Chapter 01: I’m going to be a widower.

Translated by Sakura Time

“Cough, cough…” Xiao Xiao felt that her eyelids seemed to weigh a thousand pounds, her head was dizzy, her throat was dry and burning, and her whole body seemed to be on fire.

“Water…”, Xiao Xiao struggled and shouted with all her strength, but in reality, the sound she produced was just like that of a mosquito grunt. It seemed that someone was there beside her, then walked away. After a while, something cold touched her lips, and she noticed that there was water inside. Xiao Xiao hurriedly swallowed it. While drinking water, she thought, This little thing! Vicas^[1]Her artificial intelligence (AI) robot, as she refers to it., as a machine housekeeper, how come it can’t even prevent her from getting sick? Is it malfunctioning? It dared to slow down so much. She promised herself that after she woke up and gained her strength, she would definitely limit its authority, even if it acted coquettishly.

After drinking the water, Xiao Xiao’s throat finally didn’t burn so much. She wanted to reprimand her vicas, but she couldn’t even hold her eyelids open, so she fell asleep soon after.

But before falling asleep, she seemed to have heard a heavy sigh.

Wang Wei looked at Xiao Xiao lying on the straw mat with a sullen face, saw her burning cheeks flushed, and looked at the thin and worn cotton wool covering her body. Wang Wei knows that the quilt cannot keep anyone warm in the cold winter, so what more if the person using it has a fever? He looked at the worn cotton padded jacket he was wearing, but he didn’t take it off. He gritted his teeth, turned around, opened the wooden door that had plenty of cracks, and went out.

“Bang Bang Bang ……”, Wang Fu and Wang Mu^[2]Wang Fu (王父) and Wang Mu (王母): The literal translations are Wang Father and Wang Mother. I felt that it wouldn’t sound so good if I used them, so I decided to just go with their Chinese … Continue reading had already fallen asleep at this time when the heavy knocking on the door awakened the old couple from their sleep. Wang Mu patted her chest and shouted angrily outside the door, “Who is it!? Don’t bother us if you want to stay awake at night!”

Wang Fu got up and opened the door, and saw that it was Wang Wei outside. He frowned at his youngest son, “Why are you here? Do you want to scare me and your mother to death?”

Wang Mu also got off the bed, and when she saw that it was Wang Wei, she immediately cursed, “So it’s you! Have you finally lost your mind and come here to retaliate? What are you doing? Is your heart really that dark^[3]tainted or corrupted!? I bet you want to scare us to death and run away with the things in the house, don’t you!? I shouldn’t have given birth to you in the first place! I should have just crushed you to death at that time when you were inside me!”

Wang Wei is not the one to be scolded. His dark green eyes rolled upward, thrusting his waist forward with a step: “What dark? I can’t even compare to you though. Knowing you, I know you couldn’t have killed me inside your body because you’re afraid that it would affect you! How shameless! Do you think I would even give you face? Dragons give birth to dragons, and phoenixes give birth to phoenixes. You’re nothing more than a rat in the sewer! So what good bird do you expect to give birth to?” Wang Wei didn’t hesitate to wound the enemy by a thousand-fold while self-inflicting himself by eight hundred. His mouth rattled like a machine gun, firing all of his bullets at Wang Mu.

“You, you…” Wang Mu nearly choked. She trembled and pointed her finger at Wang Wei, but couldn’t speak. “Old man, hurry, hurry, drive this beast away. I get a headache whenever I see him!”

Wang Fu, the head of the family, couldn’t even quarrel with Wang Mu. Not to mention Wang Wei, who was far tougher than Wang Mu. He could only go out of his way to say: “Fourth, what are you doing? She is your mother. How can you treat your mother like this? You are being disrespectful and unfilial.”

Wang Wei didn’t bother to argue with this titular Lao Tzu^[4] Wang Wei was being sarcastic here since Laozi (老子) could be translated as ‘Father’ or the ‘Chinese Philosopher Laozi.’: “Xiao Xiao has a terrible fever. Give me five yuan and I’ll take her to the health center.”

