Liu Cuifang handed the water to Li Ruicai, tears welling in her eyes: "Ruicai, do you think I'm cruel?"

"Others don't understand, but don't you know how that child came from?"

"Shishi must have told you, right?"

When Liu Cuifang mentioned Feng Shishi, a hint of tenderness appeared in Li Ruicai's eyes.

He nodded: "Why else do you think I should help you again?"

"Shishi's death has nothing to do with you directly, but it has something to do with you indirectly."

"Liu Cuifang, if it weren't for Shishi doing this for you and your child, if it weren't for her kindness and sympathy for you, she wouldn't have been targeted by Zhang Laizi from the Red Flag Brigade and ended up like this."

"She is still so young. She should be the most beautiful flower in bloom. She should be like you, like He Ting and Zhou Yanfeng, and be admitted to university and return to the city."

"But, she's gone, just gone like that."

Li Ruicai blamed himself in agony: "If she had been more ruthless and ignored you and your child, she wouldn't have ended up like this."

"She is an outsider, but she asked me to exchange tickets with others to buy milk powder for your child, and she cared about whether you and your mother would be wronged."

"She is so stupid that she still wants to raise your child with you."

"As a mother, you are eager to get rid of it and decide to return to the capital alone to attend university and completely cut off ties with the past. What do you think I should think about this?"

After Li Ruicai's scolding, Liu Cuifang burst into tears.

She burst into tears: "Li Ruicai, I knew you were just like He Ting and the others, you looked down on me."

"I knew it would be like this."

"But am I willing to go this far?"

Liu Cuifang cried and questioned him in a trembling voice: "I was a sent-down youth, and I encountered that kind of thing. I also thought about suing Zhao Yongsen for rape, but at that time I was pregnant with his child."

"What can I do? What do you think I should do?"

"What's the atmosphere in the countryside? Those people can drown me with just a mouthful of spit, do you know?"

"Yes, I am a mother and I should be responsible for my child."

Liu Cuifang was heartbroken and cried: "But every time I see that child, I think of how I was treated, the faces of Zhao Yongsen and his mother, and the nightmare."

"Also, Li Ruicai, I don't want Shishi to get hurt either."

Liu Cuifang couldn't stop crying: "Shishi was murdered. I live in self-blame and pain every day. I don't want to stay there for even a minute."

"Every time I think about what happened to Shishi, I wish I could die."

"When I look at that child, I think about what Shishi went through in order to deliver milk powder to her."

"Li Ruicai, why wasn't I the one who died?"

"Anyway, I'm already dirty, I'm willing to die in Shishi's place."

Liu Cuifang fell to her knees in grief, and impulsively grabbed Li Ruicai's trouser leg: "Li Ruicai, I want to leave that ignorant and backward place, the place where Shishi and I are buried."

"Am I wrong to think so?"

"Even though I'm alive, I'm just a walking corpse. I'm just a miserable shell, you know that?"

Liu Cuifang hugged his legs and cried, "Li Ruicai, if I hadn't gone back to see my mother and go back to Beijing to see her, I would have died long ago. I'm going to the underground to accompany Shishi."

"But I still have to go back and ask my mother why she was so cruel to abandon me in the countryside."

"If they hadn't ignored me, I wouldn't have had such a hard time in the countryside, and Shishi wouldn't have run around for me and the child out of sympathy. Shishi wouldn't have gone through all that."

"I am unwilling to give up. I have to go back and ask. That is why I am writing to you to ask you to help me escape from that sad place called the Red Flag Battalion."

Liu Cuifang threw herself at his feet and cried bitterly, and even hugged his legs, which scared Li Ruicai.

Hearing her crying and saying that she would rather die instead of Feng Shishi, Li Rui remembered that before his Shishi died, she couldn't let go of Liu Cuifang and her daughter, and he felt complicated for a moment.

He avoided Liu Cuifang's touch and said, "I don't want to pursue the past. For Shishi's sake, I will help you one last time."

"As for your choice, I can't say anything more."

Li Rui hardened his heart: "You have nothing to do with me from now on, and I will not help you for Shishi's sake anymore. This is the last time."

Li Ruicai avoided her touch with a look of disgust and said he would help her for the last time.

Liu Cuifang covered her face and cried, with a cruel light in her eyes.

She knew she had to seize the opportunity.

She raised her head and wiped away her tears: "Okay, I get it."

"This is the last time. I won't be able to ask you to help me again in the future."

Liu Cuifang looked grateful: "I have been waiting for you here for a few days. Finally you are here. I am very satisfied."

"You even came all the way from the south to help me and buy me a train ticket back to the city, Ruicai, Shishi didn't misjudge you. She didn't love the wrong person. You are indeed a man of affection and righteousness."

"I, Liu Cuifang, will remember your great kindness for the rest of my life."

Liu Cuifang wiped away her tears with her sleeves: "You've been running around for my affairs, you've worked hard, drink some water!"

She urged Li Ruicai to drink water.

Li Ruicai felt a tightness in his chest.

He didn't know how things had ended up like this.

Liu Cuifang didn't seem to do anything wrong. Who should he blame for Feng Shishi's death?

He had been in love with her for so long, but when he finally impressed her, she was gone.

Even though he could be so close to her that he could reach her, she still agreed to date him, and he even named their child.

He was looking forward to the day when he and his Shishi would have a few children like the triplets of He Ting and Lu Baiwei.

After all, glass is fragile.

His beauty, like ice and snow, melted into this world.

Thinking of his poems, Li Ruicai felt unhappy. He sullenly picked up the enamel pot and filled half a cup with water.

He was so absorbed in missing Feng Shishi that he didn't notice that Liu Cuifang was staring at him intently while he drank the water. As he gulped down the water, the light in Liu Cuifang's eyes grew brighter and brighter.

Li Rui was tired and thirsty after rushing all the way from the south, so he drank half of the enamel cup of water in one breath.

He put the enamel cup down, and Liu Cuifang gently persuaded him: "Ruicai, drink some more, I added sugar water in it."

"No, I'm not thirsty anymore."

Things were almost done, and Li Ruicai didn't want to have anything to do with Liu Cuifang anymore.

For the sake of the deceased Feng Shishi, I will help her one last time, just one last time.

Li Ruicai put down the enamel cup and stood up to leave the guesthouse when he suddenly felt dizzy.

"Ruicai, what's wrong with you?"

Liu Cuifang asked gently, "Are you feeling a little dizzy? Can I help you lie down and rest for a while?"

"Need not!"

Li Ruicai wanted to break free from her support, but found that he was already exhausted.

The dizzy feeling even intensified. Even though he used great willpower to control himself, open the door and walk out, he was unable to do so.

Finally, when Liu Cuifang supported him, Li Rui felt dizzy and fell onto the bed in the guesthouse.