PCJ – Chapter 59 Bone Thorn

“Why did you come?” Zhang Jiaohua frowned as he looked at Zhang Yuanbao, who followed his grandparents into the house.

“Hmph!” Zhang Yuanbao completely ignored the little master’s questioning.

Zhang Manyin chuckled, “This child. Can’t your cousin come too?”

Although Liu Qiaoye felt a slight displeasure, she still reprimanded Zhang Jiaohua, “You little brat, go quickly and fetch some chairs for your grandparents. Yuanbao, you sit down too.”

“What kind of meat is this?” Ma Donghua looked at the rabbit meat in the bowl and asked strangely.

“Wild rabbit meat. Jiaohua caught it in the mountains today,” Zhang Youping proudly said as he served his parents and nephew. “You’ve been saying my son can’t do anything. Now look, my son brought back wild rabbit meat.”

Zhang Manyin didn’t quite believe it. “How is that possible? Can Jiaohua really outrun the mountain dogs from Chen Lishong’s house? It’s not easy to catch a wild rabbit in the mountains even for Chen Lishong’s mountain dogs.”

“What kind of talk is that? Comparing grandchildren to other people’s mountain dogs?” Ma Donghua quickly complained to her husband in a low voice.

Zhang Manyin’s words were indeed inappropriate. Liu Qiaoye’s expression changed immediately, and Zhang Youping was also somewhat displeased. Zhang Jiaohua didn’t mind though; he felt running faster than mountain dogs wasn’t something to be ashamed of.

Zhang Manyin also felt his words were ill-phrased. He didn’t have any ill intentions; it was just a casual remark. People in the mountains didn’t pay much attention to their words; naturally, they didn’t ponder over every sentence. They just said what came to mind.

“Tomorrow, I’m going to the mountains to catch wild rabbits too. If Jiaohua can catch them, why can’t I?” Zhang Yuanbao, since birth, had been given the family mission by his parents to compete with Zhang Jiaohua. Now that Jiaohua could bring meat home, he couldn’t lag behind.

“Nonsense! The mountains are full of wild beasts. Who goes to the mountains to catch rabbits? Jiaohua catching a rabbit is purely luck. If luck isn’t on your side and you encounter wolves or wild boars, what then? You’re not allowed to go to the mountains to catch rabbits, and Jiaohua isn’t allowed either,” Zhang Manyin quickly reprimanded.

This time, Zhang Manyin’s words received support from his son and daughter-in-law.

“Yes, it’s too dangerous for children to go to the mountains to chase rabbits. We have wolves in Meishan. If you encounter a wolf, you won’t even find bones. Jiaohua, in the future, you’re only allowed to pick firewood from the forest behind the courtyard. Don’t go to the mountains,” Liu Qiaoye warned.

Zhang Jiaohua glared at his cousin. Although Zhang Yuanbao was admonished not to go to the mountains, he didn’t care. Instead, he smugly made a face at Zhang Jiaohua, implying that he couldn’t go either.

Seeing Zhang Yuanbao’s attitude, Zhang Jiaohua was annoyed. He scratched his head, then suddenly had an idea and said to the back of Zhang Yuanbao, “Jinhu, where have you guys been these days? Why haven’t I seen you?”

Zhang Yuanbao’s back suddenly went cold, feeling a chill down his spine. He burst into tears, and Zhang Manyin quickly hugged him.

Zhang Manyin’s expression changed as well. He thought Zhang Jiaohua hadn’t seen the five little ghosts for a while now, but unexpectedly, they had appeared tonight. Ma Donghua was also tense.

Zhang Youping and Liu Qiaoye were suddenly nervous. Just when things had calmed down a bit, Jinhu and the others had appeared again.

Zhang Jiaohua chuckled, “Don’t worry, I was just teasing Yuanbao.”

“You brat! Can you joke about this? Don’t you know scaring people can be deadly?” Zhang Youping suddenly stood up, ready to spank Zhang Jiaohua.

Liu Qiaoye quickly restrained Zhang Youping. “You little rascal, apologize to your father quickly and promise not to do this again. This kind of thing shouldn’t be joked about, understand?”

Ma Donghua also said, “Jiaohua, your mother is right. This kind of thing shouldn’t be joked about. Let it go for today, but don’t do this again.”

Hearing that it was just a joke, Zhang Yuanbao finally relaxed, but he glanced back at Zhang Jiaohua and realized he hadn’t been punished. How could that be allowed? So he continued to cry.

“Jiaohua, don’t scare people like this in the future. Look how you scared your brother. Youping, regarding Jiaohua’s situation, I think we should find someone to take a look. We can’t keep delaying like this,” Zhang Manyin always had some opinions about how his son and daughter-in-law dealt with Zhang Jiaohua’s matters.

“Dad, I don’t think it’s necessary. Jiaohua can’t see those things anymore. It’s totally unnecessary to find someone,” Zhang Jiaohua had seen the abilities of the little ghosts. If there were any issues, he could handle them himself. If he couldn’t handle them, where could he find someone more powerful than the little ghosts in Meishan?

“Every time I talk to you, you say the same thing,” Zhang Manyin was very dissatisfied with Zhang Youping’s attitude.

“Let’s not talk about this. Since Jiaohua is fine now, whether we find someone or not doesn’t matter,” Ma Donghua saw the atmosphere was getting tense and quickly intervened.

“Hmph!” Zhang Manyin was displeased and dropped his chopsticks on the table, losing his appetite.

Regardless of what the adults said, Zhang Jiaohua kept eating. He also shared some meat with the little gray dog by his feet. Zhang Jiaohua was afraid the little gray dog might choke on bones, so he specifically picked out boneless meat for it to eat. He ate the meat with bones himself, and under the table, there was a pile of discarded bones. The two dogs from the neighbor’s house also came in and specifically picked up the bones under the table to eat.

The little gray dog was very vigilant towards the two outsider dogs. Although it was shorter and smaller than the neighbor’s dogs, on its own turf, the little gray dog was intimidating and would bark fiercely at the outsider dogs at the slightest provocation.

“Woof woof!” Although the little gray dog was smaller and shorter than the neighbor’s dogs, it was quite imposing on its own turf, barking fiercely at the intruders.

Unable to make his cousin suffer, Zhang Yuanbao focused all his attention on eating. He kept devouring food, sometimes swallowing large chunks of meat without chewing properly. Soon, tragedy struck. There were many small bones in the rabbit meat, and although Liu Qiaoye had cut the meat into small pieces and minced the bones as much as possible, there were still some thumb-sized bones and many bone spurs.

Zhang Yuanbao ate too quickly and, although he avoided the large bones, he couldn’t avoid the bone spurs. A sharp bone spur lodged in his throat.

“Waah…” Zhang Yuanbao started crying again.

“What’s wrong now, my little darling?” Although Zhang Manyin doted on his eldest grandson, a crying child was always annoying.

“It’s stuck in my throat!” Zhang Yuanbao cried while speaking.

“Drink some water,” Ma Donghua initially didn’t pay much attention and fetched a dipper of water from the jar.

But it didn’t work. Zhang Yuanbao drank a mouthful of water, but the bone spur remained lodged in his throat.

Zhang Manyin immediately resorted to his tried-and-true method. “Swallow some rice; it’ll be fine.”

Zhang Yuanbao swallowed another mouthful of rice, but this time, the bone spur was particularly stubborn, and both attempts failed.