At dawn, as the first rays of the rising sun pierced the thin morning mist, casting a golden glow, the houses in Octagon Alley were already bustling with activity. Some were disheveled, shuffling in slippers to empty their chamber pots; others were cursing as they washed and dressed their children; and still others, covered in soot, were trying to light their stoves but failing...
Along the street, the woman of the house had just poured out the hot water from the basin and hadn't even finished yawning when she saw a dilapidated Ford parked at the entrance of the alley. Because the car windows weren't closed properly, one could almost immediately see a man and a woman entangled together in the back seat.
The man had almost his entire head buried in the woman's chest, which was utterly repulsive to look at.
The woman cursed inwardly, rolled her eyes, and was about to go home when she saw a woman in a dark green cheongsam swaying as she got out of the car. She hadn't even fastened the buttons properly and started to coax the man still sitting in the car in a coquettish voice.
Almost immediately upon seeing her face, the woman of the house wore an expression of surprise, then rushed home and slammed the door shut.
The woman in the dark green cheongsam seemed completely oblivious to the strangeness behind her. Her fair fingers continued to draw circles on the man's chest in the car. "...How about it? I really can't stay here for another day. You saw it just now, how rude the people living here are. If I get hurt by these barbarians one day, won't you feel sorry for me?"
"Sweetie, of course we should buy it, but the situation outside is already bad, isn't it? We can't take the house with us, so I'll be the one who loses out, right? Okay, I'll come see you at Lixiu tonight. You've liked that perfume for a long time, haven't you? I'll bring it to you, sweetie~"
The man reached out from the car and hooked his hand under the woman's chin.
Hearing this, despite her displeasure, the woman obediently nodded and coquettishly pleaded with the man to come that night.
After she finished speaking, the car drove away, and the woman's expression suddenly changed. A look of disgust flashed in her eyes, and then she tossed her handbag aside, turned around, and went into the alley.
Wherever she went, everyone she encountered gave her a wide berth and a disdainful look. Occasionally, a man who couldn't resist her would be dragged home by the ear by his wife, groaning and complaining.
Seeing this, the woman in the cheongsam sneered and twisted her body even more seductively. It wasn't until the next second, when her high heel stepped on a freshly made lump of filth, that she immediately let out a deafening scream.
She was still cursing and swearing even after she entered the courtyard at the very end of the alley.
"I told you I wouldn't stay here. What kind of people are these? Don't they have any morals? It's disgusting so early in the morning... These shoes are my most expensive possessions..."
Almost as soon as a woman's voice was heard, a hoarse female voice came from the dark room, "Yinyin, is Yinyin back?"
Upon hearing the woman's voice, the woman in the cheongsam acted as if she hadn't heard anything and continued washing her high heels by the well.
"Yinyin, Yinyin, Mom begs you, Mom is thirsty, could you please get Mom a glass of hot water... Yinyin..."
Seeing that she didn't respond, the man kept urging her like he was pressuring her to death. The woman in the cheongsam, Tang Yin, simply scooped a ladle of water from a bucket next to her with a gourd ladle and stormed into the house.
Then he shoved her directly into the woman sitting on the bed, ignoring the shivering sensation from the cold well water splashing on her, and started cursing, "Drink, drink, drink! All you do all day is eat, drink, and poop! I work myself to the bone every day, and the little money I earn by smiling and begging isn't even enough for you to squander..."
Meanwhile, Tang's mother, who was being scolded, hugged the gourd ladle in her arms and sipped water slowly, not daring to utter a word in rebuttal.
Unexpectedly, at that moment, Tang Yin raised her hand and fanned herself in front of her nose. "Did you... poop on yourself again? You... you're going to make me so angry! How many times have I told you, when you need to poop, can you just ask someone to help? Aren't Aunt Liu and Aunt Wu from next door home? Are you deliberately waiting until I come back to annoy me?"
The woman rebuked her harshly.
She had initially thought of letting it go, but the thought of having to stay in this dilapidated, smelly room for a while longer finally became unbearable. So she politely went next door, paid a little more money, and asked them to help change her mother's pants and sheets, and then paid them to wash the clothes.
