Chapter 324 A Helpless Girl
Erya was frightened to tremble when she heard the voice. The firewood in her hands fell scattered, and she didn’t pick them up, but jumped over the firewood and escaped.
Behind her, a man with a hideous scar on his face limped towards her, with his expression vicious like a ghost, “How dare you run away? You are going after that b.i.t.c.h, aren’t you?!”
Erya shook her head in terror, but the man was still full of fire. He bent down to pick up a piece of firewood on the ground and smashed it hard against Erya’s head.
“Today I’ll kill you!”
Ah!!
Erya screeched out of frightening. Fortunately, she reacted quickly, with her nimble and delicate body quickly dodged out of the way. The firewood hit the ground and broke into two parts, the sound of which made Erya tremble in her heart.
If it hit her, it must have hurt a lot, and she… didn’t want to get hurt anymore!
“Dad, I didn’t mean it!”
Erya was begging while running in the yard, “I lost my track of time, when I had fun. It would never happen again. Please, dad!”
“Liar! You just wanted to escape. The b.i.t.c.h has left me. Are you waiting for my death so that you can go after her?! How dare you come back so late? Are you trying to starve me?”
Said the man, with madness glinted in his eyes. He turned back and tightened the door bolt, continuing to chase after Erya. Erya was flexible, but she was too young to step wide as adults. Gradually she got exhausted. She was caught and beaten violently in the end.
…
“There come your tears! Stop crying, and get me the meal!”
Clang!
He threw the stick away, and the madness in his eyes faded. He turned back to the house. Erya hugged her knees and shrunk into the corner of the yard, sobbing while wiping the blood on her arms with her small hands.
When the man’s voice came again from inside the house, she had to forget the pain coming from her body and got up to cook.
“Fizz…”
As the cold well water soaked her small hands, Erya took a deep breath and felt the pain of the wound on her hands less. She started rinsing the rice. The blood from the wound inevitably flowed into the water, but soon it was so diluted that it was invisible.
Suddenly, she faintly froze. She seemed to see a ray of black gas flashed through the rice water and condensed into a dot, which eventually bloomed into a black lotus flower!
“Illusion?”
The young girl didn’t think much of it, but blinked suspiciously. Then she continued rinsing the rice.
Being beaten, begging for mercy, and doing the housework…
This seemed to be repeated every few days. The difference was in one respect that the man’s temper became more and more violent. When he got angry, he would lose his mind, and in the worst cases he had no idea what he was doing.
He was just like a bottle that was about to be filled with sand day by day… Every day, sand was added into the bottle and someday in the future when the sand reached to a certain limit, the bottle… would be bound to crack!
The man in the middle of this situation didn’t realize the reason, neither did the little girl. She just obeyed her father every day.
c.o.c.k-a-doodle-doo! Crowed a c.o.c.k from the west side of the river early the next morning.
Erya got up to prepare the breakfast right after hearing the crow. The memory of the tragedy yesterday was still vivid. After making breakfast, she pushed the door open but didn’t find her father.
Wondering where her father could be, she heard some chaotic footsteps outside. Erya looked back and found Huang, who had told her stories yesterday, and a few respected elders from the village.
Seeing Erya serving the breakfast with a confused look on her face, those elders showed a vague pity across their faces tacitly, but it quickly faded away.
They were the most respected people in the village… but… no one would be willing to adopt this ugly little girl.
“Alright, Huang, take her to kowtow to her father first.”
Said the village head, standing among those old men. He turned and left, followed by the others.
Huang snorted, and satire flashed in his eyes. After looking back and seeing Erya, he slowly stepped in and lifted her up, “Erya, the life is really hard to you. Live with me in the future.”
“What happened to my dad?”
Erya asked carefully, with very deeply hidden expectations in her eyes.
Huang sighed, “Your dad seemed to b.u.mp his foot on something and fell into the river… He was drowned.”
—
One day later, with the help of villagers, a new tomb was built on the hill. Erya, dressed in white mourning clothes, cried her heart out, which made some women, who stood far away, a little heart-broken.
“What a poor girl. She never had any good lucks since her birth.”
“This is why she’s been seen as a jinx.”
“We have a dead man there. Keep your mouth shut!”
The woman shut up, for that she didn’t want to be possessed by a ghost in the middle of the night.
The village head, leaning on his crutch, watched Huang standing behind Erya and gently comforting her. He shook his head and sighed, “Fortunately, Huang is willing to adopt this girl. It is also a blessing.”
