《Family Dinner》

《Family Dinner》 Aming attended his cousin's family dinner. His cousin had just married a new sister-in-law, who was from the mountains and was very quiet and gentle. She prepared a table full of home-style dishes. During the meal, the sister-in-law enthusiastically served everyone, but deliberately ignored Fourth Uncle, who was sitting in the corner. Fourth Uncle was eccentric and usually didn't talk much. Today, he kept his head down the entire time, silently shoveling rice from his empty bowl. Aming felt awkward, so he took the serving chopsticks and placed a piece of braised pork into Fourth Uncle's bowl, smiling and saying, "Fourth Uncle, eat more meat." Fourth Uncle's body suddenly trembled. He slowly raised his head and glared at Aming with an extremely terrifying look. His teeth chattered, but he couldn't utter a single word. At this moment, the sister-in-law, who was bringing soup from the kitchen, suddenly came out, patted Aming on the shoulder, and said with a strange smile: "Aming, don't mind him. He died of illness last month. His body has been in the back room all this time, and no one cared. He's just... habitually sitting in his seat now." Aming was about to laugh, thinking the sister-in-law was making a cruel joke, but he noticed that none of the elders at the table were smiling. They all continued to eat with blank expressions, their heads bowed. And the braised pork in Fourth Uncle's bowl, sitting next to him, was visibly turning into a pile of rotting maggots at an alarming rate.