Chapter 12: Can’t Understand
At night, the stars blinked, and the insects chirped at varying pitches in the courtyards of every household.
Farmers work from sunrise to sunset and rest early at night. Once it gets completely dark, everyone turns off their lights and goes to bed early.
Su Mulan’s family was no exception. After tidying up and washing, they each went to bed.
Though the house had become somewhat dilapidated due to years of neglect, Bai Shitang had originally built three spacious blue-brick tile-roofed rooms with the money he earned. The middle was the main hall, flanked by rooms on the east and west sides, making the house quite spacious.
Usually, Su Mulan stayed in the east room, while Bai Shuiliu and the other three stayed in the west room.
The four children were already lying on the large ¹kang made of wooden planks, but none of them could sleep.
Today has been incredibly strange.
They had two full meals, ate fried eggs in the evening, and when they were about to wash up, Su Mulan even boiled hot water for them, saying that even in the heat of summer, bathing in cold water could make them sick.
This Su Mulan was completely different from the one in the morning who made them kneel in the courtyard, whipped them with willow branches, and cursed at them non-stop.
Yet, she was still the same person…
They couldn’t understand it!
Bai Lixia was the first to get restless. She suddenly sat up cross-legged on the bed.
“Second Sister, what’s wrong?” Bai Zhuye also sat up.
“I’m thinking about what’s wrong with Mother.” Bai Lixia furrowed her brows and looked at Bai Shuiliu, who had also sat up. “Elder Sister, what do you think is wrong with Mother?”
Bai Shuiliu shook her head. “I don’t know either. It just feels… like Mother is different.”
She was definitely different. They all noticed the change.
But the question now was why she was different. Why had she suddenly stopped hitting and scolding them and was willing to let them eat their fill?
If there was any reason for this change, it must have been because of the fall Su Mulan had in the morning.
Bai Shuiliu’s eyes brightened. “Do you think Mother hit her head and knocked something loose, so she’s become nicer?”
That knock was really hard. Although they didn’t see any blood, the sound was terrifying, and Su Mulan had been completely still at the time. When they cautiously checked under her nose, they felt like she wasn’t even breathing.
“They say that when people have a close call with death, their temper and character change. Maybe Mother is like that now,” Bai Shuiliu added.
“They also say that after people die, they meet the King of Hell who lists all their misdeeds, scolds them harshly, and sends them to hell. Maybe Mother got scolded by the King of Hell and became scared…” Bai Midou said softly.
“That’s possible,” Bai Zhuye nodded in agreement.
Bai Lixia scratched her ear, feeling that something wasn’t quite right, but she couldn’t find another reason to explain it.
“Well, actually…” Bai Shuiliu crossed her legs. “Let’s not worry about why Mother has become nicer. We’ll just see if she continues being nice from now on. If she keeps treating us well, then she really has changed for the better, and we won’t have to fear being scolded or hit anymore.”
“But what if in a few days she goes back to how she was, not letting us eat our fill and scolding us all the time?” Bai Lixia asked.
“If that happens, then we’ll just have to be cautious like before…”
Bai Shuiliu’s words left the other three children in a moment of silence.
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¹”Kang”, “大通铺” a traditional heated brick bed common in northern China.