Chapter 46 Teach him a lesson
Daylight broke.
Wen Xiaoxiao lay on the hospital bed with her eyes closed, her face even paler than the sheets beneath her, only the slight rise and fall of her chest proving that she was still alive.
Zhou Lanying hadn't slept all night, and her eyelids were heavy, but she forced herself to stay awake.
She looked at the person on the bed, then at Zhao Fei who was guarding the bedside, and sighed.
"Zhao Fei, I have to go back now." Her voice was hoarse. "Yizhen and Yibao are still young, and Yidi has to go to school. The house can't be left unattended. You stay here and take good care of Xiaoxiao. Don't leave me for a moment."
Zhao Fei then moved his stiff neck and nodded, "I know, Mom. Take care on your way."
Zhou Lanying glanced at Wen Xiaoxiao with worry again before hunching over and slowly walking out of the ward to catch the first bus back home.
Zhou Lanying sighed inwardly, thinking, "Let them have more time alone together; they're both so pitiful."
The ward fell silent again.
Zhao Fei's gaze never left Wen Xiaoxiao's face.
The pain and anger in his heart were intertwined, almost tearing him apart.
After a while, he slowly got up.
Xiaoxiao hasn't eaten anything since last night, so I need to go buy her some liquid food.
He gave her a deep look before tiptoeing out of the ward and gently closing the door behind him.
The hospital cafeteria had just opened, and there wasn't much to offer.
Zhao Fei bought a bowl of millet porridge and two boiled eggs, and carefully carried them back home.
As he approached the ward door, he instinctively slowed his steps, preparing to push the door open and go inside.
Just as his hand was about to touch the doorknob, an extremely ominous premonition suddenly gripped his heart!
He practically burst through the hospital room door!
The sight before him made his blood rush to his head, only to freeze instantly—
The window was wide open, letting in a blast of cold air. Wen Xiaoxiao had gotten up sometime earlier, wearing only a thin hospital gown, barefoot, and was standing on the windowsill!
Half of her body was already out of the window, her hands gripping the window frame, her hair flying wildly in the biting morning wind.
The ground floor is hard concrete, and the building is three stories high.
"Xiaoxiao!!!" Zhao Fei let out a bloodcurdling roar, and the bowl of porridge in his hand crashed to the ground.
Like a leopard, he rushed over with astonishing speed, and at the last moment before Wen Xiaoxiao was about to let go, he grabbed her waist tightly with all his might and dragged her back from the windowsill!
The two of them fell together onto the cold cement ground.
Wen Xiaoxiao struggled desperately in his arms, crying and screaming, "Let me go! Let me die! Let me die and be done with it! I have no face to live! What's the point of me living! Let me go!!!"
Zhao Fei used all his strength to restrain her, holding her tightly in his arms, refusing to let go no matter how much she kicked, struggled, or bit him.
His eyes were bloodshot, and his voice trembled and broke: "Xiaoxiao! Live on, live on! Only by living on is there any hope! Even if it's just for me... please?"
His tears fell uncontrollably, mingling with her disheveled hair. "What will I do if you die?! What will happen to Yizhen and Yibao?! They're only six months old! How can you bear to let them grow up without a mother?! If you die, that beast will live a carefree life, and Wang Juan will be smug?! Are you willing to accept that?!"
Wen Xiaoxiao's struggles gradually weakened, leaving only broken sobs, her body trembling in his arms like fallen leaves in the autumn wind.
"Big brother... Waaah..."
Zhao Fei hugged her even tighter, "Xiaoxiao, believe me. You live well and watch. I will definitely avenge you! That beast Zhao Qingda, I will make him pay! You believe me!"
His embrace was warm and firm, and his words fell into her already wounded heart.
This is more like a vow to live and die together.
Wen Xiaoxiao finally stopped struggling, slumped into his arms, buried her face in his chest, and her tears soaked his shirt, leaving it cold.
Zhao Fei held her in his arms and sat on the cold ground, remaining motionless for a long time.
The nurse was shocked when she arrived at the scene and saw the mess and the two embracing each other.
Zhao Fei gently carried Wen Xiaoxiao back to bed and covered her with the blanket.
From that day on, Zhao Fei stayed by his side every step of the way.
He didn't talk much, but silently did everything, his eyes always fixed on her.
Her breast milk completely dried up after experiencing this devastating physical and mental ordeal.
The two children were forced to be weaned early and have to rely entirely on formula.
A week later, Wen Xiaoxiao was discharged from the hospital.
Zhao Fei took her back to the courtyard house.
She was thinner than before, her eyes were vacant, and her face was expressionless. Only when she saw Zhao Yidi rushing over and Yizhen and Yibao reaching out to hug her on the kang (a heated brick bed) would a faint ripple of emotion, belonging to a living person, appear in her empty eyes.
Zhou Lanying took her in, her heart aching so much that tears streamed down her face, but she took even better care of her and the children.
After settling into his home, Zhao Fei's gentle expression vanished instantly, replaced by an almost cold calm.
