"Dad..." Shumei shouted with all her strength.
Hearing Shumei's scream, the two people who were fighting stopped.
Shumei stood there, holding the clothes she had just taken off in her hands, with a sad face. When she saw the money dropped on the ground, tears of grievance welled up in her eyes. In fact, without asking, she guessed that her father was going to sell her to find a husband for her brother.
"What's wrong? The clothes don't fit?" Her father asked without any guilt, with no intention of explaining to her.
"Are you going to sell me out?" Shumei tried to lower her voice and control her inner anger as much as possible. No matter how wrong he was, he was still her biological father and she had to endure it.
"What nonsense are you talking about? I've arranged a good marriage for you. He's the son of the gas station owner in town. He's a rich man. Don't be ungrateful."
"I don't care. If I have to marry, I want to marry Zhang Jizong."
"Are you ashamed? You're a girl, and you still want to choose your own man? Marriage is always decided by parents. This marriage is settled. The Ma family will come to pick her up the day after tomorrow. You have to marry her whether you want or not."
The cowardly Su Kui sat on the bench, sulking, not speaking up for Shu Mei. Perhaps she simply didn't want to speak, and for her son's sake she acquiesced to the marriage.
"Mother, mother?"
Su Kui looked at Shumei helplessly, shook his head and sighed, without saying a word.
"I won't marry you, even if you kill me." Shumei threw the clothes in her hands to the ground and stomped on them again and again.
This infuriated her father, who flew into a rage, picked up the broom on the table, and began to hit Shumei's legs. Shumei jumped to avoid it, and he picked up the new clothes on the floor, shook off the dust, and threw them on the table.
"Get down on your knees." He pointed at Shumei with a chicken feather broom, the veins on his forehead bulged, and his eyes were wide open as if their eyeballs were about to pop out.
"I won't, not unless you let me marry Ji Zong." Afraid her father would come forward and assault her again, she instinctively took two steps back. She knew her parents hadn't had an easy time raising her. Normally, no matter how much her father beat or scolded her, she'd endured it. But this was not the case. This was about her lifelong happiness, and she had to make her own decision.
Her father was so angry that he couldn't speak for a long time, his eyes squinting upwards as if he was lost in thought. Shumei was terrified by his abnormal behavior. She followed the wall, intending to go around to the front door to discuss countermeasures with Jizong. But after trying to take a few quiet steps, her father roared, frightening her so much that she trembled involuntarily.
She didn't have time to think about it, and rushed out of the door at lightning speed, running towards the river.
Her father, holding a feather broom, chased after her, shouting, "You're a rebel! You're disobedient and unfilial! Stop right there! If I don't give you a beating in three days, you'll tear the roof off the house. I'll catch you and give you a good beating! You're a money-loser! I raised you up, and put in over twenty years of hard work. You're not even worth 2,000 yuan..."
He chased the enemy the entire way, his chatter non-stop. It would have been a waste not to tell his story. Hearing his rants, the villagers opened their doors to watch. Though they'd all lived together for decades, most of them were there to watch the fun. Occasionally, one or two would ask what had happened.
Seeing that it was getting dark, Shumei ran to the river. The lake was calm and only frogs could be heard singing for the night. There was no ferry boat on the river.
"Run! Keep running! Do you want to kill your father?" Her father bent over and gasped for air, and had already approached her from behind.
Running a marathon in the hot summer is really not a fun thing. Shumei was so tired that she was out of breath and sweating profusely.
Her father, having taken his last breath, advanced towards Shumei. In the dim moonlight, Shumei slowly backed away, seeing her father approaching like a bloodthirsty monster.
"Dad, please, don't push me."
"Come here, come back with me first."
Shumei shook her head. Even knowing she'd stepped on empty air, she didn't stop her steps. There was a loud thud, and the river splashed half a meter high. She didn't cry for help, letting the cold water swallow her. At that moment, she felt a strange calm within her, a sense of relief she'd never felt before.
She closed her crystal clear eyes and thought to herself, "Fate is so cruel. Since I am powerless to change it, let me end it with my own hands!" Her consciousness gradually blurred and she could no longer hear the frogs' calls. It was great that she would soon be completely free.
Her father took off his still dripping clothes and changed into the clean clothes Su Kui handed over. "I really don't know who she looks like. She's so stubborn that she dares to fight me to death. If she wasn't known as the village beauty, who would spend so much money to marry a country girl? She doesn't know how to appreciate what she has."
"Dad, why don't you just forget it? Think of another way?"
"Anything else? If there was any other way, you wouldn't be so scared in front of Huang Yaoniang during the day." Her father sneered and said in a sarcastic tone.
After changing her clothes, her father began to rummage through the drawers and cabinets. He found a few unused pieces of cloth in the closet, picked them up and went to Shumei's room.
Shumei was lying on the bed with her eyes closed. Her cherry lips were a little bruised. She was wearing the same wedding dress she had worn before. Even though she looked so disheveled, it couldn't hide her beauty. She was simply a sleeping beauty.
Her father tied her hands and feet with cloth strips, stood with his hands on his hips and admired his masterpiece. He nodded with satisfaction, then covered Shumei with a thin blanket and locked the door from the outside.
"Dad, what are you doing? Why are you tying up your daughter? What kind of thing is this? Are you still the father of the child?" Although Su Kui was cowardly, she couldn't help but feel a little bit sorry when she saw her father abusing the child like this.
"Go, go, go back to the house and sleep. It's a woman's kindness."
The sun rises especially early in the summer. Shumei, who is used to getting up early, was awakened by the crowing of the rooster.
“Ohhh…”
She opened her eyes slightly and saw the familiar mosquito net. It was familiar because of the patch she had made on the top. "This is home. Wasn't I dead? How could I be home?" she asked herself.
She tried to move her feet, but couldn't budge. The same went for her hands. She moved the blanket covering her hands away, only to discover she was tied up. She struggled with all her might, trying to break free from the cloth that bound her. In the end, she failed, spraining her ankle and leaving bloody marks on her wrists from her struggles.
"Father, Father, Mother, please let me out."
"Wake up! Just get ready to be a bride! We gave you your life, and you can't waste it like this. If you die, you should die in the Hu family. Otherwise, how can you repay us for raising you?" Her father deliberately raised his voice outside the door and said.
Shumei couldn't hold it in any longer, tears of grievance rolled down her cheeks like pearls from a broken string. She even doubted whether she was their biological child. They didn't care about her life or death at all, but only cared about the money they could use to find a wife for their brother.
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