The third aunt died in a very bizarre way. The water where she drowned was just below her knees.
The body was lying head down, with its head stuck deeply into the mud, resembling an upside-down lotus flower.
The whole village ran to watch the fun, but grandma looked at my dad in a panic.
"Hurry and go to the back mountain to see if that bitch is back?"
The "bitch" she refers to is my miserable mother.
Thirteen years ago, grandma bought her from a human trafficker.
When she was first sold to my house, my mother was only wearing a dirty autumn coat. She looked like a beggar with unkempt hair and was not in a good state of mind. She didn’t even know her own name.
Grandma tied her hands and feet with ropes and asked my father to consummate the marriage.
I heard that my mother was struggling so hard that the whole village could hear her screams.
Shortly after that, my mother became pregnant.
In order to prevent her from escaping, grandma found a rope, tied my mother's legs, and locked her in the woodshed like an animal.
Every time he escaped, he was beaten severely.
It wasn't until the second year after I was born that my mother's life got a little better.
Grandma looked at her chubby grandson and was so happy that she threw a chicken leg to my mother for the first time and praised her as a hero of the Zhou family.
Since she had me, my mother has accepted her fate and stayed in the Zhou family willingly, but her mind is still in a trance, sometimes awake and sometimes confused.
As I grew up, my father went to work in the mines to make money to support the family.
After that, Uncle San always came to my house under various pretexts.
I slept until midnight that day, and heard my mother's heart-rending cry from the woodshed. I wanted to run to see what was going on, but my grandma covered my eyes and forced me back.
I later learned that all this was arranged by my grandma.
The third uncle had been married for two years, but there had been no movement in my aunt's belly. My grandma knew that my mother could give birth, so she secretly called the third uncle to "borrow the seeds" while my father was at the mine.
In her eyes, the crazy wife is just a fertility machine. If she can satisfy her eldest son, she cannot fail her younger son.
But the fire could not be contained in the paper, and the story of Uncle San's "borrowing seeds" still spread.
The next day, the third aunt brought a group of relatives from her natal family and came to my house to investigate.
They grabbed my mother's hair, tore her clothes, tied her to the entrance of the village and paraded her through the streets. They called my mother a seductive cousin and threatened to dip her in a pig cage.
Grandma would bully my mother, but she didn't dare to offend my third aunt.
The third aunt's mother-in-law was an official in the town, and she was so frightened that she didn't even dare to fart.
My father also came back that day. Not only did he not settle the score with my third uncle, he hung my mother from the beam and beat her all night. He scolded her for being unruly. He also learned to seduce people and sow discord between their brothers.
My mother was beaten for an hour until she could no longer cry.
I was still young at that time, so I could only hide in bed and cry, not understanding what mistake my mother had made to deserve such treatment.
Before dawn the next day, grandma cursed and ran to the woodshed to urge my mother to get up and cook for the whole family.
When he opened the door, he saw only a pair of legs hanging straight down.
She found a rope and hung herself from the beam in the middle of the night.
Before hanging herself, my mother cut her wrist with a tile, and the blood stained her entire coat red.
The two eyes were dyed red with bloodshot eyes, staring straight at the door of Zhou's house, completely bulging out.
"Mom!"
Grandma was so frightened that she fell to the ground. My father and third uncle also came after hearing the news. They also gasped when they saw my mother's body hanging on the beam.
They found a roll of broken straw mats, wrapped the body, and threw it into a wasteland in the back mountain before dawn.
The third uncle, who had a guilty conscience, asked grandma, "Mom, sister-in-law Xiuhong hanged herself in a bloody suit. Will she be okay?"
Countryside people are superstitious. It is said that people who hang themselves in blood clothes will turn into ghosts to take revenge after death.
Thinking of what he had done, my third uncle's legs were weak and he could not stand firmly. My father didn't know what to do and could only keep smoking.
"Look at your potential! Why are you afraid when everyone is dead?"
Grandma's face was livid, and she scolded the third uncle not to talk nonsense.
My mother's death did not cause any disturbance. In this big valley where news is not available, no one cares about the whereabouts of a crazy woman.
Grandma thought that as long as she didn't tell anyone, it would be fine. But on the third day after dumping the body, something strange happened to her family.
First, the big yellow dog raised at home howled at the air all night. When grandma got up the next day, she found that it had died and its neck had been strangled by someone unknown.
All the chickens and ducks kept in the pen were dead, and no wounds could be found. They seemed to have been frightened to death.
There were two bloody footprints at the door, facing inwards, facing the door of my house.
Even the hanging rope my mother had used was hung on the beam again.
Grandma was so frightened that she crawled out the door and invited the grandpa.
Taigong is the Feng Shui master of the next village, and people in eight villages around him respect him.
When he arrived at my house, my grandfather only glanced at the blood marks on the ground. He was so frightened that he shook his body on the spot. He kept waving his hands and yelling that he had nothing to do with this matter.
Grandma took her two unfulfilled sons and kowtowed and knelt.
"Grandpa, for the sake of your relatives, you can't ignore it. This bitch has made it clear that he is here for our whole family."
The third uncle even hugged the grandfather's thigh, crying and not letting him go.
"What a sin! Look at the wicked things your family has done!"
My grandfather couldn't disgrace his relatives, so he could only give my family an idea.
"Xiuhong suffered too many crimes during her lifetime. She didn't even have a status after her death, and her body was discarded casually. This is the first place your family owes her."
"Since I gave birth to a son for the eldest son, I shouldn't let the third son also... Alas, this is the second place I feel sorry for her."
