Chapter 155 Ruan Li's Past
Tongtong cried so hard that she was out of breath. She stared at Chunyan with resentment, "I just hate you!"
"I hate you so much!"
"It's such a shame to be your daughter!"
Chunyan's face turned pale, and for a moment her heart felt as if it had been pierced by an icy spike.
She never knew that her daughter looked at her this way.
"How could I raise such an ungrateful person like you? I did everything for your own good, but you don't appreciate me and you even hate me! Why don't you just die!"
She grabbed a cup and threw it at Tongtong. When she was angry, she was just like Tongtong now. She didn't care whether what she said would cause psychological harm to either of them.
Ruan Li's eyes suddenly became sharp, and her long hair wrapped around the cup that Chunyan had thrown over, and then smashed it hard at Chunyan.
She grabbed Chunyan's hair, dragged her several centimeters, and used whatever she could to hit Chunyan.
"You old woman, you are out of your mind. You dare to bully my daughter in front of me? I will beat you to death today!"
"Mom, stop...stop hitting me."
Tongtong sighed.
Chunyan doesn't love her. Even if her mother beats Chunyan to death, that woman will never learn to love her.
There are many things in this world that can be forced, but love cannot be forced.
She also didn't want to endure the pain of silently begging Chunyan to love her.
Because she saw her mother from her previous life.
"Okay, then mom won't beat her."
Ruan Li let Chunyan go, but awkwardly put her hands behind her skirt.
She realized it later and said in a somewhat anxious tone: "Tong...Tongtong, did mom scare you?"
Tongtong shook her head. She looked at Ruan Li, who was covered in blood, with distress. "Mom, why is there so much blood on your skirt?"
Ruan Li's expression slowly changed, her eyes fixed on one place, her thoughts slowly drifting away, "This... is a long story."
The memory slowly goes back to the previous life.
She was originally a little actress bought by a wealthy family in Jiangnan. Because of her good looks, she was favored by the eldest master and was taken in as his seventh concubine when she was sixteen.
She has a beautiful voice and a pair of small feet, and Mr. Qian loves her small feet the most.
Because of this, she was often envied by his other concubines.
But she has a hot temper and no one dares to bully her.
The eldest wife came from a scholarly family. She usually fasted and worshipped Buddha. She never left the front door or went out of the back door. She would never want to see a small person like her.
Because she was favored, she soon became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter, Tongtong.
Everyone else in the courtyard laughed at her for giving birth to a useless girl, but she was happy about it.
The reason has nothing to do with her, this is the child born from her belly.
She likes her own child, whether it is a boy or a girl.
If the child was born by someone else, no matter whether it was a boy or a girl, she would not like it.
The only downside is that in the Qian family, girls are not allowed to go to school.
The eldest daughter who crawled out of the first wife's belly read too many books and became stupid.
It is said that the eldest master saw that the eldest daughter was beautiful, so he wanted to train her well so that she could marry a high-ranking official in the future and bring honor to the Qian family.
For this reason, the eldest master let the eldest daughter go to school and sent her abroad, thinking that this would help her become more successful.
The master's idea was good, but there was a variable.
The eldest daughter Qian Wanqing is the biggest variable.
Qian Wanqing traveled across the ocean and was influenced by advanced ideas. When she came back, she gave her father a warning.
Ruan Li still remembers the scene.
At that time, Ruan Li, several concubines and a group of maids were holding down four-year-old Tongtong, intending to bind her feet.
It’s not that Ruan Li doesn’t love her daughter.
But at that time, basically all women had to go through this experience, and it was really painful. Ruan Li also felt pain at that time.
But isn’t that how we all got here?
Four-year-old Tongtong cried heartbreakingly
At this moment, Qian Wanqing rushed over, snatched Tongtong from her hands, and held Tongtong in her arms.
She commanded her classmates to push away those concubines and those nannies who were ready to make a move, and just held Tongtong tightly and argued with them.
"Foot binding is a bad habit and a destruction of women. This kind of thing should be banned and abolished. Please stop exploiting women!"
This statement was actually quite shocking at the time.
But Ruan Li didn't know what was going on. She just stared at Qian Wanqing without saying a word.
She actually didn't understand some of the words that Qian Wanqing said. She just felt that Qian Wanqing, with her curly hair and beautiful dress, had a rare aura.
"You! You are so presumptuous! These are the rules left by our ancestors!"
Mr. Qian, who was called over in a hurry, was so angry that he was puffing his beard and glaring. He pointed at Qian Wanqing tremblingly, and his facial muscles kept shaking and twitching.
Qian Wanqing frowned and looked at her father disapprovingly, "I have never heard of such a rule during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, nor during the Han and Tang Dynasties!"
"Not to mention the distant past, foot binding was also prohibited in the beginning of our dynasty. How come this deadly thing has become something that Daddy said was passed down from our ancestors?"
"I can't say anything about you!"
"Put your sister down right now! You've read too many books and have become wild!"
Qian Wanqing refused to give up anything and spoke at length and proudly, denouncing the physical and mental harm that foot binding had brought to women. The more one listened, the more it seemed like a heinous crime.
The more Ruan Li listened, the more thoughtful she became.
Ruan Li was not a girl with vision. She had not read many books, so if someone was quibbling and scolding her in a roundabout way, she would not be able to understand it.
But she could tell who was stronger.
The eldest lady looks really amazing, and her whole body seems to be glowing.
The farce ended absurdly when Ruan Li, the biological mother, agreed with the eldest lady's opinion.
From that day on, Ruan Li fell out of favor.
But she herself was happy and comfortable. She pestered Qian Wanqing every day and shamelessly asked her to teach Tongtong how to write and read.
Qian Wanqing was very happy and tried her best to teach whenever she had free time every day.
The days continued like this until Tongtong was seven years old.
It was a very ordinary rainy day. The Qian Mansion, which was once a place of revelry every night, was burned and looted by a group of Japanese pirates. The whole mansion was flooded with blood. The air was filled with the stench of blood, but it could not attract the slightest mercy from the Bodhisattva in heaven.
When the Japanese pirates broke into Ruan Li's yard, Ruan Li was using her body to protect Qian Wanqing and the others as they escaped.
Qian Wanqing hugged Tongtong and looked at Ruan Li sadly for the last time.
She knew it would be a farewell forever.
Ruan Li used her body to fill the tiny gap in the small door, even though her white skirt had been stained red by the blood flowing from the bayonet that pierced her body.
Ruan Li didn't know whether Qian Wanqing successfully escaped with Tongtong in her arms, and where Tongtong and Qian Wanqing went afterwards.
She died on that seemingly ordinary smoky and rainy day.
The blood that flowed from her body dyed her embroidered shoes red.
Her soul was hidden in the embroidered shoes, never seeing the light of day until someone found an old photo from the Republic of China period and made a pair of three-inch golden lotus embroidered shoes that she used to wear based on the photo.
Until the pair of shoes was bought back by Chunyan.
Until Tongtong was forced by Chunyan to wear the shoes, the blood from her feet seeped into the embroidered shoes.