They Say I Can Curse People (2)

Chapter 33

In order to have a son, some people in Tonglin Town would refuse to register their daughters’ Hukou¹, instead hiding them away at relatives’ houses. Usually, once a son was born, they would bring the older daughters back home.

Consequently, when the two elderly officers heard that one of the girls hiding from the police was in her teens, they found it strange.

“At that age, logically speaking, she should have been brought home already. Why would she still be living with relatives?”

The elderly couple found it suspicious. Thus, when Yun Song and the other two returned to Laoma Village, their first step was to ask the children who weren’t afraid of the police where that girl lived.

The three of them found the home of the Eldest Aunt of the girl they had encountered the day before to inquire about the situation.

“You’re asking about the two sisters, Chang Fang and her sister? They went to their Second Aunt’s house.”

So, Yun Song and the others asked for the Second Aunt’s address and headed to another village.

the Second Aunt was digging in a field. When she heard them, she said, “They didn’t come here. That child… sigh, I asked her to come a while ago, but she refused. She might have gone back to her own home.”

Yun Song and the others had no choice but to go to the girl’s own home.

“Officer, don’t talk nonsense. Chang Fang isn’t my daughter.” Chang Fang’s mother looked to be about six months pregnant. She appeared to be in her thirties, her body somewhat bloated due to the pregnancy. Regarding the disappearance of her two daughters, she seemed as if she couldn’t even hear the words.

Yun Song wanted to say more, but the woman immediately started crying out that her stomach hurt.

A pregnant woman claiming abdominal pain was a matter that could be trivial or life-threatening.

“I know medicine. Let me check you over.”

“You’re a cop. Doctors are the ones who know medicine. Don’t try to trick us common folk into thinking we’re ignorant.” As she spoke, she clutched her stomach and walked out.

The three of them couldn’t force the issue, fearing something might actually happen to her. Moreover, the most important thing right now wasn’t assigning blame, but finding the missing sisters.

Thus, the three could only set out to find the missing pair on their own.

As they walked along the mountain path leading out of Laoma Village, Tong Jin called out Chang Fang’s name while lamenting, “I’ve really had my eyes opened today. How can someone be so indifferent toward their own children?”

Yun Song nodded. “I don’t understand it either.”

Yun Song had heard of such things before but had never seen an analysis of these people. It wasn’t as if the moment they were born, Heaven whispered in their ears: your purpose in this life is to bear a son; you must not love any of your daughters; you must strictly abide by this for your entire life.

Yun Song felt there must be a very complex process behind the formation of such attitudes.

Tong Jin sighed. “Is gender really that important? Can it override a mother’s instinct? Or is it postpartum depression? But she’s desperate to keep having more. Would someone with postpartum depression want to have another one so quickly…” This was truly a blind spot for her.

Tong Jin had never experienced a mother not loving her daughter, so she really couldn’t comprehend it. Her earliest memory was from when she was four years old and starting kindergarten. Every time her mother dropped her off, she would wipe away tears. When she came home in the afternoon, her mother would bury her face in Tong Jin’s hair and take a deep breath. Her dad said her mom was addicted to her daughter.

“It might not be postpartum depression. It could be a mix of other emotions,” Tang Chao, who was usually quiet, spoke up. “I know of a mother who hated her own daughter.”

“Why?” Yun Song and Tong Jin looked over at the same time.

Tang Chao seemed to think of something and suddenly laughed, as if amused by her own thoughts. She said, “Because that mother was frequently beaten by her husband. Her only wish was to give birth to a son who could protect her. But her first child was a daughter. When she was being beaten, her daughter just watched from the side and didn’t protect her at all. This made her even more certain that only a son could protect her. So, she hated her daughter.”

Tong Jin thought about it and asked cautiously, “Her daughter… why didn’t she protect her?”

“Probably because her daughter was only six months old at the time.”

“…”

Tang Chao chuckled. “Isn’t that a bit funny?”

Tong Jin: “…”

Yun Song said, “…That’s not funny. It’s actually sad.”

“What happened later?”

“Later, the two of them divorced. The woman moved to another province, found someone else, and they had a daughter together. The three of them live a very good life. It’s a happy ending, all things considered,” Tang Chao said.

“What about the original daughter?”

“Oh, she worked hard, strove for self-improvement, and got into the National Police University²…”

“Tang Chao…” Tong Jin’s tears were already falling. She wanted to give Tang Chao a hug. No one expected that behind this seemingly tall and fierce woman lay such a tragic past.