“Money!??” As soon as Wang Mu, who stood with her hand over her head, heard Wang Wei, she immediately screamed: “You still have the nerve to ask for money! Where would we get the money from? Get out! Hurry up and get out of here!”

“Just to make it clear, what I want is not your money. I want the money that my grandfather left me. If you don’t give it to me, I’ll go to the brigade to find the branch secretary and tell them your heart is so corrupted to the point that you don’t care if your daughter-in-law is going to die. Let’s see if they will come or not.”

Wang Wei knew it was useless to show weakness to these old couple. If his tone had been a little softer, they would have thought he was afraid of them: “Anyway, as I’ve told you, you can decide whether to take the money out or not. But don’t think I’m going to do nothing if she died today. As a widower, I will definitely do something to avenge my wife’s tragic life.” With a glare, Wang Wei said. He then turned and was about to leave.

The two elderly people were in doubt, but Wang Fu couldn’t help but call out to Wang Wei: “Is your wife really burning badly?”

Wang Wei’s footsteps did not stop: “You can come with me. See if I’m lying or not!”

Wang Mu had the intention of not caring: “You barged into our room in the middle of the night asking for money and telling us that your wife is burning up and is very ill. Which person with a sane mind would believe that? If that turned out to be true, then the Xiao family has wronged us! How could they send an ill person to our family?”

Wang Fu wanted to say that their marriage had already been set, and that nothing could be done anymore. Maybe she just happened to be sick, and surely the Xiao family wouldn’t send them an ill person. But he knew that as soon as he said this, he would definitely be scolded by Wang Mu again, so he just whispered: “I’ll come with him to see if he’s telling the truth or not. If his wife really was burning up, then it would be a big problem. We wouldn’t want the fourth child to cause any more trouble.”

Wang Mu stomped her feet angrily after hearing this: “I should have just strangled him to death when he was born!”

Wang Fu and Wang Mu followed Wang Wei out of the main house, across the courtyard to a low room. Wang Wei’s room was originally a firewood room. The other houses in the Wang family were all brick houses. His house, on the other hand, was not only small but also covered in thatch.The door could not be closed tightly at all. The door frame was shaky and the wind creaked.

Wang Wei opened the door and pointed to Xiao Xiao, whose cheeks were burning red. “See for yourself.” Then he stood aside coldly. Wang Wei is 18 years old, but compared to other boys in the village, he is too thin. He is taller than his peers, looking like a bamboo pole. His old and wide cotton padded jacket swings around on him. But even so, he has a face that you will be firmly attracted to at first sight.

His eyebrows have never been groomed, but they are incomparably neat. The peaks of his eyebrows are sharp, which goes very well with his sideburns. The bridge of his nose is straight, and his lips are thin and red. Just looking at his nose and mouth will make people feel soft. With his sharp eyebrows and the faint but gradually showing facial contour, there is no doubt that he is truly the definition of handsome. What is even more bizarre is his pair of eyes. The green pupils, which look extremely deep, are embedded in the already handsome face to add more mystery.

However, Wang Wei himself is extremely disgusted with these eyes. All his disasters originate from these eyes that are different from ordinary people. Even if the 18-year-old boy looks tough, he couldn’t really build a wall to resist all external injuries. Because of these eyes, his parents and siblings are disgusted with him. His peers wouldn’t even dare approach him. Many people would openly label him a monster, even as a child.

Wang Wei shook his head to chase away the ridiculous pessimism. Instead of thinking about this, he might as well think about how to fill his stomach. He shook his wrist. He was too thin. He couldn’t wait for the day to escape from the Wang family.

The elderly couple went in to have a look. Wang Mu put her hand on Xiao Xiao’s forehead but immediately pulled it up. It was too hot. If she isn’t taken to the health center as soon as possible, she might really die from fever.

