear way to hunt the giant python in her mind and set out to practice it successfully, she suddenly became incomparably confident.
She was not a half-breed, her Mother did not have delusions, her biological Father was a peerless warrior, and she had inherited her biological Father’s invincible bravery.
Marrying her husband would not disgrace him.
In the past, she was just a little stronger than others, but after last night, it might be what her husband said: when people experience life-and-death stimulation, their own potential will be stimulated and can be exerted to the extreme.
She felt that way now. Not only did she become infinitely strong, but her mind was also very different. It seemed like the things she had seen before, if she recalled them carefully, she could see those scenes.
Qin Luoxia neatly butchered the giant python.
She carefully packed the snake gall separately.
Then she stood directly under the waterfall to wash the blood off her body and head. The weather was hot, and it would probably be dry by the time she got home.
She wrung the water from her hair by the pool, looking at the woman with long hair reflected in the deep pool.
She thought about it and decided she should keep the secret of her background.
Her husband was just an ordinary scholar, and she already appeared too strong. The aunties in the village had said: “When the woman is strong and the man is weak, life won’t go on well.”
And her husband’s Mother was the most pretentious. But Qin Luoxia felt that her husband loved his Mother deep down, so her husband was extremely good to every child, never laid a hand on the children, and couldn’t bear to say harsh words.
What her husband liked was someone who was gentle and dignified. She couldn’t be reckless, couldn’t expose herself, or she would scare her husband.
After dealing with all the bloodstains and wounds on her body, Qin Luoxia also sorted out her thoughts according to her own logic.
Then she wrapped the python piece by piece with large leaves, skillfully put them in the bamboo basket, and then piled it with edible wild vegetables.
Then she ran towards home all the way.
While running, she thought that after her husband ate the gall of the ferocious python, his body would be stronger, and maybe they could have another baby. Fenger was a bit too lonely as an only child; he didn’t even have a helper when fighting.
In the forest, a strong figure leaped.
A male bear shrank into its cave.
“Chirp~~~”
“Chirp~~~”
