My heart lurched.
Simon wasn't dead.
This was a show Quinn had staged on purpose, so he could grab all the golden eggs for himself.
Two golden eggs. Over a hundred thousand.
And I'd just handed them over to someone else, free and clear.
Anger and regret churned in me at once.
I looked up and saw the mother standing a little way off, staring into the dark.
She glanced around, then crawled into the henhouse in some twisted, hunched posture.
When she came back out, there was a golden egg in her hand.
I was about to step forward and expose Quinn's scheme.
But somehow the mother was suddenly at my side.
"Thomas, what are you doing here?"
She came a few steps closer, a cold air rolling off her whole body.
"You're not here to sneak off with one of my hens while my back is turned, are you?"
"Mom, what are you talking about? Am I that kind of man?"
The tightness in my chest only got worse.
"I just couldn't stop worrying about Quinn and his wife, so I came to check on them."
The mother's suspicious eyes ran over me, up and down.
At last she let out a long sigh.
"These years haven't been easy on you."
"Working away from home to earn money, and still carrying the worries of this family."
"All those years your father was paralyzed, you were the one wiping him clean, emptying his bedpan."
"By rights, I ought to give you a golden egg too."
The mother opened her hand and held the golden egg out to me.
"Take it. Pay Emma's tuition first, then buy yourself a few new sets of clothes."
"I'm not one to play favorites. Everything you've swallowed all these years, I've seen it."
Her words made my eyes sting.
At my age, with the old above me and the young below.
I stretched a single dollar until it nearly split into eight.
And now here was a golden egg gleaming right in front of me. How could my heart not move?
On top of what Quinn's family had just been saying.
Before I knew it, my hand was already reaching out.
Right then, the old ox's voice came again in my ear.
"Don't take it. Don't take it."
"Quinn has protective dark energy shielding him. It carried the disaster away from him that time. But you don't have that kind of luck."
"If you die, your daughter is next!"
Sweat beaded in my palms.
For a moment I honestly couldn't tell.
Were these words Quinn's trick, or a warning from heaven itself?
The mother seemed to see me waver, and she sighed.
"Take it. A hen doesn't lay eggs forever."
"Take one, and there's one less."
"Miss this chance and who knows how long you'll wait for the next."
As she spoke, she swung the golden egg back and forth in front of me.
Each swing sent ripples through me.
While I hesitated, the phone rang.
"Is this Thomas? It's Bruno."
"Your wife got her leg crushed on the construction site a while back. She was afraid it would cost her the work, so she never dared say anything."
"Now with the heat, the wound's gotten infected and she's in the hospital."
"The doctor says she needs surgery right away, or her life could be in danger any minute."
"We pooled what we could, but it's still not enough. You need to get fifty thousand to the county hospital as fast as you can!"
Afraid I wouldn't believe him, Bruno sent a video of Nadia Gilbert lying in a hospital bed.
Watching Nadia's pale face, my heart jumped straight into my throat.
The mother fretted right along beside me.
"Simon just left us. Nothing can happen to Nadia too."
"She went to break her back on that site to help pay off your debt. We're the ones who've wronged her all these years."
"If something really happened to her, I couldn't face your father even in death."
"Thomas, my old legs won't carry me. Take this golden egg to the hospital right now and bring Nadia back to us!"
The sound of our voices woke the people inside.
Quinn's whole family and Emma all came running out.
Quinn's eyes clung to the golden egg, unable to let go, but all he could do was mutter, grudging.
"Saving a life does come first."
"Big brother, you take this golden egg. I won't fight you over it this time."
Emma cried even harder, tears streaming down.
"Dad, let's hurry and go save Mom."
"I can't lose my mom…"
Only the old ox kept shaking its head and sighing.
"Last time you stopped the old woman from feeding on a child's pure life-force. She hates you to the bone for it."
"If you take that golden egg now, your whole family will die without so much as a grave to lie in!"
