Don't talk to strangers
Lin Shaocheng coldly retorted, "What nonsense are you spouting? Where is Guorong?"
Li Guolan dared not roll over anymore. Lin Shaocheng stood there, exuding an aloof air and righteousness, without a trace of guilt. Could it be that he had really been misunderstood?
“We found a love letter in your book. It says that you two meet every day in the woods behind the Beijing Library, kissing and hugging. My sister just came back crying, saying that you had sex in the woods.”
Lin Shaocheng was puzzled. There was absolutely no way Zhao Wanyin would send him a love letter. "My classmate twisted her ankle, and I'm examining her. I'm a medical student, and there are so many people in the grove. I don't have any fetishes for exposing myself to others. Where's the love letter?"
Li Guolan got up and went inside to find it. Lin Shaocheng smelled the fragrance and frowned. He had smelled this fragrance in the factory before. Whose was it?
Li Guolan remembered her younger sister and called out, "Brother-in-law, hurry up and go find your younger sister, she's angry and wants to go back to her hometown."
Lin Shaocheng hurriedly put down the love letter. It was getting dark, and he needed to persuade Li Guorong to come back quickly, as it was too dangerous for him to be out alone in the dark.
In the bustling hall of Beijing Railway Station, Lin Shaocheng anxiously searched for Li Guorong at every window. "Hello, have you seen a woman who looks to be about 20 years old and is wearing a red sweater?"
"No," all the ticket sellers replied indifferently.
Lin Shaocheng was covered in sweat, and his hands, which had never trembled when he hit people, were shaking slightly. His eyes lit up, and he rushed towards the train's ticket gate. Amidst the dense crowd, he shouted, "Guorong! Guorong!"
Several people looked at him as if he were mentally ill.
Li Guorong vaguely heard Lin Shaocheng calling her. How could that be? He was comforting his new lover. Li Guorong resolutely squeezed into the sardine-crowded train.
The stark white light shone on Li Guorong's face. It was 6 p.m., the tail end of spring was still there, and the breath of summer was just around the corner. The sky outside was slowly getting dark.
This time she was lucky; no one took her seat when she boarded the bus. She leaned against the window with vacant eyes, listening to the noisy conversations around her. Outside, the stalls selling roasted sweet potatoes, water, and snacks were doing brisk business.
Li Guorong's mind was a jumbled mess. The thought of Lin Shaocheng and that woman, both with a scholarly air, made her eyes well up with tears. Recalling Lin Shaocheng's cold tone as he gripped her hand, her mind felt like it was going to explode, and her heart ached with sharp, throbbing pain.
She lay on the small table, forcing herself to fall asleep.
A couple in their fifties were quietly observing Li Guorong. The older woman stood behind Li Guorong and, hearing his rumbling stomach, took out a meat bun from her bag.
Li Guorong couldn't sleep, so she sat up. She was hungry and hadn't prepared anything. She just took her own money and boarded the train. She regretted not bringing her gold bracelet and could only wait for the lunchbox vendor to bring her food.
A steamed bun came into her sight, and Li Guorong was delighted. But when she looked up, she saw a wrinkled, smiling face. It wasn't Lin Shaocheng, and she lost her appetite again.
The middle-aged woman said, "Little sister, I see you're starving. I just bought these buns in Beijing, so I'm giving them to you."
Li Guorong immediately lost his appetite and shook his head, "I don't want to eat, thank you."
The woman was about to say something when the train attendant walked to the connecting area between the carriages and called out, "Take out your ticket, it's time for ticket inspection."
The woman's expression changed, and she clutched her stomach as she scurried towards the toilet.
Li Guorong's ears quieted down again, and she fell into a deep sleep soon after the tickets were checked.
When I opened my eyes again, the old lady from yesterday was sitting opposite me. She took out some water and said, "Young lady, have some water. You cried all night after you fell asleep. You must be dehydrated. Seeing your age reminds me of my Er Ya, who also married far away. After seeing her this time, I don't know how many years it will be before I see her again."
Hearing this, Li Guorong felt a deep empathy. In her previous life, she had been married far away for over 40 years and had only returned home 5 or 6 times. She picked up the water, took a sip, and said, "It's so sweet, thank you, Auntie."
The old woman had tears in her eyes. "Good girl, good girl, what's wrong with you? Tell me."
Li Guorong couldn't help but cry and said, "I married far away to Beijing, but I never expected that my husband would hook up with his classmate again. I've endured being harassed by my mother-in-law and gossiped about by the neighbors in Beijing, but this time I can't take it anymore."
The old woman burst into tears, saying, "It's so hard for you, a girl from out of town, to be tormented by your mother-in-law. You're such a good girl, your life is so miserable."
Li Guorong cried even harder, feeling heartbroken at the thought of the past six months. When she told her sister, her sister always complained about her dissatisfaction and didn't want her mother to know that her marriage to someone far away had caused such a commotion. She also cared about her reputation, and had no one to confide in. If she hadn't spent half her life in the north in her previous life, she wouldn't even dare to leave the house.
Li Guorong said, "In this new year, he didn't bring a single penny home, and he even went on dates with other people."
The old woman cursed, "Pah! Shameless! A pair of adulterers!"
