T/N: Hey guys, sorry that the chapter is so late. (シ_ _ )シ The last two days have just been hectic irl so I wasn’t able to translate. However, I am finally on leave for a few days so I hope to do some chapters in advance so that this type of thing doesn’t happen again. I will still post a chapter for Christmas so look forward to it. °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°
Chapter 51.1 Sister
These words of his uncle made Lin Banxia’s anger reach the extreme. He shouted: “What the hell are you talking about? Xiaohua is dead? I don’t know what I was playing with?! In order to persuade me, you actually… How can you say such nonsense??”
“I…I didn’t lie to you!!” My uncle shouted loudly, “I didn’t lie to you – she died a long time ago!!”
“Okay! You said Xiaohua is dead, so there should be a tomb, right?” Lin Banxia sneered, “Can you tell me where her tomb is?!”
Uncle said: “The tomb… the tomb… the tombstone is over there in Heisongshan Cemetery, buried with your parents… She is really dead…” As he spoke, his voice became smaller and smaller. He looked like he was lacking in confidence.
Based on Lin Banxia’s understanding of his relative, how could he believe his lies? He sneered: “You say that she is dead? You have obviously seen her and talked to her too.”
Unexpectedly, as soon as he said this, his uncle’s whole body began to tremble slightly, his lips moved for a long time, but he did not say a word. No matter how Lin Banxia continued to question, he refused to speak again.
Song Qingluo was worried that Lin Banxia was getting more and more agitated, so he gently patted his shoulder and whispered: “Banxia, please calm down first.”
Lin Banxia stared at him with eyes which were red with anger and hummed expressionlessly. After listening to Song Qingluo’s words, he loosened his grip on his uncle.
“You also said she was dead, right?” Lin Banxia tried hard to calm down.
“Yes, she has been dead a long time ago!” He Tianlei shouted.
“Then why do I clearly remember playing with her?” Lin Banxia stared into his uncle’s eyes, “She still lived with us, and you even beat me and her?”
After he said these words, his uncle’s face became even more ugly. Lin Banxia saw the strong fear in his eyes that was almost overflowing, as if these ordinary everyday things Lin Banxia mentioned were extremely terrifying.
“Say it.” Lin Banxia gritted his teeth.
Lin Banxia’s series of questions stimulated He Tianlei who was standing next to him. He yelled: “You ask me, you know what you were like when you were a child. Don’t you know yourself?!”
Lin Banxia sneered and asked, “What was I like when I was a child?”
He Tianlei said, “You were as skinny as a monkey. It made people hate you. I really should have killed you!!”
Lin Banxia said: “Didn’t you ever think about killing me?”
After He Tianlei’s reminder, the previously vague memories became much clearer now, but these memories were not pleasant. Lin Banxia clearly remembered that he was often bullied by He Tianlei when he was young, and he could only eat one meal a day. It was also the kind of leftover food that was ready to be thrown away at home. Lin Banxia was hungry all day and was as thin and small as a pitiful monkey. Sometimes the neighbors couldn’t bear it anymore and would secretly give him some food, but even so, he didn’t dare to eat in front of He Tianlei. Because that domineering child would snatch his food away and trample it under his feet like garbage.
Lin Banxia’s aunt also knew what her son had done, but she didn’t care at all. After all, in her eyes at that time, Lin Banxia was just an annoying burden, and missing a meal was nothing.
He Tianlei was provoked by Lin Banxia and wanted to go forward and fight with him, but Song Qingluo stood next to him. Song Qingluo glared at him coldly. He stopped his movements and shrank his neck involuntarily. “Even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t do that!”
Lin Banxia said: “You didn’t do it? You just didn’t succeed.” He was tired of struggling with these two people, “If you don’t plan to tell me where Xiaohua is, don’t even think about the five hundred thousand.”
When his uncle heard about the half a million, he compromised again. He whispered: “Banxia, she is really… gone.”
Lin Banxia sneered, reached out and stuffed the bank card back into his pocket, pulled Song Qingluo and turned around to leave. Seeing that he was serious, his uncle became extremely anxious. He reached out and grabbed his sleeve and said hoarsely: “Okay, okay, don’t you just want to know why we are like this? I’ll tell you; I’ll tell you everything.”
He wiped the sweat from his forehead and said, “Lin Banxia, do you remember? There was a time when you especially liked to talk to yourself.”
Lin Banxia didn’t respond and looked at him expressionlessly, waiting for him to continue.
“At first we thought you just had a problem with your brain.” His uncle smiled uncomfortably, “But one day, we suddenly discovered that there was a strange little girl in the family.”
