HTCYH Ch 35

Chapter 35: The Truth

The next morning, having gained experience from the previous day, Wuming woke Tu Si with a much gentler approach. Half-awake, Tu Si inhaled a deep breath of Wuming’s rich, familiar scent and then withdrew his tendril cocoon.

Wuming, of his own accord, hoisted Tu Si onto his back and carried him toward the self-built house. The refreshing forest breeze, mixed with the chirping of early birds foraging for food, gradually cleared Tu Si’s drowsiness; his whole body of grass felt invigorated.

Stretching out his arms and legs against Wuming’s back, Tu Si wriggled like a small worm and muttered against the back of Wuming’s neck: “Captain! Aren’t you being too nice to me? If not for the fact you’re so pure in desires, I’d really suspect you were trying to court me.”

Adjusting Tu Si to sit upright from his leaning posture, Wuming replied with a half-joking smile: “And if I really were pursuing you, would you agree to it?”

That woke Tu Si completely. He clamped his arms around Wuming’s neck, sitting upright in excitement: “For real? No regrets if I say yes? If Captain was dating, what would he do? Hand over all his salary? Could we merge our points? If I splurge in the shop, would you be angry? Would you prepare three dishes and a soup when you come home from work waiting for me? Or maybe after this you’ll be the one washing clothes and cooking at home while I play games to support you?”

Wuming tilted his head back slightly, coughing after being choked by Tu Si’s barrage of words, and said mockingly: “What, am I supposed to be some pathetic lapdog?”

Tu Si pouted: “Isn’t my beauty worth all those privileges? I’m such a gorgeous treasure—taking me out would bring you so much face. Everyone would know at a glance that you’re wealthy and powerful~ Beautiful things deserve financial pampering.”

Wuming shot back: “So my looks aren’t worth showing off?”

Tu Si sniffed dismissively: “You’re not bad, but still a notch below me~ You’d need a little extra wealth to match up with me.”

Wuming chuckled quietly: “Time to wake up from your lovely dream—it’s over now. Back to work. If you keep zoning out in today’s meeting, forget about me handing over my salary—you’ll be the one paying your wages to me!”

When they arrived at the courtyard outside the self-built house, Wuming set Tu Si down. Just as he was about to push open the door, Fang Xia burst out, shouting: “Captain! Captain! Finally, you’re here! We’ve been misled! Misled! Liang Tiancai! Liang Tiancai was a good man—his whole family were good people, falsely accused. Damn it, I slandered them. I deserve to die, I’m the fucking one who deserves to die!”

Like an enraged bull, Fang Xia charged forward, but Wuming calmly caught her. With a small twist of his wrist, he redirected her rush and pushed her gently back into the house: “Yes, I know. I already had some guesses. Take your time and explain; no rush.”

Trailing behind Wuming, Tu Si entered the house and saw that the others were clearly restless, all wearing expressions like they had just made shocking discoveries. None were more excited than Fang Xia—unsurprising, since when Tu Si himself first learned that the child bride was actually Li Chun’er in disguise, his own shock had been just as great.

Before Wuming even sat down, Fang Xia, Xu Jinyan, and Ke Xian erupted with rapid-fire explanations, while Ai Lin added occasional details.

What unfolded now was a completely overturned story, one that shattered all their previous perceptions:

Li-Liang Village, situated deep in the mountains, was underdeveloped, though not completely cut off from the outside world. It took about four hours to walk from the village to the nearest county town—faster still if one had a three-wheeled scooter.

Thus, the boys of the village still had chances to attend school in the county town, and the especially gifted might even be recommended to study in the city.

Liang Tiancai was the only youth in Li-Liang Village who had the possibility of being recommended to a city school, the pride of the village’s education. His family had been doing decently well enough, and Li-Liang Village was primarily composed of clans surnamed Li and Liang—two large families that made up the population.

Yet, there was one matter everyone in the village scorned in Liang Tiancai’s family: his young aunt—his father’s younger sister, once considered the village beauty—had broken tradition by marrying outside. She had eloped with a business owner in the county. Going against the custom that women of the village were not to marry out, she angered the village head. The chief furiously demanded that the whole Liang family disown such a shameless woman.

