Chapter 2
Edward Quan ·
5
After eating my half bun, I quietly washed the dishes.
When enough time had passed, I held my stomach and went to Mom.
“It still hurts. Can I have some money for diarrhea medicine?”
At the word money, Grandma flew into a rage and struck my back with her cane.
“It’s only diarrhea! What do you need medicine for?”
“Go to the toilet a few times. Sleep. You’ll be fine!”
Without letting me argue, she grabbed my arm and pulled me to the door.
“Use the public toilet outside the complex.”
“The paper’s free. Come home afterward. No wasting our water flushing!”
Clutching my belly, I went downstairs and hurried to the public toilet.
I connected to the free Wi-Fi and opened the feed from our home security camera.
Mom had stolen that from the factory, too.
A few days earlier, she had discovered several dozen yuan missing from her pocket and decided I had taken it.
After beating me, she brought home the camera to prevent a repeat and installed it in the middle of the living room.
My brother had actually taken the money for game cards.
When I caught him, he raised his fist.
“Tell anyone, and I’ll get Mom and Grandma to beat you to death!”
I wasn’t stupid enough to tell.
I hoped he would keep playing and neglecting his studies.
Perhaps then they would let me stay in school.
Ever since I overheard Grandma and my parents discussing it, I understood.
“Let her finish junior high. Then she leaves school. Save the money to send the boy abroad.”
If I wanted to change my fate, I could rely only on myself.
6
On my screen, Dad lay sprawled on the sofa, clutching his belly, his face white.
My brother, who had eaten so much, was already vomiting.
Grandma’s groans came from the little room.
Mom had eaten the least.
Seeing the other three collapse, she hurried in circles around the living room.
She was about to call 120 when Grandma shouted.
“Wasteful woman! An ambulance costs hundreds! Does money grow on trees?”
“Who calls a hospital for a stomachache?”
“Didn’t you bring a medicine box from the factory?”
“Find it. Take some stomach medicine. Sleep it off!”
I almost laughed.
That medicine box was stolen, too. Everything inside had expired years earlier.
Mom believed sealed medicine was still usable after its expiry date.
Grandma firmly believed minor illnesses could be sweated out beneath a quilt.
Mom dragged a white plastic box from under the bed and opened it.
The damp pills had stuck together.
She looked at Grandma uncertainly.
“Can we still use them like this?”
In pain and furious at the hesitation, Grandma slapped her.
“So what if they’re damp? Dissolve them in boiling water!”
“They dissolve in the stomach anyway. Being wet makes them easier to absorb!”
“Boil them up like herbal medicine!”
Mom looked at the damp clumps.
Then, unexpectedly, she called me.
“Jingjing. Finished yet? Come home. Your father and brother have stomachaches, too.”
My heart skipped.
I knew immediately she wanted me to take the blame.
Sure enough, she went on.
“All the medicine is expired. Didn’t you say expired medicine could kill?”
“You know your grandma. She’s forcing your father and brother to take it.”
“Come back and talk her out of it!”
7
I began to tremble.
I had tried to warn them in my previous life.
And how had that ended?
After I died, my spirit remained in the house.
My parents and Grandma came home from their dumpling dinner to find my body already stiff.
Grandma struck my eyes with her cane, destroying them both.
She cursed me for bringing disaster, for refusing even to die outside.
If the house became known as a death house and couldn’t be sold, she said, she would have me cut up and my ashes scattered.
Dad had been planning to sell the apartment to start a business.
Hearing her, he hurriedly told Mom, “Quick. While it’s dark, dump the dead girl in the river.”
“Don’t let anyone know someone died here. If we can’t sell this haunted house, I’ll kill you!”
My own parents cut my body into eight pieces.
They stuffed them into the flour sack Mom had stolen from work.
Then they threw me into a dark drain.
Rats carried away my flesh, leaving white bones.
8
The memory made me shake violently.
I was about to find an excuse when Mom continued.
“You wretched girl! Stay outside and don’t come back, and you can forget next term’s fees—”
“No, Mom! I’m done. I’m coming!”
For the sake of school, I gritted my teeth and returned.
The moment I entered, she rushed over, clung to me, and cried that Dad was dying.
She ordered me to call 120.
I pretended to be confused and asked loudly, “You want me to call an ambulance?”
She jumped and tried to cover my mouth.
Too late. Grandma had heard.
From her bed, between bouts of vomiting, she cursed.
“No ambulance! You spendthrift! Who needs a hospital for stomachache?”
“Hundreds of yuan for one trip!”
“Send Jingjing to ask the neighbors. Someone must have a car. They can drive us!”
Mom pushed me outside.
They still thought an apartment block worked like the village. Call a neighbor, and everyone would help.
Since moving to the city, Grandma had loved scavenging.
Her rubbish filled the corridor and brought rats and cockroaches into the building.
Almost every neighbor had argued with her.