"Also, she has not enjoyed a good day in your house. She must bring her body back and give her a grand burial. Let all those who have wronged Xiuhong kneel and kowtow in front of the grave. Then I will personally perform a ritual ceremony. , see if we can resolve her grievances."
The whole family was so frightened that they had no choice but to follow the grandfather's instructions.
My mother's body was carried home, put on a shroud, and re-intermented.
Her fingers were bent into chicken claws, her eyes were still bulging, and two lines of blood and tears had solidified on her face.
The grandfather tried many ways to make my mother close her eyes, so he had to find a red cloth and cover my mother's eyes.
After setting up the mourning hall, Grandpa lit a tung oil lamp, placed it directly under the coffin, lit three pillars of yellow incense, respectfully inserted them into my mother's incense burner, and asked grandma to bring the whole family to kowtow to my mother.
But when it was grandma's turn to offer incense, something strange happened. No matter how she lit it, the yellow incense would not light. Even if she lit it forcibly, it would go out soon after inserting it into the incense burner.
My father and third uncle were squatting nearby and burning paper money. As soon as they stuffed the paper money into the brazier, a gust of wind came from the mourning hall, sending the paper money flying all over the floor. One after another, all the paper money that landed on the ground were extinguished.
"Grandpa, this, this..."
The whole family was so frightened that they were shaking like chaff. The grandpa held the peach wood sword used in rituals and looked around with an ugly expression.
"Why didn't Chunjiao come to the mourning hall to kowtow?"
Chunjiao was my third aunt, the woman who took off my mother's clothes and escorted her to the entrance of the village for a parade.
After the third uncle did that thing that was worse than a beast, the third aunt was so angry that she went back to her parents' house and never came back.
The third uncle couldn't move the dominatrix and said stumblingly, "It shouldn't matter if one is missing, right?"
The grandfather looked gloomy and said nothing. He turned around, grabbed a big rooster, bled it with a kitchen knife, and sprinkled all the chicken blood into the ink fountain. He pulled out the ink fountain line stained black by the chicken blood, and the blood line bounced along the board of my mother's coffin.
The vertical and horizontal blood lines were like a dense network, covering the entire coffin, which was shockingly red.
He found five rusty coffin nails, corresponding to my mother's head and limbs, and wedged them into the coffin board, so that grandma and the others could continue to kowtow and light incense.
Strangely enough, since the coffin nail was wedged in, the yellow incense and paper money lit up instantly.
Grandma was full of joy and shouted that it was okay, but I noticed that Grandpa’s face became gloomy, and the wrinkles on his face were like ravines, darker than stained with ink.
"I hope it can be controlled..."
According to the rules of my hometown, after death, the museum must be closed for three days before the person can be laid to rest.
But grandma couldn't wait to send this "god of plague" away, so she went to the grandfather the next day and asked him to be buried early.
The grandpa received the red envelope and without saying a word asked the young people from the village to carry the coffin.
Strange things happen.
My mother was as sick as dry wood when she died. The makeshift thin-skinned coffin was not heavy, but eight young men in their prime could not lift it.
The rope was stretched straight, and the coffin bearers were shouting slogans at the top of their lungs. The coffin seemed to be sucked by the soil. The eight strong men's veins were bulging, and they were stunned and could not lift the coffin.
The grandfather's face became even worse, and he murmured to himself, "I'm afraid the daughter-in-law of the Zhou family has unfulfilled wishes and doesn't want to leave yet."
Grandma was so anxious that she was jumping up and down, crying and asking what on earth this bitch wanted to do. She even kowtowed on her head and the funeral hall was arranged. Why did she still stay in the Zhou family?
The grandpa’s face sank and he told her to shut up. Then he walked up to me with a smile and said,
"Zhou Xuan, please help your mother lay the coffin for a while."
To press the coffin is to find a boy to sit on the coffin.
The people in the village couldn't understand that the coffin was already so heavy. Wouldn't it be more difficult for more people to lift it?
But the grandpa said nothing, shook his head, and carried me into the coffin.
Sure enough, my mother's coffin suddenly became lighter.
The people in the village found it incredible and praised the Taigong for being such a god.
The grandfather still said nothing and stood behind the funeral procession. He looked at me, who was pressing on my mother's coffin, and frowned.
They buried my mother's coffin under a well, hoping to use this ancient well to calm my mother's resentment.
A monument was also erected at the mouth of the well, a piece of blue dragon stone was pressed, and a thick layer of quicklime was covered.
Not even grass can grow within ten meters of my mother's grave.
After that, the Zhou family became much calmer.
The third uncle and the third aunt have also reconciled as before, and the whole family is harmonious and never mentions the evil past.
Only Taigong always sighs subconsciously every time he passes by my door.
Retribution finally came.
In the third year after my mother was buried, there was a heavy rain in the back mountain, and the tomb was soaked by the rain, leaving a gaping hole as wide as a palm open.
Grandma was worried and asked my father and third uncle to take a look at the grave.
My father was busy carrying water and chopping wood for Widow Chen at the entrance of the village. He didn’t even look back and said, “What’s there to see? In the past three years, that bitch’s bones should have been rotted away.”
Grandma didn't take it seriously.
A week later, the third aunt stayed away from relatives all night, and someone saw her body at the entrance of the village the next day.
It was like a wooden stake inserted upside down into the water, and its mouth and nose were filled with mud.
I remember that when she was "catching an adulterer", she once threatened to dip my mother into a pig cage.
This is retribution.