Even though many years had passed, when he mentioned this little girl, his body still trembled involuntarily: “I thought she was someone’s child at first, but who knew you would actually call her Xiaohua? I got angry at that time and wanted to… wanted to educate you, so I drove you and the little girl out with wooden sticks. Who knew…you two ran up the back hill and were nowhere to be found.”
Lin Banxia frowned. He didn’t remember the story his uncle told, but he vaguely remembered the appearance of the mountain behind.
They were surrounded by mountains, and there were paddy fields everywhere in the back mountains. In the summer, there would be many small fish and shrimp in the paddy fields. Lin Banxia has good ability to swim, so he often went to the river to catch fish. After catching the fish, he simply cleaned it, roasted it over a fire and ate it. Although there wasn’t much meat, it was good enough to pad his belly. Being kicked out of the house by his uncle was a common occurrence for Lin Banxia, so it seemed normal that he did not remember it.
“Then what?” Lin Banxia said, “Just because of this? Were you particularly scared?”
“Of course there is a follow-up.” His uncle whispered, “After that, strange things happened at home. One day when I opened the cabinet, I saw the little girl squatting in the cabinet at home. I was shocked at the time and stretched out my hand. I wanted to pull her out, but as soon as I grabbed her arm…I found…”
Lin Banxia said: “What did you find?”
“I found out that she is not human at all.” When my uncle said this, his face was almost covered with sweat. He kept wiping his forehead with a handkerchief. “I couldn’t pull her out at all. She just squatted inside and looked at me, her eyes white. It was so gloomy that it didn’t look like a living person at all. I was frightened and closed the cupboard. After a while, when I opened it again, she was gone…”
Lin Banxia stared at his uncle with strange eyes: “Are you sure you saw the little girl and not something else?”
Uncle said: “Of course, I remember this thing too clearly. After that, she seemed to be living at home. Your aunt has seen it, Tianlei has also seen it…it’s just a ghost…”
Lin Banxia said: “The little girl in the closet?” His fierce tone finally calmed down, and he seemed to have returned to the calm Lin Banxia he usually was, but the next words he said made Song Qingluo frown.
Lin Banxia said: “Are you sure you remember correctly? Shouldn’t the person locked in the cabinet be me?”
My uncle’s expression suddenly became awkward. When he was a child, Lin Banxia was the punching bag of the family. Whenever someone was unhappy, he would take it out on him. His uncle liked to beat people, but his aunt rarely hit Lin Banxia. However, this was not because she was reluctant, but because she had other ways of punishing Lin Banxia – such as locking him in a dark cupboard.
The cabinet was short and small. Even Lin Banxia could only squat in it. The outside of the cabinet was locked, and he couldn’t push it open.
At first, he would still cry and beg, but later when his tears dried up, he would just stare blankly ahead with his big dark eyes. If the aunt’s anger dissipates quickly, he will be released in a few hours. If it was slow, then he didn’t know how long it would take. Lin Banxia vaguely remembered that the longest time was when he was locked up for a whole day. When he was dragged out of the cupboard, he was completely exhausted, but he was still alive. Someone randomly stuffed him with some food, and he came alive again.
The cabinet was Lin Banxia’s nightmare when he was a child, so he didn’t like dark and narrow places. Fortunately, all his childhood memories were very vague, so it didn’t have much impact on his daily life.
Lin Banxia’s question made his uncle unable to answer for a moment. He muttered a few words and said sorry to Lin Banxia. Unfortunately, this apology was meaningless.
Lin Banxia didn’t believe a word they said.
“I know you won’t tell the truth.” Lin Banxia lost patience with them, “I will figure it out myself, goodbye.”
“Lin Banxia, Lin Banxia.” The uncle was anxious when he saw this, and wanted to reach out and grab Lin Banxia, ”We didn’t lie to you, what we said was true. That girl, it’s true. It’s not your sister, your sister is dead.”
“Dead?” Lin Banxia sneered, “Even if she is really dead as you said, she wouldn’t have died of illness. Am I not aware of all the dirty things in your family?”
His uncle’s face was very ugly: “Even if you don’t believe me, we have raised you to this age, and the money…”
Lin Banxia smiled: “Money?” He took out his bank card again. Under his uncle’s eager eyes, he exerted a slight force on his fingers, and the fragile bank card snapped in half in his hand, “Sorry, I won’t give you a penny.” He wiped his face, turned around and left. His uncle wanted to stop him, but Song Qingluo stopped him.
Lin Banxia left the ward and walked down until he reached the flower bed below the hospital. He knelt down and covered his face with his arms.
Song Qingluo stood behind Lin Banxia and said nothing.
