Chapter 179 The Principle Wife
Bai Li was hospitalized for recuperation.
The baby in her womb was transferred to Luo Yinglang, which was quite bizarre. Doctors caught her and examined her from head to toe to check for any abnormalities.
The result was that her body showed no abnormalities and was even healthier than before she was pregnant.
"Let's observe you for one more night, and you'll be discharged tomorrow."
The doctor was helpless.
Late at night, when Bai Li opened her sleepy eyes in her hospital bed, the moonlight was shining obliquely through the window.
A figure sat silently on the bedside chair.
Her gray-blue Taoist robe hung down, and a wooden hairpin was tied diagonally in her hair. Her smiling, downcast eyes were exactly the same as the Guanyin statue in the Buddhist hall that grants children.
"It's you...?"
Bai Li suddenly sat up, causing the IV tube to shake violently.
The woman in the Taoist robe took out an apricot-yellow amulet from her wide sleeves and gently placed it on the bedside table.
"You're safe and sound, so you can be discharged without worry. But you need to pay attention to your mother's mental state. She's been locked up for so long and feels extremely guilty towards you, so she's showing signs of depression. This amulet has a calming and soothing effect, so put it on her."
Her voice was like a clear mountain spring, yet it sent shivers down Bai Li's spine.
That was the ethereal female voice that had been heard in the Buddhist hall that day.
Bai Li stared blankly at the amulet, her throat tightening.
She never imagined that this complete stranger would remember even such a minor injury.
Not only did he rescue her from the hellish Luo family, but he also took into account the trauma her mother suffered.
The moment my fingertips touched the talisman, a warm current surged into my heart.
"I..." Bai Li choked up, clutching the amulet tightly, "I really don't know how to thank you..."
The woman in the Taoist robe had tears welling up in her eyes. She raised her hand and gently stroked Bai Li's hair, her fingertips trembling slightly: "It's because of me that you've suffered... for nine lifetimes..."
Bai Li stared at her blankly, not understanding what was going on.
"In this life..." The woman in the Taoist robe grasped Bai Li's slender hand, "I will definitely protect you."
...
A thousand years ago.
Lu Yao and Song Sha traveled together to Shu, where Song Sha was taken in as a disciple by Granny Leng.
After the two parted, Lu Yao traveled alone to the south.
As I walked along the rugged mountain path, I suddenly saw vultures circling in the distance, their dark shadows resembling an ominous cloud.
A putrid stench drifted on the wind, mixed with faint groans.
Lu Yao pushed aside the overgrown thorns and saw a thin woman abandoned under the scorching sun in the open space in the center of the mass grave.
The woman was dressed in rags, and her exposed skin was covered with bruises and festering sores.
His pale, chapped lips trembled slightly, and he was barely breathing.
Lu Yao quickly stepped forward and helped the woman up, letting her rest on her knees.
The woman was frighteningly light, as if she were nothing but bones.
Lu Yao untied the water pouch from her waist and carefully moistened the other person's chapped lips.
"My child...my child..." the woman murmured incoherently in her delirium, her withered fingers convulsively gripping Lu Yao's sleeve. "Master Chen...please, let me see him one more time..."
Lu Yao brushed aside the woman's messy hair, and when she saw her face clearly, her pupils suddenly contracted.
The woman's forehead has a red line that looks like an earthworm coiling around it; this is often seen in mothers who have been forced to separate from their children.
His lower eyelids were swollen and bluish, he cried blood every night, and his worry had become a form of consumption.
A fine vertical line appears in the center of the upper lip, resembling a split pearl, symbolizing the severing of human relationships.
The hollow of the collarbone has horizontal lines like knife carvings, indicating that the person is an object and can be pawned by anyone.
All these features told Lu Yao about the identity and background of the person in front of her.
She was a concubine's wife.
"I'd heard that wife-selling was common in this area, and today I've come across a real-life example."
A layer of frost settled in Lu Yao's eyes.
In the barren mountainous region of Southwest China, selling wives and children became a means of survival.
The emaciated men squatted in front of the pawnshop, pressing their wives' fingerprints to pawn their wives to wealthy families.
The women were examined like livestock, their teeth were pried open to check their age, and a red rope was tied around their waists to keep track of the days.
Ten months of pregnancy, one day of childbirth.
The baby's cries echoed in the embroidered swaddling clothes, while the birth mother, clutching a few copper coins, was pushed out of the vermilion gate.
The wife, whose money had long been gambled away by her husband, dragged her sagging belly home after being drained of its value, only to be met with the scornful remark that she had "dirtyed herself."
None of these poor wives who were forced into prostitution met a good end.
Lu Yao felt a surge of anger rising in her chest, and the peach wood sword at her waist trembled violently as it sensed her fury.
...
The woman awoke from her daze to find herself surrounded by an intricately carved bed canopy.
The aroma of medicine mingled with the smell of charcoal fire in the room. Just as she tried to sit up, a violent coughing fit erupted in her lungs.
"Don't move."
A young girl emerged from the doorway, a bowl of medicine steaming in her palm.
She rushed forward in two quick steps and pulled the person back into the brocade quilt.
The woman, still feeling the metallic taste in her throat, said in a hoarse voice, "Thank you for saving my life, young lady..."
The girl interrupted her: "If you want to thank me, wait until you're coughing to death."
Bai Li leaned against the soft pillows and began to recount that painful past.
When she was fourteen, her father sold her to the Zhu family for two taels of silver.
The Zhu family originally had three acres of meager land, barely enough for the family to make a living.
But her husband, Zhu Tongwei, was a lazy man who never worked in the fields and spent his days idly, leaving all the farm work to his mother and her frail shoulders.
After his parents-in-law passed away one after another, no one could control Zhu Tongwei anymore.
He started spending all his time gambling, selling off his belongings one by one until he had almost nothing left, not even his bowls.
The creditors came to the door with thugs, splashing dog blood on the doorstep one day and throwing excrement on the wall the next.
Bai Li would quietly draw water from the well and clean the area little by little.
That day, a burly creditor stared at her for a long time.
Bai Li lowered her head, and could feel the other person's gaze sweeping over her.
"How about we sell your wife?"
The creditor leaned close to Zhu Tongwei's ear, deliberately speaking loudly.
Zhu Tongwei immediately jumped up to object.
Instead of caring about their marital bond, he was calculating that if he sold his wife, no one would be there to do his laundry and cook for him anymore.
The creditor smiled sinisterly: "If you won't sell, you can pawn her. Do you know what pawning a wife is? I think you can get a good price for your wife."
Zhu Tongwei's eyes lit up immediately. Of course he knew about pawnbroking; you could pawn your things and redeem them when the time came.
In his mind, Bai Li was no different from those pawned items; they were all property that could be retrieved at any time.
Bai Li stood in the corner, watching her husband's figure sway under the oil lamp as he haggled with the creditor.
She gripped the hem of her clothes tightly, the rough texture of the fabric chafing her fingertips until they ached.
Bai Li was dragged into the Chen residence by Zhu Tongwei, who grabbed her arm.
The Chen family steward squinted at her, his money pouch jingling as he tossed it in his hand: "Five taels, for a one-year term."
The money pouch dangled in front of her before disappearing into Zhu Tongwei's sleeve.
That evening, Mr. Chen barged in, reeking of alcohol.
Ten months later, she was in excruciating pain on the haystack in the woodshed.
The midwife's rough hands were like iron clamps. The baby was wrapped in a brocade swaddle and carried away as soon as it was born, leaving only blood and placenta on the ground.
Firecrackers went off in the main courtyard, and servants ran around shouting, "Master has a son!"
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