Fake Divorce Turns into Murder Case (14)

Chapter 66

Huixiang had never been so happy.

That day, as she looked at her two children, she thought of her mother and her own half-lifetime. She suddenly felt like a dog kept on a chain.

There were dogs in the village that were locked in one spot to guard a courtyard for their entire lives, and the puppies they birthed would repeat their mother’s life in the same way.

That night, she kept thinking about what to do. While she was cutting pig grass, she wondered what to do. Yang Laowu would not let her live in peace; he might even continue with the fake divorces and fake marriages, and her own parents’ family wouldn’t take her back.

While boiling pig feed and feeding the pigs, she was still thinking about what to do in the future.

Finally, she went into the mountains to herd the chickens back. It was getting dark, and behind her was the faded, dark, heavy forest.

Huixiang looked at the layers of mountains and remembered the rare happy times of her childhood.

When she was young, there were a few years in Baihe Town when every household started raising sheep for some unknown reason. Back then, she would drive thirty or so sheep into the mountains by herself.

The mountains were quiet. The trees didn’t speak, the grass didn’t speak, and though the wind came occasionally, the wind didn’t say bad things about her.

At that time, she really wanted to stay in there forever.

That night, she remembered those times and those mountains, and a thought sprouted in her heart.

Maybe she should take her two daughters into the mountains.

They could hide in the direction of Yulan Town.

Once she had this thought, her mind was filled with nothing else. Consequently, everything about the Yang Family became even more unbearable.

So, after everyone else had fallen asleep, she found the Hukou booklet. After she and Yang Laowu divorced, she and the children had been removed from Yang Laowu’s Hukou, and later, she, the children, and Yang Laosan were on one Hukou booklet.

This was very important.

After securing her and the children’s Hukou, she quickly rolled up some bedding and clothes, then secretly woke her eldest daughter.

The eldest daughter carried her and her younger sister’s clothes and shoes, while Huixiang carried the quilt on her back. Under the cover of night, they began walking toward the mountains.

They passed several houses along the way, and Huixiang’s heart grew increasingly panicked. She had no home anymore. The Yang Family… it seemed it wasn’t actually that bad. At least there was a place to shelter from the wind and rain. In the mountains… would it work in the mountains?

She began to worry. She worried she wouldn’t be able to keep her two children alive in the mountains. She worried the two children would have no place to go to school.

The panic in her heart grew larger and larger, nearly swallowing her whole, but her feet kept moving forward, deeper into the mountains.

She didn’t know what to do either; she just kept walking.

Her eldest daughter followed beside her the whole time without asking a single question.

By the time dawn was approaching, they had already entered the deep mountains. She had never even come this far when she used to gather firewood. This was already the territory of Yulan Town.

Huixiang chose a cave. There was water at the entrance of this cave, the inside was very clean, and there was no dried firewood piled up by others, indicating that almost no one ever came here.

Behind it was a pine forest. Huixiang said to her eldest daughter, “You and your sister rest here for a bit. Mom is going to the back to get some pine needles.”

The eldest daughter gave a soft grunt of affirmation.

Once she reached this place, Huixiang stopped thinking so much. She went to the pine forest out back. The layer of pine needles here was so thick, which showed that very few people truly came here.

She cut a tree branch and began raking up the clean pine needles. Before long, she returned with a large back-basket full of them.

After spreading the pine needles, she went into the mountains to cut dry grass. In winter, dry grass was everywhere.

It wasn’t enough.

She went out again with her machete.

Soon, she had fashioned a small space inside the cave. Tree branches and bamboo poles partitioned off a small area, and inside this space was a bed piled high with pine needles and dry grass.

Huixiang placed the quilt on top, and her eldest daughter went over dizzily to lie down.

Huixiang’s heart suddenly felt at ease.

This sense of peace came from her own two hands. Yes, she still had her hands.

Actually, her hands alone weren’t enough.

That night, she made another trip back. This time, she dug up half a basket of sweet potatoes, took three pieces of cured meat, and threw three pieces of clothing into the reservoir.

She actually wanted to take a bit more, but she simply couldn’t carry it all.

She was nearly caught this time. Her father-in-law didn’t seem to be asleep; he came out in the middle of the night, sighing and talking about the family’s misfortune.

