Chapter 421
Xiaoshuang sent me a magazine with a fun game that asked me to test my fruit identity. She was a red apple, crispy and sweet, with a sweet and cheerful personality. Wen Runze was a banana, gentle and steady, but a little old-fashioned.
Wang Jiazhi tested herself and found herself to be a peach, pink, sweet, furry and cute.
When he came back, she asked him to try it too. It was lime. The fragrance was rigorous, calm, and intelligent, but somewhat distant. However, when it came into contact with his oven and cakes, the fragrance would become gentle and sweet.
"So what kind of fruit do you think I look like?"
He smiled and said, "I think so. I think it looks most like the lychees from your hometown."
She knew he would say that.
She was writing in the study at the time. When he came back, she was taking a break. The kitten was sitting on the edge of the table, and a huge white cat was lying at her feet. She put her feet under its belly, as if she was wearing a pair of super big fur slippers.
He saw that she was in a good mood. Of course, he couldn't talk about this matter when she was unhappy, but he couldn't talk about it when she was too happy either. Today seemed to be no different from usual, so he would talk about it today.
"A letter from England." He handed her the letter.
She opened it and they looked at it together. The kitten leaned its head on its father's shoulder and also leaned over.
After the three of them finished reading the letter (the kitten still couldn't understand it), she said, "I'm not going to give them any money. And you're not allowed to interfere, and don't write back to him."
In the letter, her father explained that his investments had failed and he was owing a lot of money. He was at his wit's end. His stepmother had taken her mixed-race brother and left with his last remaining savings. Her brother was currently on leave from school and unemployed, so he needed money. He hoped she could lend them some money, and he even specified a minimum of $12,000 to help them out.
Wang Jiazhi thought, "Great! He even went so far as to convert pounds into dollars, even with the exact number." He made her brother sound so pathetic, as if he'd dropped out of school because he couldn't afford it, when it was simply because he was so unmotivated and didn't want to study that he insisted on continuing. She was stunned, her mind racing. She wondered how difficult it was for her to study.
"He said he didn't have enough money to pay for my trip to England. How could he have enough money to get married, and marry an Englishwoman at that?" She tried to remain calm, but her voice still trembled.
"Okay, then I won't think about it." He tried to stroke her fur.
Wang Jiazhi tried not to think about it anymore. She told him to take the letter and burn it, and continued writing. But her heart was still pounding. When she turned off the lights and went to bed at night, in the stillness of the night, she couldn't help but think about it.
So much money, the money my mother had saved through hard work and frugality, and the valuable dowry she brought from my grandmother's house, were all gone without a trace.
If she had been given some money to go to England, she wouldn't have encountered such a thing. If her mother knew that the family property she had worked so hard to build was not used for her daughter, but was abandoned and wasted in the chaos of war, and was instead lost by her subsequent husband and second wife, she would have turned into a ghost and killed them all.
"Why aren't you sleeping yet?"
She moaned and buried her head in his arms.
"At that time, Lao Wu said he could send me to England. I knew he was lying, but I was still happy to hear it."
"Um."
"I have nothing. My only hope is that there are relatives far, far away. I always imagine that one day I can go there and not be completely destitute. But it's just a boat ticket, a million miles away. I can never reach them."
"Um."
"But...it didn't matter anymore. Because I realized how stupid I was. They didn't care about me at all, so why did I have to go find them? Even if I went, what would happen? The result would probably be the same as here. I'd still be all alone."
Many things are only understood afterward. Wang Jiazhi later realized that Old Wu had lied to her and would never send her to England after the deal was done. But it didn't matter anymore. She hadn't expected to live anyway. At that time, all she thought about was him, and then she thought about her children. And then she died just like that.
Later, she thought, why was her life like this? Why was she only 23 years old, and nearly half of it was filled with endless suffering? She lived a life worse than a dog's, while her father, brother, and stepmother lived happily in a foreign country. They would never know that she had endured humiliation and torture here, and then died violently with her unborn child.
The money her mother left her was enough for her to go to England, and it was all because of them.
Lai Xiujin was such a rotten person, yet her father was willing to spend money to support her, give her nice clothes and let her go to school. Yet, she herself deserved only to wear tattered clothes and be looked down upon. How could such a beast exist in the world?