“And then she became my mother,” Tang Chao finished the second half of the story.

Yun Song breathed a sigh of relief and remarked, “That really is a good ending.”

Tong Jin didn’t have such a good temperament. She said bluntly, “Then what were you laughing at earlier? Why were you laughing while talking about your mother’s tragic past? You made me think it was your own experience, and that you were using laughter to hide your inner sorrow. I thought you grew so tall because you suffered that kind of trauma as a child, so you kept eating and eating, telling yourself you had to grow taller, only to find out that even growing tall was useless because your mother chose to love another daughter in the end.”

Tang Chao replied, “With an imagination like yours, it’s a pity you aren’t a screenwriter.”

“My mom also said I’m suited to be a screenwriter, though she says I’m suited for everything.”

Tang Chao explained, “The first time my mom told me that story, I cried for two hours. I had just managed to stop when a kid in the apartment upstairs started calling for their grandma, and I started crying all over again. My mom kept telling me jokes and tickling me to make me stop. I thought of that just now while I was telling the story.”

“My mom said you can’t entirely blame my grandmother. Her mental and psychological state must have been in shambles back then. In that era, divorce wasn’t supported, so she painted a fantasy for her own survival, thinking that having a son would solve all her problems and make life comfortable. The pain of reality defeated her maternal instinct. Later, when she had another daughter, my mom went to see them. She dotes on my younger aunt. If you have to hate someone, hate my grandfather.”

Yun Song thought of the missing Chang Fang again, and then of her unhurried parents. A bitter taste filled her heart.

At that moment, Chang Fang was lost, leading her six year old sister by the hand.

It had been too long since she had returned to her own home. Her family lived in Jinshan Village. She had remembered the path clearly as a child, but now, standing at a fork in the road, she had no idea which way to go. She picked a direction at random.

“Sister, are we really going home? I don’t think this is the way to Second Aunt’s house, and it doesn’t look like the way home either.” As the little girl spoke, she plucked leaves from the roadside to nibble on.

“Huanhuan, do you really want to go home?”

“Yes, I miss Mama. I don’t like Eldest Aunt.”

Huanhuan knew this wasn’t her home. She believed that once they had a brother, they could go back to their own house. She was always thinking about going home.

Chang Fang still remembered the day Huanhuan was sent over. Back then, Huanhuan was just over two years old, a chubby little thing. When she arrived, she looked like a neighbor’s puppy that had just been weaned and sent away, soft and round, wailing incessantly for her mother.

That was the second time she had seen Huanhuan.

At that time, Chang Fang was only thirteen. Looking at Huanhuan, she felt a sense of guilt toward her.

If it weren’t for her, perhaps Huanhuan wouldn’t have been a girl.

The first time she saw Huanhuan, her sister was still in their mother’s womb.

She was ten that year. While washing dishes, she had broken a bowl. Eldest Aunt was furious when she saw it, scolding her for being a parasite and saying that feeding a pig would be better than feeding her.

Feeling miserable, she thought about going back to her own home to get a bowl to give to Eldest Aunt so she wouldn’t be angry anymore.

She walked all the way back to her house. When she reached the door, she saw her mother inside, her belly quite large.

She called out “Mama,” but her mother’s face changed instantly. She asked, “Why are you back?”

“Where is your Eldest Aunt?”

Chang Fang wanted to tell her mother how hard her life was, to say she wanted to come home, but her mother spoke first: “Don’t you come in!”

“Mama?”

Her mother shook her head, clutching her stomach with one hand while shouting, “Da Qiang! Da Qiang! Get over here, quick!”

Her father ran in from outside. When he saw her, his expression shifted immediately. He grabbed a wooden switch and herded her out like he was driving a pig.

Inside, her mother was weeping in distress. “Gods above, she really is out to ruin me! I finally managed to get pregnant again, and now this jinx is back!”

It was only that day that Chang Fang learned that when she was born, her grandmother had sought a fortune teller. He said her fate carried “younger sisters” with it, and if she were kept, every child born after her would be a girl.

She was rushed back to Eldest Aunt’s house, and she never did get a bowl to give her.

Fortunately, Eldest Aunt didn’t mention the matter again.

But Chang Fang lived in constant fear. At ten years old, she worried that her trip home had truly turned the brother in her mother’s womb into a sister.

