"Why can't you talk to me about what's wrong? Why did you have to stab yourself with scissors? You cut your hand and severed the blood vessels, didn't that hurt? The blood was gushing out, it was horrifying to watch," he said to his wife, frowning.
She didn't speak, remaining deathly silent, her hands wrapped up like rice dumplings on the table. Old Li didn't notice that her hands were trembling.
On a stormy night, the broken windows rattled loudly in the wind. Old Li, half-asleep, heard Xiao Lian's soft voice beside him: "When I was eight, I was kidnapped and taken to a poor mountain village, to a family so poor they couldn't even afford food. I was beaten and verbally abused there. I had a child when I was sixteen, but it died a few years later. I have some mental issues now, and I never wanted to stay there again. I sold mountain goods for several years, saving up a hundred yuan bit by bit, all by stealing. One day, during a fierce storm, that old man drank too much sorghum liquor and slapped me a few times before falling asleep. I secretly ran away and walked through the mountain gully all night, my heart pounding with anxiety. I ran out of the mountains overnight, the road was pitch black and I couldn't see anything. I fell and broke my head, bleeding profusely, until I finally reached the main road."
She murmured to herself, and Old Li listened silently, not daring to utter a sound. He couldn't imagine a desperate woman running on a steep mountain path full of thorns, with stones tearing her shoes and sharp blades of grass cutting her skin.
“I sat by the roadside until dawn, and finally a motorcycle tricycle came. It was driven by a young man. I asked him to take me to the provincial capital. Actually, I vaguely remembered where my home was. It was an ordinary family in Beijing. He agreed, and I thanked him profusely. I offered him money, but he refused.”
"The motorcycle tricycle traveled for a day and a night, and we arrived at a place I didn't know was in the direction of the provincial capital; it was a dilapidated village. I tried to run away; I was scared and sensed something was wrong. He grabbed my hair and dragged me into the village. No matter how much I hit or cursed, it was no use. There were several men in the house; they were inhuman and tortured me all night..."
"For half a month, I ate livestock food and drank river water. They wouldn't let me leave, and they even took the hundred yuan I had on me. I had saved that hundred yuan for three or four years. I remember there were two twenty-yuan notes, more than thirty fifty-cent notes, more than twenty one-yuan notes, and two-yuan notes. The rest were coins."
“I wanted to die then, but I was unwilling to give up. I waited and waited, and then ran away again. I ran along the river into the mountains and hid for more than ten days. After finishing the moldy dry food, I ate green fruit. Those strong laborers couldn’t find me. This time I dared not take a car. I kowtowed and begged all the way, and took a car for short distances. It took more than half a year to reach Kyoto.”
“At that time, I felt that everything was worth it. Even the rotten soles of my feet didn’t hurt anymore. After searching all the way, I finally found my home. My heart was full of my parents. After so many years of separation, I was finally able to see them again… When I entered the house, my father and mother had been dead for a long time. My aunt had taken over the yard. I didn’t want to live anymore. I couldn’t go on living.”
“Baocheng, I know you’re a good person, and you’re good to me. But I’m mentally ill, and I keep thinking about dying. I’ve been a little abnormal since I was a child. My mother took me to see a doctor, and they said it was something hereditary. Now, every time I close my eyes at night, I think about being beaten and scolded in the mountain gully, and being humiliated in the village. That makes my illness worse. On the winding mountain road, when I was crossing that stream, the grass pierced through the soles of my feet. I ran until my toenails fell off before I finally got home, but my parents were gone.”
After she finished speaking, her voice grew softer and softer, and she turned over and went to sleep.
Old Li had his back to him, wrapped in a blanket, sobbing tremblingly, trying to hide his cries in the raging wind and rain.
Tears fell onto the pillow, soaking a large area. He suddenly sat up and hugged Xiaolian tightly. "It's okay...it's okay. Let's go to a big hospital...it's okay."
Honest Li Baocheng could only repeat those two words. Outside the window, it was pouring rain, and the two of them cried together, their hearts breaking.
The two set off early the next morning. He searched for a hospital in the unfamiliar city of Kyoto while keeping an eye on his wife, who was prone to hysterical convulsions and self-harm.
He spent a lot of money, all his savings, but his hard work paid off; he found a miracle drug. This type of medication, specifically designed to treat stress-induced seizures, self-harm, and mood disorders, came from a small company called Yaokang.
Xiao Lian takes the medicine regularly; it's not cheap. Old Li works long hours, sleeping only four or five hours a day, doing manual labor on construction sites. At night, he even has to catch scorpions near the construction site to sell for money.
Her mental state improved, she even became pregnant, she smiled again, she was no longer so numb and listless, and her self-harming behavior became rare.
At this point, Li Baocheng picked up a photo from a nearby bench and said to Jiang Cheng and Liu Kang, "This was taken when she was about to give birth."
Back then, a thriving braised food cart opened outside the alleyway leading to this dilapidated courtyard. When Xiaolian was doing needlework outside the gate, she would often stare intently at the glistening, oily meat inside.
She wasn't interested in eating; she was just watching the people who kept going to the car to buy things.
When Old Li returned home that evening, he found a pile of sheet metal in the corner of the yard and was puzzled. His wife told him that it was scrap she had collected, and she planned to weld a car and learn to make braised food to sell. She explained that their child was due soon and Old Li couldn't afford to support the family alone.
The baby was a girl, and the sheet metal kept piling up until it was almost enough to weld a sheet metal car.
The pharmaceutical company went bankrupt, and the medication was discontinued.
His wife's mental state was deteriorating, and Li Baocheng was extremely worried. He asked around about the company and even went so far as to call the police to find out where Liu Kang was, because he needed life-saving medicine.
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