Li Guorong felt a little better. He hadn't eaten all day, and his stomach was growling. His face flushed.
A glint flashed in the middle-aged woman's eyes. The old man beside her, staring at the scenery rushing past outside, nodded. The woman took out a tea egg. "Little sister, you eat this first."
Li Guorong quickly declined, saying, "I'm sorry, I'm eating and drinking here with you."
The old man laughed heartily, "Don't be so polite with us. You're the same age as our daughters, and you both married far away. We'll only stop for 10 minutes. If you're feeling embarrassed, just buy us an egg."
Li Guorong then took the tea egg. It tasted slightly salty with the aroma of tea. The tea was probably of poor quality, as it had a slightly bitter taste. Li Guorong didn't want to eat any more. Her stomach was rumbling. Eggs were precious these days, so she could only grit her teeth and eat it.
After eating, they arrived at a long stop. She and the elderly woman and man got off the bus. She felt a little dizzy as soon as she got off. The woman next to her noticed that she was not in good spirits and took out some water. "Hurry up and have a sip."
Li Guorong mustered his strength, took a sip of water, and then everything went black.
A man and a woman helped a young woman leave the station. Several people asked questions, but the woman, who looked kind, brushed them off.
Zhanggezhuang, located in north-central China, is characterized by its extensive mountain ranges. Unlike Chongchuan, the area here has a lower elevation, providing more arable land for the villagers to cultivate.
When Li Guorong opened her eyes again, she was on a donkey cart. Her mouth was covered, and her hands and feet were bound. It was pitch black. A smelly man was driving the donkey next to her. She quickly closed her eyes, opened a small crack to observe her surroundings, memorized the route, crossed several mountain roads and a river, and finally arrived at a village deep in the mountains.
The man stood at the gate of the courtyard, knocked on the door, and a thin old woman who looked to be only 1.4 meters tall appeared at the door. She saw Li Guorong in the car, pinched Li Guorong's face, slapped her buttocks, and laughed: "City girls have such tender skin and big buttocks, they're good at giving birth."
The smelly man, about 45 or 46 years old, revealed a mouthful of yellow teeth. "I bought this for several thousand dollars. She's a virgin."
The man's claws, like iron hooks, gripped Li Guorong's delicate skin, scraping him so hard that he winced in pain. It took the man a lot of effort to move him into the house.
Li Guorong was terrified. She had been kidnapped. Her father's gun was in the house. What should she do? She felt the straw beneath her pricking her tender skin, and something hard was pricking her. The man lewdly touched her breasts. She wanted to kill the man in front of her, but she couldn't move at the moment.
"Jun, is it ready?"
Wu Jun closed the door and chuckled.
Li Guorong opened her eyes, her head still spinning. It must have been that elderly couple; she shouldn't have eaten their food. Thinking back to Lin Shaocheng's protection of her on the train the previous two times, his wariness of strangers, and his warnings to her, she wondered if Lin Shaocheng knew she had been abducted. Now that there weren't so many cameras, what was she going to do?
Li Guorong felt lost for a moment. Several rats were huddled in the feeding trough around her. She looked out through the small window in the moonlight. It was a rural courtyard with corn tightly tied together on both sides. In the distance, there were rolling mountains, but they were not as high and steep as the mountains in her hometown.
Li Guorong felt that today was the best opportunity to escape. The light in the house in the distance was already off. This was probably a shed for some kind of livestock or animal. She searched the whole house. The thing that had pricked her in the haystack was a sharp rake. She squatted down and rubbed her hands hard and fast on the rope. Her wrists were hooked upwards and back and forth, making her wrists ache.
She rested for a while, then tried to break free of the rope. The friction had already created a small tear, but she managed to break free. She then untied the rope from her feet, let out a long sigh, and moved her numb hands and feet.
She pushed the door, which creaked but didn't open. The door was wooden and had no latch from the inside. She looked out through the small, broken window and breathed a sigh of relief. It wasn't a large iron chain, but a latch. She could open the door by forcefully breaking the latch, but what if she woke up the two people if she rammed the door?
She stuck her head out of the window, but the window of the livestock shed was too small for her to get out. She struggled to pull her head back in; it was already dawn.
She couldn't give up. She wandered around the little house, and a stick caught her attention. She picked it up, stretched out her arm, and tried to pry open the latch. The latch lifted slightly, and a glimmer of hope flashed in her eyes. The sound of the door next to her startled her, and she pulled her hand back.
She quickly lay down on the straw, pretending to still be bound, and covered her head with her disheveled hair. A flash of light appeared at the doorway for a moment, and the cough of an old woman could be faintly heard. The light disappeared for a long time.
Li Guorong opened her eyes and glanced out the window. There was no one there. She moved to the window with her stick, peeked out, and saw the old woman emptying a chamber pot in the yard with a candle. She quickly shrank back, her heart pounding.
Only when she heard the door creak did Li Guorong peek out again. There was no one there. She continued to pry open the door latch with the stick, one prick, two pricks. Her arm ached as if she had been gathering several baskets of pig feed in the mountains before. No, it ached even more than gathering several baskets of pig feed. She heard the sound of a heavy object falling to the ground. Li Guorong was soaked in sweat. Her eyes were fixed on the door of the other room.
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