Sitting beside the bed with a little girl, Grandma Huang found it rather dull, so she started teasing Sanya in a joking manner.
"Sanya, tell Grandma, how did you fall? Where did you hurt yourself?"
With a sugar cube in her mouth, Sanya had stopped crying, but the white cloth wrapped around her face was painful to look at. Puffing her cheeks, she said crisply, "Grandma, I fell on a rock in the courtyard. It wasn’t because I walked badly, it was my mom who tripped me with her foot."
"What?" Grandma Huang was stunned for a second, and the next second she suddenly stood up, her face filled with surprise as she looked at Sanya.
"Your mom tripped you with her foot? Why would she trip you?"
Sanya tilted her head in thought then kept shaking it vigorously.
She was too young to understand all the complex thoughts inside Huang Xiangwen’s mind.
Grandma Huang’s heart skipped a beat, and her mind raced.
Children don’t lie, do they? But had Huang Xiangwen gone mad? Why would she trip Sanya?
She glanced at the smoking kitchen opposite the window and suddenly bellowed out loud.
"Huang Xiangwen, you heartless creature, you actually went through with it! Come here this instant!"
Grandma Huang’s voice was famously loud in Lotus Village. When she shouted intentionally like that, not only could Huang Xiangwen hear her from the opposite kitchen, but even the neighbors next door could hear.
Upon hearing her mother-in-law’s furious shout, Huang Xiangwen knew something was amiss.
At that moment, she was nibbling on Sanya’s sugar while making a fuss with the fire.
The shout was so loud it nearly made her drop the fire tongs on her foot.
Hurriedly using the fire tongs to snuff out the fire, she wolfed down the sugar in her mouth, dusted off her apron, and went to Grandma Huang’s room.
"Mother, did you call for me?" Huang Xiangwen asked with a forced smile, though her face was indescribably ugly.
Grandma Huang hugged Sanya close, gently blowing on the little girl’s face. Seeing Huang Xiangwen arrive, she yelled fiercely, "You actually had the nerve to do it, huh? She’s your own daughter, I watched her crawl out from your belly. Tell me, how dark has your heart become to do such a cruel thing?
You can even harm your own daughter, when I’m old, who knows what you might do to me? I always wondered why that little girl always seemed to hold a grudge against you. Tell me, have you been doing something unspeakable to her behind our backs?"
Huang Xiangwen’s face turned deathly pale, and with a thud she knelt on the floor, wailing, "Mother, I didn’t! How can you believe the word of a child?"
"It’s precisely because Sanya is young and doesn’t know how to lie that her words are trustworthy."
In her panic, Huang Xiangwen’s hands rubbed her apron continuously as she said, "Dad favors that little ghost so much, I wouldn’t dare. It’s such a pity, but yes, I caused Sanya’s injury. But I didn’t mean it, I swear! Mother, you must believe me — I’ve always been loyal to you."
"Hmph, don’t — for goodness’ sake, don’t say you’re loyal to me, I don’t have a heart as black as yours. Our Gu Family can’t afford to keep a Buddha like you around. I think I’ll talk to your brother-in-law. It’s better if we send you back to the Huang Family Village!"
"Ah, no, Mother... I’m your own flesh and blood, our relationship isn’t just mother-in-law and daughter-in-law; in terms of kinship, I even have to call you ’aunt.’ Please don’t tell anyone about this, or who knows what Gu Wen might do to me!"
Now Huang Xiangwen was truly frightened. Sent back to her family after being divorced? Unfavored by her brothers and unable to remarry, wouldn’t that ruin the rest of her life?
"Then tell me the truth, why did you do this to Sanya?"