I still called Liang Sheng ‘Brother’. But the look I gave off whenever I saw Father became more and more cold. I can also feel that the look in the wheelchair-ridden Father was becoming more uneasy. My eyes were like an invisible weapon. He rarely talked to Mother in a loud voice when I was around anymore because Mother was now like a candle flickering in the wind after being severely overworked. The harshness of life had made her aged quicker and become weaker than she should. Father seems to understand, if Mother passed away unfortunately, he would be left with nothing.

Sometimes, when he come across to a piece of meat while Mother was feeding him, he would gesture to let Mother take a bite. The most unimaginable thing is, Mother would actually be touched to tears by this action.

I often think, if Liang Sheng’s mother did not exist, perhaps, I would have a happy family. My mother would also not have become so weak from selling blood to ensure our survival! She is just like a flower which might wilt anytime. And Liang Sheng, how could he actually live so peacefully in my house, enjoying the sacrificial love and adoration from Mother?

But I forgot to consider how Liang Sheng felt. Wasn’t he, too, suffering in this nightmare? Torn between his past life and the present reality, he had no way of getting help, no way to breathe. His past life was his mother ruining our whole family while his present reality is accepting the silent love from Mother. He lives his life in guilt. Perhaps, his love for me also stemmed from this neverending guilt.

The ginger that Liang Sheng buried had only germinated but never bloomed. I asked him many times, “Is there really ginger flowers in this world?”

Liang Sheng’s eyelashes are long and curled, as good looking as a girl’s. He thought for half a day, then looked at me for half a day before saying, “Jiang Sheng, there are ginger flowers in this world. You must believe Brother.”

I believe him.

My eyes still opened wide late at night. I used the night to clearly see all those things that I don’t understand. But the night was dim and heavy, everything was fated to be useless. I did not realise, from that moment on, my pupils had started portraying hate, and it was to never go away.

My happiest times were with Liang Sheng because he always give me my way no matter what we do. Unfortunately, I never realised how horribly Liang Sheng’s mind was living. I only laughed with him when he laughed; looked at the sky with him when he looks at the sky; even during times when he was extremely bored and told me, “Jiang Sheng, you pig,” I would agree loudly, “Yes, I’m a pig.” At this time, he would use a tree branch to lightly hit my head and a smile would slip onto his face. The afternoon shone into his determined but sad eyes.

I quietly looked at his side profile. At this time, Bei Xiaowu came running from far. He was pespiring and panting, “Liang Sheng! Jiang Sheng! He Manhou stole your house’s hen! Your house is in a mess, quickly go!”

He Manhou was Wei’s village most professional self-made ‘entrepreneur’ — in simpler words, he was a thief. I had always told Bei Xiaowu I thought he was the most capable man in the Wei’s Village. Nobody else could afford to feed their wife to become as fat as his wife. Bei Xiaowu said, “Damn Jiang Sheng, you think you are raising a pig!”

Now that ‘pig-raiser professional’ He Manhou is part-timing by stealing hens from my house. By the time I reacted, Liang Sheng had already galloped far away, Bei Xiaowu was pulling my arm and chasing after him.

Bei Xiaowu and I reached home after Liang Sheng. There were many people outside the door and the yard was in a mess. The weak Mother was panting in front of the stone chair, the handicapped Father had fell from his wheelchair and was lying on the yard. A few pieces of chicken feather was on his eyebrows. Liang Sheng ran to him and shouted, “Dad, what happened to you?”

I quietly hid behind Mother, and started tearing with her without knowing the reason. Liang Sheng screamed at the crowd of onlookers, “He Manhou!” The thick veins on his neck were bulging.

He Manhou stuck his head out from the crowd and lazily said, “I have said, it was the weasels that stole your hen! Why wouldn’t your family believe?”

Bei Xiaowu raised his voice, “Liang Sheng, don’t listen to this scum, I saw it, he pushed your dad off just now! Damn! He Manhou, when did you become a weasel….” Bei Xiaowu did not manage to finish his sentence before his mother swept him into her arms. That scene was as though breastfeeding, it gave me a shock.

His mother laughed dryly, “What do kids know, it’s said, the 黄书狼 stole it.” The people around all agreed. At Wei Village, the status of our family is much lower than a useless gangster. Mother was weak, Father was handicapped, the two children are underaged and most importantly, the people in Wei Village did not like Liang Sheng.

Liang Sheng’s eyes were red and filled with unspeakable suffering. He charged towards He Manhou like a crazy person but was punched to the floor by He Manhou instead. He climbed up stubbornly and charged again; however he was pulled away by the onlookers. They said, “This child, how come he doesn’t know how to differentiate the situation. How can your Uncle He lie?”

He Manhou had a face full of innocence, “I have told you, your house is not clean, there are weasels!” As he said that, he let out a scream, “Ahhhh!’ — my teeth were sunk into his buttocks. He screamed and jumped in pain, trying to get away but mu teeth were still on his buttocks, as though it grew from there.

Even though Bei Xiaowu was restrained in his mother’s arms, he did not forget to shout, “Damn! Jiang Sheng, when did you secretly train your biting skills to such a high level?”

I rolled my eyes at him. I only wanted to make a bite to avenge Liang Sheng, how did I know He Manhou wore such a weird pair of pants, my teeth were stuck there and couldn’t be plucked out.

Bei Xiaowu’s mother saw me rolling my eyes and sighed to my mother, “Look at that, I told you not to let in that unclean bastard. You must be happy now, your own daughter also became crazy.”

Liang Sheng pushed the crowd away, he shouted, “Get out of the way! Get out! I want to see my younger sister.” But they were afraid things might escalate so they held onto him tightly. Liang Sheng was so anxious that he burst into tears.

Looking at how Liang Sheng resembles one of those crying kids from Wei Village with his wide mouth, I wanted so much to call out to him, “Brother,” and tell him, “Can we not cry anymore?” But when I aee the pathetic state our house was in, tears blurred my vision.

Amongst the tears, He Manhou and I were carried to the clinic together by the other villagers.

Volume 1 of 2
Chapter 3 of 83
Click on the tag 凉生，我们可不可以不忧伤1 to look through all translations in this volume.

The ‘Jiang’ in Jiang Sheng’s name refers to ginger. The ginger plant that Liang Sheng has will still be appearing in the future chapters. It is a sort of symbolism for the relationship between Liang Sheng and Jiang Sheng.

In this chapter, Jiang Sheng is already thirteen. She has started to grow up and began to understand the situation of her family. She is conflicted. Can she still love and treat Liang Sheng the way she did after understanding all these? She knows she hate her father. But what about Liang Sheng?

Through this incident with He Manhou, she realised that deep down in her heart, she loves Liang Sheng and cannot bear to see him suffer.

And yes, sorry for the late post. I had already completed the translation over the weekend but was too busy to upload it. I should be less busy this week but I want to use the time to catch up on my Diva Hits the Road highlights (and perhaps, a Keep Running post) instead. Will churn out more translations if time allows, or else next update should be the weekend again as usual. Cheers 🙂