"You old hag! What are you howling about!" A curse came from somewhere, but A Lei wasn't angry; he just held back his laughter.
Xiao Zhen looked at A Lei with sympathy.
Qin Xiaoyu then realized that she was clinging to A Lei like an octopus.
Her face flushed, she slid down quietly, but every step she took was filled with trepidation.
There was an indescribable smell in the corridor, making it hard to breathe; it was the smell of mold and mildew.
Sister Su's rented room was only six square meters, and the tiny window had iron bars on it.
This reminded Qin Xiaoyu of the days and nights she spent in the detention center, and she couldn't help but shudder.
The room was so small that it could only fit a bed, and the floor was covered with goods, almost submerging the narrow bed.
This poverty was unfamiliar to Qin Xiaoyu; she remembered what her home looked like when she was first reborn.
"Put your things down, you can leave now, thank you." Xiao Zhen didn't know how to make them sit down in the house, so she could only see them out.
“Okay, let’s wait outside.” Qin Xiaoyu took a few steps, then stopped and asked, “Xiao Zhen, will your mother come back to look for you? Will she be worried?”
"No, we often get separated. It's safer for the three of us to run in three different directions," Xiao Zhen said, very experienced.
Qin Xiaoyu couldn't quite describe her feelings; a wave of sadness washed over her. Sister Su's forced, restrained smile perfectly mirrored her own difficult times.
She and A Lei waited for a long time on the road that Sister Su always took home before they saw the mother and daughter struggling to push their cart up the way. The whole road was uphill, and the cart was full of things, making it very difficult for them to walk.
"Sister Su." Qin Xiaoyu, with her quick temper, ran over.
Sister Su was startled and almost got hit by the car when she let go. Luckily, Qin Xiaoyu and A Lei reached out to help.
What are you doing here?
"I've brought the snakeskin belt you dropped. Xiao Zhen is home too," Qin Xiaoyu said hurriedly.
"Thank goodness, I was so worried. That bag was full of valuable clothes. If it had been lost, all my work this month would have been for nothing." Sister Su cried tears of joy.
"This isn't a solution. Why don't you find a job?" Qin Xiaoyu asked, puzzled.
"Ask Ye Qiu, I had no choice. It's too late, I can't let you pass now. Thank you." After saying that, Sister Su bowed her head and continued pushing the cart forward.
Qin Xiaoyu wanted to ask more, but A Lei tugged at her wrist, and she understood. She then quietly withdrew with him.
“Sometimes, not asking or disturbing is also a form of respect,” A Lei said while driving.
"You don't understand." Qin Xiaoyu leaned back wearily in her seat.
“Here we go again. Every time this comes up, you say, ‘You’ve never been poor, I don’t understand.’ Do I have to experience poverty before you’re satisfied?” A Lei said resentfully.
Qin Xiaoyu was very curious, so she went to Ye Qiu's shop the next day.
Ye Qiu was selling dresses to several women when he saw Qin Xiaoyu come in and gave her a look. Qin Xiaoyu pretended not to know him and took the opportunity to ask about the prices of a few dresses.
The women were hesitant, but when they saw Qin Xiaoyu's hand touch the dress in her hand, they immediately became unhappy, took out their money, and left.
"Little Fish Girl, you're really cut out for business!" Ye Qiu said contemptuously, pointing at the backs of the group. "It's been almost an hour, and if it weren't for you, we'd still be picking and choosing. Making money off them is like selling a kidney; it's so difficult."
"I ran into Sister Su yesterday." Qin Xiaoyu didn't want to beat around the bush and went straight to the point.
"Her, oh dear, just thinking about her makes me worry. There's so much to say about her, I could talk about it all day. She's a woman with a tragic fate." Ye Qiu sighed as soon as he heard this.
It turns out that Sister Su escaped from her hometown and is now a wanted person.
She was originally a village teacher, but because her family had a bad class background and was poor, she married an old widower in the village. She was easily satisfied and not picky. She endured the poverty and was content as long as she could live a good life. Later, she gave birth to two daughters, and things were still going well.
But she never expected that her husband was a scoundrel. When their eldest daughter was 12 years old, he got drunk, and if Sister Su hadn't come home in time, their daughter would have been violated.
From then on, she guarded against him day and night, but the man hated her and would beat and verbally abuse her. She endured it all for the sake of the child.
"She's always had a good temper, you've seen it yourself, always smiling and talking. She speaks softly, and that man had her figured out. One night he tied her up and, pretending to be drunk, tried to hurt the two children. I don't know where she got the strength, but she broke free of the ropes, grabbed a kitchen knife, and chopped the man down." Ye Qiu's words sent chills down Qin Xiaoyu's spine.
"That's terrifying."
"Look at you, you're just someone who's never been through anything. You're sitting here, and your face is all pale." Seeing that her complexion was off, Ye Qiu quickly helped her sit down and poured her a cup of hot water to hold.
"She just ran away like that?"
"What else could she do but run? Everyone in that village is related to each other. If she didn't run, her husband's relatives could kill her and her two children. She took her two children and left the village overnight. Later, she clung to a coal truck and headed south." Ye Qiu sighed.
"That's so pitiful. Does she have any relatives here?"
“She has no relatives. When she boarded the train, she didn’t even know which way it was going; she just wanted to get as far away as possible. She begged for food here for a while, and then did some other shady work.” Ye Qiu whispered in Qin Xiaoyu’s ear. Qin Xiaoyu understood immediately.
"Then how did you end up selling clothes?"
"This Fatty Hong is from Henan, which is just across the river from Sister Su's hometown, so they're not from the same province, but they're practically from the same hometown. He does some decent work sometimes. Once, when he was treating a client to a meal, he met Sister Su and felt sorry for her and her three children, so he took them out, rented a room for them, and let them do some small business to make a living. It's like he's keeping a cheap mistress."
"Doesn't Fatty Hong have a wife?"
"So, after the incident, that woman brought some people and beat Sister Su up, and the two of them broke up. But later, I took her under my wing and made her come over to pick up the goods. She never dared to take any of Fatty Hong's goods anymore, and she would even run away from his doorstep." Ye Qiu covered his mouth and laughed.
"Wasn't Fatty Hong there at dinner that day?"
"That day, his wife took the kids back to their hometown. I noticed that Sister Su and the two kids weren't getting much to eat, which was quite pitiful, so I called them over. The two kids were waiting outside. As soon as we got up, the kids went in to eat some leftovers." Ye Qiu was quite kind; although these people's methods were a bit awkward, their intentions were good.
Qin Xiaoyu also understood her difficulties.
"Those two children aren't going to school anymore?"
"Little Fish Girl, I remember someone telling a story. It said that the people were suffering from famine and were starving to death, so they reported it to the emperor. The emperor said, 'How can they starve to death? Can't they eat meat porridge?' That was probably talking about you. You've never experienced hardship."
Ye Qiu's few words made Qin Xiaoyu laugh out loud. Wasn't that what she said to A Lei? It seems that people's perception is constantly being limited, and she was also being looked down upon.
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