Chapter 26: Unable to Sense Emotions

For a whole night, he spent it in his dreams. The scenes in his dreams were full of eroticism, making his body and soul tremble…

Zhou Shugen wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. It had been years since this had happened.

The woman beside him also woke up and slapped him hard.

“Wife, I really didn’t mean to. I love you so much, I miss you so much. Let me hug you…”

However, when the passion reached its peak, he couldn’t get it up.

As soon as he fell asleep, his mind was filled with eroticism.

Men’s vices, they can’t escape without paying a price after hurting others. Since he loves to play with women so much, then give him a dream full of eroticism. It’s a way to fulfill his desires.

…

Late at night, unable to sleep, Jiang Nian opened the window. The starlight poured down from the sky, countless stars scattered across the sky, like a boundless galaxy.

The two kittens woke up at the sound and ran to her feet, meowing.

This heartwarming scene didn’t last long.

Several people carried someone running over, Zhou Xiaoju stumbling behind them.

This time, she wasn’t crying. Her eyes had a hint of coldness.

“Doctor Jiang, come and see if there’s anything you can do. She hanged herself in the middle of the night.”

Jiang Nian quickly went to check her condition. Her face was purple, her tongue was sticking out, and there was a purple mark on her neck. Her body was already stiff, she was dead, completely lifeless, not a breath left.

“What happened?” she asked Zhou Xiaoju. “Didn’t I give you the medicine?”

Zhou Xiaoju sniffed and wiped away the tears that she couldn’t control, pretending to be indifferent, “She wanted to die, I couldn’t stop her.”

The matter had to go back to the evening. She woke up and learned that Zhou Shugen had left. She didn’t cry or make a fuss, her emotions were calm.

Zhou Xiaoju talked to her for a while, and she seemed normal. She wanted to wait until she was agitated and then drug her, after all, she was still at the neighbor’s house, it wasn’t good to stay here all the time.

But when she went home, her grandfather’s words implied that she should remarry quickly, don’t delay any longer, the family could only accommodate her for two more months.

Because no matter how good a daughter-in-law was, compared to her own son, her own son was more important.

If she didn’t leave, her son wouldn’t come back to see them.

Xiaoju’s mother agreed verbally, looking resigned.

Back in the room, Zhou Xiaoju tried to persuade her, saying that they could just live their own lives, ask the village head to let them set up their own household. After all, they were mother and daughter, and they were working to support themselves. Even if they took her brother with them, they wouldn’t starve to death. They wouldn’t have to live here and take care of her grandparents.

She was always calm. Zhou Xiaoju was still afraid that she couldn’t accept it, so she took out the medicine Jiang Nian gave her and wanted to use it on her, but because of her calmness, she didn’t hide the effect from her.

If she had known it would turn out like this, Zhou Xiaoju would never have told her.

Because when she woke up, she saw her mother hanging from the beam, her body stiff.

At that moment, Zhou Xiaoju miraculously found that she wasn’t sad.

She didn’t know why, but tears kept flowing, but she couldn’t feel any emotional fluctuations.

Until she was rescued, Zhou Xiaoju followed the people running here, it was just a physical reaction.

Hearing Zhou Xiaoju’s seemingly heartless words, a man next to her frowned and scolded, “Xiaoju, what are you saying? Your mother didn’t stay here for you and your brother, why would she suffer for so many years? How can you be so heartless?”

By now, everyone thought that her mother was unwilling to leave, even in death, because she couldn’t bear to leave her children.

Although she was an abandoned woman, she was healthy and strong. If she was willing, it wouldn’t be difficult to find another family.

Jiang Nian looked at Zhou Xiaoju for a while. She saw her raise her hand, and without seeing any specific action, Zhou Xiaoju fainted.

She’s so heartbroken that she can’t even feel her own emotions. You’d better not provoke her.

The man didn’t expect that, but everyone saw Xiaoju’s mother’s reaction. It’s possible that she’s just like her mother in this way.

Afraid that Zhou Xiaoju might wake up and commit suicide, the man asked, “What should we do? Should we tie her up for two days and see? Don’t let anything else happen!”

“Leave her here for now. I’ll check on her when she wakes up,” Jiang Nian said. “Her mother is already stiff. You should discuss how to deal with her.”

Xiaoju’s mother was carried away again.

When Zhou Xiaoju woke up, it was already noon. Jiang Nian had just sent away the last patient she saw.

She went out. She remembered that yesterday the sun was shining, but today the whole sky was foggy.

“Thank you, but I can’t afford your medical fees for now.” She spoke in a hoarse voice.

“You’re welcome. You can owe me, or you can do something else for me.” Jiang Nian said.

Zhou Xiaoju nodded, “Where’s my mother?”

“They took her back last night. But I heard that your uncle’s people came to make a fuss this morning. The situation is unclear.”

Zhou Xiaoju nodded again and left.

Her mother had been wronged for so many years, and her uncles didn’t care. Now that they came to her door, it was definitely not just to seek justice.

Sure enough, when she got home, her eight-year-old brother was crying in the room, and the house was in disarray. Her grandparents were crying their hearts out, and the little food they had left in the granary was almost gone.

Her mother’s life was just a bargaining chip for her family to demand compensation from her in-laws. What a irony.

A woman’s life is so cheap!

Zhou Xiaoju glanced at her brother, who was still crying, and walked away. No one knew where she went. It wasn’t until the afternoon of the next day that she reappeared in the village.

By then, her mother’s body had been buried on a distant mountain.

Because she was a married woman who had been divorced, she couldn’t return to her family’s home, and she couldn’t go back to her in-laws’ home. It was the villagers who helped dig a grave and bury her.

Zhou Xiaoju seemed to accept this fact very easily.

When Jiang Nian was on the mountain, she saw her again carrying firewood down the mountain. Her slow steps were heartbreaking.

But Jiang Nian felt something was wrong.

The look in Zhou Xiaoju’s eyes told her that she wouldn’t be taken advantage of like her mother. When her mother was driven to the point of collapse, her crying showed that their mother-daughter relationship was good.

But her mother was dead, and she was so calm. It was unusual.

Of course, it had nothing to do with her.

Jiang Nian didn’t go back until very late. It was autumn, and many herbs were ripe. It was the season for harvesting.

She was using a lot of herbs now. With her space, she wasn’t afraid of not having a place to store them. If she found good herbs, she would even dig them up by the roots and put them in her space, saving her the trouble of searching for them later.

When she got back to her doorstep, she saw a large pile of firewood stacked neatly next to the fence.

Village Head Zhou was at the door, telling her, “Xiaoju came back and forth carrying firewood several times today and piled it next to your house. It must be for you, right?”

Jiang Nian nodded, “I didn’t intend to ask for the medicine money from the past two days. I didn’t expect her to be so serious.”

“Sigh, she’s a poor child. We should help if we can.” Village Head Zhou sighed.

The next day at noon, there were shouts of abuse coming from the middle of the village. It took a long time for them to die down.

Then Village Head Zhou came over.