In the bathroom, Feng Yulan took off her uniform. The body in the mirror was covered in scars, old and new, the most noticeable being the twelve bruises on her back that had just appeared today.
She turned on the faucet and washed her face with cold water, but she couldn't wash away the fatigue that penetrated deep into her bones.
When she returned to her and Zhang Shuo's room, her husband was already asleep, snoring softly. Feng Yulan carefully lay on the edge of the bed, trying not to touch him. In the darkness, she heard Zhang Shuo mumble vaguely, "Mom... Don't be angry..."
Feng Yulan stayed awake until the early morning. The rain outside the window stopped, and moonlight shone through the gaps in the curtains, drawing a silver line on the floor.
She got up quietly and took out an iron box from under the bed. Inside was the money she had secretly saved - not much, only more than 5,000 yuan, but enough for her to leave this home.
She pulled out her phone and typed "how to deal with domestic violence" into the search bar. The information that popped up on the screen made her eyes sore—legal aid, women's shelters, divorce procedures... These terms seemed both unfamiliar and alluring to her.
Suddenly, a search record caught her attention: "Mother's Day gift".
Those were the records Zhang Shuo's phone had automatically synced to his tablet. Feng Yulan scrolled down and found that almost all of them were searches about how to please her mother: "My mother's favorite restaurant," "Ten ways to make my mother happy," "Birthday surprise for my mother"...
Feng Yulan put down her phone and looked out the window. It was almost dawn, and a new day was about to begin.
She sighed softly, stuffed the tin box back under the bed, and lay down again. Before closing her eyes, she took one last look at the number on her phone screen that she hadn't dared to dial - the Women's Helpline.
Tomorrow, maybe the day after tomorrow, she will call. Maybe.
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