Chapter 243 Desperate
"My God! This...this isn't establishing a nation!"
Zhou Liguo put the bag down on the ground with a "thud," like a stone being thrown down.
He found a low stool, bent his legs, and sat down heavily. The stool creaked and groaned, as if it couldn't bear his weight either.
Shen Cuifen rushed over with hot dishes, the soup still sloshing around in the bowl.
The moment she saw that familiar figure, her eyes welled up with tears, her nose stung, and her voice trembled: "Liguo! You're finally back! Your mother has been waiting for you day and night, worried that you might be suffering outside!"
Zhao Lin called out from inside the house, his voice hoarse and urgent: "Liguo! Come in and let your father take a look!"
Zhou Liguo didn't say a word, didn't even lift his eyelids, as if he hadn't heard.
He slowly and dragged his feet into Shen Cuifen's room, each step feeling heavy and sluggish, as if he were stepping on nails.
Upon entering, one sees Zhao Lin slumped on the kang (a heated brick bed), covered with an old cotton quilt, with a cane propped up at the head of the bed, its iron tip gleaming from being worn.
His brows furrowed sharply, as if someone had suddenly stabbed him in the heart.
Zhao Lin looked at him; he was so thin he was unrecognizable, his cheeks were sunken, his cheekbones were high, and his clothes hung loosely on his body, like a withered branch blown back by the wind.
The words stuck in her throat, and after a long pause, she finally managed to utter a few words, her heart aching: "Child...you've suffered."
She struggled to sit up, then quickly added, "Come, sit next to Mom. Tell me how it is outside? Are you eating well? Are you sleeping soundly?"
Her tone was as gentle as a spring breeze, as if afraid that a single harsh word might blow the child away.
Zhou Liguo suddenly looked up, his eyes like ice, staring straight at Zhao Lin.
His gaze was chillingly cold, devoid of gratitude or longing, filled only with deep wariness and alienation.
Zhao Lin felt a chill in his heart. The heartache that had just welled up instantly turned to ashes, lingering in his chest, making him feel suffocated.
She suddenly remembered—this boy was never a docile one.
When he was a child, he was bullied, but he would rather have his teeth broken than cry.
After being beaten, he got up in the middle of the night and broke his enemy's legs.
He is stubborn, hard-hearted, ruthless, and never backs down.
Thankfully, they didn't actually let him sit down.
Zhou Liguo's voice was hoarse, like sandpaper scraping against the skin, and every word seemed to be forcibly pulled from his lungs: "How am I? You really want to know?"
"In that shady factory, I worked seventeen or eighteen hours a day, a full seventeen or eighteen hours! I'd get up before dawn and work until the wee hours of the morning. My fingers would get blisters, they'd burst and grow back, burst and grow back. It was common to go three days without sleep. My eyes would ache like they'd been rubbed with sandpaper, my head would be spinning, and I'd stagger when I walked. But dared you stop for even a moment? The whip would lash your body, burning with pain! Food? Did that even deserve to be called food? It was sour and rancid, the vegetable leaves were black, and there were little bugs crawling on them. Even dogs would shake their heads at the smell." Get out of the way! But we still had to grab it, pouncing like wild dogs for those scraps. If I was slow, I could only swallow my saliva, my stomach cramping with hunger, breaking out in a cold sweat from the pain; if I grabbed too aggressively, the foreman would kick me, the belt whipping my back until it ached, and my clothes were soaked with blood. The worst was when they forced me to swallow cigarette butts in front of everyone, the scalding hot cigarette butts shoved into my mouth, my throat burning instantly, every swallow feeling like a knife cutting, the coughing up blood tasting burnt, the bitterness giving me nightmares all night!
"Did you even look for me? Did you really look for me with all your heart? Did you even treat me like a son? No, you never considered me part of the family. You just saw me as an unwanted burden, an eyesore, a nuisance, and you just threw me away!"
Zhao Lin's hands trembled, and two cloudy tears squeezed out from the corners of his eyes. He wiped his face with trembling hands and said, "After you left, Xiao Chuan came back, and the news he brought was like a thunderclap. We suddenly realized that you hadn't gone south to make your fortune at all! When your brother found out something had happened, he immediately went to the police station to report the case. He ran around, pulled strings, and submitted materials. The police followed the clues all the way, searching every station and illegal work site along the way, and finally found you in that godforsaken place! We... we didn't not look for you, it was just too late!"
Zhou Liguo sneered, his laughter dry and chilling, like rusty iron scraping against stone, as if poisoned: "Bullshit! The police did come looking for me, but they didn't come to pick me up. They took me to give a statement, put me in a police car, and interrogated me for a whole day and night! They forced me to confront Zhou Jianguo face to face, questioning me like a criminal! That's when I found out that he had secretly sold my ID card to human traffickers! I became a wanted criminal, implicated in a murder case, and only then did you remember your 'son'? Before, I was nowhere to be found, neither alive nor dead, and you didn't even ask a single question!"
At the doorway, Shen Cuifen stood in the shadows, trembling like a withered leaf in the autumn wind, tears streaming down her face. She sobbed, “No! After you left, I’ve been heartbroken every day, unable to sleep at night, tossing and turning, calling your name over and over. I urged Jianguo to report to the authorities, begged the neighbors more than ten times to help me inquire, asked five or six acquaintances everywhere, even knelt in the temple to pray for divine protection! I’m really looking for you! Really! I long for you day and night, I cry every night, hoping you’ll come back!”
Zhou Liguo looked at her with empty eyes, as if he were looking at a pile of ashes that had long since cooled.
That once familiar face no longer retains any of its former honesty and gentleness; even the slightest twitch of the corner of its mouth seems to conceal barbs.
Zhou Liguo, who used to work silently and could only cower in a corner and endure being bullied, had long since died in that dark corner of the factory, crushed inch by inch by hunger, whips, and humiliation, and buried in the mud.
"Looking for me? Fine! I'm back, finally standing alive in front of you. What about the village chief threatening to break my legs? Dad, Mom, aren't you worried about your son? Go to the village chief's house and say a word for me! Beg for mercy, admit your mistake, even kneel down and kowtow! Now you're pretending to be deaf and dumb, hiding in the house too afraid to make a sound?"
Shen Cuifen gritted her teeth, her lips turning white, and clenched her fists to block Zhao Lin. Her voice trembled but remained stubborn: "Mom, my leg is lame. I get out of breath after walking just a few steps, and I have to rest three times just to climb a hill. But this can't be delayed! Dad, you're still healthy. Please go to the village chief's house and plead with him kindly. Don't let Liguo suffer any more..."
Upon hearing the commotion, Zhou Xiuli's face turned deathly pale. When she saw Zhou Liguo return, she was so frightened that her legs went weak. She quickly scurried back into the house, grabbed a few clothes, and stuffed them into Zhou Liguo's room, fearing that something would be discovered. She slammed the door shut, turned around, and huddled in the corner, covering her head with her hands, not daring to breathe.
Upon hearing this, Zhou Nuli flew into a rage, lunged forward, pointed his finger at Zhou Liguo's nose, and roared, "We risked our lives to get you out of jail, working tirelessly, spending money and neglecting our own meals and sleep to pull strings and bribe officials, and what do you do? You come back and start complaining? Have you lost your conscience? If you hadn't gone crazy that day, trying to rape Yunrui and making a scene that the whole village knew about, would the village chief have publicly scolded you and said he would break your legs?"
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