Chapter 304: The Beggar's Past [Part Two]
Shen Tang looked at the beggar with a hint of surprise.
She assumed that based on the beggar's previous words and actions, he must have been uneducated. She thought that he had learned to speak fluently and rudely through his long-term exposure to the streets. However, judging from the beggar's composed demeanor and those two sentences, her judgment was wrong.
"This matter of rudeness and inconsiderateness is easy to discuss. Considering your young age and orphanage, and the fact that you were locked up for six whole days, you must have learned your lesson, so I'll let it go. But, what makes you think I'm avenging your family?" Shen Tang feigned ignorance.
“My family was harmed by the Zhang family…” The beggar paused, his eyes filled with tears, “If it weren’t for Mr. Shen, I’m afraid I would never have seen my family get their comeuppance… Therefore, in my eyes, Mr. Shen is my family’s benefactor.”
Shen Tang softened her expression: "Don't cry, tell me slowly."
She wasn't someone overflowing with sympathy, nor would she comfort a crying little girl, but she couldn't bring herself to let a pitiful child cry in front of her. So she gestured to the clerk to bring a mat so the beggar could sit down and talk slowly.
The beggar's feet were severely frostbitten.
The ankle joint is swollen and the skin is cracked.
The indoor temperature was warmer than the outdoor temperature, and the slightest movement caused an excruciating itch and pain that crept up her legs from her feet and spread throughout her body. However, the beggar was incredibly resilient and didn't even flinch. She endured the joint pain and stiffness in her limbs, trying her best to straighten her spine and make herself look more dignified and presentable.
Shen Tang listened gently to the beggar's plight.
It was quite a coincidence.
Shen Tang had read about the case of the beggar family, and it was the first case of the seven local bullies being tried on Gaotai, so he remembered it very well.
Zhang's steward, Diao, falsely accused the widow's son of stealing a "victorious" fighting rooster, forcing the widow to cut open her son's abdomen with a knife to prove her innocence. Then, on the grounds that the widow had murdered her young son, he persecuted her, gave her fifty strokes of the cane, and turned her into a rice-pounding slave.
The beggar in front of me is probably the only survivor.
Looking at the beggar's hands covered in frostbite, his finger joints swollen and difficult to bend, and recalling the condition of his feet that day, Shen Tang guessed that the beggar had been wandering and struggling to survive for quite some time: "But according to the file, your grandparents should still be alive?"
Or perhaps, the elderly couple has also passed away?
Did the beggar truly lose his family and be forced to wander?
To everyone's surprise, upon hearing the words "grandfather and grandmother," the beggar's eyes flashed with a chilling hatred, and she clenched her fists tightly, ignoring the pain in her hands. She tried hard to control herself and not lose her composure in front of Shen Jun, but she was still too young after all.
They cannot keep their emotions hidden.
Shen Tang then asked, "Is there some other reason?"
The beggar suppressed the tears welling up in his eyes.
His lips trembled as if he were in the midst of a mental struggle.
Shen Tang didn't urge him, waiting for the beggar to speak up himself.
Before long, they heard the beggar's venomous words, almost squeezed out one by one from his back teeth.
Every word was filled with astonishing hatred.
"Even if Shen Jun throws me out, I, I must say something outrageous: those kind-hearted but wicked men and women on the other side are definitely not my grandparents!"
Upon hearing this, Shen Tang immediately perked up.
Her reaction wasn't the fury the beggar expected; instead, she asked with curiosity, "What's the inside story? Were you kidnapped and brought here? Don't be afraid. If that's the case, I will definitely seek justice for you."
In an instant, all sorts of words popped into my mind.
Now it was the beggar's turn to be dumbfounded.
She stopped talking, her eyes darting away.
The beggar girl placed her hands on her knees, nervously clutching the hem of her coarse cloth skirt—Shen Jun mistakenly thought she was insulting "Grandpa and Grandma" because she wasn't related to them by blood, but that wasn't actually the case.
The beggars were indeed closely related to them by blood.
Having figured this out, Shen Tang asked in confusion, "What heinous things did they do to make you hate them so much?"
The beggar was bowing his head in fear, awaiting the "judgment."
Who would have thought that Shen Tang's response would be so gentle.
She suddenly raised her head, her eyes once again filled with tears as she looked at Shen Tang: "Shen Jun, Shen Jun, please understand..."
The story here is not complicated.
Indeed, someone was sold, but the person sold was not the beggar but her own mother—the widow.
The widow's family had fallen on hard times before she came of age, and all their property had been sold off. The once carefree young girl was forced to shoulder the burden of her family, making a living by selling textiles and embroidery and copying books for others. Life was hard, but she managed to get by.
But fate is unpredictable.
One day, on his way home, he was abducted and knocked unconscious.
