Chapter 85: The Allure of That Blade

Wu Mei accepted the gifts with some reluctance and glanced into the bag: pig’s ear, braised beef—all her son’s favorites—two bottles of liquor, and some seasonal fruit. Not exactly expensive, but it showed thoughtfulness.

There was no refrigerator in the house, and the weather was hot; cooked food wouldn’t keep. She’d let her husband and son have it for dinner that night. The fruit and milk would be fine, and the two bottles of liquor could be saved for when they visited neighbors during the Mid-Autumn Festival. Old Lu was happy enough with his cheap white spirits; even the strong 55-degree baijiu pleased him.

She looked up at the grandmother and grandson again; they didn’t seem as much of an eyesore as before. Yet when she recalled the miserable state her husband had been in that year, the anger in her heart refused to settle.

“You could call it a curse, really. Our old Lu is an honest man, doesn’t understand much. He just works for whoever pays him. All day, inside and out, just a hundred yuan. Who would have thought he’d almost lose his life? I remember, when I got to the hospital, I had to queue outside. He was covered in blood—nearly scared me to death…”

Wu Mei was about to continue when Old Lu interrupted her with a look of irritation. “It’s been so long already, why bring it up again? Go pour some water!”

Though displeased, Wu Mei fetched the water and set the cups on the table, not placing them directly before Granny Wen or Xiao Cheng. Instead, she put them off to the side of the tea table, her attitude clear: drink if you want, or don’t. She muttered under her breath, “I’m not saying anything unreasonable. To hack someone up like that—for what? What grudge? You deserved the pain, but I waited on you for two months and I can’t even complain? You don’t know, Auntie, that scar from the knife is still frightening to this day. That strike was meant to kill—cut right to the bone on his shoulder!”

Her words made Granny Wen squirm with discomfort. She stammered, “You have every right to blame us. It’s our Wen family who wronged you!”

“There’s no point dredging up the past, but though the wounds on the body heal, what about the wounds in the heart? We didn’t provoke anyone, did nothing to deserve it, and yet he was stabbed for no reason, bedridden for two months, and nobody covered the hospital bills! We paid for his treatment ourselves. I shouldn’t bring this up, but it eats at me. Honest folks are always the ones to be bullied. We risked our lives for the relocation office, and all they did was pay a five-thousand yuan deposit at the hospital—after that, they washed their hands of us! They didn’t even include us when applying for compensation in court. Do you know how much hospital bills cost? And over two months of lost wages? He’s the only breadwinner in our family. That year, our Qiqi was only eleven…”

Wu Mei wiped away her tears, her words circling around money. Old Lu’s face grew dark and he snapped, “Enough! What do you know, woman?”

Granny Wen sat there on pins and needles, while Wu Mei continued to dab at her eyes, aggrieved. Seeing this, Old Lu felt troubled and sighed deeply. “Auntie, country women are narrow-minded—don’t take it to heart… About that year, yes, it still stings, but I don’t hold it against your Wen family. The day it happened, something felt wrong in my gut. Who storms into someone’s house with weapons? That’s daylight robbery! Your Wen brother slashed me, but I can’t blame him. That’s a real man! If the tables were turned, I don’t know if I’d have had the guts! Ah, let’s not talk about it. I don’t regret the knife I took. What pains me is that Wen brother—a good man, wasted. He was a true man!”

Old Lu’s lament brought Granny Wen to tears again. When it came to feeling wronged, who had suffered more than her family? A good home destroyed by forced relocation. Her son’s family torn apart, imprisoned, their house demolished, their compensation seized by the authorities, and debts piled upon them…

In the small room, three of the four wiped at tears. At that moment, Xiao Cheng stood up. “Uncle, Auntie, please don’t cry. A son must pay his father’s debts. We came here today to repay what’s owed! The Wen family’s affairs are our own; we’ll handle them ourselves. Kindness must be repaid, and so must grievances.

“My father slashed you, left you bedridden for months. You chose not to pursue it or kick us while we were down—that’s a favor to our family. We may never be able to repay that, but the debt must be settled! Auntie, you mentioned hospital bills, lost wages, and nutritional costs—it adds up. We didn’t dare come before because we hadn’t gathered enough money. My dad’s in prison for over a dozen years yet, my mom ran off and we don’t know where she is. My grandma raised me selling candied hawthorn, but could barely scrape by. Only this year, after I won a scholarship at the math competition, did we dare come. Uncle Lu, you won’t pursue the matter—this favor we cannot repay. But for the medical expenses and lost wages, you must accept this!”

He slapped fifty thousand yuan on the table. The couple stared, dumbfounded.

“Child, this money…I can’t accept it…” Old Lu hesitated, but in the end refused. His wife nudged him under the table, but he still finished his sentence.

“I accept that knife. To be frank, I deserved it! Just like Zhang Weihai deserved to die, and Lame Ding deserved his fate—that’s retribution, karma in this life! Those two months in bed, I kept thinking, how did I get involved in such a thing? Barging into someone’s home with those thugs, to demolish their house—it’s a sin! When I think of it, my heart aches…”

“When I followed them in, your father’s eyes were blood-red. I felt awful—if it were me, I’d have fought to the death too! Zhang Weishan and Zhang Weihai said your father was a scholar, too timid to act, that he was only brandishing the machete to scare people. Who could have guessed it would end like this? Lame Ding was at the front and went to kick your father—he got slashed in the knee and went down. That Qiu fellow kept cursing and swinging his stick, urging more to charge in. Your father swung back, cut him on the arm. Two men bleeding—everyone was stunned. Then Zhang Weihai shouted, ‘He’s attacking with a knife! Grab him—everyone! He’s armed and dangerous; beat him to death and it won’t count as murder—get him!’

This made Xiao Cheng’s eyes light up. He wondered if that statement was recorded in the case file—it was powerful testimony in their favor!

Lu Songyan was unaware of the significance and went on with his recollection: “When Zhang Weihai called for a reward, the hesitant ones rushed forward too. I was near the front; several people surged ahead. Your father was wild with rage, hacking the machete through the crowd. I tried to pull Lame Ding back, took two steps forward—and your father’s blade came at me… Honestly, I wasn’t thinking of myself then. It was: what if this happened at my house? Surrounded by a mob, a bulldozer flattening my yard, a dozen men charging at my family—would I, a two-hundred-pound man, have the guts to fight? Zhang Weihai took a cut to the neck, blood splattering all over me. As I lay on the ground, I knew it was over. A ruined home, destroyed lives—all because of me!”

The big man’s own tears fell as he spoke. “Thank heaven your Wen brother wasn’t sentenced to death. I don’t know how much of his twenty years is because of me, but I feel guilty…”

Back then, Xiao Cheng had also been at the scene. After his mind awakened, the memory became even clearer. His grandmother had later covered his eyes, but the noise, shouts, cries, and groans had already etched a living picture in his mind.

His father was innocent!

——

There’s a small detail in the book—perhaps some readers noticed it. Earlier, Xiao Cheng told Lü Qi that the Lü family had voluntarily given up on civil compensation. Yet here, Lü Qi’s mother says the lawyer filed for compensation without including them. This is intentional on the author’s part: human nature is neither as good nor as bad as imagined. It hovers between good and evil.

I keep thinking the chapter’s title sounds pretty cool.