She Told Us to Die, the Sooner the Better for Our Next Life

Liu Su'e's eyes reddened. "Husband, is your mother trying to drive us to our deaths? How are we supposed to live here?"

Zhou Fusheng looked at the house, grief welling up in his heart too. The courtyard had long since been swallowed by weeds.

Zhou Fusheng looked at the courtyard and said:

"I'll go get Daniu and Erniu, and call a few other villagers over.

We'll tidy up the house first. Even if we can only put up a shelter to keep the rain out, we need somewhere to live."

Before long, Daniu, Erniu, and their wives all hurried over. Daniu's wife sighed. "You're too honest for your own good. They threw you out and gave you nothing but a run-down house. How are you going to get by from now on?"

Erniu's wife gave a cold laugh.

"Your mother-in-law is something else. The whole village has fallen for her tricks now. Whatever she says goes, doesn't it?

She told everyone in the village today that Wanwan is our village's harbinger of disaster, and told them all to stay away from your family."

Zhou Wanwan gritted her teeth. Old Madam Zhou's intentions were far too vicious. To put it plainly, she wanted to drive their family to their deaths.

Zhou Wanwan went "Ah, ah, ah" several times, then suddenly called out, "Mother..."

Daniu's and Erniu's wives stopped what they were doing. Tears streamed down Liu Su'e's face. "Wanwan, what did you just call me?"

Zhou Wanwan called out loudly, "Mother..."

Liu Su'e immediately pulled her into her arms. "Oh! Mother's precious darling, you really can talk!"

Daniu's wife smiled. "I think Wanwan is a blessed child. She started talking as soon as you moved out of your mother-in-law's place."

Erniu's wife said:

"Isn't that right? But your house is so run-down. Let's clear the weeds by the entrance first!

You can stay at my house tonight. How could anyone live here?"

Zhou Wanwan's eldest brother, Zhou Qingyan, frowned. "I'm going to reason with them right now. How can they bully us like this?"

Her second brother, Zhou Qinghe, gave a cold snort. "Why does Grandma find our family so unpleasant? I think we ought to demand justice."

Liu Su'e pulled them back and said:

"Come back. What good will arguing do? Don't you know what your grandmother is like?

The more you make a fuss, the more worked up she'll get. She might even take the old house back. Forget it. We've got hands and feet; we won't starve."

Zhou Qingyan was six years older than Zhou Wanwan. His face was full of anger as he said:

"But she's gone too far. She's been making things difficult for our family for over a year now.

She's taken every bit of money our family earned, and she even wanted to sell our little sister. What does she want?"

Liu Su'e sighed. "There's no use saying all this. We've already split off from the family anyway. The most important thing now is figuring out how to survive."

She turned to Erniu's wife. "We won't go back with you. Thank you all for today. When some time has passed, I'll invite you over for a meal."

Daniu's wife quickly waved her hand.

"There's no need to stand on ceremony with us. Here's a small bag of grain. It's only enough for a few days, so eat sparingly.

The weeds here have all been cleared, so we'll head home now."

Liu Su'e's eyes reddened slightly. "Thank you so much for today. I'll remember the grain..."

"Oh, every family has a sutra that's hard to recite. Things will get better. All right, we'll be going."

After they left, Liu Su'e looked at Zhou Fusheng. "What are we going to do? We didn't get anything when the family split up. Even if we have rice, we have no way to cook it!"

Zhou Fusheng sighed. "How about I... I go back and ask them for an iron pot and a few bowls?"

"All right..."

Zhou Fusheng took Zhou Qingyan to the Zhou family home, but when they returned, Zhou Fusheng had two slap marks on his face.

Liu Su'e looked at him. "What did they say?"

Zhou Fusheng shook his head, his eyes full of tears. Zhou Qingyan clenched his fists and said:

"She told us to die, that the sooner we died, the sooner we'd be reborn. She also said there'd be no place for us in the village anymore.

She said... she said we shouldn't go back to the village, that we weren't welcome there.

The villagers drove us out too. They said they wouldn't let us into the village."

Liu Su'e trembled with anger. "What gives them the right? This... aren't they trying to drive us to our deaths?"

Zhou Fusheng looked at her and said:

"How about... how about we leave Zhou Family Village after all?

The people here don't welcome us. They say we're all inauspicious, and anyone who has anything to do with us will suffer bad luck."

Liu Su'e was so angry that tears streamed down her face.

"Our household registration is here. Where can we go?

Without a travel permit, we can't go anywhere. There's no way for us to live."

In ancient times, a travel permit was needed to go anywhere. Even moving from one village to another was not allowed without one.

Zhou Wanwan hadn't expected the rules in ancient times to be so strict. While they weren't paying attention, she went straight into the weedy patch beside them and slowly sat down.

In her previous life, she had been a doctor. Her Lineage was formidable, because in every generation, someone with a special ability appeared who could communicate with plants.

The benefit of communicating with plants was that she could obtain a great deal of information. For example, a plant would tell the person with the special ability what it liked and what it needed.

She was the one with the special ability in her generation. Her younger half-sister, who shared the same father, had put poison directly into her milk and poisoned her to death.

She didn't know whether she still had the ability to communicate with plants in this life.

She slowly sat down and began sensing the plants around her. Suddenly, she heard several stalks of foxtail grass talking. "This is so boring! We stay here every day. There's nothing to do."

"Exactly. Not like that pheasant over there, flying around every day."

"This pheasant is so fat. It's crushing me, and it hurts! Baby's hurting to death."

"There are several pheasant eggs too! Too bad we can't eat them."

Zhou Wanwan chuckled. Her special ability actually still worked. Unfortunately, it was only a very rudimentary skill, and she could sense only these rudimentary plants.

She slowly walked over to the foxtail grass, crouched down, and then swiftly pounced on the pheasant.

The pheasant tried to run, but Zhou Wanwan grabbed it by the wings. No matter how it tried, it couldn't fly away.

Zhou Wanwan laughed. "Brother, you... come here... come quickly!"

Zhou Qingyan rushed over and saw the pheasant flapping wildly in Zhou Wanwan's hands.

He swallowed. "Little sister, did you catch this?"

Her third brother, Zhou Qingchen, had bright eyes. "Little sister, you're amazing! Even I can't catch a pheasant."

Zhou Wanwan nodded. "That's right! Brothers, we have meat to eat now! Are you happy?"

Zhou Qingyan's nose stung, and tears streamed down his face. "My little sister is the sweetest sister. What right did they have to sell you? Boo-hoo..."

Zhou Wanwan blinked. "Big brother, don't cry. There are several pheasant eggs too! How about we go home and eat the eggs?"

Zhou Qingyan nodded. "Okay."

Liu Su'e stared, dumbfounded, at the pheasant and ten pheasant eggs. "Th-this pheasant, did you catch it?"

Zhou Qinghe's face was full of pride. "Little sister caught the pheasant. They all say our little sister is a harbinger of disaster, but she's clearly our family's lucky star."