In his past life, after seeing those photos, he realized that her family was actually wealthy, but they just wouldn't spend it on her. Old Wu also said that he'd lied to her and said he'd send her to England after the deal was done. Could he steal a girl's life for the price of a boat ticket?
Especially since they wrote about how much money they had lost and how much debt they were incurring. That money could have been enough for her to go to England many times. So much money was wasted, and they refused to give their daughter a chance to live.
He wondered how she could be so stupid.
In a movie, a girl and her husband were childhood sweethearts. They'd always dreamed of traveling the world. As they grew older, they worked hard to save money, but due to household expenses, they never quite reached a goal. The girl's husband always felt sorry for her, but one day, he read her diary. On the last page, he read: "Although I've never been able to travel the world, living happily with my husband is more wonderful and joyful than traveling the world."
Old Wu always wanted to live, because he knew his temper and was certain Wang Jiazhi had suffered countless hardships. Old Wu hoped he would kill him, and his words sometimes begged for mercy, sometimes provoked him. However, he always maintained his basic composure and would never kill Old Wu, no matter how angry he was.
"She doesn't care about you that much. She can't bear to leave you because she has nothing. Don't be so self-indulgent and think you are that important!"
Drops of water dripped from the ceiling.
He was still as quiet as ever and didn't say a word to Old Wu.
I thought to myself, "Why are you so stupid? If I die, can't you go find your family?"
"That leg is also cut off."
His voice was very soft and low, but people could hear it clearly.
He couldn't bear to scrape Old Wu too much at once, as excessive scraping could lead to a quicker death, and eventually numbness to the pain. When he was "happy," he'd scrape off a third of each leg. Then, when he was "happy again," he'd scrape off another third. And then, when he was "happy again," he'd scrape off another third of each arm. Of course, it wasn't always this way; there were many different types, allowing for "a hundred flowers to bloom."
Wang Jiazhi had been writing a new story for a while, and part of it required information about torture. She found a very old book in a used bookstore. It was a history of torture in the West, complete with illustrations—truly horrifying. She showed it to him, and he was calm. She realized that these things must seem insignificant to their group.
Wang Jiazhi was not that stupid, but even if she believed that they would really send her abroad, the result would be the same.
In her eyes, Old Wu was an uncle, but because of Old Yi, she never considered him much older than she was. Since they were the same age, she was somewhat influenced by him and assumed Old Wu wasn't very old. So when Old Wu told her about his two children being killed, she assumed they were still very young. In fact, both of Old Wu's sons were almost twenty when they died, just a few years younger than she was. And the two female spies who had been there before were also only in their early twenties.
He was heartbroken that his child was gone. Wang Jiazhi, the two girls before, the five scumbags, and the few people who died with the girls before were almost the same age as his child.
Old Yi has no children and knows Old Wu's temper, but he also feels sad. He didn't expect Old Wu to be so cruel as to send group after group of young people of the same age as his children to their deaths.
Wang Jiazhi was also very puzzled. Old Wu hadn't said anything else except telling her about Old Yi's viciousness, warning her to be cautious and willing to die if something happened. He rarely showed up, and when he did, he didn't give any work instructions. Kuang Yumin had no ideas either. She had to figure everything out on her own.
Kuang Yumin wasn't surprised. Back then, Ouyang was about to discuss how to kill him, but he just said there was no rush, that he had already infiltrated, and that they would talk about it later. Unexpectedly, a month later, he was just taking a few boys to play with bottles. His money was almost gone, and summer vacation was about to end, but he still had no plan at all.
Later on, she finally saw clearly that he had no plan at all. He just had a ground-shaking idea, and then he set up a big event with great fanfare, instigated a lot of people, and then he had no idea what to do next.
After that, he just muddled through the days, working for nothing. He would go back to school after summer vacation. Huang Lei had spent the money, so he didn't lose anything. But he didn't expect Huang Lei to get angry and start a fight. In order to deal with Huang Lei, he had to do something.
Only I am stupidly serious.
"I'm stupid, I'm stupid anyway!" She kept repeating this in her mind.
Wang Jiazhi felt that Old Wu was professional and old, so she thought he would be sure of it.