She awoke to find herself far from her hometown, sold at a high price to a father and two brothers in a remote mountain village as a wife to continue the family line. The widow, naturally refusing to comply, seized the opportunity to abort her child, whose father was unknown.
This family frequently beat and verbally abused her.
After a three-year stalemate, it was sold.
The next buyers will be the beggar's grandparents.
The widow still refused to accept her fate.
Unfortunately, she was not very clear-headed, and although the beggar's father was mentally challenged, he did not beat or scold her like the previous family. Her in-laws also kept a close eye on her at all times, and the days went by.
After the widow gradually regained her senses, she gave birth to two children.
The widow, unable to let go of her parents, asked a merchant who was doing business in their hometown to inquire about their whereabouts, only to learn that her parents had passed away years ago. Now, she was like a rootless duckweed, with no choice but to stay in Heyin. The widow had no choice but to accept her fate.
A few years later, the man died of a serious illness sustained during his military service.
The widow, at a young age, had to struggle to make a living with her two children, enduring the constant attacks and curses from her in-laws, the neighbors who somehow knew about her past and would take every opportunity to insult and ridicule her, and even her relatives considered her a disgrace.
If the widow hadn't been literate enough to teach the village children, she and her two children would have had nowhere to go long ago.
Shen Tang also learned about what happened afterward.
The widow's son was falsely accused of stealing chickens by Diao, the steward of the Zhang family. The widow, who had been calm, or rather, whose emotions had been suppressed for many years, finally exploded. In a state of mental instability, she cut open her son's stomach with her own hands. Afterwards, she was flogged, sentenced to be a rice-pounding slave, and committed suicide within two months.
Shen Tang listened quietly to the beggar's tearful story, her heart trembling. But there was one thing she didn't understand—the beggar's hatred for her grandparents seemed to exceed that for their enemy family.
After the widow was sentenced to pound rice, the beggar, as the only remaining bloodline, wouldn't be treated too badly, if not exceptionally well?
Judging from her appearance as a beggar, she was not doing well.
"The couple who sold my mother... were my two... my grandfather and grandmother..." The beggar called out the two names with some difficulty, his eyes still filled with hatred.
It turned out that the widow had been childless for three years at the first house, and no matter how much she was beaten and scolded, she refused to give in, which completely enraged the father and his two brothers. They went to the criminal who had sold them the "goods" and demanded a refund, threatening to report them to the authorities and have them arrested if they refused.
After some arguing and unreasonable demands, they had no choice but to agree.
It just so happened that the mentally challenged son in the family was still unmarried, and the widow, despite being tormented for three years, still retained six or seven tenths of her former beauty, demonstrating her exceptional natural endowment. So, with a mix of reluctance and affection, they agreed to "exchange" her. The father and his two brothers happily took their new wife, who was capable of bearing children, back home.
The widow had a very vague memory of the human traffickers who arrested her. It was only after Diao caused trouble and she was driven to the brink that she suddenly remembered the true identities and faces of her "in-laws." These combined factors led the widow to the act of disemboweling her son.
What she wanted to prove to the world was not only the innocence of her son not stealing fighting cocks, but also her own innocence.
The beggar lowered his head, his voice trembling and indistinct: "My mother actually wanted to kill me..."
She just hid.
Her mother also discovered that she had hidden herself.
The beggar girl would never forget the look in her mother's eyes when she found her—a look that was ferocious, twisted, and terrifying. Every time she saw it in the middle of the night, she would wake up in a cold sweat. She didn't know much; she just tried her best to cover her mouth, trying not to cry out and be killed.
Perhaps her request truly moved her mother, or perhaps her mother saw a reflection of herself in her. Her mother turned away indifferently, knife in hand, her eyes filled with endless complexity.
Afterwards, my mother was flogged and sent to pound rice to serve her sentence. The beggar boy secretly went to see her. Only a few days had passed since the last time they met. My mother, who I remembered always carefully maintained her black hair and had a smiling face, had become a withered old woman.
His hair was gray, his body was hunched, and his hands were swollen.
My mother used to live a refined and dignified life, making it impossible to guess her actual age. If she dressed as an unmarried woman, people might actually believe it. But now, she's so old that she's unrecognizable. Mother and daughter stare at each other blankly for a long, long time.
The widow told her daughter everything that had happened to her.
This daughter is young but intelligent and sensible.
Looking into her eyes reminded me of myself.
I wanted to kill you...
The beggar trembled upon hearing this.
The horrific scene from that day flooded back to me.
In a hoarse, aged voice, the old woman said, "...But then I thought better of it. It's not that I couldn't bear it; I just wanted to see how you would struggle to survive in this world. The suffering I've endured in my life deserves to be repaid, right?"
She gave birth to a good daughter.
But they are also the offspring of this filthy family.
She cannot give complete love.
