Qingmu turned around and saw a group of people walking towards him, men and women.
"What are you doing here?" a man asked him in broken Mandarin, looking quite nervous.
Qingmu recognized him; this man had just been drinking at Enkun's house, sitting at the same table with Letuolie.
"I'm looking for the restroom," Qingmu said casually, as he had drunk a bit too much alcohol and needed to urinate.
A woman chuckled and said, "Oh dear, I was wondering why I couldn't find you. You were looking for the outhouse! I'll take you there, okay?"
As she spoke, she enthusiastically pulled Qingmu up, intending to take him to the restroom. She then turned back and said something in dialect to the others, presumably telling them to go first.
The group of people laughed and left, and the man relaxed and went into his house.
Qingmu was led by the enthusiastic woman to the nearby outhouse.
Seeing that he hadn't taken off his pants, the woman giggled and said, "Oh, what's wrong? Still shy? It's not like we haven't seen it before." She covered her mouth and ran outside the outhouse, yelling, "Go ahead and pee, I won't look!"
A moment later, Qingmu came out, laughing heartily, and said, "It's flowing smoothly now?"
Qingmu smiled, pointed in the direction of the house they had just seen, and asked, "Was there someone in that house?"
The woman paused for a moment, then said with an "Oh," and added, "You mean his crazy wife? She yells all day long, doesn't she scare you?"
Qingmu shook his head to indicate that he wasn't scared, he had just drunk too much and gotten lost. The enthusiastic woman then led him back to Enkun's house.
Shi Dazhuang was already completely drunk and unconscious, so Qingmu didn't have a chance to take out the note he had on him to show him.
Old Enkun hadn't drunk much; he was leaning back in a wicker chair in the yard, smoking.
The two large round tables had already been put away, and several women were washing dishes by the sink. After washing them for a while, they said goodbye to Enkun and left.
Yu Meiren scooped half a bowl of rice, added some leftover vegetables on top, and took it to the room on the left. Qingmu remembered that while they were eating, there were several pig-like howls coming from that room.
A short while after the Beauty went inside, she suddenly screamed "Ah!" followed by the sound of a bowl shattering on the ground. Then came a series of pig-like screams. The person screaming was shouting something in a language that Qingmu and Tushu couldn't quite understand.
The Beauty ran out of the door, wiped away the tears from the corner of her eyes, and went to the corner of the porch to get a broom.
Old Enkun stood up and said to the Beauty, "Never mind him, go and look after your great-father."
The Beauty glanced at Old Enkun, then put down the broom, took a towel and a washbasin, and went to Shi Dazhuang's room.
Old Enkun, leaning on his cane, slowly walked towards the west room.
Qingmu followed behind Old Enkun.
Old Enkun glanced at Qingmu, but didn't stop him from following. He sighed and said, "What a rebellious son!"
After saying that, he pushed open the door to the west room and went inside.
A person was tied to a pillar in the west wing. The person was sallow and emaciated, with a body thinner than the pillar. The neck was as thin as a bamboo pole, and on top of the bamboo pole was an empty head resembling a bamboo cage. There was almost no flesh on the face, just skin. The cheeks and eye sockets were deeply sunken. If you saw this at night, you would definitely think it was a ghost, not a human.
When he saw Old Enkun come in, his eyes lit up like a dying wolf seeing a wounded antelope.
"Father! Let me have a smoke! Just one!" He had long snot hanging from his nose, which mixed with drool from his mouth, running down his chin and thin neck.
Old Enkun raised his cane and struck his son repeatedly, cursing, "Serves you right for being so reckless! Serves you right for smoking opium!"
His son craned his neck and wailed, "Good job! Hit me a few more times, and then let me have a smoke, just one!"
Old Enkun's chest heaved as he gasped for breath. Unable to lift his cane, he raised his iron pipe with trembling hands and slapped his son's face.
A red welt from smoking the iron pipe was left on his face, running across half his cheek, and his nose was crooked.
Old Enkun wanted to smoke again, but Qingmu gently held his hand.
Qingmu said, " Grandpa Enkun, hitting him won't help; he'll have to tough it out himself."
Old Enkun sighed deeply, put away his pipe, and said, "You're making a fool of yourself!"
Old Enkun's son was still pleading, tears, snot, and saliva streaming down his face. After a while, he began to convulse, his eyes rolled back, and white foam spilled from the corners of his mouth.
Qingmu looked at Old Enkun. Old Enkun said, "It's alright, he'll be fine in a couple of days."
As darkness fell, Yu Meiren cooked some porridge and took a bowl of porridge soup to the west room.
The west room was dark, with only a dim yellow light bulb hanging from the rafters. Old Enkun's son had his head down, seemingly asleep, and the floor beneath him was sticky and smelled of excrement.
Yu Meiren frowned, carried the porridge closer, and called out, " Lemao Yeye, time to eat porridge."
Lemao raised his head and said weakly, "Just one bite, just one bite!"
Yu Meiren held the bowl in front of him, scooped out a spoonful of thin porridge, blew on it to cool it, and brought it to Lemao's mouth. Lemao sucked hard, finishing the porridge in the spoon, and suddenly coughed, spraying Beauty's face with porridge.
The Beauty continued to feed him spoonful by spoonful. After drinking about half a bowl, Lemao seemed to recover a bit. He nudged his large head on his thin neck and knocked the bowl over from the Beauty's hand, yelling, "Let me out! Give me a sip, just one sip!"
The scalding hot porridge flowed onto Yu Meiren's wrist, making her shiver, but she still gripped the bowl tightly to prevent it from falling to the ground. She thought, "Grandpa Enkun's family doesn't have many good bowls left."
She returned to the kitchen, washed her scalded wrists with cold water, brought the leftover lunch, still warm in the pot, to the dining table in the main room, filled three large bowls with porridge, set out the chopsticks, and then called into the inner room, "Grandpa, Uncle, Qingmu -Yeye, time to eat!"
She thought for a moment, then ladled out another bowl of thin porridge and walked toward the west room.
There was a person standing at the door of the west room. Because the light inside was on, she couldn't see the person's face clearly from the outside, only a dark shadow. But she recognized the person at a glance because of the bird's nest-like hair on their head and the hem of their trench coat that was slightly blown open by the evening breeze.
" Qingmu Yeye!" she exclaimed.
Qingmu held out his hand and said, "Leave this to me. You go and take care of your grandfather and uncle's meals."
Yu Meiren felt something was wrong, but she couldn't quite put her finger on why. After hesitating for a while, she gave the bowl to Qingmu.
Qingmu took the bowl, turned around, went into the house, and closed the door.
Lemao drooled, his eyes gleaming red, like a mad dog, "Give it to me! Give it to me now! Just one bite, just one bite!"
Qingmu looked at him, holding the bowl in his hand, and slowly extended it in front of him. Under Lemao's greedy gaze, he suddenly slammed the entire bowl down on Lemao's face.
"Ah--" Lemao screamed like a pig being slaughtered as he was burned.