Extra 3: Jiang Li
In the cold winter, Jiang Li tightened his thin clothes. Whenever a strong wind blew, the alley became particularly cold. Passersby rarely greeted him. He walked forward with his head down, half of his face covered, and his red and swollen eyes stared at his toes.
Hiding in the corner with his head down has been a portrayal of his life for the past decade. He never speaks because he has no friends, but then again, no one would want to be friends with the son of a habitual domestic violence offender.
After winter, Jiang Haojing became even more lazy and gluttonous. The only one who had no one to worry about was his mother Jiang Qiuyi. His mother was often beaten. Several times, her head hit the table and she bled a lot. Jiang Li hugged his mother tightly and tried to calm Jiang Haojing's anger. Then his mother would fall into deep thought for a long time. He didn't know what she was thinking, but this kind of contemplation would always end with a severe headache.
He once asked his mother, where are grandpa and grandma? Can't they take us away?
In response to him was Jiang Qiuyi's confused look.
He began to suspect his mother had been abducted by Jiang Haojing and reported her to the police for trafficking. Of course, the incident ended in a beating. The police found no evidence of Jiang Haojing's trafficking, and Jiang Qiuyi, having suffered long-term abuse, had long lost the courage to resist, so she could only act as a peacemaker. As soon as the police left, the mother and son were beaten and sent to the hospital.
Touching the scars on his face, which were increasing in number, Jiang Li gave up his fierce resistance. He just wanted to get into college as soon as possible and leave here, preferably taking his mother with him and escaping to a place where Jiang Haojing could not find him.
But his "contentment" did not bring him a peaceful life.
Jiang Li's school is just an ordinary township junior high school. His grades are not outstanding, barely ranking in the upper middle level. He studies very hard, but the teacher does not pay attention to him, and he cannot integrate into the class, so his grades improve very slowly.
In the last year of junior high school, in order to complete the nine years of compulsory education as required by the higher authorities, the school leaders "invited" back the group of students who had dropped out of school before. His loneliness attracted the attention of another group of people.
The first person to discover him was Xu Leyan. She was in the next class to theirs and saw him by chance. At first, she just teased him on the way home from school. Seeing that he didn't resist much, she intensified her teasing. She deflated his bicycle, tore up his homework books, threw away his sheets and quilts, and asked people outside the school to cause trouble for him. He persisted and endured it all. Anyway, he endured it all this way. As long as he could graduate, he would go to study in the county and leave home forever. With hope in front of him, he would not let any accidents happen.
After more than a month of bullying, Jiang Haojing's behavior touched Jiang Li's bottom line.
On Friday after school, Jiang Li took a long detour to return home, only to find his mother gone. He didn't know what had happened, but a kind neighbor told him that his mother had been beaten to death by this man the previous night. Police cars and ambulances drove into the narrow alley one after another. As soon as they entered, Jiang Haojing asked him to issue a letter of apology.
Jiang Li clenched his fists, his eyes bloodshot, as if he wanted to stare through him.
He thought Jiang Haojing would be sentenced, but he was not. Murder means paying with one's life, but a marriage can justify all of this.
The night before, Jiang Haojing pinned him to the ground and forced him to write the letter of apology. He could still continue to live freely, but Jiang Li had already decided to kill him.
In order to create a good image of reformation in front of the police, Jiang Haojing found a job as a truck driver.
This job requires being on the road almost day and night. Jiang Haojing set off at night. Before he left, Jiang Li quietly cut the brake line. A careless and conceited person like Jiang Haojing just got in the car and drove away. As expected, he broke through the fence on the highway and disappeared from the world completely with his car.
After the accident, a lot of people gave him compensation and came to comfort him. He didn't feel sad at all, but he didn't dare to laugh out loud in front of others. He tasted the sweetness of killing.
He was more adept at using this skill, and since Xu Leyan and the others were unwilling to let him go, he agreed to the appointment in the boxwood forest.
He brought a sickle for cutting grass. The blade had just been sharpened and was still very sharp.
But he was too careless. Two fists were no match for four hands. Those two guys actually saved Xu Leyan. He rolled down the hillside but did not die. His leg was injured. After a day and a night, he finally climbed up, but there was someone waiting for him there.
"Who are you?"
The woman was very young. She folded her arms and looked at him with a smile. "I want to work with you."
Jiang Li looked at him with disdain. "You want me to pretend to be someone else?" The person in the photo did look somewhat like him. "If I want to cooperate, I have to know your name first, right?"
"My name is Qu Ting."
"No more?"
"Gone." Qu Ting had just arrived in China and found the young man according to the instructions. He did look very similar to Shen Shiyu. His face shape, body shape, eyebrows and eyes were highly similar, but he could still be recognized at a glance without any prior training.
Jiang Li is too gloomy. This gloominess comes from his long-term oppressed family and his inner inferiority and cowardice. He has just tasted the pain of killing and has become so cold-blooded. She can't help but worry that bringing him back will be another way of inviting a wolf into the house.
"What are the benefits?"
After Jiang Haojing's death, Jiang Li seemed to have awakened his self-awareness. He only considered himself, accepting things if he was satisfied and rejecting them if he was not satisfied.
Qu Ting said: "You will get everything you want, money, freedom, status and so on."
Jiang Li raised one eyebrow and waved the sickle in front of her several times, "I don't want anything you said."
Qu Ting frowned, "What do you want?"
"I want it." Jiang Li's eyes were like torches. "I am me!"
After saying that, he limped forward.
He can make money, he will have freedom sooner or later, and as for status... he doesn't care, he doesn't want to pretend to be someone else, he has finally broken free from the shackles, he doesn't want to be manipulated by others anymore.
Qu Ting chased after him, "Think about it again! Aren't you curious about why you two look so similar?"
"Not curious." Jiang Li walked around her and went further and further away.
Qu Ting thought of taking him back and keeping him under control first, so that he could be reformed and used in the future.
Then they fought fiercely in the woods, but how could a child like Jiang Li be a match for an adult? The sickle was swung in front of her several times, but it ended up hitting him. He wanted to kill this woman, and during the fight, he accidentally stepped on empty air, which became the reason for his death.
Qu Ting looked at his rapidly bleeding head, feeling both angry and helpless. Finally, she took back the photo of Shen Shiyu from him and said coldly, "You are such an ignorant person."
Jiang Li hated being someone else's stand-in, but in the end, his identity was still taken away.
His bond with Shen Shiyu arose from the crimes of their fathers, and after many twists and turns, neither of them had a good ending.
———End of the full text
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