"Let her go. Howard, you carry the little girl," Felix Thorne said. Phoebe Huxley immediately quieted down and resumed scrubbing the chitterlings.
"I'll carry the little girl."
The second brother, Patrick Thorne, hoisted Tang Xiao Nan onto his back. The three brothers then decided to head out together, making their way toward the Hawthorne family's home.
The Hawthorne family lived in a rundown house near the foot of the mountain with no other houses nearby. It had once belonged to a lonely, childless old man in the village. After he died, the house sat empty until it became home to Adrian Hawthorne and his mother.
With tears in her eyes, his mother, Rosalind Green, cleaned her son's wounds. The hardships of life had done nothing to diminish her beauty; even in plain clothes and on simple food, her elegance was impossible to hide. But this beauty was also her greatest curse. Even in broad daylight, local hoodlums would come to harass her.
If not for Adrian Hawthorne's ferocity and ability to fight, Rosalind Green would have lost her virtue long ago.
"It doesn't hurt."
Half of Adrian Hawthorne's face was swollen, but his expression remained impassive, as if not even the sky falling could elicit a reaction from him.
The uninjured side of his face was impossibly handsome, yet shadowed by a gloom that was chilling to the bone. Though only twelve, Adrian Hawthorne had a gaze so fierce it frightened even adults, which was why Felix Thorne disliked the boy.
The boy carried an aura of viciousness, one even heavier than his own as a pig butcher.
Rosalind Green's tears fell faster. She sobbed, "From now on, you stay away from that chubby girl of the Thorne family. If we can't afford to provoke them, we can at least hide from them. How many beatings have you taken because of that girl?"
As she mentioned the chubby girl, Rosalind Green gritted her teeth, her face a mask of resentment.
'That chubby girl from the Thorne family may be as pretty as a porcelain doll and look charming, but her spoiled-rotten nature is just as detestable. It's no use for my son to try and avoid her. That girl always finds a way to torment Kenneth, stirring up trouble every single time and getting him beaten by those three Thorne bullies.'
'He comes back covered in bruises every time, and it makes my heart twist in pain to see it. But I'm so useless. I can't help him. All I can do is watch helplessly as my son is humiliated.'
A sharp pain lanced through Rosalind Green's heart. She hated the Thornes for their arrogance and for breaking their promise. Her husband had given the old master of the Thorne family five hundred yuan to look after them, yet now the Thornes were the very ones who bullied Kenneth the most.
'That five hundred yuan might as well have been thrown to the dogs.'
'She also blamed herself for her own powerlessness and cowardice. Not only could she not protect her son, but she also brought Adrian so much trouble. She was truly a useless mother.'
Agitated, Rosalind Green accidentally brushed against the wound. Adrian Hawthorne drew a sharp breath but quickly composed himself again.
"I'm so useless, Kenneth. This is all my fault."
Rosalind Green's self-loathing reached its peak. 'What good am I?' she thought. 'I can't even handle a simple task like cleaning a wound, and I earn fewer work points than a twelve-year-old boy.'
'I'm just a burden to my son!'
'Maybe his life would be easier if I were dead.'
'But... my husband made me promise. He told me I had to be strong and keep living, that he would definitely come back for us.'
Rosalind believed her husband wouldn't break his promise. 'But when is he coming back?'
'I really... I can't hold on much longer.'
Completely breaking down, Rosalind Green covered her face and began to weep, her cries growing more heartbroken by the second. Adrian Hawthorne closed his eyes, concealing a flicker of impatience.
'If Rosalind Green weren't his birth mother, he would have tossed the weeping woman into the mountains to be fed to the wolves.'
'But he couldn't kill his own mother.'
'That would be an unforgivable sin.'
'Besides, he had promised his father he would protect his mother until he came for them.'
'But his father had been gone for four years without a single word. There was no way to know if he was dead or alive. He was probably dead by now.'
Not a ripple of emotion stirred within Adrian Hawthorne. He was about to dump the water from the basin when his ears suddenly twitched. His gaze turned savage, and he lunged toward the door like a wild wolf, snatching up the hatchet that lay beside it.
But a moment later, he relaxed and lowered the hatchet. Rosalind Green was still slumped over the table, weeping, completely oblivious to what had just happened.