It's also impossible to hate completely.
She had personally killed several children; the daughter before her was the sole survivor, the one to whom she had poured countless hours of her heart and soul. The beggar saw hatred in her eyes, but also love and reluctance. For a moment, he felt utterly humiliated and ashamed.
I don't know how to face my birth mother.
She couldn't feel hatred for her own mother, whom she had murderous intent towards. She wanted to apologize, but it was no use. The thieves who should apologize the most—one who abused Zhang's power, and the others who still held the titles of "grandparents"—beggarymen became the most awkward figures.
The mother and daughter sat facing each other for a long time.
When it was time to meet, Mother slowly stood up, tried to straighten her posture, slightly raised her chin, and remained indifferent.
Forget about today's events; just pretend I, this sinful woman, said nothing. Even if I did say something, it was nonsense.
When this meeting ended, the next thing they saw was the widow's body being brought back—covered in lividity and emitting a strong stench of death.
He looked much older than the last time we met.
The beggar watched as she was simply wrapped up and casually buried in the wilderness, with no one coming to mourn her—not even the children her mother had taught over the years. They believed the gossip of the adults and thought this woman was dirty, vile, and vicious. Even their parents gritted their teeth and uttered filthy words.
The so-called "grandparents" reluctantly took a small sum of money from their savings to buy a bright-looking boy, changed his surname, added him to the family genealogy, and made him their beloved grandson. They then raised him with all their heart and soul.
He keeps saying, "My Zhu family has an heir."
As for the beggars who were actually related to them by blood, they were abandoned. At first, they were patient enough to give her a bite to eat, but after two months, they planned to sell her to an old widower in a village as his wife, and use the money from the sale to pay for their eldest grandson's future schooling.
The beggar was luckier than her mother.
She was wary and ran away halfway.
To make a living, she wandered all the way to Fugu City.
Although Fugu City was very poor, it was still a "city," and its security was much better than outside. The beggars, while begging for a living, kept an eye on Zhang's movements every now and then. As the external situation worsened, life in Fugu City became increasingly difficult.
The beggars all thought they wouldn't survive the winter.
Until, she finally met Shen Tang.
When she heard the news of Zhang's downfall and Diao's execution, she was too ill to get out of the dilapidated temple. By the time she felt a little better and could move around, the high platform had already been demolished. She was somewhat resentful that she hadn't witnessed the entire family's heads roll.
He developed a great interest in the Shen Jun mentioned by the common people.
But she knew she was a beggar, while he was a prefect, and the chances of them meeting were extremely slim. The biggest crisis facing her was not seeing Shen Jun, but surviving.
She needs to work hard to get through this winter.
Although Shen Jun sent people everywhere to recruit laborers with gongs and drums, she was too young and would definitely not be selected.
Just when I was at my wit's end, I saw Shen Tang.
To be precise, it was the familiar jade ornament that Shen Tang wore at her waist!
She had seen one of them before.
It's about the head of the Zhang family!
Good, Zhang's escaped the net!
The beggar weighed the situation, hesitated for a long time, but finally decided to act. He planned to first steal the jade ornament to exchange for winter food, then scratch the man's face, and finally howl to attract the attention of the surrounding commoners, thus giving him a chance to escape. But he never expected—
As an ordinary person, she couldn't distinguish the monogram among the several accessories on Shen Tang's waist, and as for Kang Shi...?
This guy looks so refined and gentle, you can't fight him at all!
As a result, all their efforts were in vain.
When the beggar was arrested, he had already considered various ways to "die together with others," until the minor official called Shen Tang "Shen Jun".
She was completely dumbfounded.
(ˉ▽ˉ；)…
The beggar had spent the last few days in anxiety and worry. Not only was she not scolded or beaten, but she was also served enough coarse food every day, and even had warm water to wash up and new clothes to wear. These were the most peaceful days she had had since her mother left.
If one could live like this for a lifetime, being locked in the woodshed would not be a problem.
After that, she was brought before Shen Jun by the minor official.
Shen Jun listened gently to her past. When she heard about her mother's experiences, she did not show the disdain and contempt that others did. Instead, her open eyes held a tenderness that moved her.
The beggar instinctively straightened his posture even more.
Finally, Shen Jun spoke.
"so--"
Shen Jun paused for a moment before speaking.
The beggar was nervous.
Shen Jun gestured for her to relax: "How do you want your grandfather... no, how do you want that old couple to die? If that's true, then I can avenge you..."
The beggar: "!!!"
＿|￣|●
The widow's story has nothing to do with the trending topic. I'm not making any unfounded comments or allusions, nor am I trying to ride the wave of popularity. This is just a pre-arranged plot.
If I had to pinpoint a prototype, I'd say it's something an old lady told me while I was doing square dancing.
(End of this chapter)
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