Traveling Through Those Years Of Farming (Quick Transmigration) - Chapter 19

“Huiling, what are you doing? This is our mother.”

Yan Sheng snaps back to reality and rushes to pull his wife away, but Jiang Huiling is beyond reason. Despite being a grown man, Yan Sheng can’t pull her off.

“Shhh—”

He musters all his strength, and this time, he manages to pull Jiang Huiling away. However, in the process, she tears off a large piece of scalp from Mother Xu’s head.

Jiang Huiling collapses to the ground from the force, but Yan Sheng doesn’t have time to attend to her. He hurries to the old lady’s side, anxiously inspecting her injury.

“Ugh—”

The sight makes Yan Sheng recoil, covering his mouth. He runs to the side of the trash can and vomits violently.

Under the torn skin, there aren’t yellow fat or bright red blood, but leeches and maggots.

They are dense and revolting.

Yan Sheng stands frozen, his mind racing. Why are there such things under his mother’s scalp?

But in the end, caution takes over. After expelling all the stomach contents, he wipes his hands and mouth with the hem of his clothes, then carefully approaches the old lady.

His body still trembles with nerves, and he keeps thinking about whether the leeches and maggots might fall from her body.

Just when he thinks he is ready for anything, the scene before him changes. The horrifying sight disappears, replaced by a simple, bloody wound.

Yan Sheng rubs his eyes and double-checks, unsure if he saw it wrong earlier.

“Mom, are you okay? Does it hurt?”

The whole situation feels surreal to him. He swallows hard and moves to help the old lady up, planning to send her to the hospital for treatment.

“It hurts, Xiao Sheng, Mom hurts,” Mother Xu whimpers in a dazed voice.

“How could you say you loved Lingling as much as you did? She was killed by her own grandmother. She couldn’t speak, only crying in silence to express her pain. Mother Xu, where is your conscience? She is your own granddaughter!” Jiang Huiling screams in hysteria, her mind clouded with thoughts of Mom, it hurts!

Her Lingling, her precious baby, had been killed by her own grandmother. Over the years, she has still respected this cruel woman, treating her as her own mother. Jiang Huiling now regrets everything. She wants to strangle herself for being so blind and heartless.

“Lingling…” Yan Sheng’s expression turns distant. It has been so long since they last spoke her name. The early death of their daughter became a forbidden subject between them. They couldn’t bring themselves to mention it because once they did, tears would flow. There is a photo at the bottom of Yan Sheng’s desk drawer—a photo of the four of them when Lingling was just one month old. His mother is in the center, holding Lingling, while he and his wife stand slightly behind the old lady. The smiles are bright, the family so harmonious.

Whenever Lingling’s birthday or death anniversary comes around, he can’t help but take that photo out, tracing the tiny face of their girl with his fingers.

In the past two years, his wife has suffered two miscarriages. Sometimes, Yan Sheng wonders if Lingling, not wanting to be lonely underground, has called her unborn siblings to join her. He thinks this way to make himself feel better about the miscarriages.

He no longer obsesses over whether he will ever be a father again. He simply feels regret that when Lingling died, she had only called ‘mom’, never once calling him dad.

He has imagined a thousand times what it would have sounded like—her soft, thin voice, which would have grown louder and sweeter as she matured, full of life, energy, and joy. But Lingling is gone. No one will ever call him “daddy.”

Yan Sheng closes his eyes. Since becoming the county official’s secretary, he rarely shows such vulnerability. Even in front of his wife and mother, he keeps his emotions in check.

“Huiling, what are you talking about? Lingling died of illness. What does this have to do with our mother?”

He doesn’t understand what has gotten into his wife today. Why is she saying such things? At that time, they had been busy with work, but it was his mother who had taken care of Lingling. When Lingling was sick, his mother had been frantic, so anxious that her mouth had blistered from worry.

“Mother Xu, do you feel like you’re being pricked by a needle? Look, Lingling is lying on your neck, and her delicate fingers are stabbing your body over and over. How did you treat her in the past? Now the child has come back on her own to collect her debt. This is retribution for you. Why aren’t you the one going to hell!”

