Chapter 11: Xu Damou Bowed His Head and Admitted His Mistake

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Xu Damao returned home in a daze and slumped heavily into a chair, unable to collect himself for a long time. Chen Mo’s few casual words struck him like heavy blows, shattering the most hidden and humiliating veil that covered his shame.

Infertile? Sterile?

These two words buzzed incessantly in his mind, making him feel dizzy and disoriented.

“Damao, what’s wrong? You look terrible,” Lou Xiao’e came out from the inner room and asked with concern upon seeing her husband’s state. She had vaguely heard the commotion outside earlier but hadn’t caught the details.

“I...” Xu Damao opened his mouth but couldn’t utter a word. Staring at his wife’s delicate yet somewhat naive face, a storm of anger, shame, and fear swirled inside him.

“Did you quarrel with someone? Was it He Yuzhu again?” Lou Xiao’e poured him a glass of water and gently advised, “Don’t take him seriously; he’s just a rough man.”

“Not him!” Xu Damao suddenly slammed the table, startling Lou Xiao’e. He lifted his bloodshot eyes and fixed them tightly on his wife. “I’m asking you, after all these years of marriage, why is there no sign of a child in your womb?”

Lou Xiao’e’s face instantly paled, her eyes reddened as she said with grievance, “Damao, why bring this up again... We’ve been to the hospital; the doctor said... said there’s nothing wrong with me.”

“Nothing wrong? Then why can’t we have a child?”

Like a fuse set ablaze, Xu Damao unleashed all his bottled-up frustration from outside, “I think the problem is you! You’re a hen that can’t lay eggs!”

His words stabbed into Lou Xiao’e’s heart like knives, and she could no longer hold back tears, which fell in torrents.

“Xu Damao, you... you bastard!”

Watching his wife cry, Xu Damao’s irritation grew unbearable. He knew he shouldn’t have spoken like that, but he couldn’t control himself.

Chen Mo’s words, Shazhu’s mockery, and the neighbors’ whispers made him feel as if he were stripped naked and thrown into the snow, cold and humiliated.

He paced restlessly around the room, his mind a chaotic mess.

Apologize? To that poor kid Chen Mo? In front of the whole courtyard?

Xu Damao was the projectionist at the factory; everywhere he went, people treated him with respect.

If this got out, how could he survive in the factory anymore?

But if he didn’t go...

“Exhausted and doomed,” “not even the Great Immortals can save,” Chen Mo’s words echoed in his ears.

What if... what if it were true?

He had secretly consulted some old Chinese doctors and taken all sorts of dubious medicines, but none helped.

Chen Mo could see right through the root of his illness; maybe he really had a solution.

Carrying on the family line was a matter of utmost importance. If he truly was sterile, Xu Damao’s life would be over.

Lou Xiao’e cried for a while, then gradually calmed down.

Though naive, she was not a fool. She came over to Xu Damao, wiped her tears, and quietly asked, “Damao, what exactly happened outside? Is it related to Chen Mo? I think I heard Shazhu laughing at you...”

Xu Damao’s face flushed red and white in turns but eventually recounted the incident, omitting the parts where he provoked Chen Mo, only saying Chen Mo had humiliated him publicly for no reason.

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“Did he... really say that?” Lou Xiao’e covered her mouth, shock evident on her face. She looked at her husband, her eyes filled with complicated emotions.

Xu Damao felt uneasy under her gaze and snapped angrily, “Why are you looking at me like that? He’s talking nonsense! Just guessing!”

“Damao,” Lou Xiao’e shook her head, her voice trembling with hope, “don’t be angry yet. Think carefully—out of everyone in the courtyard, why did he single you out?

Shazhu’s leg, the old deaf woman’s fate, that strange illness of Bang Geng... hasn’t every strange thing recently been connected to him?

What if... what if he really can cure it?”

“Cure? That’s extortion!” Xu Damao roared. “He wants me to apologize in front of the whole courtyard and pay ten times the consultation fee! He just wants to humiliate me and strip me bare!”

“Apologize if you must, pay if you must!” Lou Xiao’e’s voice rose too; it was the first time she dared to speak so loudly to Xu Damao.