The crowd immediately echoed, “Everyone knew Su Silin’s bad temper. When his wife and mother were still around, he used to beat his mother. How could Hui, his wife, bear it? If she hadn’t run away with another man, she would have been dead out of anger, just like Su Silin’s mother.”
“Dead out of anger?”
Someone laughed coldly, “Who really knows the reason how his mother died? Maybe she was beaten to death! He cremated his mother right after her death. Obviously, he had a bad conscience.”
“The plague seven years ago must’ve been related to Su Silin. An unfilial son got his retribution, but so many innocent neighbors were affected.”
The more they talked, the more energetic they got. And they did not notice that the old man and the young girl had come down from the hill. Huang was so confused that he could not help asking aloud,
“What are you talking about?”
As soon as they saw Erya, they became instantly quiet. The atmosphere was odd, either. The head’s face trembled awkwardly. Trying to avoid Erya’s innocent gaze, he looked at Huang and said,
“As these happened, you had not come to our village yet. I’ll tell you in detail later. Erya is tired now. Take her back and rest.”
Huang nodded and said, “I’ll visit you at night then.”
The head nodded, and watched Huang off with Erya. The villagers immediately gathered around and said hurriedly, “Head, you can’t tell him what happened seven years ago!”
“It’s right!” The fatty boy’s mother echoed and said, “Head, haven’t you thought it over? If you tell Huang what happened seven years ago, he would relate this to Erya. When he abandons Erya, you will be the one who clears up the mess, right?”
“If she died because n.o.body would like to adopt and raise her, your position as the village head would certainly come to an end.”
“…”
“Enough!”
As they talked more and more excessively, the head’s face flushed with anger. He smashed his crutch heavily on the ground and said in a deep voice, “I know what I’m doing. Even if something goes wrong, the trouble will not be yours. Get home now!”
The fatty boy’s mother rolled her eyes and showed no respect to the head, “You wronged our kind intention. Let’s go!”
The other women said a few words irritatingly and then left.
“Head, those women are really mean. Don’t take them to heart.”
“Right, women… never see the bigger picture!”
Several hunters in the village consoled him and left one after another, leaving only the head standing there with a gloomy expression.
As Huang took Erya back to his house, Erya immediately ran to the stove to get ready to work. Huang was so surprised that he lifted Erya and scolded her,
“What’s in your mind, little girl? My stove can’t survive your torture, so, go play while I cook.”
Erya burst into tears after hearing what Huang said. As Huang was confused, Erya said finally with tears, “Grandpa, I… can cook and… go up to the mountain to collect firewood. I can do anything. Grandpa… don’t leave me.”
Huang stunned, looking at the little skinny girl lifted by him. He even did nothing; how could she get the feeling that he would leave her?
Suddenly, he froze as he saw the injuries on Erya’s hands. His face went an ugly green. He held Erya and sat down, then lifting the linen cloth that Erya had used to cover her wrist.
Sure enough, it was densely covered with wounds just like the face, and many of them were still fresh.
“b.a.s.t.a.r.d! If I had known earlier, I…”
He couldn’t help cursing, and then he felt guilty that he had just noticed the bruises on her face but didn’t notice somewhere else because she had always wrapped herself up tightly.
“Dear girl, I will never abandon you! Follow me in the future. As long as I can work, there’s no need for you to do any rough work. Just like other girls in normal families, you can learn some sewing… Oh yes, I can read. I’ll teach you to read…”
The night was cold. Erya had fallen asleep peacefully on her new bed, with tears still around her eyes. However, there was no sense of panic at all, after Huang comforted her.
Huang smiled, and an unprecedented feeling of warmth rose up in his heart. He had spent most of his life in Yuxu Sect in order to seek immortality. He had lost his relatives, let alone build a family.
Now, since he had a granddaughter suddenly, Huang wished to give her all best things.
“It’s about time to hear what the head has to say. Seven years ago… this girl was born. What on earth happened then?”
With his question, Huang closed the door quietly and made his way to the head’s.
Soon, Huang came to the head’s house, standing outside of the fence, and found that the head was sitting on a stone bench outside the house and waiting for him.
Seeing Huang, the head nodded, “Come on in; the door is open.”
After Huang entered and took his seat, the head stared at him, and found the residual look of joy on his face. The head seemed to understand somehow and said directly,
“Seven years ago, a plague was raging on the east side of the river.”