After finishing her medicine, the old lady took the bowl and went off to do something, but Yang Wan finally had a chance to observe her surroundings.
This is a somewhat dilapidated house. The surrounding walls look like they are made of yellow mud. Lying on your back on this haystack and looking up, you can clearly see the interior of the thatched roof.
The house was probably quite old; the yellow thatched roof was slightly blackened by mold, and there seemed to be a leak near the edge of the wall. A small patch of the wall was damp, and the damp part was slightly green, as if moss had grown on it.
The house was almost completely empty of furniture, except for a traditional earthen bed and stove, which are common in the countryside.
Even the windows were broken, with the few remaining panes of glass teetering precariously, blackened and yellowed. The wooden door was also rotten, and when the old woman touched it slightly, it made a creaking sound.
Yang Wan looked around in a daze, so weak that she could clearly feel how much strength she was using with each blink, and even feel the rate at which her body's strength was being lost with each breath and each blink.
She felt dizzy and disoriented, and for a few moments, Yang Wan thought she was dead.
But the lingering bitterness in her mouth and the creaking of the door as it was moved by the wind clearly told her that all of this was real.
Yang Wan struggled against her dazed state, repeatedly telling herself—
She can't die, she can't have anything happen to her. No matter how painful or difficult it is, she has to find a way to grit her teeth and live on.
If she dies, her daughter and husband will be heartbroken.
They had a perfectly good family; they couldn't just let it fall apart like this.
She had promised Shu Wenyuan that after she had achieved her goal, she would retire and live a peaceful and ordinary life with him and their daughter.
They've been looking forward to that day for so long.
Yes, she can't die, she can't be hurt...
Yang Wan tried to calm herself down, to cheer herself up, and to think more about her husband and children.
They were her only motivation to live.
It must have been some time since her accident.
She suddenly disappeared, lost contact with everyone, and her whereabouts are unknown. I wonder how worried Shu Wenyuan and the others must be.
Now that she has finally woken up, what she wants to do most is naturally to find a way to send a message out so that they know she is alright.
But……
Yang Wan tried her best to move her limbs, but apart from feeling soreness, she felt nothing else.
Her limbs seemed to be out of her control; no matter how much she struggled, she couldn't move.
Yang Wan felt a sudden panic.
Could something have happened to her limbs? Could she be... paralyzed?
Yang Wan felt increasingly uneasy as she thought about it.
Her biggest fear is that she will become paralyzed, lose her mobility, and be unable to walk.
Then they would truly never be able to leave this mountain, never be able to find them, and never be able to reunite with them.
Just as I was feeling panicked and scared, a strange noise suddenly came from the window and outside the wall.
With her messy hair and dirty face, Yang Wan struggled to turn her head and looked over. She saw several dark-skinned farmers leaning over the wall outside the window, their eyes shining as they peered at her through the window.
He was pointing and commenting as he watched.
Seeing that Yang Wan had noticed them, the men seemed to have been stimulated and burst into excited laughter, whistling at Yang Wan and letting out even sharper, more excited laughter.
From a distance, Yang Wan could vaguely hear them talking—
"How come we never noticed there was such a beautiful woman in our village before? Look at her face, even though it's a bit dirty, it's so smooth and delicate. If you could just take a bite of it, wouldn't it be even more tender and delicious than the pork belly we eat during the New Year? Hahahaha..."
"What do you mean by 'pork belly'? Can't you speak properly? Do you think your wife is pork?"
"If she became my wife, hehehe..."
These men looked to be quite old, but their appearances were rather questionable, and some even had obvious physical defects.
They're either blind in one eye, or they have birthmarks or scars on their face.
It seems this must be an old bachelor from the village.
Yang Wan lay there, unable to utter a single word. The group of old bachelors hurled filthy insults at her for a long time. Seeing that Yang Wan did not resist, and did not even raise a stick to beat her like the young widows in the village, they became even bolder and said even more vulgar things.
It was like spewing filth from his mouth; it was utterly foul.
Seeing that Yang Wan didn't move at all, as if she was lying there letting them bully her, the old bachelors boldly climbed over the wall and leered into the house.
One person led to two, three... and more and more people climbed over into the yard.
Yang Wan's heart jumped into her throat.
She had been to the countryside before. In those days, education was not widespread, and many people's ideas were ignorant and barbaric, and they didn't even have much of a concept of the rule of law.
Such a person is truly capable of anything.
She's so sick she can't even move. What if they really...
Yang Wan had heard many stories about the fates of women who were abducted to the mountains, and her heart pounded faster and faster.
Grandma Yao came in from the doorway. Perhaps because she was hard of hearing, she didn't notice the people who had climbed over the wall. She was smiling as she walked towards Yang Wan'e, intending to give her some water.
Yang Wan nervously glanced at the old lady, then looked outside.
The old lady was stunned for a moment. Although she couldn't hear, she could clearly sense that Yang Wan's emotions were off.
She followed Yang Wan's gaze and looked outside—and immediately understood what was going on.
The old woman flew into a rage, grabbed a broom from the corner, gritted her teeth, and lashed it at the people in the yard, swinging it wildly.
Several bachelors cried out "Ouch!" and started cursing.
"Damn it, she actually hit me! That damned deaf old woman, we're from the same village, how could she be so ruthless!"
While hitting people with a broom, the old woman also banged on the large water vat in the yard with a stone, making a series of sounds.
This was a signal from the elderly woman and her neighbors seeking help.
Over the years, the neighbors have felt sorry for the old lady because she is deaf and has difficulty living, so they told her to make a sound if she needed anything, and someone would come to help immediately.
Over the years, whenever something happens at the old lady's house and makes a noise, the neighbors will immediately drop what they are doing and rush over to help.
Upon hearing the noise, many neighbors rushed over.
Seeing that things were not going well, the old bachelors dared not stay any longer and quickly scattered and ran away.
The old lady stood at the door with a broom for a long time, then walked around the house with her neighbors to make sure everyone had left. Only then did she breathe a sigh of relief, thank her neighbors, and hurriedly go back inside.
As the old lady walked into the house, she couldn't help but sigh, raising her hand and gesturing frantically at Yang Wan, her face filled with anxiety.
The old lady was holding a bowl of medicine earlier, and her purpose was quite obvious, which is why Yang Wan could barely guess it.
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