Jiang Huiling laughs and cries at the same time, pointing at the old lady’s neck as though she can actually see her daughter tormenting her mother-in-law.

The ghost, as Lady Hua says, is Lingling coming to collect the debt. She is still wearing the pink hairpin. This is Lingling’s revenge.

“It’s none of my business. Don’t come to me.” The old lady, who has been numbly expressing her pain, suddenly seems triggered by something. She begins to struggle wildly. Yan Sheng, standing beside her, is hit several times by her flailing arms. “Who made her a girl? The Yan family has always been a single-line family. It can’t end with Xiaosheng’s generation. I’m doing this for the good of the Yan family. I just want a grandson.” The old lady grabs at her back and neck desperately, as if trying to shake off the granddaughter Jiang Huiling has spoken of.

Yan Sheng, who is about to step forward to stop his mother, is stunned by her words. What… What does she mean… Lingling? His mind is in turmoil, and he turns to look at his wife, disbelief written all over his face.

“Lingling, our Lingling… She isn’t in the coffin at all… This woman… this woman put her, our Lingling, in a small wooden box and threw her under the old bridge…” Jiang Huiling sobs so uncontrollably that she can hardly speak. The grief suffocates her whenever she thinks of how her daughter has been buried in that cold, dark pond all these years. “Nine years, nine long years, this woman forced our Lingling… to be crushed under that old bridge, day and night… To scare the little girl, to make her afraid to come back to our family, she forced Lingling to lie there, trampled underfoot for nine years! Nine years!” Jiang Huiling screams in agony, her voice nearly breaking.

For nine whole years, over three thousand days and nights—how has her Lingling suffered?

And when Lingling was alive, her body was filled with so many needles. But as a mother, she hadn’t known. Lingling had cried and screamed in pain, but why hadn’t she, the mother, noticed?

Jiang Huiling hates the cruel woman in front of her, but she hates herself too. She isn’t worthy of being Lingling’s mother.

“How could it be… How could it be…”

Jiang Huiling’s words shatter Yan Sheng.

On one side is his daughter, who died young, and on the other is his loving mother. He is torn, utterly tormented.

“It’s a pity. Even God couldn’t stand your mother’s actions. Over three months ago, the old bridge collapsed, and the weight that had been pressing on Lingling disappeared. She came back to take revenge. Your mother isn’t sick at all. She’s suffering retribution. Lingling is returning everything your mother did to her, one by one.” Jiang Huiling giggles, pointing at the old lady. It isn’t enough. It isn’t nearly enough. She wants to tear her apart, bite the flesh off her alive.

“Did you call the police?”

At that moment, Lin Zhong and several uniformed officers squeeze into the crowd outside the Yan family home. It turns out that Jiang Huiling left the door open earlier. The fierce arguments and accusations have drawn the attention of the neighbors, and they quickly piece together the story.

Lingling, the daughter of Secretary Yan and his wife, died when she was very young. Today, Secretary Yan’s wife has learned that their daughter didn’t die of illness, but because Mother Xu, her grandmother, secretly stabbed her with needles. The needles pierced her body at random, causing the child to cry in pain for months, until one day, a needle punctured a vital spot, and she died. It is also possible that the old lady gave her a fatal jab herself, leading to her early death.

But this isn’t the end. After burying her granddaughter, this sweet-faced yet cruel old woman dug Lingling’s body up when no one was looking, put it in a small wooden box, and sank it under a bridge. There, passersby trampled over her body day and night.

In this way, the reincarnated girl would be afraid of their family and dare not reincarnate into her daughter-in-law’s belly again, and she could hold her grandson as she wished.

Unfortunately, Secretary Yan and his wife have been unable to have a child over the years. Perhaps even God cannot tolerate Mother Xu’s wickedness and has deprived her of the chance to become a grandmother.

Everyone present knows that Mother Xu suffers from a strange disease, which has caused concern for the old lady in recent months. She has been on better terms with everyone these past two years, so when her past deeds come to light, their sympathy vanishes. They now feel uneasy, realizing how easily they have laughed and chatted with her before. After all, this is the same woman who was so cruel to her own granddaughter. If they had offended her, would they have suffered even worse fates?

