Chapter 608: He died.
This time, however, he wasn't sold to a slave trader.
In order to find a wife for his son, Li Dalang, Old Man Li sold Li Xiaoni to a family in the outer three cities to be raised as a child bride.
Logically speaking, this should at least be a way out for Li Xiaoni. The foolish husband may be foolish, but if Li Xiaoni goes to this family, at least she should be able to have a full meal.
But does God really follow the rules?
After Li Xiaoni had eaten her fill, she was forcibly taken by her mentally challenged husband's father, who was also Li Xiaoni's father-in-law.
The person keeping watch for this shameless old man was none other than Li Xiaoni's mother-in-law, who was also the mother of the foolish son-in-law.
Li Xiaoni, who was being forced down under the old man, had a cloth stuffed in her mouth and could not shout. Her thin body, which was often hungry, was no match for an old man who had worked hard all his life.
Hot tears streamed from Li Xiaoni's eyes, slid down her cheeks, and flowed into her temples, crushing her will to live.
Li Xiaoni was like a dead person, a lump of mud at the old man's mercy.
It turns out that this family bought Li Xiaoni under the guise of raising her as a child bride for their mentally challenged son, but in reality, they wanted to find a young woman to have another healthy child.
After the first time, Li Xiaoni suffered repeated abuse from the old man in the days that followed.
Whenever the old man committed violence inside the house, an old woman with her head drooping would stand guard at the door. The most ridiculous thing was that Li Xiaoni's mentally challenged husband would just play around in the narrow courtyard.
In certain circumstances, when the strong abuse the weak, the weak will abuse the even weaker.
In a vicious cycle, when it comes to your own interests, people of the same sex will not only not help you, but will push you into the abyss.
It's like this: in the family of the fool, it was the old woman who first suggested buying a young woman to give the old man a healthy child.
From the perspective of the old man and woman, their actions were for the purpose of continuing the family line and having children to provide for them in their old age.
Secondly, it was to ensure that the newborn child could support the mentally challenged son.
The old woman became the old man's accomplice for her own benefit.
No, it should be said that the old woman was the mastermind behind the crime!
Of course, from the perspective of the old man and woman, they would never think that they were harming Li Xiaoni.
People who harm others for their own benefit and have no moral bottom line think completely differently from normal people.
The old man and woman might even think of themselves as Li Xiaoni's saviors, having bought her from her inhuman father, rescued her from dire straits, given her a place to live, and fed her.
Isn't this helping her?
Isn't this saving her?
Isn't this her savior?
Even if you point out that they are forcing Li Xiaoni, disregarding her life and death, and ignoring her wishes, they will say, "Who told her to have such a miserable life, stuck with such a father? We paid money for her, we bought her, we can do whatever we want with her, even if we beat her to death, it's none of your business."
Of course, they wouldn't actually kill her, since they were still hoping that Li Xiaoni's womb would produce a healthy child.
But human nature is terrifying. Every time the old man finished, the old woman would be extremely jealous and resentful, pinching Li Xiaoni's private parts until she left one nail mark after another to vent her jealousy and hatred.
This is the weak abusing the weaker.
Like husbands in modern society who intentionally harm their wives, these men are failures outside the family. They are cowardly and incompetent, and can only vent their gloom and resentment by intentionally harming their wives and children.
Li Xiaoni's survival instinct led her to resist, but after resisting, she was subjected to increasingly severe beatings.
Li Xiaoni even managed to run away and find Old Man Li, asking him to buy her back.
But how could that be?
Old Man Li not only didn't save her, but instead tied her up and sent her back to the mentally challenged man's house.
Li Xiaoni also went to beg the village chief who came to the outer three cities to work. The village chief did go to the idiot's family, but a contract of servitude cut off Li Xiaoni's way of making a living.
Li Xiaoni considered hanging herself and even tried, but was saved by the old woman.
Then Li Xiaoni was tied up by the neck with a rope like a dog, stripped naked, her hands and feet bound, and thrown into the woodshed, where she was locked up day after day.
Under the daily violence, Li Xiaoni actually became pregnant.
The small, scarred body was curled up on the floor of the woodshed. Beneath its bony ribs, its protruding belly looked like it was carrying a monster, which was quite frightening to look at.
In order to help the pregnant Li Xiaoni give birth successfully, the old man and woman untied her, but they did not remove the rope around her neck.
They even went to great lengths, spending money to buy chickens and offal to cook for Li Xiaoni, all so that the baby in her womb could grow well.
Li Xiaoni, who was eating chicken for the first time in her life, never knew that chicken could be so sweet and delicious.
Thus, Li Xiaoni lived a relatively good life for a while. The family of the mentally challenged man didn't feed her every meal, but at least she wasn't starving. Moreover, for the sake of the child's safety, the old man stopped forcing her and the old woman stopped abusing her.
With her still-developing body, chronic malnutrition, and prolonged violent beatings, how could Li Xiaoni, who had barely survived a few months of normal life, possibly give birth to this child safely?
That day, the simple-minded son-in-law, who was playing in the yard, heard Li Xiaoni's painful screams and called the old woman over. Only then did the old woman realize that Li Xiaoni was about to give birth.
The intense contractions made Li Xiaoni cry out in pain. She had never imagined that childbirth would be so painful, even more so than the beatings she had suffered as a child. Li Xiaoni felt like she was going to die from the pain.
With her pelvis still developing and lacking the strength to push during childbirth, Li Xiaoni gradually lost her voice. The old woman looked at Li Xiaoni's unfocused eyes, feeling both angry and afraid. She was angry that Li Xiaoni could close her eyes before even successfully giving birth.
The old woman was afraid that Li Xiaoni was really going to die. Where would that fool's family get the money to buy another young girl to carry on the family line?
The old woman stepped forward, raised her hand, and slapped Li Xiaoni twice across the face, so hard that blood trickled from the corner of Li Xiaoni's mouth.
Even so, Li Xiaoni gradually fell silent, closed her eyes, and seemed to have fallen into a deep sleep.
Li Xiaoni, she is dead.
She died in childbirth;
She died at the hands of an old man and an old woman;
She died because of Old Man Li's cruelty;
She died because of her original sin; she was a woman.
The old woman collapsed to the ground, looking at Li Xiaoni lying lifeless on the haystack. The old woman was heartbroken. She felt that she had no hope in this life, and that there would be no one to burn paper money for her after she died.
But just a few breaths later, the old woman suddenly widened her eyes, as if she had thought of something, and immediately got up from the ground again.
The old woman got up, went to the corner of the woodshed, picked up a wood-chopping knife, and came to Li Xiaoni's side. As if under a spell, she kept muttering "child, child." When the old woman used the wood-chopping knife to cut open Li Xiaoni's stomach, the neighbor of the mentally challenged man heard Li Xiaoni's screams and, feeling uneasy, hesitated for a long time before deciding to come to the mentally challenged man's house to see what was wrong, lest someone be killed.
The neighbor happened to enter the yard and saw this scene from the doorway of the woodshed.
The old woman didn't care if others saw her; she pulled a baby with its eyes tightly closed from Li Xiaoni's womb.
The old woman dropped her wood-chopping knife, not even cutting the umbilical cord, and just held the stillborn baby, calling out, "My son, my son, my mother's son..."
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