Chapter 58: Chapter 58 Has Niu Lihua Gone Mad?
Everyone at the scene jolted at the shout.
Zhang Tieniu’s face turned white, wishing he could slap Niu Lihua twice.
They should be thinking of ways to muddle through the situation, yet this woman was still making a fuss.
Village Chief Zhang frowned, “Don’t talk nonsense. It’s a new era; there are no ghosts or monsters.”
Niu Lihua, as if deaf, opened her mouth wide and issued a gurgling noise from her throat, clearly terrified to the extreme.
Yue Jiannan looked bewildered. “What nonsense are you spouting? Do you think you can fool anyone with this act?”
As he spoke and moved closer, Niu Lihua was so frightened that she fell down on her buttocks and started to crawl backwards using all four limbs.
“Get lost, get away, don’t come any closer.”
Yue Jiannan was frustrated. He might not be strikingly handsome, but he was at least well-featured. Did he deserve to be treated like some vile monster?
Yue Qingqing knew she was the one Niu Lihua was afraid of, and she even curved her eyes in a smile at Niu Lihua.
To others, it was a cute and obedient smile, but to Niu Lihua, it seemed like a monster baring its fangs, eliciting another round of screams.
Village Chief Zhang had a headache and could only ask Zhang Tieniu, “What’s wrong with your wife? Has she gone mad?”
Zhang Tieniu slapped his thigh, “Exactly! She’s been acting frequently lately. I don’t know what got into her today; she dragged me to the Yue Family’s fish pond and jumped in headfirst. I had no choice but to find a way to fish her out.”
His words were persuasive, but the villagers’ attention was elsewhere.
“Niu Lihua has gone mad? When did that happen? No wonder she said those things.”
“Tsk tsk, I heard her son is about to get married. That family is pitiable, having to serve a mad mother-in-law as soon as they enter the house.”
“It’s karma, years ago she always abused her stepdaughter, making her wash clothes by the river in the middle of winter, hands and feet all covered in chilblains. Niu Lihua is getting what she deserves now.”
The crowd buzzed with talk, but Village Chief Zhang felt something was amiss.
However, for the moment, he could not figure out what the couple’s motives might be for ending up in the fish pond.
Yue Jiannan shared his suspicions, and considering Zhang Jinhe’s previous actions, he found the situation even more bizarre and was not willing to let Zhang Tieniu and his wife off easily.
“No matter what, you fell in and polluted the water of my family’s fish pond. What if the fish get sick? You’ll have to pay for that!”
Zhang Tieniu was unwilling to accept this, but Niu Lihua, upon Yue Jiannan approaching to speak, let out a series of screams, trembling violently.
Soon, everyone smelled a foul stench, and peculiar expressions crossed their faces.
Zhang Tieniu felt as though his face had been peeled off and trampled several times by the crowd. Worried that Niu Lihua’s outburst might reveal the truth due to her abnormal state, he had no choice but to hold his nose and accept it.
“I only have twenty yuan on me. You know Jinhe is about to take a bride, I can’t afford anything more.”
“Forget it, I can’t be bothered to haggle with you. Twenty it is.”
Yue Jiannan pocketed the money and took Yue Qingqing home.
Seeing that there was no more excitement to be had, the crowd gradually dispersed.
They took the sensational news of Niu Lihua’s madness back to their neighbors.
How could someone just go mad out of the blue?
Zhang Jinhe only came back in the evening, kicking the door open, his voice distorted with anger.
“What the hell did you two do? Why is the whole village saying mother has gone mad?”
The house was in darkness, Zhang Tieniu frowned as he sat by the table, Niu Lihua was hunched over in a corner of the wall, shivering continuously.
Seeing that no one responded, Zhang Jinhe grew angrier and more annoyed, “Do you realize Xiaoling’s family wants to call off the marriage unless the bride price is doubled? Otherwise, they’ll abort the child tomorrow.”
On a normal day, Zhang Tieniu would have jumped to his feet, but the series of bizarre events from today had deflated his spirit.
“Let them abort it then. Our family can’t even come up with the original bride price, let alone double it.”
Zhang Jinhe was furious, “What? Then what did you two do all day? Where is the jade pendant?”
Zhang Tielin glanced at Niu Lihua, “We didn’t get the jade pendant, and your mother… she’s gone mad.”
It was just an excuse he had made up on the spur of the moment, but now, looking at Niu Lihua, it seemed that she truly had gone mad.