Chapter 8 — When the Spider Plant Turned Black

Hearing this, the mother-in-law's face flushed bright red in an instant. She scrambled clumsily to her feet, intending to rush over and slam the balcony door shut, but her foot slipped on a patch of wet mud, sending her sprawling and nearly causing a heavy fall. Chen Yan reached out just in time to steady her with a single hand. Leveraging that support, she suddenly lunged straight forward toward my mother.

"Give those things back to me!"

My mother had been on guard beforehand and deftly sidestepped out of the way. The mother-in-law lunged into empty air, her fingertips grazing the strap of the handbag with her nails scraping against the fabric to produce a sharp, screeching sound. The fury within me surged instantly, rushing straight to my head.

"Ma Guifen, just try snatching that one more time, and I will march right over to open the front door and invite the entire neighborhood in to watch the spectacle."

Her body stiffened completely. This was the very first time I had ever addressed her by her full, formal name. Chen Yan’s gaze darkened significantly.

"He Yu, she is your mother."

I retorted sharply, "Did she ever treat me like a human being in the first place?" The corners of his mouth twitched, but he found himself utterly incapable of refuting my words. Not long afterward, a sharp knock echoed against the front door. This time, it was definitely not a neighbor. Two figures clad in official police uniforms stood firmly outside in the hallway. As Chen Yan turned the knob to open the door, his hand remained tightly clamped around the metal handle, hesitating for a long moment as he stubbornly refused to step aside. The older officer standing at the front spoke up in a stern voice: "Who was the one who made the emergency call just now?" My mother raised her hand smoothly.

"I called."

The younger officer swept his gaze quickly into the interior of the living room. The clay flowerpot lay overturned upon the floor with dark mud scattered everywhere, the mother-in-law’s eyes were rimmed with angry red, and the distinct scratch marks from fingernails still lingered unblushingly upon my arm—all these damning details lay bare for anyone to see. Chen Yan finally had no choice but to step back and make way. Once the officers crossed the threshold into the apartment, they instructed each of us to give our accounts one by one. The mother-in-law rushed eagerly to speak first.

"Officers, this is all just a terrible misunderstanding."

As she wiped away fabricated tears, she adopted a soft, trembling, pitiful tone of voice: "My daughter-in-law has always possessed a rather delicate constitution, so out of pure kindness, I brewed some special herbal water for her nightly foot baths. But for reasons unknown and swayed by bad advice, her mother insists on accusing me of trying to harm someone."

The police officer inquired, "What was used for these foot baths?" The mother-in-law responded without a second of hesitation, "Just ordinary tea." My mother calmly stepped forward and placed her handbag down onto the glass coffee table.

"This is certainly not ordinary tea."

The mother-in-law’s gaze turned instantly into a pair of sharp, venomous daggers aimed straight at my mother. Ignoring her entirely, my mother reached inside and produced a plastic mineral water bottle. The container still held about half of a deep, murky brown liquid, and strange dark sediments could be seen floating and churning near the bottom as the bottle shifted. The older officer reached out, took the bottle into his hands, and scrutinized it closely.

"Where did this substance come from?"

I answered firmly, "It is the exact liquid she forced me to use for soaking my feet every single day. I managed to retain a sample of it." The mother-in-law shrieked at the top of her lungs, "She is lying through her teeth! That is merely leftover tea brewed since last night!" In response, my mother simply pointed a finger out toward the open balcony.

"Since when can leftover tea cause a dying spider plant to thrive and turn out like that?"

The younger officer strode briskly over, squatted down by the balcony entrance, and began inspecting the flowerpot. The spider plant had been completely dislodged from its soil, its tangled roots forming a dense, unsightly clump. The roots had lost their healthy, pale hue; instead, sections of them had turned a sickly grayish-black, as though they had been heavily soaked in black ink. Deep within the soil lay scattered tiny granules of a dark crimson shade. He carefully picked up a small portion using a tissue, his brow furrowing deeply.

"Preserve the crime scene precisely as it is for now."

Upon hearing the grim words "crime scene," the color drained completely from the mother-in-law’s face, leaving her stark white. Chen Yan quickly interjected, "Officers, this is merely a domestic dispute between family members. Surely it has not reached such a serious level?" The police officer turned his gaze coldly upon him.

"Whether this matter is serious or not is not something for you to decide."

A wave of relief washed over my chest. Yet, in the very next second, the mother-in-law suddenly clutched at her chest and collapsed dramatically backward onto the sofa.

"I cannot breathe anymore. My heart..."

Chen Yan’s expression transformed instantly with alarm as he rushed forward to catch her falling frame.

"Mother!"

Cradling herself against his chest, the mother-in-law let loose a steady stream of theatrical tears.

"Yan, your mother has never done a single thing in her entire life to cause a guilty conscience, and yet this mother and daughter are conspiring to drive me straight to my grave."

Chen Yan lifted his head, glaring directly at me.

"He Yu, are you finally satisfied now?"

I remained entirely silent. For my eyes had caught sight of the mother-in-law’s hand, which was currently dangling limply over the edge of the sofa cushion, slowly and stealthily groping its way toward the mineral water bottle resting upon the coffee table. Almost in a blur of motion, I lunged forward and slammed my hand heavily down over the bottle, pinning it securely to the table. The mother-in-law’s reaching hand froze rigidly suspended in mid-air.