Liang Tiancai’s grandfather, too, was enraged and declared that he had no such daughter.

The matter seemed buried, until the aunt was abandoned by the businessman and, suffering from severe illness without money to treat it, returned to the village to entrust her child. The village chief flatly refused, but Tiancai’s parents, moved by pity at the sight of the baby girl barely half a year old, claimed: “She’s a child bride for Tiancai.”

With those words, the chief could no longer argue further, though he would frequently make things difficult for the family afterward.

The child bride was named Liang Xiu’er, who indeed inherited her mother’s beauty: delicate and lovely. However, only Tiancai’s parents and Tiancai himself ever called her by this name. The rest of the village simply called her the “shameless child bride.”

Still, ignoring the gossip, the Liang family lived in relative peace, especially since Tiancai excelled academically. His repeated awards from the county brought prestige even to the village head, who gradually stopped causing them trouble.

But ropes always break at their weakest point. When Liang’s father went to repair the village head’s roof, the man who had agreed to hold the ladder instead went to the village entrance to gamble at mahjong. Liang’s father fell and was paralyzed from the waist down.

The family’s pillar was broken. When Liang’s mother demanded justice, she was met with excuses—the village head denying responsibility, blaming it on Liang’s father’s own carelessness. He even threatened her, dangling Tiancai’s city school prospects over their heads to silence her.

Now, Tiancai became the family’s sole hope. They endured, praying he would reach university and lead them out of this vile village. His mother swallowed her anger, working even harder to shoulder their burdens.

But seeing the Liang family as weak and oppressed, the chief withheld the injury compensation he had initially promised. With illness and the crushing weight of misfortune, Liang’s father eventually committed suicide in despair.

In fury, Tiancai sought accountability, but was instead met with fabricated rumors planted by the village head: that his father contracted disease from prostitution. This not only shamed the family but caused Tiancai to lose both his scholarship and the chance of being recommended to the city. Laughing, the chief told him: “Obey me. Otherwise, I could easily ruin you completely.”

Desperation swallowed his mother, and Tiancai, beaten and broken, still clung to the hope that once he entered university, things would improve. But a rope that has already snapped cannot hold weight again. One morning, Liang Xiu’er, too, finally broke and committed suicide.

When Tiancai investigated, he discovered the truth: after the death of his father, Xiu’er had continually endured harassment and molestation by the villagers. She tolerated it because her abusers, sometimes feeling guilt, gave her small things like eggs or dried meat—contributions that eased her family’s burdens. More cruelly, the village head’s daughter, Li Chun’er, blackmailed her: if Xiu’er told anyone, she would claim to the school principal that Tiancai had molested minors. The villagers who had slept with Xiu’er would gladly testify falsely, ensuring Tiancai’s permanent ruination.

So when Xiu’er learned she was pregnant, her despair surged beyond the breaking point—she ended her life. The one most responsible was Li Chun’er, who out of petty jealousy over Xiu’er’s looks and resentment over Tiancai’s rejection of her confession, had orchestrated this cruel humiliation as revenge, profiting from it all the while.

For Tiancai’s mother, the sky collapsed. She could not understand—why, when they had committed no wrong, were their lives destroyed so cruelly? She broke, fell into depression. Tiancai sank into despair but naïvely believed that if he could bring her away to live in the county, they might escape the village head’s claws.

But once the chief knew what his daughter had done, how could he allow Tiancai to leave? If the boy ever managed to expose him, their family’s power would crumble. A weed must be pulled out by the roots.

Thus, Xiu’er—who could barely read—somehow “wrote” a suicide note, one that accused the Liang family of brutal crimes: seduction, abuse, trafficking. Circulated through the county newspaper, endlessly touted by swarms of self-proclaimed righteous reporters, it led them to Tiancai’s doorstep. He and his family became the target of a public lynching. His mother, unable to bear it, also took her own life—leaving only Liang Tiancai alone in the rotting crucible of human hell.

Footnotes:

1. 麻绳专挑细处断 (“The hemp rope always breaks at its thinnest place”) – A Chinese idiom meaning disaster strikes where one is most vulnerable. Used here to foreshadow escalating misfortunes.