Surrounded by green trees, this small wooden house stood with a somewhat idyllic beauty. It was enclosed by a fence, with a narrow path in the middle and two square vegetable gardens on either side. However, instead of vegetables, flowers filled the gardens. They lacked distinguishable names, but their red, blue, white, and pink hues embellished the picturesque landscape.
The bamboo-constructed house was standalone and single-storied. Upon entering, a faint fragrance of bamboo filled the air. The furnishings inside were simple: upon entering through the main door, there was a living room with a small wooden table and four long wooden benches. The design was old-fashioned, but the craftsmanship was decent, indicating the table and benches had some history judging from the engraved patterns.
To the east, there was a small room with a makeshift wooden door made of burnt bamboo pieces tied together with iron wire, creating a simple partition between the living room and the bedroom.
Cheyenne pushed the door open, and a musty smell assaulted her senses. She fanned her hand, holding her nose, and entered the room to take a look. The room was tiny with only a 1. 5-meter bed, leaving no space for anything else. The blankets and sheets on it were so dirty that their original colors were hardly discernible. To her surprise, there was a little girl lying on the bed, seemingly sleeping soundly despite the large bloodstains on her white dress.
Seeing her granddaughter’s face, Susan urgently pushed aside the person in front of her with her walking stick and called out her granddaughter’s name with tearful concern.
“Plop,” she fell by the bed, and without anyone’s help, she shakily stood up with her walking stick. Tears fell unexpectedly onto the little girl’s face.
“Adrianna, what’s wrong? Why are you sleeping here? Wake up… Grandma’s here for you.”
“Weren’t you asking for egg custard this morning? I’ll go make some for you when we get back. Adrianna, open your eyes and look at me.”
“My poor granddaughter, you’re only six… Who on earth could have done this? My Adrianna is so little and adorable, always smiling… My good granddaughter…”
The hoarse and low sobbing of the old lady trembled more with each cry. At her age, losing someone close was an indescribable grief.
Everyone present was moved to tears. Jillian and Yehuda, a married couple, also gazed blankly at the lifeless Adrianna.
Jillian collapsed to the ground, her face turning ashen.
“No, it can’t be… How could this happen?”
“Adrianna is dead, what about my sons?”
Thinking of her two sons, Jillian scrambled to her feet, grabbed her husband Yehuda’s collar, and roared at him, “What are you standing there for? Hurry and find our boys!”
Yehuda also seemed worried about their two sons. At his age, he didn’t dare to think about divorce, let alone having another child.
The couple split up around the small wooden house, searching frantically around the peach grove multiple times, but they did not find their children.
The gruesome scene of the Mooney family’s granddaughter’s death finally made Jillian unable to contain her sorrow and self-blame. She sat on the ground weeping, holding her head in agony, her cries deafening, “My precious sons… Where are you?”
“Blame it on me. If I hadn’t coveted the Lawrence family’s property, I wouldn’t have let my two kids hide out here,” she said.
Her intention was to have the two children pretend to be missing and stay here for a few days. After all, no one had lived here for a long time, and it was far up on the mountainside.
Now was not the season for fruit picking and flower admiring, so there wouldn’t be anyone coming here on ordinary days. Therefore, it was absolutely safe for the kids to hide here.
She had planned to have them hide for only three days, as the golden time for the police to search for missing persons was three days.
She was also afraid the two kids would go hungry, so she bought a lot of their favorite snacks and toys to put in the house.
Little did she know that the Mooney family’s granddaughter would also come along.
She never thought her clever arrangement would indirectly lead to the death of her own two kids. Even though Jillian wasn’t a good person, she was a mother, and she loved her two sons immensely.
Yehuda was also very saddened, and in that moment, he saw the light.
He would never be an honest man and listen to this woman’s blind commands again. In his anger, Yehuda fiercely straddled Jillian and rained punches down on her.
Although Yehuda was lean, he was, after all, a man who had been doing farm work in the mountains for years, which had built him a great deal of strength.
The force of his punches, which pierced through layer after layer of fat, felt as though they were hitting her bones.
“It’s all your fault, you greedy wretch. If it weren’t for you, my two boys wouldn’t be missing.”
“You’re having an affair with the village chief, and if I end up in jail, I’ll still kill you, you wretch!”
“… Inside the wooden house, Susan cried uncontrollably, and everyone had not yet recovered from the grief.
Outside, Jillian’s cries were heard again, and everyone hurried out to see that the husband and wife couldn’t find their children, which led to a conflict and a fight.
Yehuda was usually silent; even the dogs in the village would howl to show their dominance to him.
Today, the honest man had turned into a killer, and everyone watched with fear and regretted bullying Yehuda before.
Seeing him looking as though he could devour a person, they silently sweated and never dared to underestimate him as an honest man again.
Apart from the spectacle of witnessing domestic violence, everyone also learned some other news.
Jillian was cheating!
And she was cheating with the village chief, tut-tut!
The village chief usually carried himself like a cadre, making himself look like a just official. It turned out that he had long been involved with Yehuda’s wife behind the scenes.
Unfortunately, today the village chief’s wife had also come, and upon hearing about her husband’s betrayal, this formidable woman, immediately took off her slippers and chased after the village chief.
“You old rascal, at your age and you still do disgusting things.”
“Honey, listen to me, he’s framing me. I really didn’t do it. How could I even stomach Jillian, who’s so fat?”
Speaking of fat, the village chief’s wife wasn’t one to be outdone, but at least Jillian had fair skin.
She lowered her head and looked at herself, her skin was rough and tanned.