Chapter 202
When Mu Shi’an heard Song Nianchu’s voice, he stopped what he was doing and looked up.
“Carving a board doesn’t take much strength.” Mu Shi’an’s thoughts were in turmoil, but he was still much gentler whenever he faced Song Nianchu.
“Are you still thinking about your sister?” Song Nianchu sat down beside him.
“I’m worried she’ll cause trouble again after going to the dam. It’s a major project, and nothing can go wrong,” Mu Shi’an said slowly.
“You don’t need to worry about that. Everyone from our group who’s going there is only assigned ordinary labor—moving stones, digging dirt, and the like. They won’t be given any work requiring technical skills. Besides, there are supervisors at the construction site. If they don’t do their jobs properly, they’ll be punished,” Song Nianchu reassured him.
“Mm.” Hearing this, Mu Shi’an’s troubled thoughts eased somewhat.
“All right, stop thinking about it. Go take a shower,” Song Nianchu said.
“Mm.” Mu Shi’an nodded.
“…”
Meanwhile, Mu Jingmei had already returned to the Yang family home.
When Yang Dafu and Yang’s mother heard that she had secured a spot on the dam project, they were both delighted.
“This is the first useful thing you’ve done since marrying into our family. What about the compensation money? Did you get it? Hurry up and hand it over.” Yang’s mother was already growing impatient.
“They haven’t paid it out yet,” Mu Jingmei replied calmly.
“Then when will they pay it?” Yang Dafu stared at her intently.
“Why are you in such a hurry? They’ll pay it eventually. I’m tired from walking all the way back, so I’m going to rest in my room first.” As Mu Jingmei spoke, she walked toward the bedroom.
Watching her, Yang Dafu’s hand once again curled into a fist at his side.
Fortunately, Yang’s mother reminded him, “Son, don’t hit her again before she leaves. If you injure her and she can’t go, we won’t get the compensation money.”
“I know.” Hearing this, Yang Dafu finally forced down his anger.
He was already planning to teach Mu Jingmei a proper lesson once she returned from the dam.
That night, Yang Dafu came home very late. He didn’t say where he had been, but his mouth was slick with grease.
By then, Mu Jingmei was already lying in bed. After eating and drinking his fill, Yang Dafu wanted to vent his frustration. But the moment he climbed into bed, Mu Jingmei turned over, presenting him with the back of her head, and began snoring softly.
Thinking that she still had to go work at the dam and earn the compensation money, Yang Dafu didn’t force himself on her. He simply lay down.
Before long, his snores were loud enough to shake the room.
At that moment, Mu Jingmei, whose eyes had been tightly closed, suddenly opened them.
The next day, everyone heading to the dam for work was required to assemble at Qinghe Fishing Village.
Mu Jingmei had slept very lightly that night and opened her eyes before dawn.
She quietly got out of bed, packed all her belongings, and even took several of Yang Dafu’s newer padded jackets.
After finishing, she turned back toward the bed. Looking at Yang Dafu, who slept like a dead hog, a trace of disgust flashed through her eyes.
The bruises on her face had darkened over the past two nights until they were nearly black and looked horrifying.
Even the slightest touch caused a sharp ache.
This was the first beating she had ever taken in her life!
Mu Jingmei gently pulled back Yang Dafu’s quilt, raised the scissors in her hand, and viciously snipped at his lower body.
“Ah!”
A bloodcurdling scream like the squeal of a slaughtered pig rang out over the entire Yang family village.
Mu Jingmei immediately dropped the scissors, slung her bundle over her back, and hurried out of the house.
Yang Dafu writhed in agony on the bed. Yang’s mother, who slept in the room next door, heard the commotion and quickly got up to investigate.
The moment she entered Yang Dafu’s courtyard, she saw him screaming in pain.
“Dafu, what happened…?” Yang’s mother began to ask, but as soon as she approached, she saw that the bed was covered in blood—and that it was coming from between Yang Dafu’s legs. She immediately panicked.
“Dafu, what happened to you?” Yang’s mother then looked around. “Where’s Mu Jingmei? Where did she go?”
“It hurts! It hurts so badly!” Yang Dafu’s face was deathly pale, and both his hands were bright red with blood.
Seeing him in such agony, Yang’s mother no longer had time to worry about Mu Jingmei. She stepped forward and prepared to help him up.
“Dafu, I’ll take you to the hospital.”
Unfortunately, Yang’s mother was far too weak, while Yang Dafu was in too much pain to move. She was soon sweating profusely, yet still couldn’t lift him.
In the end, Yang Dafu simply passed out.
Yang’s mother was frantic. She found some clothes and dressed him, then placed the severed organ in a bag before rushing out to find help.
By then, Mu Jingmei had already reached Qinghe Fishing Village.
All three hundred workers had assembled. Wu Zhenggui counted them and confirmed that everyone was present before ordering the team leaders to set out with them.
Mu Jingmei kept to the middle of the crowd, carefully guarding the bundle held against her chest. She turned to look behind her, but the person she wanted to see was nowhere in sight.
She did nothing, however. As the main group moved forward, she followed along.
What she didn’t know was that, after they had gone some distance, a frail figure came running from afar, following the group all the way up the mountain.
Mu’s mother stood at the mountaintop, gasping for breath, and looked down at the vast crowd below, searching among them for Mu Jingmei.
There were too many people, and she was standing too high up. All she could see were countless heads packed tightly together. Her lips moved, as though she wanted to call out, but in the end she swallowed the words.
With nothing but reddened eyes, she watched the group disappear from her sight.
“…”
As for Yang’s mother, she begged the villagers for a long time before finally borrowing a handcart. With great effort, she dragged Yang Dafu onto it and made her way toward the county hospital.
However, once they arrived, the doctors were helpless in the face of Yang Dafu’s injuries. Because the severed organ had not been preserved properly, the infection was severe, and the tissue had already completely died.
The only thing they could do was stop the bleeding and save his life.
When Yang’s mother learned that her son would be a eunuch for the rest of his life, she couldn’t bear the shock and fainted.
She told no one about what had happened, keeping it strictly secret.
After all, no one wanted others to know that their family had a useless cripple. That was precisely why Mu Jingmei had done what she did.
Song Nianchu, naturally, knew nothing about the grievances within their family. The designer Xiang Tianyi had hired had already completed an initial set of blueprints.
After the two of them discussed a few more details, construction officially began.
Xiang Tianyi had deep pockets, so the project was completely different from the canning workshop Song Nianchu had built before. Back then, they had relied entirely on manual labor. But on the very first day of construction at Xiang Tianyi’s site, he had a mechanical excavator brought in.
That machine was an extremely rare sight in those days. The moment the excavator drove in, everyone in the village rushed over to watch.
Wu Zhenggui found it fascinating as well. He let everyone observe it for a while before sending them back to work.
“Where did you get this big machine?” Song Nianchu asked in delight as she looked at the excavator.
With this machine, the construction period could be shortened considerably.