I got back to the chicken farm, and my father called to say the two Tibetan mastiffs would arrive any minute.
I'd barely hung up when I saw my mother in the village group chat, firing off one accusation after another against me.
【Elmer's a college graduate, top of his class, and he came home wanting to help Peter run the chicken farm.】
【But that ungrateful wretch Peter wouldn't take the kindness. He cursed him out and turned the whole house upside down.】
Antonia jumped right in behind her.
【Elmer could bring in more advanced management, more scientific breeding methods.】
【But Peter just wouldn't listen. Nothing anyone said got through, and then he stormed off in a temper.】
Once they'd said all that, the villagers came piling on.
【So this is what Peter's really like behind everyone's back? And here I thought he was such a good kid.】
【Money changes a man for the worse. Guarding himself against his own family, no different from an ungrateful mongrel.】
【Peter, listen to some advice from your uncle. One's your own mother, one's your cousin. They're the closest people you've got. They'd never do you harm.】
【It's all for your own good. Kicking up a fuss like this, you're being an unfilial son.】
I read the scolding roll in, line after line.
I didn't answer.
Instead it was Elmer who jumped out and played the good guy: "Everybody, go easy on him. It's really my fault. I'll go over and apologize to my cousin in a bit."
That set the villagers off praising him.
Saying he really was the top student, kind, sensible, and polite.
A hundred times the better man than me.
And once my mother and Antonia had finished turning black into white, they didn't say another word.
I let out a cold laugh.
After tonight, everyone would know just how phony this so-called top student really was, and just how rotten he was inside.
That evening.
Elmer showed up with a roast chicken and a bottle of whiskey, forcing a smile at me. "Cousin, don't be angry anymore. Aunt Effie knows she went too far with what she said."
"So she had me buy whiskey especially, to make it up to you."
Watching him play the weasel wishing the chickens a happy new year.
I laughed to myself, cold all the way through.
"We're family. No grudge worth carrying overnight."
Elmer plopped down, cracked open the whiskey and poured me a glass. "Cousin, here's to you."
"From now on you can rest completely easy. Aunt Effie won't play favorites anymore, and I'll never lay a finger on the chicken farm."
Words like that.
Only a fool would believe them.
But I didn't call him out. I went along with it, drank the liquor, and said, "We're good brothers. No need for all that. Honestly, I got a little worked up today too."
Isn't this just a contest of who acts better?
Fine. I'd see it through to the end.
Two glasses in, a wave of drowsiness hit me, and then I lost consciousness.
The next morning, I was jolted awake by a commotion. I lifted my head and saw my mother and Antonia at my door with the police and a crowd of villagers.
"You ungrateful wretch, you animal. Elmer brought good food and good liquor to apologize to you, and you set your dogs on him?"
My mother lunged at me and slapped me twice, sobbing.
Antonia followed: "I really misjudged you. I never imagined you had such a vicious heart, that you wouldn't spare even your own cousin."
"Do you have any idea how badly Elmer was hurt?"
The fury in her eyes was genuine, pouring straight out of her.
Just showed how much she cared about Elmer.
The villagers were looking at me with disgust and contempt too, all of them cursing me for a phony piece of work.
"Come with us, please."
An officer stepped forward and said it to me, stern.
But I only smiled.
"Officer."
"I can produce evidence that proves this has nothing to do with me."