He arrived at the pig farm, found Lao Erhei, and Zhao Fei walked over, offered him a cigarette, and got straight to the point: "Lao Erhei, do me a favor."
The second brother, with his eyes narrowed, took the cigarette and said, "Brother Fei, what do you want to say?"
“Zhao Qingda, my cousin. Teach him a lesson, but don’t kill him or break his bones,” Zhao Fei’s voice was devoid of warmth, “but I want to leave a mark on his face that he can never forget.”
The second brother exhaled a smoke ring, weighed it in his hand, and said, "On the face? Okay. When?"
"The sooner the better." Zhao Fei pulled a thick envelope from his pocket and stuffed it into Lao Erhei's hand. "This is for your hard work, brothers."
The second brother pinched the thickness of the leather, grinned, and revealed his teeth, which were stained yellow from smoking: "Brother Fei, you're too kind. Wait for news."
Three days later, late at night, Zhao Qingda finished his last short-distance trip and parked the bus back in the fleet yard.
He got out of the car humming a little tune, planning to take Wang Juan and the children to the department store to buy new clothes the next day.
I had just locked the car door and turned around when two figures suddenly darted out of the darkness!
Before he could react, someone grabbed his neck tightly from behind, covered his mouth, and dragged him into the shadows of a corner of the yard.
Immediately afterwards, his mouth was stuffed with a rag and his hands were tied behind his back.
A dark-skinned man with a scar on his face squatted in front of him, holding something in his hand: a pair of red-hot iron tongs!
Zhao Qingda's pupils suddenly contracted, and fear made him struggle desperately, letting out muffled "ooh-ooh" cries.
The dark-faced man grinned, his eyes icy, and without warning, he pressed the red-hot branding iron hard and firmly onto Zhao Qingda's right cheek!
"Sizzle—!" A terrible sound of burning flesh filled the darkness, accompanied by a pungent smell of burning.
"Ah—!!!" The excruciating pain caused Zhao Qingda to let out a bloodcurdling scream that sounded inhuman, and he almost fainted on the spot.
On his right cheek, a hideous, blackened, rolled-up circular brand instantly appeared, so deep that the bone was visible.
Startled by the screams, Wang Juan, who was not far away, rushed out.
Seeing the scene in the corner, she was terrified: "What are you doing?! Let him go! Help!!"
The burly man, Gouzi, stepped forward, grabbed Wang Juan by the hair, and punched her hard in the stomach several times, then kicked her twice.
Wang Juan screamed and curled up on the ground, feeling a sharp pain and a surge of heat in her lower body.
"You talkative woman!" Gouzi spat.
The dark-faced man looked at the two men on the ground, one unconscious and the other groaning, and kicked Zhao Qingda: "Dare to call the police... I'll kill you." After saying that, he sneered and quickly disappeared into the night with his accomplice.
Li Yugu only found out the next morning.
She saw her son's face wrapped in thick, blood-soaked gauze, gasping for breath in pain. Wang Juan lay pale in the inner room, bleeding from below; the baby had been lost.
Li Yugu was shocked, pained, and frightened, and kept asking them who they had offended.
Zhao Qingda was in so much pain that he was wincing and his mind was in a mess. He couldn't figure out which evil spirit he had offended recently.
Wang Juan lay in the inner room crying, filled not only with fear but also with despair and resentment at losing her support—her child was gone! She had lost her biggest bargaining chip!
"Call the police! Qingda, we're calling the police!" Wang Juan shouted, struggling.
"Call the police my ass!" Zhao Qingda roared, his voice muffled, enduring the burning pain on his face. "Do you even know who they are? If we call the police and they don't catch them, they'll come back and kill us both!"
He was truly terrified; the excruciating pain and fear of the red-hot iron pressed against his face were etched into his memory.
The other party gave a clear warning and was ruthless, so he dared not take any more risks.
Looking at his son's pitiful face, Li Yugu felt heartbroken and tears streamed down his face. Then he looked at Wang Juan, who had lost her child and looked utterly dejected in the inner room, and his mind was in turmoil.
She helped Wang Juan clean up the mess from her miscarriage, muttering "what a sin."
But when she learned from her son's vague narration that her sister-in-law, Zhou Lanying, had been staying in the courtyard house recently to help take care of Wen Xiaoxiao and the two children, the corner of her heart that was occupied by her grandson was faintly stung again.
After much deliberation, Li Yugu decided to return to the courtyard house.
This time, she didn't hold her grandson; she went back to the courtyard house alone.
Wenbin went to the courtyard to see the children and found out that Xiaoxiao had been bullied by that bastard Zhao Qingda again.
He grabbed a brick and went to the station, and under the cover of darkness, smashed all the car windows.
When Zhao Qingda arrived the next day, he was on the verge of tears. He thought the attackers were in cahoots with him, so he didn't dare call the police. He endured it as if nothing had happened and replaced the glass with new ones.
(Greetings, everyone! Thank you for your attention. Please leave comments and likes. I'll be adding two extra chapters tonight. Thank you all! Love you!)
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