Going home for Chinese New Year, I squeezed onto a bus with three energetic young women.

inside the house.

Bai Li's body swayed twice.

He instinctively raised his hand to cover his ears and turned to look at the old lady of the Lin family:

"Grandma, are the firecrackers in your village that loud?"

Old Mrs. Lin had never heard such a thunderous noise in her life.

Her lips trembled:

"Is this a war?"

The four young women around him were also jolted awake.

Chen Tingting's brows furrowed into a knot:

"Brother, this voice sounds off."

"Listen, does it sound like someone is calling for help?"

Li Jiaxin tilted her head and listened for a while.

Sure enough, after the buzzing sound in my ears subsided,

A series of intermittent screams and the sound of churning liquid came from around the corner of the outer wall of the small courtyard:

"Help... glug... help me... glug glug..."

Bai Li lowered her hands from her ears, and her heart skipped a beat when she heard it:

"Holy crap, let's go out and check, maybe someone's really dead."

He took a long stride and led the four maids out of the courtyard.

After a few people rushed past the corner of the wall, they collectively performed a sudden stop on the spot.

The scene before us can no longer be described as "disheveled".

It was a purgatory of sight and smell.

The simple dry toilet that was originally built with mud bricks and thatch has now been turned into an open-air structure.

The thatched roof had vanished without a trace, as if it had been blown away by a strong wind.

What's most shocking is that in that square latrine, a figure covered in unidentified yellowish-brown substances is struggling desperately.

His white hair had long been dyed so dark that the color was no longer visible. He would swim upwards and then sink downwards, as if he were practicing diving.

Every time she tried to call for help, the viscous pool water would pour down her throat.

"Gurgle gurgle... Help... Help me..."

Lin Xiaoshuang stood at the very front.

She held her breath, her two small, white hands covering her mouth and nose, her baby face filled with shock:

"What the hell... where did these Minions come from?"

Grandma Lin, panting, caught up from behind. She glanced at the formation in the pit, then slapped her thigh, her voice trembling with rage:

"Oh dear! It's Grandma Ma!!"

"Old hag, what are you doing practicing diving in the cesspool?!"

The girls' expressions after hearing this were incredibly varied.

Zhang Qian took three big steps back, her pretty face under her blue hair contorted in disgust, wishing she could just disappear on the spot.

Chen Tingting, on the other hand, had no taboos.

She glanced sideways at the half-collapsed toilet wall, then at the "diver" in the pit, and turned to Lin Xiaoshuang, saying:

"Xiao Shuang, what kind of hippopotamus butt is your neighbor?"

"Can going to the toilet really cause the roof to fly off?"

Li Jiaxin, however, did not laugh along.

Her eyes swept around.

Soon, her gaze settled on the chubby little boy who was standing there dumbfounded not far away.

The brat was still clutching a box of red spiders in his hand, his mouth agape as he stared blankly at his grandmother doing the "butterfly stroke" in the pit.

"snort."

Li Jiaxin snorted coldly, her Martin boots stomping on the broken bricks:

"I reckon it's most likely related to that brat. Let's go ask him."

Bai Li, leading four spirited young women, strode menacingly towards the unruly child.

Zhang Qian was the quickest; she thrust her long, stocking-clad legs forward and kicked the chubby boy in the butt.

"Hey! You little rascal, come back to your senses!"

Zhang Qian snapped irritably:

"What's going on?"

The brat was kicked so hard he stumbled and came to his senses.

Upon seeing that it was Bai Li and his gang of devils, the chubby boy's voice trembled with tears:

"I...I don't know either..."

"I threw a firecracker in there, and my grandma went flying into the sky with a whoosh..."

Upon hearing this, Li Jiaxin's anger flared up instantly, and she kicked him again.

"You still dare to lie?"

"You think you're dropping an atomic bomb? It could blow someone's toilet to smithereens!"

"Tell the truth! Otherwise, I'll stuff you in here right now to swim with your grandma!"

Seeing that the girls were about to start a fight again, Bai Li quickly stretched out his arm and stopped the enraged Li Jiaxin.

"Wait a minute, don't kick it yet."

Bai Li rubbed his temples, looking somewhat helplessly at the group of girls whose general education level was not high, and patiently explained.

"The cesspool contains a large amount of methane gas, which is a highly flammable and explosive gas."

"This kid threw an open flame in, which caused a chemical reaction and an explosion. Got it?"

The air was still for a couple of seconds.

Chen Tingting, Lin Xiaoshuang, Li Jiaxin, and Zhang Qian looked at each other in bewilderment.

Then, they both gave each other shy, embarrassed smiles.

Zhang Qian scratched her blue hair and chuckled twice:

"Um... Brother, I didn't know there were such intricacies to this thing."

Li Jiaxin echoed this, but her voice was much softer:

"Yeah, chemistry and stuff like that are too far removed from our lives."

"Back when we were in school, we basically used our books to start fires and steam buns."

Chen Tingting glared at the chubby boy, and couldn't help but kick him again:

"You still have the nerve to act aggrieved?"

"We may not understand chemistry, but that doesn't stop us from knowing you're throwing firecrackers around."

"You're so incredibly filial! You personally sent your own grandmother into the latrine for a buffet! You truly are the most filial son in Ping County!"

At this moment, Old Mrs. Lin walked over with Lin Xiaoshuang's help.

The old lady overheard their conversation:

"This old lady Ma, she's so old, and this is what she's gotten herself into."

"I reckon they'll have to move out of this village eventually..."

Grandma Ma finally managed to grab onto a piece of rotten wood at the edge of the pit.

She poked her head out, wiped the unidentified liquid from her face, and began to curse:

"Help! Someone help me... That bastard threw that cannonball!"

She hadn't realized that the real culprit was her most beloved grandson.

When the chubby boy saw his grandmother looking over, he shrank back in fright, wanting to run away but not daring to, and could only spin around in place.

Bai Li covered her nose in disgust and stepped back a distance, looking at the mess, and winked at Lin Xiaoshuang.

Lin Xiaoshuang immediately understood.

Her cute, doll-like face was filled with disgust as she shouted at the brat huddled against the wall:

"Stop loitering around here, you're just annoying me."

"We can't handle this powerful figure."

Lin Xiaoshuang pointed to the open-air toilet, her voice crisp and sharp:

"Go home right now and call your mom over to handle this!"

The mischievous child, feeling as if granted a pardon, turned around and ran with all his might, crying and shouting, towards the depths of the village.

"Mom—! Mom, come quick! Grandma fell into the big pit and ate her fill—!"

The pitiful cries for help carried far and wide.