She tried every trick in the book to coax that idiot man all night, but she couldn't get him to agree to buy her a house and move her. She even lost so much money afterward. Looking at her dwindling savings, and with two more young women joining the nightclub, she couldn't even keep her old customers.
The more Tang Yin thought about it, the angrier she became, and she immediately pointed at her mother's nose and started cursing.
The woman on the bed lowered her head lower and lower as he continued to berate her, until finally two murky tears streamed down her face.
She couldn't understand how she had managed to ruin her life like this.
She was truly blind. Why couldn't she see that her second daughter was such a cold-blooded and ruthless person? If it were Tang Ning, she would never have let herself be paralyzed in bed without even a sip of water.
What's more, her legs were paralyzed in an accident because Tang Yin got into a fight with someone.
Because someone came to Tang Yin's door and beat her up, saying that she was a vixen who seduced other people's husbands.
She got into a fight with someone because she was upset, and then...
When she first became paralyzed, Tang Yin held her and cried several times. But as time went by, not only could she no longer stand up, but she also had difficulty taking care of herself. At that time, this good daughter revealed her true colors.
Not to mention the usual scolding, it's common for them to refuse food and water when they get really angry.
Even when Ningning was alive, even after Tang's father passed away and the family was going through its most difficult time, she never treated her like this, but now...
Tang's mother regretted it; she had regretted it for a long time.
If I had known Tang Yin was this kind of person...
No, it should be said that she had already realized what kind of person Tang Yin was, but she had been deceiving herself, thinking that Tang Yin was her biological daughter, and if she didn't protect her, why should she protect Tang Ning, that adopted daughter?
It was her favoritism and self-deception that led to this bitter outcome!
She was wrong!
As expected, after scolding her, Tang Yin left without hesitation and didn't return until dusk. Her mother, paralyzed in bed, naturally had no lunch or dinner. Finally, Aunt Liu from next door couldn't bear to see her like this and brought her a bowl of leftovers. With a sigh, she shook her head and left, leaving Tang's mother alone, holding the bowl and eating heartily, tears streaming down her face…
Three days later, the peaceful and impoverished Octagonal Alley was suddenly greeted by a fierce, bejeweled woman who, accompanied by two thugs, went directly to the Tang family's residence at the very back. Almost as soon as she saw Tang Yin, she waved her hand and shouted, "Attack!"
The man following behind the woman was none other than the man who had been entangled with Tang Yin at the alley entrance three days ago. He cowered meekly beside the woman, not daring to even glance at Tang Yin, who was crying and wailing on the other side.
This time, without her mother's protection, Tang Yin's face and body were covered in scars, and she even had a limp.
A lame dancer, who knows where her future lies?
Not long after, the impoverished woman saw a news report in the newspaper about a young marshal surnamed Lu who was shot dead while trying to save people during a retreat. Overjoyed, she ignored her foot injury and danced in the courtyard all night. As she fell to the ground, she kept muttering, "You've finally met your match..."
After being told this several times, the woman finally raised her hand to cover her face and began to cry sadly.
Meanwhile, in Fengcheng.
"What? Is the commander still angry?"
"He only has one son, the young marshal, how could he possibly get over this hurdle..."
"Oh, by the way, have you seen the woman that the young marshal risked his life to save?"
"Not yet, is there a problem?"
"You'll see when you meet her. That girl looks about seven-tenths like the deceased Miss Tang..."
"Given how the young marshal was previously unable to eat or drink, and was so thin he was just skin and bones, no wonder he..."
"well."
After a sigh, a green leaf suddenly fell from the camphor tree outside the corridor, gently landing in the calm pond below, creating ripples.
"ah!"
Haicheng Taoist Temple.
Yu Ming woke up from his sleep again, covered in sweat and breathing rapidly.
Just now in her dream, to save him, Tang Ning hugged the waist of a fierce-looking man in a dark alley, but he stabbed her in the abdomen with a knife. After that, no matter how much pain she was in, she held on to the man's feet tightly, holding him back, and finally died with her eyes open in that cold alley...
He never looked back even once.
It was just a dream, wasn't it? So why...?
A tear slowly slid down Yuming's face. Why did it feel so real, as if it had actually happened?
