That night, Lin Fengxia and her husband walked by carrying a bag of eggs, and reminded Zhi Xia, "Everyone around here has gone to visit Dawei. The child is also pitiful. Do you guys want to go see him too?"
Yang Dawei was the eldest son of Shen Hongxing. He had become mentally disabled after falling into the water. In the past two years, Shen Hongxing's gossipy nature had offended quite a few people, but in essence, no one held any deep resentment against her. At this time, even those with some dissatisfaction towards her felt sympathy.
Pei Jing was not home, and Shen Hongxing had always looked down on Zhi Xia. Now this incident had happened, thinking it was better to err on the side of caution, Zhi Xia would not go to Shen's home alone.
"Thank you for the reminder, sister-in-law. You guys go ahead first. I'll discuss it with Pei Jing when he gets back."
"Alright, we'll go first then." Lin Fengxia just thought she was young and might not understand the human relationships here, which is why she kindly reminded her. She did not insist that Zhi Xia must go.
After Lin Fengxia and Wu Shengli left, Zhi Xia went back inside.
There was still one can of canned food that Pei Jing had brought back recently, and some condensed milk left too. But the families were not close enough for her to be overly generous. Still, thinking the child was pitiful, and that Yang Jun was a decent man, she took a pack of peach cakes from her storage space, wrapped them in plain oil paper, and also took out some common fruit candies.
One can of canned food, one pack of peach cakes, plus the fruit candies, was neither stingy nor pretentious.
When Pei Jing returned, Zhi Xia told him about the situation. She said the peach cakes and fruit candies had come with the quilt her grandmother had sent.
Pei Jing had wanted to go over himself initially, but Zhi Xia still wanted to find out if Yang Dawei's accident was truly just an accident, or if there were other reasons behind it. With this thinking, she would inevitably have more contact with Shen Hongxing's family.
Although Shen Hongmei's abnormality had not affected her life so far, having a time bomb next to her made one feel uneasy not knowing its purpose.
By the time they arrived, it was just getting dark. People had been visiting the family all day, and their table was filled with the gifts and food brought over. Yang Jun's face was also tired.
For the first time, the house was so quiet, without Shen Hongxing's usual chattering.
After resting in the hospital for many days, Yang Dawei's physical condition was fine. He just had some weakness left over from being soaked in the cold water. Now he had been coaxed to sleep, but it was unclear if he was dreaming about something. His face kept showing a silly smile, with drool dripping down his cheeks.
That was the genuine foolish look, not a child's innocence.
Shen Hongxing took a towel and lovingly wiped away his drool, when she heard Yang Jun say, "Hongxing, let's get a divorce."
Shen Hongxing had still been immersed in guilt and did not dare speak. Hearing this suddenly, she was stunned, and looked back at him. "What did you say?"
"I said let's get a divorce." Yang Jun stared at her, his eyes red, completely firm.
Shen Hongxing immediately cried, "Yang Jun, you are heartless..."
"I know what you want to say. Shen Hongxing, just take it as Yang Jun has wronged you, that I'm a bastard who doesn't deserve to be human." He had heard these words too many times. From initial remorse and distress, to now where he could barely be patient, "Even for the sake of our children, let me go. I'll let you go too. After the divorce, take half the family money. I'll take the four kids. I've applied for early retirement from the army. Dawei has become foolish, this family can't take your troublemaking anymore!"
Zhi Xia and Pei Jing had just walked into their yard when they heard Yang Jun's fragmented, grief-filled voice.
The two silently glanced at each other, realizing they seemed to have come at the wrong time.
Right then, Yang's other children saw them and called out.
Shen Hongxing was already upset, and now she completely lost control and rushed at Pei Jing and Zhi Xia. "This is all your fault! If not for the fishy smell all over the yard from you eating fish, Dawei wouldn't have craved it and gone to poke holes in the ice to fish, you jinx! Why didn't you fall into the icy hole instead..."
Pei Jing didn't want to attack the emotionally collapsed Shen Hongxing. He could only hug Zhi Xia by the waist and dodge. Shen Hongxing crashed heavily to the ground, even bleeding from her nose. This showed how fiercely she had rushed at them.
If she had accidentally collided with Zhi Xia, things would have been even worse.
Luckily, Zhi Xia greatly valued her life and tended to overthink things, which is why she had insisted on waiting for Pei Jing to go together.
Yang Jun also hadn't expected Shen Hongxing to have another outburst. By the time he saw her rushing at Pei Jing and Zhi Xia, it was too late to stop her. Fortunately, they dodged in time, avoiding anything more serious. Only then did he breath a sigh of relief.
"Are you done making a scene?" Even Yang Jun's patience wore out and he snapped. "Shen Hongxing, the one who hurt Dawei wasn't anyone else, it was you, his own birth mother. Have you forgotten what you said that day? Starting that afternoon, all you did was curse and swear, complaining the child doesn't listen, complaining I don't let you eat meat, then you lashed out and scolded Dawei, saying all he does is play on the ice every day without ever catching a fish, calling him a useless thing. If not for those words, how could the child run to poke holes in the icy pond so late at night? Wasn't it to satisfy you, his mother?"
The winters here were extremely cold, and the river ice was very thick. The small ponds outside the army base were stagnant water, and had been frozen over with children sliding around to play since early on.
Of course Pei Jing and Zhao Xin would not smash holes in the small river here. And with children often playing around, they wouldn't foolishly smash holes in the ice either. They had fished in a distant big river, and after finishing had also checked to make sure the holes wouldn't endanger anyone before leaving.
Shen Hongxing naturally knew the reason behind this. She just couldn't accept that her son had become this way because of her.
What she needed now was not reason, but an outlet to shift the blame onto others, so she could justify rejecting Yang Jun's request for divorce.
This was not her fault, so it could only be someone else's fault.
"You're making things up. I didn't tell him to go smash the river ice. I didn't..." But faced with Yang Jun's continuous accusations, she seemed unable to refute them. "I was just in a bad mood then. I just..."
How could she brazenly say she didn't even crave the fish that much? Shen Hongxing didn't even know what was going on with herself. It was as if there was always a fire smoldering inside her, making her find everything irritating and wanting to vent.
Yang Jun rubbed his head in frustration, truly in no mood to care about Shen Hongxing's bloody appearance. He walked to Pei Jing as calmly as he could, and gave a wry smile. "Sorry about this. She's always been abnormal. Please don't take it to heart."
He had clearly exhausted his patience with Shen Hongxing, yet still apologized on her behalf. Yang Jun could be said to have been benevolent and righteous to her until the end.
