A story unfit for delicate nerves

In the hometown of my mother, a great river will overflow every summer due to the heavy rains. This summer, the rain is unprecedentedly powerful, flooding several villages along the banks and drowns a number of cows and dogs.

When the rain stops, the temperature will skyrockets to its scorching point, driving all birds to the shade of the trees and all cows to the depth of the rivulets, or the cozy air-conditioned rooms. Nowadays, a fair number of people in the local villages could afford air-conditioners at home, a thing unimaginable to people a decade ago and not dreamed to old folks a score years ago. People have forgotten how they endured the equally burning summers in the past decades; youngsters now never go out to drown the heat in the cool deep river—how could that compare with lounging lazily in an air-conditioned room playing the compelling smartphones?

However, there are always some people who are unable to enjoy the fruits of modernity and civility. Ting and Hua are two of them. Ting is Ze's mother, at the age of 81. Hua is 44, the youngest son of Ting. Bot Ting and Hua dwell under the roof of Ze, the elder brother of Hua and his domineering wife Zhen. In the eye of Zhen, Hua is useful but cowardly, thus deserving no respect but just commands, and Ting is old and weak and therefore deserves instant death. Due to his soft character, Hua got no wife when he was a young man and remains single all the time. That doubles the contempt from people like Zhen, his sister-in-law. He is treated nothing more than a slave. Hua's health has been eroded by long time hard labour and lack of nutritious food and chronic ailments suffer him a lot. The government launched a programme several years ago, supporting the old or sick bachelors, widows/widowers, orphans and disable people with some funds. Hua could get some 80,000 yuan each year, but all the money go to the hand of his sister-in-law. Not a single sense of guilt haunts Zhen. She just keeps driving Hua to labour in any weather.

It was a burning noon; the sun heated the earth ruthlessly and even cicadas were exhausted by the hot weather to sing their songs. Hua set out to the field very early that morning to avoid the heat waves with having breakfast. At noon, he returned and his sister-in-law cursed him at the sight of him: you lazy bones! How dare you leave my cows in the field in a burning weather like this? Go back to drive the cows to the rivulet! You shall wait to see if my cows have sunstroke!

Zhen was playing Mahjong in the air-conditioned room when she was cursing. Hua was crestfallen when he was back to the field with an empty and thirsty stomach.  

In about 3pm, a neighbour went out to see his cows in the field. He saw a pair of worn shoes along the cement channel of irrigation, which was completely dry due to the temperature near 40 C. Curiosity drew him near and then he saw a figure in the channel. It almost scared the hell out of him, for the figure seemed so daunting: it was frozen in the poise of struggling with its limbs.Going nearer, the neighbour found the figure in the ditch-like channel was poor Hua. He drew him out of the ditch but found breath had left him for some time. The neighbour went back to report with a very heavy heart, for he knew Hua was killed by heat, thirst, hunger, and ruthlessness. But nobody could do anything.

One day after Hua's death, a storm attacked the area and the river flooded. Another neighbour saw a figure jump into the bellowing flood from a bridge.

The next day, people found Hua's mother missing.