“What’s more important, face or our family’s future? Damao, I beg you, let’s give it a try! Just for me, okay?”

She grabbed Xu Damao’s arm, tears streaming again. “I dream of having a child. If you really... really can’t, I wouldn’t despise you. But now there’s hope; why not try?

Money can be earned again, but if we miss this chance, it’s over for life!”

Lou Xiao’e’s words unlocked the last barrier in Xu Damao’s heart.

Face was worth nothing compared to continuing the family line!

Xu Damao could endure and adjust. To become the projectionist, he had done everything from shoe-shining to wiping tables for the leaders.

Now, to cure his illness, bowing to Chen Mo was nothing.

“A gentleman’s revenge is never too late! Once I’m cured, I’ll settle the score!”

With this realization, the anger inside him gradually dissipated.

He exhaled deeply, as if making a monumental decision, and said to Lou Xiao’e, “Alright! I’ll go! For the Xu family’s legacy, I don’t care about my pride anymore!”

Early the next morning, at dawn, Third Uncle Yan Bugui was solemnly sweeping in front of Chen Mo’s door, fulfilling his “treatment duty.”

People in the courtyard woke one after another, washing and heading to work.

Seeing Third Uncle’s figure, they whispered and pointed.

“Hey, looks like Third Uncle really got hooked on sweeping?”

“Hooked? Don’t you know? Chen Mo said this is to treat ‘Calculating Conscience Syndrome’; he can’t stop even for a day.”

“Hahaha, Chen Mo is clever — no charge, just found a free cleaner.”

Yan Bugui’s face shifted between pale and flushed, gripping his broom tighter. He cursed Chen Mo a hundred times inside but could only endure, thinking of the ten yuan consultation fee.

At that moment, Xu Damao and Lou Xiao’e approached from the back courtyard.

Xu Damao’s eyes were dark and sunken, clearly having not slept well.

He hung his head, his face extremely sullen.

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Lou Xiao’e supported him, constantly encouraging him.

Everyone stopped their work and looked over curiously at the couple.

“Oh, isn’t this Projectionist Xu? Why so early today?”

Shazhu appeared, holding an enamel basin, immediately perking up and taunting with a sneer, “What’s wrong? Didn’t sleep well last night? Too weak, kicked out of bed by your wife? Hahaha!”

Xu Damao’s body stiffened, his fists clenched tightly. Normally, he would have jumped at Shazhu for a fight, but today, he forced himself to hold back.

Without even glancing at Shazhu, he walked straight to Chen Mo’s door.

This shocked everyone.

What was he going to do?

Shazhu’s laughter stopped abruptly, eyes wide with disbelief.

Under the stunned gazes of all the neighbors, Xu Damao took a deep breath and then “plop” — knelt down stiffly!

“Damn!” Shazhu’s enamel basin clattered to the ground.

The courtyard fell into a deathly silence, everyone dumbfounded by the scene.

He knelt?

The man who always looked down on others, Xu Damao, actually knelt before Chen Mo?!

“Doctor Chen! Dr. Chen!”

Xu Damao knelt low, his voice hoarse as he shouted, “I was wrong! I shouldn’t have been rude, shouldn’t have spoken ill of you behind your back, shouldn’t have looked down on you! I am a petty man, a coward! I kowtow to you!”

Then he pressed his forehead firmly to the ground.

“Bang! Bang! Bang!”

Three solid knocks echoed.

The entire courtyard was dead silent.

Yi Zhonghai, hiding inside and peeking through the window crack, could barely hold his newspaper steady.

He felt his worldview shatter. This courtyard had completely changed.

Qin Huairu stood at the door, watching Xu Damao kneel, then glanced at the tightly shut door, a chill rising in her heart.

Chen Mo’s methods had exceeded her comprehension.

He played by no rules, yet everyone obediently followed his game.

At that moment, the door creaked open.

Chen Mo yawned as he stepped out, seemingly just awakened. He looked at the kneeling Xu Damao and the stunned neighbors around, then lazily spoke,

“Who’s mourning outside so early in the morning?”