Joyful Motherhood in a Rural Family

Chapter 181 - 181: 179: The Hidden Worries of Liu Sisi

“What was the woman’s name you said…? Was it Liu Zhi’er? Are you sure you didn’t get it wrong?”

“Hey! How could I get something like this wrong? It’s not something that happens twice a year; how could I forget?”

Guihua didn’t even lift her head as she spoke, concentrating on wrapping the mooncake filling in her hands.

Liu Zhi’er, Liu Zhi’er, could it be her?

It shouldn’t be her, should it?

Definitely not her!

Liu Sisi’s thoughts became tangled and chaotic, leaving her momentarily lost.

“Liu Xuer, Liu Zhi’er, Liu Sisi, I think you three sisters are one more disgraceful than the other… one more skilled in seducing others…”

Di Ruoning’s words of scolding from the past were still fresh in her memory!

The reason she was familiar with the name Liu Zhi’er was that she had heard it from Di Ruoning’s mouth.

If the woman Old Man Li was searching for really was Liu Zhi’er…

Liu Sisi shuddered and suddenly leaped up from her chair, sprinting out of the courtyard with Ah-Huang and Ah-Hua barking wildly behind her.

“Sisi! Sisi, where are you going?”

Without taking the time to reply to Guihua’s question, Liu Sisi headed straight for Old Man Li’s house, which she remembered.

Please, please let it not be her!

Dashing all the way to the village entrance, Liu Sisi suddenly stopped, gasping for breath. A crucial question occurred to her.

She didn’t know Liu Zhi’er at all, so how could she recognize her?

However, there was no turning back now. She could only forge ahead and face the consequences, even if it meant being scolded.

The last time that Big Mouth Li had died, Liu Sisi and Di Yelei had come this way together. But now she was alone, and the houses here were different from the Di Family’s single houses. This place had courtyards within courtyards, piled up in layers, narrow and dark.

Liu Sisi wandered around inside for a while, meeting some villagers who looked at her curiously. After all, she rarely appeared in the village.

She finally reached Old Man Li’s house, only to find the main entrance tightly closed.

Not giving up, she circled the house several times, peeking through the windows but finding the interior too dark to see if anyone was inside.

Guihua mentioned that Old Man Li would take the woman back to Upper Village, but whether or not it had been done was hard to say.

Left with no choice, she had to retrace her steps slowly.

As she turned around, she saw Guihua running towards her, gasping for breath.

“Sisi, what’s wrong? How did you end up here? I called you earlier, but you didn’t answer. Sisi, won’t you say something?”

In the room of Old Man Li’s house, where the windows were tightly sealed, a young woman was tied to the head of the bed. She seemed to be asleep with her mouth gagged, but was suddenly awakened by the noise outside. Slowly, she opened her eyes and listened closely to the sounds outside.

“Sister Guihua, I just came to take a look after hearing you mention…that the woman’s name is Liu Zhi’er. That’s why I was curious.”

Guihua let out a sigh of relief!

“Hey! What’s there to see? You know what kind of person Old Man Li is. I bet it won’t be long before he parades that woman around the village. By then, will you be afraid of not seeing her? Don’t worry!”

“But I…”

Liu Sisi’s mouth was tinged with a bitter smile. How could she explain the hidden worries in her heart?

In the room, the woman’s expression suddenly lit up when Liu Sisi began to speak.

“Mm…mm…”

She wanted to shout, but her mouth was gagged with a cloth strip, leaving her to make only muffled moans.

She struggled desperately, trying to break free from the ropes binding her behind her back. However, the thick hemp rope held her hands and feet tightly to the head of the bed, leaving her unable to move at all.

Outside, Guihua frowned in concern and held Liu Sisi’s hand.

“What is going on? Sisi, why are you also adopting other people’s tactics, saying half and leaving half unsaid?”

“No! I just… I was just curious for a moment, but now I’m alright.”

Seeing the worried Guihua, she couldn’t help but laugh and say, “Sister Guihua, I’m sorry for making you worry. Let’s go back. Zhang Yun also went with them into the mountains, and it’s quite lonely for you to eat alone. Why don’t we finish making the mooncakes, and you stay at my house for dinner tonight? We can chat and gossip.”

While speaking, she turned to hold Guihua’s hand and walked towards the house.

The woman in the dark room seemed anxious when she heard people were about to leave!

“Mm…mm! Mm…”

She couldn’t care less about the pain and pulled on the thick hemp rope with all her strength. The rough rope quickly cut into her flesh, yet it didn’t budge.

With a vigorous struggle, she dragged the heavy wooden bed, making a heavy scraping sound on the ground.

“That’s fine too. I’m home alone anyway, so it would save me the trouble of cooking. Let’s go.” Guihua was also happy, walking hand in hand with Liu Sisi.

The sudden noise behind her made Liu Sisi stop: “Wait! Sister Guihua, did you hear any sound?”

“A sound? Where is there any sound?”

Guihua couldn’t help but listen suspiciously, tilting her head.

Liu Sisi also listened carefully, but the sound that seemed to exist just now was gone. It seemed she had indeed misheard. She laughed in embarrassment.

“I must have misheard, or it was just a mouse rustling. You don’t know, but the other day I saw a shadow outside the window and it scared me. When I looked closely, it turned out to be a spotted cat…”

The two chatted as they slowly walked away.

In the dark room, the woman struggled desperately, sobbing futilely, attempting to make a sound. Hearing the footsteps of the two distant, she anxiously wailed, but the cloth pad blocked her throat.

No sound could be heard outside anymore, and the woman’s tight string suddenly broke; her vision darkened, and she fell into darkness.

The two got busy as soon as they got home, and by the time they finished making the mooncakes, it was already evening.

Guihua pondered over the dishes for tonight’s dinner.

Since there were no outsiders, the two decided to take advantage of the autumn chives before they were gone, and made chive pies for dinner.

Liu Sisi quickly fetched the eggs, chopped the chives, and started making chive pies by frying them in the pan.

“I noticed that the sweet potatoes next to your house should be harvested. Why haven’t you dug them up yet? If they get frostbitten in the ground, they won’t last long.” Guihua remembered the few sweet potatoes that Liu Sisi had planted.

“Alright, I will dig them up tomorrow when I have some free time. Actually, there aren’t many of them. When I first planted them, I was just thinking about eating the potato seedlings.”

Liu Sisi wiped the sweat from her forehead, “Maybe because I took good care of them, the other day I casually dug up a hole, and there were quite a few sweet potatoes inside, each as big as two fists. Digging up that small piece of land should be enough for us to eat in the winter. By the way, I’ll dig up a few holes for you later, and you can take them home to eat.”