Another night of nightmares. The woman with a pure and beautiful face trembled slightly as she clutched her violently beating chest.
Fang Zhi was startled awake from the dream. Sunlight fell on the curtains, and time seemed to have turned back three years.
In her dream, she was bound by golden chains around her ankles, trapped in a villa from which she could not escape, and whispered soft murmurs in her ear.
The tall, handsome man grabbed her ankle and pushed her up until his thighs were pressed against her upper body.
He kept her beneath him, taking her again and again. His features were handsome and refined, yet his eyes held the glint of a wild beast lurking in the shadows, filled with deep love and a chilling obsession.
"Zhizhi, where do you think you can escape to?"
A low, husky voice accompanied the man's forceful thrust onto her, "You can't escape. No matter where you hide, your brother will bring you back."
Fang Zhi slowly sat up and leaned against the headboard.
During the three years she fled from him, she dreamed of past scenes more than once, and she also dreamed of him coming to catch her more than once.
I still feel lingering fear whenever I dream about it.
Qi Shen—the older brother she both loved and feared, despite having no blood relation to him.
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The main text begins:
As the sun sets in the west, the setting sun paints half the sky red, and the green fields are edged with gold. Across the road, wisps of smoke rise from the chimneys of rows of low-rise houses.
It was a harmonious scene, but the courtyard gate was wide open, and a woman's rough, irritable voice came from inside.
"You brat, I'll beat you to death!"
The one who spoke was a peasant woman, dressed simply and with a plump body. Her face, exposed to the wind and sun year-round, was sallow and dry like tree bark, and she held a broom in her rough hands.
The broom struck the small, curled-up girl on the ground with force.
The pain caused her to sob softly, almost inaudibly, completely drowned out by the peasant woman's angry roar.
Some children are born with malice and indifference.
A girl of similar age stood at the doorway of the inner room, a malicious smile on her yellow face. "Mother, hit her slowly. If you kill her, there will be no one to do the work."
Upon hearing this, the peasant woman spat viciously at the girl on the ground, her movements becoming even more forceful. "It's good that she's dead. She can't work anyway, and living would just be a waste of food."
Fang Zhi had lost count of how many blows he had received. His head was spinning, feeling like it was filled with lead. On his dirty face, only his clear, bright eyes, untouched by dust, were clearly visible. His eyes were red and he stared blankly at the door.
As far back as she can remember, being beaten has become a daily occurrence.
Today, it was also because her mother had an argument with a customer while selling vegetables at the market, and took her anger out on her.
My younger sister can snuggle in our parents' arms and act spoiled, but she has to help with the laundry and boiling water; my younger sister can go to school, but she has to stay home and do farm work...
Because she's not her mother's biological daughter. If she dies, will she no longer have to endure the pain?
Fang Zhi closed her eyes, her small body trembling uncontrollably.
In rural areas, the front and back yards are close together, so any noise from one neighboring house can be heard by the neighboring houses.
The noise in the courtyard startled the neighbors.
The villagers stood guard at the gate of the courtyard, and most of them, unable to bear the sight, stood up and criticized the peasant woman.
"Auntie Pang, you can't hit a child like that! How old is she? Do you want to beat her to death?"
"You will be punished by heaven for doing this."
"It's a terrible thing. They couldn't have children, so they bought a child. After they had their own biological children, they treated them like this."
......
Faced with the crowd's accusations, the fat auntie raised an eyebrow, threw the broom aside, put her hands on her hips, and roared towards the door, "I paid for her, I can beat her however I want! If you don't like it, give me 30,000 yuan and buy her back."
The neighbors looked at each other, disapproving of the crazy woman's treatment of a child, but could only offer verbal advice.
After all, 30,000 yuan is not a small amount for a rural family; it is almost a family's annual income.
Seeing that no one was saying anything, the fat auntie sneered.
She shook her aching wrists and swayed her plump body as she walked into the house.
The neighbor shook his head as the farce ended, and a soft sigh came from the crowd, "A madman."
They were used to Aunt Pang beating her daughter; Aunt Pang's husband worked away from home, and it was always just the three of them—the mother and daughter—at home.
Back then, Aunt Pang was misdiagnosed as infertile, and the couple somehow brought home a girl. Later, she became pregnant with the girl who wasn't their biological child, and she became their punching bag.
The neighbors weren't usually one to meddle, but the woman's behavior was simply too much, and over time, even the most cold-blooded person would find it hard to remain indifferent.
They felt sympathy for the girl's plight, but every family has its own troubles and difficulties.
All they could do was express their sympathy, and after that, they went their separate ways.
The summer night breeze was hot and dry, and mosquitoes buzzed around her in the courtyard. Fang Zhi dragged her wounded body to a corner and quietly curled up there.
Her big eyes were wide open, and she was looking at the moon with reddened corners. Her stomach was already growling with hunger.
The little girl prayed silently in her heart, if there really are angels in the world, could they take her away?
"The moon is crescent, the moon is crescent, illuminating the streamside at night..." Fang Zhi hummed a tune softly to comfort himself, his tender voice tinged with sobs.
She can't actually sing, except for this one nursery rhyme.
This is what she secretly listened to and wrote down while cleaning the house as her mother was putting her younger sister to sleep.
After an unknown amount of time, the girl's faint singing gradually faded into the night. Her head rested on her knees, and her tightly closed eyes indicated that she had drifted off to sleep.
The dirty face, where tears had spilled, revealed patches of her originally fair skin, one gray and one white.
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