Chapter 108 Lily's Past
Dilapidated was her first impression of the place.
Many houses have collapsed, and the dilapidated houses are overgrown with weeds as tall as a person. The remaining houses are all single-story houses made of mud bricks, with pitted walls that show the marks of time everywhere.
The village was quiet, with only the occasional bark of a dog.
I passed by several houses, and all the doors were locked.
After walking for a while, I finally saw an old lady with gray hair sitting in a dam.
Wang Ye felt like he had seen a savior, and he quickly went over to inquire about Lily's address.
The old lady couldn't understand him, and he couldn't understand the old lady either. To make matters worse, the old lady talked a lot. The two of them talked for a long time, but they couldn't get any answers from each other.
Qiao Xing glanced at Qin Ce, who had his hands in his pockets and looked around.
Qiao Xing suddenly realized that his worries were not unfounded. In such remote mountain areas, where there is no language barrier and transportation is inconvenient, if something were to happen, there would be no one to help.
She tried to think about it; if Qin Ce hadn't been there, it would be dark now, and she would definitely be scared.
But now that he's by her side, she feels a strange sense of security.
Soon, a man in his forties returned carrying a hoe. He stared at the three men warily and said something in dialect.
Although I couldn't understand his words, I could roughly guess what he was saying from his tone.
Wang Ye quickly stepped forward and said, "Uncle, we're here to find someone. Do you know where Hu Lili lives?"
When the man heard that they were looking for someone, and after carefully examining the three men's clothing, his wariness lessened somewhat, but he didn't put down the hoe he was holding.
He spoke in broken Mandarin mixed with local dialect, "Hu Lili? Is that Hu Li? Is it Hu Mazi's family?"
Wang Ye scratched his head. Who was Hu Mazi? If his surname was Hu, he couldn't be wrong. He nodded like a chicken pecking at rice. "Yes, yes, I'm Lily's boyfriend. Lily and I are getting married. I'm here to pick up her parents to attend the wedding."
Upon hearing this, the man also started gossiping.
"Oh my, Xiaoli has really made something of herself! She's found a boyfriend from the city! I'll get you some chairs."
After the man finished speaking, he ran into the house, brought out a few small stools, and handed them to the three of them. "Come, sit down. Let me tell you, Hu Mazi has committed a terrible sin."
Qiao Xing hadn't wanted to sit down, but upon hearing this, she and Wang Ye became interested and quickly sat down to watch the show.
Qin Ce shook his head, turned and went to the intersection. He had no interest in listening to this gossip, because he already knew it all.
Wang Ye quickly asked, "What happened?"
The man said, "This sesame seed died a couple of years ago, from illness. You didn't know that? After he died, neither his daughter nor his son came back."
Qiao Xing and Wang Ye exchanged a glance, both seeing the shock in each other's eyes.
"Why?" Wang Ye asked.
"Hey! What a tragedy! If you ask me, it's also his own fault. When he was young, he had a precious son, and he doted on him so much that he sold everything he owned to support his son's education..."
The couple favored sons over daughters, especially Hu Mazi, who had a bad temper and desperately wanted his son to succeed. When his son didn't like going to school, he forced him to go, and if he didn't, he would be beaten.
His daughter wanted to go to school, but he wouldn't let her. Instead, he made her do farm work. The five- or six-year-old girl carried a basket on her back to the fields to move corn and dig sweet potatoes. If she was slow, she would be scolded and beaten.
The son did nothing. Hu Mazi thought he was good at studying and would make something of himself in the future, so he only needed to focus on his studies.
His son was spoiled and became lazy. Although he later graduated from university, he went to university in another city and never came back. He did come back once last year and swindled his mother out of her retirement money.
Hu Mazi's wife was slightly better off. Seeing that her daughter wanted to go to school, she secretly saved money to pay for her daughter's tuition.
Unfortunately, after less than two years, Hu Mazi dragged her back from school and forced her to continue working.
The daughter was also very ambitious. She picked up the books her brother didn't want and secretly studied them. Later, she used the money her mother had saved to go to junior high school in the next town. When she heard that she had been admitted to a good high school, Hu Mazi finally put aside his prejudices and agreed to let her continue her studies.
Who knew that after my daughter went to university, she would follow in her brother's footsteps and never come back?
Hu Mazi couldn't contact either of them after he passed away. He cried bitterly when he died, but all he knew was to cry about his unfilial children. He didn't know what he had done wrong until his death.
Now only Lily's mother is left, all alone in the old house. She is old and has difficulty walking, so she can't do any work.
Her son came back last year and said that his grandson was going to a key primary school and that he needed to buy a house in the school district, so he asked the old lady to lend him her savings to buy the house.
Once we bought a house, we planned to bring her to the city to live out her retirement. But this unfilial son took the money and then disappeared without a trace, not caring whether his mother lived or died.
The old woman is living a miserable life now. She makes a living by growing some fruits and vegetables in the field in front of her house. After the rice harvest in the fall, she goes to the field to pick up some leftover rice ears and grind them into rice to eat.
The villagers felt sorry for her, and would sometimes give her some of their extra vegetables or other produce.
Hearing this, Wang Ye clenched his fists so tightly they cracked, and said angrily, "How could his son be like this! He's a complete beast!"
The man sighed, "Who knows? Hu Jun is a heartless wretch, and so is Xiao Li. Her mother treats her so well, yet she never even comes back to visit."
Perhaps, in Lily's eyes, her mother's obedience to her father and her reluctance to disobey him made her an accomplice to him.
If they truly cared for her, they wouldn't have remained silent when Hu Mazi dragged her back from school.
Even when he's nice to her, he only dares to do it secretly.
Qiao Xing didn't want to express her opinion because she hadn't lived in such an environment, but she knew how much harm a family that favored sons over daughters could cause to a child's childhood.
No wonder Lily always wants to present a glamorous image in front of others; it's probably a result of her upbringing.
Use what you consider your most dazzling side to cover up the scars in your heart and sever ties with the unbearable past.
"Where does she live?" Wang Ye asked.
The man pointed behind the house, "Just go through that bamboo grove."
Wang Ye's expression was somber; it was unclear whether he was angry or heartbroken over Lily's past.
He stood up, thanked the man, and left with Qiao Xing.
Qin Ce turned to look at the two of them, and it was clear that they both had mixed feelings.
"Let's go to Lily's house," Wang Ye said.
So the three of them walked through a bamboo forest and finally arrived at Lily's house, which was also a mud house that was about to collapse.
A white-haired woman sat at the doorway, painstakingly peeling the skin of an old pumpkin.
"Is this Hu Li's mother?" Wang Ye asked as he approached the woman.
Upon hearing the name Hu Li, the woman paused in her actions and looked up at Wang Ye.
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