Wang Mu muttered with a gloomy face, “Those swindlers! The Xiao family really has lost their conscience, sending a person who is going to die to our Wang family! If something happens, then the Xiao family will definitely blackmail us.”

After seeing her, the two of them got together and discussed it for a while. At first, Wang Mu refused to take out any money. Her father-in-law had left 300 yuan for Wang Wei. Although Wang Wei returned to the Wang family after her father-in-law died, he was eight years old at that time and could already earn work points. The points he earned were just enough for himself, and even now that he has grown, the bastard still refused to do heavy jobs. Every time he was forced to do a job with a lot of work points, he pretended to be ill, and dared to spill or pour out everything. He was like a dull copper pea.

But Wang’s father was timid. He was afraid that something might happen to Xiao Xiao. If his daughter-in-law really died with them not doing anything to help her seek medical attention, then it would be impossible for them to hide it. At that time, the Xiao family and the brigade team would certainly find trouble with the Wang family.

Wang Fu discussed the matter with Wang Mu, to which she hesitantly agreed, with much persuasion. Wang Mu reluctantly went back to their house and took five yuan. She threw it hard in Wang Wei’s face and said, “What a waste of money! Remember, if she dies, it’s none of our old Wang family’s business.”

Wang Wei looked at Wang Mu then bent down to pick up the money: “That depends on what the doctor says. Of course, if this amount of money isn’t enough, I will come back to ask for more.”

“You think you can have some more? What a fart! You’ve already spent all the money your grandfather gave you over the years. Do you think everything you eat and drink is from heaven?” Wang Mu was enraged to the point of wanting to strangle Wang Wei. She is enraged by whatever this monster spouts whenever he opens his mouth.

Wang Wei clicked his tongue, “I earned everything I ate.” Having said that, he didn’t plan to argue more with Wang Mu at this time. He went back to the room and wrapped Xiao Xiao in a quilt. He put her on his back.

It was already late at night, not to mention that it was winter. It was pitch black everywhere outside Wang’s house, except for the color of Wang Wei’s eyes. For him, the only benefit he got from his eyes was that he had a little night vision. Although he couldn’t see very clearly, Wang Wei could at least see the general outline. On such a dark night, relying on this weak vision, Wang Wei walked in the snow, carrying Xiao Xiao to the town’s health center.

When they arrived at the hospital, Wang Wei’s feet in the straw sandals had long since lost consciousness. After Xiao Xiao was infused with fluids, the doctor screamed and hurriedly asked Wang Wei’s frozen feet to be rubbed and scalded with hot water. The doctor was a middle-aged woman. Seeing that the patients were a pair of fifteen or sixteen-year-old children, she couldn’t help but ask, “What about your adults?”

Wang Wei smiled, “My family has no adults.”

The doctor let out a cry and felt that he had poked Wang Wei’s heart out, so she changed the subject: “Your feet are so stiff! You must have walked a long way.”

Wang Wei smiled coyly, “It’s okay.” He was not used to people’s kind words, “Doctor, is she okay?”

“Her fever is so bad. You have to stay in the hospital tonight to see if her temperature will drop tomorrow morning after the infusion. She’s your sister, right? Seeing the youngster being so dependable, the doctor couldn’t help but say more.

Wang Wei had no intention of explaining, so he gave a hmm.

After thanking the doctor, he directly sat barefoot beside Xiao Xiao’s bed. Fortunately, his clothes were wide. He rolled up his legs and covered his feet in his clothes. Looking at Xiao Xiao with his eyes closed, he sighed in his heart that he had lost money. She had just entered his family, but he had already spent three yuan on her. She’ll be taking medicine tomorrow, which is another sum of money.

He knew that the Wang family was determined not to spit out the money, but he was also determined to get his money out. That was left to him by his grandfather. No one can take it. Thinking like this, Wang Wei leaned back against the chair and slowly closed his eyes.