After Dong Qing finished speaking, he got into the car, took out his tools, and used two wrenches to remove the screws. The screws were obviously roughened by the hammer and were difficult to remove.
The screw protruded too far, so Dongqing got on the bus, grabbed a steel file, and filed down the roughened part of the screw before removing it. He then got on the bus with his tool chain.
Li Yuzhu spread the clothes she had taken off on the ground. The woman was now able to sit up, so Li Yuzhu helped her sit on the wet clothes and bathe her. After the bath, Li Yuzhu dried her off with a dry towel and dressed her in her own dry clothes.
Li Yuzhu said, "Honey, come down."
Dongqing got off the tractor, put some more grass on the fire, and then carried a bucket to the river to fetch water.
Dongqing returned carrying a bucket of water. The water in the tractor's water tank was almost empty, so he filled the tank with a whole bucket of water.
Dong Qing got back into the car and threw some more grass. Li Yuzhu kept adding grass to the fire, and the woman gradually stopped feeling cold and regained her energy. A blush appeared on her pale face.
Li Yuzhu got into the car, took out a comb, and helped the woman comb her hair. Only then, in the firelight, could she see the woman's face clearly.
She wasn't very old, probably around twenty-four. Dong Qing asked, "Young lady, where are you from? How did you end up in the river in the middle of the night?"
The girl cried, "I'm not from here. I was sold here by human traffickers."
It wasn't hard for Dong Qing and his wife to tell that the girl wasn't a local. They could understand her accent, so she was probably speaking Mandarin. If she were speaking a local dialect, they wouldn't understand her at all. Judging from her accent, she was probably from Sichuan.
The girl then recounted her past;
Her name is Fang Lin. She comes from a remote mountain village in western Sichuan. Her mother passed away shortly after she was old enough to remember things.
Later, her father arranged for her to marry a stepmother who had a son, which completely changed her fate.
The father was frequently beaten and mistreated at home due to his stepmother's instigation.
Fang Lin is quite promising; after graduating from high school, she was admitted to the School of Finance and Economics, and will be a senior this fall.
When I returned home for summer vacation this year, my stepmother sold me to human traffickers while my father was away.
Later, the human traffickers sold Fang Lin here, where she married a man in his thirties.
The man was ugly as hell and so honest he couldn't even fart properly; she'd rather die than let him sleep with her.
The man was rather honest and didn't force himself on her. He tied her up with rope every day and could only patiently wait for her to give in.
Fang Lin tried to escape many times but failed. Later, someone gave the man an idea: to put an iron chain on her ankle. They wrapped the chain around her ankle, put screws through the chain holes, tightened the screws with two boards, and then used a hammer to pull out the screws and break them. This way, even if you used boards to remove it, it would be very difficult to remove.
One end is locked with a large padlock. During the day, it is locked to a tree in the yard. The chain is less than two meters long after it is locked. Every day, it is like tethering a dog, except that a dog is tethered by the neck, while she is tethered by the ankle. She can only move within four meters around the tree.
It's a bit better when someone's home during the day; I can unleash it and lead it to the toilet to relieve itself. When no one's home, it can only pee on the floor, and I clean it up when someone comes back. During this period, it's not much different from being a dog. If there's any difference, it's that she's still a woman.
Locked to the bed leg at night, even when going to bed at night, Fang Lin never had a chance to escape again from that moment on.
But Fang Lin refused to let the man violate her, even unto death. One night, when the man attempted to rape her, she held a pair of scissors to her chest and cried, "Try touching me! If you don't want to collect my corpse, you'd better behave yourself."
The man was honest by nature and ultimately didn't dare to do anything to Fang Lin.
The man drank a lot of alcohol outside last night and didn't come home until midnight.
When he got home, his mother came out from the main room and asked, "Why are you so late?"
The man said, "I had a few drinks outside. You should go to sleep, it's alright."
The mother said, "Your wife has been with us for over a month, how can you be so stupid? You still haven't consummated your marriage with her. If she doesn't let you sleep with her, then don't."
The man said, "Shall we wait a little longer?"
The mother said, "Just wait and see. You'll be satisfied when she runs away. She'll never be your woman if she doesn't give you a child!"
After the mother finished speaking, she went back to her room to sleep. The man took out his key, unlocked the chain from the tree, pulled Fang Lin into the house, helped her take off her pants and shirt, pulled the pant legs out of the chain, and locked one end of the chain to the bed leg.
The man drank too much and fell asleep soon after lying down.
Fang Lin turned on the light and looked at the sleeping man. She felt that tonight was a good opportunity to escape. The key was hanging on the wall by the door, which was too far to reach from the bed. Getting out of bed to get the key and unlock the chain was even more impossible.
Looking at the man sleeping beside her like a dead pig, Fang Lin came up with a bold idea.
Fang Lin got out of bed and used both hands to lift the bed towards the door. There was a big man lying on the bed, so moving the bed was very difficult. The main thing was that she dared not make any noise, so that her parents-in-law in the upper room would hear and she would not be able to run away.
She struggled a lot before she could barely reach the key.
Take the key off the wall, insert it into the keyhole, and open the lock.
The chain on my ankle is impossible to open; I can't possibly run while carrying such a long chain.
Fang Lin wrapped the entire chain around her leg, then secured one end with a rope. She put on her clothes, walked to the door, gently opened the door, and tiptoed towards the front door.
The door was bolted inwards. Gently pulling the bolt, the wooden door, which usually makes a sound when opened, emitted a piercing noise the instant it opened. Hearing the noise, the man's parents asked, "Son, did you open the door?"
Fang Lin dared not answer and ran towards the edge of the village like a madwoman.
She had just run to the riverbank when she heard footsteps chasing after her.
Fang Lin had no choice but to wade across the river, otherwise she would be caught and taken back. If that happened, she would never be able to escape again. This family would not give her another chance to escape.
Little did she know how deep the river was. She jumped in and was immediately submerged. Since she couldn't swim, she was swept downstream and happened to run into Dong Qing and his wife, who were there to wash their faces. Otherwise, she would not have survived in the middle of the night.
Fang Lin cried, "I'm supposed to be a senior this year, and I only have one year left in college. It's only been a short time since the semester started. Could you give me some money for travel expenses so I can go to school? I want to finish college."
Li Yuzhu said, "Of course there's no problem. You can rest at my house for two days, and you can go back to school after you've recovered."
Upon hearing this, Fang Lin knelt on the ground and cried, "If I hadn't met you two tonight, I would have died long ago. Thank you for saving me. I will repay you with my whole life."
Li Yuzhu said, "We don't expect anything in return. Since your stepmother can't tolerate you, don't go back to your hometown after you graduate. From now on, you'll be my sister, so come and live with us after you graduate."
Fang Lin nodded after hearing this, and said with tears in her eyes, "From now on, your home will be my family home."
Dongqing said, "Okay, I'll accept you as my older sister. Shall we get in the car and set off?"
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