Fortunately, she was used to avoiding people in her daily life. When she encountered someone, her reactions were very fast, and she hid immediately.

She didn’t return to the cave until the next morning. As soon as she returned, she saw her eldest daughter smiling as she showed her something: “Mom! Crabs!”

“There’s a creek over there with lots of crabs in it.”

So, during the day, she also started catching crabs. She wasn’t in the village anymore. Without the Yang Family and without the other villagers, she felt full of energy all day long.

When Yun Song arrived, Huixiang was helping her daughter catch crabs.

She was startled when she saw the police.

Fortunately, the other woman said, “Don’t be afraid. We’ve just come to ask about Yang Laosan’s case.”

Naturally, Yun Song wasn’t comfortable with the three of them living in a cave, but the fact that the woman had run away meant she had already reached a point where she could no longer endure.

“We still have some questions we need to verify with you.”

Huixiang didn’t actually want to talk to the police, but since they were here, she instinctively reverted to her old self.

“It’s a bit crude, there’s nowhere to sit. I’ve made a fool of myself.”

“It’s fine,” Yun Song said. “We’re just here to ask a few questions.”

“Yang Laosan bought sleeping pills. Did you know that?” They had wanted to ask Huixiang about this before, but the Yang Family had been blocking them, so they never had the chance.

“Sleeping pills?”

Yun Song said, “Medicine that makes a person fall asleep quickly.”

Huixiang paused for a moment, then it dawned on her. “So that’s what it was,” she said.

Yun Song looked at her and asked, “Did he buy that medicine for himself to take?”

Things that Huixiang would have refused to say even if her life depended on it before, she was naturally willing to say now.

“No, he wanted to give it to me.”

Huixiang remembered that afternoon. She had returned from the mountains and Yang Laosan had called out to her, saying a chicken at home had broken its leg so he had slaughtered it. He invited her to eat chicken with him and said he would boil some noodles in the chicken soup.

In her mind, she recalled the incident of scattering cornmeal before killing the chicken.

She constantly felt that something was wrong, but she was also genuinely hungry. She had only eaten two sweet potatoes for lunch and had spent the entire afternoon digging in the mountains. How could she not be hungry?

Yang Laosan brought out the chicken noodle soup and said, “Don’t take what happened before to heart. Consider this bowl of chicken noodle soup my apology.”

The “previous matter” he referred to was his earlier claim that the two of them had already registered their marriage and were naturally husband and wife.

While Huixiang felt something was definitely off, her nose had already caught the savory scent of the chicken soup.

For a moment, her judgment was clouded. She could have refused to eat, but her brain seemed capable of focusing only on the noodles. She said, “It wouldn’t be right for me to eat alone. Go call Laowu over so we can eat together.”

Hearing this, Yang Laosan said, “Look at my memory. I’ll go call him. You start eating first.”

Huixiang sat down with the bowl of chicken noodle soup.

However, as soon as Yang Laosan left, she immediately grabbed another bowl. She poured the chicken, soup, and noodles from the pot into her new bowl, then poured the contents of the bowl he had given her back into the pot.

A short while later, he returned.

“Laowu isn’t home. He’s probably out in the mountains,” Yang Laosan said. He looked at her bowl and asked, “Aren’t you eating?”

“I was waiting for you two. Aren’t you going to eat?”

Huixiang watched as he took a bowl, ladled the chicken noodles out of the pot, and began to eat.

Huixiang then began to eat as well.

Once the bowl of chicken noodle soup was in her stomach, her mind seemed to clear up a bit.

After she had eaten her fill, she returned to the home she shared with Yang Laowu, but part of her attention remained on Yang Laosan’s side.

She felt that Yang Laosan was acting strange. She couldn’t put her finger on what was wrong; it was just an intuition.

So, she observed the situation over there from time to time, watching to see if Yang Laosan would feel unwell after eating the chicken noodles.

At first, the man kept yawning. Before long, she saw him slumped over the dining table, motionless.

No… it couldn’t be, right? Had Yang Laosan poisoned her?

And now, Huixiang finally understood what had happened back then.

“So it was medicine that makes you fall asleep after eating it.”