He recalled that his master had said he had the potential for enlightenment, and that he might even dream about the future, or even things that happened in his past life.
Thinking of this, Yuming's hands trembled involuntarily.
If it were two lifetimes...
Yu Ming suddenly gave a bitter laugh. If Tang Ning died because of him in both of his lives, then his master might have really made a mistake in his divination, that Tang Ning was his calamity...
Perhaps he was her calamity.
However, his master was right about one thing: he really couldn't escape this predicament, nor could he overcome it...
"Little Taoist priest, cough cough..."
A gentle voice rang out from outside the room.
Upon hearing the sound, Yu Ming hurriedly wiped away his tears, threw off the blanket covering him, and ran out. When he looked up, he saw Xu Sinian sitting under the pear tree, dressed in white.
The man reached out and caught a pear blossom petal that had fallen from the tree. Hearing Yuming open the door, he slowly turned his head.
"Cough cough."
He coughed twice more.
Three years ago, after the man's right-hand men, Ah Sheng and Ah Li, along with Tang Ning's younger siblings, Tang Ruo and Tang Jun, decided to do their part for the war-torn country, the man, whose health was deteriorating, immediately sold all his possessions and gave all the money to them. However, due to his poor health, he went to the Taoist temple where Tang Ning had lived for half a year. Every day, he and Yu Ming would go up the mountain to pick up children who had lost their parents and were displaced because of the war, and take good care of them.
It's still early today, and those well-behaved little ones should still be asleep. After all, there's still a lot of work to do during the day. With so many people to feed, almost everyone has to work. They need to plant sweet potatoes and potatoes on the back hill, and no one wants to experience hunger again.
"What's wrong?"
While getting dressed, Yu Ming asked questions in detail.
For some reason, every time he heard Xu Sinian call him "little Taoist priest," he always felt as if Tang Ning was calling him.
Meanwhile, Xu Sinian looked at Yu Ming's red eyes and asked with a light laugh, "What's wrong? Did you have that nightmare again?"
Upon hearing this, Yu Ming lowered his head and remained silent.
He didn't say anything, and Xu Sinian didn't ask any more questions. Instead, he brought up another topic.
"This morning, I'd like to have a bowl of wontons. Could you add extra cilantro and dried shrimp?"
Yu Ming suddenly looked up and felt that for a moment, Xu Sinian's face under the pear tree overlapped with Tang Ning's.
After a long while, he slowly nodded and replied in a dry voice, "Okay."
"Thank you... cough cough cough..."
The man in white coughed again before he could finish speaking.
Looking at the other person's almost transparently pale face, Yu Ming subconsciously frowned. Xu Sinian's health was deteriorating day by day, as if he had lost his soul after Tang Ning left. If it weren't for so many children joining later, he probably...
Thinking too much was pointless, so Yu Ming quickly composed himself and went into the kitchen to start cooking wontons for Xu Sinian.
At this moment, sitting under the pear tree, Xu Sinian slowly raised his head to look at the azure sky, with pear blossoms falling on him from time to time.
In his half-conscious state, he called out, "Little Taoist priest, may I ask you for a favor?"
"you say."
Yu Ming, who was in the kitchen, also shouted back at him.
"If I die one day, can you bury me with Tang Ning?"
Xu Sinian's question went unanswered.
A moment later, Yuming came out carrying a steaming bowl of wontons, and said carefully, "Don't talk nonsense, you're in great health, there's more..."
Before he could finish speaking, Yu Ming's hand trembled, and the wontons in his hand fell to the ground with a thud.
Because Xu Sinian was silently leaning against the pear tree not far away, his hand hanging limply at his side.
Yu Ming strode over, his hands trembling as he checked the man's breathing, before letting out a whimper...
He looked at the man's lips, which were slightly upturned, as if he were experiencing a wonderful dream. He wondered what the man was dreaming about.
What did you dream about?
It was merely that, on his deathbed, he saw Tang Ning, as radiant as the sun, smiling as she reached out to pull him up, just like when they first met.
Ningning, is that you who came to pick me up?
This was the last thought that arose in the mind of the man whose consciousness had completely fallen into darkness.
very nice.
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