Shopkeeper Qian dashed next door, only to see his wife embracing their daughter, repeatedly crying out, "My girl, I am your mother, I am your birth mother—"
Lady Qian remained motionless, allowing herself to be held, with a vacant look in her eyes and drool trickling down from the corner of her mouth without seeming to notice or wipe it away.
Upon seeing Shopkeeper Qian enter, she simply gave him a silly smile and then started sucking on her fingertips.
Shopkeeper Qian’s vision went dark as he rushed over, "Wife, what has happened to our daughter?"
Mother Qian burst out howling, "Old man, our daughter has become an idiot! She doesn’t even recognize her own mother. As soon as she woke up, she did nothing but gnaw on her fingers and can’t do anything but smile foolishly; she no longer calls out for her mom and dad. Old man, what are we going to do?"
Shopkeeper Qian, struck by these successive blows, couldn’t snap back to reality and stood there stunned, motionless.
It was the attendant who heard the commotion and called for the doctor.
The doctor came forward to take Lady Qian’s pulse, and after quite a while, he said, "The patient has suffered a head injury, and I fear that from now on—"
The implication was that Lady Qian had been turned into an idiot.
The doctor, seeing Lady Qian’s condition, couldn’t help but shake his head.
Mother Qian was suddenly dumbfounded. Had her daughter truly become an idiot?
When she turned to look for Shopkeeper Qian, she saw him black out and collapse to the floor, unable to hold on any longer.
This caused another bout of chaos until the doctor administered two injections, which eventually brought Shopkeeper Qian back to his senses.
Only after he had left the house did he vaguely remember that there was another patient next door.
Bad news! The doctor slapped his thigh and ran to the next room, only to find that, having been left unattended for half the day, the temperature in the room had dropped and it was no longer stiflingly hot.
Looking at Wang Yongan, he saw that the sweat had completely dried from his body. Although the fever had subsided and his complexion had stabilized, the doctor grew even more worried.
After taking his pulse for a moment, the doctor gave Wang Yongan a sympathetic glance, fearing this man’s life was effectively over.
On the surface, he seemed well, but the coldness that had been so hard to draw out had now penetrated deep into his bones. Come winter, this coldness would seep out from the crevices of his bones, slowly infiltrating his blood, flesh, and internal organs.
Under the best circumstances, he would lie on the heated brick bed all day, barely hanging on to life.
If unlucky enough to have to go outdoors, it would feel as if millions of ants were gnawing from within his bone crevices, leaving him in a state where he could neither live nor die.
Sighing, the doctor shook his head, prescribed a formula that he knew would not be effective, and still instructed the attendant to boil and administer it.
Out of a sense of medical compassion, the doctor set Wang Yongan’s bones and applied a medicinal paste.
Wang Yongan remained unconscious for three days before waking up to find that most of his injuries had healed and his legs ached faintly. Other than feeling weak, nothing else seemed amiss.
Hearing that he had awakened, Mother Qian ran over, blocked the doorway, and began to cry and scold, "Wang Yongan, you heartless bastard, you’ve turned my daughter into an idiot! You will get what’s coming to you, you beast in human skin, harbinger of disaster! You’ve ruined my daughter! Caused the death of your father! You even ruined your own daughter, you are not human—"
The remaining words were muffled as Shopkeeper Qian, who hurried over, covered her mouth and dragged her away.
Wang Yongan was stunned. Lady Qian had become an idiot? Was it an act or for real?
As he pondered, he saw a head peeking through the doorway—it was unmistakably Lady Qian.
She was looking at Wang Yongan foolishly, biting her fingers, standing at the doorway, not coming in.
Wang Yongan’s face was stern, "Lady Qian, don’t think you can muddle through by playing dumb! Since you are dissatisfied with me, and I can’t stand you either, I will give you a divorce letter tomorrow—"
Lady Qian’s nerves were suddenly struck by a line in that sentence. Her eyes reddened instantly, and she glared at Wang Yongan fiercely before lunging into the room.
Wang Yongan was still lying in bed, and when Lady Qian lunged in like that, he panicked, thinking of his leg. Unable to dodge, all he could do was close his eyes.
Then, he felt a sharp pain throughout his body. Wang Yongan felt that at least several of his ribs had been broken by Lady Qian’s pounce.
Just as he was about to speak, Lady Qian climbed on top of him and, with outstretched hands, slapped Wang Yongan repeatedly across the face.
Wang Yongan’s vision went dark, his head buzzing, his cheeks burning with pain, and a metallic sweetness spread in his mouth.
Lady Qian was silent, unleashed her fury by scratching, grabbing, and slapping Wang Yongan, putting all her strength into it.
At first, Wang Yongan was caught off guard and didn’t react.
By the time he realized what was happening, he couldn’t care about anything else. Lady Qian, that madwoman, had used every martial skill she had—biting, clawing, scratching, and even kicking and hitting.
She had kicked the spot where Wang Yongan’s leg was broken several times, bringing him so close to tears from the pain.
Finally seizing an opportunity, Wang Yongan managed to grab Lady Qian’s hands and pushed to get her off.
The door burst open as Shopkeeper Qian and Mother Qian rushed in, stabilizing Lady Qian. Mother Qian snarled, "How dare you push my daughter?"
Shopkeeper Qian pretended to mediate but held Wang Yongan down, allowing Lady Qian to scratch him a couple more times before she slipped down from the bed, ran to the door, turned her head to make a face at Wang Yongan, and ran away...
Wang Yongan nearly passed out from anger, "What on earth is going on?"
"You have the nerve to ask us? My daughter hit her head when you pushed her, and now she has hurt her brain. She can’t even recognize her parents anymore! Let me tell you, Wang Yongan, my daughter’s condition is all because of you. You better compensate well. If you dare mistreat my daughter, we, despite our old age, will make sure you pay, even if it costs us our lives!"
Wang Yongan wanted to say that it was he who had ended up with a broken leg due to Lady Qian pushing him!
However, he now realized that he was alone and outnumbered by the Qian family at home. It would be wiser to stay calm to avoid provoking Lady Qian, that madwoman, and getting beaten up again. Where would he go to seek justice?
Whether Lady Qian was truly mad or faking it, he couldn’t afford to confront her now. Once his injuries healed, he would collect his dues, one by one.
Thus, he remained silent, and the family stayed a few more days in the doctor’s clinic until they had recovered somewhat, mainly because there wasn’t much silver left in their pockets. They then hired a carriage and slowly made their way home.
The Qian couple, now old, gritted their teeth and cared for their daughter who was sick in both body and mind.
Wang Yongan had taken the opportunity to pocket the silver note that Lady Qian had taken out from the box the previous night when the Qians went to redeem Jinchai.
The old Qian couple had long run through their silver, and now that Lady Qian had lost her senses, someone needed to look after her. If not watched, no one knew where she might wander off to.
They were old and could not return to their hometown, nor did they know anyone in Qi City. If they left Wang Yongan, what chance would the elderly couple have with a daughter suffering from madness?
So they reluctantly continued to live together in the same courtyard, though they moved Lady Qian into their room, fearing that Wang Yongan would harm her.
Wang Yongan knew he was now a tiger fallen flat on the plains, forced to bow his head. But even if the three Qians were formidable, they couldn’t turn the tables on him. It might be better to maintain this mutual restraint for now and bide his time for future plans.
The three Qians and Wang Yongan despised each other, yet each depended on the other for survival. Only they knew the bitterness of this arrangement.
The nearby neighbors suffered, never getting a moment’s peace as they frequently heard the uproar from the Wang Family Small Courtyard, with shouting and cursing, never a moment of quiet...