Chapter 89 Running Away from Home
Zhong Xiaohua covered her injured stomach and walked on the street in a daze.
There are various snack stalls on the roadside, steaming hot and fragrant. The stall owners are all shouting hard. A child bought two meat buns and ate them while walking. When he passed by Zhong Xiaohua, the fragrance came into his nose through the air.
Zhong Xiaohua pursed her lips, her eyes dim.
She was always hungry at home, and the only good food she had was eaten by her brother. She only had two dry and hard steamed buns at noon, and she also did a lot of work, so she was so hungry that her chest was sticking to her back.
"Beautiful girl, would you like some steamed buns?" The bun vendor saw her drooling and opened the lid of the steamer, letting the aroma and heat rise. "I put lard in these buns. They're so delicious. I guarantee you'll want more."
Zhong Xiaohua stared at the rows of bulging meat buns, her throat rolling and she swallowed hard.
How could she not want to eat? She hadn't even eaten eggs in half a year, let alone meat.
But she didn't have a penny in her pocket.
"I don't have any money." Zhong Xiaohua stammered.
"No money?" The stall owner's tone changed. "If you don't have money, then go away. Seriously, you're just a young man with all the limbs and a reputation. If you were a little more diligent, how could you not be able to afford a bun? Go away, go away. I hate idlers like you the most. These days, who has it easier than you?"
After being scolded, Zhong Xiaohua left in a somewhat embarrassed manner, holding her aching stomach.
Zhong Xiaohua walked to some corner blindly, but her stomachache became more and more severe, and she couldn't help but squat down with the help of the wall.
It was a cramping feeling just below the belly button, like a stone hanging down, painful and making people lose strength.
In addition, I had not finished drinking water all afternoon, and I felt a burning pain in my stomach. Along with this feeling of drooping, over time, the burning pain seemed to disappear, and was replaced by a feeling of weakness in my hands and feet.
Zhong Xiaohua's face turned pale with pain. She had no strength left, so she slowly slid down the wall and curled up, trying to make herself feel better.
Zhong Qiao was writing a letter by candlelight on the stone table in the yard.
One letter is for Miss He and the other is for Dr. Luo.
The last time Miss He received the letter, I sent her some crabapple seeds. Although Miss He didn't directly say whether she liked them or not, I sent her a lot of new information.
Zhong Qiao felt that this gift must have touched her heart. Their relationship became closer and they wrote to each other every few days.
As for Dr. Luo's reply, Zhong Qiao paused.
The letter said that familial mental illness is very likely to be passed on to the next generation, but usually the words and deeds are no different from those of ordinary people, and if there is no major shock or stimulation, then the disease will not occur.
This is a good thing for Zhong Qiao.
At least it can ensure that her Wanwan has a chance of being a healthy child.
As for the situation of Zhong's father, she recalled her past life and described in detail the month before Zhong's death and his physical condition after his death through the message in which Siqi scolded her.
The meaning of Dr. Luo's letter made her feel alarmed.
——Being poisoned.
Zhong Qiao had originally ignored this point and had always focused on having Zhong's father have a physical examination, but what Dr. Luo said reminded her.
In his previous life, Mr. Zhong was obviously in good health. Why did he suddenly fall ill and die suddenly before even a year had passed?
People outside were spreading the rumor that she had angered her father to death. As a result, she could not return to her grandparents' home and was abandoned by her relatives, leaving her alone and helpless in Suzhou.
If it is true as Dr. Luo said, that he might have been poisoned, then many things would probably make sense.
Zhong Qiao was shocked by his own guess. When he reacted, the letter paper on the stone table was lifted up lightly and blown out of the wall by the wind.
"Ah--" Zhong Qiao's first reaction was to reach out to grab it, but he caught nothing and could only watch the wind carry the letter away.
"It's the same every day." Zhong Qiao sighed, stood up and walked out of the yard.
Following the weeds along the courtyard wall, Zhong Qiao searched for a long time in the dim light, and finally found it under a small tree and a pile of dirt. Unfortunately, the letter paper was soaked, so he had to rewrite it.
Zhong Qiao was just about to go home, but unexpectedly, the moment he turned around, he seemed to notice something.
There seemed to be a dark shadow moving under the tree not far away.
Zhong Qiao hesitated for a moment, then slowly groped his way forward with the help of the light.
This shadow is still a person.
Perhaps because he was too thin, his body was as shriveled as a child, and he huddled pitifully in the corner.
"Hey, why don't you sleep here in the middle of winter? Who are you from?" It was the coldest time of the year, and Zhong Qiao was afraid that she would freeze to death, so he reached out and pushed her.
However, the man did not respond.
Could he really have frozen to death? Zhong Qiao was startled by his own thoughts. He mustered up the courage to reach out and push aside the man's hair. In the dim twilight, Zhong Xiaohua's pale and haggard face suddenly appeared.
"Zhong Xiaohua?" Zhong Qiao was surprised. "Why are you here?"
At this time, Zhong Xiaohua should be at home. How could a young girl like her hide in this corner when it’s already dark?
When Zhong Xiaohua heard the voice, she weakly raised her eyelids and recognized Zhong Qiao.
"I'm sorry." Her first reaction was to apologize. Her trachea seemed to be compressed, and her sentences were intermittent and hoarse at the end. "I didn't know this was your house. I didn't see clearly."
Because Zhong Hong came to cause trouble last time and brought Zhong Xiaohua with her, Zhong Qiao didn't have a good impression of her.
Zhong Qiao stood up and said coldly, "I'm not a kindhearted person. If your family wants to use some cruel tricks on me again, I'm sorry, but this despicable trick is used on the wrong person."
"If you like lying here, then lie down."
Zhong Qiao took a few steps without looking back, but the expected rebuttal did not come. Zhong Xiaohua was quiet, as if she really had no strength left.
Zhong Qiao was confused and paused, but soon she left mercilessly.
The cold wind blew and it started snowing again.
Zhong Xiaohua hugged her frozen body and tried to rub her arms in an attempt to warm herself up, but she struggled a few times and her hands were frozen and swollen like radishes, and they itched and hurt when they touched clothes.
She smiled bitterly, but found that the muscles on her face had been frozen and she couldn't make any expression.
"It's so cold." Zhong Xiaohua's body temperature gradually dropped, and a breath of white air came out from her cracked and chapped lips.
It's really cold.
Colder than the wooden plank she lay on at home.
No, she couldn't fall asleep.
Zhong Xiaohua used up her last bit of strength, leaned against the wall and sat up. She leaned against the wall, found a sheltered place, and curled up again.
"Sister? What are you doing standing there?" Zhong Siqi jumped out from behind the door. "Mom asked me to call you for dinner."
Following Zhong Qiao's line of sight as he peeped outside from behind the door, he could see nothing in the darkness.
"It's okay." Zhong Qiao said lightly.
He closed the door again.
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