Not long after, Eldest Aunt said her mother had given birth to a girl.

That sister was Huanhuan. Less than a year later, Eldest Aunt’s young son was constantly falling ill. Eldest Aunt began to wonder if it was because of Chang Fang’s fate and no longer wanted to raise her. She was sent to live with Second Aunt.

She was actually very happy then, because she loved being at Second Aunt’s house.

Second Aunt was a very, very good woman. She had two sons, both older than Chang Fang, and she treated Chang Fang very well.

But when Chang Fang was twelve, Second Aunt’s eldest son took his younger brother to the pond to catch fish, and they both drowned.

Second Aunt fainted from grief. Chang Fang wanted to comfort her.

But everyone in Second Aunt’s family said it must be because Chang Fang’s fate was too harsh³, that she brought death to those around her.

Chang Fang was branded with the crime of causing their deaths. She desperately wanted to tell the aunt who had liked her that she didn’t mean it, that she was sorry, but Second Aunt never wanted to see her again.

She was then sent to Third Aunt’s house.

Third Aunt didn’t get along with her mother. Third Aunt had two children, an older daughter and a younger son.

Third Aunt didn’t like her, but Chang Fang would always remember when the village chief came to the house and said the girl was thirteen and should go to school.

Third Aunt went to ask her husband for money, and he even scolded her for it. Chang Fang watched them in secret.

She thought Third Aunt would hit her or scold her, but she didn’t. Third Aunt only said with some displeasure, “You’re lucky. Your parents don’t love you, yet you meet a good person like me. Now get lost and go to school.”

But Third Aunt didn’t keep her for long. Because her mother had sent Huanhuan to Eldest Aunt’s house, and Eldest Aunt couldn’t handle a two or three year old child, she thought of Chang Fang.

Yet she was still afraid of her cursed fate, so she consulted a very powerful Bazi Master⁴. The master listened to the birth details.

1984, the 26th day of the 3rd lunar month, the hour of the Rat⁵…

The fortune teller calculated with his fingers, looking a bit incredulous. He turned back to ask if the time was correct. “Are you sure? You haven’t remembered it wrong?”

“No, her grandmother was superstitious and very particular about these things.”

“It really is… in all my years, this is the first time I’ve encountered… the fate of a Lone Star of Heavenly Terror⁶.”

“Yes, she jinxes everyone around her. Our family is kind-hearted for taking her in all this time. Can you find a way…”

Chang Fang stood by and watched, filled with self-hatred. She hated herself for being born with such a terrible fate. The fortune teller glanced at her and said, “Just change her birthday. From now on, you must celebrate a different birthday for her. Use the 19th day of the 10th lunar month. You must trick the Heavens⁷. That way, she will no longer hinder you.”

And so, Chang Fang never celebrated her true birthday on the 26th of the 3rd month again. She stayed at Eldest Aunt’s house to look after her sister.

Yesterday, Eldest Aunt got angry and told her to go to Second Aunt’s house. Chang Fang knew Second Aunt didn’t want to see her. Her mother didn’t want her, and now Eldest Aunt didn’t want her either.

She wanted to go back to her own home, but it had been too long. The path she remembered so clearly as a child was now completely forgotten.

She could only sit down on a hillside.

Her little sister leaned against her.

Chang Fang thought about her half-life spent jinxing a brother into a sister and causing her cousin’s death. That voice began to appear in her mind again.

“Why aren’t you dead yet? Why aren’t you dead yet?”

She couldn’t drive the voice away no matter how hard she tried. The sound grew louder and louder, feeling like a blunt knife sawing at her heart, causing an agonizing ache. She felt as if she were about to be torn apart. She clawed at herself violently, leaving bloody welts on her left forearm, but the physical pain did nothing to ease her internal distress.

Her younger sister was so frightened by her behavior that she hid away.

Chang Fang looked left and right, spotting a piece of deadwood not far away.

She picked up the wood and began thumping it against the dried leaves with a series of sharp cracks. She felt that she truly was sick, and that it was only right for everyone to dislike her.

As she kept hitting the ground, leaves flew into the air, and a few flashes of red among the foliage caught Chang Fang’s eye.

This…

Money?

Wait! Chang Fang tossed the deadwood aside and picked up the red slips of paper from the ground. They looked exactly like hundred-yuan bills. One, two, three…

Ten bills in total!

Was this… actually real?

Translator’s Notes