I went slowly downstairs and knocked.
The neighbor below laughed through the security door.
“Serves her right.”
The door slammed.
Upstairs, the answer was much the same.
I went from the first floor to the eleventh.
Finally, the building representative took pity on me and agreed to come look.
Inside, he found Dad barely breathing on the sofa.
Grandma lay unconscious on her little bed, foaming at the mouth.
My brother was worst of all, convulsing on the floor, his trousers soiled.
Seeing people close to death, the man hurriedly called the police.
9
Even then, Mom worried about money.
“Call 110, not 120,” she whispered. “Ambulances are expensive.”
He stared at her in fury.
“This isn’t an ordinary stomachache. It’s severe food poisoning!”
“Someone’s going to die!”
She went white.
Only now did she understand how serious it was.
At the hospital, Dad, Grandma, and my brother were rushed into emergency treatment.
After a while, a doctor brought out a tray of vomit and asked what they had eaten.
Mom flushed and stammered.
“It’s Winter Solstice. Just dumplings.”
His expression grew graver.
“Where did you buy them?”
“This contains extremely high levels of aflatoxin. It’s a serious food-safety incident. We have to notify the police.”
“No… we didn’t buy them.”
Her voice shook.
“I made them.”
He looked hard at her.
“We need to identify the source of the contamination. Think carefully. Was the flour, meat, or any other ingredient spoiled or expired?”
Embarrassed, she nodded.
“I took the flour from the factory. It had a few bugs. A little damp.”
“I thought it could still be used. Since it was Winter Solstice…”
The doctor sighed, apparently lost for words.
Just then, Dad was wheeled out.
A white sheet covered him.
“We couldn’t save him,” the doctor said quietly. “We’ll do everything we can for the other two.”
Then he hurried back inside.
10
Realizing Dad was truly dead, Mom collapsed over him and wailed.
A little later, Grandma and my brother were brought out.
Grandma had regained consciousness after being made to vomit.
My brother remained unconscious.
The doctor shook his head.
They had been saved, but the aflatoxin had badly damaged their livers and kidneys. Even if they survived, he said, their future cancer risk would be far higher than normal.
Mom sank to the floor.
“It was only a few bugs…”
“How could it be poisonous?”
When Grandma learned her son had died from the dumplings, she seized Mom’s hair and slapped her repeatedly.
“You jinx! My son worked himself to the bone, and you couldn’t buy him a sack of fresh flour?”
“You and your bargains! You poisoned my son!”
“I’ll beat you to death!”
Mom didn’t dare resist. Grandma tore away a patch of her scalp.
Only hospital security’s intervention freed her.
Unable to argue with Grandma, Mom turned on me and slapped me hard twice.
“Zhao Jingjing! You knew expired flour was poisonous. Why didn’t you warn me?”
“You wanted to poison your brother and take the apartment, didn’t you?”
I covered my face and hid behind the guard.
“You work in a flour mill, Mom. If you didn’t know, how would I?”
She had no answer.
Afraid that the story might cost her job, she only glared.
Then she held my brother and cried.
“Xiao Zhu. Your father’s dead. Who will earn money for your schooling now?”
Grandma spat toward me.
“Then Jingjing leaves school and works in a factory.”
“She can pay for her brother’s university.”
Everyone around us looked at me with pity.
I lowered my head, hiding a cold smile.
Make me leave school to support him?
He would have to live long enough to study first.
11
After my brother woke, Grandma began begrudging the hospital fees again.
They also needed to return to the village for Dad’s funeral.
Ignoring the doctor’s objections, she forced my brother to leave.
Back home, relatives packed the apartment.
Holding Dad’s urn, Grandma cried while ordering Mom to cook for them.
Mom opened the freezer.
It was still full of dumplings.
She bit her lip.
“Perhaps they weren’t boiled long enough.”
“I’ll fry them this time. Hot oil will kill even the bacteria.”
She took out all the aflatoxin-contaminated dumplings to deep-fry for the relatives.
Thinking they were innocent, I quietly left the kitchen to warn Grandma.
But in the living room, I heard what they were discussing.
My eldest uncle said, “What does a girl need school for? Let Jingjing come back to the village with me. I’ll find her a husband.”
Second Aunt chimed in.
“A nephew on my mother’s side just lost his wife. Three children. He’ll pay eighty-eight thousand in bride price.”
“Too little!” Fourth Aunt hurried to add. “Jingjing’s never been married!”
“If you agree, my older brother will pay a hundred and eighty thousand. He’s a little older. Forty next year.”
“But older men know how to cherish a wife.”
On and on they went, bargaining over me like merchandise.
Grandma’s eyes shone.
In the end, she chose a relative on Fifth Aunt’s mother’s side.
He was violent.
He had beaten two previous wives to death.
He was twenty-three years older than me.
But he offered two hundred and eighty thousand yuan.
The highest bid.