She also realized it later, and after she had a sudden realization, she observed how he usually worked. Only then did she realize that Old Wu was better than Kuang Yumin, but not by much.
Old Wu really wants revenge. If he is so eager to take revenge, how could he not have any guidance for her work?
She seemed to understand that it was not that Old Wu didn't want to, but that he had no choice.
His abilities were limited, and he had no way to deal with Old Yi. All he could do was hopelessly lucky, repeatedly sending girls over, then leaving them to fend for themselves. When they died, he'd replace them, and when they died again, he'd replace them again. He only sent her over when he had no one else to kill. Each time a girl died, she succumbed to torture and gave up a group of people. But Old Wu was a skilled escapee, and no matter how many people died, he could always escape unscathed.
Extreme shrewdness is stupidity. Old Wu thought he was clever, that others would die but not himself, just like Kuang Yumin. If he succeeded, he would avenge himself and get promoted; if he failed, he wouldn't lose anything. He had this confidence since he was young. He was very good at clearing himself, and even if he was investigated by his superiors, he could still make a perfect excuse. But who was the fool? The most infuriating thing is to be dumb and swallow bitter herbs. He had almost caused public outrage over there.
Many years ago, there was a movie that was a historical parody. The heroine died for the hero, leaving him the chance to live, but he still went to find her a few years later.
Back then, the actress who played the female lead was only in her twenties. Later, in middle age, she starred in a film. The plot had little to do with the previous film, but by some strange coincidence, one of the male leads was the same historical figure who had starred in the film years earlier. They weren't lovers, but they were close friends, sharing life and death from their youth, rising from humble beginnings to high positions, closer than siblings. They died less than two months apart, with the actress passing away first. The male actor, of course, wasn't the same one from back then.
But it always gives people a sense of fate.
After reading it, she wrote in the school magazine: Twenty years later, she would still try that road for him first and meet him at the end of the road; he would still want her to lean on his shoulder to listen to her talk about the sufferings of her life, and let her tears soak his clothes.
She knew this was too far-fetched, but it came from her heart. Although many boys scoffed at her, quite a few girls were actually very impressed.
Late at night, the kitten was fast asleep in his crib, hugging his purple rabbit toy. On the balcony, three little magpies were also asleep under their parents' bellies.
It suddenly started to rain outside, and he remembered that the things he used to shelter them from the rain were gone today, and he didn't know where they were blown away by the wind. He got up and moved a small wooden stool, which he placed on top of the nest to keep out the rain.
When he came back, she felt that he was a little cold. Every autumn rain brings a chill, and now the weather is also cold.
She was silent for a moment and said, "I won't pay any attention to them anymore. And don't give them money behind my back."
"Okay~"
"Maybe it's what you said, you have to pay back what you owe."
"Um."
"They owed me in the first place. If I want my daughter to repay them, she has to raise them until they can support themselves. He's so heartless, why should I care about him? He didn't raise me alone, my mother still got half. He took his half, everything my mother left me, and I've already paid him back, and he gave me so much money before."
"Um."
"People say that the luck of brothers and sisters in a family is fixed. If you have more, they will have less. So let them be unlucky to the end and don't take away my luck."
"good."
"Um!"
Several letters continued to arrive, but he didn't let her know, as knowing would only make her even angrier.
Wang Jiazhi was also furious. They must have thought they had made a fortune from selling their bodies, yet they had the nerve to ask her for money. She truly couldn't see her father clearly anymore. Where had the respect he once had for his status gone? But she also realized that this time, things might be really serious.
She doesn't care now. She doesn't want to be distracted by them anymore. She is cold-hearted and disappointed.
The more conscientious a person is, the more heartless they become in the end, because they have had enough of the pain of betrayal and accumulated enough of endless disappointment.
"You were the ones who didn't care about my life or death first, you can't blame me." She said in her heart.
One day, he sent a large bunch of broken hibiscus flowers. The flowers were pink with hints of yellow, red, and white. They were round, like small hydrangeas, and their leaves were like lovely palms. Why is Lin Daiyu compared to this flower in "Dream of the Red Chamber"? It doesn't fit; it actually reflects Shi Xiangyun's personality.
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