“How could this happen?” Lin Banxia’s voice was muffled, “I don’t believe what they said at all. How could Xiaohua be fake? Everyone knew her… He has obviously done something to Xiaohua, how could he be so careless? Making these things up?”
Song Qingluo knew that he was in a bad mood. After thinking about it, he squatted down, stuffed a cola-flavored candy into Lin Banxia’s hand, and patted his back gently.
Lin Banxia pinched the candy and said hoarsely: “I’m going to visit Xiaohua’s tomb…” He stood up and forced himself to cheer up, “Will you come with me?”
Song Qingluo said: “Of course.”
Lin Banxia forced a smile.
After coming out of the hospital, Lin Banxia got on the bus to the nearby Heisongshan Cemetery. There were not many people in the town, and it was surrounded by mountains. Almost all the dead were buried in the same place. His aunt once mentioned that Lin Banxia’s parents were also buried there, but because Lin Banxia was young, he almost never went to pay homage.
It was noon, and the sun was scorching the earth. Sitting on the bus without air conditioning, Lin Banxia felt extremely stuffy. He lowered the window halfway and let the wind blow on his face, hoping to cool down a little, but the wind was also hot, making him feel more and more irritable.
Fortunately, the cemetery was not far from the town, only a thirty-minute drive away.
After getting out of the bus and walking along a long path filled with tall pine trees, Lin Banxia went to the cemetery management office to inquire about the situation. The people at the management office looked at Lin Banxia’s ID card and quickly found the place where his parents were buried. However, after hearing the name He Xiaohua, they said that there was no such person in the cemetery at all.
Lin Banxia was delighted when he heard this: “No?”
“Yes, there isn’t.” The manager said, “Did you remember the name wrong?”
“No, she’s my sister.” Lin Banxia said vaguely, “My uncle said she died when she was very young, so I just wanted to take the opportunity…”
“When you were very young? How young was it?” the manager asked.
“Not yet one year old,” Lin Banxia replied.
“One year old?” The manager hesitated for a moment and lowered his voice, “How long ago was it?”
Lin Banxia said: “It’s been more than 20 years…what’s wrong?”
The manager said: “It was a local custom in the past that children under the age of one were not allowed to enter the cemetery. It was said that it would be bad for the whole family. Under normal circumstances, they were buried on a random hill… Of course, these were the things that used to be done in the past. The feudal rules have now changed, but more than 20 years ago, you would definitely not be buried in the cemetery…”
When Lin Banxia heard this, his expression changed slightly. He thanked the management staff and bought some flowers, incense, and candles nearby, planning to visit his parents first.
Both sides of the winding path were lined with tombstones of the same shape. Lin Banxia followed the numbers all the way down, and finally saw a desolate tomb in a remote corner.
It was incompatible with the surrounding tombs. This cemetery was covered with weeds and there were no traces of worship. The tombstone made of bluestone had been covered with green ferns, making it look extremely desolate. Lin Banxia took out a tissue from his pocket, bent down and carefully cleaned the tombstone. Song Qingluo squatted down and pulled out the weeds next to it. Neither of them spoke, and the atmosphere was a bit solemn.
After Lin Banxia cleaned up, he saw two black-and-white photos on the tombstone. The faces of a young man and a woman in the photos were very unfamiliar. He looked at them for a while and then lowered his eyes: “I still don’t believe that Xiaohua is dead.”
Song Qingluo said: “Maybe she is not dead.”
Lin Banxia said: “But why did they lie to me?”
Song Qingluo said: “Perhaps the Xiaohua you know and that Xiaohua are two different people.”
Lin Banxia glanced at Song Qingluo and smiled bitterly: “Do you think they are not lying to me?”
Song Qingluo said: “They have no reason to lie to you.”
Lin Banxia was silent.
“Exchanging a daughter for 500,000 yuan, a hugely profitable business, would they not do it?” Song Qingluo analyzed calmly, “In this case, they have no reason to hide her existence… But their current attitude is like this. Even if it is a lie, it is too ridiculous.” If they just wanted to delay time, they could obviously find other more reasonable excuses, but the behavior of Lin Banxia’s uncle and brother was completely unreasonable.
Lin Banxia frowned slightly, rationally feeling that Song Qingluo’s analysis was correct, but emotionally unable to accept it. Just when he was deep in thought, his phone suddenly rang. He took it over and saw that it was still an unfamiliar number. He glanced at Song Qingluo: “Is it uncle?”
“No.” Song Qingluo said, “I haven’t seen that number.”
“Who is it?” Lin Banxia was a little confused and pressed the answer button.
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