Some even begin to question Secretary Yan, who has always been gentle and magnanimous. With such a perverse mother, could he truly be a good person?

That evening, many decide to go home and discuss this shocking matter with their spouses or children. They vow to be more careful when working with Secretary Yan from now on.

Lin Zhong and his team enter the living room and see the old lady’s body marked with scars from the struggle.

However, when they think of the child’s body that Jiang Huiling sent to the Public Security Bureau half an hour earlier, no one can bring themselves to feel sympathy for the old lady.

“Mother Xu, please come with us to the Public Security Bureau for questioning.”

Lin Zhong, looking at the old lady, who now seems like a ghost, sighs. It is unfortunate that it might be difficult to find definitive evidence to convict her. After all, the child’s body has been submerged for so long that no one can prove the old lady used needles on her or threw her into the river.

“Deputy Captain Lin, this woman just admitted she killed the child to get a grandson. We all heard it, and we’ll testify for you,” someone speaks up.

People in this era have a strong sense of justice and aren’t afraid of upsetting powerful figures like the county official’s secretary by testifying for a grieving mother.

With a daughter on one side and a mother on the other, what will Yan Sheng choose?

Yan Sheng feels the eyes of the crowd on him, all eager for an answer. “This is really… true.”

Lin Zhong and his colleagues have arrived a bit too late to hear the old lady’s confession, but now, with so many witnesses to her guilt, they can finally take action.

With the support of the bystanders, Lin Zhong takes out handcuffs and prepares to take the old lady into custody.

“Xiao Sheng, save your mother! Xiao Sheng, you’re the one I love most, Xiao Sheng! Have you forgotten that during the famine, I would rather eat Guanyin soil than let you go hungry? Your brothers and sisters are all gone, and I have only you left!”

Yan Sheng isn’t an only child. He had several older siblings, but they all died during the famine.

The old lady’s cries are so sorrowful that they stir vague memories of Yan Sheng’s childhood.

He takes a step forward instinctively, but when his wife’s cold gaze meets his, he stops.

His mind feels like it is about to explode. The events of the day are too shocking to process.

The old lady continues wailing as she is led to the police car.

“Where’s Lingling? Let me see our Lingling.” Yan Sheng’s voice is hoarse, and he looks at his wife with pleading eyes.

He needs to see Lingling. After all, she is his mother, the woman who has devoted so much of her life to him. He knows she deserves punishment, but still, his heart softens.

He has to see their Lingling. Perhaps after seeing her, he will no longer be able to excuse his mother’s actions.

“Yan Sheng, I want a divorce.” Jiang Huiling looks at him coldly.

He is a good man. He has never minded when she neglects her family for her career, nor has he ever pressured her for another child after Lingling.

They have always respected and understood each other.

But she can’t bear it anymore. She can’t stand that he is the son of that woman. She can’t forgive that his mother has killed their child in such a heartless way.

After speaking, Jiang Huiling stumbles out of the room, leaving Yan Sheng standing there, motionless, in shock.

After their meal, the four members of the Hua family sit in an unusual silence.

Hua Yingpo and Sheng Wukun wonder if they have accumulated bad karma from all the years of tricking people, while Sheng Baobao and Chunming can’t stop thinking about the ghost child they saw earlier.

For the first time, the family eats in complete silence.

“Lady Hua, please, please save my daughter.” A woman’s desperate cry echoes from outside the yard. The four of them immediately recognize the voice and hurry to the door. “Please, save my daughter.”

Jiang Huiling is kneeling at the Hua family’s doorstep, kowtowing with all her strength, her forehead bleeding from the impact.

The road outside is muddy, with small stones embedded in the dirt. Despite the pain, Jiang Huiling continues kowtowing, ignoring the stones digging into her flesh. She is consumed by grief for her daughter, Lingling, whose life has been so tragically cut short. Her child should have been reincarnated into a better life, to a mother who could protect her.

Jiang Huiling’s tear-filled eyes blur, and she can only faintly make out the figures of Hua Yingpo and the others approaching.

She knows, deep in her heart, that the only people who can save her daughter now are the ones standing before her.

She is willing to give them anything they want.